The Zenith Throne Room of the High Pantheon was currently operating under new management.
General Pavan was aggressively tapping a pink magical clipboard, glaring at the God of Shadows, who was on his hands and knees scrubbing the divine marble floor with a tiny toothbrush.
"You missed a spot right there, Lord of Darkness!" Pavan barked, adjusting his makeshift apron. "If the Lady Maya sees a single smudge of soot from that grill, I'm going to make you re-tile the entire sector! Put some elbow grease into it!"
The God of Shadows grumbled, his dark aura completely suppressed by the sheer terror of Maya's flip-flop, which was currently resting casually on her foot near the patio table.
Leo was back at the grill, whistling a cheerful tune as he flipped a fresh batch of celestial garlic bread.
The High Father, the omnipotent ruler of the cosmos, was standing awkwardly near the edge of the pink patio debris, wringing his glowing hands together. He looked down at the picnic blanket where Elara was sitting.
The High Father squinted. His glowing, faceless visage seemed to lean closer.
Elara looked up from petting Marshmallow the Fenrir pup. She froze. Her golden eyes widened as she recognized the towering figure of light.
"Grandpa?" Elara whispered, her small voice echoing perfectly across the silent marble room.
The entire room stopped.
Pavan dropped his clipboard. Karthik and Aman slowly turned their spiked heads. Malakor and Kaelen, the two Demon Lords acting as butlers, nearly dropped their silver platters. King Aldric and King Vane stopped shivering for exactly one second to stare at the little girl in pure shock.
Leo paused mid-flip of the garlic bread. He slowly turned his head. "Grandpa?"
The High Father's aura spiked with sudden, booming authority, though it wavered slightly when he glanced at Maya's sandals.
"Elara?!" the High Father boomed, his voice echoing with divine thunder. "Is that you?! What are you doing with these... these anomalies?! I banished you to the mortal realm!"
Maya slowly stood up. The temperature in the Heavenly Realm plummeted to absolute zero once again. "You did what?"
The High Father took a nervous step back, holding up his glowing hands defensively. "S-See here, mortal! This is a matter of divine discipline! The child is a half-breed! Her mother was a Goddess of Light, and her father was a mere human hero! That is forbidden! But I allowed her to stay in the Heavens... until the incident."
Leo set his tongs down. He walked around the grill, his face losing its cheerful smile. "What incident, Sparkles?"
The High Father puffed out his chest, trying to regain his omnipotent dignity. "She was running through the Halls of Eternity! She tripped and shattered the Aetherial Urn of the Cosmos! A priceless artifact that held the conceptual weight of the Northern Galaxies! It took me a millennium to forge it!"
"So you dropped a seven-year-old out of the sky?" Maya asked. Her voice was terrifyingly calm. It was the calm before a hurricane.
"It was a timeout!" the High Father protested, frantically gesturing. "A celestial grounding! I was going to bring her back in two or three centuries! A blink of an eye to a God! It builds character!"
Elara clutched Marshmallow tight, hiding her face in the puppy's fluffy white fur. "I said I was sorry," she sniffled quietly. "It was an accident."
The sound of the little girl's sniffle echoed through the silent room.
It was the final nail in the coffin.
Malakor the Demon Lord closed his eyes and began praying to a god he didn't even believe in. "It is over. The universe ends here."
Maya didn't yell. She didn't summon a weapon. She walked directly up to the High Father. The omnipotent ruler of the cosmos, a being ten times her height, instinctively shrunk down to human size just to avoid the sheer, suffocating pressure of her maternal fury.
"You threw a child out of a window," Maya whispered, poking a perfectly manicured finger directly into the center of the High Father's glowing chest. The kinetic force of the poke actually pushed the Supreme Deity backward a few inches. "Over a vase."
"An Aetherial Urn!" the High Father corrected nervously.
Smack.
Leo had walked up right beside Maya and casually slapped the High Father upside the back of his glowing head. It wasn't a world-ending strike; it was the exact kind of slap a disappointed parent gives a teenager who just said something incredibly stupid.
The impact caused a shockwave that rattled the golden thrones, but mostly, it just completely shattered the High Father's ego.
"Ow!" the High Father yelped, rubbing the back of his head in shock. "Did you just strike the Creator?!"
"That was for being a terrible grandfather," Leo said flatly. He pointed a finger at the omnipotent deity. "Listen to me, Sparkles. Elara is a Goud now. She's our daughter. Which means you are officially the embarrassing, estranged relative we only see on holidays. And if you ever try to 'ground' her by dropping her into a warzone again..."
Maya leaned in, her eyes completely black. "...I will personally come back up here and turn your entire glowing clubhouse into a Spirit Halloween store."
The High Father swallowed hard. He looked at the two humans who defied all logic, power scaling, and divine authority. Then he looked at the Demon Lords, who were furiously nodding their heads in agreement with the humans.
"Y-Yes, Madam," the High Father squeaked. "Understood. The grounding is... revoked."
"Good," Leo smiled cheerfully, his terrifying aura vanishing as fast as it appeared. He clapped his hands together. "Now, we have a vacation to get back to. Pavan! Karthik! Aman! Pack up the grill! We're checking out."