Marcus drifted several meters above the fractured surface of his planet, suspended in the thin gray atmosphere like a solitary thought in an empty mind. Beneath him stretched a landscape of lifeless stone. Jagged ridges split the ground into uneven plates, their edges casting long shadows beneath the pale light of distant stars. The entire world measured only five kilometers across, a fragment of rock adrift in the infinite void.
Beyond its curved horizon there was nothing.
He remained motionless as he attempted to sort through the torrent of knowledge the Universal Will had implanted into his consciousness. Information about Faith, divine authority, planetary domains, and bloodlines churned endlessly through his mind like pages from a familiar textbook. Every concept carried immense importance, fitting together into a coherent understanding. The logic was simple;
Followers produced Faith.
Faith generated Divine power.
Divine power shaped a domain.
Bloodlines determined the nature and magnitude of that power.
....
Just as he was isolating the most important principles, the flow of knowledge suddenly fell silent.
A profound stillness swept through the void.
Then the voice of the Universal Will spoke again.
[All humans have now been bound to their respective planets/domains.]
[The next step begins: Bloodline Awakening.]
The announcement reverberated through Marcus's consciousness like a decree. The voice was steady, absolute, and impersonal. Marcus tensed up.
Bloodline Awakening!
Of all the information he had absorbed, this concept stood at the center of everything. It represented the moment a newly ascended god first touched the true nature of their divinity.
Every divine being possessed a bloodline.
Some carried ancient power inherited from primordial races. Others possessed diluted traces of forgotten cosmic lineages. The strength and purity of that bloodline determined the type of power a god could wield and the direction their growth would take.
And most importantly, awakening it granted an Innate Talent.
That talent would become the foundation of a god's authority.
A powerful bloodline could transform an ordinary domain into a thriving world capable of supporting vast civilizations. A weak one might doom its owner to mediocrity before their divine life even truly began.
In the hierarchy of gods, bloodline was one of the major determinants of a God's destiny.
The voice continued, calm and indifferent.
[Awakening your Bloodline will grant you an Innate Talent, one reflecting both your racial heritage and the nature of your domain.].
[Those with thin or impure bloodlines require special resources to awaken, and failure is possible.].
Marcus felt his chest tighten slightly.
Failure.
That single word carried more weight than the entire explanation before it.
The Universal Will did not pause.
[Note -Each newly ascended god is granted three opportunities to awaken their bloodline throughout their existence.]
[Exceeding this limit will permanently lock the bloodline in a dormant state.]
.....
Three chances.
Marcus exhaled slowly.
For someone beginning with nothing, three chances could either be more than enough if luck was on your side or the same chances could be a ticket to your grave if luck did not shine upon you.
Before he could consider the implications further, a strange warmth began to stir deep within his body.
At first it felt subtle, like heat spreading through cold limbs after long exposure to winter air. Within seconds the sensation intensified. His blood surged violently through his veins, rushing like a newly awakened river breaking through stone walls.
Marcus stiffened.
The awakening had begun automatically.
The warmth coursed through him, rushing through his veins, fiery and unrelenting. The energy flooded his body with unstoppable force, burning through his veins as if molten metal had replaced his blood. He gripped the air instinctively, feeling it thrum beneath his palms. The heat intensified, spiraling up through his chest, neck, and head.
Marcus gritted his teeth as pain erupted across every nerve in his body. Muscles tightened violently while his heart pounded against his ribs like a war drum. Suspended above the barren surface, he twisted in the air as the internal pressure grew stronger.
Below him, the jagged terrain reflected the faint starlight of the void. The broken ridges and scattered stone formations seemed almost to mirror his turmoil, sharp and unstable beneath his struggling form.
For a fleeting moment Marcus felt something strange.
Resistance - it felt as if the planet itself were resisting him....
It was subtle, difficult to define, yet unmistakable. The connection between himself and the planet trembled faintly, as though the lifeless world beneath him rejected the transformation occurring within its god.
Then the burning sensation abruptly vanished.
The raging storm inside his veins collapsed into absolute silence.
Marcus froze.
The sudden absence of pain felt almost unnatural, like a battlefield falling silent after relentless bombardment.
For several seconds nothing happened.
Then the voice of the Universal Will returned.
Cold, Unemotional and Final.
[Bloodline Awakening Failed.]...
.....
The words struck Marcus harder than the pain of awakening had!
His hands slowly curled into fists as he remained suspended above the desolate planet. Every frustration he had endured since arriving in this universe gathered inside his chest at once.
First, he had been assigned a lifeless planet, incapable of generating Faith.
Second, the planet was the absolute minimum size granted to low-tier races. Barely enough space for even the simplest beginnings.
And now, the very essence of his being—his bloodline—had failed to awaken.
Marcus' chest heaved, a bitter laugh escaping him despite the heat of his frustration.
He floated there in silence, surrounded by the indifferent darkness of the cosmos, the weight of his situation pressing down harder than gravity ever had.
