DESTINY;DIVINE

# Chapter 8: Big Bang

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“Let’s not panic. She doesn’t know for sure; she’s only assuming,” Eve reassured me, her voice calm and steady.

“Yeah, you’re right.” I nodded, deep in thought. “I didn’t confirm or deny anything. We should let Rhea know and observe the situation closely. She said she wouldn’t say anything, but I don’t know her well enough to trust her.”

“I think Mielikki’s nice,” Pandora chimed in. “She wouldn’t hurt you intentionally.”

“Intent may be the issue,” Eve replied, her brow furrowing. “She doesn’t seem very interested or savvy about the clan politics at play. What if she slips up and accidentally says something she shouldn’t?”

“Right,” I agreed, feeling the weight of the situation. “We need a full picture of what would happen if my transcendence got out. Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.”

“Agreed. Either way, it’s best you reach Tier 1 as soon as possible,” Eve said, her expression serious.

“And that goes for both of you as well. You need to become denizen deities like Professor Astrape mentioned.”

“My divine spark was formed when I defined my dharma—calm mind, strong heart, violent hands, and boundless spirit,” I explained gently. “For you two to assimilate it, you will have to conquer your own heart demons.”

I turned to Pandora, taking her hands in mine. “My beautiful, happy celestial fairy. You were the only one to survive in your family all those lifetimes ago. What happened to them, and what happened to you, wasn’t your fault. You deserve to live, and you deserve to be a goddess. When the time comes, you have to allow yourself to be great.”

Pandora nodded solemnly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears. I then turned to Eve, gripping her hands firmly.

“My strong, wise void elf,” I said softly. “You accepted all the atrocities that happened to you, but you’ve never been able to accept not thanking your master properly. If he was anything like the man you described, he didn’t act for gratitude or rewards. He did it because it was the right thing to do and within his power. I believe he knew how grateful you were. Hold onto that gratitude, but don’t let it hold you back. He would be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”

I stepped back, surveying both of them. “While I’m creating my soul realm, I need you both to forgive yourselves and meditate on taking this next step with me.”

After kissing them both, I entered my soul, leaving them with their thoughts.

***

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My calm divine energy stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance, two colossal balls of concentrated energy floated like two suns over the horizon. 

One was a purplish-black, while the other was a bluish-white. They were the origin sources of the celestial phoenix and the void dragon I had defeated in the training forest.

I moved them into a separate dimensional space in the natural world to keep them out of the way of what I was about to do.

Taking my heavy, sparkling black divine spark, I slowly lowered it into my serene divine energy. 

On the advice of Professor Astrape, I wrapped my will around the borders of my divine energy and squeezed. Evenly and uniformly, I compressed my energy around my divine spark with all my might.

And when I couldn’t press any harder, I employed my gravity concept to gradually add even more force.

Over the next few days, I simply pressed my divine energy and meditated.

I even finalized a chaos concept as an unorganized state in which chance and possibility are supreme. 

Soon after, with the heat of my divine spark, and the pressure from my gravity concept, a near nuclear reaction occurred. 

My divine energy ignited into a sparkling black fire that voraciously burned and ascended into a swirling vortex.

Within minutes, a colossal, burning black star coalesced before me.

Surveying my soul, I verified that every drop of divine energy had completely fused with my divine spark, creating a divine source.

Similar to my aether source located in my head, it would be the engine that generated my divine power. I would no longer need to cultivate energy just to sustain its volume, only to grow my power. 

My divine source star was a densely compressed, burning sphere of black divine energy that flickered and raged with a bright white outline.

With the first step out of the way, I closed my eyes and carefully considered what my soul realm should consist of. 

I thought about everything I knew of planets, galaxies, and the universe at large, even before I learned of the upper realms and faith godhood.

I already understood how space, time, and gravity functioned on a fundamental level, as well as the relationships between mass, energy, and acceleration. 

I also grasped the laws of motion, thermodynamics, conservation, and planetary motion. 

With my building blocks in mind, I focused on the structural foundations of the secret training forest and its realm barrier, the natural characteristics of the Earth, and the supernatural characteristics of the Golden Sea Realm. 

