148 Elemental Wrath (1/2)
[Alert: The Wrath of the Forgotten
In the ancient past, the universe was filled with gods and other beings like them. Races worshiped entire pantheons of the beings and they ruled the universe. Half a million years ago a catastrophe occurred and the gods and their kin of that mythic era were slain in a single battle of unimaginable proportions and universe-changing consequences.
Althos coming to life is but one event of the modern era that serves as a callback to the forgotten past. One almost forgotten member of the ancient past was Morehammer the deceiver.
Morehammer was a demon lord and an evil monarch who deceived the dwarves into worshipping him as their creator. He ruled over them and tyrannically controlled their destinies, violently exterminating anyone who dared oppose his rules or attempted to encourage dwarves to worship gods of kindness and goodness.
Now the last dredges of his power have manifested, in response to Althos' glorious offers of freedom and desire to liberate the peoples of the world. His final shade manifested and confronted Althos in battle, deep underground, and the deceitful demon-lord was strong enough to deal a powerful, lingering blow to the god of freedom.
The demon-lord then fled and is now using his greater experience and a wider range of powers than the god has to cowardly hide from the god of freedom. That said, he had one more trick up his sleeve.
The devious and spiteful demon-lord of dwarves and blacksmithing was, like the dwarves themselves, a creature of mountains and fire. In his wrathful hatred of Althos, he opted to use his powers to kill Althonians all over the world. He is activating one of his more devastating abilities and setting off volcanos all over the world. At the moment Althos is recovering from the blow the coward dealt him and is unable to provide much aid to his followers as doing so would distract him from his recovery.
If you wish to help your god and to help yourselves, offer your prayers to the god of freedom and choice. Grant him the power to wrest control of volcanos from the deceitful demon-lord.
Stop the followers of the deceiver of the dwarves. Weaken his connection to those he falsely claims are ”his children”. Survive and turn your wills towards the sky. Beg for help from above. Pray for the power to endure this.]
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This message was transmitted to every non-dwarf in the world. It was a terrifying message that in many cases alerted people of the coming catastrophe before they would have noticed the effects of the volcanic eruptions themselves.
It infuriated many of the people of the world. And some people, most notably those with belligerent attitudes and whose neighbors included dwarves, swiftly assembled their militias or their militaries. More than a few of them were even able to issue proclamations of war against their nearby dwarven settlements and strongholds.
The most common group of species that did this were giants, with several tribes of several different types of giants doing this, followed closely by orcs. Orcs and giants were infamous for their bellicose natures and they often enjoyed waging war on their neighbors so none of this was surprising.
This was a wrath-based decision, which had an unintended side-effect. These conflicts would enable Althos to gain the second tier of influence over the corruption subdomain, something he had yet to do with his other schemes. That said, there were complications that prevented him from successfully completing the quest. Namely that the forces in question didn't actually physically clash. At least not immediately.
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A rather curious thing happened as the god wrote the devious global notification that he was preparing to send out. He began to transform.
The emotions he felt deep within himself were too much for his deceptive ”natural” form. They burned within him and unconsciously caused him to take on a more terrifying and elemental visage. One that radiated pure elemental power.
The unconscious, unasked for changes couldn't completely change his body. They couldn't grant him new appendages or destroy existing ones. His unconscious mind didn't yet have that power. But they could begin to hint at his true power by tearing past the mortal and false appearance he commonly wore.
His flesh burned away from the inside and took on a look that was both natural and supernatural. It was natural in that it involved the four classical elements, but supernatural in how it did so.
To begin with, his hair transformed from its normal dark-color into a small field of flames. It was a strange transformation. And the area just underneath his hair transformed into something that managed to be even stranger.
One half of the area directly underneath his hair was engulfed in lava-like flames. The other half became stoney and even more solid than it had been prior to this. One of his eyes became a blood-red orb of intense flames and the other seemed to almost dissolve entirely into a colorless sphere of water.
The halves of the bottom of his head transformed in other ways. One half, the half below the part of his face that transformed into lava-like flames became airy and immaterial. The final fourth of his face transformed into clear-blue ocean-water. His neck took on a windlike aspect and became ethereal, causing his head to look detached from the rest of his body.
The god's body below the neck took on a new appearance as well. Each of the classical elements got a limb to themselves. His right arm became a powerful and rocky thing made up of parched earth. His left arm became a chaotic and shifting tendril of controlled air that undulated like a snake in motion.
One of his legs became a pillar of flames that left burning footsteps in its wake and the other became a vaporous thing that from a distance didn't even seem to exist at all. However, the abrupt changes he was undergoing weren't completely done.
Even as the god was attempting to take in the details of his new form, he shimmered and began to change once more. This time he took on mostly solid traits.
His head was the first to transform this time. It became an oval of fire, entirely composed of lava-like, scarlet-colored flames. His neck was also firey. His chest, arms, and legs were entirely different from before though. They became a single, joined earthen mass riddled with cracks.
The cracks were themselves as fascinating as the earthen core his new, second-form possessed. They were filled with one of the elements. The cracks were filled with water which almost flowed down his body like a river or a waterfall.
Both of his hands were surrounded by three mini tornadoes which perpetually cycled his digits. Each of the cyclones was a different color, and they were responsive to his mental commands, twisting in the direction he commanded and even vanishing at his command.
This new form was even more fascinating to him and he took a moment to study it.
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”This is so... amazing.” I muttered as I took in my two new forms. Both of them were strange, almost naturalistic looking things and I felt awed by either form.
Both forms were strange, inhuman things. And that was part of what I liked about them. It fascinated me to apparently naturally acquire a pair of new forms, something that had never happened before. That said, thanks to the time I took to study my powers I knew what this was: it was an environmental mutation of something that already existed. Or in this case a pair of mutations.
”Judging from the nature of this... If I had to guess I'd assume this was a natural mutation of my shapeshifting?” I asked myself, speaking aloud within an empty chamber in my tower. I waited for a second and then heard a response.
”Well... Not natural per se.” Muttered the shifty voice of the domain of chaos. I grinned when I heard this voice, not quite having expected it but not being caught completely off-guard either. I knew it was someone, I just didn't know who.
”Your elemental overlord abilities are becoming more and more powerful Althos.” The chaos domain told me, confidence seeping into its voice.
”When you make use of your powers as an elemental overlord they will begin to evolve on their own. Right now your powers are rising in power. Because of your usage of your volcanic abilities. As an elemental overlord, all of your elemental powers are tied to the same... wellspring of experience. Experience which you acquire from the usage of your powers and by how many people your powers affect.” The domain explained, causing my eyes to widen in shock.
That would explain the sudden and abrupt mutation. Currently, all over the world volcanoes were erupting or at least beginning to erupt and these eruptions were affecting billions of people at once. They were violently coming to life and I was receiving dozens of domain-sense type notifications every second purely related to the volcanoes and their fiery payloads.