Nerissa glanced at her sister. A conversation without words occurred between the two of them before she turned back to me.

"Yes, there is a final reason we asked you to join us here, Apollo. I was wondering if you would accompany us on a mission with a small group of Praetorians? There are two types of crystals that grow in this world. Redoxuite as you know. But there is another. Far rarer that almost all of Spartari do not know about. Praedoxite. It is vital to maintaining power for the Praetorians armour and weapons and if used as a weapon by the enemy, or if the enemy finds out about the crystals... The situation could become dire. There is only one deposit of Praedoxite on this portion of the world, but it is currently within Drakoshi territory. We are going to strike, extract and leave. That is, if you are going to join us?"

"Are you kidding?" I asked excitedly. "I’d be honoured to accompany you praetorians on a mission. Just make sure I don’t get attacked by anti psionics weapons again when meeting them and we will kick some ass!"

"T-They wouldn’t dare!!!" Rhapso shouted out before coughing embarrassed. "I-I mean, we will vouch for you Apollo. We can’t have our... Friend, be treated badly."

I chuckled and took control of Rhapso’s chin again. "You are cute." I said innocently before pulling away and began stretching. "Right then, should we armour up and get moving?"

I noticed Nerissa smiled at me and I reciprocated. She then used her power to dress herself in her skinsuit before walking over to her armour. Once she was inside, Rhapso and I were not far behind getting into ours.

Moments later, without even moving, the glade around us was gone. In its place were the red leafed trees native to this world.

Nerissa then spoke. "We aren’t far from the other Praetorians’ location. Should be a forty minute walk. Are you ready to depart?"

"Mhm, one second though." I replied, looking around for something. It took a moment, but I hastily spotted it rolling towards me. Walking to meet it, I leant down and picked up the stick. "Sorry about that. They were stopping me from becoming a tree, I am sure you understand?"

I then walked back to Nerissa and Rhapso, stick in hand and both turned away from me in discomfort.

"Eugh! I forgot how gross it was. Apollo. Please can you put it away?" Rhapso begged, but seeing the Praetorian squirm brought out my playful side. "What this ol’ thing? It’s just a stick. Here catch!"

I feigned throwing the stick and for the first time in probably millennia, a human made a Nymph scream in terror.

"Ahhh!" Rhapso flinched away, closing her eyes from the danger. Upon not feeling the grossness touch her, she looked around and let out a breath of relief upon seeing the awful thing still in Apollo’s hands.

"T-That wasn’t funny, Apollo. I thought I was going to die."

"Actually, it was a little funny." Nerissa admitted, finding her sister’s reaction adorable.

*Boop*

"Hey! Don’t poke my nose! Now isn’t the time for it!" Rhapso admonished Nerissa, who just stood there. Unmoving.

*Boop*

"Quit it!"

*Boop*

"Ness!"

*Boop*

I watched the back and forth with a smile on my face. I still couldn’t believe what I had just done in the glade. I had somehow convinced the duo that I was one of their gods? I mean, with my Origin, I had the potential to become that powerful, but still..

I had also learnt some interesting things. First off. Artemis was alive? That was why Skaja sometimes said ’we’ instead of ’I’ . That was incredible! I might be able to get some info about what happened back then if I can get into her good books... Though considering what I knew about my old universe mythological Artemis... I doubted that very much.

I also learned something else. Whatever this ’spark’ was might be the key to becoming a ’god’ Or perhaps it was just one path? I would confer with Jewel the next time I am home, in between all our mating.

Still as I watched the two Nymphs suddenly begin a ’boop off’, I did feel a little bad for tricking them. Nerissa was my friend, but I saw the look in her eye. The thought of me being, what is technically half true, as I am reincarnated after all, one of her gods reborn in this age. I can’t take that from her. The lie about me not remembering my past is also true. I don’t know my old name or what I did. All I have is obscure recollections from time to time and that was it.

But at the same time as feeling bad, I also felt proud of myself and the opportunities this could create. I was already, somehow, a sentinel. That was already the peak of respect I could get in Spartari. But now I had two Praetorians, one my close friend and the other had just serviced me for an entire day... Both were now seemingly loyal to me. Though Rhapso was still on probation.

Either way, the benefits from this situation outweighed the cons. Which was basically I still cannot speak the truth about where I actually came from.

I decided to think about this more later. So after putting the stick back in my Mindspace and adjusting to the heaviness once again. I stepped forward and stopped the poking match between the duo.

"Alright, should we get moving?"

...

After walking for a while, I got to know Rhapso a little better. It turned out she was one of the youngest Nymphs alive, only being a few years old before the ’incident.’

With my new found fictional status above them, I tried to ask them what this incident actually was, but it was like there was a mental block preventing them from being direct about it, so I left it for another day.

I then learnt more about Rhapso’s powers. She was on the weaker side physically amongst the Praetorians, but she had a powerful connection to nature. Allowing her to bend terrain and plant life around her at her whimsy.

She showed this off by having the trees around us dance and shake as we walked past them. Their limbs bending and moving in ways that would cause them to otherwise snap off.

She also went on to explain she could make things none Psionic plant life grow exceedingly fast and deadly.

To prove this point a spike emerged from the ground underneath Nerissa. Nerissa managed to dodge it, but the fact she needed to dodge it at all was proof of the attack’s deadliness.

"That’s genuinely impressive Rhapso. I can imagine quite a few Drakoshi have had a surprise attack on their dark side of the moon." I said, prompting Rhapso to giggle.

"Hehe, yeah. Drakoshi can’t detect Psionics either so it goes Schupp! Right up the poop shoot a lot of the time. Brutal, but effective. The aliens don’t deserve better. Hahaha!"

I laughed as well, though was now a little scared she would try to catch me off guard with a spike...

I then noticed Nerissa was looking at me. Even though she was wearing her helmet, I could tell she was smiling. I then recalled something and asked Rhapso.

"Rhapso, can you scout ahead just a little bit? I need to talk to Nerissa alone for a moment."

Rhapso simply nodded her head before running in front of us.

I then turned to Nerissa, who was now confused and I spoke. "So, I just realised you didn’t answer my question earlier, you got side-tracked with the whole ’you know who I am’ thing. So I’ll ask again. Did the pleasurable interaction within the glade mean anything to you? Or was it just a way to cure me and butter me up? Don’t worry, your answer won’t affect our friendship, I just want to know if I should open myself up to have different feelings for you going forward? Like how things started off with Hailey and I."

A silence lingered between the two of us for a moment. Nerissa seemed to be unable to speak, so I just nodded my head, assuming her answer. "No problem. We’ll call this a one off then. It’s not like I am desperately going around trying to collect women after all. I am more than happy with us remaining friends. Now come on, lets catch up to Rhapso."

I began walking away before I felt a hand holding my arm tightly, the grip was causing the armour to creak. I looked at the hand then at the Nymph as she muttered something incomprehensible.

"What was that Ness? I didn’t quite pick that up."

Nerissa then removed her helmet, her purple eyes glistening as she stared at me. She seemed nervous, a rare sight as she was almost always composed. She then proceeded to open her mouth again and spoke so softly that if my ears were not enhanced, I might not have heard.

"I... I want to do it again."