Chapter 158: Rohan’s Strength
Chapter 158: Rohan’s Strength
Hestia looked faintly at Rohan, as if he were more simple minded.
She noticed that Rohan still couldn’t quite understand what she was getting at, so she explained further.
"My Great System must recognise you as something other than an unregistered outsider. At present, it views you as a contradiction. Your soul carries traces of another cosmic order. Your body contains modifications that do not follow local law. Your fate is partially entangled with a realm beyond its jurisdiction. That is why it suppresses you so heavily."
Rohan frowned.
"But I already have a Great System status, don’t I?"
"A provisional one."
His stomach sank slightly.
"Provisional?"
"Yes. It is a surface classification, created because you exist here and therefore must be categorised. It does not reflect any of your strength."
Rohan could barely believe his ears. "So even my new status is basically just a temporary guest pass?"
Despite himself, Rohan almost laughed. Almost. The situation was still far too bleak for that, but some of the tension in his shoulders loosened.
Hestia moved her hand again, and the tiny hearth drifted closer to him. Rohan resisted the instinctive urge to step back.
"This will not restore the Origin Realm’s system," she said. "You will not receive your old status window through this. You will not be able to rely on its notifications, measurements, or protections while outside this sanctuary. But I may be able to help the Great System acknowledge the strength you have already earned as intrinsic rather than foreign."
Rohan stared at the floating hearth.
"And that would mean..."
"That your body may regain part of its previous capability. Your durability. Your physical enhancement. The adapted traits that have been deeply incorporated into you. Perhaps even limited access to whatever your Evolution Gene has done to your soul, though that is more uncertain."
Rohan’s fingers curled.
The Evolution Gene.
But he wasn’t that concerned by the Evolution gene working or not, but the fact that Hestia knew about it despite seemingly no way to find out about it.
However, he would rather keep his concerns to himself than bring them up to her.
Even now, just hearing it mentioned sent a strange mixture of pride and unease through him. It was the reason everything had changed. The reason he had not remained some nameless failed student who died in his first week. It was also the reason he was now standing in a god’s temple in a different universe, which made the pride feel somewhat complicated.
"It is likely the reason you survived the transition between universes at all."
Rohan’s thoughts stuttered.
He looked up sharply. "What?"
Hestia’s eyes remained fixed on him.
"The overlap should have killed you."
A cold feeling ran through him.
She said it calmly. Not cruelly. Not dramatically. Just as a fact.
Rohan did not like facts very much at that moment.
"Most mortal souls cannot endure being pulled through a fracture on such a grand, cosmic scale," she continued. "They would be shredded by incompatible laws before arriving anywhere. Yet you emerged intact. Extremely confused, yet intact."
Rohan’s mouth felt dry.
"And that’s because of my Evolution Gene?"
"I suspect it helped. It may have adapted just enough to preserve you. Or perhaps it had already begun changing the nature of your soul in a way that made the transition survivable."
Rohan stared at nothing for a moment.
Then he laughed once, short and humourless.
"Wonderful. The thing that keeps getting me into impossible situations is also the reason I don’t instantly die in them."
"A useful trait."
"That is one way to describe it."
Hestia allowed the tiny hearth to drift closer until it hovered before Rohan’s chest.
"Make no mistake," she said. "This is not a full solution. It will not make you safe. It will not make the outside world gentle. It will not return you home by itself."
Rohan looked at the ember.
"But it means I won’t have to walk out there completely helpless."
"No."
The answer was simple.
It was enough.
Rohan drew in a breath, then released it slowly.
"What do you need from me?"
"I need you to be still."
Before Rohan could respond, Hestia stepped closer.
The air around her changed.
It was subtle at first. The light in the temple seemed to grow warmer, though not brighter. The shadows beneath the columns softened. The great statue behind the altar, which had remained serene and distant until now, suddenly felt less like stone and more like Hestia’s own presence watching from behind closed eyes.
Rohan’s instincts screamed at him to move.
