A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse 77 Backstories And Bargains

"I have a loving family. They are the lights of my life. From my mother, Alma, to my wife, Sophia, to my daughter, Marlena." Gustavo told me. There was a light in his eyes as he spoke about them. He smiled as he thought about them, and I felt the intensity of the love he felt for him radiate out of him. It was a tasty looking emotion, the sort that I might one day inspire in my own wors.h.i.+pers.

"What a delicious emotion..." I thought, idly. Gustavo fell quiet for a moment after he mentioned his family members, but he didn't stay quiet for long.

"I have two problems. One of them is pretty straight-forward. Comillas' fields aren't producing food in the same quant.i.ties that they used too. Althos had an interesting, albeit probably temporary solution to that problem. The other problem I have is a bit... well it's a bit more personal." Gustavo confessed.

"I don't know how Alma knew about this..." The man said, before he sighed quietly. "But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. She knows about so many things. My daughter is sick. My wife knows but she thinks I don't. I'm a.s.suming they tried to keep it hidden from me out of love and a desire not to worry me, but I've noticed. I just... can't do anything about it." The man confessed, revealing an awareness of the vague malady that was plaguing his daughter.

"My daughter can sleep for hours, but this isn't the sleep of the living. It's the sleep of someone who is slowly wasting away. Marlena's health has always been less than tremendous, but this is new. Her skin is clammy, her pulse is weak, and she is often delirious. She's suffering. She's told me so herself. I actually learned she was sick, early on because she told me directly." Gustavo revealed, outing Marlena as the source of his awareness of her health.

"My daughter, my wife, my mother, and my community are my whole world. I'd do anything to protect them and ensure that Comillas can one day thrive." The human said, looking at me earnestly. I grinned, my airy face contorting to physically express what I felt.

I took moment before doing anything else to pause and consider my options here. I knew that I could dramatically and powerfully wait until he was awake to heal Marlena. Or I could go ahead and heal her right now, showcasing the ease with which I could heal and save lives.

"On one hand, showcasing that my powers are real in a dramatic, flashy way is an excellent tactic to secure the loyalty of Gustavo... It's almost guaranteed to earn his wors.h.i.+p." I told myself.

"On the other hand, I am not a fan of allowing Marlena to suffer just so I can demonstrate my powers. It's not kind, or in the spirit of the subdomain of healing to prolong suffering to make a point." I reminded myself, my words safely hidden in the vault that was my mind. The debate didn't last long, and my choice was unsurprising.

I targeted Marlena through my mini-map and her alone and focused on her health. I waited for a second until nothing happened. I sighed, and then activated my knowledge domain's "See condition" power, which actually produced a result.

[Name: Marlena Mondragon

Conditions: Sleeping, fatigued (When awake), delirious (When awake), ravenous (When awake), perpetual nightmares (When asleep)

Hitpoints: 5/20

Disease(s): Sleep-Strike Disease

Disease information: Sleep-Strike Disease is a sleep disorder that causes those plagued by it to sleep for over half a day at a time. When victims are awake they are fatigued, delirious, and plagued by severe hunger. When they sleep they suffer from intense nightmares that they can't remember during the day.]

The disease was intriguing to me. It was, in a sense, a perfect disease for me to snag control over. If I needed to punish someone with a disease that at first might not look that serious I could smack them with it, and then harry them in their nightmares. This also made it good for singling out specific people I wish to punish, rather than punis.h.i.+ng entire families.

I calmly activated my disease-domain granted "Cure disease" power and targeted Marlena. The girl was immediately cured of the condition responsible for the suffering she had endured over the course of the last few days. I immediately filled out a notification to send her way when she awoke.

Seconds after I did that, I received a familiar notification. It was one alerting me to my newly acquired mastery over the sickness that plagued Marlena. I grinned as read over and then dismissed the thing.

"Well you can rest a bit more easily now. I have healed your daughter. She was suffering from a disease called 'Sleep-Strike Disease'. When you wake up, you can ask her yourself. She will tell you that Cosecha healed her. She doesn't know who I am, just that I healed her from the disease." I declared, speaking in a proud manner befitting a G.o.d.

