"Everything alright?" I ask as I step onto my deck.

Ryan texted me as I was eating breakfast to ask if he could come over. He wouldn't say more than that but his good morning picture made him seem a bit… not his usual self. When I look at him now, he seems that way for sure. He's dressed in his training outfit – shorts and a tight-fitting sleeveless with sneakers – and his hair is still styled. That's normal for him and wouldn't seem off by themselves.

Those beautiful orange eyes of his, however, seem a bit less full of energy than normal. That's as good a sign as any that something is up.

"Yeah," he answers. "But also no. It's about what I was distracted about last night. The thing other than the fog wall, I mean."

"That doesn't sound good," I say.

"Depends on how it's viewed," he shrugs. "That feeling of being inferior to you… it actually bothers me quite a lot. I really like you, Ev. Honestly, I do. But being with someone who I constantly feel like I'm inferior to…" he shakes his head. "I can't do it."

I'm really not surprised this is happening since all of my boyfriends or potential boyfriends ended up ending the relationship as a result. There was hope that Ryan would be different, but the rational part of me knew it wouldn't work out in the end.

"Before you respond," Ryan holds up a hand to stop me from doing just that. "I want to say that I do want to be with you. I was thinking of trying to see if I could get used to it… and then I asked you that question after our sex."

"About interesting things I've remembered from my past lives?" I ask. "It did take you a bit to come up with something to share."

It can be hard to come up with something equal to altering life itself in all universes just so I can hide from my brother. He eventually settled on telling me about a little-known world he'd found and likes to visit from time to time as a god. It's something he'd only remembered yesterday, and was probably able to remember it as a result of it not having any form of intelligent civilization.

He seems to like using it for a vacation spot.

"Yeah," he says. "The thing is… your powers are rather insane. While you're no Celestial, you are above me. And like I said, I would actually like to be with you. Based on what you've told me, you're not a committed sort in your real form, but more of a friends-with-benefits type of deal. I don't think I could handle that while being inferior to someone and I want to think of the long-term."

"I'm a bit lost," I tell him.

"I know," he takes a deep breath, then slowly lets it out. "I've decided to return to my real form and look into transcending a second time. That should put us on even terms."

He likes me so much, he's decided to transcend a second time just so he can be with me long-term rather than just as mortals. That will open up other possibilities for him as well, which I'm sure he's also thinking about.

It'll be better for him in the long run as well if he really does want to be with me long term.

I remembered all of my past lives when I slept last night. Every last one of them, including my life as my real self. I actually know Ryan as his godly self, even if he doesn't realize it.

If I had my tail right now, it would probably be wagging at the news that Ryan wants to go more long-term than our mortal selves could have. The only reason I never did as my real self was because his life is, well, rather short compared to mine.

Even gods eventually die for good. Their lifespan is limited to the length of a universe at the most… mine is not. In fact, I can outlive the Celestials and my true self is already older than they could ever be.

"You don't look too bothered," he says.

"You're thinking long-term," I shrug. "And I remembered knowing you last night. You're someone I'd be happy meeting up with as friends or more throughout the eras. I wish you luck in transcendence… though if you really want to go long-term, become a Celestial. I do outlive universes, after all, and most types of transcendent beings won't."

"I'll think about it," he snorts. "But something easier might be better. So I'll see you again in the future, then?"

"If you'd like to," I tell him.

"Alright," he says, then his body shimmers.

His clothes fade away as a new outfit forms on him. This one is a pair of brown cargo shorts with a dark green sleeveless shirt fitting nicely against his body, which has developed an extra layer of muscle. The shirt is tucked into his shorts, which has a black leather belt around it, a sword fixed onto his hip. Dark brown boots cover his feet, and his hair has shifted to almost resemble sunlight, his eyes now metallic and gold.

His facial structure has changed a little as well, now that he's in his real form. It's the same handsome face I remember him having before this life, now that I have all of my memories back.

