DESTINY;DIVINE

# Chapter 10: Genesis

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The next morning, I woke up smothered in a tangle of soft limbs. Luna had joined us in our sleep, and she was a very wild sleeper.

Untangling myself from Luna and the sleeping goddesses, I teleported to the roof of my palace and gazed at the planets slowly orbiting my divine source star.

After taking a few moments to bask in their serene beauty, I went back to work.

Starting with the world closest to my source star, I named my planets.

“**Dawn, Gemini, Juno, Carmine, Serenity, Verdant, Indigo, Orion, Vega, and Eris.**”

All of the planets shone in a faint white glow, reacting to my authority.

Although they were all habitable by my future denizens, each planet had its own unique landscape.

Dawn was fiery, covered in deserts and volcanoes, while Eris was a frozen wonderland, encased in glaciers with frigid winds.

Serenity, the fifth and largest planet, stood as a perfect balance between the two extremes. 

With its expansive landmasses, vast oceans, lush rainforests, towering mountains, sprawling deserts, and ice-capped poles, Serenity was the most geographically diverse of all the planets. 

I descended to Serenity and withdrew the world tree spirit seed, a mesmerizing, heavy mosaic of swirling rainbow colors.

Following Rhea’s guidance, I summoned an ember from my divine source star and imbued the seed before planting it.

While similar, this process differed from creating a denizen deity.

The tree spirit was unique and would assimilate my ember, becoming an integral part of my soul realm and an extension of my divinity.

Moments later, a shiny black sapling erupted from the ground, growing rapidly.

The divine tree surged upward, reaching for my source star as sparkling white leaves began to bud and unfurl along its branches.

It soared thousands of miles high, breaking through the clouds, as pitch-black orchids bloomed on its mighty branches, beautifully contrasting with the bright leaves.

Simultaneously, a vast expanse of glowing white grass spread for hundreds of miles in every direction around the base of its expansive trunk.

As I observed, my expansion principle activated, causing the divine tree to glow brightly. Its energy intensified and it resonated deeply with many of my concepts.

The roots phased into astral forms, spreading across all the planets and forging energy links.

The trunk and branches darkened, crystallizing and merging with chaos. They became an unpredictable, translucent black, brimming with life, change, chance, possibility.

The leaves reformed out of celestial energy and expanded in size, radiating a prismatic white glow.

The black orchids turned glassy, taking on an obsidian-like sheen and perfectly reflecting the divine spectacle unfolding around them as spectral lightning arced and danced across the branches.

With my concepts of space, gravity, and void, the astral roots could effortlessly exchange energy and resources between all of my worlds without physical interaction.

Solidifying its evolution, radiant divine lights reflected and refracted through the branches, orchids, and leaves, creating a breathtaking perpetual aurora.

The world tree had become an origin tree, and from its majestic chaos trunk emerged a breathtakingly beautiful nude woman. 

Long, pure white hair cascaded down the sides of her body, styled in loose braids that brushed the ground as she glided forward. 

A prominent black orchid sigil adorned her radiant, dark skin, centered above her full chest.

Her intelligent eyes swirled and sparkled like a vast nebula as she gazed reverently at me. 

A flowing celestial dress materialized around her, draping elegantly over her lithe form as she neared.

“Master, I request a name.” Her smooth, melodic voice toned as she kneeled before me.

“**Genesis.**” I declared evenly. 

“I, Genesis, accept you, Aeon, as my master and deity. I pledge to obey and venerate you for the remainder of my existence.” She said, her voice firm and unwavering.

As my origin tree spirit, she didn’t need to pledge because her tree was already a permanent fixture of my soul realm and she was already an extension of my divinity, but I admired her devotion.

“I love it when you do that deep, wobbly thing with your voice!” Pandora shouted from behind me. “I wonder **can I**?..” She stopped, her eyes widening.

I assumed I woke them up while growing the origin tree.

“That feels so weird! **Hey Eve how do I sound?**” She asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

“**Like a goofball.**” Eve teased in her own divine voice.

Genesis stood and bowed to Pandora and Eve respectively, “Mistresses.” 

“**I love it.**” Pandora boomed, beaming at Genesis. 

“That’s going to get old so fast,” I mumbled, shaking my head at the silly fairy.

“Morning, master!” Luna shouted, charging at me full speed with her arms stretched wide.

I used my gravity and space concepts to slow her down before giving her the hug she was demanding.

“Good morning to you too Luna,” I said, sitting her down and looking back at the ladies. “How did you all sleep?” 

“Like a goddess!” Pandora joked.

“I would normally roll my eyes at that, but she has a point. It feels good to sleep in a physical body like a goddess.” Eve said.

Luna had already wandered off, investigating the white grass.

I chuckled. “That’s amazing, I’m glad you’re happy, and you’re just in time for the best part.” 

Taking the elemental origin sources, I opened their storage capsules. 

With my expansion principle, I had the choice between multiplying them or amplifying the energy of the new denizens once they were born.

After a short deliberation, I chose to multiply them. There was always time to grow their strength, so having more overall denizens was the better option in my opinion.

