Koltos used his many other senses to peer into the man, uncaring for the headache this would straddle him with later. He had to know what was going on.

  There were three elements needed for ascension. The first was subsuming your soul. The second was integrating your essence, and the last was merging with your aspect.

  And Koltos's senses told him that this man had done none of those things. He was as transient as they came, and yet here he was, in the upper realm, as if he belonged.

  But instead of knocking, being greeted and let in, he had instead kicked down the front door and flung himself inside. The problem was that the door was a metaphysical barrier as strong as the membrane separating the aetheric and physical worlds.

  He might as well have ripped apart reality. No, in fact, that's exactly what he had done, and he's done it using mana exclusively. The most brutal of brute force ways. Why, it almost reminded him of how Almeniris approached obstacles and... oh no...

  He watched in horror as the Goddess finished peering into the man and came to the same conclusion as him, and, instead of recoiling as any sane ascended should, she smiled, walked up to the man, and clapped him on the shoulder.

  “I like your style, transient! Ha! To simply punch your way into heaven! Are you looking for companionship?”

  Koltos's eyes bulged out of their orbits.

  David shook his head. “Thank you, Almeniris, but I'm spoken for, and I'd like to get back to her soon. There are a few questions I'd like to ask first, however.”

  The Goddess smiled further, “And faithful too! Well, no matter, I'm patient! Come see me again once you're available!”

  She tapped David on the shoulder a few times before returning to her seat and grabbing another mug. She looked at Koltos, who was still staring at her. “Oh, come down from it. Don't think I don't know how often you sneak off to one of the fugue worlds to go have some entertainment.”

  A flash of red passed on the man's cheeks before he coughed into his fist. “Right, well, at least I'm not offering myself to a man with enough mana to choke me just by staring a bit too much.”

  “Hmmm, now there's something that I haven't felt in a good long while.” She purred, giving David a decidedly predatory glance.

  “Oh my us! Alme! Maybe you need to go visit one of the fugue worlds!”

  She blinked innocently. “What makes you think I don't?”

  “I... huh.. you...” Koltos faltered, much to Almeniris's enjoyment.

  David raised a hand, catching their attention.

  “Yes! Young man! You had questions?” Koltos hurried to change the topic, sitting himself in the process and ignoring the goddess who was throwing David feline looks.

  “I... yes. Transient? Fugue world? And do you know how to manifest your mana? I need to learn how to, so I can avoid mana corruption.”

  Koltos tilted his head. “Mana corruption? Hmm, well, a transient is a you. We used to say mortals, but some of us decided that was belittling since, you know, we can die ourselves.”

  David quirked an eyebrow. Was that something a god should be telling him?

  Koltos kept talking. “As for fugue worlds, those are the worlds that we create in our dreams, where we live out alternate lives. It's how we entertain ourselves, mostly.” He swung an arm around, encompassing the island. “There isn't much to do in our little sanctuary, as cozy as it is, so two of us stay awake as vigils, while the others dream, and we rotate every few hundred of your years.”

  The god leaned forward. “Now, you mentioned mana corruption. What is that?”

  David furrowed his brow. “You... don't know what mana corruption is?”

  Koltos rolled his eyes. “I wouldn't ask if I knew. We're not omniscient, just really old. It might be something that we know under another name, or something that's... new, since we exiled ourselves.”

  “Oh. I don't really understand the process, but I've heard it called mana inversion as well. It's when you get so hungry that you become a magivore, and eventually tu...” He stopped talking as the two gods stared at him with wide-open eyes.

  David leaned back slightly, narrowing his eyes. “Did I say something taboo without knowing about it, again?”

  Almeniris was the first to power through her shock. “Magivore? You can turn into a magivore?”

  “Apparently so. I would prefer not to.”

  It was Koltos's turn to speak up. “Can anyone in your world turn into a magivore?”

  David scratched the back of his head. “I... think so? It used to be much more common, but I was told the main way to keep it from happening was to regularly drain your mana, and, nowadays, almost everyone drains their mana at least once or twice a year to power manatools.”

  Koltos nodded. “But you can't, because you have infinite mana, and so you seek mana manifestation.”

  If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Materialization, and is it actually infinite mana? Not just lots of mana?”

  The god waved his hand. “Potato, Potayto. And I don't actually know, but I certainly can't see an end.” He turned to Almeniris. “Could you?”

  “You know my senses aren't as good as yours, so no, I couldn't either.”

  Koltos returned his attention to David. “So, there you are.” He grabbed his chin. “Do you know how long ago people have been turning into magivores?”

  “At least five to six thousand years, from what my majordomo golem told me,” David replied.

  The two gods shared a look, Koltos speaking first. “Do you think...”

  “It might be. If so, it's one more proof we made the right choice with the sanctuary.”

  Then both turned back to David.

  “You two look like you know something about mana corruption after all,” David suggested.

