[Celestial Heavens — Aether's Realm]:
[3rd POV]:
In the Khaos Multiverse, where the various gods and goddesses of various pantheons across its vast and infinite collective of universes dwelled, there are generally three types of realms: the Mortal Realm, the Divine Realm and Primordial Realms.
Mortal Realms were realms that belonged to mortals, whether they were cultivators, ordinary beings, monsters, or even cosmic mortal creatures. All such realms existed within the Mortal Domain—the greater domain in which mortal life dwelled. Together, these countless realms formed what was known as the Mortal Multiverse.
Above the Mortal Multiverse existed the Divine Realm, home to gods, celestials, and other divine beings. Though it existed on a higher state of existence than the Mortal Domain, the Divine Realm still held great influence over the worlds beneath it. Gods could shape mortal civilizations, interfere with entire realms, and leave their influence throughout the Mortal Multiverse despite dwelling beyond it.
Higher still were the Primordial Realms.
These were the domains of the Primordials, existing in states of being beyond even the Divine Realm. There were many Primordial Realms, each anchored to the Divine Realm through a point of connection somewhere within it. A single Primordial Realm could hold multiple territories within the Divine Realm itself, allowing its influence to stretch across both the Divine Realm and the Mortal Domain below.
One such Primordial Realm was known as the Celestial Heavens.
The Celestial Heavens were vast, connected to numerous territories throughout the Divine Realm and shared by a multitude of divine species. The Ascended Fae dwelled there, alongside the Star-Touched Elves, the White-Winged Celestial Warriors, and countless other celestial races.
And above them all, within the vastness of the Celestial Heavens, resided the Primordial God of the Upper Skies—the Primordial who ruled over the Celestial Heavens themselves.
Within this realm, spires of impossible magnificence stretched upward as though reaching toward even higher heavens. The grass grew in shades of pink against rich brown earth, while the very air overflowed with not merely mana, but nearly every conceivable form of cultivation energy—qi, ki, mana, world essence, and, most abundant of all, aether energy. So dense were these energies that they mingled visibly in the atmosphere, forming a multicolored, iridescent miasma that drifted throughout the realm like a beautiful celestial mist.
Great cities and territories stretched across the Celestial Heavens, filled with magnificent palaces of gold and silver, their towers and spires rising across the horizon. Yet even these grand structures seemed small compared to what stood at the very center of the realm.
There lay a great and majestic castle of almost incomprehensible size—a celestial stronghold so vast that entire suns could be dwarfed by its scale.
Inside this castle, upon a throne of gold, sat a man with a youthful face, looking to be in his late 20s, at 4.7 meters meters tall, dressed in white robes under light golden armour, with radiant white-gold glowing wings majestically forded into his back. A band of gold adorns his crown and he sits barefooted upon his throne. He has golden eyes with white irises and long, blond hair that could be mistaken for gold. He had a perfect build — Not muscularly bulky nor too lean; he was but athletically fit in the most perfect of ways, his skin the most perfect tone of latin tan and his aura was one of majesty and regality, beauty and power, pure and divine.
Before this god, just now getting his bearings, stood a disoriented corven, who, using his hand to shield himself from the light, seemed annoyed. "So much goddamn light. I hate this place already," he muttered, but the entire courtroom heard it, already eyeing Corven with suspicious games.
Mutterings amongst the dressed up eleven women and fae ladies got loud, before Aether, sitting atop the golden throne, raised a hand. He was silent but his mouth gave away his irritation, twitching in minute annoyance and what could have only been mild amusement before he spoke.
"You know, most people would feel honored to be summoned into my realm… gods and mortals alike have seeked entry here. Countless have died just for the off-chance of an opportunity to enter my domain,' Aether sounded as prideful as he looked spoiled in Corven's book. "After all, my Celestial Heavens are heavily favored and highly envied are their passes."
"Favored?" Corven asked, eyebrows raised. "By whom?"
"Why, me, of course," Aether grinned a grin that felt so off to Corven. 'Most people worship me for my grace and wealth. They curry for my favor."
