"Elrin, wake up." A voice sounded as Elrin opened his brown eyes, looking into the eyes of his best friend Samantha.

Samantha was a plain looking girl with no defining features aside from her warm hazel eyes. They gazed at each other for a moment before Samantha started to fluster with a slight blush.

"Did the movie end? I know you had no one else to go with, but that movie really sucked..." Elrin said as he ran a hand through his short black hair.

"I liked it." Samantha said in a soft voice, while Elrin just rolled his eyes. He was never one for movies set around romance unless there was lots of action.

"Sure you did. Come, it's time to go anyway, are you waiting for an end scene?" Elrin asked as he plucked a kernel of popcorn from his shirt.

"There isn't one. I was just thinking how nice it would be to be in love." Samantha looked at Elrin who smiled awkwardly.

"I'm sure that it's nice. Maybe I can introduce you to a friend..." Elrin trailed off as Samantha gave him a glare, silencing him.

"I already have someone I like." Samantha said and Elrin nodded. Samantha always said so, yet he saw no evidence of Samantha being in a relationship and he hung out with her a lot.

"I know. Maybe you can confess and finally introduce me to him... or her." Elrin laughed as he dodged Samantha's hand that nearly clipped his shoulder.

Seeing the flushed face of his friend, Elrin thanked the heavens that he managed to meet such a good friend otherwise he'd have missed out.

"I'll head back to my apartment. Are you coming to work tomorrow?" Samantha said after picking up her bag and following Elrin out the movie theater.

"I should. If nothing comes up, I'll be there. I'll talk to you later, kay?" Elrin fished his phone from his hoodie's pocket and looked at the time.

The sun had already set and the gentle glow of the moon shone down from above. Samantha gave Elrin a goodbye and headed to her car, leaving Elrin to walk back to his apartment.

She offered him a ride, but he refused since he lived less than five minutes away. Seeing that it still wasn't yet nine, Elrin decided to head back as well.

The roads weren't filled with traffic, and the pedestrians were quite scarce as well, not that Elrin minded.

Having to go to work tomorrow, Elrin didn't want to stay up too late, so he just chose to shortest route to his house.

Having worked as a librarian's aide for nearly a month now, Elrin quite enjoyed his job as he liked to read the works of others.

He looked around the rather well lit area and saw a ring on the ground, looking more like a cheap imitation you could buy at a kid's store than a real one.

Walking over, he picked it up and brushed the slight dirt that has accumulated on it as he looked at the red symbols on the ring.

"I want you to be my Master." A voice, sounding elegant yet aloof made Elrin look around for the source.

Other than a few people waiting for a bus, no one was close enough to Elrin to speak as calmly as the voice had.

Looking down at the ring, he saw the red symbols glow a bit, and the voice sounded again within his mind.

"Are you displeased with me?" The voice sounded slightly saddened, as if he had somehow hurt their feelings, but Elrin didn't react.

His mind rapidly processed the fact that a ring... a ring, was talking. With a slightly faster gait, Elrin placed the ring in his pocket and hurried back to his apartment.

After unlocking the door of his apartment which was on the second floor of the four story building, Elrin went in and locked the door behind him.

With trembling hands, Elrin took the ring from his pocket, wondering if he was going insane when the voice didn't sound.

Just as he was about to chalk it up to an extremely strange coincidence, the voice spoke again in a calm voice, making his breathing accelerate.

"Master, I am indeed real. Would you like to ask any questions? I'll answer them to the best of my ability." 

Elrin was now certain he was neither dreaming nor hallucinating, so he gently sat the ring on his living room table and sat on the couch.

"What are you?" Elrin put a lot of though into it. He could have asked a variety of things, yet he cut right to the crux of the matter.

"I am Rayna, and I am an Artifact Spirit. I was created several millennia ago to fulfill a purpose from Him." 

Elrin closed his eyes as he tried to comprehend what was said. If the Artifact Spirit were true, then the world wasn't as straightforward as it seemed.

"Who is He? And why did you choose me? What is your purpose?" Elrin asked each question after the other with a slightly shaken voice.

"He is naturally God. I chose you because you suit the criteria that He wanted. My purpose is to-" Elrin couldn't help but interrupt.

"God? As in G O D, God? Like the creator of everything?" Elrin felt as if the world were going insane!

He didn't even believe in God, yet now this ring was telling him that it was made by him? Then doesn't Heaven and Hell exist as well?

"Indeed. God has allowed the world to progress without interference on His part, but He now wishes to change that, so He created three Artifact Spirits."

"And what is the purpose of those Spirits? Are they all like you?" Looking at the ring on his table, Elrin waited for an answer.

"We resemble to a certain extent auxiliary items. We were then placed on Earth and have been here since then." Rayna said.

"What was the criteria? I'm not anyone special, nor do I have any special talents or skills." Elrin couldn't see why Rayna would choose him.

"You may not have any special talents or abilities, but I knew that when I saw you, you were the one I was waiting for." Rayna didn't seem to be joking either.

"Okay, so the last thing is purpose right? I imagine God had plans when he designed you Spirits, so what do you do?" 

"We exist to balance the World. God made us as a failsafe of sorts. Should humanity keep their current path, your end is inevitable."

"If you agree to God's plan, you will come to understand that there are many paths that can be traveled, and humanity could still escape their fate."

"How could a nobody like me influence something like humanity? I'm not exceptional, nor am I smart, so how can I even do anything?"

Elrin couldn't understand why God couldn't just step in and rectify what he wished. Isn't that what a God could do? Why bother be so roundabout?

"If you accept, you will naturally be given the tools needed to succeed. However, you may also find that you would no longer be human." Rayna said softly.