The training to become a Fallen God went remarkably well for the two would-be saviors. Because of the determination driving them, they were able to resist the corruptive effects of the process, their ‘symptoms’ being little more than a slightly shorter temper. Even then, it was hard for Chel to notice the effects.

One month after creating their Fallen Soul, they allowed the power of chaos to fuse with their flesh, eroding it and replacing their physical bodies with the energy of the void. At that point, she began to teach them how to make contact with the void, and how to harness it for a variety of effects.

While she did not teach them how to use memetic attacks, she did show them how to shape the void into different forms of matter. She taught them how to draw on it to heal their wounds, and how to open portals to it so that they could traverse between worlds.

Once that training was complete, they went on to learn from each of their special trainers. Geoff went to learn from Leowynn about the essence of starlight, and Hanya went to learn from Keliope and Udona. This was only her second time being in the presence of the Greater Pantheon, but she was not about to show them disrespect simply because they were not the goddesses she served.

“Nice to meet you!” Keliope said with a wide grin when Hanya arrived. For safety purposes, each of their training programs were being conducted on distant worlds, far removed from any form of civilization. They did not want the risk of void powers leaking out to surrounding cities.

“As she said, a pleasure.” Udona nodded her head politely, arms crossed in front of her. “We have high hopes for you, Miss Lara.”

“Please, just call me Hanya.” She responded with an almost shy smile. “I’m thankful to have this chance to study with the two of you, and any help that you can give me.”

Keliope chuckled at that, nodding her head. “Well, we’re not so familiar with void training ourselves, but Chel said to just educate you for this step as if you were training to be a regular Goddess of Immunity. If it’s just that, I think we can handle it.”

Udona seemed to agree with that sentiment. “How much has she told you about establishing void powers, so far?”

Hanya shook her head, eyes coming to rest on the grassy ground beneath her feet. “Only the method of creating items, really. She said that we don’t need to know how to use our ‘void domain’ until after the process is complete. That it would just be an unnecessary use of energy right now. When we connect with the void for the final stage, we just need to focus on everything we know about the concept we want, and the void will respond with the proper domain.”

“So that’s how that works?” Udona asked with a tilt of her head. “I’ll need to remember that. I suppose Terra’s twins had their own reasons. Regardless, if it is merely teaching you about your concept, that’s something we are quite suited for.”

“Right?” Keliope grinned, punching her fists together. “You’re the one planning to be Immunity, so we’re the best coaches you could ask for. After all, Immunity doesn’t just mean the power to not get sick!”

Udona offered a small nod, continuing from her sister’s words. “Immunity, at its core, simply means to be unaffected. You can be immune to disease, immune to fire, to cold, or even the perceptions of others. You can be immune to mockery, even. Anything that could affect you, there is a way to be immune to it.”

Hanya nodded intently, listening to the words of the two goddesses when Keliope jumped in again. “So, let’s go for a quiz! How would you be immune to getting punched right in the face?” She lifted up a hand as if preparing to demonstrate, causing Hanya’s eyes to widen and quickly attempt to answer.

“Y-You would nullify the kinetic energy, right?” When she asked that, Keliope let out a light laugh.

“Well, sure. If you wanted to be frozen like a statue. You don’t want to nullify all kinetic energy, or the air around you will refuse to move and let you pass, and you’d never feel the touch of another person. Instead, you want to nullify kinetic energy beyond a threshold that would be dangerous to you.”

Hanya hesitated, before nodding her head. “I see… so for hot and cold, it would not be negating the effects of temperature entirely, but only beyond a certain point?”

“That’s correct.” Udona spoke up in agreement. “For diseases, it is fine to create a full immunity, but that immunity will only work on one specific disease. If you were to become immune to the Pinnacle Plague, that would not make you immune to other diseases, even those of a similar nature. That is because each disease can be considered its own, unique form of attack.”

Hanya had already guessed as much, so she nodded in understanding. “Is there anything that the two of you would suggest?”

