Sparkling azure blue, that was the perfect description of the sea of brilliance, radiating under a clear blue sky. Small movements could be seen as the water wavered softly up and down, creating waves with every second.

The calm quickly ended, however, as a rumble underwater caused the sea to shiver, trembling so much it looked like it could split apart at any second. And that it did, as a figure shot out of the sea, leaving a fountain of water as the silhouette of a woman flew up into the air.

Long, blue octopus tentacles framed her head like hair, giving the sight a comedic moment as it looked like the octopus was flying like an eagle through the air. Her torso was covered in soft, pink skin similar to a human woman’s, only a marine green bikini top was there to cover her tender breasts. Her bottom was that of a fish, covered in an assortment of different colored scales so plentiful that it mimicked a rainbow, ending in a tail fin.

The female silhouette looked like a mermaid, a half human-half fish hybrid. The woman fell from the sky, diving back into the water until her body was pushed back up to the surface as if she commanded the water to do so.

She combed through her tentacle hair with her hands, squeezing the water out until it switched to seaweed and then into silky marine hair. The scales of her bottom slowly morphed into skin, turning her whole fishtail into a human woman's, wearing the bottom part of her bikini.

Her wet body stretched and exhaled under the glare of the sun. Her appearance was so lovely that any normal man’s eyes would be enraptured by this sight. If she weren’t walking on water, most people would assume she was spending a day on the beach.

As much as my home can imitate the world’s oceans, it just doesn’t feel authentic enough. However, spending some time with my followers would cause my church to panic. How troubling.

The carefree thoughts of the woman brought a smile to her face, until she received a message from one of her angels, causing her serene smile to waver with a sigh. The droplets of saltwater started to merge with each other as this happened, transforming her bikini into a marine blue cocktail dress, while scales formed on her legs and a slim shark tail grew out of her rear.

Despite how fun-loving and casual she might appear; this was undoubtedly the leading goddess of the pantheon of Peolynca. The Ruler of the Depths, The Benevolent Mother of the Oceans, The Patron Goddess of the Merfolk, Nagas, and Levianewts, The Goddess of Order, Honor, and Traditions.

The Origin Goddess of Water, Plesia.

It is time, it seems. It is never easy in a position of power, even if I would like to believe we are all equals. How I would like to just laze around under the sun every day, Plesia complained without letting anybody see her distress, carrying around a deceptive smile.

Disregarding her personal wishes, the goddess simply conjured up her waterbed, sat on it, and summoned her administrative windows with the flick of a hand. Until her guest arrives, she had to fulfill her duty as a goddess…which was administrative work with her angels and aids.

“Hmm, Caedhul’s population is rising healthily…hie hie, the youth of today are too reckless. Oh my, I say that every generation, hie hie,” the water goddess inspected with a pleasant smile as she looked over statistics and videos of her followers. Whether it was joy or grief, she would look through them with an unfazed gaze, neither judging nor feeling much emotion besides, “This is the life of a mortal. Pleasant.”

Once she was done with her administrative work, she then turned to the next panel, now with an exasperated expression, “There are so many prayers every day. I know this is the most effective way to gain faith, but the young are far too wishful. I guess ‘the less you have, the more you want’ quote makes a lot of sense for them.”

Tirelessly, she worked through billions of prayers from her followers. Prayers also included the many spell casts that would be performed every day, as all System-based spells have chants that were constructed in a prayer-like way.

Although the gods receive the energy regardless of this fact, this way of forming a spell was an efficient and effective way to promote yourself to your faithful. “Oh, my Goddess…” and “My God, I call for you…” were all ways to imprint the idea of thankfulness and reverence into the minds of their followers.

“…Oh, she’s here…,” she uttered as her windows disappeared, letting out a sigh before forming a smile befitting of, not a mere goddess, but the leading Origin Goddess.

A veil of light appeared before her, quickly forming themselves into the figure of a slim woman with a set of white angel wings. Her light blond hair fluttered around as the face of a human woman formed, showing her youth and beauty off with her white dress, befitting an aristocratic saintess.

