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    We emerged on the outskirts of the island that Highhaven was in the center of. “Island” might actually have been a poor choice of words. Continent was closer, though admittedly it was a small one. Because of that, we had plenty of room to travel before we had to come up from the tunnels, with the Citizen informing us that they’d needed to end the tunnels at least a few miles from shore.


    “Beyond the usual issues with moist ground holding shape, the dark force from the ocean can seep through the ground if you get too near,” he said solemnly as we pushed aside the giant rock on the surface and climbed out.


    “It’s fine,” I assured him. “Based on my calculations we’ve traveled…what? A hundred miles? Outside of direct line of site I’m not as worried.”


    I’d activated Murmur as we moved. It wasn’t as impressive during mobilization, but it was still a strong domain. “We’ll stay here for a bit, catch out breaths, and then head out. I have to check something.”


    Specifically, the mirror Callie had mentioned. I needed to consult my family about all this, with C-rankers being introduced into the equation, not just locals but godworld C-rankers, things were getting complicated, and I had a lot of questions about my epiphany. Plus the chances of them finding us dropped the longer we stayed here. C-ranker or not, I didn’t think anyone could get through Murmur after I’d had time to let it cook.


    The Citizen looked dubious, but eventually shrugged. I had no doubt he would bolt if we ran into trouble, but I didn’t exactly begrudge him that. Of course, it would render one of those scrolls unusable, or rather, I would render one unusable, but hey, you get what you pay for.


    Luckily, inside the Murmur domain I could decide what was seen and heard. I could make a shouting into the Citizen’s face and he wouldn’t notice. Since I wasn’t a lunatic (or Bethy), I didn’t do that, I just walked over and hopped up on a rock, taking the mirror out of the paired ring.


    Following the instructions Callie gave me, I breathed on the glass and then wiped away the fog. Rather than my mask, the glass cleared to reveal my mother’s face, creased with worry. As soon as she saw me, her expression cleared, replaced with a beaming smile. “Shan! Oh thank the gods. We just detected-”


    “A breakthrough to C-rank,” I finished for her with a sigh. “Yeah, that was what I was calling about. I wanted to see if you had any information on WHERE that happened, so we can steer far clear of it.”


    She angled the mirror, showing my grandparents and uncle. Behind them though, I saw someone else. Someone I’d never met before…hanging from the ceiling by wrist chains. He did not seem to be in particularly good shape. My mother noticed my glance. “Oh, that’s one of the S-rankers we ran into. Your grandfather captured him, and my parents have been politely inquiring about the details of this trap.”


    “I’m not FIVE mom,” I said dryly. “I can obviously tell you’ve been interrogating him. Are you sure you can trust his information though? Those kinds of tactics are notoriously unreliable.”


    As for the morality of it…I wasn’t super comfortable with the idea, and wouldn’t do it myself, but my grandparents were S-rankers. They knew what they were doing, and it wasn’t my place to object, at least when the opponent was ANOTHER S-ranker, and one who had obviously had nefarious plans for me.”


    My grandfather laughed. “The damage was all from the fight,” he assured me, reading my discomfort from my tone. “My flame of purification is quite a bit more advanced than your sister’s, and lies are a form of impurity. We haven’t hurt him for answers. If he was strong enough for that to be necessary we couldn’t have taken him alive.”


    “Wait…you can INTERROGATE people with purification flame?” I said with interest. That gave me some interesting ideas for a new domain. I shook off the concept, I could explore that one later. “Doesn’t matter. What did you find out? And did you pick up the location of that breakthrough?”


    My grandmother sighed. “Void distortion makes accurately identifying hotspots like that impossible. Not within a hundred miles of you, that’s all I can tell. As for information, we have some. Apparently the vanished gods have all sent their own to recover the artifacts. As we suspected, they were unaware of the handoff, most likely by my mother’s design, though neither she nor they have shown themselves yet, as far as we know.”


    “Most of them are tied up with the Six,” my mother cut in. “But Raxus is likely to be nearby. As for the people in there with you, apparently they’ve called for something called “A Wild Hunt”. The ones who actually capture you will be heavily rewarded. The Lady’s forces have mostly chosen to abstain from the contest, though the Order of Punishment are apparently in the Shoals. What you need to watch out for is the godchildren. Personal disciples of the deities raised in the godworlds.”


    My grandfather raised a hand, stopping her. “It should be noted that breaking through in there is a death sentence. No one with any talent would be willing to stay locked in that shithole for eternity. We’re not sure exactly what they were offered, but chances are good that only the weakest and least talented disciples answered the call for the hunt, so you’re not as screwed as you might have been.”


    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    I grimaced, but nodded, and they briefed me on the rest of the information, mostly just random tidbits they’d learned from the questioning. Once that was done, I drew their attention to my epiphany.


    To my shock, my grandparents were the only ones who seemed to know what I was talking about, and they looked absolutely flabbergasted. My grandmother turned to my grandfather with a bewildered expression. “Is he…?”


    He nodded slowly. “He’s detected Mythology. I’ve only met a couple A-rankers who were able to perceive it. Hell, it takes a while in S-rank most of the time.”


