169 A Whole New World (1/2)
The instant after I was teleported out of the solar system of my birth and into another world, Htrae, I found myself staring at the inside of a barn larger than any other barns I had ever seen. It was a bright thing, even in the darkness of my surroundings, and my perfect vision allowed me to effortlessly see the bright red paint on the planks that made up the walls that surrounded me.
I was the only living thing in the surprisingly spacious space that I had been teleported into. That said, the barn wasn't empty. I was surrounded by large bits of technology I had only seen indirectly through my sensory powers. They were called ”tractors”. The hefty machines were intended to be used to haul large equipment from one part of a farm to another.
I was quietly comforted by the sight of something I understood as my introduction to Htrae. I silently approached one of the looming machines and when I took a single step forward, a familiar power activated.
The instant I took my first step on Htrae I was instantly attuned to the volcanoes throughout the world. I felt an awareness of them surge dramatically into my mind and I grinned warmly as I gained power over them. There were hundreds on the surface of the world and many more within this world's oceans. This awareness was pleasant to me, and I was happy that this power so immediately took hold. A second later I refocused and finished approaching the tractor.
I approached the tractor and gently placed a single hand on it. When I did, one of my powers titled ”Historic touch” activated automatically, and my mind was filled with glimpses of the person who owned the machine, as well as the machine's most recent usages, the most recent of which happened earlier today. Unsurprisingly he was a human man and a farmer. Surprisingly he was quite old and had a stern look on his face whenever he was riding the tractor.
The machinery was both hard and cold, and I wasn't fond of how it felt against my hand but I didn't mind it enough to let go of it. Not immediately anyway.
I was in a whole new world and in this world I was almost completely alone. Somewhere in this world was one of the very first non-Torian people whose dreams I ever infiltrated, Andrea Handsfall. She was a native of this world, a Htreaian human. For a moment she filled my thoughts, after all, she was the one person on this entire planet that I actually knew.
But honestly, even with that caveat, I wasn't exactly flying blind. I had my domain-sense and the information it gave me was something I was constantly aware of, and I had my own innately powerful senses. They informed me of everything going on for kilometers around me.
I wordlessly conjured one of my phantom copies and watched as the thing walked towards one of the barn walls that surrounded me and then incorporeally phased past the obstacle. At this point I couldn't see it anymore but I felt when the copy of me took off into the sky and began to fly towards this world's sun. I wasn't worried about being detected by any life forms. There were none near me that weren't plants or animals, and I knew that this world was an unmagical one. I wasn't at risk of an unplanned discovery here.
I turned my full attention back towards the barn itself and I began to look around me. I was looking for something. A moment after I turned my full mind towards the barn I found it: a way out. I could have phased through the walls as my phantom did, but I preferred to either teleport places or to actually walk around and behave as a mortal might. I turned towards the door, it was behind one of the larger tractors and began to walk towards it.
It was an imposing, sliding thing made of red-painted wood and when I reached it I recognized that it was probably heavy and tough to open for solitary mortals, especially humans. That said I easily put my hands on it and forcefully slid it open, thanks in part to my infinite strength. As the thing was beginning to open I used my powers over sounds to silence what would probably have been a considerable amount of noise if I hadn't reacted in time.
On the other side of the door was a recently tilled and fairly sizable field of attended soil, being bathed in moonlight. The soil was healthy and plenty of seeds had already been planted. I walked out of the barn and onto the area right in front of the field.
The area I found myself in was quite clearly a farm of some sort. It was a pleasant sight and for a moment I relaxed as I visually studied the area around me. I had always liked farms and farmers and so this was a nice introduction to Htrae. I fully suspected that the intervention of the system was at least partially responsible for this and I didn't mind that at all. After the world-shaping drama I was involved in it was nice to be reminded of my earliest days, just over five weeks ago.
As I stood out in the field I felt my skin be bathed in lunar light. My phantom copy was already closing in on this world's sun and even it was taking its sweet time. Right now everything managed to be both simple and more complex than anything in my life had ever been. I had an enemy that I wanted to take down, but right now all that laid in front of me was a world to conquer in that way that only gods could conquer. I allowed my skin to take in more lunar light, grateful for the powers granted to me by the domain of stars, before turning my full attention to the field in front of me.
