C258: Divine Realm
Alt title: Cup of Tea
Date published: 9/24/2025.
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Traveling through the death gods portal was an interesting experience for Axel, very different from his own travel method as he simply gets sealed in an egg that travels through time and space before 'hatching' and he is released. A simple mirage of colors with nothing to do as he simply sits around.
Yet here it's more akin to a walk on the beach, waves of spatial energy come flowing to cover the breach as the gods make their way through. Each maintains their own barrier to keep out any destructive energy bits that might somehow get past the death energy tear.
While they walked, the god who Axel learns is named Xue Tie, the god of death and reincarnation was a reincarnation himself after another god had killed him while he was simply playing a game back on his earth and his soul dragged here.
He had a few cheats but only special due to the world he was in and how his mind worked helped keep him innovative as he fought.
"No evil gods hanging around in your head?"
"None except my son in law who you met moments ago"
"Bad blood?"
"Bad Soul" the Mogh knock off states as a matter of fact which only makes Axel raise an eyebrow in interest but also confusion.
"Don't worry about it, he is my headache and nothing more than that. I'd wish for my daughter to give me more grandkids if only he didn't have to touch her." The god's grumbling mood sets the picture of a vindictive father who doesnt accept a boyfriend his daughter brought in but she kept him anyway. Even after having a child of their own, he still isn't accepted.
"I'm sorry for your loss" Axel casually states and while Xue Tie is surprised, he doesnt show it as he accepts the best wishes as he thinks back on all the brain cells he has lost pondering the existence of his 'son-in-law'.
Soon enough they finally arrive at their destination. Appearing at the entrance of the divine realm, with the exception of the host himself, the rest of the group is awed by the towering mountain wielding a hovering vertically slanted crown that emanates a golden aura that soothes all that see it. Akin to a pair of golden wings made up of runic symbols drawn on paper and then simply existing in all it's natural grandness (U-shaped golden emblem).
Looking around, Axel finds that there are multiple other mountain peaks that hold residences, likely private domains of each of the gods of this world. Axel assumes the grandness of each residence is a direct indicator of the power or status of each god.
These peaks combined with the free flowing blue energy waves hovering just below these mountain peaks adds a certain ethereal beauty to it all.
"Which way do we go?" Axel asks his host who silently begins walking over the clouds and just forward. Step by step away from the imposing mountain.
Axel and co take a step and find the flowing energy is so dense that it has become solid. They quickly catch up to their host who chuckles at their caution. Granted he wouldn't be surprised if any of them couldn't simply walk on air.
"On my left you can see the following residences of our Asura Goddess, War God, Nine-Colored Goddess, Food god, goddess of Speed and Phoenix god." Xue Tie shows off the row of mountains that are closer together.
"Where is the seventh?" Axel can't help but ask as he finally recognizes this world and its people. Only the god of death before them is an outlier but having already been told that he is a reincarnation from another version of earth, his interest still remains high as he can feel that this world's story is not over yet.
"The man who would be the sea god failed his divine trial, the shadow I had left upon him as well as the few opportunities which were meant for him going to me crippled his motivation. Then once the other six ascended while he did not cast upon him a heart devil that turned him to darkness. My son in law killed him much later down the line."
"Thats a bit morbid"
"Such is life, being referred to as the child of the world is all well and nice but when it comes to responsibility, if certain things don't go their way then it's all for naught" the blood god states passively as he then goes on to continue introducing the original cast as well as a few new gods. The most obvious being a new sea god that isn't Tang San but also a god of beasts.
During the journey, Axel had already learned that Xue Tie's wife is the Spider goddess, his daughter crowned as the Gold dragon goddess while the aforementioned son in law is the god of rot and decay. There is also the Silver Dragon Goddess, Gu Yuena who ascended thanks to Xue Tie's help. As for the gold goddess and rot gods descendents, their daughter, Xue Tie's granddaughter, is the goddess of life, replacing Tang sans mother from the original
"I feel like a few are missing…" Axel states as they reach the end of the path where the blood gods home is.
"It has only been one thousand years since my daughter ascended. Naturally we haven't reached the end of our story or the true ascension of our divine realm. But I have a plan for that, It just needs the necessary pieces" Xue Tie explains the timeline is still in the transition phase from dd2 into dd3.
They soon arrive at the residence as Xue Tie ushers them in, introducing his wife, Bibi Dong, the spider goddess and mother of the golden dragon goddess. She welcomes her husband home and then is introduced to Axel, his daughter and his wives who finished their ascension just after the fight ended and joined them all here for tea.
After being guided to a lakeside table, all get seated as the hosts get to work on providing the actual tea as well as snacks.
The two groups of divine converse casually, speaking about their lives, current hobbies and families. When deeper mention of Axel's family is made known, the spider goddess seems to adopt a pleased expression which her husband notices as he asks about it.
"Whats making you so happy?" He asks in genuine curiosity which makes her backhand his chest lightly as she points at Axel stating,
"Why shouldn't I be happy that our great grandson is so well endowed that he has his own grandkids. That makes you a third generation grandfather. Heehee" She states which shocks all groups as the blood god begins to jitter and shake like he is a computer experiencing a lag spike before a crash. His trembling only stops when the spider goddess explains in more detail.