The principle took effect and my 4,000 elemental origin sources were multiplied by 2.5, creating 10,000. 

“Use the necessary natural energy of all the worlds to nourish and birth them as quickly as possible,” I said to Genesis, handing her the origin sources.

“Yes, master.” She responded promptly, absorbing them into the trunk of her tree. 

“Take these as well, once the energy naturally accumulates, I want you to start spawning spiritual beasts at random,” I said, handing her the DNA templates I received from the rainbow forest inheritance.

I had other plans for the seeds and sprouts that the inheritance also contained. 

“Your will be done.” She said, nodding and accepting the templates.

I left the celestial phoenix and void dragon origin sources orbiting my source star. I wanted to nurture them directly with only my divine energy.

Within minutes, glowing fruit containing denizens formed on the chaos branches of the origin tree and began ripening quickly.

After fully maturing, 10,000 elemental spirits burst from the fruit and gracefully descended to the white grass carried by the gentle waves of spiritual energy.

Sylphs, the embodiments of wind, were all beautiful humanoid females, composed entirely of wind.

Undines, the embodiments of water, were also beautiful humanoid females, but they were composed entirely of water.

Salamanders, the embodiments of fire, were initially large lizards but quickly shape-shifted into humanoid forms. They consisted of beautiful males and females composed entirely of fire.

Gnomes, the embodiments of earth, were also beautiful humanoid males and females composed of soil and stone.

**“I am your lord and god, Aeon. I created the stars, the moons, the planets, the mountains, the oceans, and you. You are my denizens, and you shall live and flourish in harmony with my realm and all its worlds.”** I commanded.

They all kneeled where they stood. “We accept you as our lord and god. We swear to praise and worship you for the rest of our lives.”

Black orchid sigils appeared on different parts of their bodies, cementing their vows.

While still kneeling, silver streams of light shot from their chests, streaking upward and aligning with the divine faith energy already circulating my source star.

I now had 10,000 Rank 1 denizens and they should generate around  units of faith energy or 100 faith crystals daily.

Even though higher-ranked denizens generated more faith energy, I couldn’t comprehend how much Rhea’s denizens must produce for her to have been able to spend twenty-five million on Hyperion so easily. I still wasn’t sure when I’d be able to pay her back.

As I mused, the elemental spirits began resonating with my matter concept.

The sylphs evolved into embodiments of all gases, undines into embodiments of all liquids, salamanders into embodiments of all plasmas, and gnomes into embodiments of all solids.

Before my eyes, the elementals had become phase elementals and began morphing into all different states of matter, exploring their new abilities while maintaining humanoid appearances.

“Amazing..” I breathed, taking in all the unexpected windfalls.

I never would’ve guessed that my matter concept could have affected them enough to actually change their nature. 

Before losing myself to thoughts of denizens changing by resonating with my concepts that aligned closely with their nature or aspect, I decided to name leaders.

“**Sage of the sylphs, Quinn of the undines, Amber of the salamanders, and Jade of the gnomes, I name you and declare you queens. Care for your people, and serve my will.**” I said, pointing out four of the phase elementals.

They all glowed slightly, their orchid sigils increasing in size.

“We obey, our god.” They said, bowing in unison.

“**You are all my denizens, but you are also my warriors and cultivation. To survive, we must all be strong. You are to all train and grow. My strength is your strength, and your strength is mine.**” I said to everyone, turning to my goddesses. 

“Pandora?” I callled.

“Yes, god Aeon.” She answered mischievously.

“Can you teach magic and spiritual cultivation?” I asked, assuming the answer.

“Duh, what else am I gonna do?” She teased. “Oh wait, I mean.. **Yes!**”

“And Eve?” I asked, trying to maintain a straight face in front of my denizens.

“Yes, I will teach martial arts and aura control. It’ll be nostalgic starting at the beginning like when we first met.” She said, smiling fondly.

I smiled in return. “I might just join in on a few of those sessions myself.”

“**The goddess Pandora and the goddess Eve will be your instructors, just like they were mine. Learn well and grow quickly.**” I said, turning back to my kneeling phase elementals.

“As our lord commands,” they answered.

With that, I nodded and teleported Pandora, Eve, Luna, and myself back to the Obsidian Starlight Palace.

I decided to maintain a godly persona around my denizens. I would only interact with my pantheon and a few select denizens of power. That was also the main reason I elevated the four queens. 

I figured that keeping a divine image would assist in their level of devotion, worship, maintaining a high level of faith energy generation.

“That was fun, you make a sexy faith god!” Pandora said, clutching onto my arm.

“Yes, you stepped into the role with poise and grace. I am proud to be a part of your pantheon.” Eve praised.

“Master is the best!” Luna shouted happily, skipping around the rooftop.

My cheeks tinged red. “Thank you, I still feel a little like an imposter, but I’m working through it. I’m a god now, a faith god, and I have believers and denizens that I must care for and protect.” I said to myself, firming my convictions.

“Keep talking like that and you’re going to have to make me new panties.” Pandora purred.