"Until we see each other again," Ryan gives me a kiss. "Take care, Evan."

"Rethe," I tell him.

"Hm?"

"My real name," I tell him. "It's Rethe."

"You're Rethe?" His eyes widen. "Oh, damn. I just remembered all the signs of that. Damn, Ev… Rethe," he smiles a little. "Bye, Rethe."

"Bye," I give him a kiss, then he fades away. My expression turns serious. "Now I need to have a discussion with a certain pup."

I head to the Mythic Forest and check the different zones, except Aster isn't present.

"Hey, Cloud?" I ask after heading back to the Great Napping Spot. "Would you mind letting Aster know I'd like to talk to him?"

A few moments of silence pass, then Aster falls out of the sky.

"Whooooooaaa!" He exclaims before catching himself. "Clooooooooooooud! Why'd you warp me out of Ardent's hooooome? He doesn't invite me-woof! Woof woof woof! Woof woof, woof, woof!"

Aster spotted me and switched back to pretending not to be able to speak.

"Hi, Aster," I walk over and grab him by the scruff of his neck, then pick him up and hold him in front of me. "You're a little liar, aren't you?"

The pup tilts his head to the side, feigning ignorance.

"When I told you that I was going to observe mankind more closely," I say. "I gave you the right to modify the Mythic Forest so that you could adjust some of the areas to your liking, so you could have more fun. My sense of time was bad enough I didn't set the reincarnation spell to reincarnate me quickly, so I had to wait the normal five hundred or so Earth years before the soul cycle processed me."

My mistake, for not realizing that what feels like a moment to me is actually a really long time for mortals. I did think it was only going to be a short time and that's the main cause of the problem my garden is facing.

"You're the one who's been taking care of the more humanoid monsters, I'm sure," I say. "But you explicitly told me you don't have permissions. Not that Celestials don't, that you don't, then that Celestials don't. Also, you grabbed a jar of my fur that you've had for thousands of years to convince me that you'd found me, or that I'd left that behind for you, after you messed with the scroll to make it seem like my real self had been located by it. The other Celestials have simply referred to my real self as a separate being, but you straight-up tried to convince me I wasn't who I am."

The fog wall snickers, probably at Aster receiving this scolding.

My real self is the First Celestial, the king of them all. I didn't alter life so that I could hide from my brother, I created an entire reality so I could observe mortals without him catching me. It's tucked away in the far reaches of the Aether, that which exists outside of all realities and which all realities exist within.

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They pop up on their own all the time, and usually wink out after about a hundred billion or so Earth years, consumed and destroyed by the Aether when their boundaries wear enough for it to seep inside. This wasn't even the first one I created – I goofed that one up a little so things didn't progress naturally. Using my experience with it, I created this one so that it would be as if a normal reality… just with people and beasts having a wide variety of hair and eye colors based on their magical affinities or their parents'.

That also wasn't my brother I saw when I reincarnated as Evan. That was my dad. He apparently found me and… well, I'll have to ask him what he's up to after I finish dealing with Aster.

"None of that is really too important, however," I hold him forward so he can look at the top of the hill of the Great Napping Spot. "Aster, what happened to my tree? That thing was nearly indestructible and it managed the energy flows of the Mythic Forest so that I didn't have to bother. It also managed the System and the soul cycle. It being reduced to dying roots in the ground is causing so many issues for the universe, not the least of which is nearly all reincarnations occurring on Earth for some reason. There aren't supposed to be that many Rank 4s and Rank 5s on one planet!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuum…"

"Aster…"

"It was an accident!" He says. "I was playing with my mini-stars and maybe, uh… accidentally broke the tree? But since I could damage it, I figured it was fine. I didn't know how to fix it and I didn't know where you were! By the time I realized it was important, it was already dead! I do have lots of monsters to play with now, though…"

"So that's what happened?" Cloud asks, still in the fog wall. "After you left, King Rethe, I came here to be some of its clouds for a little while and noticed the tree was kind of just gone and Monster Eggs were everywhere. But I didn't know where you were. Then a few years ago, another beast which looked like you asked me to do this… he said you'd reincarnated as a mortal – even though that should be impossible since you're a Celestial – and he'd play with the System a little so that you'd come here and hopefully remember things sooner without him having to force your memories back."

