"Do you give up?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Sure, give up or get hit."
"A good has his pride, you know. What would people think of me if I simply gave up due to being weaker?"
Sol made an extended pause for dramatic purposes before continuing.
"That said. No one except little Amon knows about this battle so I give up. Please spare me and no more punches."
He gave up rather easily. Gods often put their image before their wellbeing but acted surprisingly rational when their followers were absent and unknowing.
"Then you will not interfere in any further actions I might take within this realm?"
"Yes, I willingly accept you as my lord and master and will follow your every order. Please tell me what you wish for me to do from now on."
"Hold up. I didn't ask for you to call me master nor do I intend to give you orders."
"But you have bested me in a fair competition of strength. If I follow you I am sure that I will get to experience many adventures. I long for the thrill and rush!"
"If it's thrill and rush you seek then all you need to do is wait here. Once the light alliance invades this place will turn into a battlefield, unlike anything you've ever seen."
"Can you not stop them with heaven-defying powers as you have? I can't imagine anyone more powerful than you are."
"It is true that there are few individuals known to be my match but that doesn't mean anything. You are strong but still a good distance away from ascending to become a deity. Once you do you will come to understand how fragile matter is."
I stretched out my hand and sent power into it. Seals on my arm flashed as they were released and power returned to my arm. Once I had temporarily released about a third of the seals I clenched my hand into a fist.
The unbridled force made my fingers tear through space and reality beg and to collapse. The small hole around my hand began to expand as chaos gushed out to devour everything it could touch.
Sol hastily retreated a few steps and stared at the chaos with unmasked fear. Everything around me was devoured and reduced into pure energy. Only my body showed no signs of change. A thin layer of magic had appeared a few centimeters over my skin holding the chaos at bay.
"How did you shatter reality so easily? I have only managed once and the hole was barely enough for a wisp of that stuff to fit through."
"As I said, you've yet to achieve the level where such things become simple. None of those at my level can risk fighting with their full power here. Only the four major lower realms would be strong enough to bear such stress."
The seals on my arm were once again applied and I helped space mend itself. Reality was restored and the chaos once again banished beyond the reaches of ordinary people. All was as it had been before.
Sadly this was only possible due to how small the crack had been. Once reality was broken to a certain degree the restoration of that level of damage would take a long time. As it had after the last war.
Sol had certainly been awed by my casual display of being able to destroy the world but he wasn't discouraged in the least.
"Please let me follow you, I yearn to see new things. Let me witness the greatness of those major lower realms you just talked about. I will hand over this entire empire to you if you want."
People like this were the hardest to deal with. They would be willing to give up everything for the goal they had currently set their sights on but that always made me question their loyalty. After all, they might betray me just as easily for the next guy. Best to be direct in situations like these.
"How can I trust you? Nothing will stop you from selling me out when the opportunity presents itself."
"If you can truly allow me to leave with you I am willing to hand you my god gem for safekeeping."
He was willing to hand me his god gem. The gods' equivalent of a soul. Removing it would probably make him temporarily lose some of his powers. I would hold his life in my hands at all times. Being prepared to hand such a thing over was a grand gesture but...
"You mentioned that I would have to allow you to leave. Are you unable to do so yourself?"
"Yes. I have tried numerous times but an unknown force compels me to remain within the territory of my believers. Hence my wish for them to expand their territory into other realms. I believed it the only way to leave this place but then I met you. However you managed to leave your territory I'm sure I can do so as well."
"You think me a god? You saw me use those domains, right?"
"No mortal could achieve such powers. You must have simply found a way to replicate the mages' domain."
"What makes you think that only gods were immortal? You may not believe me but I can assure you I am no god. I was in the past. I got reincarnated as gods or became one the more conventional way. But those days have long passed."
To make my point I send a current of magic to invade Sol's body. The divine power in his veins reacted violently and attempted to expel the foreign energy but was unable to.
"You are truly a mage?"
"I have ascended but yes, I still consider myself a mage at heart."
"So what are you?"
"Beings that have ascended are commonly referred to as deities."
"Is that not a synonym for god?"
"For some it is but not in this case. It's like this. You are a world god, you hold the power of creation but cannot create a functional world. Above you are the creation gods, they have created a world before. Once other creatures reached a similar level but with clear differences to the creation gods, a new word was needed. At first, a term for all beings of this level was created. Divine beings were all who could create a functional world. Then the need to separate ourselves from the creation gods arose and the word deity was chosen to represent us."
"I understand. Now can you take me with you?"
"Taking a walking fire-light man around with me doesn't seem like the wisest thing to do."
"Ha, you haven't even seen me human form yet. I promise you will accept me after seeing my magnificent form."