The Gods Choose Draco

The Gods Choose Draco is the divine selection and empowerment that makes Draco an immortal leader charged with protecting humanity after the gods have turned against the demigods. Recalled by Dorian, the event is at once a public appointment and a private rupture: while the gods present Draco as humanity’s last safeguard, Dorian sees the choice as another betrayal by the powers that have already destroyed his people.

Background and Stakes

The selection follows the demigods’ extermination. Dorian survived only because he had taken a toxin that made him appear dead; when he woke days later, he found that every other demigod had been slain. The memory of that loss shapes what he witnesses next. The gods are not choosing a leader from an intact community: they are acting after having condemned their own children, including demigods who had used their abilities to help humanity.

Dorian’s understanding of the gods’ predicament adds a larger political and supernatural stake. Humanity has reacted to the killing of the gods’ children by abandoning belief and faith in them. As human belief ebbs, the gods themselves begin to die. Their choice of Draco therefore comes after the consequences of their violence have reached them, and they frame the appointment as one last opportunity to save the humans they love more than their own blood.

The gods tell Draco that he is their chosen protector. Their plan extends beyond his individual power: divine abilities will be sent into the blood of mortals, who will depend on Draco to train and lead them. The appointment thus links one immortal champion to a future community of empowered humans, while making the person selected responsible for organizing and guiding them.

The Selection and Empowerment

Dorian watches the decision happen directly. The gods choose Draco as their leader of heroes, a designation that places him above the demigods who have been killed and sets him apart as the instrument through which the gods will continue their purpose. For Dorian, the contrast is immediate and bitter: the gods select Draco over their own children, even after the destruction of those children has become a crisis for both gods and humanity.

The appointment becomes a ritual of submission and transfer. Draco slowly removes his armor and shirt, turns his back toward the gods, and sinks to his knees. One by one, they mark his back with their blood and divine symbols. Dorian first witnesses the gods’ choice and then its physical inscription: Draco’s new authority is not merely announced but embodied in the marks that identify him with the gods and their power.

When the last god has transferred blood and power into Draco, the gods disappear. Their departure closes the ceremony and leaves its consequences behind in Draco. Dorian struggles to believe what he has seen, but the transformation is not ambiguous: the gods have made Draco immortal and charged him with protecting humankind after exterminating the demigods.

Dorian’s Position and Reaction

The same event means something different to its two central witnesses. For Draco, the kneeling posture and acceptance of divine power accompany the role of chosen protector. For Dorian, the scene confirms his exclusion. His own history as a healer who served humanity under Apollo makes the contrast particularly sharp: he had used his powers to help people and had still been judged expendable by the gods.

Dorian’s response is anger and jealousy, which he allows to grow into hatred of Draco. He seeks to destroy him, only to discover that Draco is immortal. That realization converts the ceremony’s promise into a practical obstacle for Dorian: the gods have not only elevated his rival but made him extraordinarily difficult to kill. The event therefore plants a conflict that extends beyond the scene, from the gods’ decision to Dorian’s later pursuit of Draco.

Consequences and Significance

The gods’ choice does not undo the demigods’ deaths or reconcile Dorian to the gods. Instead, it establishes a new arrangement after the massacre: Draco is to protect humanity, while divine power is to pass into mortal blood and be organized through his leadership. The gods’ disappearance marks the end of their direct presence in the ceremony, but their authority persists through the power they have bestowed and the duty they have assigned.

For the story, the event joins rescue to betrayal. The gods present Draco’s empowerment as a final effort to preserve the humans they love, yet that effort follows their destruction of their own children. Dorian’s witnessing keeps the moral contradiction in view: the chosen protector’s rise is also the moment when a former healer, himself a demigod survivor, recognizes that he has been passed over. The ceremony consequently explains both Draco’s exceptional status and the grievance that will drive Dorian against him.