Many years or perhaps cycles passed, time was still learning how to name itself. For me, it was simply seclusion because I did not leave my mountain abode.
Alto came to me occasionally, standing at the edge of the scorched stone I called a threshold, never crossing unless invited in. He spoke softly, always respectfully, as if afraid a careless word might disturb my daydreaming or something.
"Lord of Fire," he said one day, bowing low, the flames in his eyes dimmed in reverence. "The pantheon has grown."
I opened my eyes from meditation, the glow within my chest steady and contained.
"How so?" I asked.
"The god of War has ascended to mid rank," Alto continued. "And… the god of Passion as well. They have stabilized their mental states. Their domains are now no longer volatile."
I nodded slowly. "Good."
"That is all?" he asked, surprised despite himself.
"That is all," I repeated.
He hesitated. "You have not seen them in… many cycles."
"I know," I said. "Tell them they have done well."
Alto bowed again and withdrew, then once more, I turned inward. I had failed to refine another element three hundred times.
Each failure was identical, the second step, it was always the second step.
The first step of attunement was trivial. The earth responded, it listened to me well enough. It recognized my authority, I could feel its vastness, its patience and the weight it carried beneath the world.
But the moment I attempted integration—Rejection.
Not violent nor not explosive, just cold, hard rejection.
The fire within me recoiled every time, flaring defensively, as if insulted by the very idea.
You are enough, it seemed to say. You are whole, why do you want to add something else onto of your perfection?
On the three hundredth failure, I finally stopped trying to force it. I sat amid cracked stone and scorched earth, breath slow and hands resting on my knees.
"…So that's it," I murmured. "You won't share."
The fire did not answer, but it burned brighter, as if flickering in possessiveness.
The knowledge the world had poured into me had been vast, overwhelmingly so but incomplete. Refining multiple elements was impossible with the amount of knowledge I had.
Not for lack of method, but because the elements themselves refused coexistence within a single core. Or perhaps I just needed a loophole.
All in all i realised that, I had limits. That realization lingered like the bitter aftertaste of grapefruit leaves in my mouth.
So I stood.
"I need air," I said to no one, then left my seclusion for the first time in many years, the spot where I had been sitting had even dented into the shape of my legs and buttocks.
The mountain had changed.
Paths had formed where none existed before. Shelters of stone and hardened clay dotted the slopes. I heard laughter, light laughter that was unafraid of judgement or any danger.
"Children?"
Infants cradled in arms that burned with love. Teenagers sparring clumsily, fire flickering from their hands with more enthusiasm than control.
I stopped at a high elevation and looked down. The older flame gods noticed me immediately.
They froze, then bowed as one.
"Lord of Fire!"
"First Flame!"
"Father of the burning light!"
Their voices echoed warmly.
I smiled. "Enough," I said gently, lifting a hand. "You honor me too much."
They laughed nervously, straightening.
I waved at all of them with a smile and walked on. Behind them, the younger ones stared.
Wide-eyed. Whispering.
"Is that him?"
"He looks so… normal."
"My mother said he made the sun."
I pretended not to hear, and as I walked, I tilted my head upward. The sun still hung in the same place it always had.
"…That won't do," I muttered.
I stopped. Day and night were still a suggestion, not a rule.
"Either the sun moves," I said to myself, "or the world does."
I snorted softly. "The world would complain of course, so i need to improvise"
An idea sparked. I rose into the sky, high, higher and higher untill the clouds thinned and parted.
Flame gathered around my hands, not burning, but shaping into a rough shape.
I forged a chariot of fire, its frame solid, radiant and tangible. Wheels etched with sigils of motion. Rails warm, not hot to the touch.
"Anyone should be able to stand on this," I said aloud, adjusting its balance.
Then I paused.
"It will need a mind as well
I closed my eyes and reached inward, carefully this time. A fragment split from my consciousness. Smaller and Simpler from the one guarding the element inside me.
I fed it into the chariot.
It shuddered, then breathed. A chain burst forth, blazing gold, wrapping gently but firmly around the sun.
"Listen," I told it calmly. "You will count time."
A pulse of acknowledgment.
"When an hour passes, you will notify the rider."
Another pulse.
"Good."
Satisfied, I descended then I summoned the gods. They gathered in awe as I spoke.
"I seek keepers of the sun-chariot," I announced. "Those with focus. Patience and awareness."
Excited murmurs rippled through the crowd.
The first test was silence.
"Sit," I said. "Listen."
Notifications chimed, winds howled and other gods whispered distractions.
Many failed and only 4 remained. Then came the race challenge. Chariots forged by the god of Smiting, roared across the sky, and two young gods crossed together, laughing breathless.
I smiled.
"You both win."
Their joy was unrestrained.
"You… you mean it?" one asked.
"Yes," I said. "Come."
I flew upward, and they were pulled up behind me
I taught them everything, then I gestured to the sun.
"Pull it," I said softly.
They did and the world finally learned what day meant.
Their laughter echoed through the sky, and for the first time in a long while, I felt satisfied.
In that moment a new power blossomed in my heart pressing the faith energy down to the bottom of my heart. The power was deep red and had streaks of yellow in it. The more it gushed was the more I felt my body getting refreshed, and my body which had become heavy after my power fell from the mid class became lighter and lighter.
My power returned to the mid class low tier level and continued climbing sharply. It stopped at the mid class high tier level. When I reached the level the whole world seemed to change, the fire elements restrictions seemed to loosened somewhat. I felt like I could exert power that could affect an entire county with 10 cities. I was now a kingdom level god, no longer city level.
I looked up at the sun being pulled slowly through the sky, and smiled, I had discovered another way to climb up the classes of godhood. It was to create new aspects or concepts of the elements.