    “Loving the confidence boost,” I said dryly. “But what exactly is Mythology?”


    “Essentially, it’s stats,” he said bluntly. “Except it’s not. You can think of stats like molds. Mythology fills the molds, and then it solidifies. It does NOT penetrate beyond that. Mostly because the soul isn’t…I guess the easiest way to describe it is that it’s not porous enough. When your soul is impure, it acts like a filter, keeping the Mythology from saturating.”


    I considered that. “So the fact that my soul has been purified twice over means I can detect it?”


    “It’s the literal bare minimum you need,” he corrected. “It also requires a lot of insight and a fair amount of either work or talent. Being able to detect and accrue Mythology is the prerequisite for properly establishing a Domain seed, AND for integrating a Saga and becoming a demigod.”


    That was interesting, but not super helpful. It also brought up a question I’d been wondering about for a long time. “How many layers of soul are there?” I asked after a moment. “Because I feel like I cleansed two…”


    “Three,” said my grandfather in a tone that implied I should already know the answer. “You broke two of the shackles, didn’t you?”


    I blinked. “Wait…Mind, Heart, and Self?” I hadn’t thought about shackles in ages. “Does that mean you can’t purify the third layer because of the self shackle?” Because Zeke had told me that breaking that would kill you.


    “You HAVE to purify the third layer,” he corrected me. “But not yet. It’s a delicate process. Actually, breaking the self shackle is only dangerous if you do it too early. We tell younger Ascendants it''s lethal to avoid them messing with it. After purifying your third soul layer, you have to break the third shackle to allow your soul, body, and Saga to combine.”


    That was a lot to process. “Ok, but what about Mythology, why is it such a big deal that I can sense it and what does it do?”


    “It fills Domains,” my grandmother responded. “Domains, real domains, are unfinished. Even if you have a form for one, until you saturate it with your Mythology, it can’t really be condensed into a seed. Domain seeds are kind of a mold. The power of the initial Domain and the Saga decide how much the seed can hold.”


    I pieced together everything I knew. “So, when you hit S-rank, you have to accrue Mythology to fill your Domain?”


    “No, you have to fill your SAGA. Then you integrate it, THEN establish your Domain.” My grandmother corrected me. “Mythology is unique. That’s what differentiates a self established Domain from one of the early half-measures some younger generations use. Without your own Mythology to saturate the Saga, a Domain won’t integrate into the body.”


    That was why my mom had told me that people who established Domains early were crippling themselves. No Saga to use as a foundation meant they could never integrate them, which meant they would never become a Demigod. It was also why we were trained to open factions, it allowed us to create more unique Mythology in preparation for this step later on.


    It was…a lot. I just kind of spaced out, but my mother comforted me. “Shane, they’re only telling you all this because you came into contact with something that’s well beyond your level. They wanted you to know what you were dealing with so you didn’t accidentally hurt yourself by misunderstanding. You don’t need to worry so much about all this until much later. For now, you need to focus on your Chronicle. Realistically, you shouldn’t be able to inscribe pages until B-rank, but at this pace you might manage at C.”


    I wasn’t sure what the benefit of that would be, but judging by her tone, there definitely was one. Sadly, I didn’t get to learn it, because my grandmother interrupted. “Don’t,” she warned my mother. “That kid has no sense of self preservation at all. If you tell him too much he’ll start doing dangerous things without thinking them through.”


    I…had no response to that. She wasn’t wrong. My mom sighed. “You’re right. Just work on your domain shards. The more you refine the ones you have, the more powerful the subsequent pseudo-domains can become. I’m not sure what exactly you’re going to accomplish, but I’m sure it’s going to be amazing.”


    “But you have to survive this first,” my grandfather stressed. “It’s too late to back out now even if you wanted to, but you’re not completely screwed. You have good friends with you, strong people who can have your back, if you’re careful.”


    My grandmother looked guilty. “I wouldn’t have let you go if I’d known they would be willing to send peak D-rankers. Solid Paths aren’t usually a dividing line. Most genius D-rankers have already completed theirs by the time they hit the peak and immediately rank up, it’s not like E-rank where people linger at the top. I didn’t think they would have anyone on hand who could break through on demand, much less that they would be willing to do so.”


    I shook my head. “This was my call,” I said firmly. “I came to help my friends, and I don’t regret it. You didn’t do anything but do your best to help me. I appreciate the intel, you’ve given me a lot to think about. Love you guys.” I wiped the mirror, disconnecting the call. I wasn’t mad at my grandmother for letting me come here, but I was overwhelmed. I had a lot of new knowledge, and it changed…not a ton.


    I couldn’t use any information about Mythology for the moment. It was nice to know, but it was ultimately just a forewarning for future Shane. Present Shane…well he had other problems. Specifically, how to handle any of these godchildren if I met them. In the end, I just sighed. There shouldn’t be too many C-rankers, and I could avoid them or run. And if I met a D-rank god disciple…well, that might actually be a lot of fun. At least that was something to look forward to.