Chapter 159: The God Realm.

『"Mortals call us many things. We’ve never bothered to correct them."』

"Now," Ethan said, "we find a peach tree."

Sophia took a step forward and the ground trembled. She froze, slowly looking up.

A single blade of grass towered above them like a green pillar stretching into the clouds. Dew clung to its surface in droplets larger than houses, and somewhere high overhead, a leaf drifted lazily through the sky.

"Ethan..."

"I noticed."

The leaf landed a few hundred yards away.

BOOOOM!

The impact shook the plain hard enough to throw Sophia onto her back. A crater spread outward from the landing site, and a storm of dirt and petals rushed past them.

Sophia sat up slowly. "Ants. We’ve become ants."

Ethan dusted himself off and stared across the endless landscape. "Think smaller."

He wrapped both of them in a thin blue barrier. "We have to be careful," he said. "Even the wind could kill us here."

A blue platform formed beneath them, lifting them higher, while weaving around specks of dust that came at them like boulders.

The Realm of the Gods did not exist to accommodate mortals.

They had arrived at their true scale.

As a shadow passed overhead, Sophia tilted her head back and nearly screamed. A bird larger than a continent glided through the heavens, its silver feathers scattering light across the sky.

"Fuck me," she said immediately. "So far, I’m not enjoying this experience. Like at all."

Tiny bells jingled somewhere nearby, and Ethan lifted his hand instinctively. "Something’s coming."

The massive grass parted as a fox stepped into view.

At least, it resembled a fox. Its fur was both white as fresh snow and yellow as the sun.

Nine tails swayed behind it, its end glowing bright, and small silver bells hung from its ears, chiming softly whenever it moved.

When it looked at them, its golden eyes regarded them with unmistakable amusement.

Sophia leaned toward Ethan slowly and whispered, "you think it can see us?"

The creature stopped and blinked.

"Oh dear," it said. "Members of the Five have come calling again."

Sophia pointed and whispered again, "okay, the fox talks..."

"Most things do here," the fox replied. "You don’t want to hear the Sphinx talk though. It’s riddle me this, riddle me that." It rolled its eyes and bowed with theatrical flourish.

"Kumi. Messenger, nuisance, professional gossip, and occasional guide. A pleasure."

Ethan narrowed his eyes. "You know who we are."

"Of course. Everyone does."

Sophia folded her arms. "Does that mean we’re like celebrities here?"

"Celebrities?" Kumi tilted his head. "I’m unfamiliar with that word. But I’d like to learn."

"We don’t have time for this," Ethan said. "We’re looking for something."

Kumi trotted around them once, inspecting them carefully. The smallest displacement of air from it could send them flying. "Hmm. Human. Exhausted. Slightly traumatized," it observed.

"Anything else you wanna point out that we may have missed?" Sophia asked, dropping her arms.

"Ah, sarcasm. I’m familiar with that one." It sniffed the air. "And carrying the scent of the Perfume." It sniffed the air again. "That explains the urgency."

Sophia pointed accusingly. "Wait, you know about that too?"

"Naturally. Last time someone uncorked a bottle near the Celestial Banquet, three gods got married, divorced, and started a war before breakfast."

Sophia stared at him, then grinned. "I like this guy."

Kumi smiled. "I like you too."

Before the conversation could spiral further, Ethan cut in. "We need the Peaches of Clarity."

Kumi’s tails stopped moving. "Ah. That is considerably less amusing."

The fox sat down. "You cannot simply walk there at this size. To anything here, you’re barely a speck." It squinted its golden eyes at them. "The journey would most likely end in your demise."

Sophia rubbed her face. "Great. We came all this way to become lint."

Kumi hopped closer and gently touched Sophia’s and Ethan’s foreheads, one with each glowing tail.

Suddenly, the perspective of the world began to transform.

The towering grass shrank, the crater from the leaf became a distant inconceivable depression instead of a canyon, and the air itself seemed to rearrange around them.

Sophia stumbled. "What did you do?"

"Adjusted your scale," Kumi said. "It felt weird talking to you both like that."

