"Run that by me again," a young man with chestnut brown hair asks.

A youthful Jikan says with her eyes closed behind her glasses. Her attempt to summon a new hero was successful after Malcolm was summoned, but it did not completely give her the assurance she wanted. Another young man with knowledge of his world's 'fantasy'. She had just summoned him, and she is already having doubts. Nevertheless, there is something more important to this than her own personal feelings.

Taking a deep breath, Jikan explains everything she had said up to this point. "Ren, I understand that you might find this hard to believe, but you are not within Earth's sphere of influence any more. This is Tera Ley. From your perspective, you might consider this to be another planet in the universe. However, it is more accurate to say that our two worlds do not share a common medium or plane of existence."

Ren struggles to rationalize how that works. "T-T-Then how was I brought here?!"

"Divine power," Jikan says matter-of-factly. "From what I am able to understand, your universe does not have any celestial gods, am I right?"

"Uh..." Ren looks off to the side uneasily, "Depends on who you ask..."

Jikan opens her eyes and looks at Ren incredulously. "Depends...? How can you not know...?" She shakes her head dismissively. "Anyway, your universe is without a god that can bridge it to ours or any other reality. However, as the Goddess of Time, I have great power and have summoned you here to fulfill a task of the utmost importance."

Ren looks around Jikan's messy study as he wonders what is to come of him. "You," he asks with unease, "have a mission for me?"

"Indeed," Jikan nods formally. "As you can probably guess, the existence of one deity can lead to the assumption of multiple deities existing as well."

Ren offers a slight shrug, "Well, you did call yourself the 'Goddess of Time'. You would not need to call yourself that if you were the only goddess around."

Jikan gives off a small smile. Ren is listening to her and supports her claims with his own observations. It was the bare minimum she could have hoped for in a hero. "So it should come as no surprise that there are other gods here in Tera Ley." She grabs a paper from the side of her desk and slides it to Ren. "The one you are going to become very acquainted with is this one: The Goddess of Light, Lumina."

Ren takes the paper and sees the image of a girl with golden locks, round face, and a tiny build. She seems radiant in her own way, but he would not guess that she was a goddess. She appears to be a casual adventurer in a fantasy game. She wore a off-white tunic with what seems to be accessories made of metal dotting her front, likely silver. A separate yellowish hood is draped over her shoulders and she wears a skirt of the same color over her waist. Her leggings are brown and tuck into a pair of boots that toe the line of what make have passed for work shoes on Earth. In her grasp is a staff that seems a bit heavy and impractically shaped for someone to wield.

Ren squints at the paper before looking at Jikan. "She seems rather..." he tries to find words that would not come across as being rude, "ordinary."

Jikan looks down as she can not help but feel sorrow for her friend. "You are not wrong. What you are seeing is not Lumina in her prime, but what she looks like now. More or less." She wistfully closes her eyes and says, "Lumina met her end to protect the mortals in Tera Ley, but she plotted her own reincarnation to some day return to godhood. The Lumina you are looking at now is her new mortal form."

"Mortal form?" Ren repeats as he looks back at the image of Lumina. "If she is mortal, doesn't that mean she can die again?"

With a clearing of her throat, the Goddess of Time steadies herself back to a more serious tone. "It does. However, death is not the only concern for mortals. There is a litany of undesirable outcomes that can imperil Lumina in her more vulnerable form." She points to Ren. "Which is why I have summoned you. You are to be her hero and guardian, protecting her until she can ascend to the heavens again."

"What?!" The paper slips out of Ren's hands as he is struck with the heavy burden. "I-I am protecting a goddess?!"

"It was Lumina's wish before her passing," Jikan says in a slightly quicker tone than her usual speech. "She is not able to remember anything as her time as a goddess, so she does not even know that she was the Goddess of Light. The current Lumina just recently received the news from the Courier God, so she should at least be expecting your company."

Ren slams his hands on Jikan's desk as he comes to a stand. "That's not the main problem! How can I possibly help Lumina ascend?!"

Jikan pulls out a chart from within her desk. "It is not entirely impossible." She motions for Ren to remove his hands from the surface of her desk and she lays the chart out. "There are a few ways to make a being ascend to godhood. First, there is the cosmic divine energies. Deities like the original Lumina and myself have existed since the creation of this reality. Our power is unique and can be seen as the progenitor of the respective energies." She points to a stylized version of Lumina in her godly form. "For instance, Lumina's light predates even the stars in the sky. Fire also uses light in a different matter, but it burns off of material that comes from the other forces of reality." She circles her finger around the godly Lumina. "Lumina's divine light predates all of that, and should she still have her power, she could control light from its foundation. But it does not work the other way around."

