[Numerous Gods' attention are gathered on the individual: Gideon.]
[Individual Gideon's chance to Awaken increases by 10%]
"Hm? Deborah, do you know what this thing in my mind means?" Gideon asked Deborah who's more knowledgeable than him in current events.
"What do you mean, brother?"
They were already gathered in one table. Their mother and father were so happy that they prepared the best dishes and dishes that Gideon liked when he was little. Seeing their son grow up to be a wonderfully handsome young man made them feel satisfied.
"Ah, this announcement or such appeared in my mind saying that Gods' attention are on me and some awakening chance has increased." He explained.
"Oh, that's great news brother! This means that in our family, the two of us can become Heralds of God!"
"Is that what it means? Although it only says the chance increased?"
"Yes! Even if just a 1% chance, once the gods' attention are on you, any one God that takes an interest in you and chooses you to be their representative would grant you their power and authority on Earth. What you do will represent your patron god. And depending on the god, each herald will be rated according to the power of the God's divinity.
"Contrary to the publicly known explanation, the real reason why there are S-Class and the rest is because of the patron god's divinity and personal rank. The stronger the god, the higher their divinity and personal rank of authority. Just like me, I have become a herald of someone called YHWH. He is the only god of the Abrahamic faith, which grants me the S-Class rating.
"His authority and divinity are the highest after all." Deborah explained and Gideon understood. However, he did not tell Deborah about the next few lines that appeared after the notification:
[Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains ability has been awakened. Consuming energy to execute upgrade.]
[Success. The 10% chance of awakening has been upgraded to 100% awakening.]
[The goddess Bia has been automatically selected as a source of energy for the ability. Binding. Binding Success.]
[The process of awakening will now begin.]
"Oh?" Gideon was surprised. Why was this happening all of the sudden? It was because of the passive ability he requested from the goddess of the other world, Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains.
"Um… Debbie, can I ask, what happens when someone awakens? I need your answer quick!"
"Uh… uh… a light from the heavens would pour on you and uh… like what you are experiencing now, brother! Are you awakening! Such a quick selection!"
By the time Deborah explained for a sentence, the light poured down from heaven and landed on Gideon thereby declaring him as herald to the goddess Bia, albeit, unknowingly.
In the Divine Realm: Olympus.
"I can't believe he chose Bia almost instantly. Was this something he had been looking forward to so much that the moment it appeared, he directly chose Bia as his patron?"
"Bia, how do you feel?"
"…"
Some of the God's totally forgot that the one they were speaking to was a silent rock. Although she did feel some of her power was consumed, it was not in anyway a permanent decrease. It was as if Gideon borrowed her energy before, she quickly recovered it.
"How peculiar." Bia spoke and soon, the entire Divine Realm was talking about this event. The day that Bia spoke more than a word! This is an unprecedented miracle in the history of history!
Zeus who watched this happen, was also secretly happy. Not because they gained another representative, but because he knew who Gideon was. He was the same man who took the risk for his sister to not experience the cruelty of the other world and the evil gods.
"Tonight! We celebrate Bia's herald being selected! Rejoice!" Zeus cheered. The rest of the Olympia gods celebrated as well.
On Earth. Johnsons' dining table.
"Wh-What? Deo, did you also awaken? Isn't that great?! Congratulations!"
"Thank you, mom. I did awaken, yes."
"Since you've awakened, you should be able to help your sister in doing tasks for the gods, right?" his father asked.
"Yes, father. I will." Gideon was giving them responses on time, as he kept on focusing on the information that his mind had clearly showed him.
[Individual Gideon has began channeling Bia's divine essence. Gained S-Class skill Divine Empowerment and Divine Sense.]
[Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains activated. Divine Empowerment and Divine Sense has evolved beyond the source and has become a personal skill of the highest order.]
[Divine Empowerment has evolved to Supreme Divinity. Divine Sense has evolved to Divine Authority.]
{Connection to the Source has been cut.}
{Searching for New Source.}
{New Source, found. Binding to individual Gideon. Success.}
{Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains has gained a new source of executional energy.}
In the Divine Realm.
Bia was still feeling Good about the herald she gained, and yet, a few seconds later, she felt that the connection between them was cut off. She knew it wasn't Gideon, this was impossible, so she suspected other gods, yet she found that there were no God's involved as well. This confused her so much. However, her confusion did not last as she was suddenly faced with a force feedback resonance of divinity. What this meant was that the divinity she expended to allow Gideon to become a herald of hers, had already matured and came back with more.
This was also the reason why they wanted to grow their forces. The personal gains were greater than the whole. When a herald grew to the point of walking the divine path, this means that the initial divine energy they let the herald borrow had matured and had multiplied to give them divinity enough to level up as well.
Divinity had levels after all. Right now, Bia was undergoing a feedback resonance that shouldn't have happened this quick. She was feeling the divine energy and she calculated that if she was able to absorb every drop of it, she would directly shoot towards Greater Divinity level.
Since Bia was a goddess associated with force and power, or more specifically, raw power, Gideon also gained the aspects of Bia's godhood. He gained physical raw power on par with the gods. He also gained the physical body comparable to that of a god. This also made a contradicting existence to appear in the moral plane. A moral with the power and authority of a deity.
Ten Orders of Magnitude in Gains passive was no joke. Gideon knew this was the case. He did ask for this ability not out of innocence or whim. He was thinking of the possibility of gaining wealth through the gains he could work hard for when he returned. This was for the sake of his family to live a life of comfort after he left them and disappeared on his own.
