A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse 69 Timely Intervention

[Name: Lilith Silverstone (Level 15 enchantress)

Species: Half-Dark-Elf, Half-Succubus

Alignment: Neutral Evil

Personal virtue: Diligence

Personal vice: Wrath

Magic sensing: Lilith Silverstone is an extremely skilled enchantress. Lilith takes the natural powers possessed by succubi, such as charming people, invisibility, and seduction, and mixes them with the dreadful powers over darkness possessed by dark elves.

Faith sense: Lilith possesses no current significant loyalties in one direction or another. She has a lover, has a family, and is a leader in her community, but her desire for power, her impatience, and the culture she lives in render her devoid of any meaningful ties in any direction.

Authority detection: She possesses significant authority and influence over the city of Aronms. Lilith's influence is felt all over the city and there isn't anyone in it who doesn't at least recognize her name.

Soul sense: Lilith has the soul of a witch. She craves power and is happy to work with those who can provide it to her.]

Her entry intrigued me. And it was precisely at that moment that I received an alert from the system.

[Alert: You can now use two new magic domain abilities:

Interruption: This power allows you to disrupt magic by las.h.i.+ng out at the mind of the caster. It is a synergistic ability that ties together the mind domain and the magic domain. Usage of this power automatically grants you the magic you've interrupted.

Identification: This power is a straight upgrade to the 'Detect magic' power you possess curtsey of the magic domain. It allows you to identify spells even if they're midair, at a glance. You can also claim spells you've identified. It works automatically.]

I grinned as I read the entry before me, and immediately turned my attention to the spell. I laid my eyes on the vague energy and was delighted to see it begin to be identified. After a few seconds, a single word appeared underneath the spell. "Dominate".

At that moment I received a welcome notification. My new power had just activated!

[Alert: Thanks to the power of your 'Identification' ability you can identify the magic before you.

You have laid your eyes on a potent enchantment spell named 'Dominate'. This spell forces targets. .h.i.t by it to try and resist its potent effects. Failure to resist causes someone to become enthralled by the spellcaster.

You can now use 'Dominate'. This spell must be focused on to keep working but G.o.ds can focus on many things at once.

Furthermore: You can tell that a yellow aura depicts someone with significant enchantment powers and ambient yellow energy is a sign of powerful, long-lasting enchantment magic.]

I chuckled and tilted my head in Lilith's direction. I took a moment to take aim at her, all while keeping my mind in a hyper-focused state. When I felt certain that my power would affect her, I envisioned her spell falling apart and then willed my new "Interruption" ability to lash out at her.

I watched as Lilith suddenly hissed, possibly in pain. Her companion turned to her, having willingly ignored her words but still being present enough to notice that she was suddenly distressed.

Her magic, which had begun sailing through the air, dissipated but not before suddenly illuminating the room in a sudden flash of yellow energy. And with this, I stopped focusing so intently. That caused my perception of time to return to normal, and therefore return everything to a normal speed.

Lilith, recovering from the potent shock caused by the power of the "Interruption" ability suddenly turned in my direction. She wasn't quite looking at me but she somehow sensed my proximity. I chuckled and made the conscious choice to make the sound distinctly audible. Her eyes widened as she realized that whatever suspicions she had were correct.

"Who goes there?" She asked, her voice filled with anger at being watched by an unknown force and at her attempt to ensnare a new servant being interrupted and thwarted. I was silent for a second and considered how to proceed from here.

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"What should I do?" I asked myself. The room was now dead silent and even the male dark-elf I had saved turned to look in my direction. He had a curious look on his face, and Lilith had a rage-filled one on hers.

"I suppose I ought to introduce myself..." I mused, chuckling at the fact that I had opted to out myself so as to prevent someone's will from being s.n.a.t.c.hed away. I turned to look at the muscular dark elf and studied him for a second.

I visually memorized every centimeter of his body. And then I crafted myself a dark-elven form based on his body but considerably taller. Once the new form was complete I transformed into it and allowed myself to corporealize. This whole process took about half a minute and I carried it out in silence.

The only differences between the armored dark elf and myself were that his eyes were sheer white orbs and mine weren't and that he was clad in armor and I only gave myself light-crafted pants so as to hide my genitalia. I came into being standing and very literally looking down on the seated dark elves. Both of them were shocked to see me, and in their eyes, there were flashes of recognition as they realized they were looking at a copy of the male in the room. I grinned at the pair.

