197 Categorizing (1/2)

Floating in the air above the planet of Ryths, I closed my eyes and allowed the power I had just acquired to flow through me. My mind was firing on all cylinders as I floated in the skies high above the still-burning ruins of the civilization I had just toppled. In fairness to them, it had been perhaps a minute since I finished the quest.

Behind closed eyes, I could see, in a very literal sense, countless notifications speeding through my mind at a speed that made the speed of light seem slow. Now that I had drained mortals and extraplanars, and in doing so gained an unparalleled understanding of their minds, I strongly suspected that this sort of information overflow would drive lesser creatures insane or render them comatose. And it didn't bother me in the slightest.

I was receiving notifications from events taking place in other dimensions. I was alerted to the activity of turtles on the other end of the universe. Every little thing in the universe that incorporated nature, truly a mind-boggling amount of activities, was communicated to me by the system. And what's more, is that now as a ”true deity of nature” I was vastly more in tune to nature than I was before.

I had long since grown used to the constant deluge of notifications that plagued a compartmentalized fragment of mind. I had been getting notifications for the domains I could influence for months. Now I was getting something new. Sensations.

It started off slowly at first. A small tingle in my arm when someone, somewhere planted a seed in fertile soil. A gentle sensation on my back when a fire reached its crescendo. But over the course of a minute, it grew stronger.

Each passing second I grew more and more attuned to the domain of nature and the elemental subdomains. In a distant world, on a galaxy near the center of the universe an earthquake that would help create the vibrations needed for a tsunami to arise naturally caused me to exhale a breathy sigh, one of enjoyment and relaxation as if I was receiving a massage.

Somewhere, in a rocky world which consisted of plains and deserts, a tornado lifted a house off of the ground, and I felt a pleasant numbness in my chest, compared to the weightlessness one feels when they first enter a place with zero gravity.

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[Alert: Gradual Acclimation

You are entering a state of gradual acclimation. Your statuses as a true elemental overlord as well as a lesser god are mixing in unusual ways and the system is intervening on your behalf to help you get used to the immense power now flowing through you.

You possessed the power to decimate planets, but only one at a time. Now... Now your power is capable of affecting entire solar systems at once. It is a considerable leap in power.]

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Before I could see for entire kilometers if I focused. Now I could see for hundreds of thousands of kilometers, and thanks to the power I had created during my time building up cults I could see through objects with ease. Before I could see color in ways comparable to a mantis shrimp, creatures whose eyes possessed up to 16 color receptors. But now the world exploded in color, showing perhaps millions of different colors, hues, and shades.

Colors, both indescribably beautiful and some that were quite terrible filled my vision. Combinations of color I never imagined, even when I gained power over the art subdomain, appeared and filled my vision. The entire world around me took on qualities both wonderful and alien. For a moment tears filled my eyes and began to stream down my face.

And that wasn't all either. I discovered, over the course of the next few minutes through trial and error that I could also ”zoom in” on a spot using my vision and see it even more acutely than before I gained the third tier of influence over nature.

My other senses received comparable upgrades as well. My hearing was now capable of acutely detecting even faint noises from hundreds of kilometers away, and I could now hear parabolically, in the sense that I could ”zoom in” on an area using only my hearing and filter out background noise.

I could smell distinct odors too, ones unimaginable to me before. And the distance through which I could smell things had exponentially increased. I was tens of thousands of meters high in the air, yet if I paused and took a whiff of the air I could effortlessly smell things below the surface of the planet beneath me and accurately identify them.

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I was floating high in the sky, suspended solely by my own power. At the moment I didn't have any wings and the truth was that I didn't need any. A long time ago, if I were being generous, I gained the power to fly under any circumstances. It was one of the powers granted to me by the air subdomain. One of the subdomains which I could be considered a ”true god” of.

Below me was a thick sheet of clouds, which I knew I could command if I desired. Clouds were but one natural aerosol I held sway over. I studied the clouds beneath me, utilizing my potent physical senses so that I could glance at the clouds without turning. I studied the objects for a few moments, before beginning a quiet descent. As I descended, I considered instantaneously teleporting, but then I decided against it. I could have some fun here and be dramatic, for the heck of it. This was a planet I had already subdued. I was in no danger here, even before I had acquired more power.

I rapidly descended, and as I did I mentally commanded the clouds directly beneath me to part. The objects obeyed me and parted creating a clearing in the sky which I passed through a few moments later on my silent descent. The opening the parting created was perfectly circular and perfect for me, being a nice, wide space that allowed me to continue to bask in the sun's light.

I was rapidly descending, falling towards the planet's surface at a speed that was quite excessive but was, for me anyway, dreadfully slow. I was used to an instantaneous form of movement as I was fast enough and to teleporting even across entire planets or dimensions. The one advantage of this comparatively slow form of movement was that it gave me space to think.

”Since I've begun to extend my powers across entire solar systems I suppose it's time I begin to take a more organized approach to my grander ambition of becoming omnipotent.” I muttered, mentally. I could see the surface of the planet, a surface I was quickly approaching, as I muttered in my mind.

”Maybe... Maybe I should begin to categorize planets by what I want to use them for? Since I can singlehandedly conquer or ruin planets on my own now, I can effortlessly add entire worlds to the unorganized empire I'm creating.” I realized as I began to turn my mind towards order and structure, something which wasn't always easy for me as an innately chaotic entity.

For a few moments I was silent, internally, and externally. I was approaching the planet's surface now. In seconds I'd make my first contact with the surface of the world. I was considering how good my idea was but without words. More with feelings and intuition. It took me a moment to begin to nod, my head subtly bobbing up and down for a moment.

”Yes... I think that's a good approach, for now. By creating categories for me to place planets into I can focus on key worlds, perhaps ones with high populations and existing technologies or other things that I actively desired. In some worlds I and my more vicious servants could have fun. In others I could champion goodness and justice, allowing cults devoted to those things to flourish and prosper. In others I could have fun, creating miscellaneous cults of whatever domains I wish, or fulfilling the requirements for more bloodthirsty quests and domains.” I thought, deep within myself.

It was while I was finishing that thought that I touched the surface of the planet for the first time. As I did so, my lordship abilities instantly took hold of the world. I acquired a number of new holy sites, and I quietly chuckled. I found myself in a city, or rather the ruins of one, and all around me I could see the consequences of my actions.

I stood on a street in the middle of the wreckage of a once-bustling city. The area directly around me was silent but it wasn't lifeless. Or rather the area underneath the surface wasn't lifeless.

Beneath the city a teeming ecosystem thrived. The subterranean ecosystem included all manner of creatures, some of which were animals I was fond of: worms, rats, snakes, and other such unsettling animals all lived within the depths of the city's sewers and otherwise underneath the city.

I began to take my first steps in a random direction, walking deeper into the ruined city, all while taking advantage of my new powers over animals and a few of my existing powers. I was going to help nature reclaim this area, one animal at a time.