Will Barton closed his eyes. He knew that he had looked through his mortal eyes for the last time, but the thought did not distress him. There was more waiting for him on the other side of reality’s mirror.
The corporeal form of his body was whisked away in an instant, taken by the Star-Reaper to some cosmic burial ground. His spirit remained, a glowing fog without form, but containing the accumulated wisdom and knowledge that he possessed. In the center, a core of light blossomed and flexed, agleam with every color of the spectrum and yet more colors.
Rising to the sky, he floated above the city, above the Earth herself, past the limits of the solar system.
Physical laws had no purview over him, as he was no longer physical, but spiritual; he visited hundreds of worlds in the span of seconds. He could not see in the Human way, but he could sense; he could glean. Journeying to these places was an ancillary quest, to edify and nourish him; he knew exactly where his final destination would be found. It was written in the seven Codices of Ygg, the very tomes responsible for his sidereal deification:
The Alphaion Council. A gathering of Gods. A Senate of the stars.
His arrival did not cause any great upheaval. Waves of pure emotion emanated from the members of the Sky-Tribunal, but the Gods had seen every dimensional event since time itself was forged from the Clarion Anvil, and even the coronation of a new God excited them not.
“Cast your majesty upon me, Cousarion of Celtia, and accept me into your mighty ranks,” Will intoned. His words were not heard; rather, they were felt, and they were acknowledged by the Alphaion.
“Welcome, friend. You will suffer no longer under the chains of mortality. A new dimension awaits you, awaits the healing touch of your scepter.”
The transference/transcendence ritual was complete, and the timesphere completed another cycle of illumination. He opened his eyes in a new body, crafted from golden starmatter befitting an emperor. In a burst of whitest, purest light, a Star-God was born.
Below him, spread out to all corners of his vision and even further beyond, lay a field of stars. The limitless cosmos shimmered with the radiance of a million-million suns. This was his domain.