The transition

It ended up taking a few days but Hephaestus eventually got comfortable with Nazguls presence. Nick had a sneaking suspicion that most of that time was merely a ploy at trying to get closer to him. The goddess was not subtle at all in what she wanted even though she seemed to think he didn't notice. Nick chose to play dumb however like he was Ron levels of romantically dense since he absolutely did not want to deal with the matter. He had far too much on his plate to even entertain the thought of romance with even a human much less a literal goddess.-

Still she was at least being vague enough that he could play it off easy enough. Honestly speaking Nick could understand why she was trying to partner up with him as on an existential level he was damn near perfectly attuned to her. Their personalities and domains just sort of clicked with each other and to top it off he was just as immortal as she was. In her own words he was "a god waiting to happen" as he was existentially on the same level but was merely three tiers of power lower though that was soon to be only two.-

Yes with the worlds mana levels now capable of supporting higher tiered beings Nick had stopped restraining his manas growth and was firmly pressing against the edge of tier five needing but a small push to advance. Hephaestus was a font of helpful information about this process as she had the experience of witnessing a mortal become a god in the form of Asclepius. Tier five was the first step on this path so it was obvious that only those truly talented or willing to sacrifice could succeed at becoming divine. Tier five was different than the first four tiers that were all about mana accumulation as it was a qualitative leap forward if a minor one.-

According to Hephaestus one reached tier five by firmly grasping the domains associated with them and infusing ones mana with them to cause a transition to begin. That was the essence of tier five , a transition period from mortal to divine. This infusion of domains was the reason why a gods energy when not controlled turned into whatever their domains were. For Hephaestus it became a metal that was in a malleable form for crafting. For Zeus it was a thunderous storm that crackled with lightning.-

Nick unfortunately had this distinct problem of possessing too many domains that needed to be infused equally into the tiniest part of his mana. Grasping ones domains was not an easy matter at all as it was a bit like closing ones eyes to pin point the location of a sound. It took practice or a serious amount of luck just to grasp a single domain but to get eight and it was multiple times more difficult. Hephaestus even suggested that he discard a few of his domains to ease the difficulty but the mere thought of relinquishing them at this step enraged him greatly.-

Relinquishing a domain was not as simple as merely choosing to keep it out of this process but rather dropping all talent , accomplishments and abilities related to it entirely. This meant for Nick that he had to give up a part of what made him , well him. For those willing to give anything to reach divinity it was a small price but for Nick it would be catastrophic. Each of his domains were tied to each of the others in a delicate balance that if he dropped even a single one his entire path up to now would be voided out almost entirely.-

He had worked far too hard and paid in blood , sweat and tears to get where he is and refused to be set back for a faster and smoother advancement. For someone born divine like Hephaestus she couldn't understand what about it enraged him so much as grasping domains to be used was as easy as breathing for her. Nick explained it as a difference in starting points to her where she began life far ahead of people like him and thus simply couldn't understand what it truly cost to get there from rock bottom.-

But for wizards like him it was a thing they were intimately familiar with and almost always proud of. To be told to discard all of ones effort and struggles to get to the next step was like insulting everything they had done to get there. Nick as a result stopped reading the lexicon with his second body and instead used the entirety of it's attention to the task of grasping his domains with very little to say for it after two weeks of time.