Aunt Phyllis has vibrant green hair, with two small, leafy, tree branch-like horns on her head. She usually has a gentle smile on her face. The outfit she wears resembles a 'lab coat' that is typically seen on 'doctors' or 'scientists' on 'Blue Star,' but it is light green in color and long enough to cover her knees. Aunt Phyllis is always so absorbed in her work. Her focused light brown eyes are a perfect reflection of her complete attention. They make her look especially cool when she is working on her tasks, which include taking care of us and other dragon cubs in Dragon Valley and her hobbies in her free time.
Speaking of her hobbies, Shiro thinks they suit her quite well as a dragon god of life. Her hobbies are finding ways to treat diseases her believers can't deal with and improve crops, which her believers will then distribute to those who need them. She is truly kind.
Speaking of diseases, Shiro seems to never have seen any dragons, not even a dragon cub, get sick since she was born, not even once. This is very unusual. Maybe the dragons' immune systems are too strong for the diseases? Or maybe there is something special about the dragon race? There is no point in speculating any further now. Let's focus on the task at hand first, which is constructing Shiro and Kuro's very own divine kingdom.
First, let's focus on the gods. There are two types of gods in this world: the gods of faith and the ancient gods.
The most obvious difference between the two is their bodies. The gods of faith have bodies that are divine power constructs, while the bodies of the ancient gods are physical.
The differences in the bodies of the two types of gods grant them distinct benefits, but also drawbacks. For the gods of faith, their divine power construct physique allows them to resurrect endlessly as long as they have enough divine power to reconstruct their bodies. The drawback of being a divine power construct is that every moment of existence consumes a large amount of divine power.
The advantage of the ancient gods' physical bodies is that they don't need to consume divine power to maintain their existence. In fact, they can also generate divine power without needing a single believer. Unlike gods of faith who can't generate divine power on their own. The disadvantage of physical bodies is that they are a lot harder to reconstruct compared to the energy bodies.
Another difference lies in their connections to their divine kingdoms. The gods of faith's divine kingdoms are automatically constructed at the moment of their ascension and their lives and deaths are tied to it. In contrast, divine kingdoms are not essential to the ancient gods and they are not born with one. If the ancient gods wish to own their own divine kingdoms, they have to build one themselves.
The divine kingdom actually only has three abilities: first, to store divine power; second, to stabilize divine power constructs; and third, to isolate the influence of the Underworld. Despite only having three functions, all of them are very practical, especially for the gods of faith. Lacking one of the functions would directly render the gods of faith's endless resurrection unusable. Although only the gods of faith can truly utilize the divine kingdom to the fullest, it brings significant improvement to the ancient gods.
There is actually a rumor about why only gods of faith can fully utilize their divine kingdom. The rumor has it that divine kingdoms are originally their innate divine constructs. Later, the ancient gods somehow learned how to build them and also followed suit in using them. Then, non-divine lives also followed suit and tried to imitate the divine kingdoms. This resulted in a failed imitation of divine kingdoms which is also known as the secret realms.
We don't know whether the rumor is true or not, but it is indeed true that divine kingdoms are innate divine constructs of the gods of faith and that the secret realms are failed imitations of the divine kingdoms.
"Are you ready, Shiro, Kuro?" Aunt Phyllis asks.
Both Shiro and Kuro nod with a serious expression. We know very well how important this moment is. Whether or not we can construct our own divine kingdom will determine whether we will be able to go to the main material plane after the construction, or if we will have to wait another ten years to reconstruct it again. Although ten years isn't very long for us, we still prefer to go sooner rather than later.
Aunt Phyllis gave us 55 units of divine power some time ago to let us absorb it in advance. The first 50 units she gave are our starting capital, while the remaining 5 units are for us to construct our divine kingdom. Gods can't control unabsorbed divine power. Even the gods of faith need to let their divine kingdom absorb unabsorbed divine power before they can use them. Let alone us, the ancient gods, who can only use divine power we have absorbed into our bodies when we are outside our divine kingdoms.
Apart from what Aunt Phyllis gave us, we had generated 2 units of divine power over the past 50 years. When combined with what Aunt Phyllis gave us, we have a total of 57 units of divine power, which is a lot, considering that a normal ancient god only needs about 5 units of divine power to construct the smallest divine kingdom.
We begin constructing our divine kingdom under supervision of Aunt Phyllis. Whenever we do something wrong, she will immediately warn us and offer the solution to correct our mistakes. She is so serious that if our divine kingdom could have been constructed by her, she would have already done it for us.
We manage to construct a divine kingdom with a radius of 1 kilometer with just 4 units of divine power. A 1-kilometer-radius divine kingdom is the smallest possible size for a divine kingdom to be stable enough to exist for a prolonged period of time without external interference. We did quite well, as we only wasted about 20% of the divine power. Average ancient gods waste around twice as much as us in their first time constructing their divine kingdom. Even Aunt Phyllis wasted 30% of the divine power back then!
The divine kingdom is not spherical like a planet. It is actually a flat circle. As for why it is a circle and not a square or other shapes, that is because a circle is the most cost-effective shape. It isn't overly complicated, and it has high stability, which causes most gods to use a circular divine kingdom.
"Since you two are done with building your divine kingdom, there is nothing more I can help you with. Next, you just need to familiarize yourselves with your authority and divine arts. I will leave this pile of papers for you. Remember to read them carefully, alright? All the basic information about a few starting points I specifically chose for you two is in there. You must think carefully about where you want to choose as your starting point. And you have to be extra, extra, extra careful out there in the main material plane, alright? The main material plane isn't nearly as safe as the Dragon Valley, so never let your guard down; remember that. Finally, remember to eat well and sleep on time, ok, Shiro, Kuro?" Aunt Phyllis really has a lot to say to us. Her gaze is filled with undisguised concern toward both of us. This is understandable; after all, this is the first time we have left the safety of the Dragon Valley, and we are heading straight for the main material plane. Plus, we are still so young.
"Mmn! Mmn! Shiro and Kuro know. Shiro and Kuro will be extremely careful." Shiro says, as both of she and Kuro nod rapidly. Then, Aunt Phyllis gives us a big hug. Shiro is on Aunt Phyllis's right, while Kuro is on her left.
While Aunt Phyllis is still holding us in her embrace, she says, her voice gentle. "Take good care of each other, alright, Shiro, Kuro?"
As soon as she finishes her words, she reluctantly releases us, but not before giving Shiro a gentle peck on her forehead, followed by another on Kuro's. Although Kuro remains expressionless, with our minds connected, Shiro knows that Kuro, too, likes this peck very much. So we decide to reciprocate! We give Aunt Phyllis a peck on her cheeks at the same time: Shiro on her right and Kuro on her left.
After the peck, we are ready to leave for our divine kingdom. "Mmn! We will. Bye-bye, Aunt Phyllis! See you later!" Shiro waves a final goodbye to Aunt Phyllis, while Kuro gives her a polite nod. Then, we enter our divine kingdom, with a stack of papers in Kuro's hands, amidst Aunt Phyllis's worried and reluctant gaze.