115 Consequences (1/2)
The strange and hostile world that laid underneath Puerto Rico was a mysterious place. It was one infested with ancient and alien horrors. And one such horror was more ancient than alien.
Deep beneath Puerto Rico, entire kilometers below the island's surface, one could find a gigantic chamber. This chamber was filled with two things. The first thing was treasure, a truly unfathomable amount of treasure. The second thing was a single, enormous, living creature: Ygaynth.
Ygaynth laid atop a pile of his treasures. The ancient black dragon, a beast whose age was measured in millennia, was beginning to awaken. The incredibly ancient, even by dragon standards, beast was in the process of slowly dragging himself back to consciousness, back to the waking world.
He used a pile of his treasures, a mere fraction of his wealth yet more than enough to purchase entire kingdoms, as an unorthodox bed. The umbral-tinted dragon was laying, like a lazy cat, on top of a pile of treasures that could inspire the greediest misers in all of the world.
Underneath Ygaynth's body were countless coins, and other, rarer treasures. The coins that the dragon was waking up on top of were ancient ones, ones from forgotten kingdoms the dragon had personally destroyed. Underneath his enormous weight were also precious gems and other brilliant treasures that the awe-inspiringly miserly dragon had collected during his long life.
The dragon slowly opened a single reptilian eye. It took nearly ten minutes before the gigantic eyelids that protected its scarlet eye moved fully out of the way and revealed the eerily catlike eye as the dragon began to force itself to awaken.
Nearly an hour after slowly beginning to awaken, Ygaynth would fully awake from his years-long slumber. By the time the dragon was fully awake, its thoughts were focused on something new: checking on its most reliable servants.
Ygaynth unleashed an eardrum-shattering roar once the ancient and mythic monster was ready to begin to move. One that bounced around the walls of its magically made lair for several minutes. The dragon spread its wings and examined its lair with lazy confidence, all while a part of it wondered about the strange creature who had healed it: the mysterious god, Althos.
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The day that Althos revealed his existence to the world night fell upon the surface as it always did. But for the people of Comillas, the night which had once filled them with uncertainty and fear had never been less scary. After all, what could scare them when they had just learned that a friendly god lived amongst them?
The majority of Comillians found themselves in the town's square. The town's square was a mini plaza that was located not far from the Silver Xana. It had a firepit, from which a roaring blaze beat back the darkness. And it was filled with the sounds of conversation, joyful weeping, and other social sounds.
The town of Comillas was one of the only places in the world which had both Althonians and Cosechians. This was one of the odder consequences of Althos' decision to create a pseudonym. Godly lies were always more consequential than non-godly ones.
”Who in the Hells is Cosecha?” Asked one of the townspeople, a young woman not much older than Isadora. She was speaking to Sophia, Gustavo's beloved daughter. Sophia looked at her in confusion.
”Cosecha is the god who healed me. It did so days ago, and now it's healed you too.” The young woman told her friend. Anita, the woman with whom Sophia was speaking, looked at her while confusion visibly twisted her features into a skeptical scowl.
”What are you talking about? We were healed by Althos.” Anita replied, frightened by her friend's remarks. Sophia's own confusion visibly increased.
Unbeknownst to either woman both were telling the truth as they understood it and neither were incorrect. Neither woman was aware of the truth concerning the greatest lie Althos had ever concocted; an entirely nonexistent spirit and identity that the god had used when he first came to life.
Elsewhere in the town square, other conversations, and indeed other arguments, were beginning to increase in volume. They were also about the different notifications inhabitants of Comillas had received.
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In a space that both existed and didn't exist, a quiet voice sighed. There was a touch of annoyance audible in its quiet, inarticulate, utterances.
[Why is he like this? Does he think I like autocorrecting him?] This voice uttered, expressing deep frustration.
”You aren't proud of him? He is no longer running from his powers!” Another voice, one belonging to a subdomain replied.
This space was populated by these disembodied voices. It was where they were situated in the multiverse and its existence was tricky to explain and tricky still to prove.