I studied the soil for a moment before raising a single hand towards it and beginning to use my powers over agriculture to speed the growth of these crops.
I watched as roughly half of the seeds in the field abruptly reached the next stage of their lifecycles, and a grin crossed my face. I kept the power limited to a mere half of this several acre-large field, but I knew that I could easily use this power on all of their crops at once if I had wanted too. I felt the life-force present within the field increase in vitality and presence, and for a moment I swore I saw the soil in which the seeds had been planted begin to sparkle lightly, even if for just a moment.
After I performed this small and miraculous act I turned my feet towards the ground. I scanned the dirt at my feet and I instantly noticed a set of footprints in the dirt beneath me. I studied them and followed them with my eyes, noting that they went off in the direction of the one house I could sense in a nearly six-kilometer radius around me. The house wasn't empty either, when I focused on it I could hear heartbeats inside of it, some of which belonged to humans and others of which belonged to animals.
”Well... I suppose I might as well walk in that direction.” I muttered, a soft smirk on my face as I began to make decisions about what to do.
I began to walk towards the distant house, the closest other building in this area. I did so silently while activating a few of my love powers. As I did I began to examine myself, curious to see if my form had changed at all after gaining one of my more impressive, newly gained powers: ”Absolute beauty”.
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As the god ventured forth towards the house of the Htreaian farmer and his family, he visually examined himself. He could do this as a god, due to his perfected senses. And what he saw astounded him, not enough to stop him from walking, but definitely enough to leave him speechless for a few moments.
The god had always been innately mildly attractive in the sense that just about all gods were. Gods exuded potent charisma, even if they tried to take on the most homely appearance possible. Even Althos' first human form, one of his least attractive humanoid guises, was considered fairly attractive by most people who laid eyes on it for reasons beyond their ability to articulate. But now... Now his form was something else entirely. In a whole other dimension.
Althos' current human form was that of a lightly sun-kissed human male with visibly muscular arms, light blue eyes, a perfect smile, and flawless black hair. His hair was naturally coifed and managed to both look and be soft to the touch. There was innate confidence to this form, and a quiet simplicity about it that added to its raw attractiveness since it didn't feel like it was trying too hard.
He had a noticeable and flawless jawline, high cheekbones, and an evenly proportioned and symmetrical face, like one chiseled from stone to honor some ancient god. One of his art-based abilities granted him new outfits whenever he wanted as well, and another one granted him an encyclopedic knowledge of fashion that transcended planets, species, and even universes.
He was wearing what he now knew were called jeans, light blue denim pants, and a simple black t-shirt. He had on what would absolutely be considered a casual outfit, but somehow he felt comfortable in the fashion and didn't mind it at all.
His muscles lightly pushed against his clothing, defining them in a noticeable yet not eye-grabbing way. He wouldn't need his fashion to be eye-grabbing for him to captivate people. His powers would do that for him.
He wasn't attempting to stand out, but with his powers, he wouldn't need to attempt to be noticed to absolutely mesmerizing. There was something innately artistic and classically handsome about him that he knew would make it hard for people to look away from him.
To gaze upon him was to gaze upon something that subconsciously tugged at one's heartstrings in the way that many found gazing upon an elaborate, artfully made, marble statue, or even watching a sunrise, pulled at the heartstrings. He exuded a sort of classical ruggedness now. And that was if he didn't feel like rending minds or stealing sanity with the true power of his eerie beauty. If he felt like truly unleashing his powers, supernatural potency filled the air that surrounded him with considerable arcane energies and impossible to resist subliminal messaging that seeped into even the strongest minds.
One of the strangest effects of his new powers was that he exuded an air of serenity. He could sense this when he began to look upon himself for the first time, and he had yet to see how this affected the world around him, but he sensed a strange new aura surrounding him that encircled him in a serene, nearly invisible mist. He was unsure of what it would do when exposed to lifeforms that weren't plants, but a part of him was curious to watch whatever it did happen.
After gawking at himself for a moment he took a second to read through his newly acquired artistic powers. The more he read the more fascinated he became, enough so that by the time he finished reading through them he was close enough to the house that had any of its inhabitants been awake and at a window they would have spotted him.
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