“Greetings, Elder Plesia, and thank you for accepting my attendance in your realm,” the woman greeted Plesia with a curtsey, hiding the anxiousness that was clouding her face.

“Aurena, it is always a pleasure to see you, dear,” Plesia responded with a genuine smile, similar to the one she had before assuming her duties. “I heard you visited your father? How is he? Lazy as always?”

Although the Goddess of Light was here for urgent business, she couldn’t help but be swallowed up by the Goddess of Water's pleasantries, casting her worries away for a moment, "At this point, that question should be obvious. He was having a good time.” Aurena answered with a shrug and an exasperated sigh.

Plesia couldn’t help but form a wry smile at the troubled goddess, “And despite your answer, you nonetheless took over some of his work, correct? Haaaah, Aurena, I’ve advised this to you so many times already, but you can’t always help him like this. He is around my seniority, so he is perfectly able to do his duty by himself.”

With a simple hand movement, a table with a set of teacups appeared from the depths of the sea, as warm tea water slowly filled them. Aurena bid her to sit, which Aurena graciously accepted, before continuing the small-talks, “How is your step-mother? Is she doing well?”

Aurena smelled her tea, enjoying the scent before taking a sip, “Elder Plesia, please, she’s ‘mother’ now. Father loves her very dearly so as his daughter I will accept her with open arms regardless of any trivial facts. It also helps that she too is annoyed about father’s total lack of urgency and duty, helping us bond.”

“I can imagine,” after enjoying her tea for a moment, her smile disappeared, as she raised her eyes and looked at Aurena with weary eyes. “I unfortunately can already presume why you are here, dear.”

Those words instantly made Aurena frown, glaring at her tea as she responded, “I would expect nothing less from you, Elder Plesia. Your followers had a clear view of everything, after all.”

Both Goddesses couldn’t help but remember the scenes they saw from their followers. Aurena’s knowledge of how the fight went on was limited because the prisoners Hestia saved from Narube’s bandit group were quickly escorted away from the battlefield, however, she still could hazard a guess from the massive wildfire that something was off.

Since Hestia couldn’t level up nor did she evolve, Aurena couldn't keep herself updated on her status board without her followers being close to her. She knew nothing of Danterno’s blessing, but she knew that something was wrong.

“Elder Plesia, I am here with the expectation that you will not hide any information from me,” Aurena started out. “Despite the fact of how our subordinates would rank us, I still understand my place as your junior. However, you have said that as ‘Origin Gods’ we are all equal amongst each other. That is why I require you to speak truthfully with me, just like how you would speak to Elder Crustacia and Zephira.”

Hiding her clenched teeth by sipping some tea, Plesia reluctantly answered, “…Yes, it would be hypocritical of me to go back on what my religion preaches. Ask me…dear.”

With unyielding eyes, Aurena glared into the older Goddess’ octopus eyes, unflinching from how they were morphing due to her wild emotions, “Did Elder Danterno bless my champion?” She uttered bluntly.

“…,” the frustration wasn’t shown on Plesia’s face but her body morphing around wildly was enough for others to understand. “…Yes.”

A white aura surrounded the Goddess of Light's wings, swirling around wildly before calming down, "…I know that he hasn't made personal contact with her yet. I know that because I would have felt her soul in the divine realms. You would also not allow him to come down to speak with her, I trust?”

Aurena knew that she had to stay regal. She knew the elder Goddess well enough that too many breaches against form would be detrimental to her. This was Plesia’s home and she had to abide by her rules while she was here, and no one took formalities as seriously as the Goddess of Water.

Before her power would go wild, she took a deep breath and calmed her energy down. Reining in her anger was just business as usual at this point, as she has done this many times to keep her outer appearance of a refined, elegant, and sophisticated Goddess to her subordinates.

Even if everybody knew this truth, especially Kargryxmor, she had to take care. She was their Goddess, after all.

“Elder Plesia, I saw one of his followers there. Your brother unrightfully blessed the champion that Kargryxmor and I have blessed ourselves since her birth! She is ours!” Aurena proclaimed.

