We moved swiftly through the dead of night, late enough that even the most avid of drinkers and revellers were finding a quieter place to ride out the remains of their day—or the horrid beginning of the next.

Gehne was furious, of course. But it was easy for me to distance myself from the girl’s emotions, almost finding myself in a moment of serenity within the storm. I didn’t like that I was so much more at ease as the object of anger and spite than as an emotionally vulnerable target.

What was it that made me that way? I had started so well, managing to talk about some of the things that I hadn’t touched upon in what felt like years. I had even managed to explain some of the concepts of computing I had picked up in my days of learning about hardware as a casual layman.

But then… then I’d let my goals take over. They were ever-present and slyly waiting for the moment that I felt most comfortable to make themselves known. The machinations of my own mind seem to conspire against me, like a calculator in the back of my head, constantly performing grand equations for each and every social chess move.

Some of it was me. Some of it was my Domain. Some of it was the empathic link that I couldn’t help but have with those that surrounded me.

As I walked with a purposeful stride, moving out of the city and past the homes that surrounds the hub, moving towards where I can still feel Valeri trying to move my hammer, I couldn’t help but let my mind run amuck.

I hadn’t thought of myself as socially adept on earth. In fact, for many years as a child I had been a nervous wreck around any new social situation. Something I’m sure is a pretty normal phase to grow through. Later on, in late highschool and beyond, I found myself slightly more at ease, capable of forming groups of people without much difficulty…

But nothing like this. Not even close. Maybe I had a decent basis to work from, and the empathy certainly added to that like powerful headlights in the dead of night, but it was when my Domain mixed with the other two that I truly began to feel as if the ability was truly inhuman.

Oh, and I can only imagine that the increase in the Mind stats helped immensely, back when I was still linked to the God from Earth. It was hard to remember that I once had an actual stat screen—an idea so dichotomous with the reality that I found myself in. I’m glad that I had Mayer to help me break from that fantastical mindset that I’d first arrived with and feared that the others who had been brought here have not.

My real fear, however, was in just how much I’ve changed. Am I even quantifiably the same person than I used to be? As I search more into that question, I start to terrify even myself. My morality, something that I place to highly within my mind, something I let guide my actions in pursuit of even this small step forward towards my goals; did I even hold my morality to this before I was placed on Virsdis?

I didn’t let the internal discomfort detract from my image, however. Not with the patently furious Gehne walking behind me, a mix of shame in her that she’d had to bow her head to play into my hand. I was offering something that spoke to her, deep down, and I’d done everything short of pushing her from that diving board myself.

Just another part of myself that I was becoming increasingly unhappy with but found no way around. Manipulation and other conniving social tactics. It didn’t do wonders for my reputation, but it certainly gave me results. As distasteful as it could feel to pull on someone’s heartstrings, I couldn’t quite disabuse myself of the option. It was just too useful to bar myself from.

However, despite the dark tone that my innermost thoughts had taken, I could almost feel my emotions lighten as we finally made significant headway into the fields of grass, the clear air and the cool breeze managing to refresh my mind even in the conflicted state it was in. The grass beneath my feet was almost silky, the cool rushes of air giving a slight rippling effect across the dark green grass, like a bed of liquid laying across the slight dips and rises.

With the fields being so open, it wasn’t too long till you could see a very strange sight in the far distance. A small silver spire rose just above the surface of the earth, with a strange form leaning tiredly against it. Well, it certainly seemed small until we walked closer and closer, where even Gehne, through her anger and frustration, managed to feel a significant spike of strange awe.

My Soul Hammer was huge, especially with the ‘upgrade’ that it’d received after my meeting with Gallar. From its very tip, to the top of its head, it was easily taller than me—where it had only been an inch or so taller than myself. Any practicality, however, had been totally thrown out the window when divinity had been involved, altering my soul, and thus the Soul Weapon irreparably.

It stood at easily my height and a half, the massive block of metal that served as its head, with its tapering horned side included, would likely have more volume than my body does—though its mass undoubtedly quashes my own by a landslide.

It was almost terrifying, now that I looked at it against the form of the much smaller Valeri Ephars. She was at least six foot even, and the gargantuan thing made her look hilariously small. Any regular person would take a single look at the thing and think that a giant would be its weilder—apparently, they did exist somewhere within the mountains to the north—or at least one of their much smaller, and far-removed relatives—members of which I had seen a sparingly few times and had never managed to learn the name of their race due to their scarcity.

Valeri, absolutely exhausted by her attempts, saw me in the distance, the bright white of her eyes stark against her skin as they widened almost comically. Even from what would have been five hundred or so metres away, I could feel the wave of last moment desperation as she realised that she was in imminent danger of losing the bet I had posed.

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I’d expected something similar to this. Even with her enhancements to strength, a courtesy of being blessed by a Goddess of Might directly. I had hoped that she would lift it, even a mere centimetre, for the sublime moment of being proven wrong that I found myself secretly craving.

And then, something magnificent happened. Something that made a small part of me grin in glee, mirroring itself onto my face with its radiating power from within.

I heard a hum of sound resonating and powerful, though not necessarily as deep as you might think. The moment I heard the resonating tune as it leaked from Valeri’s lips, a wave of goosebumps spread over my entire body, flooding my body with a burst of adrenalin that told me one, extraordinarily simple thing.

