"An Empire of Gods?"
One of the young women — a sharp-eyed cultivator with short white hair — asked, her voice a mix of awe and genuine confusion.
"What does that even mean?
Though everyone in Pantheos traveled the same road toward becoming Gods, they were nothing like the Ineffable Pantheon—far from it, in more ways than one.
The Ineffable ascended to godhood the instant they bonded with Ash, while others had to walk that path slowly and deliberately.
And since Pantheos was still in the First Era, Gods weren't exactly a common sight.
That's not to say they didn't exist—there were already some within Velora itself—but once someone achieved godhood, they began to operate exclusively within the Higher Layers.
Unlike the realities outside, stepping into the Higher Layers meant becoming completely imperceptible to those below.
There was literally no way around it; even the God themselves couldn't diminish their existence to be sensed by lower beings.