'What slimy, higher than thou spoiled rich bastard,' Corven thought, internally wanting to punch the god before him. He rubbed him the wrong way.
"Yeah, well, most people are fools without backbone… Or any form ofself-respect,"Corven said with a straight face, not stuttering even once. "Now why the Hell am I here? And who the Hell are you?"
The bluntness of Corven's words caused Aether's amusement to shift to growing irritation, as expressed by the slight twitch of the god's eyes. 'How dare this brat use such bluntness before me?' he thought, annoyed. 'Is he really Mother' champion? My so-called sibling? Seriously? Him? The others treat me with more respect than this!'
A murmur began growing even more at Corven's words. The court was quietly watching Corven, though most were with growing irritation and a few stinky eyes here and there.
Shaking his head, Aether merely released a chuckle, keeping up his masquerade of nobility. "Thanatos, Nyx and Erebus have each gifted you their gifts and blessings," he began, gaining Corven's blank stare. "I suppose, I should grant you my gifts now, no? Step forward, little brother. It is time for I, Aether of the House of Khaos, to bestow my blessings upon you."
Corven, now knowing what was going on, merely shrugged, as he stepped forward, but he did not bow. He had no intention of bowing to someone he thought didn't deserve it and nothing about this man screamed a bow earned in Corven's eyes.
This act did not go unnoticed by aether, whose grinned seemed to sharpen. He guards at the foot of his throne grew annoyed, gripping their spears, their wings of golden light beating a tad bit faster than norma, as if they were ready to force him to.
Yet Corven still did not kneel.
One of the guards spoke: "It is customary to bow before his grace, the Celestial King, King of the Celestial Heavens, Embodiment of the Upper Heavens and Arbitor of the Divine Domain, Progenitoi of the Skies and the Supreme Lord of the great Golden-Silver City, his grace, King Aether."
This response made Aether smile. It was just and right, and so very him. He didn't even have to signal to the guard to step in. He made a mental note to bless this particular guard with a couple thousand blessings. Maybe a cultivation-boosting artifact?
He then looked at Corven to see his response. What he saw, instead of awe, was a face — a blank face. An expressionless blank face. Hardly a response to any of his grand titles.
"Is that all?' Corven asked, causing everyone in the room, including the guard, to balk back in the face. "Yeah, well, bowing to others is a show of submission. I am not submissive. He's no king of mine — I'll not bow to the unworthy,' Corven shook his head, to which the guard made a threatening step forward, releasing his Higher God rank aura — Not enough to kill the boy; just enough to let him know his place in the hierarchy of power.
Corven was forced to fall face forward on his face, creating a full-body shaped crater in the ground where he had been standing.
"You will show proper respect in the presence of his grac—," the guard began, when something gave him pause. He narrowed his eyes behind his helmet, eyes widening as he noticed it. "I-Impossible…".
There was no true source of darkness within the Golden-Silver City. In fact, the only place in the Celestial Heavens that experienced eternal night was the border domain between Aether's territory and that of his mother—a place hundreds of trillions of light-years away. The residents of the Golden-Silver City never experienced nighttime, especially here, in the very heart of the city, where the blessings of King Aether and Queen Hemera ensured that light reigned eternal.
And yet…
Without any definable source, darkness gathered around Corven.
Shadows swirled protectively around the youth, encircling and embracing him like a forcefield protecting its creator. They should not have existed here. There was nothing nearby to cast them, nothing from which they could be born—and yet they moved around Corven as naturally as though they belonged to him.
The guardsmen and assembled members of the court watched with unease. These were beings who valued purity above nearly all else, many of whom despised users of dark magic, viewing them as abominations of the element itself. Yet even they could tell that Corven was no ordinary dark magic user. What surrounded him felt like something else entirely.
It was pure.
Not purified. Not cleansed of corruption.
Pure from the beginning.
An incorruptible darkness so absolute that corruption itself seemed foreign to its nature.
And as the shadows curled gently around Corven beneath the eternal light of the Golden-Silver City, many among the watching court found the same unwanted word entering their minds.