Sophia put her hands out in front of her and studied herself. "You know, you could’ve led with that."

"I guess I should have..." Kumi’s tails went down.

Ethan looked around, lowered the platform that carried them, then returned his gaze to the nine-tailed fox, who was now relative in size to them. "Can you lead us to the Orchard now?"

"I suppose I can." Kumi started walking, expecting them to follow. "I just really hope we don’t draw any unwanted attention."

Ethan looked at Sophia, then both of them followed behind Kumi.

As they crossed the endless plain, Sophia noticed impossible sights scattered across the horizon.

To the east, storm clouds circled a palace suspended high above the land, where lightning slithered around its towering pillars.

After watching for a moment, Sophia’s eyes widened. "Wait... are those snakes?"

They were gigantic serpents woven from electricity, patrolling the palace as though guarding its halls.

To the west, an enormous golden sun with eyes hung motionless over a kingdom of blooming flowers and everlasting fire.

Far beyond that, a silver river flowed through eternal twilight, its waters carrying countless drifting spirits, each holding a softly glowing lantern.

Every wonder seemed to belong to its own realm, yet all of them were connected by vast bridges woven from different colors of light.

As they continued walking, they came across a floating golden ankh engaged in an animated discussion with a black raven perched atop a stone, tiny spectacles balanced on its beak.

"I’m telling you," the raven cawed indignantly, flapping one wing. "They’ve started calling him Raijin again."

"Are you kidding me?!" the ankh exclaimed, spinning in the air.

"Do I ever kid?" the raven answered.

The ankh hovered higher. "It’s the same Sky Father! They’ve called him Zeus, Thor, Susanoo, Shango, Perun, and twenty other names. Must they keep inventing new ones?"

"Mortals enjoy arguing," the raven replied with a sigh. "Give them one truth and they’ll paint it a hundred different colors."

"And then insist the colors are different truths," the ankh muttered.

Their conversation died the instant they noticed Ethan and Sophia. The raven stopped mid-sentence and the ankh froze in the air.

Both slowly turned toward Ethan and Sophia.

For a long moment, neither spoke. Even the breeze seemed to still.

Then the raven lowered its head. "...It’s them."

"Members of the Five," the ankh whispered. "Already?"

The raven’s voice dropped even lower. "This should be interesting."

Sophia glanced sideways at Ethan. "...I suddenly feel like the new kid at school."

"Hmm." Ethan simply nodded.

Sophia looked back at the creatures before gesturing toward one of the distant kingdoms. "Which pantheon is that supposed to be?"

Kumi stopped walking and looked back over his shoulder. "...Pantheon?"

"You know... Greek, Norse, Egyptian, Hindu. That kind of thing," she clarified.

The fox stared at her for a long second before collapsing into the grass, laughing. "Oh, mortals are adorable."

Sophia simply stared at him with a blank expression.

Kumi’s laughter gradually died as he noticed. He cleared his throat and stood back up. "... I’m sorry."

She folded her arms. "So what’s the deal?"

"One culture called him Hades. Another called him Anubis. Others knew him as Hel... or Yama." Kumi flicked one of his tails dismissively. "The Keeper of Death did not become four different beings simply because humanity gave him four different names."

Ethan glanced toward the distant palace of rivers and twilight. "They’re the same being."

Kumi pointed a tail at him. "The serious one gets it."

"That’s one hell of an identity crisis," Sophia muttered.

"They’re Aspects," Kumi explained. "Your kind perceive the same transcendent beings through different cultural lenses."

One of Kumi’s tails pointed toward the distant kingdom Sophia had asked about. "And those are called Domains. Realms shaped by the Platonic Ideas they embody."

"Is that where you creatures come from?" Ethan asked.

Kumi shrugged. "Pretty much." He resumed walking, leading them toward the Orchard. "The gods create us mythical creatures to inhabit their Domains."

Kumi suddenly stopped walking.

Ethan and Sophia stopped beside him, their eyes sweeping across what lay ahead.

"We’re here," Kumi announced.