Leaves of Dawn

Valencia regretted all her life decisions. 

That was saying a lot. Valencia had made a lot of decisions in her life—she was a deity after all. 

Valencia had chosen to undergo the divine rebirthing ritual once more, scrapping her old body for a new one. Not because her body was damaged beyond repair—that hadn't happened in ages—she had just been bored and she had the immense materials on hand already. 

Sure, in a sense it was a waste of materials, but even with all the power deities had, they could only shift their appearance back until their prime. The divine birthing ritual allowed deities to live a 'normal human' youth. It was an easy way to pass some time, see some drama, and really get those dormant emotions fired up. 

After the ritual, life was just a simple little pastime. To Valencia, the only annoying parts were making up a backstory convincing enough to not get the authorities called on her and suppressing her powers to normal levels—after all, they really weren't hampered at all by the ritual. 

This time, though, the "getting the emotions going" part had worked a little too well... 

Now, like a blockhead, like a buffoon, like an absolute dumbass, Valencia was sitting by the side of a hospital bed. Red-eyed with her fists clenched, she wanted to punch another dozen holes into the pipsqueak that had injured the love of her long life. 

Well, the little garbage bag who hurt Astrid was already long gone, so the do-more-violence option was out of the picture. 

Letting out a long sigh as she wiped a tear off her already tear-streaked face, Valencia picked up the pale, delicate hand of the comatose Astrid. 

Valencia had no words. Nothing could do Astrid justice. Astrid was like the sun, she had illuminated Valencia's monotonous life (more than that infuriating sun god ever did), and Astrid had reawakened emotions Valencia thought were long gone. 

Astrid had been the target of envy ever since the moment her powers had manifested. Not only did she have to deal with people targeting her, Astrid was also born with the inability to prevent the energy her powers used from wreaking havoc throughout her body.

Astrid's inborn condition was quite sad in Valencia's opinion. The vast majority of people died from its complications—spontaneous combustion, neural degeneration, severe hemorrhagic fever, the list of possible endings went on. 

Yet, Astrid was kept alive due to the healing nature of her natural powers. Valencia, with her many lifetimes of experience, felt Astrid was even beginning to overcome the condition as she came into full maturity. 

Plus, Valencia was ready to care for and protect Astrid, so it was a win-win situation! Smooth-sailing even! They had graduated from school and were preparing to move to a different city—one where Astrid could realize the potential of her powers. 

Until that... that piece of walking detritus, egotistical, faith-born god had managed to convince Astrid's parents to hand their own daughter to him as a sacrifice. 

Now, Astrid was laying in a hospital bed with that god's divinity rampaging through her body to consume her and inherit her power. Astrid had done a good job fighting it too, surviving for seven months, albeit in a coma. 

But now, after fighting a losing battle for so long, Astrid's pale and gaunt face seemed worse than ever as Valencia could tell Astrid was about twenty minutes, ten seconds, and forty-five milliseconds away from death. 

That vapid, pig-headed, effluvium god... Valencia swore, if he was still alive, he'd better have gained a whole country's worth of followers to survive the ass beating she'd hand out. 

Taking a deep breath to calm her emotions, Valencia sat back down to cradle Astrid's hand. 

Valencia didn't want to do it but... 

It was divine intervention time. 

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Rain slammed down from the dark clouds blanketing the sky. With the only sound piercing through the downpour being the faint cry of ambulances rushing around the city, the usual bustle accompanying the night was gone.

At Northwestern Hospital, the trend held true. The main entrance hall was empty, the parking lot was empty, and the lamps flickered alone—illuminating only puddles and empty parking spaces. Only the emergency room saw action as ambulances streamed in, delivering wave after wave of car accident victims. 

In the main hall, the receptionists yawned, the clacking of their keyboards being the only noise to fill the lobby. One receptionist was writing an email to a patient who had missed their appointment tonight—yet all of them were unaware of the events happening in the wings behind them. 

On the second floor, in the fifth wing, in room seventy-eight, a certain goddess had tied her shoulder length purple hair back. Putting on a blindfold she had not put on in decades, divine power began to swirl around her, shooting up into the sky and getting the attention of every high-level entity in the area. 

"Never would've thought that I, the great goddess of gravity, would be doing something like this..." She murmured, floating into the air as she called upon as much of her divinity as possible. 

Clenching her fist and biting her lip to suppress a scream, the goddess separated just the tiniest bit of divinity from herself, sending it into the haggard patient lying in the hospital bed before her. 

With blood dripping down her lip, the goddess spat out a stream of expletives under her breath to cope with the pain as she felt the piece of divinity lose its connection with her forever. It was a sacrifice well worth the cost, though. The divinity would not only stabilize the girl's condition, saving her from death, but also snuff the last of the perverse god's divinity out of existence.

Letting out a relieved sigh as her divinity got accepted into the patient's body without more damage, the goddess floated back down, letting her power dissipate back into the air. 

She needed a few moments to rest, but then? It was time to run. 

It was time to return to Marcen's Cliffs, city of the frontier... or as it was otherwise known: city of the gods. 

Well, she needed to retrieve all of her and her girlfriend's possessions first. 

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Incident report: Divine Power Spike

Location: Northwestern Hospital, 5th wing, second floor. 

Time: 2:46 a.m. until 2:50 a.m.

Details: 

I don't know bro?? I'm just sitting here, right? I'm just this normal ass security guard who's supposed to watch a gazillion monitors! My veteran partner is asleep, telling me, the newbie, to do all the work because of... I dunno?? Hazing?!

Anyway, I'm sitting here, guzzling on energy drinks when a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, divinity power spike comes through! This thing was HUGE! You gotta believe me! This thing like... glitched the screen and everything! 

Bro it was crazyyyy!! It was like... FWOOM and went super high! I fell out of my chair and everything! I might've even soiled my pants... 

Addendum added: 7:20 a.m.

Type: Supervisors Note 

Apologies for the informal language used in the previous report submitted. Because of the inexperience and ineptitude of our recording crew, the records were not saved in time and cannot be submitted for further review. 

I, as the supervisor of this branch, sincerely apologize for this critical oversight. We will institute harsher training to ensure such a situation does not repeat itself. 

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Incident report: Transfer Portals Overridden

Location: N/A

Time: All incidents occurred between 4:00 and 5:00 am

Details: 

Extreme levels of caution advised. Between the hours of four and five in the morning, eight transfer portals were overridden by an—assumed—single entity possessing divinity. Based on the last portal used, the entity, in all likelihood, is around the city of Marcen's Cliffs. 

Reminder, class B entities and above are able to hijack the transfer portals without needing to hack into its interface. However, because the entity seems to be able to repeat the feat consequently with seemingly no rest, the estimated class is a minimum of A.

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