Ren takes in the information as he eyes the chart laid out before him. "So," he tries to piece together his hypothesis, "we can not just force her to soak in light in order to regain her power?"

Jikan shakes her head and sighs, "If that was the case, everything in Tera Ley would be the deities of light." Her tone turns grim as she moves on. "However, recall that I said that Lumina died to protect the world. Her power, her divine light, is present across the world. Should she reclaim it, she can ascend back into the heavens."

"But," Ren ventures a guess, "power like that would be sought over by everyone?"

"Unfortunately," Jikan confirms. "To make matters worse, normal mortals would not be able to use this magic well. It is too potent for their mortal shells." Jikan moves her finger down to the second depiction of Lumina, this one in her mortal form. She taps her fingertip on a fiery orb hovering over Lumina's shoulder. "But Lumina's spirit can allow her to retain that power in her new body."

"So Lumina's spirit is separate from her new body?" Ren asks as he studies at the illustration.

"Yes," Jikan says directly. "If her spirit became one with her vessel, then she would be a demigod. Demigods can not wield cosmic energies." She brings Ren's attention to the next topic. "Collecting Lumina's old cosmic light energy is the best way to restore her, but that is difficult. So that is why you should make it a habit to use the second method to build divinity: worship." She moves her finger to the side to show kneeling followers. "There is power in prayer, and Lumina can become a deity again on faith alone. However," Jikan clicks her tongue in agitation, "there is a catch. Mortals tend to pray when they want something in return. Given how weak she is, that can be a problem."

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"Wait," Ren stops Jikan, "so helping people can make Lumina stronger?"

"Well, it is a little complicated," Jikan groans. "Lumina would need the worship of many, MANY mortals to actually ascend. Not only that, but she would need them to continue to worship her after she deals with their problems. It would be easier if she was a demigod, except a demigod does not get their power from faith either."

Ren crosses his arms. "Well, Lumina and I can just go around everywhere to increase her popularity. Word would get out that Goddess of Light has returned, and everyone would worship her, right?"

"That... would be nice, if it worked out that way," Jikan says with no confidence. "But think about it for a second," she says as she slides Lumina's image back into view. "If you go around telling people that this girl is the Goddess of Light, would anyone take you seriously?" At Ren's silence, Jikan continues, "And also think about the people who will believe it and use that to their advantage. They could manipulate you and her into serving their goals."

"I get it." Ren slumps as his destiny is played out blatantly in front of him. The path ahead of him is Herculean in its own right. "It sounds like it is going to be impossible to both protect her and help her ascend."

"You are not alone," Jikan says calmly. "As the Goddess of Time, I can reset time in the event Lumina's ascension becomes an impossibility."

"Wait," Ren tilts his head in confusion, "why can't you just tell me what to do then?"

This is the same thing Malcolm always nagged about, so Jikan becomes a little annoyed. "My presence is too powerful for the normal state of the world. If I can give you any information that would be valuable to you at all times, the seams of reality would unravel. Reversing time to a previous state is the best I can do for you."

Feeling the sourness in Jikan's tone, Ren puts his hands up to calm her down. "Okay! Okay..." He ponders the implications of being able to go back in time to try again. He can apply any information he had learned and use it effectively in the next timeline. Worse comes to worst, he can even cheat death. "It... like saving and loading in a video game."

Jikan groans at the mention of video games, but it helps Ren visualize what she can offer him. "If it helps you to understand, then summarize it as you please."

Ren stops and asks Jikan something he did not expect him to say, "So, is that my cheat?"

Jikan looks at Ren with a befuddled expression on her face, "Your... what?"

Ren rubs his upper arm bashfully, "Right... You might not call it that. You see, I was hoping for there to be a 'cheat', something only I can use that can better my chances at succeeding, you know? So, resetting is my cheat, right?"

Jikan's eye twitches. She rises from her seat and leans over her desk, hands planted on the surface for support. "Resetting time is not for you convenience! I refuse to allow a timeline to continue without Lumina back to her former power! I am granting this to you because I need you to fulfill your duty!"

Ren flinches, "I'm sorry, I did not mean to—"

"But you are not wrong." Jikan says more calmly as she sits back down. "You would be given an additional divine blessing. Perhaps that is what you are referring to?"

The light that shines in Ren's eyes startles the goddess as Ren screams, "Yes! That!" He shimmers down but remains excited about the blessing. "You're the Goddess of Time, so it would be time related, right? Can I pause things for a limited time and interact with the world in that time?"