"Oh don't you be a worrywort, our darling is still a pure little girl, there is no man in her life. But through her powers, she technically gave birth to Axel when she saved his soul. That makes her a mother, she made some mistakes so not a good one but I believe she made up for it if what she did to that soul that you messed up with." Her explanation relaxes the blood god until she mentions his screwed plan that had resulted in Axel being 'born'.
The child of the goddess of life and a hollow is certainly not a title that Axel ever expected to receive but he can't say that it doesnt sound badass from a certain perspective. Xue Tie also stops trembling but instead adopts a pensive look.
"So what do you plan to do from now on?" Bibi Dong chooses to ask the question to steer the conversation down a better road.
Now it's Axel and co's turn to become pensive as they are truly uncertain.
"With our collective ascension. I have to in depth check what changes have occurred to my world and how my divine energy is influencing it all. And that isn't even mentioning my previous plans going down the drain since I'm not sure how regular humans would respond to my energy. I can tell that even changes have occurred to my children, even the younger ones so ill have to check and help them if need be."
Axel explains a preliminary plan but with no proper idea of what the situation is except a few feelings and details that he intrinsically knows. He will have to reconvene with [Raphael] to get a proper handle on it all and with all inhabitants temporarily kicked out, it should be easier to manage the overflow of information. Perhaps he can do something with that to help with some of the processes that had issues in the old open world format.
"Well, at the very least you are welcome to come to us should you need any help. It would also be a welcome surprise if you chose to merge your world with our divine realm." Xue Tie shamelessly proposes his plan which only makes Axel lean his head forward as it is secretly known between the two of what such a thing would do if it kept happening even more times.
The staredown between the two, one with a cheeky grin and the other with an eyebrow raised is fairly obvious to all.
"Whats this about merging worlds?" The spider goddess expertly tugs at the specific phrasing her husband used and he breaks the stare down with a shiver down his spine.
"Oh um, nothing much, just a little idea I came up with that might make things more interesting, it's not like there are rules against it." He attempts to play it off but his obvious panic doesnt trick anyone.
"Well, that certainly explains why the god of destruction is so casual about my husband's little antics and why he is meddling in other worlds and souls from time to time." Bibi Dong speaks up with annoyance in her voice, Xue Tie gets up to try calming her down but she will have none of that.
SQUILCH. "Ohggggo" A sharp spider legs stabs the blood god in the stomach as he collapses, foaming at the mouth. "Do excuse my husband, I think he might be a bit tired in the head today. I'll take him away to rest, you all enjoy now" The goddess picks up her husband with ease and carries him away. Axel and co can only lightly hear, "my tummy hurt" from the god and then he is stabbed a second time with a spider fang leg, as he is dragged away.
"That was certainly interesting" Serena speaks up to comment on the situation. "We have a lot of work to do, don't we dad?"
"Youre not returning to your own family?"
"Ill tell them whats going on and help you out for a few months, at least until you and your plans are stable then return to them. Might help them ascend under my own divinity. Sounds like a good plan to take over the rest of the world since the ninja world is such a small part of it compared to the rest. " Serena shows her support and the remaining women offer their help, even if they don't know yet.
"With such promises, I can't say that I don't have the most supportive family in the universe." He begins to speak,
"Let's take our time to deal with all this, trouble will come as it always does but at least we have each other."
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Drop a comment if you wanna judge my writing or the story. I'll try to respond, especially if you're confused or anything.
Big authors note ahead, please read and until next time.
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I am pleased to finally end this story. It was December of 2023 that I started this book and now it is a whole 2 years later that I finish.
I am grateful to the handful of people that had chosen to stay and read this book.
I have certainly learned alot about my own writing style and how to write better.
The most obvious case being in this books situation being a conflict between logic and emotion (passion). This book was primarily under my logic end which was why it ended up being so formal in so many sections and why I never tried being funny at all, the few times that I did were very awkward like that one bar scene back in Orario long ago.
My first book Douluo Dalu was one of passion, I had alot of drive and desire to write. My writing wasnt the best back then, short chapters, minor inconsistencies early on and a few major ones in the end part because I had too much creativity that in hindsight makes it kinda cringe to look at now.
I need to merge both of these drives and actually plan out my story. This entire book was literally out of my ass every chapter with no plan. I at least had an idea for my first book and i think it still went well but this had nothing except an initial base aka Axel's devouring power and the soul shards.
My original idea was only around 5 abilities by level 10 and then some form of divinity but as i said, got caught up in the mood/research into fate and so many ideas that I had no outlet. This combined with the comments and started doing 1 power every level.
Future Plans: I plan to keep my bleach story on Hiatus right now because I have something special planned. A soulsborne story and I have tons of it sorted out and organized in my head thus far, so it will be good. Mix of passion and reason remember.
Also I will not be completely listing this book as 'complete', even tho ill modify the title to say so. I still want to leave room open for more side stories for the children or what Axel's new soul fragment that is in F-Go is doing. It will be a slow process as i will still be focusing on other books and things that drive my passion.
It will be named A Hunters Soulsborne Journey. I've had this in my head for about a year now but only in the past few months have I made any mental headway into it.
I made the placeholder book for it as of posting this but doesnt have anything yet. I plan to take a few weeks off to continue planning and maybe set up a few chapters ahead of time so I'm not always rushing another chapter after the other like I have been thus far.
It's not a pleasant feeling as im always on a crunch with my work flow. A single setback could ruin a single chapter and that might determine the mood of the rest of the story and I don't want that to happen.