"In the beginning was the Shining One, Ptath, god of land, sea and space, on whom be all praise heaped, and countless prayers offered that he may return to his chosen race from his millions of years of merging with the race, which noble sacrifice he made for the glory of his people and for the development of his spirit, O Diyan, O Kolla and divine Rad."

Holroyd blinked at the words, then closed the book. The wonder af it grew and grew, and slowly a conviction formed: He was dead. Except for this resurrection in the body of a god, he would he lying dead on a battlefield. But now it was two hundred million years later, and he was destined to rule the world. He was the god they worshipped as Ptath.