Keliope kept that same grin on her face as she spoke next. “You can never plan for every single thing you want to be immune to. Instead, once you figure out how to do stuff like that, set it so you can just sense whatever’s affecting you. That way, you can create immunities whenever you notice a harmful substance, before it has the chance to do any real damage.”

“That’s actually quite a good idea.” Udona blinked in surprise, looking at the ursa goddess. “You never know what dangers you may face where you’re going, so you can only prepare for what you would encounter here. You’ll need an ability like this once you reach the other side, or else you may fall into an unexpected crisis.”

“I understand.” Hanya spoke firmly, finding the idea quite agreeable. Like this, they continued to talk about the various powers and utility of ‘Immunity’, and the ways she could use her power once it was properly at her disposal.

They met every day like this, discussing the specific methods of gaining immunity to various diseases, how to increase the body’s ability to fight infection, and many other related topics. In truth, Hanya and Geoff barely got a moment to see each other for the entire month, and it made them… rather lonely, despite being in the presence of the Greater Pantheon.

Finally, when that month ended, they were back in Chel’s lab, ready to take the final step. The two were sitting close to each other, so close that their knees were touching, but Chel didn’t mind. She simply grinned and nodded her head. “Now, you remember what I told you before? You’re going to be met with a series of dreams. In order to truly become a Fallen God, you will need to push through and deny the reality of these dreams.”

“Some of them may appear so real that you have to search for the flaw. It might be something in the air, or about someone you know. Just the slightest change, that lack of an imperfection that lets you know what reality is. Once you find that, you need to focus on it. Are you ready?”

The two took one long look at each other, before nodding their heads. They closed their eyes, already familiar with the process of moving their seed of chaos. They cleared their thoughts, locating the mass of chaos within their body. But then… they allowed themselves to think freely, they focused on everything that they had learned. They allowed their mana to rush into the chaos, to form a link between them and the void.

It had to be said that, at least in terms of energy requirements, becoming a Fallen God was infinitely easier than becoming a normal god. All energy ultimately comes from the void, and as such there was no need to utilize any other energy than the void itself when ascending.

For a brief moment, Hanya felt her mind going blank. Her body felt weightless, and then… gravity came rushing at her, shoving her down to the floor as her consciousness faded.

“Hanya? Hanya, wake up.” She heard a faint voice, waking up to the gentle lights of the lab, a small groan emerging from her lips. “Hanya.” She recognized the voice. How couldn’t she? It was one that she had gotten so familiar with over the last two years.

“Geoff…” She muttered, slowly opening her eyes. She saw him kneeling over her, one hand on her stomach and the other on her cheek, gently tapping her to help stir her awake. “Is it… done?”

She could remember the process of ascending, but after that… had she already broken through her dreams? “It’s done.” Geoff said with a wide smile, reaching down to grab Hanya’s hands to help her up. However, when he did so, her body stiffened.

“No… this is just one of the dreams.” She said with absolute confidence, though a slightly saddened tone to her voice. She felt something on Geoff’s hand when he grabbed hers, looking down and seeing a familiar ring on his finger. It was one of the rings given to her by the Siren’s Song dungeon.

She had always wanted to give that ring to Geoff herself, to truly take that final step with him. Now, it seemed like a distant dream. They were on a mission together where they would surely die at the end. What was the point of sticking to such formalities and rituals, when every second they spent together had suddenly become so precious?

“What do you mean?” Geoff asked in confusion. “Hanya?”

Hanya stepped forward after getting to her feet, wrapping her arms around Geoff. “Even if this is a dream, I want you to know that I love you, Geoff. I always have, and always will. And whatever being saw fit to give me this dream, this single moment of peace… thank you. But, I have to go. The real Geoff is waiting for me outside, and I don’t want to worry him.”

The world around her seemed to grow blurry as she spoke, Geoff’s arms going limp at his sides. He seemed to realize himself that he was simply a part of her dream. Before he faded away entirely, his arms came up and wrapped around her back, holding her close.

Hanya’s shoulders shook as she felt those arms, how they seemed to shatter against her skin. Once they were gone, she wiped her eyes, her determination growing. Was this the first dream? Or did she forget each one as the next came? She wasn’t sure which was worse, but she soon learned her answer.

