130 Salifinos And Adaptions (1/2)
I took a second to mull over the contents of the billions of prayers I had received. My mind felt... faster than before, something which made it easier for me to take a second and read over the prayers I had received.
Physically I hadn't left my tower and I was currently in it, alone. The angels I had recruited earlier had introduced themselves to me, and I ordered them to settle into homes I had constructed using civilization-domain abilities over an hour ago.
The chamber I was in was silent and I liked that. I appreciated my island home gaining more settlers, especially living settlers, but I also liked parts of it being mine and thus being empty. This gave me a space to sit in solitude, which I figured was a dramatic sight, but also something that was necessary for gods.
In the process of spreading my religion across the solar system, I had gained sextillions of worshipers. I didn't doubt that I had enough followers that I could now focus on gaining the second tier of influence over an assortment of domains and subdomains.
The problem, and what I was thinking about, was that many of my new worshipers worshiped me as a god of healing and little, if anything, else. This was of course my fault and something I accepted as ultimately logical on the part of my worshipers, but I was more than that.
What I hoped to gain from pondering how to advance forward were some ideas on how to gain more power. ”I suppose what I could do is become a darker god on other worlds... I could easily use the world of Salifinos as a way to gain power over the apocalypse domains, and the other, less friendly domains and subdomains.” I told myself, feeling the temptation of using these distant worlds as ways to gain power over the darker domains I had influence over.
As I thought about that I heard distant cheers in the back of my mind. I could tell some domains were applauding what I was considering doing. I ignored them, aside from huffing quietly in annoyance. That said, it was tempting to tailor my actions to the worlds I was influencing.
”This way I can become more than a god of healing. Since Salifinos is already at war and has been for eons, I can use that to my advantage. I don't really like the idea of experimenting freely with my darker powers on Torus, but in Salifinos?” I muttered, beginning to truly consider it.
I intended to become omniscient and omnipotent. And the way the acquisition of powers had worked to date that would necessitate me performing countless atrocities across the cosmos. At various points in my life, I had thought about this simple fact and inched closer and closer to fully accepting it.
”If powers are earned and not given, then the only possible way I can gain every power is by becoming a balanced god. For every act of benevolence, an equally cruel act must be performed. And I've performed many acts of benevolence...” I whispered, mulling over the strange ways morality and power meshed and clashed for gods.
This frustrated me, as it meant that focus on any particular morality ultimately punished gods, which didn't make sense. That said, I didn't have the power to change that at my current level of strength. So instead, I decided to adapt to the realities I lived in.
”I suppose I must do my best with the cards I have been given...” I whispered, accepting what I'd have to do to acquire more power. I wondered, for a second, if this was an aspect of my neutrality rearing its head and aiding me so that I could acquire more power. I mulled that over, while beginning to move towards enacting change in the world of Salifinos.
I idly reached out to the world of Salifinos with my mind and targeted the world's mortals. As powerful as I had become with regards to every domain and subdomain I possessed influence over, I still had some annoying restrictions on my powers.
I quietly and remotely manipulated the air, as I now possessed the power to do that remotely, to target about 4 in every ten mortals on the planet. I willed the air itself to forcefully smack these mortals, hard enough to inflict a single point of damage on them. I grinned when I heard the chuckle of the subdomain of pain. That said, I had a greater purpose for doing this.
The damage was felt by my foes instantly and opened them up to one of my powers: my ability to inflict diseases on distant targets. This was still a restriction I suffered from, and it greatly annoyed me, but now that I had met it I could begin to have some fun.
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Perhaps the best part of gaining powers over diseases before I went on worldwide healing-sprees was that I gained power over every disease I healed. This led to me possessing a formidable arsenal of disease-based weaponry that I could unleash on my foes. And that fact was a fun one, for me at least. I suspected it wouldn't be for my enemies: the mortals of Salifinos.
I spent a few moments selecting a range of diseases, most of which weren't that deadly but would force those who contracted them to be placed on bed rest. As I did so, I considered forcing every mortal to be put on bed rest, but then I realized that I liked the idea of my warriors clashing with the mortals of Salifinos.
The world presented me with an opportunity to satiate the bloodlust my undead felt, and for me to gain greater powers over the subdomain of necromancy. I figured if I was gonna go full apocalypse, and frankly, I had little reason not to do so, I might as well fully embrace it.
I inflicted the diseases I had selected on the mortals I had hurt and felt the sicknesses take hold almost immediately. I chuckled as my domain-sense lit up, and as I received notifications alerting me to the millions of mortals now suffering from the sicknesses I had handpicked.
I reached out across the cosmos with my mind and targeted every abomination on Salifonos. As I did so I prepared a pair of notifications. I spent a few moments working on them to get to really stress how powerful I was, how apocalyptic my powers were, and the darker domains I had power over. If I was going to be seen as evil, I might as well attempt to be seen as evilly as I could be.
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[Alert: Althos has chosen a side
A war has raged on Salifinos for eons. Althos' coming represents the beginning of a new phase in that war: its end. And he has decided on the war's winner.
Althos has chosen to side with the abominations. He will guide them to victory over their foes. The victory will be absolute and will not be complete until every single mortal on Salifinos is undead and in service to Althos, become Althonian monsters infected with vile spores that twist and corrupt their minds, or are Althonian abominations themselves.
The war's end will be swift and will be bloody. Make no mistake Althos turning his gaze to this world is the beginning of an apocalypse and heralds the end of the old age.
Althos is a god of healing, but he is also a god of nightmares, disease, war, famine, death, undeath, evil, and pain. He intends to bathe this world in cruelty and evil, and he will reward servants of his who enact his vile agenda on Salifinos.]