Gustavo's eyes opened wide in shock. He went still, but not before a smile burst across his face. I could sense, intuitively, that he wasn't entirely sure if he believed me. At the same time, I also received an alert that suggested that he was more hopeful than he was skeptical.

[Influence over Gustavo: 10%]

That alert widened the grin etched on my face. I could sense that what I had done had already, in essence, won Gustavo over. Now it was just a matter of waiting for his wors.h.i.+p to come to me.

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Andrea and I had our gazes locked on each other. In her dream, I appeared as a darkly handsome winged-human. Andrea, or at least her dream-form, was that of a plain redheaded human in her early twenties.

"You know what would prove your divinity to me?" She asked. I shook my head at her, and she chuckled.

"Well that means you aren't omniscient!" She sneered. This slightly annoyed me, but I bit my tongue and let it slide. I wanted to be omniscient, it wasn't my fault that I wasn't. I let silence fill the air between us, as if to demonstrate that she still had the floor. Eventually, she realized this and spoke again.

"Fine. You know what could prove that you were a G.o.d, to me at least? Regrowing a limb. Even our most advanced science can't do that. If you can cause spontaneous regeneration of a limb, I'll believe that you are a G.o.d." Andrea told me. There was an emotion I wasn't familiar with in her voice as she spoke. From this, I was able to infer that this might be something personal to her.

I looked at her sympathetically for a moment before speaking again. There was a deep emotion in her eyes that caught me a bit off guard. And in those eyes, I could clearly see an opportunity.

"Andrea... let's make a deal." I began, smiling at her as I spoke. She looked at me, skepticism and quizzicalness mixing in her eyes.

"I will heal whoever you wish for me to heal. And in exchange, right here and right now, I grant you your most heartfelt desire. Beauty." I told her, confidence audible in my voice. She listened to me, and paused for a moment. When she spoke, she had a question.

"Let's say I accept your deal. What I hear from this deal is that I gain two great things. What do you gain?" She asked, ultimately questioning my motives. I see gently at her.

"You live in a world far from my own Andrea. On the other side of the universe in fact. I want to start to gain servants and wors.h.i.+pers all over the universe. For now, my servants are limited to the world of my birth. In you, I can start to gain wors.h.i.+pers or at least servants all over the universe." I explained. This caused her to give me a haughty look, one of disapproval and indignance.

"Do you think that granting me beauty is enough for me to become your servant?" She asked. I could hear the anger in her voice. I smiled and shook my head at her.

"I don't actually. But I think that granting you beauty will be a good first step towards you becoming my servant. It will show you that even across the universe I am a being of indescribable power who can cause real, physical change. A creature with powers you can't even begin to imagine." I explained, speaking with such sincerity that it caught her off-guard. I could tell because she took a step back, as if afraid of me.

"Andrea, I am a lesser member of my species and even still I can do things that you couldn't imagine. I could teleport to your world, right now if I wanted too. From literally across the universe." I said to her, beginning to explain just a few of my abilities.

"I possess the power to cure any disease in existence. I can free someone from the shackles of mortality with a touch, or cause them to age into dust by backhanding them. I can generate earthquakes, or cause a famine with a snap of my fingers. I can probably generate tornados and cyclones that can annihilate communities." I revealed to the human, all while an ambitious smile crept across my face.

"I am not your enemy. I want you to become my servant, my wors.h.i.+per. I have no bad intentions towards you or your species. In fact, you and I share a thirst for knowledge." I told her, feeling as though I had emphasized my powers enough and now wanting to reveal what she and I had in common.

"I want to be omniscient. It is one of my greater desires. For now, though, I content myself with acc.u.mulating power. And the truth is, that if I can grant you the beauty you seek I gain a whole new group of powers." I revealed, casually explaining why I had actually come here.

Andrea's eyes narrowed at that declaration. She speedily replied to what I said with an exasperated sigh.

"What do you mean granting me beauty grants you more powers? How? Why?" She asked, annoyed at what I was revealing. I laughed, and waited for her to calm down. When she did, a few moments later, I opted to be honest with her.

"I am a very, very young G.o.d Andrea so I don't know that much about all of this yet. But here's what I do know: there are things called domains and subdomains. Domains and subdomains are ideas, concepts, and laws given consciousness. G.o.ds gain power, or 'influence' over them in various ways. If I use a spell I possess on you, to transform you into a form you find beautiful I gain powers related to biology. The first tier of powers related to biology." I told the human, being candid with her.