Only one good thing had happened since he arrived: his body had been restored. Everything else had been a series of disappointments and uncertainties.
A loop of despair pressed against him. His starting point was barren. His world was too small. Faith could not be generated. Life could not be nurtured. And now, even his Bloodline—the fragile core of his potential—had refused to ignite.
He closed his eyes, drifting in the thin atmosphere, and the thought pressed itself into his mind:
Was this some cosmic joke? Or had the universe already decided he would die before he ever truly began?
For the first time since arriving in the Origin Universe, the possibility began to form in his mind that his divine life might end before it ever truly began.
....
Marcus did not immediately realize he was descending.
The failure of his Bloodline Awakening still echoed in his thoughts, dull and heavy, and while his mind churned through the implications his body had slowly drifted downward through the thin atmosphere of his world. The fragile exhilaration he had felt when he first stepped onto this planet—when he believed that becoming a god meant limitless possibilities—had quietly collapsed. What remained in its place was a hollow weight pressing against his chest.
By the time Marcus noticed, his feet were already approaching the fractured surface of the planet.
He landed harder than he intended. Dust burst outward beneath his feet, fine gray particles scattering across the cracked stone like smoke. The impact sent a brief tremor through the brittle ground, the sound of shifting rock echoing faintly across the empty world.
Marcus remained still for several seconds.
The landscape surrounding him stretched to the edge of the planet's tiny curvature. Jagged ridges split the terrain into uneven plates, their sharp silhouettes illuminated only by distant starlight. No wind stirred the dust. No sound of life existed anywhere within the five-kilometer sphere. It was a dead world in the most literal sense.
He slowly raised his head and looked across the desolation.
So this was his domain.
A planet too small to nurture even the most primitive ecosystem. A barren rock incapable of sustaining life, which meant it could not naturally generate Faith. Without Faith there could be no divine power, and without divine power a god was little more than a powerless observer trapped on a drifting stone.
Marcus clenched his jaw.
From the knowledge the Universal Will had granted him, the paths available to him were painfully limited.
The first option was submission. A young god whose domain lacked resources could swear allegiance to a stronger divine being and become part of their pantheon. In exchange for loyalty and service, the superior god might provide protection, followers, and territory.
The second option was far more dangerous. A god without followers could venture into the cosmic void itself, searching for wandering creatures or lesser races that might be captured and forced to inhabit their domain. Those beings could then generate the Faith required for divine growth.
The problem was obvious.
Marcus was still weak.
Even though his body had been restored and strengthened, he remained little more than a newborn deity with no experience and no power. The void beyond his planet contained creatures capable of devouring divine beings. Attempting to hunt them in his current state would be little different from suicide.
As for the first option…
Marcus exhaled slowly.
Servitude - swearing loyalty to other divine beings...
The word tasted bitter even in his thoughts. After everything he had endured in his previous life, the idea of kneeling before another god and becoming a subordinate felt unbearable. Divinity was supposed to represent freedom, not another hierarchy where the strong ruled the weak.
He had been promised godhood.
Not another master.
....
Marcus turned away from the distant horizon and allowed his gaze to wander across the surface of the planet.
His gaze drifted over the planet's surface, catching something glinting faintly in the dust. Small stones, sparkling with an unnatural radiance, scattered like starlight across the barren rock. Mechanically, without thought, Marcus stooped and picked one up.
The shiny stone was warm.
Not physically hot, but filled with a gentle energy that pulsed faintly against his fingertips. Something about it felt strangely familiar, as if it resonated with the same divine power flowing through his body.
These tiny shiny stones lay scattered across the barren terrain, each one no larger than a fingernail. Yet they radiated a soft brilliance that seemed strangely out of place in such a lifeless world. Their surfaces reflected starlight in delicate prismatic patterns.
Curiosity edged over despair; without thinking too deeply about it he brought it to his nose to smell it and instinctively tried to bite into the crystalline stone.
The moment it passed his lips, the voice of the Universal Will appeared again.
[Ding!. You have ingested a small amount of stellar energy from a Star Stone.]
[Would you like to use this material as a catalyst for Bloodline Awakening?]
Marcus froze.
His eyes widened as the words registered.
A catalyst.????
Excitement, disbelief, hope—all collided. These stones, scattered across his planet like fallen glass debris, could be used to force the awakening of his bloodline?
For a few seconds he simply stared at the barren ground around him. Now that his attention had shifted, he realized the glimmering stones were everywhere. They lay scattered across the dust like fragments of distant stars, embedded between cracks in the rock and hidden beneath thin layers of gray powder.
There were thousands of them.
No!.....Perhaps even more.
Hope surged through him so suddenly it almost felt painful.
If these stones could force a Bloodline Awakening…
Then his failed attempt might not be the end after all.
