Mayer looked at me, holding back his suspicion while thinking through this supposed ‘help’ from the divine.

“I don’t know the past between the wars and the Gods, but I can have a guess and say probably not good.” Mayer nodded solemnly.

“The Courts treated it as a power grab. Most of the Upper Courts controlled a very powerful Champion, blessing them with some mundane power and using the Champion’s drive to get home to achieve their own ends. Which, conveniently, has been disregarded as a few priests getting uppity and supporting Champions. Most God involvement in the wars has only made things worse…” Mayer growls but gives up his anger with a frustrated sigh.

“Well, honestly, as far as I can tell this ‘deal’—if you can call it that—was in good faith.” Mayer scoffed but I just shot him an unamused glance, “I think they were gambling on me.”

“A gamble? Gods are too ‘wise’ to gamble. What’s the catch?”

“The catch is that there is no catch. I think they are putting all their money on black and crossing their fingers, Mayer.” My seriousness started to dissuade him from his scorn, slowly bringing him to the important questions.

“You say that, but how can you know that really did bet everything on you. It seems remarkably stupid for a court of Gods.” I shrugged.

“Maybe it is stupid, Mayer. But maybe the lack of ‘smart’ and ‘tactical’ decisions is what saves the world, rather than appealing to the conservative route. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Hearth Court was currently up in flames, having a collective existential meltdown because of the massive risk they just took.” The man was well and truly serious now. Almost scared by the thought of Gods being that willing to take a risk on the scale that I was describing. And then it hit Mayer’s brain that he had forgotten to truly extract out of me what I’d gained from the ‘deal’. With no small amount of worry laden in his voice, he asked:

“What, exactly, did you get out of this, Maximilian.” I felt like I was about to get dressed down by the principal. I put on my grandest shit eating grin and, with no small amount of bravado, exclaimed:

“I, Master Mayer, have been made into a living Demigod.”

One second passed, then two, and before long it was clear that a fuse had well and truly fried within Mayer’s brain. I huffed with mock offense.

“Honestly Mayer, Rethi dealt with this news better than you.” With a laugh, the man started to slowly smile, before manically cackling for a good five minutes.

“A Demigod! Honestly?” He said between peals of laughter My own laughter his only affirmation.

It took far too long for the both of us to calm down to the point where it was possible to have a halfway reasonable conversation. Even then, most of it was a babbling mess.

“Well, what did becoming a Demigod do?” The first reasonable question to come out of Mayer after his laughing fit was a good one. Something I’m not all that sure of myself.

“Well, a few things. One is that my Soul Hammer is even heavier, which kind of pisses me off,” Mayer let out a harsh bark of laughter, “other than that, my soul is apparently unable to be enslaved by anyone under Demigod level themselves. Can’t imagine there are too many Demigod level beings just walking around, enslaving people willy-nilly.” Mayer assumed a thoughtful expression.

“I don’t really know what constitutes as a Demigod level being, Max. I’d still be careful about it, because I have a few people in mind that could probably count as something similar in strength alone. What else?” I screwed up my nose at that. Don’t be worried but be worried anyways. Perfect.

“It totally mucked around with the structure of my soul, and also planting a soul seed in there. Not sure what it’s going to do, or when it’ll happen, but we’ll get to that when we get there.” Mayer looked perturbed about someone ‘mucking about’ with a soul, but just nodded, “Along with that, I gained access to the domain of a Hearth God. Which makes sense, seeing as I’m effectively a baby Hearth God.” Mayer chuckled at the thought of a ‘baby God’.

“So no major jump in power then?” I shrugged.

“Well there is definitely some power gained, mostly in utility with the domain aura I can use. It makes people feel safer in the aura, which is pretty handy in social situations, obviously, but it can also be used to help in battle, though it feels icky to use it that way. Apart from that I think my regeneration is more powerful now.” Mayer nodded solemnly, understanding the sentiment.

“So that’s it then, just adding to the potential you already have.” He hummed at the thought for a few seconds, “Gotta say, not the worst divine deal I’ve heard of. The only better deals I’ve heard of at pure legend. No idea if it ever happened.” I snorted indignantly.

“I’ll have you know, Gallar specifically said that he’d never seen someone be given a Court Blessing before, let alone a divine seed. So I think we are safely in uncharted territory.” Mayer raised a questioning eyebrow, “I’d trust the guy that threw around statements like ‘millions of years’ without a moment pause, Mayer. He is a First One, after all.” Mayer just rolled his eyes, about to quip back before I stopped him with the clearing of my throat.

“I guess there is one more thing. I think being Court Blessed and having that seed put in me cut me off from the God of my old world. I have no access to the screens anymore, or any achievements. I gained nothing from killing the wolves or the big boar-like thing in the forest. So I think that’s the last line cut off.” I smiled, more bitterly than I intended. Mayer, in his absolute seriousness, took the information in stride. He got up from his seat, walked over to me, offered me a hand which I took, and pulled me out of the chair and crushed me in a hug.

“That wasn’t an easy sacrifice to make, Max, no matter how you spin it. The sentiment you spoke to me about all those months ago convinced me of your virtuousness, but this…” He patted me heavily on the back, “you are nothing short of a hero. If anyone was going to become a God, I don’t think I could complain with it being you, Max. A man willing to leave behind his entire world for another.” I hugged the man back strongly and we stood there for a good few minutes.

