But before she could say anything, Jake heard something ring in his head.
[GODDESS IS WATCHING]
[GODDESS IS ANGRY]
[THREAT LEVEL DEADLY]
[CAUTION REQUIRED]
Then a sharp pain stung inside his head; he stumbled back. He looked towards the window as he felt an intense gaze from that direction.
He saw the goddess standing on the roof opposite his house.
"Auntie, I will be back in a few minutes."
He quickly got dressed up and left the house as the two women watched him with confusion written on their faces. They watched him rush out of the house and then looked at each other.
Jake got out of the house and ran towards the house where the goddess was standing.
But he suddenly found himself running up in the air and then disappeared from the front lawn.
The Goddess had also disappeared from the roof.
-
Jake was now running in midair, with lots of air slamming against his body. He stopped running and looked down, and realization dawned on him a moment later.
AHHH!!
He shook his hands and legs violently as he thought he was falling, but he wasn't.
He was just floating.
"What do you think you are doing?"
Jake looked at the goddess, levitating before him.
They were floating above a valley filled with water and lots of vegetation. Wild animals were grazing on the bank of the river.
Goddess Aurani, the low born deity who was shunned by the Yavaloca, home to gods and goddesses. Her name was spoken with disdain in Yavaloca, which stood apart from the jeweled courts of the heavens. Where others shone with inherited reverences, she carried only absence.
She had no place among the deities in Yavaloca.
In this world, gods and goddesses gain their merit through their followers. The stronger their followers are, the stronger the goddess is.
Faith was currency, and devotion was fuel.
It's a system designed for the deities by the ultimate ruler of the universe. The followers pray and give offerings to their deities to appease them and get their wishes granted.
Jake found himself steady after a lot of struggle. He looked down to see the valley and the animals. He could feel his heart beating faster; he was anxious and afraid.
"I asked you a question," Asurani said with a flat tone.
Jake, furrowing his brows, as he didn't know why she was angry, replied, "I don't know what you are talking about."
"It's been 18 years since you came into this world, and you still haven't done anything. You are still in Class V, the bottom of the warrior class. You don't fight enough or train enough. You just fuck around with those women in the town, just like you were doing a while back."
Jake scrunched his nose as he asked, "Did you watch us?"
Asurani's eyes narrowed to slits, a cold, simmering fury sharpening her gaze.
"Is that what matters to you?" she said, her voice low but cutting, each word deliberate. "I poured everything into that system—every resource, every ounce of power I could gather. I bled for it."
She took a slow step forward, the air tightening around her presence.
"And what have you done with it?" Her lips curled, not quite a smile, something harsher.
"You waste it. You fumble with it like a child handed a blade, not even understanding what you hold."
Her voice dropped further, dangerous now.
"You're not even using it properly."
"Oh, oh, oh, hold on for a second. First of all, I am trying hard. It's just the damn world is tough as shit. It's not my fault for being a novice in this game of power."
Both of them were now standing opposite each other in midair; the wind whistled as there was a silence for a minute.
"It's not enough, Jake. You need to try harder. Take on missions that can make you level up."
Jake nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I will."
"I came here today to meet you and to say that I will be leaving for a while."
"What? Where are you going?"
"I can't tell you, but you need to be careful."
Jake looked confused. "Why?"
"Just be careful with missions and be on the lookout for people around you. Don't believe anybody or anything related to the gods."
"Now you are starting to sound like a TV detective."
"Detective? What are you talking about?"
Jake was about to say, but she stopped him, "Never mind."
She snapped her fingers, and they were back on the front lawn.
Only Jake was standing; there was no sign of the goddess. Jake looked around, but she was already gone.
Jake scratched his head as he didn't know why she had come or what she said.
He stood there, wondering what she meant by those words and that's when he heard the voices from the house.
One was his auntie Chelsea, and the other was her friend Courtney.
His aunt, Chelsea, was the only family he had ever known—the woman who became his world long before he understood what the word home truly meant.
She used to tell him the story on quiet nights, when the wind softened and the world felt small enough to hold in her voice.
He had not been born into her arms.
She had found him.
A fragile infant, wrapped in worn cloth, was placed carefully inside a woven basket, drifting along the slow current of a river that carried more secrets than it ever revealed. No cries reached the shore, no desperate hands followed behind—only the silent offering of fate.
He got back into the house to see the women talking.