Greshina didn't touch her cake again after that.
"I didn't bring you out here just to walk around and watch you bully pastries. I called you because of your Divinity."
Ely paused mid-sip, then slowly lowered her cup.
"My Life Divinity."
"You've reached the Fifth Enlightenment now and more importantly, you have a World Overwrite, which means your progression isn't something you can brute-force anymore. You're on a clock now, whether you realize it or not."
"You mentioned something about two hundred years before."
"I did. I'll repeat it properly this time so you understand exactly what's at stake. You have two hundred years in total. To be elaborate, you have a hundred years to understand your Divinity and another hundred to understand your Overwrite. If you fail, you'll be unable to reach your full potential and your path to becoming a Deity becomes significantly harder, if not outright impossible without external intervention."
Ely didn't respond immediately, but the way her fingers tightened slightly around her cup said enough.
"Let's start with the easier part so you don't panic. World Overwrites aren't actually difficult to handle in comparison. They require understanding yes, but they're structured. All you need to do during those hundred years is understand your comprehension of it and eventually apply the Law of Divinity to shape it according to your will. Did you use it when you reached the Third Enlightenment?"
Ely shook her head. "No."
"Good. Most people misuse it early and cripple their own development without realizing it. The Law of Divinity is a mechanism of control. If you use it too early, you force your Divinity into a shape you don't fully comprehend yet, and that limits your growth permanently. Your Overwrite can wait. It's stable. Your Divinity is not."
"Why does it take a century just to understand Divinity? There must be a reason for that, right?"
Greshina didn't answer immediately. Instead, she tapped her finger lightly against the table once, as if organizing her thoughts, then spoke.
"Because of the Trimesters."
"The what?"
"The Trimesters. They are the phases of insight that every Fifth Enlightenment Divine must go through to truly understand their Divinity. Think of them as milestones of comprehension rather than power. When you complete the first Trimester, your Enlightenment percentage rises to thirty-three percent. It means you've grasped the foundational nature of your Divinity in its simplest form."
Ely nodded slowly, following along.
"The second Trimester pushes you further. At that stage, you begin to understand how your Divinity interacts with the world around you, its influence, its limitations and its relationship with other forces. That takes you to sixty-six percent."
"And the third?"
"The third Trimester is the hardest. That's where you understand your Divinity in relation to existence itself like its place in the universe, its connection to reality and more importantly, your connection to it. Completing that brings you to ninety-nine percent."
"And the last one percent?"
Greshina's expression became just a bit serious.
"That's not yours to control. At exactly one hundred years after you reach the Fifth Enlightenment, the Universal Laws will act upon you. That final one percent determines whether you are capable of transcending to the Seventh Enlightenment and eventually becoming a Primordial Deity, or whether you fail and are forced onto a far more difficult path."
Ely was silent for a moment, letting that sink in.
"So I don't actually control the final step."
"You control everything leading up to it but the final decision isn't yours. It's whether you've understood enough for the universe itself to acknowledge you. Do you know about the Divinity types?"
"Causality, Spiritual, Elemental, and Physical Divinities, with Causality being the strongest and Physical being the weakest."
"Correct. And there's a reason for that hierarchy. Causality Divinities are fundamentally harder to understand because they deal with the underlying principles of existence itself. Cause and effect. Life and death. Time. Yours is Life and Nature. Both of those fall under Causality, which is both a blessing and a curse."
"How so?"
Greshina rested her chin lightly against her hand.
"The blessing is that you don't have to split your focus. Nature comes from Life, and Life comes from Nature. They are intrinsically linked, which means your insights will overlap and reinforce each other. The curse is that Causality Divinities are the hardest to understand. For me, understanding Death took two lifetimes. Still, it took me a hundred years to fully grasp it."
Ely stared at her for a moment, then looked down at her coffee.
"And you're telling me I have to do the same with Life."
"I'm telling you that if you want to reach the level you're capable of, you need to understand what Life actually is."
"Life involves survival and growth."
Greshina shook her head immediately.
"That's a surface-level interpretation. Anyone can say that. You need to go deeper than that."
"Then what is it?"
Greshina held her gaze for a moment, then spoke quietly.
"You need to understand the meaning of life, Miss Ely. It's not just what it does, but why it exists and what it represents. How does it connects to everything else in the universe and so on. And because it's a Primordial Divinity, it won't be easy. You won't get stronger by fighting or training like you used to. That phase of your growth is over until you get to the Deity Rank."
Ely's grip tightened slightly around her cup again.
"The only way forward now is to study and understand. For the next two hundred years, your strength won't come from battle. It will come from insight."
Ely was quiet for a long moment after that, her gaze lowered slightly as she processed everything.
"That sounds boring."
Greshina blinked once. Then, unexpectedly, she let out a quiet laugh.
"It is. Welcome to the part of power no one talks about. Don't worry. You'll get used to it. Also understanding Life won't be hard with me around. Since I'm a Primordial Deity of Death, I can help you understand it better. I already have four scenarios prepared that will help you grasp the First Trimester."
Greshina simply raised her hand and gave a small, effortless wave. In that instant, Elyonari's perception changed. Above every single person around them were numbers glowing in a soft amethyst hue. They hovered just above their heads.
Ely's eyes widened slightly as she focused on one of them. They were days, hours, minutes and seconds. Greshina glanced at her reaction and nodded lightly.
"My Death Divinity allows me to see the deaths of anyone I want. Since I prefer to keep things simple so I made them appear like automatic stopwatches. It's cleaner that way. It counts down their remaining time in days all the way to seconds. I call them Deathwatches."
Ely kept watching one of them tick down, obeying a strict schedule no one else could see.
"Can you see mine?" She asked after a moment, finally looking at Greshina.
Greshina shook her head without hesitation.
"No. That's impossible. Divine Rank beings are exempt from that system. Once a mortal or even an immortal ascends to the Divine Rank, they step outside the jurisdiction of limited time. They gain true immortality. That means they don't have a fixed countdown anymore. They can die yes, but not because time runs out. It happens through external causes, not inevitability."
"So mortals are on a timer. Literally."
"Yes, every single one of them."
There was no hesitation in her tone or any sympathy either. She continued sipping her coffee and Ely followed beside her, still processing everything while watching the glowing Deathwatches flicker and tick above passing strangers.
"And it doesn't stop there. For those whose Deathwatches I can see, I can also interact with them. I can add their lifespan if I want. I can remove their time. I can even change the cause of death entirely. If I feel like it, I can stop the Deathwatch altogether and prevent them from dying. So, today is the day you get to see it in action."
"What do you mean?"
"As a Primordial Deity, I don't usually involve myself directly. I have Grim Reapers who handle most of the work. They follow the system, collect souls and lead them to the Reincarnation Cycle. It's efficient. But today, I'll do it myself."
"Do what yourself?"
Greshina met her eyes directly.
"The death of four beings."
Greshina turned away from her, already starting to walk out of the café.
"Come on. Follow me."
Ely hesitated for half a second, then moved after her.
"Maybe you'll finally start to understand your Life Divinity through the deaths that are about to happen."