I had already come to terms with never going back home, leaving my friends and family to live without me, and truly cutting myself of was merely the funeral after the death. In a way, it was barely an emotional topic anymore, it was almost relieving, knowing that I was unable to be tempted, to be entirely committed to my own word. It was the most terrifyingly overwhelming decision I could have made… but now that it was made, I felt focused.

I parted myself from the man’s embrace and smiled cheekily.

“I’ll treat you good if you keep serving me tea, Mayer.” We grinned at each other as we both sat back down.

“So, how did the actual subjugation itself go?” Mayer asked, finally getting around to the proper discussion he was intending to have.

“Well enough… and incredibly unpleasant.” Mayer nodded knowingly.

“Rethi?” He asked, question implied.

“Same as myself, really. Lost a bit of his bluster but came out of it better than he was before. I think he found a new respect for his sword and what he was doing with it.”

“Good. I was worried about that. The kid is a savage when it comes to fighting us, but fighting that way against things that you are actually hurting and killing is very different. You said something about a big boar?” I nodded

“Was what was causing the forest wolves to push further out, I’d guess. Terrible thing, full of all sorts of rage. Ended up killing is pretty easily, especially with the upgrade to by hammer.”

“You actually managed to swing it?” Mayer asked, eyebrow raised.

“Just once, summoning mid-swing of course. Managed to bisect it.” Mayer grimaced.

“Can’t have been pretty. Groust, the boar thing you fought, are massive pests. All they do is disrupt and destroy. I had a good feeling that it’d be what you’d find but, well, it’s Virsdis. Could have been anything, really.”

“Well, either way, the day was a harrowing experience, as well as an interestingly romantic experience.” I grinned as Mayer looked at me glumly.

“So she was with you two then? Did Rethi smuggle her into a pack or something equally as silly?” He asked.

“Nah, apparently she ran behind us the whole first day.” There was a small hint of surprise in the man’s eyes. “Obviously, I let her tag along after that little display of madness. I didn’t feel like adding another two days to the trip when I could just prop her up on my horse and I could run beside the two of them. Lots of teen romantic drama that I managed to mostly avoid.”

“But blew up in your face anyways?” He gave a knowing grin.

“Of course.” I nodded sagely. “But I did find out some interesting information either way. Turns out that little miss Gram has a specialty of her own, she’s a—”

“She is a life shifter, I know. I’ve known for years.” I was left with my mouth hanging open, words slipping from my lips. I pouted and crossed my arms childishly.

“You’re no fun.” He grinned, full mouth of pearly whites gleaming with mischievousness.

“Hey, you just dropped a world changing bomb on me, I can at least know about the Apothecaries’ daughter.” I rolled my eyes and waved away the conversation.

“Anyway, just giving you a heads up that I’ve been letting her use my body as a test case when I get hurt.” Mayer exploded from his chair.

“What?” He said, dangerously low.

“I said I—” I began smugly before I was so rudely interrupted.

“I know what you damn well said. Gods, kid, Life shifters are dangerous! One accidental move on their part and they’ve created—”

“A massive walking tumour who is constantly eating itself, mindlessly wandering under their indirect command. Yeah, got that one from the mediocre rundown on why life shifters are bad from the girl herself,” I scoffed “it’s all semantics anyway.”

Mayer looked at me flabbergasted for a moment before sitting himself back down in his chair and rubbing his brow in a vain attempt to combat the aneurysm waiting to happen in his head.

“So what, in your infinite wisdom, have you let her heal, Lord God Maximilian?”

“Oh, you know, just a few minor arm injuries, fingers, broken bones,” he nodded, breathing a sigh of relief, “A spinal cord injury and a severe brain injury as well. Y’know for prosperity.” Mayer groaned, I just snickered.

“Honestly, it wasn’t even that bad. When it all went wrong and tumours started to grow out of my eye socket, it was actually pretty easy to wait for the pressure inside my skull to pop the top, with a little help from Rethi’s sword, and then excise the tumour out of my brain, along with a bit extra. Easy peasy.”

“You could have properly died, Max. I know you have healed from minor brain injuries before, but one as extreme as that could have crippled you.” He said, but his tone was defeated.

“I know, Mayer. But I think I might be as close to immortal as I ever could be while being actually mortal. I’m not sure that anything short of some crazy shifting stuff or having my body literally annihilated could kill me. Even then, I might just regenerate from a small bit of errant flesh. The regeneration is probably linked to my soul itself, so that’s handy.” Mayer let out a long sigh mixed with a humourless laugh.

“Well, at least I don’t have to be so worried about you dying on me then.” He took a few moments to recentre his thoughts, “What do you intend to do with the girl?” I shrugged.

“Nothing special. She can tag along if she wants.” Mayer rolled his eyes forcing a grin out of me, “But when she does, because she definitely will, I’m probably going to try and make her into the world’s greatest healer that has ever existed with a side of medical revolution. You know, the standard Demigod fare.” Mayer considers for a moment before hesitantly nodding.

“I can… certainly see the logic to it. She’ll be fighting an uphill battle against public opinion though.” I shrugged nonchalantly.

“She can change that. Especially when she will one day be able to cure whole villages of fatal diseases and immunise the entire future population against that same disease, effectively wiping it out forever.” Mayer had that look on his face that just meant that his head was hurting from all the bullshit I was throwing him.

“Goddamn Champions and their innovation.” Mayer jokingly shook his fist at me.

“Hey, I’m not a Champion, I’m a God, I’ll have you know!”

“Curse the Gods and their meddling.” He said, now shaking his fist at the roof.

I laughed, Mayer laughed.

And then the fireplace laughed.