Leo withdrew, leaving the chaos of Nara behind. He had placed a protective ward on Reiko; he would know if she was in any real danger. Right now, he needed to process the influx of power.
The faith of millions surged through him. It was a staggering amount, dwarfing the simple worship of the Thera primitives. He felt his divine essence swell, but a crucial threshold remained uncrossed. He had not ascended.
Is Fane's memory wrong? Or can one simply not become a True God on a world without magic?
He turned his attention to his other prize: the Yata no Kagami. It was an ordinary bronze mirror, crude by modern standards, but it thrummed with the latent belief of a thousand years of worship. Under his divine influence, the mirror's accumulated faith ignited, transforming into pure power that reforged the artifact from the inside out.
When the golden flames died down, the mirror was changed. Its material was now a strange, warm, dark substance, and the rough carvings had become sharp and lifelike. It had become a true divine artifact.
Leo discovered it had two powers. The first: it could create a perfect, mindless duplicate of anyone it reflected, with power equal to the original, up to the demigod level. The second: it could transfer 80% of any damage the duplicate received directly to the original.
"Incredibly powerful," he mused, creating a copy of himself. He punched the duplicate in the chest and immediately felt a sharp, sympathetic pain in his own. "A shame it can't copy other divine artifacts, or gods themselves. Still, this is a weapon."
His thoughts returned to his primary problem. He needed to understand ascension. He had to go back to Thera.
With a thought, the vortex opened. He stepped through, leaving the quiet of his Japanese apartment for the primal chaos of the Endless Forest.
The moment he arrived, two things happened. First, he felt two new Domains of power settle within him: Creation and King of the Gods, born from his impersonation of Ame-no-Minakanushi. Combined with his original Sun domain, he now held three. But his grasp on them was tenuous, like holding a single cell of a vast, complex organism.
Second, the sky ignited.
Far above the twin suns of Thera, a third, impossibly bright star appeared. It blazed with a holy, terrifying fire, a manifestation of pure divine wrath.
Eternal Radiance!
A name boomed from the void, a divine judgment. It was a God-Smite, a direct attack from one of the seven Primordial Gods: Amon-Et, the Lord of Dawn.
He was waiting for me. The realization hit Leo with cold certainty. Baron Fane's last words had been a prayer to his god, a prayer that mentioned a "heresy god." The name had been spoken. The heresy had been noted. And Amon-Et had been watching ever since.
Without a second's hesitation, Leo used the mirror. A duplicate of himself shimmered into existence. He sent it fleeing in one direction, a streak of light powered by his Sun domain. He himself shot off in the opposite direction, a far more subtle flicker of light. His primitive followers were on their own; the god's wrath was for him, and him alone.
The Eternal Radiance pursued the decoy. Just before impact, Leo severed the mirror's connection. The duplicate vanished. The divine sun slammed into the forest, incinerating a massive swathe of land in a silent, world-shattering explosion.
Leo didn't stop. He flew to the city of Gantz, a metropolis of hundreds of thousands. Its patron deity was Shar, the Lady of Night—another of the Primordial Seven. Surely Amon-Et wouldn't risk a divine war by attacking another god's territory.
He was wrong.
A new sun bloomed in the sky above Gantz. Amon-Et's message was clear.
Heresies must die.
Leo raised the mirror again, preparing to create another decoy while simultaneously opening the vortex to Earth. He would not return to Thera until he was a True God.
But just as he was about to flee, the world went dark. A profound, absolute night fell, swallowing the light of both the real suns and Amon-Et's divine fire. A single, cool moon rose in the black sky. From it, a veiled woman with indistinct features and fathomless eyes emerged.
Shar, the Lady of Night.
She raised a pale, slender hand and simply closed her fist. The blazing Eternal Radiance was crushed in her grip like a gnat, dissipating into harmless motes of light.
Her voice, cool and vast, echoed across the heavens. "You have two choices, Amon-Et. Withdraw. Or fall."
Amon-Et's furious voice boomed from the void. "He is a heresy! He must be destroyed!"
Shar did not reply. The message was clear. After a tense moment, Amon-Et's presence receded. "When he leaves your shadow, my judgment will fall again."
The oppressive darkness lifted. Leo, hidden in the city below, bowed his head to the sky. "My gratitude for your protection, esteemed Lady of Night."
She had protected her flock, but in doing so, she had saved him. Now trapped in Gantz, but alive, he needed answers. He changed his appearance to that of a local youth and headed for the tallest structure in the city.
The Mage Tower. If anyone had knowledge, it was a mage.