[Yes, but if he has to reveal himself this way, I wish he'd consider how much reality-warping needs to be done. How many people know him, how many people know of 'Cosecha', and whose messages need to be altered. People tell people things.] The system replied, wishing the subject of the conversation it was having would hurry up and acquire influence over the reality domain.
”It's not his fault that that domain is... picky.” The subdomain replied, having paused to consider its word choice before characterizing the reality domain. It proceeded to sigh itself, but in relief, when the reality domain didn't cuss at it.
[Well... You aren't wrong. And I am glad that he did what he did. It surprised me. I never thought I'd be happy that he was a hybrid. If what he is can even be called that. As far as I can tell it was him evolving into an elemental overlord that has at least momentarily quashed his fears.] The system told the subdomain. The subdomain squirreled that knowledge away, ready to use it to its advantage.
After all, the corruption subdomain also had wants and needs.
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A trio of mermaids swam near the very top of the surface layer, the epipelagic zone, of the ocean. Their cautious gazes were leveled at the same, odd object. Above them, and outside of the ocean floated an island, seemingly unmoving and eerie in its majesty. This island was gigantic, entire kilometers in length.
Waterfalls poured off over the edge of its dimensions and collided with the ocean. This gave the odd mermaids a clear path to the island, but they knew what lurked on the island and were afraid of unintentionally offending the deity who called the island home. Their mission hadn't been to offend a god, it had just been to investigate the ocean underneath the island.
”What do we do?” One of them, a woman who wore no armor and whose bare, wet flesh, would have induced lust in most human males, asked. She had broken the silence that fell over the trio of scouts when they had first reached the strange and shadowy area beneath the floating island.
”We should head back.” Replied one of her peers, a male scout whose body was nearly unarmored. He wore light armor made of seashells that covered his most sensitive areas.
A waterfall was directly overhead and it was unmoving. They could climb it to the island like some sort of mountain if they wanted too.
”A part of me wants to climb this waterfall. Take it all the way to the island. And see a god myself.” Muttered the scout's superior, a male druid who worn several pieces of jewelry. He held a spear in one hand and a staff in the other.
”But you're right. We should head back. We don't know how this god, Althos, would react if we attempted to visit his island.” The druid told his companions. He wasn't about to risk his own life, or theirs, for the sake of satisfying curiosity. He gazed at the island that loomed darkly in the night's sky above the team for a moment longer before turning back to face the direction he and his subordinates had come from.
”Come. Let us return home. Our people will be happy to see us safe, and to learn about our observations.” The mermaid remarked, his voice soft as he thought of home. Behind him his peers nodded and turned to face the distant mermaid community. It'd take them an unpleasant amount of time, a good few hours, to make it back. They enthusiastically began their journey
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”Pride doesn't exactly come easy to me” I muttered. I knew this already but it had definitely been reinforced by the events of the last few hours.
”Yes but isn't it so much fun to pretend it does?” Asked a quiet voice in the back of my mind. The corruption subdomain had replied to me.
”When you pretend you're a proud being, creatures believe that you are a god more readily. Because mortals are weak and want to believe. You just need to give them someone, or something, to believe in.” The voice whispered.
I sighed. I couldn't really deny that it was correct.
I had spent the day doing two things, decorating my island, and interacting with those who prayed to me, especially those who had just learned about me. And much to my annoyance, I quickly learned that when I was proud I gained more worshipers and the worshipers I gained were more fanatical about me.
”I hate that you're right.” I told the subdomain. I heard a cough-like sound emanate from the thing and grinned. It was laughing.
”Of course I'm right. I'm always right.” The smug subdomain replied, a few moments after it had begun to laugh at my remarks.
As I looked out at my island, and admired the new place I had created, I allowed myself to read. As I did so, I turned my attention to something that had been at the top of my vision for hours, and that I had ignored: a massive notification. The first one I had ever seen that was about a sort of higher being that wasn't a god.