The Plot
Most of us know the myth of Pandora's Box(Jar, to those of us that went the extra mile). Zeus, father of the gods, is angry at the Titan Prometheus for his past trickery for the furthering of mankind. Zeus makes the perfect woman with the help of all of the other gods, and gives her a box with explicit warnings not to open it, then presents her to Prometheus' brother: Epimethius. They marry, and one day Pandora gets curious and wonders what's inside the box. She opens it, and all sorts of horrors fly forth from the box and attack her before scattering into the world as she quickly shuts the lid. The only thing left inside? Hope.
It's several millennia after the opening, the tradition of warriors and powerful heroes has never really left the world, albeit with much less frequency than in olden days. The horrors that once ravaged the world have now simply become part of everyday life. Sickness, jealousy, hatred, war, abuse, and death to name a few are things that humans have come to terms with and have decided to accept, albeit begrudgingly. However the god of Death, Thanatos, isn't happy with the way things are. He wants the world to fear him once more. As the leader of the horrors, he begins to strengthen them by feeding them the essence of random people across the planet in an attempt to make them into what they once were in the Age of the Gods.
In response to the scale of balance being tipped, Hope reawakens herself from her slumber deep inside of the enchanted jar awakens the ancient blood of the closest and most direct descendant of Pandora that she can find which compels them to make their way to a cave not far from their village. Inside, she discovers an ornate jar that seems worn and has many scratches covering its surface depicting many different heroes and events from ages past. Upon her hand making contact with the jar, Hope's consciousness floods her body and she uses the limited strength that she has to send out a cry planet-wide to every and any warrior that she possibly can to compel them to make their way to a specified location where the journey to return the horrors back into the jar shall begin...
The Setting/Worldbuilding
The world is Earth, in a similar position to ours. There are cars, albeit not very powerful or very flashy ones, planes are still wooden, and computers aren't that advanced. The traditions of heroes and monsters haven't left the world even after the Age of Gods, but most humans can no longer become heroes without the blessing of a god or being a demi-god or demi-titan. The legacies of heroes past, such as Hercules and Perseus also exist, but they're uncommon compared to demigods. Even rarer than all of them are the human heroes, who have become essentially the thing of legend. The only landmass on the planet is a large conjoined one known as Pangaea, which is separated into several different countries which essentially take the form of an odd roulette wheel. The largest country in the middle of the mass, and the other countries spread out evenly across the coasts. Mountains are essentially non-existent in areas aside from the northeast coasts, and the southern countries are dotted with deserts. Caves aren't at all uncommon in areas.
All warriors employ the use of a concept called prana, an energy that's within all living things on the planet. Demigods and demi-titans use the influence of their parent or patron (in the case of gods such as Athena and Artemis) to force their prana out of their bodies to perform specific tasks such as zapping a monster into ashes or repairing something. Their prana is connected to their parent/patron's pool of prana, which is also shared between all of their siblings, which is why it was common for demigods in the past to attempt to wipe out their siblings. Demigods also have the issue that their strength can wane depending on how their patron/parent's feelings towards them. The less glory being brought to the god they represent, the less strength they tend to have. Along with that, demititans and human heroes tend to be stronger than demigods in terms of pure physical ability. But demigods have an ace in the hole, as it were. The God Burst.
The God Burst is a documented event where demigods call forth all of their full potential, becoming like an actual god for a short period of time. Their eyes burn with heavenly light, and their veins bleed the golden ichor of the gods. In this form, demigods' abilities are enhanced beyond that which they could reach just by training and practicing. It does come with a few side effects. The most notable of which being the wear and tear that God Bursting puts on the mortal form. It burns calories like nobodies business, and can result in the straining of muscles and breaking of bones that isn't felt until after dropping from the form. As well as the more often one uses their God Burst, the more they begin to form habits similar to that of their parents, which may or may not be a good thing.
(More will be added as needed.)