“Speaking of, when we need to visit Artisan Lane to pick up your weapons and armor, we should also get some light robes for everyday use from the Weaver’s Hut. Nothing I can make in the natural world would match Zhinu’s quality.” I said, thinking that I could also ask about Luna and divine beasts.

“Agreed, you should also thank Aria. She’s visited nearly every day you’ve been meditating, tending the garden, feeding the koi, and even playing with Luna.” Eve said.

“Luna likes Aria, Aria so nice!” Luna shouted from the far side of the roof. 

I smiled. “I’ll have to think of an appropriate way to thank her. I had forgotten all about tending to the garden, I really didn’t expect it to take a month to create my soul realm.” I mused aloud.

“Yeah, although it seemed like a small step, I now understand the difference between Tier 0 and Tier 1. There’s a qualitative change in your energy and you have a chilling divine presence. You’re far more powerful than you were just a month ago.” Pandora exclaimed.

“Me? You two not only have physical bodies with immortal, legendary physiques, but you defeated your heart demons and perfectly assimilated my divine spark. I’m so proud of you.” I said, embracing them both.

“Yip!” Luna barked in her fox form, rubbing against my leg.

I chuckled. “I’m proud of you too. You grew to Rank 6 and defined a chaos concept. I can’t wait to see it in action.” I said, picking her up and rubbing her head.

“Which leads me to the last thing I wanted to do in my soul realm,” I added, walking to the back of the palace.

With a wave of my hands, I created a home-sized cube of void obsidian.

Inside, I combined landscapes and geographical features from my planets with the seeds and sprouts from the rainbow forest inheritance and created a divine training space for my pantheon inspired by the forest realm. 

I hated that forest at times, but I couldn’t deny that my power grew exponentially while I was there. 

Through my space and void concepts, the new training zone was separated from my soul realm so unleashing powerful concepts and divine arts wouldn’t harm my worlds or denizens.

Teleporting inside, we investigated the rainbow-colored trees, towering mountains, powerful waterfalls, and sparkling springs.

“I created this space so we can flex our divine power to its fullest. We need to become accustomed to our new divinity and continue to cultivate.” I said, gesturing around.

We could all practice techniques and deepen our concepts, but we would need to cultivate divine energy in the natural world.

“This was an excellent idea,” Eve said, soaring into the sky and creating a separate void space.

She could further her concept and cultivate her abilities in an actual void without fear.

“Agreed,” Pandora sang, creating a celestial energy field for her own use.

“Master..” Luna whined, back in her human form.

I nodded and segmented a large portion of bamboo, filling it with chaos energy and creating a chaos bamboo forest. 

Luna darted off immediately, disappearing into the shadows.

Eve had immediately begun practicing, tight, powerful martial stances while incorporating void magic with her divine arts, attaching void energy to her strikes.

She had been practicing magic theory with Pandora in the training forest, and now she was finally able to put it into action.

From what I knew of void energy, it was destructive, breaking down and nullifying other energies, leaving nothing but void in its wake.

Watching her precision and ease at manipulating the energy gave me ideas for furthering my concept. Eve being my denizen meant I could easily assimilate her expertise. 

I recalled the void dragon creating both void lightning and void tunnels. 

Since that day, I have been interested in creating lightning from void energy as well as other divine and spiritual energies. 

It would alter my spectral lightning concept from something grounded in physics to something more mystical. Which I thought would be necessary to survive in the divine realms.

The dragon’s void tunnels connected points in the forest realm in a way that was more efficient than my space bending, but also wildly more dangerous. 

However, mastering the technique would be beneficial to our goal of one day traveling the realms freely. 

Pandora was rapidly firing off elements created entirely of celestial energy. With poise and elegance, she created celestial water, crystal, wind, and fire. She even began interweaving celestial elements with magic. 

Both Pandora and Eve had their mana magic ascend into aether magic, just as mine did once I achieved apotheosis. 

Aether operated much like mana but had a more positive aspect compared to mana’s neutrality.

Pandora had a much better grasp and control of magic in general compared to Eve and me. Even with decades of practice, I still had much to learn from the fairy princess.

Her original path was a magical one, but like Eve, she had begun expanding her expertise in the forest and we experimented with magical pressure and auras.

Celestial energy itself was a pure, beneficial energy that could boost other energies.

The relationship between celestial and void energy was contentious. In their pure state, celestial energy amplified, while void energy destroyed. 

As we observed during the celestial phoenix and void dragon battle, the energies perfectly counteracted each other. 

No matter how much energy the phoenix’s fire created, the dragon’s lightning would just eat it, forcing their stalemate that nearly destroyed the realm.

Although they were technically just born, Pandora and Eve were manipulating divine energy naturally.

Their celestial and void energies were just aspects of divine energy as a whole. It was the deified version of natural energy, the complete some of all energy aspects. 

Before I got too deep into my thoughts, I checked on Luna and chuckled. She was napping peacefully in her fox form while surrounded by the absolute anarchy that was chaos energy.

It was a catalyst of possibilities and change, but in its natural, liminal state, it was a disastrous energy of discord, randomness, and disruption.

It would be interesting to see what Luna would do with her aspect, whenever she woke up.