Considering all that I had learned about spiritual energy, divine energy, magic, concepts, aspects, and my extrasensory perception, I suddenly opened my eyes. 

I had meditated for over a month, but I was finally ready to conceive my soul realm. 

What I wanted to do was a blend of natural physics and mystical arts. It would be something different than all the examples given by Professor Astrape, something more.

I wrapped my will around my burning divine source star and once again began applying gravity to it. But this time I didn’t apply a steady, uniform force, I pressed with all of my energy.

With my third eye, mind supremacy, and soul supremacy I began quickly employing concepts, one after another.

Lightning, celestial, void, spatial, gravity, time, chaos, astral, obsidian, and matter, I synthesized all of my concepts with classical elements to establish the noble principles and source laws of my realm. 

These principles would govern the very fabric of its existence in my realm as well as its construction and operation.

Raising both hands, I crushed my divine source star into a single point and then pressed further. 

I could feel my soul shaking, my very essence rebelling against my will. 

Pushing through, I acknowledged my training in the secret forest realm. I was more than a typical Tier 0 god. I had more paths, more concepts, deeper magic, a profound dharma, and a bigger destiny.

Condensing quickly and heating rapidly, my divine source star hit a point of no return and collapsed in on itself.

My soul went dark and my apotheosis diminished. 

This was it, this was what I wanted.

*Singularity*.

Everything went utterly still and perfectly silent.

For an instant, my soul had become a perfect void aside from a single infinitely small, infinitely hot, and infinitely dense point.

Panting and struggling to remain conscious, I cemented my will, tapped into the energy amplification principle, and pushed all of my abilities with all my might.

Inhaling a deep breath, I spoke with divine authority.

**“BIG BANG”**

Abruptly, my soul erupted into a blinding all-encompassing, white light of chaos energy. Followed immediately by my divine source star rebounding wildly and rapidly expanding. 

Filtered through novel principles and source laws, a galactic explosion occurred, devouring chaos energy in every direction.

Space defined boundaries, time cooled and formed subatomic particles. Gravity bonded atoms and noble gases which coalesced into large mass celestial bodies.

Spinning celestial bodies collided, merged, burned, exploded, died, and formed again.

Dense clouds of crackling lightning, divine potential, and zodiacal light permeated the space between greater masses of matter.

Under the distortion of my time concept, the reaction rapidly cooled and quickly stabilized into a vast, swirling galaxy of eleven diverse planets orbiting my divine source star.

This was the birth of my soul realm, solidifying my status as a Tier 1 god.

Each planet had its own moons, varied landscapes, and abundant natural resources, all with a vibrant backdrop of nebulae and a vast expanse of perfect emptiness.

Through the implementation and fusion of the energy amplification principle, a new noble principle and source law was defined—*Expansion*. 

This principle and law denoted that all energy in my soul realm could be amplified or multiplied once certain conditions were met.

Bringing the celestial phoenix and void dragon origin sources into my soul realm, I hung them in orbit around my source star so they could mature directly from my energy.

After watching the planets orbit for a time, I decided to build a home for my pantheon. Somewhere grand and heavenly. 

At the heart of my galaxy, directly above my divine source star, I moved the smallest planet with total ease and control.

I condensed and superheated it into a ball of molten magma, before rapidly cooling and combining it with twinkling nebulae. 

After flattening and shaping, I had created a perfectly round, small planet-sized island of luminescent nebular obsidian. 

I took a step back to observe my work, then I declared:

**”Aoife Island”**

I named my version of heaven and the home of my pantheon in remembrance of the soul I couldn’t save.

After taking a moment to think of her once more, I continued my work. 

Employing my concepts and extracting elements from cosmic dust, I refined and fused them into a shimmering, translucent, black astral obsidian and glimmering, speckled black chaos marble.

These materials were far more complex, stable, and durable than anything I could make in the natural world.

I also summoned an ordinary star and compressed it into panes of solidified starlight glass.

Like a divine carpenter, I skillfully shaped the resources into a single magnificent structure.

I crafted three colossal, fused blocks of astral obsidian, with the central block four times larger than the others.

Next, I hollowed out all three blocks, removed the front wall of the central block, and created openings for windows and doors.