"First of all, allow me to apologize for borrowing your form." I said, almost immediately beginning to speak to the male in the room. This seemed to shook him more than anything else, and he merely slumped back in his chair. I grinned at him and continued to speak.

"If you're annoyed or upset at me there are two things you should know: I just saved you from an attempt, by her," And with that remark, I turned to look at Lilith for a second. "To dominate you. Magically." I explained, causing the male dark elf to look over at and glare, both angrily and in shock, at Lilith for a moment before turning back to me.

"The other thing you should know," I said as the dark elf turned to look back at me. "Is that I don't have a 'true form'. I tend to use a human form, but as a G.o.d I don't possess a single, definitive form. So my choice to mimic you wasn't anything personal." I announced. My declaration that I was a G.o.d wasn't missed by Lilith.

I had attention focused on the male, but when I finished speaking to him I turned to address Lilith. "And as for you..." I said, a confident smirk on my face.

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"My name is Althos. I am a G.o.d. And I have come here seeking to make contact with the dark elves, and add this city to my empire." I told her, inferring from her way of talking that she saw herself as a leader. I intended to make use of what I felt was her arrogance and to appeal to it.

Lilith looked at me, and studied me for a second. She was clearly unnerved by the fact that I was basically a taller version of her colleague. When she did speak her voice was tinged with skepticism.

"Your 'empire'?" She asked, clearly skeptical that I was telling the truth about having an empire. I grinned at her and nodded.

"I'm a young G.o.d, but I do have forces of my own. Thousands of troops ready to die for me." I told her, mixing truth and fiction together. I did in fact have my own forces, and there were, in fact, thousands of them, but saying they were ready to die for me was a bit of fiction on my part.

"What sort of forces do you command, 'Althos'?" She asked me, inquisitively and mockingly looking at me. There was disbelief and even scorn in her gaze. I laughed, understanding her skepticism.

"I have an army of millions of ants under my control. And I possess strong necromantic power and have risen thousands of undead in my name." I told her, speaking honestly this time. She smiled, mockingly, at me.

"Your armies are ants and zombies? For a G.o.d you don't have impressive servants." She told me, speaking arrogantly. I shrugged my shoulders at her, indifferent to her skepticism.

"I know my power. My forces are not to be underestimated." I replied, somewhat understanding her point. I didn't bother to correct her idea that my forces were zombies and regular ants. I was quiet for a second and envisioned my current list of necromancy subdomain powers.

[Necromancy subdomain pa.s.sive powers:

Lesser undead mastery:

As a G.o.d of the undead, you become the undisputed master of the lowest caste of undead beings. Lowly legions of ghouls, ghosts, skeletons, zombies, wraiths, shadows, vampires, wrights, and mummies, as well as lesser ent.i.ties like hungry hands and undead plants, begin to wors.h.i.+p you and obey you once they become aware of you.

This power grants you divine authority over all lesser undead, including those that were intelligently created by necromancers or those who transformed themselves into the undead which is often the case with vampires. It subsumes their wills and makes them yours.

This power is also felt by undead strong enough to resist your ability to subsume the wills of lesser undead. It makes you more persuasive to them and increases the likelihood that they'll obey or listen to you willingly even if they won't wors.h.i.+p you.

This power adds zombies, hungry hands, and shadows under your control to your swarm but gives you total control over them. When you issue commands to them, that doesn't cost you your usages of that power the way that it would when you use it on the insects under your control.

Reanimating plague:

This synergistic power ties together the disease domain and the subdomain of necromancy. It allows for those who die due to a disease you infected them to be reanimated spontaneously as undead under your control. These undead serve as carriers of the disease and infect anyone they attack with the disease that killed them.

Unlife energy mastery:

This power grants you utter control over the deadly energy that enables the undead to be undead. You can manipulate this energy as surely as you can manipulate the earth, and you can use it to a wide number of ends.

You can infuse your blows with this energy, causing them to sap a living creature's lifeforce, you can weave this energy into items to create artifacts that cripple those bold enough to try and use them without your permission, and you can make living creatures immune to it, as well as countless other things that are up to you and rely on your creativity.

Miasmic aura:

The auric power granted to you by the first tier of influence over the subdomain of necromancy is one that strengthens undead allies and weakens living foes. This aura is unusual in that it also activates if you are near an undead creature strong enough to resist the compulsion to wors.h.i.+p and obey you, further pressuring their wills to be vigilant around you. The aura is one of unlife energy.