"My body and soul feel so full right now, not to the point that I gained my previous powers, I don't have my previous skills as well. There are two that are added, Supreme Divinity and Divine Authority.
"Both are great skills to have, I guess. The only issue I had with the passive the goddess gave me is that it needed energy I could not provide easily.
"Surely, it's not a coincidence that the Earth's deities opened a path to divinity at this juncture. I have to investigate."
After his meal with his family, Gideon was being interviewed by their parents.
"Son, where have you been and what have you experience all these years?" Father asked. He was rather curious. They searched for him to the best of their physical and financial means to no avail.
"Well, I need you to stay on your seats. What I'm about to tell you is the truth." Gideon paused and then looked at Deborah, his sister who knew where he had been all this time and yet was not believed by anyone, not even their parents.
"At that time, 10 years ago, while I was on my way home, I did have the chance to meet you two as you bought ice cream for Debbie. At that time, Debbie found me and we waited for you to finish paying to go home together, Mom.
"However, before you completed your transaction, a magic circle appeared beneath me as I was carrying Debbie. Afraid of what would happen had she been taken together with me, I hurriedly put her down and ran away.
"I did not realize that it wasn't me the magic circle was for and I already ran quite a distance from Debbie. I was full of desperation and I felt that my heart would burst if I did not make it, maybe I would kill myself right there if I failed to get Debbie out of that magic circle.
"In the end, I replaced her and was the one who got taken to another world. Initially, I was glad that you made peace that I disappeared and was worried that Debbie would tell you about it and cause you to worry, but I didn't think that Debbie would tell you and that you wouldn't believe her.
"I also can't blame you, nor can Debbie. She was a little girl and knew no better than adults, maybe she was making things up to cope with it, the doctors would've said. I just feel bad and painted that our little Debbie had to carry this burden of the truth her whole childhood into adulthood.
"Now, Debbie can finally be free from it. I'm sorry for being late, squirt. I promise, I won't let anyone Bully you or our family from now on.
"Mom, Dad. A travel to another world may be incredulous right now to you, but step back and think, Debbie became a god's representative a Herald, don't you think this in itself is also incredulous and yet it happened?"
"This…" both mother and father stopped to think. They realized, yes, it was already in front of them. Magic wasn't foreign to them any longer and the story that Debbie told had indeed happened a month before the Sacrosanctum Concilium Vasis Dei, the gathering of the God's and their vessels, also happened to open.
They turned towards Deborah who had already started bawling as she wept in her brother's chest letting herself go within his brother's embrace. They felt real bad not believing their daughter. Their faces turned gloomy from the guilt. Seeing this, Gideon said something that pushed all the darkness away from their faces.
"Mom, Dad, Squirt. I'm sorry for deciding on my own to take your place as the sacrifice. I did not account for the people, my loved ones, you. What you were going to go through after my disappearance, and what would happen to Debbie since she was the only one who knew.
"I'm really sorry. However, if time were to turn back and I was faced with the same choice, I would still take Debbie's place.
"So, Mom, Dad, and you little Squirt. Don't dwell on it anymore. What's done is done. I am back, and there's nothing else to do but to forgive and celebrate our reunion, right?"
Gideon's words instantly brightened the gloomy atmosphere and both mother and father's eyes became bright as well.
"Thank you, son. Forgive us as well, Debbie."
"Mom, and Dad. Thank you. I forgive you and I love everyone, especially brother!" Deborah hugged Gideon tightly as she smiled sweetly. This time, Gideon did not feel discomfort or pain as she used her strength to hug him tightly.
Deborah did not notice and just started to hug him even more tightly. They continued to talk and shared each other's experiences on the living room of their mansion. The servants dared not to disturb this reunion. All transactions that day were canceled or pushed back. The S-Class awakened; the Herald of YHWH had taken the day off.
At night, even after dinner was silently served to them in the living room, dessert was also served, refreshments, the four of them showed no signs of getting tired of just talking. Sometimes laughing, sometimes crying and sometimes Deborah would pound on Gideon's chest after sipping up and telling them about the 'luxuries' that he had with women in the other world. The parents could only smile wryly they suspected that Deborah was probably using so little strength if not, won't their newly reunited family be incomplete again?
The sharing of experience was going on through the night without rest. The parents also quite afraid to tuck in, thinking that this was just a dream and tomorrow, Gideon would all but be gone as well.
…
In the Divine Realm. Bia's personal chamber.
"I broke through." Bia said. Although she was usually silent, when she was alone, she would utter more words in her comfort zone.
"However, that mortal who chose me as their patron god, suddenly had our connection cut off. Should I investigate?"
"No, there's no need to. All I need to do is observe him. I only broke through because of the feedback resonance of divinity. As a favor that this granted to me, I shall also do one thing for him as a return in the future." Bia decided. She did not spread the news that her connection to the other world traveler and returner was cut off.
The gods' attention was entirely on Gideon for a duration. His actions were taken into their sights seriously. There were two reasons for this.
One, he was an other world returnee who even the gods of Earth cannot discern as to whether he is a pawn of the evil god, or not. Two, he was powerful enough to subdue the S-Class herald of YHWH, Deborah in close combat without any traces of supernatural, or natural empowerment on him.
They were all looking forward to the growth of this herald that chose Bia as his patron god.