Rising god

’My soul,’ He recognized it. It had still been a seven-year-old child since he found soul energy. Now, the mantle hovered beside it, merging slowly with the child.

Pain seared through Baines as the merge began. It wasn’t physical, but a deep, existential agony, as if his essence were being rewritten. Yet he didn’t wince. As painful as it might be, it wasn’t as painful as snapping off his streams. He watched, understanding dawning.

Each god’s authority stemmed from their soul, and when granting to another, it was wielded through divine power. Meaning, the potency of the authority used by a god and a contractor was different in a way.

But in this situation, Baines was receiving the authority into his soul, just like every god, at the same time, would be able to wield it with ashenfall, just like every contractor.

Another thing he understood as he watched it was something called divine status. This was what made the gods call themselves that. It didn’t necessarily mean all gods had reached the deity level.

Take the wind god, Aelora, for example. He might not be a deity-level being; however, because of that divine status, Baines couldn’t even stand up to him.

A god could actually be a 6th star in strength, but due to his divine status, an 8th star might not be able to withstand that presence.

Unfortunately for him, he was a human, so he couldn’t have a divine status unless he reached that level, and the extraction authority didn’t have a divine status.

But it meant something.

If you didn’t have something and your skill could extract that thing, what would you need to do?

’Steal my own divine status.’ He nodded in understanding. And in return for not having a divine status, he was now able to wade divine status of other gods. Just like anyone who reached the deity level. What did this mean?