My walk back to the city was pretty pleasant. There was a slight breeze that felt great on my skin and I felt accomplished. Like I had actually done something great. There was also a peculiar warmth that started at my feet and was rising slowly up my body. I had already checked myself for injuries after the fight and had found nothing. Well, except for a small green spot on my foot where I had apparently come into contact with that weird goo. But I used some green mana on it while cutting the affected skin off so I didnt think much of it. I had made it partway back to the city before I saw anyone, I just passed a tree and was welcomed with the sight of some lamia guards sliding through the forest. I didnt want to bother them so I kept walking towards the city.

The cave was clear of activity on my way through however the signs that they came through here in a hurry were obvious. When I reached the city gates I was greeted by a stiff nod and promptly let into the city without a fuss. I was wondering what had changed for them to be treating me like this. But when I reached the city I understood that it wasnt just them, it was everybody. All the people I passed on the street either saluted me, avoided looking at me or tried to leave as fast as possible. Even the lamia that invited me to her bed when I arrived at the city tried to escape when she saw me. I tried to catch up to her and ask what was going on but she turned a corner and dissappeared. This was getting weird, as I walked through the city some small children even walked up to me asking me all sorts of questions and some even gave me things they said was from their families.

I decided to go back to Lari's place and see if she knows what is going on. The lamia district was oddly quiet when I arrived. There was almost no activity outside of the buildings, but there was alot of noise coming from the workshops and labs except for one which only emitted a weird low pitched metallic groan. I made sure to keep my distance from that one, I dont know what was going on in there but I didnt like that sound. I walked up to the door of Lari's building and grabbed the handle, letting go of it a second after. My whole body went completely numb and I lost control of my limbs. I crumpled onto the ground, unable to feel or move at all, however I had the odd feeling that this was a good thing. The warm sensation in my legs had spread all over my body despite its numbness and had doubled in intensity. I felt like I had drank liquid fire and it spread throughout my entire body within seconds.

The only thing I could move was my eyes, I stared dead ahead as the only thing I could focus on was Lamis. She was watching this happen but kept her distance from me. I didnt understand why until I noticed that all the metal near my body was melting, including the handle I touched earlier. I could just barely see the red hot metal out of the corner of my vision. Lamis was watching all of this with a curious and terrifyed look on her face. Out of no where the red hot sensation was replaced by one of freezing cold. The red hot metal giving off huge amounts of steam as the temperature changed rapidly. Lamis looked even more confused and nervous at this and tried saying something to me. It wasnt until this point that I realized I couldnt really hear anything either. Not even the sound of the metal warping in the heat reached my ears.

Lamis moved suddenly out of my field of vision yet some how I could still see her. A slight ghost image was standing where she was just a moment ago, lingered for a couple minutes and then faded away. The bonechilling temperature started rising slowly and I regained feeling in my hands and feet and stood myself up. Being able to move again I saw Lamis leaning on the wall next to a panel with a button on it. She had one hand on the button and was screaming something at it. I still dont have my hearing back yet so I dont know what she is saying. I do see that the wall is covered with ice and cant help but wonder if its too cold for her. The temperature warmed up almost instantaniously and the ice melted. She almost visibly got better as the temperature warmed up. I sat up and could not beleive what just happened. I was in a small crater like my weight had increased several hundred times, yet I felt light. All around me was cooling metal and chunks of ice scattered in all directions.

The front of Lari's building had been thouroughly destroyed. All the windows had melted or been crushed by the warping metal and any wood was still smoldering. All potted plants had died and there were ashes mixed with snow in the air. It was a very weird sight to say the very least, all this happened and yet there was no one here trying to find out what was going on but lamis. I guess people are pretty used to the odd weird occurence in this neighborhood. I turned to look at Lamis again and Lari was there holding her. I didnt even realize she was here, she seemed to be holding a weird brick to her ear and talking into it. I thought it was weird but then several large wagons showed up and a large man dressed all in gold got out. He was flanked on either side by large guards of varying species and genders which were also all dressed in gold. The large man walked towards me saying something, but my hearing has still not come back so I didnt understand. I gestured at my ears and made an 'x' with my fingers to show that I cannot hear. He nodded and gestured for me to sit down, I sat down while wondering what it was he wanted. He walked up to me slowly and stopped a couple steps in front. He pulled out a small dagger and sliced the tip of his finger. He then conjured up some sort of green marble and rubbed it on the cut which made it dissappear without a trace. He then conjured up two more and handed them to me. I accepted them and rubbed them on the area around my ears to see if it would help.

It did!

My hearing came back slightly, but now all I could hear was this weird sloshing. I gave the man back his marbles and took a deep breath while closing my eyes. I tried to pop my ears but instead I ended up shooting a disgusting mixture of blood and earwax out of both of my ears. But that helped alot, I could now hear perfectly. Better than before actually, if I focused I could hear Lamis's heartbeat. Opening my eyes again I could see that my actions caused them to jump back a bit.

"Sorry, your marbles healed my ears but I had to get rid of that stuff too." I tried to calm them down a bit by explaining. It only worked a little bit though, as they were still extremely tense. The man with the marbles was the one to speak first.

"Thats fine, but please give us a little warning next time." His voice was smooth and extremely deep, even for someone of his size.

"So, Whats this?" I asked. "Whats going on?" Im not entirely sure what just happened but I assumed it had something to do with divinity and these guys all dressed in gold give me the feeling that they have some divinity in them.

"You mean you dont know?" The marbles man asked with a genuinely confused look on his face. "In this city any and all citizens with any small amount of divinity are required to live in the demi-god district so that they dont accidently effect the minds of those near them. What just happened to you was you breaking through to the next level of divinity, judging by the divinity in the air this is your first?"

"Yeah" I could see them relax and hear their heartbeats slow down at my response.

"Then please -"

"Wait" I interrupted him, something he just said stood out to me. "Did you just say that because I have divinity I effect the minds of others?"

"Yes, if you were to be in close proximity to normal people for an extended period of time it would alter their perception of you. The more divinity you have, the more extreme the altered perception. This is what some used to force people into their religion long ago but here we live seperate to make sure that if we are worshipped, it is by choice."

"Oh, makes sense I guess." This made them relax even more, What kind of people are they used to dealing with here?