THEOS

Luke stared at the back of his token, in Cyzicus’s throne room, along with all the hopefuls and the Emperor himself.

Out of the dozen or so trainees that the Hero had originally recruited to participate, only four, Luke, Rex, Rose, and Nikitas, had succeeded in both advancing to the Warrior-tier and had passed the assessment. Of them, only Rex and Luke were truly optimistic in their chances.

“Two minutes.” Lukeus sighed, from his spot atop Nutbutter. His eyes locked on his own token.

“Why did you decide to compete anyway? I thought you were against the whole idea.” Luke asked idly. His sudden shift in opinion had caught him off guard, especially with how vitriolic he had been about not participating before. Even now, months later, he hadn’t been able to figure out what had changed. Not with Lukeus’s habit of running away, whenever the subject was brought up.

The Emperor’s Grandson shrugged. “I’m allowed to change my mind.”

Rex snickered, and Blinky shrunken down in cape form and draped over his back, gazed at everyone in the room. “You know, I was talking to Meleager earlier.” Instantly, Lukeus shifted in his saddle. Undeterred, Rex pressed on. “I bet it has nothing to do with the fact that Atalanta beat you up and called you a weak, unfilial coward when we were—”

Lukeus pulled a fist-sized rock from his storage ring, his arm moved like lightning, and the object cut through the air with a whoosh. Rex, wearing a face splitting grin, stepped forward and caught it with surprising ease.

“You’re throwing rocks now?” He teased, tossing it up and down. “I wonder what she’ll say about that. Hitting your own little brother. How shame–”

Cyzicus cleared his throat, and instantly the smiles slipped from everyone's faces, and the mood sunk down to an awkward silence.

Luke glanced at the Hero-tier cultivator before looking away. Even now, months later, he was still affected by the death of his lover. More even, than by the death of his grandson.

So much so, that Luke wasn’t even sure if Cyzicus even wanted to break through to the next tier anymore.

A day or so after they had broken open the rings, he had glued himself to the teleportation altar, and as far as Luke knew, hadn’t spoken a word to anyone since. He had actively ignored attempts from both Clite and Nel to the contrary.

It made Luke consider what Cyzicus had actually lost. The Emperor had no wife, and all of his kids and grandkids were in the Warrior-tier. Where warriors lived for centuries, heroes measured their life span in millenia, and advancing to the Hero-tier was a bottleneck that most cultivators lacked the ability to cross. Meaning he had lost someone who he thought he would be spending the rest of his life with.

Luke felt sympathetic, but it made him think about his own reasons for doing what he had been. All this time, he had been rushing through the ranks, and had happily celebrated every single Stat Point he had earned. Afterall, it meant he was doing the right thing. That he was getting stronger.

He hadn’t ever stopped to consider though if that power had a price. He had been appalled by killing at first, but increasingly, he felt numb at the act. Since then, he had just assumed that killing others, and living with that guilt was a part of being a cultivator. He has assumed that a guilty conscience was the only price for his power.

He hadn’t even considered the idea that any friends he made would die before him. Assuming he did it, and became a god. What then? What would happen to his friends he made along the way.

Deep down, he knew the answer. They would die.

Afterall, when weighed against eternity, let alone a thousand years, even hundreds of thousands would be but a fraction of his life. The only ones he knew for sure would always be at his side were other gods, and he didn’t even know how to feel about that.

Living a life, where the only people he could count on to always be there were jaded, callous, and near universally despised immortals, didn’t sound like a good time.

Or maybe I’m just being harsh. Zeus seemed alright. Cybele was chaotic… and I’m pretty sure that she robbed the shit out of me, when she took the circlet… whatever that was, but she also paid for it. Sort of? I’ll have to see what one of those Pomegranate Seeds go for, but even then, I still don’t know what the circlet was worth. Considering that she took it at all though, I doubt it was a Low-tier item. Saint at least, but probably higher. Possibly even divine.

Before his thoughts could spiral even more, the token rose from his hands, and into the air where it rapidly began to spin.

Cyzicus cleared his throat. “The time has finally come! I wish you all the best of luck. Do your utmost, and do not be disheartened if you do not do well or fall short of your expectations. I have seen the effort you have put into your training these past few months, and I want to thank all of you for working hard at my behest. Whatever the outcome, know that I am grateful.”

The second he spoke the last word, the tokens slammed into each of their chests. The world flickered red and blue around them, and when they opened their eyes, they were standing in a large open field, among thousands of others. With the nine suns of Theos beating straight down on them, from the highest point in the sky.

Luke took his first breath in the new land, and his eyes widened in wonder the moment the crisp air made its way to his lungs. Just the mere act of existing in the world seemed to make his cells sing. He felt his own mana come alive in a way that he had never felt before, and devour it.

