“My love… your mother is here.” A beautiful woman with white hair and brown skin entered a tent made from a golden hide that rippled with breeze carried from a descending sunset as she spoke to a naked sleeping man curled around two large pillows, whose midnight black skin sparkled like onyx.

“I know, let her wait, I want some shut-eye.” Telmus grumbled and sank his face deeper into the pillow.

The silence that followed seemed to carry an endless amount of shock, before a hand that wanted to deliver a slap on his naked butt was halted as Telmus effortlessly stopped it with his own, “Don’t, you would hurt your hand.” he said.

She was a Dominator at the peak of the Third Great Circle, which was generally known as the strongest beings before reaching Earth god, and yet, she believed him.

“Yet you would hurt us all with your stubbornness and sheer stupidity.” She spat and with supernatural strength, she dragged him up and threw a robe around his shoulders, and became busy arranging his outfit in a presentable manner to receive his mother.

Telmus chuckled at her behavior, “Still your runaway heart, my love. If the sky falls, I shall be here to hold it up.”

She seized his robes in her hand and dragged his face to hers. Only this close could you see the beginnings of wrinkles by the side of her eyes, her brilliant silver eyes were now a bit dim and her white hair no longer shone like the moon, yet she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Maiah. His love.

“You bastard!” She said, “For so long the sky has been empty without your presence, don’t you ruin it again for all of our sake. You must honor your mother, as well as respect the gods!”

Her eyes began to glaze with unshed tears and Telmus’ gaze became a bit solemn, “I am who I am, my love. Can you tell the sun to stop shining or the water to not be wet? What will be, will be. But I promise you, this world shall shatter before I leave your side again. I am Telmus, and I will never make a promise that I will not keep. Not again.”

He pressed his lips to hers, and she beat against his chest for a while before drowning inside of his touch, with the strength of a Third Great Circle Dominator, she suddenly turned and launched him outside, his laughter fading away into the distance, and she collapsed weakly to her knees.

Telmus was capable of making her knees go weak with just a kiss, even after thousands of years. She looked fondly into the horizon before turning away. She was preparing for her elevation to the fourth great circle, to becoming an Earth god. Something that had been forbidden since the end of the Great War when gods walked the earth.

After the shackles over Dominator’s bloodline was unlocked, the entire Empire went into a state of overdrive, the effects on Dominators were both vastly negative and vastly positive.

Suddenly age-old barriers and class that had segregated the Noble families were broken down, power structures erased and ambition arising from ashes. The Empire would have been torn apart if not for the gods wisely channeling all this power and pent-up aggression to the stars, triggering a wave of conquest all over the galaxy.

For her, this was a prayer answered, after waiting for her husband for such a long time to return, her lifespan was running out. It was a risky prospect ascending to the fourth circle and even if the way was now open, there was no assurance of success as this elevation was the greatest height a Dominator could reach.

Of all the old monsters like herself who had resided at the peak of the third Great circle for thousands of years, none had succeeded to make the transition to become an Earth god. She knew of three that already perished this year alone, their wails of despair sweeping through the entirety of Trion.

Nevertheless, she would be the first to succeed!

The heavens had answered her prayers, returned her husband to her arms, and given her a child. Who was she to fail their graces and not ascend to the fourth circle so she could enjoy their blessings?

©

Telmus saw Minerva in a field of barley, like always his mother’s face was looking away from him. There was a time when he was young he would always try to startle her by approaching so quickly he caught her surprised, such a notion was incredibly stupid.

Of course he failed.

Yet, he was stubborn, and was never one to back down before a challenge, no matter how impossible it seemed to him, would that not be letting down his bloodline and potential?

This led him down a path of obsession, and obsession to beat a goddess… to surprise his mother. This obsession culminated in him creating and breaking many records in the Empire, he had not only defeated Minor gods of other worlds, he had also battled, not one but two gods of Trion at the same time.

Yet, it was not enough. For Telmus, it was never enough.

Many people might have asked, what was it that made you want to become the strongest? His powers were not just handed to him, Telmus had honed it in a million battles on a million wars, as he waged a campaign in the stars.

The people with such questions would have guessed many fantastical answers, but none would understand that he just wanted to surprise this bitch… even once.

“Mother.” He began walking closer to Minerva, knowing this was not an Anima but the goddess in the flesh.

Telmus knows this, but he refuses to acknowledge her presence by lying down and scraping himself on the floor like a worm. As he grew closer to the goddess, the floor below him turned to silk that surrounded the ground that contained countless spider webs.

Being this close to a goddess mean you enter their Domain, even if they don’t wish to pull you into it. Their very presence warps reality into something closer to their very nature.