A mortal just gained access to my garden as a reward for a Quest he performed. I quickly travel from my favorite napping spot to observe him, picking a spot on a cliff to do so. If it weren't for a special magic I have on my forest – at least, when it's functioning properly – the mortals who come here are not influenced by the presence of a soul of a higher tier.

It's the same magic I performed to make them and their items unaffected by the high level of ambient magical energy, and which prevents them from feeling its real power so as to avoid overwhelming their senses. What good is a reward if it damages them or their stuff? Or if it overwhelms their senses?

The mortal who's come here doesn't notice me at first, allowing me to watch him for a little bit. The mortal seems a little bit familiar to me and I examine him a little more closely.

He's a human who looks to be in his late twenties, with purple hair and grey eyes. He's dressed in a mage's robe that's a deep grey with purple and silver markings in the ancient tongue. A reincarnated mythical beast whose eyes shine silver in the right light. With the snow which gently falls in this section of my garden, the light is right for that.

Aaaah. Now I remember him. That's Dashiel, a human I saw while in my life as Evan. It hasn't been that long since I left, though I suppose it's probably been around a decade in his time. He probably Awakened shortly after I fixed up my forest as I think he was at the point when we met, he just couldn't due to the forest's state.

Dashiel received access to the colder part of my forest, to a strip of tundra-like terrain. He examines some of the few plants which grows here and harvests them, but doesn't over forage. I like it when they're considerate like that… which all Rank 5s are. That's why they and they alone are granted access from time to time.

The Awakened man explores the section a little bit more, collecting a few rocks, some ice, and some magic crystals. Just before he leaves, he spots me and his eyes widen, mouth now agape. For a few moments, he stares sat me.

Then he gives me a dip of his head and vanishes, returning back to Earth.

What went through his mind, when he saw me? I'm sure he doesn't remember me from our short encounters as his real self so unless he reads, he probably doesn't know of what sort of beast I am.

Hm? There's another transcendence which just occurred, interrupting my thoughts. A body-type transcendence, but they did it as their second one. I stand and stretch and shake off the snow which began to coat me as I watched the mortal, then travel to the part of the universe with the new twice-transcendent one.

"Jeez!" He jumps. "Just scare the energies out of me, why don't you, Rethe."

"Oh, it was you," I say. "Hello again, little god."

"I'm only little because you're about sixty feet in height while lying down, Rethe," the god who was known as Ryan in his past life rolls his eyes. "I just managed to transcend a second time. Though it seems I need to do it a third time…"

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I mask my influence so that he can relax a little. As a triple-transcendent one, my soul is still a higher tier than his. Unlike Ash and Griffin, I actually know how to conceal that effect.

"I know," I say. "That's why I came. Congratulations on that, by the way. You seemed to have been close, to do it so fast."

"It wasn't too hard for me with my past experiences," he says. "Now I'm even tougher and can take on even stronger beasts in the divine realm. Though I've been secluded for… awhile now. Ever since I left, my focus has been on transcending via body so I'm not really up to date with… wait. You're in your real form?"

"Figured there was no point staying in mortal form once you left to transcend," I tell him. "If you've been in seclusion, then you probably haven't learned. Not that many have… it's not as if most could tell the difference and we Rift Wolves are rather rare, after all."

"Learned what?" He asks.

"As it turns out," I yawn. "I'm the King of the Celestials and we were just getting fooled by Aster. The others never explicitly said the two of us were separate beings. And no, transcending via aether was not my second transcendence. It was my third. If you really want to be with me the way Ash and Griffin are… you'll need to transcend via aether. That'll let you survive when this universe dies, too."

The god sighs, then snorts.

"I take it you've fixed up your forest, then?"

"I have."

"May I see it now?" He asks. "Before I go through the agonizing and likely very time-consuming process of becoming a Celestial?"

"Sure."

I warp us to my garden and allow him to look around it. He's quite impressed with the looks of it and once the tour is over, turns to face me.

"Well," he says. "Until I'm a Celestial… have a good one, Rethe."

I touch my nose to his forehead and he sharply sucks in a breath. Violet lines travel across his body as it tenses up. After just a few blinks, the process is over and Ryan's eyes have turned from gold to purple, his skin more like marble, and hair as if strands of sunlight itself.

He looks at his hands for a few moments, then looks at me with his eyes wide in awe and shock. Then an annoyed expression fills his face.

"You can transcend others?"

"It's not that difficult of a process," I shrug. "It's how Aster turned from an azulvitt wolf pup into a Celestial. He was one of the first of them and was dying in a rather… unpleasant way. Decided to give him a way to never get hurt again."

Only a few Celestials transcended on their own – namely, Ash, Griffin, Aurora, and my father. That last one decided to become a Celestial after I returned to my true self, just to show off how much better at magic he is than me.

The joke's on him, though. I've still created two entire realities when he hasn't created one and yet is millions of times my age.

"You made me think I'd have to go through millions of years of attempting to transcend…"

"I never said you had to go through that," I tell him. "Just that you had to transcend again. Since you wanted to, I decided to let you skip the more painful part of it."

"Alright," he adjusts his size so that he's tall enough to give me a proper hug. "Oh, wow. Getting used to this kind of power might take me awhile."

"Well," I say. "You have around twenty billion Earth years to do so, and most Celestials manage it much faster than that."

"Why that long?"

"That's when this reality will end," I tell him. "And only a Rift Wolf can survive in the Aether. That's something you must be born as, rather than become. We do still have plenty of time, though. Would you like to take a nap with me? I know a great spot to do so."