"I acknowledge that. I gave you my permission, after all," Plesia responded meekly. "However, you must understand that she has accepted neither of you as her Gods yet, as your blessings came before she made a choice of faith. Even if you have marked her as your champion, before she consciously makes the decision to become your follower, she isn't yours."

There is also the case of Hestia having usurped both blessings from the two gods, so her allegiance is up in the air at this point.

Aurena’s displeased expression grew. She put her teacup down and push it aside to lean forward on the table, “I know he is your brother, Elder Plesia, but you can’t possibly expect me to accept this argument. You are the eldest and you also accepted your role to keep everything organized and peaceful amongst us six. I’ve used actual effort and resources to ensure the soul transfer to work, so I apologize if I sound angry about the fact that Elder Danterno would simply steal her away like that!”

Plesia looked at the youngest Goddess, closed her eyes to think, and then spoke, “I understand. I will talk with him.”

"No!" Aurena responded defiantly. "You say that I coddle my father too much, that I ought to stop to give him less chance to slack off. I understand familial love very well, but I expect you to do what you preach, Elder Plesia. Your hatred for rule-breaking is known to us, and your brother broke the rule to 'never cause dire conflict between Origin Gods', which means he has to face the consequences for this. He did not even warn me, he did everything behind my back due to his greed."

With those words said, the Goddess of Light stood up, bid herself farewell, and disappeared in a stream of light, leaving the Goddess of Water to contemplate alone. The silence lasted for a whole minute, the sea was calm and no waves could be seen. It was so calm that one would think the sea had died.

But the second that minute finished, the teacup in Plesia’s fingers rattled, shaking violently as the liquid began to spill. The sparkling azure blue underneath her quickly turned dark blue, as a monsoon clouded the clear sky, blocking the sun and turning the realm of Plesia into a chaotic storm.

A shadow emerged from the depths of the oceans, humongous enough that it could even dwarf a leviathan. A deep growling could faintly be heard as the water rumbled into action, releasing tidal waves into the horizon.

“**** ********** ******** ******** *********!”

*************************************

“How did it go, Goddess Aurena?” a deep voice resounded as a stream of light appeared before him, immediately materializing the form of a winged woman.

“Well and also not. Elder Plesia was not pleased, at all,” Aurena responded to her black dragon accomplice. “Kargryxmor, has anything happened yet? Did you receive a missive while I was away?”

“No, I haven’t. Even with God Danterno’s interference, I should be able to know when she evolves or levels up, as she has my blood. Rest your worries,” the black dragon answered. “Maybe the battle has ended? Her death would be known to us the moment it happens, so she must be alive.”

“Hmm, that is true,” Aurena agreed before summoning her administrative windows. “…Yes! She appears weak but she’s alive. Her two retainers are taking care of her right now, so it seems nothing particular happened…WHAT?!"

Aurena immediately shut her mouth with a hand the instant her voice burst out from surprise. Kargryxmor looked at her with a quizzical look, prompting her to explain, “…Pardon my outburst. First, it would seem like I was right with my assumption that Elder Danterno has given Hestia his blessing. [Divine Inferno]…while that was expected, what actually surprised me was this.”

Swiping the window towards Kargryxmor, the huge dragon enlarged it to suit his liking and inspected her profile, "…Hmm, her racial skill has evolved but she herself hasn't. That should grant her much strength, which will hopefully persuade her to take another evolution path." Skipping everything else, his eyes finally landed on her title section. "…This is a jest…"

A frown appeared on the God of Dragon’s face, prompting Aurena to continue speaking, “It becomes more concerning the more I think about it. I believe we still have no idea how she was able to sever our connection with her, right? Then how was she able to do it to Elder Danterno? She once again ‘usurped’ a godly blessing…”

“Could there be a chance that something during the soul transfer went wrong? Crustacia’s champion might not have shown any problems, but this might be different. Might it be wise to consult ‘him’?” the black dragon suggested.

Maybe it is time to talk with father properly. The last time he simply glazed over my issue, and I accepted it, however this time I really need his help. If he ignores me this time, then I’ll just call on my sisters and mother for help. He can’t possibly ignore all of us, right? the Goddess of Light took a moment to deliberate on the situation before coming to a conclusion.