That would be my dad, I'm guessing.

"Sorry, Majesty…" Aster's ears and tail droop as his entire body goes limp. "I was a bad boy, wasn't I?"

"It's nothing I can't fix," I toss him up into the air, and he lets out a startled shout before catching himself. "Cloud? Mind stopping being a barrier?"

"Sure," the fog wall vanishes as the Celestial turns himself into a bird, then soars down and lands on the ground in his wolf form. "Hi, King Rethe."

"Hello again, Cloud," I give him a light pat on his head. "You've been really good. Give me just a minute and we can do something."

"Okay," he moves to beside my feet.

Aster was probably the one making adjustments to ponds, since I know he has management permissions. This island needs more space but I doubt he would've thought to mess with it even if it took me another century to remember things.

It's always been "my" place in the eyes of the Celestials. The reason he felt it was fine to play with his mini-stars here was probably because I've let him before. I was always around to ensure the tree was fine and hadn't thought about that when I gave him permissions to mess with the forest.

If I'd thought to adjust the soul cycle's ability to process a Celestial's soul or a triple-transcendent one's soul immediately, things would have been much better. I'd have been back before any real lasting damage occurred and mortals never would have noticed something was wrong.

My mistake, and one I'll make sure to not repeat in the future. One I should fix now rather than later as well.

I tap into my true power and my clothes and bracelets fade away. My form rapidly shifts into my real self, that of a wolf thirteen feet in height with lavender-colored eyes and a pelt of swirling soft purples, pinks, and oranges.

I shake my head for a moment, then let out a massive howl. Aster yelps a little as Cloud snickers, then I push out with my power. All of the Monster Eggs here are already cleared up and the push with my power eliminates every monster within the Mythic Forest.

The sole Mythic Forest. It's divided into sections based on terrain but they aren't separate ones. What I had access to as a mortal was merely the central part – where I've created zones for each of the pups to have their own fun in. Very few mortals were ever granted access to this part as a reward, usually only those I selected. Other regions were where the rest gained access to.

With the same push of power which eliminated every monster around, I also revoke Aster's right to affect the Mythic Forest, triple the size of the Great Napping Spot and increase the size of the lake around it to accommodate that, and regrow all of the plants of the land, in all sections and climates of it. The sky also increases in height many times so that it's more than three miles high rather than only a few thousand feet. Water fills in the rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and so on that are still empty, rather than them needing time to fill back up.

I also repair the roots of my tree and regrow it. Its roots spread out to expand to the edges of the island as the tree itself sprouts and grows tall and wide. Now three thousand feet in diameter and nearly five thousand in height, my tree will give even greater shade for me to nap under. I've also made sure this one can't be harmed by the magic of a Celestial… just in case I get too lazy to set how they may influence the forest next time I decide to do something like this.

Ash will probably be upset that he did his big announcement for nothing, but that old tree gets over things quickly. I can probably blink and he'll be fine with his announcement no longer being relevant.

Now that my garden is restored and the System is functional again – and my tree Aster-proofed – I make some adjustments to the soul cycle on top of fixing it.

For the first of the adjustments, any transcendent one will have a faster reincarnation rather than having to wait the standard amount of time for processing. Second, it can actually handle beings which have transcended three or more times properly. Third, it can handle Celestials better.

I wanted to observe mortals more closely and haven't been able to ever since I became a Celestial before I made a reality for the first time. There's only so much I can do when I'm still my real self… so I adjusted the soul cycle of this reality to allow for Celestials to be processed.

