158 Mental Prowess (1/2)
The god and his creation, the dryad named Raiz were not in the same place. There was a considerable distance, well over two hundred and fifty meters between them. Yet that was in no way an obstacle for the god who, if he could detect them, could target creatures in another galaxy with his powers and had in fact targeted creatures living on other planets with his divine abilities.
If he had wanted too, the god could have mentally spoken to the dryad. This was an easy thing for the unsettling deity to do. That said, he didn't want to do that. He wanted to roam the world in his mind-form, and so he did.
The god's mind was an almost physical thing and by using it he could effortlessly interact with the world around him, on an astonishing scale. If he felt like it the god could tear entire chunks of the island he stood on and lift them into the sky, or he could read the minds of an entire civilization from incomparable distances. Solely by using his mind he could permanently alter the world and yet most of the time he chose not to do this, preferring to act in ways that were understandable by mortals.
As he and his servant, the praereptor demon named Sombra, walked closer and closer to the goblin encampment the god reached out using his mind. Doing this was an odd thing that he normally only did unconsciously, but he was consciously willing his mind out of his body and sending it in Raiz's direction. His mind left his physical body and rushed towards the encampment zipping towards it at truly astonishing speeds.
His mind was an ethereal, unstoppable thing. Even with as little influence as he possessed over the domain of minds his mind was capable of tearing apart armies and destroying communities if he wanted it too. Fortunately, for all of Althos' flaws and quirks, he wasn't an innately destructive or even violent entity, though persuading him to perform violence was never particularly difficult.
His mind whisked away from his body and dashed through the dark forest. It quickly passed the goblins and entered their encampment.
The encampment looked similar to how it had once looked, but now there stood a massive and impressive tree at the heart of it. As his mind dashed into the encampment, the skeletal stag he had given the goblins as a gift turned in his general direction, detecting... something. The entity couldn't quite make out what it had detected, but it was able to sense Althos' presence. Althos, unsurprisingly, opted to ignore this for now though he was impressed by it.
Without hesitation, the god's mind entered the tree that stood at the heart of the encampment. As he did so he ambiently detected surprisingly powerful magic emanating from it. Alteration magic, to be exact.
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The entryway I was in was just barely large enough to house a single person of my height at any time, though the foyer this entryway led into was considerably larger. I moved my mental form, a strange thing to do that was similar to how I moved my physical form but far more thought-driven rather than unconscious, through the entryway and into the foyer.
The entryway was a thin, white space, and the ”walls” that defined it were composed of vibrant, white roots that moved and writhed around me. I didn't touch them, even mentally, but I sensed that I could manipulate them if I had opted to use my powers over roots. I considered this for a second but ultimately decided not to do so since I wouldn't have a purpose in mind.
This area was around twelve meters long and making it out of the entryway was easy. Nothing in here had detected me, though I could sense the ambient magic that permeated the warm air of this magical space and I knew that if I had been detected odds are the entryway would react to me hostilely unless I had Raiz's permission to be here. Or at least that's what it would have been like for a mortal.
The foyer was a much wider space and a much longer one. This space was about the width and height of a regular foyer. It had a nature motif that was unsurprising since this was the ”home” of a dryad. And it was here that I found her, Raiz. Raiz was walking down a set of stairs within the foyer, preparing to go outside. She looked distracted and was quite beautiful.
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Raiz was the very first lifeform that Althos had ever created. She was a meter and a half tall and had a pale complexion. Her hair was long and wavy, and it was the color of a ”red delicious” apple.
The dryad had a curvy body, which was currently only partially hidden from view by an outfit of thorns and grass held together by magic. She was descending down a set of stairs and was looking down. Her mind was clearly elsewhere, and when Althos performed a simple surface-level reading of her mind he found that she was thinking of possible solutions to a dispute between two goblins.
One of her hands was holding onto the wall beside her, the wall also made of roots just like the wall of the entryway. These ones were holding her steady as she walked down the stairs, allowing her to be distracted without fear. Her other hand held a ”staff” which was a thick and gnarled tree branch she used to more precisely aim her magic whenever she found it necessary to do so.
Raiz had large eyes that changed color based on the weather of her surroundings. At the moment her eyes were green and she was distractedly looking downward at the stairs at her feet and not straight ahead. Althos' mind form closed his eyes and took on a new form.
The Cosechian form the god's body was currently in had also been the form taken by the mind of the deity. That changed instantly, even as Raiz descended down the stairs and kept her gaze firmly rooted on the floor beneath her.
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Shapeshifting was one of many natural talents possessed by every god. I had learned over the course of my time in my tower that though I was truly a dastardly expert at shapeshifting, all gods were capable of minor shapeshifting without much difficulty.
Molding my form was as simple for me as breathing was for mortals. Initially, I had only suspected that this was the case, but my newer abilities over memories had allowed me to confirm this myself by granting me the power to explore the memories of my worshipers and I quickly learned just how essential breathing was for them.
I pictured my elemental form vanishing and becoming something new. It wasn't difficult for me to mentally construct a powerful form that looked like an especially hairy and nude nearly-human male. This form was that of an idealized satyr, an especially tall one that stood nearly two and a half meters tall and had dense and dangerous-looking horns protroding out from my head.
Even as I constructed this form I activated a familiar and useful power ”Unfettered Divinity”. This power surrounded me in divine energy, and light, and made it impossible for creatures to deny that I was a god. It was a handy ability for a creature who routinely shapeshifted like I did, and was one that allowed me to prove that I was who I said was whenever I used it since I tended to be more or less honest.
This power, which had gotten upgrades as I built more cults and as I gained vast numbers of worshipers, was now stronger than before. My satyr-form was radiating the incredible light of the power and had there been other sapient things in the room with us they would have noticed me as well. The light radiating from my new form was powerful enough that Raiz saw it and glanced upwards. When she laid her eyes on my powerful new form, as it was coming into existence, her mouth opened in shock.
”Hello Raiz... How are you?” I asked, a smile on my still incomplete face. She could see my mouth, a large maw filled with unsettling fangs, and my thick and muscled chin, but the rest of my face was a blank slate.
Raiz's shocked expression stayed on her face for a moment as her mind adjusted to the reality that I was who I was. When her mind acclimated to the reality that I was Althos, her creator and the entity who had created the nonexistent deity named ”Cosecha” her shocked expression slowly transformed into a peaceful, serene one. She continued her descent down the stairs, and began to speak.
”Creator... To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” She asked, smiling serenely at me. I could sense that she was legitimately surprised by my visit but she wasn't unhappy about it. I was quiet for a moment, and I knew that Sombra and my physical form were closing in on the encampment.