Humans lived by the grace of the gods. With the gods on the side of humanity, taking these frail creatures as their adopted children, creations they valued more than most things, the humans were able to live even when they were not nearly as powerful as the supernaturals. The vampires, werewolves, and other beings fed on humans in one way or another, but they made sure not to go beyond what could call down divine wrath.
Apart from the protection and love of the benevolent gods, the humans had also learned of the supernatural beings that lived among them. With this knowledge came fear and eventually a realization that they needed power to protect themselves. Thousands of years ago, a human was greatly loved by the Supreme Deity, the lord and king of all divine beings.
This human, who was only known as Dela, was said to have been one of the first humans to encounter supernatural beings and get to know how they treated humans as inferior life forms only good for food and as materials for spells. It was written that Dela prayed to the Supreme Diety and the diety heard her deperate plea. The Supreme Deity was the creator of all humanity, and they loved their creation very much.
Feeling the sincerity in Dela's words, the Supreme Deity offered the humans a power that allowed the humans some level of hope against the supernaturals. This power was called Sacrifice. This power lay within the soul of every human in the world. Having the power of sacrifice did not turn the humans into supernaturals. They stayed completely human, but every once in a while, individuals were born with the ability to gain great power through sacrifice.
These people were called Sacrifice Warriors. These people were humans born with the ability to access the power of sacrifice lying dormant in their souls and blood. When a sacrifice warrior reached the age of sixteen, it was time for them to finally choose whether to stay normal humans or become one of the sacrifice warriors.
If one chose to stay a normal human, they would lose the ability to acces the sacrifice power within them. From the time they turn sixteen years old, they have a single year to make their decision. If a human wanted to go on and become a sacrifice warrior, they had to sacrifice something to the Supreme Deity. This was the price humans had to pay in order to gain such tremendous power.
One could chose to sacrifice one of the nNine Divine Gates that made one human. To sacrifice a single gate was to lose more than half of what made a person human. The Supreme Deity demanded this sacrifice not out of malice. It was meant to show the extent of ones devotion to the Supreme Deity and the willingness to sacrificen not simply for power but for the survivla of mankind.
"Without sacrifice, hope morphs into darkness." This was a popular saying among Sacrifice Warriors. The Nine Divine Gates were the gate of Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth, Faith, Hope and the Gate of Ascension.
For one to become a Sacrifice Warrior, they have to sacrifice one of these gates to the Supreme Deity. A few people had the ability to sacrifice more than a single gate, but these were very rare and rarely seen. With this power now in human hands, Dela founded the Divine Temple. This organization united all Sacrifice Warriors from all over the world, binding them in a singular purpose, which was the future of humanity.
Th Divine Temple was now over two thousand yers old and it had branches /tempes all over te world. All major cities had one, and no country was left out. Each temple had sacrificial warriors who carried out missions in the name of humanity. Each temple was also headed by a Temple Master.
New York was one of the most populated and developed cities in the world, and so there was no reason for it to not have a temple. The temple was located by the Hudson River. It was disguised as a normal skyscraper. On this day, alarms inside the temple suddenly went off.
In a large hall filled with tens of people all going about their work, the sound of the alarm attracted everyone's attention to the large map of New York. There were hundreds of red dots spread out all over the state, but most were concentrated in New York City. At this moment, the red dot in Manhatan were being snuffed out bu something akin to a storm.
The red dots were most concentrated in this place, and in a matter of ten minutes, seven of the dots disappeared, and this was only the beginning. Each of these red dots represented a vampire in Manhattan. The map was foreged by the Dvine Temple to track the movements of supernaturla creatures.
"They are being killed." "That is impossible." "Nothing can kill so many vampires so fast. It is impossible." The hall burst into discussions.
"If they are being killed, this can only be good for us. Afte all, vampires are sinister beins who do not care for the lives of humans." Someone said out loud. Her voice filled the place, forcing eveyone to keep quiet and listen.
"We may not know why these vampires are disappearing, but we are sure that they are dying. After all, that is the only way for them to disappear from the Sanctified Map. Since only the vampires are dying, we do not need to worry too much about this matter. Let them all die. The only thing we have to do is make sure to clean up all the corpses before they are seen by the world."
After the temple master spoke, everyone in the hall felt that they had been panicking for no reason at all. "Bring up the security feed for Washington Street in the Meatpacking District," the Temple Master ordered. A young man seated behind a large computer moved very fast, and after a few clanks on the keyboard, a video played on the large screen in the hall. All eyes were on this screen.