“No, ‘he’ outranks me in seniority, and he isn’t as patient as Elder Plesia and father. I would prefer not to go to him. For now, the situation seems to be in control after Hestia broke Elder Danterno’s influence on her. Let us watch for the time being,” she spoke before mumbling in a growl fitting for a wrathful beast. “…And see to it that Elder Danterno finally learns how to control his stupidity.”

And with that, the two white and black figures disappeared, leaving the realm in silence.

*************************************

“Ha ha ha ha! I must say that should be enough to impress her, ha!” a boisterous voice spat out, similar to an active volcano. "Mortals love power, and I've given her so much. Not only did I fix her custom spell, but I also merged redundant skills together and made them stronger for her! This should be enough to make her worship me!"

Thankfully, [Holy Magic] wasn’t locked by Aurena. Made it easy to just merge it with [Fire Magic] to create [White Flames]. Should keep the power of FIRE…while keeping the healing properties of her holy magic.

Danterno, the God of Fire, was currently looking at the status board of Hestia, due to him having given her the title [Divine Inferno]. This connection that he has established enabled him to see the results of his efforts through Hestia's eyes as if she were one of his worshippers.

“Ahhhh, that custom spell is so powerful. I had to change a few words of her chant and also rewrite the whole magic circle, but the results have come out perfectly. Mhmm, reincarnators from another world are so unique,” Danterno thought. “Hmmm, she might be a dragon, but would it be possible for me to finally get a race to pray to me as if I were there patron god? That would be incredible for my growth!"

Danterno was confident of the possibility of a golden age for his religion, anticipating that Hestia’s presence will break down the foundation of his church and rebuild it, making it stronger than ever. “Fire consumes fire”, might be an aggressive quote in general, however, Danterno himself envisioned this plan with Hestia.

Consume the current status quo of his church, and then recreate it with her at the helm of everything, growing the flickering flame into a mighty inferno. Both [White Flames] and [Corrosive Fire] were made for her to show the world that fire mages could do more than just destroy. He personally wasn’t sure what the young dragoness will do with them, but he was confident that it will benefit him in the end.

He even made sure to help her even more by strengthening her racial abilities, to ensure that she will become strong and useful for the future. He couldn’t go too overboard, of course. He couldn’t show too much favoritism.

With this champion, I’m pretty sure I can finally get my subordinate gods to listen to me. They can’t interfere with her directly but she will extinguish anybody that they send to her!

Those were his thoughts on the situation, unaware of the consequences that his action will have.

“Whew, sis’ follower is pretty strong. That is some great water usage there, I have to admit. The girl will have a hard time beating hi-huh?” the video suddenly stop progressing, freezing on the spot without showing any intention of continuing. “Wha-What is this?! Is my administrative window malfunctioning? Fuck, guess I’ll have to repair it for now…Huh? It’s not broken?”

Danterno’s raging inferno body grew smaller, flabbergasted that he couldn’t continue watching although his windows still worked. Nothing was out of the usual, which made his flame slow down as he needed to think.

“Damn…whatever, I’ll check her status board. There was no message that she died so everything should be alrig-HUH?!” Danterno blurted out as a blue screen appeared before him.

What?!

He refreshed his windows, he restarted them with different settings, he even asked his aides and angels to check it for him. He tried everything and the more he failed, the more his realm grew warmer. The raging hellfire has finally been unleashed.

"HOW DID A MERE MORTAL USURP MY CONTROL OVER MY OWN BLESSING?! INSOLENT INSECT!" his fire was unrelenting at this point; none could stop him now that wrath has overtaken him…

“GIRL, THE MOMENT YOU APPEAR BEFORE ME, I WILL MAKE YOU REGRE-!”

…actually, one person in this world could smother this flame.

“S-Sis?! Why does she want to talk with me-SHIT! FUCK!” the image of Kushlek’zar and the saurians flashed in his head, instantly making him understand that something was up. “…Sis can’t be that mad at me, right?”

With that single ray of hope, the God of Fire moved to answer the Head Origin Goddess’ summons, unbeknownst to Danterno, he was about to head into a torrential storm.