The hulking figure stood there silently for a moment, possibly sizing me up. "Are you sure this is him, Valea?" he asked sceptically.
And, for some reason. I was offended. I didn’t need to be as large as him to be a god...did I?
"Now, now, Solch, mind your manners. And please, do take a seat before our new colleague sprains their neck." Her cup hit the coaster with a soft clink as she placed it down, her eyes still following Solch as he sat down. "Good. Now, Astrael, this is Solch, god of stone, minerals, ore, and ruler of the mountain territories. He’s a bit headstrong, but he’s a softie once you get to know him," She said with a toothy smile.
"Nice to meet you," I said, after he sat down, reaching out to shake him, only to be met with a powerful grasp and the sound of bone cracking "Argh!— you idiot, that’s my hand", I exclaimed in pain, and immediately drew my hand back, not without catching the brief smirk on his face, and so did Valea, but she chose to ignore it.
"He’s quite weak for a god", he commented, not even bothering to address me directly, as if I was too insignificant for him.
"Weak?! How about you try this for weak?" Before Solch could process it, a wall of golden energy slammed into him, sending him skidding backwards. "Underhanded bel****", my still-throbbing palm cradled in my other hand as I spat at him.
"Both of you, stop!" Vines surged from the ground beneath us, binding our feet to the ground. "Such character is becoming," she said with a sigh.
"But it was nice getting to meet you, Astrael, yet I must get going. I have followers to oversee and godly matters to attend to." Getting up to leave, she turned her eyes, fixing on me "And also, the gods of Caelion will be holding a divine assembly tomorrow. I planned to inform you before..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at Solch,
"It was nice talking to you too, Valea, and thank you for informing me. I’ll be taking my leave now too" Saying those words, I felt the vines around my feet loosen their grip. "This isn’t over", I added before I left, my words thrown at Solch.
"Ow, ow ow ow, this actually hurts." Within the privacy of my realm, all that could be heard were the series of whimpers that escaped my lips due to the pain "System, purchase a healing potion", I commanded.
[#10FP successfully deducted#]
And, in an almost seamless motion, a red potion appeared in front of me, and of course, I downed it without a second thought. The potion took effect immediately, with a warm current flowing through my body towards my right hand; in a moment, the redness, swelling and pain faded away.
[#It is advised that the host learn healing magic, now that the host possesses the Aether affinity#]
"And couldn’t you tell me before I bought the potion?"
[#You didn’t ask, now did you, Host?#]
"Okay then, how do I delete you?"
[# System suspects host is losing his psyche due to the boneheadedness of his question #]
"(ㆆ_ㆆ)"
"Anyway, this Aether manipulation I have, how do I even use it? Can I get a guidebook or a walk-through?"
[# I have to do everything, don’t I? A walk-through you want and a walk-through you’ll get. Aether is a primordial form of mana; consider it the powerful parent of mana that’s too strong for mortals and even some gods to handle, especially not at SSS-rank. Why? You may be wondering, my wonderful host. Ok, take it like this: the hottest fire that burns from mana is white fire, and the hottest fire that burns from Aether is... well... black fire, fire so hot that it absorbs light.]
"I see...I don’t know the colours of fire, but... I see, from how you say it, that sounds like a huge qualitative leap, but I asked how to control it, not what it is, plus how does that relate to even some gods being unable to handle it"
[#You need to understand it before you start; I can’t throw you into a pool without explaining the concept of swimming... About why they can’t handle it, their bodies will disintegrate under the violent nature of Aether. Now, as for controlling it, all you need to do is sense it. #]
"Ah, right, makes sense. Why didn’t I think of that?" My reply, dry, at the system’s apparent oversight.
[#You’re a god, host; you need to learn how to think outside the box, the same way you use your shelter authority; focus on that feeling and redirect it outward. You also have omniperception; try to perceive the unseen #] with something that sounded a bit like...annoyance, the system finally went quiet.
"Ok, shouldn’t be too difficult; follow those examples and how hard could it be?" I said, steadying my breath as I tried summoning my shelter authority, but stopped before it manifested, focusing on the metaphysical thrumming that pulsed in my veins. Moments felt like they spanned eternity as I closed my eyes to focus on trying to feel a connection. Beyond the eigengrau my eyelids provided, large, volatile-looking particles appeared and began to dance around me; though I felt a connection, it didn’t feel quite right how I was seeing them without quite seeing them.
"Okay, that wasn’t too hard; time to move on" The surrounding Aether particles continued in their random dance. But as I focused my thoughts, the dance slowly came to a halt as they swirled and gathered close to my palm. "Fire" A dazzling purple flame appeared as the words left my mouth, raising the temperature to a skin-prickling degree, though the sensation left as soon as it came.
’What about other elements? Could I control those, too?’ I thought. "Water", I said, as the purple flame folded in on itself, in a fluid dance, transforming from the scorching tongue of fire to a swirling mass of water so clear it glowed. Seeing that it worked, I proceeded to test other elements, ranging from lightning and earth to even light.
But of course, at this level, I could only control conceptual elements; elements like time, void and space were beyond my manipulation, as they still required true understanding or an inborn affinity.
"Well, that was productive." With a satisfied sigh, I fell back onto my throne "And now I’m bored again"