Andrea looked at me and chuckled. She then sat down and sighed. "So you entered my dream, probably through a domain or subdomain power, so you could grant me beauty?" She asked. I nodded at her. "Is that your true form?" She asked, eyeing me up and down. I shook my head and spoke to clarify.

"I don't have a true form. It's been suggested to me that the G.o.ds of old did, but I don't. Instead, I can shapes.h.i.+ft into any form, of any size. I have a number of forms I use, though I have spent most of my time in a human form. Not this one mind-you, but another human one. One that doesn't have wings." I revealed, speaking gently. I wasn't done either.

"Andrea, I can transform you into whatever form you find the most beautiful. I have no problem admitting that I'm using you, but frankly you're only benefitting from this deal. I am not asking you to become my wors.h.i.+per, or to serve me. I would like for you to serve me, but for right now I am entirely happy to just make you beautiful. You have nothing to lose from this deal." I told her.

I wasn't lying either. A part of my mind was keenly aware that the quest I was undertaking only asked that I use the spell on a willing target. I could easily target Milene and still be awarded the various powers that the domain would grant me.

Andrea listened to me and considered my words. After a few moments, she nodded uncertainly at me. I grinned at her and then began to question her.

"I want to get to know you. What do you consider beautiful?" I asked her. And so began a conversation that opened my eyes to the peculiar aesthetic tastes of the humans of Andrea's homeland in the world of Htrae.

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"So let me get this straight... You want to be taller, have sun-kissed skin, gain a larger chest, blonde hair, and for your eyes to remain exactly the same?" I asked her, looking at her curiously.

She nodded at me, a wide grin on her face as she envisioned her body matching what she thought was beautiful. I chuckled, studying the attractive young woman before me. Personally I really liked her red-hair and felt a bit sad to know that she wanted it to change. But I rose a hand in her direction, purely to make it clear that I was about to activate the spell.

Andrea stiffened. I could tell she was a tiny bit afraid of whatever was about to happen next. I grinned at her and targeted her with the legendary alteration spell "Transfigure". I unleashed the potent magic, and watched as a burst of energy of multihued energy exploded out of my hand and flew into and then through Andrea. I wasn't surprised to receive an alert a moment later.

['Transfigure' activating... Please envision the sort of changes you'd like to cause the targeted creature to undergo.]

I imagined the pale redhead before me undergoing a transformation into a taller, tanner, bustier woman. I focused on that vision and held it steady in my mind. It took what felt like a few minutes before I received another alert.

[Envisionment processed and transfiguration complete. The target has been successfully transformed.]

I willed the magic to dissipate and lowered my hand. As I did so I laid my eyes on Andrea's transformed figure.

She was now over two meters tall and had the body of her professed dreams. She had a bronze skin-tone, a weighty looking bust, and her red hair was transformed into resplendent golden locks. She rose her hands to her face, and gasped as she beheld her new complexion. She took a single hand and reached behind her head to grab some of her hair.

She brought the hair to her face, and smiled when she saw that it was blonde now. I chuckled at her displays of shock and delight. And then I spoke.

"Your physical form has been equally transformed. I can sense it." I declared. I wasn't entirely sure how, but I knew that the magic I had just cast on her would bleed over into her physical form.

"Tomorrow go visit someone you know and love who has lost a limb. When you do, pray to me. I will heal them, in front of you. They will learn my name the instant I do. I am indeed a G.o.d. And my powers can stretch across the universe. s.p.a.ce isn't as limiting for me as it is for you." I declared. Andrea looked at me, and there was an expression of awe on her face.

I smiled at her, enjoying how I had smashed her skepticism. I still had a few more words to say, even though I could see the notification alerting me to the powers I had just acquired.

"It is time for me to leave this place. I shall grant you pleasant dreams for the rest of the night. And I thank you for your a.s.sistance today. Because of you, I am stronger than I was a few minutes ago. I won't forget that." I told her, speaking honestly.

I targeted Andrea and activated the restorative version of my "Restless or restful sleep" power. She grinned and began to s.h.i.+ver before me, as I willed myself out of her dream.

