I was back in the golden sea, running my hands through that unrippling liquid as it filled the wounds covering my spiritual self. It was amazing to me how calm the sea was.

Did it not know that outside, gods were clashing over the fate of the universe?

It was my third time in the sea, and once more I was struck with the realization I had always known.

It was not my time.

I wondered when my time was. If not now, when?

I was struck with a sudden impulse, a desire to see the truth of the depths. So, I released my hold on the surface and let myself sink into the depths.

For a time, I don't know how long, I simply sank, with nothing but the growing pressure to accompany me. It was not a physical burden, nor was it willfully exerted. It was the simple weight of the sea’s existence, pressing down with infinite significance.

I felt myself being compressed to a single point, and I let it happen. My purity, my focus, my concentration, had always been my greatest power. The single minded focus and awareness that drove me. Yet, in recent years, I had found my purity weakened as I assimilated more and more into my path. As I took more and more upon my back. I had grown so much.

But now it was time to return to that origin.

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That first spark of consciousness in the mothers womb, when I was all that existed in the world. When my thoughts were fully my own, untainted by the dust of the mortal world.

It was time to return to the simple truth that had once defined me, before I had grown so expansive.

I am.

The sea compressed me, showing me how to converge the entirety of my being to a single point, showing me how to converge the entirety of my being to that instantaneous instant of awareness. I wondered how deep the sea went. I was reaching my limit and I could not even be sure there was a bottom. If a god could not walk the depths, what could?

Finally, something clicked.

I awoke from my long slumber, awareness bringing me to consciousness. All my worries slipped from my mind like the remnant of a half-forgotten dream.

There was no past, no future, only me.

I burst from the sea with the joy of a child flying for the first time. I tore a hole in the sky with my own two hands and threw myself through with boundless laughter.

For so long I had shackled myself with worries and burden, tied myself down with chains of duty and responsibility.

But that was not my way.

I stood for freedom, and it was time to be free.

God's hand descended with unmatched force, brimming with concepts of annihilation.

I caught it. How could anybody but me destroy me?

Gold overtook my azure eyes and golden light began to shine from my body, obscuring my once frail form, which now brimmed with youthful vitality and joyous laughter.

I threw god away, and then laughing, I exploded with golden light.

For the first time, I allowed my true self to shine to its fullest extent.

And it was glorious.