Marcus straightened slowly, his mind racing. The Universal Will had clearly stated that thin bloodlines required external resources to awaken successfully. These Star Stones might be exactly the type of resource it referred to.
The barren world might not be a dead end after all. It might not produce life.
But it could still contain treasures!
Marcus extended his awareness outward.
As the god of this small world, even his limited divine authority allowed him a faint connection to everything within its borders. With a simple exertion of will, the scattered stones began to tremble where they lay.
Dust shifted.
Tiny fragments of glowing crystal lifted gently from the ground.
Dozens of Star Stones floated through the thin atmosphere and gathered before him, forming a small cluster of shimmering light.
Marcus closed his fingers around them.
He understood instinctively that this would not be easy. Forcing a Bloodline Awakening placed immense strain on both the body and the soul of a god. These stones might provide the catalyst, but the process would still demand every ounce of strength he possessed.
Marcus inhaled slowly.
He crushed the stones without hesitation.
The fragile crystals shattered instantly beneath his divine strength, collapsing into a fine powder that glittered like cosmic dust. Their energy surged outward the moment they broke, filling the air with a faint radiance.
Marcus lifted his hand and consumed the powder in a single breath.
In his mind there were endless notifications;....
[Ding!. You have ingested a small amount of stellar energy from a Star Stone.]
[Would you like to use this material as a catalyst for Bloodline Awakening?]...
[Ding!. You have ingested a small amount of stellar energy from a Star Stone.]
[Would you like to use this material as a catalyst for Bloodline Awakening?]...
...
...
He decisively pressed yes in his mind, signaling his intent to the Universal Will. The process began.
Immediately, he felt it—his bloodline stirring, fragile and thin, trembling under pressure. It was faint, almost insignificant compared to the storm of potential these stones carried. The energy in Star Stones merged with his essence, their light devouring the weakness of his human bloodline, infusing it with raw divine energy. Pain shot through his veins like fire. Every heartbeat felt like it might tear his chest apart.
Power surged through his veins, burning with a ferocity far greater than his first awakening attempt. Every heartbeat sent waves of heat crashing through his body. His blood felt as though it had turned into molten fire.
He screamed, falling to his knees as the energy churned within him. The energy did not simply flow through him. It devoured him. The Star Stones attacked the weakness within his bloodline with relentless intensity, stripping away the fragile limitations of his human origin.
His bones vibrated with strange resonance.
His muscles tightened and trembled.
Even the air around him shimmered faintly as raw divine power leaked from his body.
At the same time the sensation was both mystical and physical: he felt his perception expanding outward. His awareness stretched beyond his physical form, brushing against the edges of his tiny planet and reaching toward the distant void beyond.
The sensation was overwhelming.
Pain and transcendence collided within him.
The Star Stones continued their relentless work, refining his essence as if forging a blade within a furnace. Something ancient and unfamiliar stirred deep within his blood, awakened by the violent infusion of stellar energy.
Marcus's vision blurred.
Darkness crept into the edges of his consciousness as the pressure grew unbearable.
For a final moment he felt the transformation reaching its peak.
Then everything vanished.
Pain consumed him completely.
And Marcus collapsed into unconsciousness.
...
When awareness slowly returned, the world felt different.
The cold stone beneath him felt lighter somehow, as though gravity itself had weakened. A quiet warmth pulsed steadily through his veins, no longer violent or painful but stable and alive.
Marcus inhaled slowly.
His body felt… stronger.
Not merely healed or restored, but fundamentally changed.
As if his very existence had shifted into something greater.
Then, as if the universe itself had acknowledged his triumph, the voice of the Universal Will filled his mind once more.
[Ding! Bloodline Awakening Successful.].
[Congratulations. You have awakened the Star Bloodline. ].
...
Marcus's eyes snapped open.
Before he could fully process the words, the voice continued.
[Ding! Divine Functions have been unlocked.]
[Status Panel.].
[Domain Panel.].
[Divine Communication Network unlocked.].
.........
Marcus pushed himself upright slowly ignoring other notifications and concentrating on his bloodline .
Star Bloodline?.....
That term had never appeared in any of the knowledge granted to him earlier. He had carefully examined every detail regarding human bloodlines, divine growth, Faith generation, and planetary domains. None of those records mentioned anything resembling a Human with Star Bloodline.
Which meant only one possibility.
The stones scattered across his barren planet were far more valuable than simple catalysts.
They were something rare.... Something extraordinary.
Were they the reason his first bloodline awakening failed? As he remembered, during the first bloodline awakening he felt that the planet was rejecting him! That should explain it! It seems this barren planet carried more extra ordinance than he had imagined.
With cautious curiosity, Marcus summoned the Status Panel.
A translucent interface materialized before him in the thin planetary atmosphere, its glowing symbols hovering silently in the darkness.
Marcus stared at it.
Marcus blinked at the Status Panel hovering before him, without uttering a word. What was he seeing?!.. He could not believe his eyes...