171 Learning About Htrae (2/2)
Conducting my experiment took me a matter of seconds. Perhaps 10 seconds in total had passed since I first activated ”Absolute beauty”. I silently shut it off or rather returned it to its default, restrained state. And that gave me enough time to target Saoirse with one of my new and potent abilities.
I turned my gaze towards her and studied her for a moment. She was a petite redhead, and was quite pretty. She wore an outfit not dissimilar to mine, jeans and a t-shirt. She had grass-colored eyes and was blushing at my gaze. I chuckled and targeted her with a single usage of ”Rewind”, and as it took effect she suddenly closed her eyes and sighed in relief.
She was now as she before I unleashed ”Absolute beauty” on her. I then immediately reapplied ”Ascension” to her, since it was one of the effects that would have worn off when I used ”Rewind”.
In the immediate aftermath of all of that, I sensed her sincere confusion, and even her slight fear, but more than anything else I sensed her relief. I chuckled as I watched her, and she began to blush again, but not to the same extent as before. I then turned my gaze back to Seamus and began to wonder what to do with him.
I could easily reverse what I had done to him, but I also had the power to do so even without using ”rewind” on him. I gazed at him, my hand still sapping his sanity, and then chuckled. I would keep him this way. After all, he still loved his family, and I hadn't really hurt him, I just cut down on the amount of time it would take for him to begin to worship me of his own volition.
Seamus himself was a muscular man with brown hair and dark eyes. He had an imperfect smile and a dimpled face, and of all of us, he looked the youngest. Which made sense since he was the second youngest one of us, after me, but I was a god with the ability to perfectly control my appearance and I favored my current appearance which was that of someone in his 20s.
Like me, he had sun-kissed skin, and until I inspected him using my ”Apprisal” ability I thought that he had had an outdoor job, but in actuality, he was a prison guard. Saoirse was a teacher at a nearby high school. They both had intriguing jobs, ones which I could see myself using as a way to expand the cult I was going to build here.
At this point Geoffrey returned and the man didn't question why I had a hand on his son's chest. He quietly and easily accepted it, since when I had done it to him he got much younger and was also filled with love for me. He silently assumed I was doing something similar to his son, and was visibly pleased at the idea of that. And because of that I grew more fond of Geoffrey. At the same time I helped myself to copies of the family's memories. None of them resisted, so I didn't even need to drain their memories out of them. I appreciated that.
I motioned for the two humans to join their father and I at the table. And then I began to scheme.
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My powers over the mind and memories allowed me to instantly absorb memories. And as a consequence of that, coupled with the memories I had just gained from the Finagan family, I gained an intimate understanding of what it was like to grow up in Glendale, the community closest to this tiny farm.
Saoirse and Seamus had grown up there, gone to school there, and they even lived there. They just spent the weekends with their father, as a way to stay close to him. Today was actually the first day of the work-week, as understood by the majority of the people of Htrae, and so normally in a half-hour Saoirse and Seamus would be on their way back home, beginning the trek back in objects called ”cars”, which were similar to pieces of technology found one world in my native solar system.
Physically I spoke with them with the family for a few minutes, even though most of my focus was in my own mind, scheming about how to best transform this world.
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”Htrea is an... interesting world.” I mused, speaking to the domains and subdomains that lurked ”within” me. In my own head I heard a chorus of sinister laughter. Interestingly, one of the loudest peals came from the domain of magic. It was also the first to speak back after the laughter died down.
”Yes, it sure is. This world is a world that is fairly lacking in the supernatural.” The domain told me, reiterating something that I knew already. Not only had the system told me about this, back when I first met Andrea, it was something I realized through the cultural and historic knowledge I acquired, courtesy of the Finigan family, and then again when I first began to analyze the knowledge I had acquired through ”Stellar awareness”.
