Rohan’s hands tightened at his sides.

That was the part he had been trying not to think about.

It was one thing to be trapped in another universe. It was horrible, yes, but at least this was something that could be solved by increasing his knowledge, and Hestia — a literal goddess — had solved a big portion of that problem for him.

But it was another thing entirely to be trapped in another universe while stripped of everything that allowed him to survive in the Origin Realm in the first place.

His Molten-stone Skin, his body’s increased strength. Everything.

All of it might as well have been a dream if this universe refused to acknowledge the system that had granted it.

"So I’m starting from nothing again..." Rohan said miserably.

He meant for his words to sound bitter, but they came out quieter than expected.

Hestia looked at him. "No."

Her answer was so immediate and calm that Rohan couldn’t help but do a double take.

"No?" He repeated.

"No," Hestia said again. "You misunderstand the nature of suppression."

Rohan simply continued staring at her, waiting for her eventual explanation that he was sure was coming at this point.

Hestia raised one hand, palm upward. A faint ember appeared above her fingers, no larger than the flame of a candle. It did not flicker like ordinary fire. It burned too calmly, too perfectly, as though the concept of fire had been reduced into its purest and most obedient form. It was mesmerising, really.

"The Origin Realm’s system may be suppressed here," she said, "but that does not mean everything it has done to you has vanished. A system is a method. A language. A framework through which power is measured, granted, shaped, and understood. But once power has changed you, the result does not simply cease existing because the language used to describe it is no longer recognised."

Rohan’s breath hitched. He’d never thought of it like that. He had always considered the Origin Realm’s system as a sort of god more than anything, yet Hestia made it out as if it were nothing but a tool. It was a refreshing stance on the topic for his mind, but one that would be sure to earn him endless accusations of blasphemy or similar hate if he spread it back in his own universe.

But then again, his perception of a god had changed after meeting Hestia, who was a literal god in all senses of the word.

It made him realise that there might be a powerful being behind the creation of the Origin Realm, somewhere out there.

Rohan looked down at his hands. They still looked ordinary — still just as weak.

"You’re saying my strength is still there?"

"I am saying the consequences of your growth are still part of you." Hestia’s ember hovered above her palm. "But your ability to access them is being interfered with. The Origin Realm wrote changes into your body and soul using its own rules. My universe does not understand those rules. Worse, it is rejecting them as foreign interference."

Rohan frowned.

"That sounds the same to me as it being gone."

"It is not."

The ember in Hestia’s palm shifted. Its shape bent inward, folding into itself until it became a tiny ring of light. Then another layer formed around it. Then another. Each circle turned in a different direction, intersecting without touching, as if several invisible laws were trying to describe the same flame at once.

"The Origin Realm says one thing," Hestia said. "My Great System says another. Your body is caught between both definitions. One insists you are stronger than a normal mortal. The other sees an unregistered soul with contradictory foundations and refuses to allow an unverified structure to act freely within its jurisdiction."

Rohan slowly narrowed its eyes.

"That sounds very bureaucratic for a divine system."

Hesta shifted her gaze to him.

Rohan immediately realised he had said that aloud...

A moment of awkwardness passed, then, to his surprise, the tiniest curve appeared at the corner of Hestia’s mouth.

"It is," she said.

"The Great System has no personality or intelligence of its own, I designed it to mimic the workings of the people it serves — so I’m sure you can imagine why it became like this after such a long time of operation."

Rohan was unable to react. He wanted to laugh at how absurd that was, but couldn’t after seeing Hestia’s straight face.

"Great, I’m being nerfed by paperwork..."

Rohan let a hand roll over his face, then let out a long breath. Still, beneath the absurdity of it, something sharp and desperate had begun to stir within him.

Hope.

After all, why would Hestia be bringing this all up if she didn’t have something planned? Rohan could tell by the look on her face that she had to.

"So what can you do?" he asked carefully. "You said no, so I assume you have some way around this. Or through it. Or whatever impossible divine phrasing is about to follow."

Hestia’s expression returned to its calm neutrality.

"I may be able to restore your access to much of your strength."

Rohan went completely still.

For several seconds, the entire temple seemed to fade from his awareness. The white stone. The statue. The pale fog beyond the columns. Even Hestia herself became slightly distant compared to the weight of those words.

"How much?"

"We won’t know until it is done."

Rohan’s hope faltered, but at least there was something to hope for now.

Hestia continued before he could speak. "The difficulty is not in returning what belongs to you. The difficulty is in doing so without allowing the Origin Realm’s system to establish a foothold inside my universe. If I simply tear away the suppression, then I risk creating a channel for foreign laws to leak through you. That would be foolish."

Rohan nodded slowly. He had no idea what all of that meant, but it did sound quite important. If Hestia said it was bad, then he would be sure to steer a million light years away from that risk.

The rings of flame above Hestia’s hand continued rotating. Then, slowly, their motion changed. The outermost rings faded, leaving only the central ember. But this time the ember did not look like a flame.

It looked like a tiny hearth. Quite beautiful, really.

"I cannot allow you to carry the Origin Realm’s system freely into the greater universe," Hestia said. "But I may be able to translate what it has already made of you into something my Great System can recognise."

Rohan felt his heartbeat quicken. "Translate? So it really is just like a much more complex language?"

"For someone at my level, yes. But it is not perfect, nor without limits." Hestia lowered her hand, and the tiny hearth floated before them. "Think of it this way. Your strength is written in a foreign script. My system cannot read it, so it locks the page. I can attempt to rewrite parts of the page into a script my universe understands, while leaving the original sealed."

"This all sounds..." Rohan hesitated. "Very tedious."

"It is also dangerous."

Rohan’s face fell. ’Of course it is...’

Hestia’s gaze did not soften, but it steadied on him in a way that made the warning feel heavier.

"If done incorrectly, it may damage the structure the Origin Realm created in you. It may weaken your future growth there. It may distort how either system identifies you. In the worst case, your body and soul could reject the translation entirely."

Rohan swallowed hard.

"You’re making it really hard to feel hopeful."

"Fortunately you have the most capable goddess in the universe completing this work, so you will be fine. It’s the other deities you have to worry about messing with things like this." Hestia added as an off comment.

For a moment, Rohan looked away.

Beyond the temple, the fog stood as still as ever. No wind moved through it. No distant sound reached them. It was a perfect sanctuary, but the longer he remained within it, the more it felt like a beautiful prison.

He had been weak before.

Before the Origin Realm. Before Erenhot. Before the Firestone Ants, the Soldier Ant, the forest, the blood, and the terror of real battle. Back then, being ordinary had simply been life. He had not known anything else.

Now, weakness felt like suffocation.

He had clawed his way toward strength. Not much, maybe, compared to the monsters out there, but enough that it had become his. Enough that it had changed how he stood, how he thought, how he survived.

The idea of losing this permanently had been gnawing at him since the moment he realised his status was gone.

But if there was even a chance...

He steeled his resolve, and gave Hestia a nod.

"Before we continue any further with this, we need to first make the Great System recognise you."

Rohan tilted his head, confused.

"I thought I already was?"