Vastarael stepped out of the rainforest, the sapphire axe now dissipated and the heat of the midday sun bore down with a certain familiarity that no longer felt oppressive. The sea breeze swept past his bare shoulders, rustling his slightly damp hair as he looked ahead. His boots sank slightly into the soft white sand as he crossed onto the beach, and he sighed.
He hadn't expected this day to go that way.
There were so many revelations and still, everything about his mother was cloaked in ocean-mist secrecy. Lysameria Plenituse, the Third Hydroborn. She was his mother, the woman who had never once told him a lot about her past but held him close whenever he cried as a child. She had lived a tragic life, that much was clear. He had pieced that together over the years through glances, silence and the sharp deflections whenever anyone spoke of her past. He didn't know her true age, but he was beginning to realize that it spanned back not just millennia but likely hundreds of thousands of years.
And yet, here he was, her son. A Divine of Protection, Love, and Justice. He had three Divinities that didn't even align with her and should have made no sense for one born out of a Hydroborn. Three Divinities awakened in him at the age of six, the moment his soul broke through the veil during his Reversal Ascension.
He never really questioned it until now but maybe it wasn't about what she passed down. Maybe it was about what the universe needed from him. Still... he didn't care about the lore of the Hydroborn. He wasn't born to sit on a throne of water and recite the old legends.
Because the Mopheria Pantheon wasn't gone. And when they returned and they would, they wouldn't come as guests. They would come to reclaim. Spheraphase was a world of immortals and mortals, but even immortals had been wiped out before. The Destras Cataclysm was proof enough. And if no one else was preparing, then he would.
A smirk pulled at his lips as he caught sight of the others in the distance. They were all at the beach, walking near the shoreline, laughter floating in the air. They had already started setting up, clothes swapped for looser wear fit for the sun, and the sapphire-blue ocean glistening behind them. Vastarael stepped onto the sand, rolling his neck slightly as he cracked his knuckles. He looked at the cliff's shadow stretching behind the mansion and the wood he had gathered sitting perfectly in stacks.
"Time for roasting and cooking meat."
Then he walked forward toward the people who made this world feel real, ready to give them a feast worthy of gods. As Vastarael made his way down the beach, the sound of crashing waves behind him, the three women he held close to his heart stepped into view. They walked toward him from the beachside. Each of them wore swimsuits of different styles and colors, but all of them jaw-dropping in their own right. ,
They saw him too and they froze.
There he was, shirtless, the sun tracing every defined line of his muscular form. Across his back and collarbone, the peony tattoo he bore pulsed slightly with a life of its own. He was their Vastarael sure, but standing like that, with the ocean behind him and the light dancing across his body, he looked more like a demigod sculpted straight from myth.
None of them spoke at first. They just stared. They forgot just how gorgeous their man was. Vastarael noticed. Of course he did.
"You all look incredible. Honestly, I should thank myself more often for somehow getting three absurdly gorgeous and sexy women to fall in love with me."
Adelasta raised an eyebrow, smirking. "You're finally realizing it?"
Narisva crossed her arms under her chest.
"I'd say you're a lucky man, but considering how you look right now... maybe we're the lucky ones."
Elyonari leaned against him with a soft, teasing smile. "Or maybe we're all lucky. You included."
He chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish shrug.
"Alright, alright, enough flirting. It's time for me to cook."
He clapped his hands together with mock seriousness and summoned a massive sapphire cuboid apparatus he made while in the forest acting as a grill. He placed the firewood, used Heat Runes to set them flame as he set the meat on top of the grill.
"Don't get your hopes up too high though. This is going to be my first work in Spheraphase. Might be a disaster."
All three women gave him a look. Adelasta folded her arms.
"You literally trained with ingredients for fun back in Erna. Your worst is still better than most people's best."
"Yeah," Narisva added, "you kind of don't disappoint when you say you'll do something."
Elyonari grinned and patted his arm. "You've already got the looks. Might as well live up to it."