  Koltos winced. “We... might. There's nothing we can do about it, however, but know that you and your world have our utmost and truest apologies on the matter, and our unyielding assurance that we will never leave the Sanctuary to meddle in your affairs again.”

  Almeniris tapped a finger to her cheek. “There might be something we can do, however.”

  The god's face furrowed as he turned his head toward the pondering goddess, a silent question in his eyes.

  “Well, you know, we could teach him how to cleanse the aetheric realm from his taint.”

  Koltos recoiled, “What!? How would a transient ever be able to do that! You'd need such an immense amount of mana to... to...” Slowly, he rotated his head toward David.

  “Yes, an immense, some might say infinite, amount of mana...”

  “None of this sounds good,” David said.

  Koltos blinked. “What? Oh, no, it's all good! So very good! You won't remember any of this, like we said, but your soul will, and when it's time to use this knowledge, you'll have one of your, what did they call it... gut feeling!”

  David glanced at Almeniris, who was looking at him, leaning forward, holding up her head with an arm resting on her crossed legs.

  He sighed. “Right. What do you need me to do?”

  Koltos smiled. “It's very simple. You'll simply need to drink a dead god's juices and pass them through your system.”

  “Can I repeat myself and say that none of this sounds good?”

  Some time later, after many more questions, answers that begat questions, and questions that led to more questions, the two gods waved David goodbye, wished him well, and Koltos then snapped his fingers, opening a hole underneath David, and closing back on him as soon as he'd crossed the threshold.

  The gods let themselves relax, tension leaving their shoulders.

  The god looked at the goddess. “That was certainly a... thing.”

  “The thing was good-looking and interesting,” Almeniris said, before her tone turned worried. “Do you think he'll be alright? If his world has progressed to the point it can spawn magivores... how have they not succumbed yet?”

  “Hmm, I guess you didn't notice it, but in his flesh, he had a very crude form of godscript. A lot of it, in fact. I can't even begin to imagine the barbaric process these people used to inflict such a thing on him.”

  “Wait, godscript? But how?” Almeniris asked, before a realization hit her. “The magivores... his influence. Do you think they...”

  Koltos nodded. “They must have witnessed magivores that had devolved enough to begin manifesting godscript themselves. They studied it, copied it, and turned it against them.”

  The goddess slumped into her chair. “Us... almost makes me want to visit the true worlds again, see what's been happening since we left.

  Koltos drilled her with his sight. She waved the visual attack off. “Oh, don't pump, I wouldn't. I was just saying that I was curious, but that man's story was a very good reminder of why we left in the first place.”

  Koltos dropped his gaze, sighing. “Indeed. We were called gods, but we were nothing more than infants playing with fire, and we nearly burnt down the garden we were playing in.”

  “I was very responsible with my fire.” She defended herself.

  “Oh, please, you were the worst. I still remember when you decided to rewrite a fundamental just to spite me.”

  “It wasn't that bad.” She said, crossing her arms.

  “You made all men menstruate. We do not have the plumbing to menstruate. Do you have any idea how painful it was?” He hissed.

  “That was the whole point!” She barked.

  “And my point stands!”

  “I wouldn't have had to do that if you'd only agreed that it wasn't fair in the first place!”

  “But I did!”

  “You didn't agree enough!”

  “What does that even mean?!”

  David felt a weight on him. A warm weight, about Niala-heavy. He opened his eyes and found a Niala curled up on him, asleep. In the dim setting sun's light, he smiled and gently kissed her head.

  She stirred, pulling back her head from his chest, rubbing her eyes with one hand and blinking the drowsiness away. When she noticed him looking at her, her lips curved upward. “Hi,” she said.

  “Hi. Sorry, I fell asleep.”

  “Hmm-hmm, I saw that. I came up to get you for dinner, and you were passed out on the couch. You looked comfy, so I couldn't resist.” She admitted, burrowing her head into the crook of his neck and slowly rubbing her cheek against him.

  “So I'm a comfortable pillow?”

  “Hmmm, always were.” She stopped rubbing and craned her neck to look up at him. “Were you that tired?”

  David tried to remember. “I don't know, I just wanted to go have a chat with my... with Leviathan and-”

  A small tremor took over his body. A distant roar reverberated from nowhere. He looked around, unsure if he'd just imagined the sound.

  “Who's Leviathan?” Niala asked.

  “My, huh, mana. I gave it a name.”

  “Sounds big and powerful.”

  “That's because it is.” He smirked and lowered his head further, closer to her ears. “Just like me, you know?” He said, wiggling his eyebrows.

  She blinked, her cheeks flushing pink as she giggled. “You're the worst! Seriously?!”

  “Do you want me to stop?”

  She stared at him as her blush deepened. She hid back into his neck, her tiny, muffled voice tickled him. “No... You can be big and powerful with me, whenever you want.”