I utilized the starlight panes and fused large windows and double doors throughout the two side structures.

In contrast, I created a massive, single wall of starlight with astral obsidian windows and a large obsidian front door for the front of the central block.

I railed off the rooftop with solidified starlight to serve as a breathtaking viewing platform for the entire galaxy as a whole.

Then, I meticulously designed and merged chaos marble into floors, spiraling staircases, ceilings, furniture, tables, and fixtures.

Finally, I created couches, chairs, cushions, rugs, and beds, embodying the principles of sturdiness and comfort. 

**”Obsidian Starlight Palace”**

I named my home, an evolution of the Obsidian Tower I had created with Aoife so long ago, and a stunning display of divine energy and profound concepts. 

In the end, the divine palace was fully illuminated by starlight and boasted a hundred bedrooms, fifty bathrooms, twenty living rooms, several kitchens, and a massive indoor pool.

With its dazzling, astral obsidian frame, luminous, spectral starlight windows, and stunning black, chaos marble features, the Obsidian Starlight Palace was a fitting symbol of my divinity. 

As I stood atop my palace, gazing out at my soul realm, I couldn’t help but chuckle. 

I had created a galaxy of my own and the magnitude of this achievement was difficult to truly comprehend. 

In this realm, I was an ultimate supreme god, the great creator and sovereign deity. 

But outside, I was just a mere Tier 1 god, still struggling to navigate the upper realm.

***

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Aria closed the gate behind her as she left. Aeon remained in the lotus position, unmoving, with his eyes closed, while Eve and I engaged in conversation.

“She’s so adorable. For this entire month, she’s been diligently taking care of the garden, feeding the koi, playing with Luna, and checking on us. She’s basically turned into a housewife for us all.” I mused, chuckling to myself.

Luna playfully barked and frolicked in the divine flowerbed.

“I would say she resembles a fiercely loyal maidservant, but by the way she glances at Aeon when she believes we are not looking, you may be correct,” Eve responded with a smirk.

I chuckled. “She is not subtle at all. The poor girl, she has it bad.”

“I doubt anyone in the Bronte clan has ever shown her any form of care or affection. I’m concerned she is simply clinging to the first expression of kindness directed towards her.” Eve replied thoughtfully. 

“I find it endearing. She may be vulnerable at the moment, but Aeon isn’t the kind of person to exploit her. Don’t overthink it. If anything, I believe she will be a strong ally once Aeon frees her.” I said.

“Perhaps you’re right, Pandora, and I do love her music..” Eve was interrupted as a heavy weight descended upon the courtyard. 

Both of our gazes snapped to Aeon. 

His presence had instantly become overwhelming, and we could feel it past the astral barrier.

With his radiant white dreads floating up freely and black divine energy engulfing his body, shining black light shot upwards, soaring far beyond the sky.

Heavy aether winds howled through the courtyard, creating a cyclone centered around his position. 

Electricity crackled and sparkled near him, and the ground trembled beneath our feet. 

A translucent, one-foot black halo, etched with intricate runes, materialized and spun inches away from his back, with its center located directly between his shoulder blades.

On the inside of his left forearm, a single blooming black orchid sigil appeared and glowed with a soft white light.

“He did it!” I exclaimed with joy, trying to contain my awe.

“It appears so,” Eve flared her aura to remain upright.

Luna swiftly darted away and concealed herself behind a stone and the outer courtyard gate.

The perfect storm of pressure and energy abruptly ceased, and he opened his eyes slowly. 

His pupils had transformed into slow-moving, vibrant white specks in a still expanse of black, resembling stars across the night sky. 

There was a profound change over him—a deeper, more defined impression. 

His divine presence exuded an icy tranquility while simultaneously hinting at explosive violence. 

Attempting to discern his cultivation, I was enveloped by a deep mysteriousness akin to an endless eternity. 

“I did it!” he declared, and the weight of his words carried a serene, divine breeze through the courtyard, sending shivers down my spine.

“Congratulations!” I rushed to embrace him, but Luna was quicker and leaped into his arms.

He chuckled, “Come on, I have something to show all of you.”