The pressure did not crush him. It did not force him to his knees. In fact, it was gentler than he expected. But that gentleness only made it more terrifying, like standing before a wildfire that had chosen, for the moment, to burn with the warmth of a hearth.
"Do not resist," Hestia said.
Rohan swallowed.
"Easy for you to say."
"Yes."
Then the tiny hearth touched his chest.
Heat spread through him.
Rohan’s breath caught.
It was not painful. Not at first. It felt like warmth after a long winter, seeping into his skin, his muscles, his bones. His heartbeat quickened, then steadied. Something inside him, something that had been clenched tight since he entered this realm, loosened by the smallest degree.
Then the warmth reached deeper.
Rohan stiffened.
For a second, he felt it.
Not his strength fully returning. Not the rush of Origin Energy or the clean, sharp clarity of the Origin Realm’s status. But a trace.
A memory made physical.
His hands no longer felt quite so empty. His bones no longer felt quite so fragile. Beneath his skin, something that had gone silent stirred faintly, like an animal waking under snow.
Rohan gasped.
The temple floor tilted beneath him.
Hestia’s hand appeared before his shoulder, not touching him, but close enough that the air itself seemed to hold him upright.
"Breathe."
Rohan forced air into his lungs.
The warmth became pressure.
Something unfolded inside him.
Not easily. Not smoothly. It felt like a lock being opened with the wrong key, carefully, slowly, without breaking the mechanism. Each turn sent discomfort rippling through him. His muscles tensed. His teeth clenched. His vision blurred, and for one terrifying instant he saw two sets of symbols overlapping before his eyes — one sharp and unfamiliar, the other distant and half-remembered.
Then both vanished.
Rohan staggered back half a step.
The warmth receded, settling somewhere deep behind his sternum.
Silence returned.
For several breaths, he simply stood there.
Then he flexed his fingers.
This time, they did not feel quite so useless.
His body was still not the same as it had been in the Origin Realm. He could tell immediately. The difference was obvious, like reaching for a spear and finding a shorter shaft in his hands. He was diminished. Restricted. Incomplete.
But not ordinary.
Rohan slowly looked up at Hestia.
Her face remained calm, but the light around her had dimmed slightly. It was the first time he had seen anything resembling exertion from her, and that alone told him how serious the process had been.
"How do you feel?" she asked.
Rohan took another breath.
He rolled his shoulders. Shifted his weight. His balance responded better. His limbs felt denser, more responsive. Not fully empowered, but far from helpless.
"Like someone put a lid on a fire," he said after a moment. "But at least the fire is lit again."
Hestia inclined her head.
"That is an acceptable result."
"Acceptable?" Rohan repeated. "That was acceptable?"
"Yes."
He opened his mouth, then closed it.
There was no point.
He looked down at himself again. No status window appeared. No notification chimed. No clean explanation told him what had changed, what percentage had returned, or what limitations he was under.
He hated that more than expected.
The Origin Realm’s system had been terrifying, but it had also been honest in a mechanical way. Kill this. Gain that. Survive this. Wait this long. It gave numbers, messages, requirements.
Here, he was left with feeling.
And feeling was far less reassuring.
"So how much of my strength did I get back?" he asked.
"Enough to survive a little longer than you would have."
Rohan stared at her.
Hestia turned away, and the oppressive vastness around her faded until she once again seemed like a serene woman in white and silver robes rather than a divine force wearing a human-shaped outline.
But Rohan did not forget the difference.
He suspected he never would.
"The translation will settle over time," she said. "Do not push yourself too hard immediately. If you attempt to force open what remains sealed, you may damage the work I have done."
Rohan sighed.
Then he paused.
There was one more thing. One important thing he could not ignore.
"Will I be able to use my Evolution Gene?"
Hestia didn’t need to take some time to consider this. She already knew the answer.
"Yes. I’ve taken the liberty to update these changes to your Great System status as well for the time you are in my universe."