"Well, actually..." Jikan pauses. The blessing is actually something Lumina left in Jikan's care before her death. Lumina's blessing boosted its host resistances to many aliments and their capabilities slightly. It was meant to cover what the hero was unfamiliar with when it came to the world's dangers and enhance what they were familiar with in their own abilities. Lumina wished to cover the bases for her hero, making a blessing that covered the most ground. Meanwhile, the ability Ren proposed is infeasible; there is no way she can do that. Interacting with the world in a frozen state is sure to cause great damage and necessitate a reset immediately.

Then she thinks of how Lumina's blessing did little to help Malcolm. The blessing effectively serves as a shield and spear to the hero, but it offered Lumina's mortal form nothing when Malcolm was not her shield. Given Malcolm's direct approach to deal with problems, the blessing did nothing to secure Lumina. Just as in the 127th timeline, Lumina fell prey to Victor Jeweler's love magic because Malcolm was busy in the front. Jikan believes that it would have been better for Lumina to reserve the power of her blessing to herself.

Jikan thinks as she looks at Ren's waiting face. She has an idea, but she is not sure how she feels about it. If Lumina were to receive her own blessing, she would be more resilient. But then Ren can not use the blessing at all. But if Jikan give him a blessing of her own design...

***

A young Francesca always had an uncanny affinity with light magic, despite her family never having an ounce of magical power in their blood. She was seen as being a prodigy in the art, but that was mostly due to natural light magic users are rather rare. In her small circle, Francesca was something akin to good luck charm. However, capabilities do not always translate to talent. Francesca could barely manage to summon light from her hands, but it glittered off of her palms like water spilling from an overflowing bowl. Her parents were hopeful that their daughter could grow her power and ability to use it.

The natural course of action was to ask for guidance in one of the only places that would know how to help. Attending service in the Morning Sun Church, Francesca went through the process of harnessing her light in the ways of healing. The work was tedious to get her off of the ground, but she was able to learn Word of Mending, a standard health replenishing spell and open wound closer. For someone with little ambition to reach her full potential, Word of Mending was already a noteworthy achievement. Even if it was her only way to utilize light magic, she was proud to have it be useful for anyone that she cared about.

Mediocrity is not something she was destined for, though. Nervously stepping through Lycore with a wooden staff and her most durable clothes, Francesca is still shaken by her conversation with the Courier God she had hours before. She was the vessel for the Goddess of Light? She was Lumina? It was an earth-shattering assertion, but it made some level of sense. She was born to magic-less parents and ended up with one of the rarer schools of magic. And it would not do for Soor to lie to mortals, right?

"I'm... Lumina..." Francesca mutters under her breath. It feels weird to her, perhaps even a little wrong. But that is who she is, right? "I'm Lumina..." It is hard for her to convince herself. If feels like fate came in and had told her to forget who she is in favor of someone else. Yet, she understands the importance Lumina brings to the mortals. She remembers what she learned in the church. Lumina is hope and selflessness. She is the greatest guardian that would not let the mortals suffer. She is an inspiration to emulate. A light in it of herself to guide people forward and have them be the best of who they can be. Gripping her staff with both hands, Francesca tries to reinforce the idea, "I'm Lumina..."

But that was one part of the problem. Soor also told her that Lumina set things up for there to be a hero who would stand by her side. She wants to be reassured that she is going to get some help, but it was weird that it was someone from another world. Who is this mystery hero from a land so foreign that it might as well be mythical? Were they strong? Could they protect her from what forces there are that would pose a threat to her? She does not like the vulnerable state she is feeling right now. How could being the vessel for the Goddess of Light make her feel less empowered?

It feels like time is ticking by slowly, her mind swirling of the new reality she finds herself in. Steadying her breathing, Francesca looks ahead. The sooner she meets her hero, the sooner she can start her journey, the faster everything would click into place. At least, that was what she hoped. She stops the identifying mantra and whispers, "Soor said... that they were dropped off in the forest." A pit in her stomach forms as she continues to step forward. "I guess... I'll meet them at the gate."

Would the hero know that she is who they are supposed to be looking for? She hopes that was the case as she knows next to nothing about them. They would have to know what she looks like, right? She keeps her face visible to the gate in the distance. If the hero is going to be walking in at any second, then she can not let them pass her.

A few paces behind, a set of dangerous eyes lock onto Francesca's back. Even before Francesca can meet with her hero, her journey is playing out around her.