A God’s power lay near.

It was nothing so visibly clear, but it’s feeling was undeniable. I had felt the presence while sparring with Rethi, though his was mostly a dull, detached feeling rather than the overwhelming presentness ahead of me—like a sleeping mountain opening an eye from its rest.

Though, according to Rethi’s account of his fight with Yeram, it wouldn’t be too long before he too was capable of such a clear call upon Divine power, if he hadn’t already done so in the last moment of his fight.

“What is happening?” Gehne screeched from beside me as the hum somehow managed to consume our hearing, replacing it with nothing other than the whispers of strength that laid beneath the surface of people, of the earth, and even within a simple emotion. I held out my hand towards the screeching Gek, bringing her to a hurried stop as I continued forwards, her voice lost within the hum that resonated through the earth and into our bones.

I walked forwards easily, even though the powerful hum wished to bring me to my knees before the display of its might. Valeri herself had her hands clenched against the long shaft of my Hammer, her eyes closed as she created the resonating sound from deep within her chest.

My steps drew closer and closer, threatening her with the bet we had made, which was now entirely superfluous to the spectacle that sat before my eyes. And it was with that threat that she opened her eyes, shining with a brilliant strength that owned no colour other than its overwhelming bearing.

“Earth, lend me Might as I have done for you.” Valeri’s voice commanded, the Divine presence of who could only be Tarania lingering within her powerful tone. With a command from the Blessed that assumed the words of Tarania herself, the dark earth around her complied willingly, surrounding her limbs with stone that shot forth from the loose soil that sat upon it.

The stone wrapped around her body, immediately bracing against her back, legs, and arms with the light mixture of what must be a shifting technique and Tarania’s power intertwining to give the greatest effect.

I knew I had lost my bet as soon as the stone had burst forth from the earth, watching as her mouth opened into a scream of exertion, even that being drowned out by the hum that still lingered despite Valeri no longer creating the noise.

The hammer, heavy as it might be, lifted. Only a centimetre, if that, with the dirt and grass beneath it only slightly decompressing from its massive weight as the sound abruptly cut short, with the Soul Hammer falling that miniscule distance, right where it had been moments before.

The sudden, deafening silence allowed for me to hear the ragged breaths of the woman behind the shattering stone as it lost the power behind it that allowed for it to hold the shape. She stumbled to the ground, only just possessing enough strength to lower herself slower with the shaft of the hammer.

The girl groaned, the strength totally leaving her body after a moment, laying her head down on the head of my hammer, her dense plume of hair flattening itself against the dark silver metal.

“Well, colour me impressed.” I said as I crouched down, making contact with her eyes as she breathed heavily, desperately trying to catch her breath as her expression lit up with pride.

“Bet…” She gulped hard against her dry throat, struggling to find the wind for the words, “you didn’t… expect that.” I grinned, letting out a hearty chime of laughter.

“No, no I didn’t. Maybe I could claim that I had hoped you would.” I gave her a short wink before standing up, moving my hand towards the familiar grip of the hammer, its end towering above me, though close enough for me to comfortably reach.

“You might want to move you head, fair warning.” I said merrily, as the girl hastily moved her head off of the massive hammer, shuffling her body away from me and the hammer with as much speed as she could. I grinned cockily, even laughing at the sight briefly, before making a statement of my own.

It’d been difficult to wield such a beast of a weapon, the thing being almost too heavy for someone to reasonably wield due to some basic laws of physics that I half remember from a video I watched online. But, well, I’m not sure that modern Earth’s physics accounted for the addition of kinetic shifting.

With a quick glance in the direction of Gehne, who had moved closer in the time I’d been talking with Valeri, I let my face split into a wide smile.

All it took was one stomp of a foot, and a feat of strength was performed. With a small movement, aligning the complex sentences of the Sharah into something resembling transmission of kinetic energy, I amplified that kinetic energy from the powerful stomp to the movement of the Hammer as I swung it up from the ground.

The massive hammer’s head kicked out from the ground, sending it arcing out and over my head, and with a few small movements, I nullified much of its force as part of the hammer’s handle would have smashed onto my shoulder.

The oversized weapon now rested on my shoulder, the long length of it mostly in front of me, and its head sitting only a little way behind my own.

I looked to the two girls, each of them giving me their own best impression of a silent scream, and I let myself laugh massively, revelling in the moment of awe that my feat of extreme strength had created.

“Welcome, you two…” I gestured to both women, finally making them notice each other in full, “to the second round of training.” I walked around nonchalantly, despite the fact that the massive weight of the hammer still was painful to hold, even now, though I was astoundingly good at working through pain and physical distress. In fact, most of the muscles in my body were constantly working at full force just to control it when I used kinetic shifting to give it power, let alone trying to do that all physically, without shifting.

“Second round?” Gehne asked before Valeri could get her own words out, making them look at each other in confusion, before turning back to me.

“Indeed! The second round.” I said, nodding to Valeri, “She’s the one that needed training first. You’re good enough as is.”

“Good enough for what?” Valeri said testily, her voice still breathy from the exertion only moments prior.

“Why, to learn the Sharah, of course!” I announced cheerfully, making the two women both ask the same question unison, tones almost identically wary.

“The Sharah?”