Having never done such a thing before, I made some errors. It wasn't able to reincarnate me into a body so it simply created a body for me. I was never abandoned because that body never had any parents in the first place. The Dungeon was a replica of the Great Napping Spot's condition at the time, there specifically for the purpose of being able to deposit my body somewhere since the soul cycle… can't normally just drop a body somewhere.

With the adjustments I make now, reincarnated Celestials can happen in a person rather than needing their body to be created – the soul cycle can now properly adjust a body to handle one. The same goes for triple-transcendent ones.

The way I started remembering things wasn't entirely from me being a Rift Wolf, my Celestial nature affected it some as well. I adjust the soul cycle so that reincarnated Celestials can remember things more smoothly. My recovery of past lives was rather clunky and I don't want the others to go through that.

"Alright," I look at Aster and Cloud, who are looking at me. "I didn't just reincarnate myself to be closer to mortals to observe them more easily, I reincarnated myself to test something and now, Celestials are able to reincarnate and grow up. Would you two like to?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Aster starts jumping around. "I wanna grow up and be big and strong and nom on Ash's fruit when he bears some! Did you see the peaches and oranges he grew back when-"

Aster vanishes and Cloud gives him a startled look.

"That's one down," I say. "What about you, Cloud? Are you happy with how you are, or would you like to start anew and grow up a little more?"

"Can I be a wolfkin?" He asks.

"Sure," I answer. "Any other requests?"

"No, thank you."

"Alright," I say. "See you when you return."

"Bye," he says, then vanishes.

"Thanks for monitoring the soul cycle while I was gone," I say. "I take it that's why you were nearby when the Dungeon with me in it appeared?"

"Yeah," Ash appears next to me, a tree thirty feet in height. "Got confused about the oddness of that soul and went to investigate. Only once I saw you did I realize that it was you. You've put a masking factor in for Celestials so that they seem like mortals to those who can sense souls, huh?"

"To prevent the soul-sensitive from knowing something was off, yeah," I confirm, then stretch my body. "I wasn't a mortal as long as I liked and would've kept pretending… but it probably would've been a year or two before the garden was ready to boot up the System back to full again. That's not all that long for me, but I didn't want to subject the various peoples across the universe to its lack for that long."

"Will you do it again?" He asks. "Reincarnate yourself, I mean?"

"Probably in the future," I lie down. "Though I won't be giving a certain pup management permissions. Did you know?"

"I learned it after awhile," he says. "Noticed that the monsters that didn't have mythical beasts which could take care of them were disappearing, so I started observing the garden for a bit. Noticed Aster popping in and out and saw what was going on then. Didn't know that he'd destroyed the tree… I'm sorry. I should've paid more attention to him."

"It's not your fault," I say. "By the way, you know my brother and father?"

"Your father, yes," he says. "Your brother, no. I met your farther after you reincarnated and he'd mentioned your brother to me. It was your father doing the Quests, by the way. Said he'd hope it would help you remember things after as it was apparently going to take you awhile."

Looking at things now, with all the power I have in my real form, I can confirm that. My father initiating those Quests for me is the reason I was able to remember things as early as I did. It seems Celestials would have taken until their late twenties to begin remembering… something I've now fixed.

"I adjusted the soul cycle to avoid that for future reincarnations," I tell him. "Made it more smooth as well."

"That's good," he says. "Your father says your brother gave up looking for you after awhile and it took him forever to find you. Apparently, there was some infection spreading through the Rift Wolves and he'd put the two of you somewhere safe, where you wouldn't be affected by it, until he could get rid of it entirely. Then you vanished on your brother for the billionth time and Noea just gave up looking. He only just found this reality right before your reincarnation appeared. Your dad, I mean."

A Rift Wolf determined to hide can be hard to track down, I think. Even more so after he transcends via the very force which births them.

"I'm sure he'll make himself known to me soon," I say. "For now, I think I'm going to take a nap. Would you mind reincarnating any of the pups who want to grow up? I've given you permissions for that."

"Sure," the tree snorts. "Enjoy your sleep, Rethe."