Dozens of times, she awoke to Geoff holding her, telling her that they had succeeded. She remembered each and every dream that she had been through. And it caused her to immediately analyze everything from her surroundings. No two dreams ever shared the same flaw. The ring never appeared on Geoff’s finger again after she had rejected the first dream.

One time, the Keeper had descended to inform her that the great enemy they were supposed to defeat had succumbed to a natural disaster, and that they had been freed from their obligation. Another time, she found herself pregnant soon after waking. Once, it took her days to notice the flaw in the dream, which was as simple as Geoff’s hair being parted slightly differently than normal.

It was hard, incredibly hard. She had to scrutinize everything about Geoff and the world around her every time, thinking about how she should reject him at the slightest thing. A change in his mannerisms, or his choice of fashion, anything that stood out to her as different from the Geoff in her memories.

In one dream, she went an entire year before she noticed the flaw, starting to believe that she had truly come through the trial. The system awarded her her title, Geoff seemed to be perfectly normal, and Chel continued their training. But… everything she tried simply worked. There was no element of chance, no degree of difficulty, everything worked as soon as she put her mind to it. In the end, she flipped a coin a hundred times, letting out a sigh before accepting the fact that she had spent so long in this dream.

The next time she awoke, Geoff wasn’t holding her. Hanya’s eyes went wet at that realization, missing the gentle touch calling her awake. Instead, she wasn’t even on the tile floor of the lab, but on a soft bed. She closed her eyes, about to reject this as simply another dream. After all, she wasn’t even in the same place she had fallen asleep. That was when Geoff’s voice spoke up to her.

“This isn’t a dream.” He said, and her eyes snapped open, turning to look to her side, where Geoff was sitting. He stared at her with the same serious gaze he always directed at the world, though she noticed that it seemed a touch softer than normal. No, she had already rejected that look before, so why was it there again?

“That’s what a dream would say.” Hanya pointed out, and Geoff chuckled. “How long was I out in this one?” Usually, the answer to this question was only a few hours, a day or two at most.

“It’s been four weeks.” Geoff said simply. “As soon as I woke up, I asked permission to bring you back, that way you could at least be more comfortable when you woke up.”

Hanya blinked slowly, feeling something wrong in her legs. She sat up, shifting the blanket to find that her feet had dissolved away. Her eyes went wide, and she used the techniques that Chel had taught them to restore her body. “How did you finish before me?” She asked, another one of her usual questions. In most cases, the Geoff of her dreams simply replied that it was by luck.

“Because I know you better than anyone.” He said, her eyes growing wide at the implications. Just like she had watched him for any imperfections, he had done the same to her. Only, he didn’t start simply because of these dreams. Rather, she recalled how his eyes always seemed to be taking in everything around him. For the last two years, he had seen everything there was to see about her. He had become familiar with and memorized every little imperfection, and was able to recognize it the moment it appeared.

“I hope this is the real one… I really, really do.” Hanya said, her shoulders shaking. Geoff leaned forward, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and pulling her into a gentle embrace.

“It is, Hanya. It is.” He whispered into her ear, allowing her to bury her head into his shoulder.

Geoff had faced many dreams similar to Hanya’s, and in each one he first observed her. If there was anything even remotely different from what he knew, he would call it out and reject it. “The real Hanya’s eyes aren’t a pure, vibrant green. They have specks of red and orange along the interior.” Or one time… “The real Hanya would never ask me to give up on this mission. She would see it through with me to the very end with a smile on her face.”

Once he was done ensuring that Hanya herself was normal, he observed himself, looking for any abnormalities. He would find a mirror and examine every part of himself. And then, he examined the world itself, testing what he knew against his memories. Like that, he never spent more than a few days in any one dream. After taking into consideration how compressed time was in the dream, he awoke after only an hour.

Ever since waking up, he had not left Hanya’s side for even a moment, wanting to be there the moment she awoke. If she tried to reject this as simply another dream, he was afraid that he would truly lose her.