In the highest chamber of the divine palace, Chief God Arkenas sat upon his grand throne, carved from crystalized starlight and etched with the runes of authority.
The entire realm hummed with divine energy, the air thick with the pressure of creation itself.
Below him, the great system that sustained the gods' collective power pulsed like a living heart—a sprawling construct of interwoven light, laws, and logic.
Every thread in this intricate web represented an aspect of divine governance: the distribution of faith, the allocation of power, the selection of ascendants, and the maintenance of the balance between realms.
It was perfection—or at least, it had been.
Arkenas's gaze swept across the web, his mind simultaneously processing thousands of streams of information.
The trials for the newly selected candidates were proceeding exactly as planned. Faith was flowing steadily from the mortal worlds.