------
An hour had passed since Vastarael had started cooking and the scene had shifted from relaxed to something close to admiration.
Vastarael stood at the center of it all, now with an unbuttoned shirt, his sapphire-glowing grill cuboid open and roaring with steady, smoky firewood heat. Sparks leapt into the air every time he flipped a massive slab of meat and the scent of seasoned roast wafted thick through the tropical wind. Near the grill, the mystic cooker hummed quietly, sizzling as strips of golden chicken were deep-frying in oils infused with herbs and crushed blue pepper.
Xander, sitting on the sand, leaned back on one arm and let out a lazy whistle.
"Okay. Why does this man look like he was born to grill?"
Eldrigan, who was sprawled beside him with sunglasses over his eyes, didn't even look up.
"Probably because he was. Look at the way he's flipping them. That's not technique, buddy. He is a god of cooking."
Farrynelle giggled beside them, stretching her legs in the sand as she looked toward Vastarael, her cheeks flushed slightly from the heat.
"Honestly, he's too good at this. If he wasn't already taken, I would have made my move."
Peroncerea, who had been quietly braiding Elyonari's hair with floral strands, gave a knowing smirk.
"You'd have to go through three women and a firestorm of divine jealousy."
Adelasta, lying beside them in a deep red bikini and sunglasses pushed to her forehead, just smiled with smug pride.
"He's mine. You don't get to threaten your stomach and your life in the same sentence."
The Andelaris twins were resting under the sun so they didn't respond. Narisva, seated on a high boulder with her legs swinging idly, arms resting on her knees, turned to the group.
"Let's be honest. You've seen his face, his glaive skills, his smile and now his cooking? You're not drooling because of the food."
They all burst out laughing. It was rare to be like this, just ten Divines lying under the sun, basking in peace, unbothered and smiling like ordinary friends. Meanwhile, Vastarael was flipping the final set of meat slabs onto a glowing plate. Then he turned to the deep-frying chicken, golden and glistening now, crisping with a texture that crunched the moment he touched it with his tongs. He remember ordering chicken whenever he had money... well, Greshina's money.
"Alright. "It's done. Come get your share you greedy immortals."
The response was immediate. Everyone shot to their feet, some teleporting, others stumbling through sand, grabbing their plates like hungry school kids summoned to a festival feast. Even Adelasta, who usually maintained composure, was already walking over with a knowing smirk and a glowing plate in hand.
"Alright, chef," Narisva said, stepping in first and holding her plate out like royalty. "Let's see if this is worth the hype."
Vastarael handed her two massive cuts of meat, one still sizzling from the flame.
"Seasoned with blue pepper. Thank me later."
She sniffed it, nodded once, and walked away like she was preparing for divine judgment. One by one they stepped forward. Elyonari got a hefty chunk of roasted ribs and a perfectly crisp chicken thigh. He gave the best meat to his beloveds. Even the Andelaris twins, usually reserved and detached, looked genuinely intrigued. Adelasta was the last to take hers. Vastarael placed a golden drumstick and a lot of chicken onto her plate with a grin.
"Tell me I'm not the best cook in Spheraphase."
"You're not the best. Yet," she added, and kissed him on the cheek before strutting back to the beach.
Silence prevailed when mouths are full and brains are rebooting from flavor overload. Narisva was the first to speak after a few minutes.
"You're joking. This is... Veneri, what the actual fuck?"
Farrynelle swallowed and pointed her fork.
"This is divine. This is better than the Heaven of Food I read about in the scrolls. What did you even do?"
"I can't even describe this flavor," Elyonari said softly. "It's like the spices are dancing on my tongue. But like… romantically."
Xander just nodded slowly, his mouth full.
"Okay. You win. You win all cooking rights. I don't even want to breathe right now. I just want more meat."
Vastarael leaned back against the grill and chuckled.
"Alright, alright, calm down before you crown me God of Food."
But in truth, he was glowing. Not from his Tether of course but from the happiness radiating off his friends, lovers, and companions. He hadn't felt this full in a long, long time.
"Time to give myself some too."