The First Chosen

[Scene 1 – City of Tiberium – 8:30 A.M.]

(A figure in a white and gold robe emerges from a dark, grimy alley, stepping directly onto a busy street crowded with cars during rush hour. The figure, confident and fearless, stands in the middle of the road.)

(Several cars brake hard to avoid hitting him, causing a chain reaction. Multiple vehicles collide with the cars stopped behind the robed stranger.)

(Everyone shouts, demanding he move out of the street. But he doesn’t listen. He refuses to hear. A gentle breeze causes his white and gold robe to flutter, though no wind is visible. Hebrew symbols begin to appear around him; people start to question who he is, some grow frightened. He simply raises his hands out to his sides.)

[Scene 2 – Institute – 8:14 A.M.]

(Kael sits in language class, bored, not paying attention to anything around him, absorbed only in his own delirious, senseless thoughts.)

(For a moment, he glances around for simple entertainment. Everything seems normal: students focused, perfect posture, writing what’s on the board. He decides to write down what’s on the board too, but then his eyes fix on his open notebook—words begin to form at the center of the page without him writing, as if by some invisible hand or magic.)

(The message writing itself is clear.)

"Either you go to the center of Tiberium right now, or humanity perishes."

(For a moment he hesitates, but then he remembers what he’s seen, lived through, and what he’s just witnessed—the messages writing themselves in his notebook without him doing anything.)

[Scene 3 – City of Tiberium – 8:15 A.M.]

(The commotion grows. Car horns blare nonstop. Someone shouts. Another starts recording on their phone. Police are already on their way, alerted by reports of a lunatic blocking traffic during rush hour.)

(A furious man gets out of his car. His footsteps echo on the pavement.)

Man:—What the hell are you doing standing in the middle of the street!? Move, idiot!

(He lunges at the figure in the white and gold robe, grabbing him firmly by the chest. And then… everything breaks.)

(His pupils dilate. His body trembles. He collapses like an empty sack. His brain… shuts down. Silence. An eternal second.)

(The crowd freezes. Some step back. Others scream. Many start running the opposite way, trampling bags, backpacks, anything in their path.)

(But the figure doesn’t move. With his hands raised to his sides, he begins releasing a smoke… a nearly invisible golden aura spreading through all of downtown Tiberium. The air changes. It feels heavier. Denser.)

(Within a 200-meter radius, people start collapsing. One by one. As if their eyes closed from within.)

(Bodies fall onto the asphalt, car roofs, between market stalls. Some tremble. Others freeze rigid. Like empty statues.)

(The first man lies like a mummy. Dry eyes, skin clinging to bones.)

(Sirens sound nearby. Multiple patrol cars screech to a halt. Officers get out, weapons drawn. But they don’t even get to aim. One by one, they drop to the ground.)

(Above, helicopters spin out of control. The aura reaches them, their pilots lose consciousness, and the metal falls like lead from the sky.)

(One helicopter dives sharply, casting a shadow over the skyscrapers before crashing into the heart of Tiberium. The explosion rattles windows. Alarms blare everywhere. Glass shatters. Smoke and screams fill the air.)

(And yet… the stranger remains unmoved. He just walks. As if the city collapsing around him means nothing.)

[Scene 4 – Kael – 8:15 A.M.]

(Kael jumps up abruptly. He doesn’t wait for explanations. He runs. His legs move before his mind can process what’s happening.)

(He begins to speculate what’s going on, exactly what had to happen for something like that message to write itself in his notebook. All he can think of are his recent memories with the mysterious figure, his visions, everything that has happened around him. Was it a dream? A vision? A hallucination? It doesn’t matter. The fear is real.)

(All he ignored. All he denied. The visions. The signs. Was his denial what brought this reality?)

(Kael, his voice trembling with fear, shouts into the air as he runs toward downtown Tiberium:)

—The gods… do they exist?

Codex Gnosis Dei – Fragment VIII

> When the veil breaks, faith turns to fear.

The chosen one walks among us, bearing a power that can save or destroy.In his hands lies the fate of both the human and the divine.