Sinister shadow:

This power creates a persistent bodyguard in the form of a shadowy wraith who lives in your shadow. It springs to life whenever you are attacked, and attempts to kill and reanimate your attacker. If it successfully kills its targets then the targeted creature will reanimate as a ghoul or vampire under your control.

Create Undead:

You can now create the undead as a simple matter of flexing your will. If you wish to transform a corpse into an undead ent.i.ty all it takes is for you to touch the thing with unlife energy and for you to will it to reanimate, allowing you to create undead in areas with anti-magic defenses.

When you create the undead in this manner you'll be asked what sorts of undead you wish to create just like if you used the 'Create Undead' spell. You can create any of the undead you can command via "Lesser undead mastery". This power allows you to swiftly create undead armies.

Fleshcrafter:

So long as a creature hasn't been dead for over five centuries you can restore its flesh and bone, so long as you have a single fragment of bone or flesh to use. This greatly enhances the number of corpses you can use to create armies and grants you the ability to salvage destroyed undead.

Unlife energy infusion:

The same energy that infuses undead creatures now infuses you. As a deity, you can possess both life-energy and unlife energy. You can also possess infinite amounts of both.

Mindtether:

You can tie together the minds of the undead. If you do this with a horde of lesser undead, like zombies, you can grant them elevated intelligence. If you do it with greater undead you can ensure greater cooperation between them.

Swarm Loyalty:

Members of your swarm are automatically reanimated as undead under your control when they die. This power means that enemies effectively have to kill them twice, once when they're alive and then again when they reanimate. It takes them just seconds to reanimate.

Additionally, creatures killed by undead members of your swarm rise up as undead creatures themselves.

Cla.s.s-Granting:

You can give someone the necromancer cla.s.s. When they receive it from you they receive a notification alerting them to the fact that you're the cause of them gaining the cla.s.s. The notification's exact text can be modified allowing you to create another persona if you wish too or otherwise hide that you're the cause of the target gaining a new cla.s.s.

Spell-Granting:

You can grant someone various medium-ranked necromantic spells. These spells include but aren't limited too 'Create undead'.

Undead they create using these spells serve and wors.h.i.+p you, but they are automatically given instructions to obey the caster of the spell, which they follow unless you command them otherwise. Your commands are the commands they actually follow, including if you command them to not follow the orders of the spellcaster who created them.

When spells like 'Create undead' are granted by you to other creatures and those creatures use the spells they are just aiming a spell that is, for intents and purposes, cast by you. This power can be used to create some amusing and potentially devastating schemes.

Undamaged material:

Non-deific necromancers can only reanimate the same body so many times. This limitation doesn't apply to you. Provided the corpse isn't damaged you can bestow sparks of unlife onto the same corpse as many times as you wish, allowing you to punish failure and reward loyalty in rather creative ways.

Send sensation:

This power allows you to transmit sensations to the undead who wors.h.i.+p you. If you want to transmit anger, jealously, l.u.s.t, happiness, peace, or any other emotion, you can with but a thought. You can also cause undead beings to experience sensations like the feeling of fullness after eating a full meal or cause them to experience lifelike sensations of discomfort or frustration.

Past necromantic deities used this to send their servants feelings as omens or as a reward. And plenty of G.o.ds used this as a punishment as well, punis.h.i.+ng undead who failed them by making them uncomfortable in various, often creative, ways.

Necromancy subdomain active powers:

Remotely create undead:

This is a rare active power that'll become a pa.s.sive one once you reach a higher tier of influence over its domain or subdomain. With this, you can reanimate a corpse you're aware of two hundred times per half-day.

Miasmic burst:

This once a day active power is a direct and unholy offensive power. It creates an explosion of unlife energy wherever you aim it that decimates any living thing nearby. Anything caught in the attack that survives gains a permanent condition that only you can lift, which guarantees that they'll reanimate as undead creatures in your service once they die, whenever that might be.]

Recalling my powers made me feel powerful. And it reaffirmed just how mighty I already was. I knew my power wasn't to be underestimated, and I chuckled at Lilith's arrogance. I took a second to look over the details of "Shadow strike" the spell I had gotten that would blind those afflicted with it.

As soon as I did this I closed my eyes and targeted three members of the Ardor family with the spell. I activated it with a casualness that surprised me. I felt chill creep down my back as I received a new and welcome notification.

It was alerting me to the award I had just earned: the first tier of influence over the domain of darkness. As I read it, I grinned and felt stronger than I ever had. And more ready than ever to demonstrate my immense power.