As I did so, I received a new notification. It asked me if I wanted her to remember the dream. I chuckled and informed the system that I did want her to remember the events of her dream.

The part of my mind that was within her dream slipped out of it and studied the newest domain that I had gained influence over. The potent domain of biology.

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[Details about the domain of biology:

The biology domain is a strange and fecund domain. It is tied to the greater domains of life and death, and gaining influence over it is a critical component of gaining influence over those domains, and it is tied to the numerous subdomains that govern specific lifeforms.

This domain is the domain of evolution and fertility. It is a potent domain and G.o.ds who aspire to gain mastery over it become powerhouses with unsettling powers like pregnancy inducement, evolution manipulation, and the power to create new lifeforms once they gain influence over the domain of life.

This is one of the few domains wherein power is acquired over it purely internally. You don't need to gain wors.h.i.+pers who wors.h.i.+p you as a deity of biology to enhance your degree of influence over it. Instead just use the abilities in question, until you gain the alert that you can further your influence over the domain.

Biology domain pa.s.sive powers:

Pregnancy manipulation: This power is useable in various ways. It is most commonly used to induce pregnancy, even in virgins, or put an end to pregnancy in selected targets. That said, that's not the only way it can be used.

Evolution manipulation: This pa.s.sive power allows you to create entirely new evolutionary lines. To use it you must have over ten-million wors.h.i.+pers from the species you wish to create new evolutionary lines within. Another facet of this power is that it allows undead who wors.h.i.+p you to evolve.

Vestigial restoration: This is a pa.s.sive, synergistic power that allows you to restore traits and abilities in creatures that their ancestors possessed but lost over time. With it, you can target creatures and gain access to knowledge of traits and powers their ancestors possessed and restore them.

This power has been awarded to you because of your influence over chaos, knowledge, and healing. With it, you can transform selected individuals into significantly powerful members of their species that possess traits thought lost to time.

Fertility manipulation: This power affects someone's likelihood to get pregnant or impregnate someone else. It doesn't have to be targeted at a person though, it can be used to make an area a place couples can come and have s.e.x in order to conceive, or where couples can have s.e.x while certain they won't conceive.

Immortality mastery: This power is what it says. With it, you can grant someone immortality. This is different from reducing someone's age, or even slowing down the rate at which they age. It doesn't make them invincible, but it does prevent them from dying by old-age or by disease though they can still be infected by diseases.

You can also s.n.a.t.c.h away someone's immortality. If a mortal has discovered a way to gain immortality on their own, such as if they master alchemy and can create a philosopher's stone, you can take away the immortality they have earned. This doesn't immediately age them, but you already possess age manipulation abilities.

Dermal and skeletal manipulation: You can manipulate someone's bones and skin.

On a simplistic level, this power can be used to break bones or to s.n.a.t.c.h them out of someone's body, but if fused with other powers this can become a potent way to cause a person's body to become a prison or to create horrifying abominations made of bones or boneless corpses.

Controlled shapes.h.i.+fting: You can manipulate someone's form as a pa.s.sive power. This has limitations though, as you can't double someone else's height, reduce them in height by more than half, or grant them new limbs with this power in its current iteration. That said there's still a lot you can do with it.

Biology domain active powers:

Limb granting: You can create and graft new limbs onto someone as an active power. This can be used twice per twelve-hour period.

Hibernate: You can force a creature to sleep for up to a week. During this time their bodily functions are slowed down to maintain their relative health. You can use this twice per three and a half-day period.

Biology domain blessing and curse details:

By blessing someone with the biology domain you grant them the ability to decide if they will become pregnant or impregnate someone else whenever they have s.e.x. You also speed their progress towards their next evolution.

By cursing someone with this domain you cause them to either become pregnant or knock someone up the next time they have s.e.x or even lose their pregnancy if they are already pregnant. You also cause them to lose progress towards their next evolution.

Special note: You can now complete the quests to gain influence over the domains of life and death.

To gain access to the domain of death you must kill a creature. As a tip, there's some creatures you can kill that would grant you access to domains related to the lifeform in question, such as a dragon.

To gain access to the domain of life you must be responsible for three pregnancies.]