CH1017 Thera’s Perspective

After managing to drift off so peacefully despite the day she’d just been through, realizing that she wasn’t genuinely asleep to escape the trauma of it all, it felt almost mean to lose that chance at some peace, but she also knew where she was and tried to not give that feeling away too much, even if her mind was doubtlessly being read.

Instead, she focused on the goddess who’d brought her there, bowing deeply as she did.

“Anailia, I guess I should have expected to see you after today.”

“You’ve had quite a busy one, nobody would fault you for having other things on your mind,” the goddess chuckled above her, her snake-like body moving to coil around Thera comfortably in a way that felt far more loving than it might have looked to any outside observer. “Thera, congratulations. The first of my children to grab godhood with their own two hands. I just wish my husband could have been here to share in this momentous occasion.”

“Getting it was more stressful than I’d been expecting,” Thera admitted, while her goddess just smiled.

“Reaching such a level without some sort of stress to surpass those limits would be an even greater accomplishment. While I can’t speak from experience, an awakening like that typically takes a strong enough drive to surpass an outrageous goal, along with the buildup of experience one needs in their skill. With how long you’ll have to work on whatever you desire, the idea that you could get there for other powers through effort alone isn’t impossible, but to do it so quickly was always going to need something more. Still, you saved your love and reaped the benefits of such an accomplishment. You should be proud.”

“I am, but… what now?”

“Just what do you mean by that?”

“I mean, I’m a soul mage now, right? The gods were hoping for this, that’s why you all let Ben talk you into awakening my magic inclination and everything. There must be some expectations about what I should do now, right?”

“Mmh, I suppose so, but that’s nothing you need to worry about immediately. After what you’ve been through, I won’t let anyone bother you so soon, and in a few days when we have a proper meeting about it, well, I think I’ll make sure your partner is involved. He does have a charming way of trying to make sure things go in his direction.”

“… I’m not sure if this is the sort of thing that Ben should be starting trouble with other gods about.”

“That’s not entirely the issue. Thera, you’re now going to stand among us as an equal, which means you’re going to need to begin to lose the reverence you hold for the divine, but expecting you to do that immediately is simply too much to hope for. Considering your lover’s nature, having someone with no reverence by your side might actually make things smoother. At the very least, it will mean I won’t need to look after you alone.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to become anywhere near as casual about it as he is.”

“You’d be surprised. The more you act with us, the easier it will get, but the boy says it enough that you have a good foundation. Just consider us as people, myself and every other god you might interact with, and respond to their actions as you would a person. If you can keep that in mind, you’ll be in a better position to expect proper treatment, even if some up here might take offense to that before you properly rise to godhood.”

“Alright, I understand what you’re saying and I’ll try, but at this point, unless I’m killed, I can’t even begin to guess when I’ll actually ascend.”

While dying horrifically in the third wave was the most likely option and would leave her in the higher realm far sooner than she wanted to hope, the opposite end of things meant that she couldn’t begin to guess how long it would take to die naturally instead. Though she didn’t know for sure, she and the great spirits had always assumed that her base lifespan might surpass a thousand years, with no real way to guess the upper limit without first living it out, but all of her second tier awakenings had already essentially doubled the length she’d have and now with a third tier one it would be closer to tripled. Maybe that meant she might have three thousand long years ahead of her, or maybe that meant she’d have more than ten thousand; there was really no way to know. In either case, it couldn’t help but feel a bit soon to begin shaking off her devotion to the gods of the world, but Anailia just shook her head at the thought.