'Beautiful.'
Beautiful in a morbid, dark-touched way that few of them would ever willingly admit.
Aether, meanwhile, was shocked. 'Father's Blessing of protection? He has Father's Blessing of protection? HIM?" Father's only ever given Older Brother Thatatos and Eldest brother Oroboros that protection — Yet everyone knows that's because they're his favorite.'
Aether's eyes widened in horror. Slowly, his eyes moved over to the rising boy, as realization struck. 'Then, does that mean he possesses Father's favor? I get he's my brother, but he's human; a spawn from that Shadow Queen's own legs, but he's human nonetheless. How does he possesses father's favor?HOW?!' Aether was beyond annoyed and the twitch of his throbbing, veiny forehead only proved that even more true, 'Ugh! Nothing is making any sense!'
On the inside, Aether was reassessing what he thought he knew about the boy before him, but, outwardly, his face remained neutral, giving nothing away. One may have thought him both regal and indifferent.
They'd only be halfway right.
He was regal and indifferent, but he was also vain and prideful. And his pride was wounded. And prideful men with wounded pride — mortal or divine — tended to be brash and negatively reactive.
He wasn't sure why the boy got favor from both Mother and Father, neither of whom gave him much attention even as a childing primordial, most especially Father. 'Yet this… mortal,' he thinks, almost as a slur. 'manages to become mother's champion and possesses one of Father's most sought after and rarest of blessings?'
Aether's never been a jealous person a day in his life — He's the god of the Celestial Heavens, for his sake! His skies held entire godly realms from across all of the multiverse. He needn't want for anything that he could not acquire by the various pantheons indebted to himself. 'But Father's attention and his blessing? To a mortal?'
This fact seemed to awoke a worm within Aether — A worm which began eating at Aether's pride, and, for once in Aether's eternal life, he became envious of another. Of someone supposedly his brother. A mortal.
That alone was nearly enough to make Aether gnash his teeth. Nearly.
The boy in question —- Corven — was standing there, completely unharmed as the darkness around him began receding into more of a protective aura than a protective field. He withstood a higher god's presence — And as a Demigod ranker, no less! He was thrilled — And annoyed.
'How dare this nobody try to force me to bow to him by proxy?!' Corven thought, taking note of the Higher God ranked winged-guardsman, whose aura returned to himself in shock, after a gesture by his king. He'll remember the face, that's for sure.
"Forgive me guardsman — He can be…overportective,," Aether's voice brought Corven out of his thoughts.
'Bullshit. You didn't even try to stop him. You wanted this,' Corven thought, but kept his face impassive.
From the fake smile's twitch on Aether's face the primordial believed Corven actually believed him almost as much as…well, Corven believing him. Which he didn't. At all. But Aether continued anyway, never losing his fake ass smile.
Gods, it made Corven want to punch him.
"As you know, in the House of Khaos, we primordials have a tradition," Aether began. "When our young are spawned, we gift you with blessings. For me, I intend to give you my own blessing. Come before me."
Corven did,standing before the god, still not bowing. Aether noticed this but said nothing. He towered over Corven either way — Something he was proud he had that Corven didn't.
Bending down, Aether tapped Corven's head as he spoke. "I gift you power that grows with you — The only limit to it is to your wits and your will, little brother."
A golden light shined as knowledge rushed to Corven's head and Corven immediately knew what power the blessing was.
'Life Mergence,' Corven realized. 'The power to fuse similar enough lifeforms and biological essences together to create an entirely new and improved lifeform. A rankless blessing that even gods would kill to possess… Damn. Perhaps I was too hard on the guy.'
Corven looked up at the god… Then immediately thought to himself. 'Nah, he still sucks, big time.'
"With this, my duty is done," Aether said, bringing Corven out of his thoughts once more as the god re-sat upon his throne. "Now be gone."
With a wave of his hand, a great wind bent reality around Corven, sending him backwards beyond lightspeed velocities.
But Corven didn't yet return.
No, his soul — his consciousness — had other ideas…