Rohan didn’t feel reassured by that in the slightest.

"Light work..." He repeated flatly, then looked down at his hands again. His fingers flexed useslessly, still pale and ordinary, still lacking even a trace of his strength that he’d acquired for himself in the Origin Realm.

A small part of him was relieved that this wasn’t a side effect of this whole universe, and only Hestia’s small realm. He had no clue how long it would take before he’d be able to go back to his own universe, so this was a relief.

"That’s a horrifying thing to hear when I’m the one it’s being done to."

Hestia’s expression didn’t shift much at Rohan’s reply. A tiny glimmer did manifest in her eyes that told him she was at least aware of how dangerous her statement sounded.

"Would you rather I lied?"

Rohan stared at her. "...No."

"Then no further understanding is needed, it is as simple as that."

Still, despite how casually she’d just admitted to suppressing hos powers and status, her explanation did make sense. Annoyingly so.

The moment he stepped into this place, his connection to the Origin Realm had been scrambled, turned into background static and letting his new, Great System status to take the forefront.

And now, hearing that even other gods had their powers reduced here, it became pretty obvious that Rohan wasn’t the primary problem Hestia was out to suppress.

’Are there perhaps conflicts between the gods? That would be terrifying for any mortals if they found out — assuming they aren’t aware already.’

Rohan let out a slow breath and tried to look at it from a less miserable angle. If this realm was strong enough to suppress divine beings, then it perhaps had one of the strongest features he could ask for when delving into the unknown like he was right now.

Safety. Aside from Hestia, who seemed to both own and control this realm, even if other gods did discover him and his secrets, then they would be powerless — quite literally — if they chased him all the way back here.

Rohan looked around the temple again, taking in the perfectly clean stone, the impossibly serene statue, and the quiet light filtering in from nowhere obvious.

Earlier, the place had unsettled him because it was mysterious. Now it unsettled him because the more of its secrets he learned, the more terrifying it became.

He glanced over at Hestia.

"So what now?"

Rohan felt like he was at an impasse. Now that he had much of his confusion overturned by Hestia, he was unsure how to proceed from here. After all, she pretty much made it out as if all his hopes of returning to his own universe relied solely on her.

Following her usual guise, Hestia did not answer Rohan immediately.

She turned away from him and looked out at the open face of the temple, where the pale fog still stood in perfect silence beyond the broken columns and shattered stone.

The soft light of the place gathered around her white and silver robes, outlining her figure in a way that made her seem even less like something mortal.

Completely ignoring Rohan still awaiting his answer, Hestia simply stood there in thought, hands folded neatly before her, while Rohan remained where he was and tried not to let his imagination run wild.

When she finally spoke, her voice had returned to its calm and serene nature, yet there was still this firmness behind it that made it clear she was not guessing.

"You cannot remain here if your goal is to return to your own universe."

Rohan’s expression shifted. "Huh? I thought that was plainly obvious? I obviously can’t be in two places at once; I’m not a god like you."

Hestia gave him a blank stare.

Rohan felt his chest tightening, though it did little to soothe the rest of the tension coiled inside him. He waited for her to continue, and Hestia eventually did, walking slowly down the centre of the temple with teh same effortless grace she seemed to apply to every motion.

"This realm of mine is sealed," she said. "It is a sanctuary, a retreat, and a place separated from the rest of the universe. Everything it suppressed in here unless I say differently — even the universes’ laws. But because of that nature, there is zero chance the anchor point of the overlap between our universes existing in this place."

Rohan frowned.

"You’re that certain? Despite knowing so little?"

"Yes."

She gave him that answer without the slightest hesitation, and that alone was enough for him to take her seriously — beyond, well, the obvious fact of her also being a god.

Despite her sometimes light way of putting things, she did not seem like someone who enjoyed making absolute statements lightly.

"If such a breach had opened within my realm, I would have felt it the instant it occurred." She continued. "Not after an intruder has already slipped their way through. This place is bound too deeply to me for a disturbance of that magnitude to exist here without my knowing. Whatever happened between our universes did not begin in this sanctuary. At most, this place was reached as a consequence of the overlap — never its origin."

Rohan drew in a slow breath.

The logic was hard to argue with. If this realm really was her home in the deepest sense, a place shaped by her will and held beneath countless safeguards, then yes — it would be ridiculous for a door between universes to open here without her noticing. In hindsight, it almost felt obvious. He had spent too much time focusing on the fact that he was here now, and not enough on the process that must have brought him here in the first place.

"So I have to go outside to find the real overlap point." He said quietly, more to himself.

Hestia inclined her head.

"In the greater universe beyond this realm, yes. More specifically, the place equivalent to the location it manifested in your universe."

That drew Rohan’s thoughts straight back to the ruined town, the hidden trapdoor beneath the intact house, the strange path carved through the forest, and the hoplite who had been lurking there long before Rohan had arrived to complicate things. The more he thought about it, the more the answer seemed to circle back to the same cursed location over and over again.

But now he had to find the equivalent of this in another universe. First off, what did that equivalent even look like? Was it even possible for him to determine that?

’What if it’s just in the void of space somewhere...’

Rohan shook his head, trying his hardest not to let the frustration well up. At least now there was a direction. Not a pleasant one, but it was still more than he had before. Compared to being completely trapped and clueless, that counted for a lot, surely?

Still, one problem remained. Obvious enough that he couldn’t help but bring it up.

"That all sounds well and good," he said, "except for the small issue that if I leave this place, I’m walking straight into your universe with no clue where to begin. Unless I’m missing something, that seems less like a plan and more like a very elaborate way to get me killed."

This time Hestia’s pause was shorter.

"You are not wrong."

Rohan let out a sharp breath through his nose.

"But," she added, and that single word brought him more hope than he was expecting, "You are also not thinking broadly enough."

Rohan straightened.

Hestia turned back toward him.

"You have already identified the most likely anchor point in your universe — the ruined town, or something beneath it. We must do the same from this side. The point of overlap, if it still persists at all, will not simply be floating in open space. It will have attached itself to something meaningful here, just as it did in yours."

Rohan began pacing again, this time slower than before, his boots making soft sounds against the immaculate stone floor as he worked through the problem. Hestia watched him in silence, letting him think. That alone told him she considered him worth listening to, or at least worth allowing to reason things out for himself.

Eventually, he stopped and looked back at her.

"So what exactly is out there?" He asked. "I know this is your universe, but I know literally nothing about it beyond that, and I’d rather not walk out of the temple like an idiot only to get flattened by the first thing I see."

"The lands beyond this sanctuary are not gentle, if that is what you are hoping for." She said. "Nor are they predictable. Much has changed since I last concerned myself with the wider world directly. But one thing I can say with certainty is that the outside is governed by my Great System, not the Origin Realm. If your own status remains suppressed beyond the temple — and I suspect it will, at least in part — then you will have to contend with a world whose rules do not favour the means by which you have grown strong."