He didn’t need to open his Status to know that his Arcana stat had gained some points, just by the sheer virtue of existing in this place.

Beside him, Blinky’s jaws clattered around her eyeballs in rabid excitement, and he had to avert his gaze, her form writhed, and undulated in excitement.

“This is insane.” Rose muttered. Her hand flexed, and a moment later, it was enshrouded in a bright blue flame. It, Nutbutter, and the Blinky drew the eyes of everyone in their immediate vicinity for a scant few seconds, before more interesting things stole their attention.

Nodding slightly to her, Luke attempted to rise a few feet in the air, only to find that his mana was completely unable to grip the space around him. Trying a few more times, he gave up and spinning on his heels like everyone else, he surveyed the crowd.

Like the Argo, the people assembled in the field were diverse beyond what Luke had anticipated.

A few miles away from him, there was a group of cyclops dressed in orange leather, each one of them, dozens of feet tall, and looming over the crowd. Their lone eyes stared at the rest of the contestants with a mixture of nervousness and mistrust.

A ways behind him were a herd of minotaurs. They were giant, the shortest among them fifteen feet tall. They possessed massive horns decorated in ribbons, large floppy ears pierced in a dozen places with golden rings, and flattened snouts in place of their noses.

Behind them, a collection of white-winged and white haired women immediately put him on guard. None of them however, were Arke, despite the uncanny resemblance.

More members of her species I guess.

The winged-women, like the cyclops, looked nervous. Their oval shaped heads on a constant swivel as they examined the assembled warriors with caution.

None of them, however, shocked him more than the familiar forms of two people a less than a dozen feet away from him. His thoughts ground down to a screeching halt, as he burned their images in his head, and turned away before Rex or Lukeus noticed him staring at their backs.

Both Arya and Spiros looked just like he remembered them. Both were dressed in the red robes, traditional of warriors that called the Dolion Archipelago home. Spiros was even leaning on a spear. The same gold one that Luke had spent hours trying to steal while he was in the tomb and waiting for the altar to charge.

It’s fine. They don’t know it's me. Can’t really. I look completely different, I’ve gained like six inches in height, my sword gained a foot in length, and looks different on top of that. Even my voice is deeper now, so really, I have nothing to worry about. He thought, unable to help the feelings of disappointment or the nervous lump forming in the bottom of his throat.

The realization of his safety wasn’t the comfort he thought it would be. There was so much he wanted to talk to them about. Share where he had gone and what he had done, but none of it was stuff that he could say.

Before he could dwell on it further though, a hush fell over all ten thousand of those that were assembled.

A fire swirled to life in the sky above them. It started small, but as the seconds passed, it became increasingly larger, and hotter. A tenth sun in the sky, but unlike the nine orbiting the world, this one was close.

He felt the blistering heat on his skin, and the air itself began to ripple and distort. Sweat escaped his pores and evaporated instantly. Leaving him parched, and dehydrated in s short few seconds.

Struggling to stand, he resisted with every fiber of being to reach into the Seed, and swallow all the water he had stored inside it. It was here, above anywhere else, that he needed to be careful not to let anything slip.

He knew enough about cultivation, and the abilities of warriors and even heroes to know what would and wouldn't stand out to them. What could be explained by talent, and what couldn’t. Gods however, were a drastically different problem.

As ageless beings that had lived and watched Theos for ages, ones that knew the intricacies of mana, better than anyone else alive… he couldn’t take even the slightest risk. So while he was confident that not even Cyzicus could sense when the Seed raised his stats, he knew instinctively that deities wouldn’t fall under the same umbrella.

Danger Detected.

The warning flashed before his eyes, and instantly, Luke dismissed it, but unlike every other time, it didn’t go.

A red icon, of an eye, appeared and floated at the very corner of his vision.

It was the first time he had seen the symbol, but the message couldn’t be more clear. He was being observed.

Don't use it. Don’t pull anything out of the inventory. Don’t mess with stats… nothing. Just appear normal Luke. He repeated the mantra over and over in his head.

In the sky, the heat coming from the flames, gradually, and oh so slowly, began to wane. The flames began to congeal and thicken. Forming sinuous strings that combined to form a vague, humanlike shape.

It brought its hands together, and clapped.

Water began to rain from a cloudless sky, and like balm, seeped into their skin giving them sweet relief from the blistering and all encompassing heat from moments before.

It clapped again, and as soon as it came, the water vanished. Leaving them once again, standing on a field of green grass, under a cloudless blue sky.

What did he just do? Luke thought, his mind an anxious mess, and his mana palpitating nervously.

Hephaestus looked down at them from his spot in the sky. He looked young. In his early thirties, and was dressed simply, in white trousers and a shirt that hung loosely over his muscled frame, and lacking any shoes. His hair was blood red, and steel gray eyes bored into him and everyone else with an intensity that betrayed his power.