"Are you out of your divine mind?!"
The voice rang like a thousand silver bells shaken in outrage.
Inside a vast celestial chamber — endless, white, serene — an angel hovered midair, arms crossed, wings flaring with radiant indignation. Her golden hair was tied back in a warrior's braid, her halo cracked ever so slightly from centuries of smacking it against heavenly marble in frustration.
This was Rea, First of the Host, Commander of the Seventh Choir, Divine Secretary of the One Above.
And at the moment, she looked this close to throwing her clipboard across eternity.
"You gave him Great Sage! Degenerate! Observation Haki! And the Demon Lord Seed?!" She ticked each one off with a glowing quill, the ink smoking in the air. "He can literally synthesize other skills and evolve his soul into a divine apex predator. And name companions to forcefully evolve them? In Fast & Furious?!"
God — known in this form simply as He Who Watches From the Quiet — reclined in a chair that didn't exist, floating in calm cosmic nothingness, sipping coffee that was both metaphorical and oddly specific in roast.
He smiled softly. "Yes. I did."
Rea paced in front of him, wings twitching. "Do you understand the scale of what you've done? No mortal soul has been granted that combination. Ever. That world runs on turbochargers and charisma. You just dropped a tactical nuke of potential in a V8 ecosystem!"
God placed the cup down. "He won't destroy anything."
"How can you be sure?"
Silence.
Then God looked at his open palm, where a flicker of light shimmered — a memory more than magic.
"I didn't used to understand emotion," he said quietly. "Back then, I was… like a system. All logic. All calculation. Purpose without heart."
Rea paused. Her frown softened.
"Then, one cycle, I grew curious. I descended. Took on a mortal life. Lived among humans. I met her — his mother. Fell in love. We had a son."
He smiled — the kind of smile built on memories, and regret.
"I worked abroad. One day, while on-site, I staged an accident. No body. Just the insurance. I returned here. That was the price I paid to resume my role and keep balance across the multiverse."
Rea looked away, as if to give him space. She already knew the ending.
"But I watched them, Rea. Every year. Every night. I watched my son grow up like he was living someone else's life. Quiet. Tired. Like joy was something that had skipped over him."
He clenched his fist, just slightly.
"When I saw him driving to graduation, talking to his mother on the phone… I saw a young man who had done everything right — but looked like he didn't believe he mattered."
Rea whispered, "So… you gave him the chance you never had."
God nodded. "And if I made the world too easy, it wouldn't mean anything. So I adjusted the universe. There are stronger forces now. Challenges I never intended for that realm. Hidden actors. Even old gods, long buried beneath myth."
Rea raised an eyebrow. "...You made Fast & Furious harder?"
"And more interesting," God said, chuckling. "He'll earn it. The skills, the power, the family he never had… He will fight for it. But he won't be alone."
"You gave him a surprise, didn't you?" Rea said, narrowing her eyes.
God gave a small smile. "When the Demon Lord Seed awakens… he will encounter a truth that not even I can fully predict."
"You make me want to punch you," Rea muttered.
"You could try."
She rolled her eyes but then looked up, something soft blooming behind her scowl.
"And what of his mother?"
God's voice dropped low.
"She will live her life in peace. But when her time comes… she will join me. And we'll watch him. Together."
The silence that followed was reverent.
Rea floated beside him now, quiet, her anger washed away in the tide of something deeper.
"You've changed," she said. "You used to see mortals as numbers. Now you call one of them 'son'."
"I always called him that," God said. "I just didn't know what it meant."
Rea finally smiled — truly smiled, something rare.
"I'll watch him, too," she said. "Not as a protector. Not even as a guide. Just... as someone who wants to see how it ends."
Meanwhile…
Somewhere on Earth.
L.A.
The night air buzzed with the roar of engines and the hum of neon lights.
A young man stirred in an alley, groaning as he sat up. His silver eyes blinked against the blur of streetlight. His charcoal hair hung loose across his brow. His heartbeat echoed like a drum in his chest.
John Wayne.
No memories lost.No systems in his head.Just power — asleep and waiting.And a second chance.
He pulled himself to his feet, stepping into the roar of the underground.
The world didn't know it yet.
But he was here.
End of Chapter 2