A bright light shines through my eyelids. I grumbled, covering my eyes with my hands, getting adjusted to the light levels. Suddenly, I pause, the recent events flooding back into my mind. I quickly scrambled to get to my feet, looking around, and to my shock, I was standing in a field of barley and wheat with a distant view of an ocean or sea.

I rubbed my eyes with my hands, not believing what I saw.

Wait… hands? What in Hades happened?! how did my arm heal? Ares permanently damaged it! A wound like that shouldn’t be possible to heal, even with divinity.

On the topic of divinity, I looked at my core, and to my horror, I barely saw the tiniest bit of it; if the divinity I had during the one-sided battle with Zeus was like a small bottle full of water, this was no more than a couple of drops of water.

Shaking myself from my stupor and apparent lack of power, I investigated my surroundings a little closer; I stood in the center of a small crater about 5 feet in diameter, surrounded by a large hilly field of barley and wheat with quite sandy terrain.

An uncanny feeling of familiarity sweeps over me.

This… is familiar. But why.

I stood still for several minutes, listening to the ocean in the distance and the smell of a salty sea. In the end, the sight of the sea and the rocky outcroppings finally jogged my memory.

Lemnos? But this was where one of my battles with the other gods occurred. I remember it was reduced to a pool of magma. However, it looks exactly how I remember it when I arrived.

I sighed, brushing my hands off on a thin wool tunic I woke up in, which was not the most surprising thing I had seen today, so I didn’t worry about it.

Speaking out loud, I say, “I need to find someone who can explain what happened. If someone had restored Lemnos, it would have taken a very long time and a lot of power.”

I walked through the fields, making my way to the rocky beach of Lemnos. A few minutes later, I stood before the gentle waves;

I forgot how much I loved it here. this was my home for many years, not necessarily by choice, but still.

I look both ways down the beach but do not see anything or anyone, so I simply pick a direction and walk; while doing so, I release a breath, my body relaxing slightly.

Well. With as weak as I am, I should find someone. While I do not have much divinity left, I should still be able to get to a settlement, preferably human.

I continued to walk for several hours before something snapped me out of my thoughts. Or rather, the lack of something.

My senses heightened, and I realized what was missing, Sound. The waves were still crashing against the shore, but there are no animals, and while there aren’t a lot of animals in Lemnos, there are certainly enough to make an ambient noise. Something must be near.

A few seconds later, a sudden rustling sound a few dozen feet away revealed a 12-foot-long Caspian whipsnake moving through the rough terrain. Fortunately for my continued survival, this is one of the smaller ones whose scales haven’t completely grown, and I could sense the divinity in its core was negligible.

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While I investigated the snake, it noticed my presence by the shore. Making direct eye contact, it sized me up, preparing to lunge at me.

Well, one way or another, if a feral creature will likely attack, you might as well attack first.

Grinning at the creature, I slowly back up to grab a few jagged stones from the beach. Once I retrieve some, back out of its lunge range and channel a tiny bit of my divinity to the stone; upon reaching an acceptable power, I wind back my arm and launch it full force, aiming at the snake's head.

I hear a CRACK and see that my throw had missed, but only by a few inches; instead, it hit part of its body, shattering several scales on its side.

Wincing, I charge up a few more shots before it can shake itself from its stupor.

Really was going for a one-hit wonder. It could be nice to make something out of it. Gotta do with what you have available, after all.

After missing twice, I decided it was a waste to use what little divinity I had and ran toward the snake. The long reptile also apparently agreed as it lunged at me, successfully wrapping around my upper body.

Readjusting to this new constraint, I stumble slightly, grabbing the snake with my hands and fighting against its tightening form.

It had become a competition of who had more strength and endurance; the snake and I were seemingly matched, and neither was making much progress.

As both of us were straining against the other, the snake cunningly climbed up my body and poised itself to stab into my neck, and while I was certain I could survive the constricting, I doubted a direct attack to my vital points would be fine in my weakened state.

Briefly cursing Hades, I let go of the main body with my left hand and snagged the head instead, compressing its head so it couldn’t use its mouth.

Using the divinity I could muster on such short notice, I shoved as much of my fire-attuned divinity into the snake's skull as possible.

The snake, noticing this, began to panic and desperately tried to get out of my grip.

Ha, like I would let that happen. The least you can do after all this effort is to give me your core.

Finally, after what was close to half a minute later, the snake loosened its grip and ceased its struggle.

A small smile spread as I stopped infusing it with divinity and pulled it off my body, it falling limply in my hand.

Fortunately, I don’t think I hit anything particularly valuable with those rocks; most of the snake’s body was in decent condition.

Sighing, I mentally prepared myself for the worst part; grabbing a particularly sharp-looking branch nearby, I once again pushed a trickle of divinity into it, reinforcing it. Taking my new makeshift weapon, I press the knife against the snake’s heart region, searching around for the core hidden behind its organ.

A few minutes and a small pool of blood later. I managed to find the core and get it out. Holding up the small, dull golden orb to the dying light of the sun, I wince a little.

The brighter the golden and larger a core is, the more power it contains, and this half-inch core was one of the weakest you could find. However, it should still be enough to help increase my meager amount.

After evaluating the core, I found a small divot in the ground that was slightly hidden from sight. Holding the core in one hand, I calm my breathing and crush the orb, absorbing the divinity contained within.

As it took time to absorb divinity, even the meager amount contained in the core, I sat down and refreshed my memories.

Divinity is the lifeblood of every living thing. Immortals, such as other Gods or monsters, have much more of it, but it was a requirement for life. There are several ways to gain Divinity, but only three have decent yields. The first is, of course, worship. This is how gods like Zeus and the other Olympians grew in strength; they took a small portion of their natural regeneration whenever a mortal worshipped them, essentially consuming a slice of their life span.

Damn parasites, I thought with disgust.

The second option would be meditation. It can be an extremely slow process as it requires you to pull divinity from the Ether, but greatly increases the purity of your core. The main benefit of purity is it increases how much divinity you can hold in a much more condensed space. Imagine having a tiny core barely the size of a grape; if it had a radiant gold sheen, it could contain much more power than a larger, less purified core.

Lastly, (this would be my preferred option) is battle; whether it’s a spar with a challenging opponent or to the death, it doesn’t matter. The idea is that the Ether rewards the winner. Ether is essentially the fabric of the universe. The primordial soup that makes up everything. While even the gods do not know the exact reasons it does so, we believe that the more you grow in skill, the more the Ether infuses you, granting you much more power than if you received it via worship, and because of how you do not necessarily need to fight to the death for it to increase your divinity, it lead to the creation of several coliseums where gladiators dueled and fought each other for the increase in power.

The influx of divinity slowed, snapping me out of my trance. Looking at how the sky had become twilight, I guessed a little less than half an hour passed.

Stretching slightly, I stood back up, picking up the snake nearby.

With it not weighing a lot, I shrugged. It's better to have it than not.

Continuing my path along the beach shore, I see several dozen lights begin to flicker in the far distance near the shore.

With a grin, I pick up my pace. Finally, seems I found some people. Let's see what happened to Lemnos in the Hades while I was away.