Htrea was made up mostly of oceans and other bodies of water. Over 70% of its surface was covered in water. It had a number of sizeable continents, and if one counted the poles on the planet as a single continent then there were seven separate continents, with five of them being on two super landmasses, and one of them being a solitary island-continent that was utterly gigantic in comparison to other continents.
The nation I had been teleported too was named ”New Sol”, and was a sort of super-nation made up of sixteen, much smaller, nation-like governing bodies. Interestingly enough, though Andrea lived in the same continent ”New Sol” was located within, she did not live in the same nation. She also spoke a different language than the Finigan family did, which was unsurprisingly different than the language of the humans of Puerto Rico. Not that that mattered, I could easily teach anyone any language so long as I had heard it first. I was being introspective for a moment when a new voice caught my mental ear.
”This planet is very interesting. Its technology includes things like 'Cell-phones' and 'Computers', which allow for instantaneous, real-time communication across national or even continental borders!” Uttered a surprisingly robotic voice. It took me a moment to realize that the voice I had just heard was in all likeliness the voice of the domain of creation.
”This world also has planes! These metal contraptions are capable of flight and can travel across continents in hours or even minutes in the cases of the fastest planes.” The domain exclaimed, excitedly. The domain continued to babble on, for a moment before another domain spoke up. This one had a rigid, authoritarian voice.
”But this nation... 'New Sol'... It is quite fond of bureaucracies and paperwork. There's so much an adult needs. 'I.D. cards', 'Birth registration forms', 'Social Identification Codes', 'Drivers licenses', and more. I love this! Althos, you should learn from this for when you finally begin to interconnect your faith and form a distinctly unique empire of your own.” The voice excited exclaimed. Despite the sternness of its voice, it was clearly overjoyed. This speaker was the domain of law.
”Nations like this... Krawhaha, I love them. They are perfect for spreading infectious diseases. They have so many processes to go through before they can respond in full to a contagion that by the time they finally get to the place where they can 'legally' respond to me, I have infected millions of their citizens.” This voice was sickly sounding and had a laugh that was eerily like a cough. I immediately identified it as the voice of the domain of disease. Its words were intriguing to me, and a part of me made a mental note to put that to the test later on. As I did that, the domain continued to speak.
”Diseases could easily become a potent weapon of yours in this world. You could ravage this world with disease, and then appear and heal everyone when they are filled with despair, dramatically demonstrating your powers and saving this world, becoming hailed as a hero and a god of hope.” The disease domain whispered, its sickly voice infecting me with fun ideas. I mulled it over and had a fun idea of my own.
”Though I could also create a stealth cult of the diseased, modifying sicknesses so that the sick become attuned to me and begin to delight in their illnesses. I could steadily transform the discomfort they feel from diseases into pleasure and use that to make them enjoy being sick and see being sick as, if not their default state than at least their preferred state.” I whispered inwardly, delighting more than a few of the domains within me. The disease domain in particular was delighted at that suggestion and began to laugh loudly.
While I was having this purely mental conversation, events were transpiring around me. Saoirse and Seamus had to go to their jobs, and asked me if I'd like to go with them in their ”cars” to see the community they came from. I politely declined the offer, since I now had the ability to teleport anywhere within this world. Geoffrey and I did walk them to their cars though. When they left, I bid the man adieu and I told him that I'd be going ahead and spending today in Glendale. This surprised him, but when I told him that I'd probably be coming back tonight he was delighted.
For now, I was going to do what I did when I first sprang to life: I was going to pretend to be a human, at least while I oriented myself. And I could have far more fun now than I could have when I was trapped in the tutorial, in a world with dangerous monsters and powerful entities. This world had humans, animals, plants, and a very small number of extraplanars. It was nowhere near as dangerous or as biologically diverse as Torus which was perfect for me.
This place was a playground for someone with the sheer number of powers at my disposal. And I intended to acquire more power, and to make this world a perfect little playground for me to rule however I felt like ruling it. Moments after I saw Geoffrey smile, I teleported myself to an unoccupied road just outside of Glendale, and I began to walk.