A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse

Qu'Ren looked at me expectantly. I could see curiosity and excitement visible in her gaze. I smiled at her and began to speak.

"Well, as you know I'm a young god. I aspire to be a deity of everything. To be... The deity I suppose." I revealed, smiling gently at the dark elf and her body-guard. Qu'Ren looked at me happily, evidently excited by my ambition even though the way I spoke wasn't very ambitious sounding.

I glanced at and targeted her body-guard and without a word activated my "Secret detection" power. An instant later I received a notification, the contents of which I truly wasn't expecting.

[The targeted dark-elf was a woman at birth. She is now suffering from a cruel curse that transformed her into a male dark-elf. Her birth name was Zelda Moonstone, and the name she gave herself when she became a male was Behemoth Shatterstone. Only one dark-elf knows the truth and even Zelda doesn't know that. Zelda desires a chance to be freed of her curse.]

I read through the contents of the notification and grinned. I figured I'd give Zelda a nice scare, and immediately established a link that tied our minds together.

"Hello, Zelda." I wrote, chuckling audibly as I transmitted the message to her. The dark elf bodyguard's eyes shot open and she made eye-contact with me. Sombra noticed this and tensed up, ready to intervene but I reached out under the table and placed a hand gently on her lap. I mentally wrote out another message while readying myself to speak more. I had things to say after all.

"Calm yourself. You stand in the presence of a creature who can save you. I am a god of healing and of the truth. I can overcome the curse that's affecting you in an instant." I revealed, smiling at both of the dark elves, but at Zelda especially.

"As a god, I gain power primarily through two separate means." I began, opting to reveal bits and pieces of the truth to the two dark elves.

"I increase in overall strength by gaining worshipers. Though that method is... Well, it's less efficient than the other method." I told my audience.

"The other method gods gain power by is earning 'influence' over things called 'domains' and 'subdomains'. 'Influence' is how much power you have over a 'domain' or 'subdomain' and 'domains' and 'subdomains' are concepts that gods can influence." I told the audience of creatures before me. This was new information to all of them, and I noticed Sombra paying special attention to my words.

"I go to new places seeking three things. I seek to gain worshipers and I seek opportunities to earn either increased influence over domains and subdomains I can already influence or chances to be able to influence domains and subdomains I can't already influence." I revealed, smiling as I did so.

"What can you already influence?" Asked 'Behemoth', and 'his' decision to speak up caused Qu'Ren to look over her shoulder at the dark elf and smile. I looked at the dark elf and my expression took on a pensive quality.

"Well... I can influence light and darkness. I can influence biology. A few different schools of magic, including evocation and healing. And many more things." I told the dark elf, making direct and confident eye-contact. Obviously I was also writing out a mental message.

"If I healed you, what would you be willing to give me in return? What is the truth, your truth, worth to you?" I mentally asked the dark elf. I wasn't going to ask a high price or anything, but I wanted Zelda to be the one who started thinking about what the chance to live her truth was worth to her.

"I am a deity of transformations, change, and the truth. Through me, all will come to embrace their desires and to be who they truly are. No more masks. No more deceptions." I told "Behemoth", making purposeful and intense eye-contact with the dark elf.

Qu'Ren was delighted by that idea and began to laugh happily. I turned to her and grinned. And then she turned to her husband and asked a simple question.

"Well honey? Aren't you going to ask for Althos to remove your curse?" The dark elven evoker asked, the question sounding innocent enough but revealing a lot and implying sinister things. I looked at Qu'Ren, and Zelda looked at Qu'Ren. Though our gazes were tinged with different emotions.

Mine was tinged with curiosity. Zelda's was tinged with rage. The dark elf jumped back, her leap carrying her a good distance. It was an impressive display of athleticism, though the context behind it wasn't great. And Zelda pointed a fist at Qu'Ren shortly before beginning to shout at her wife.

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"What are you talking about? How... How did you know about that?" Zelda asked, her masculine voice colored with suspicion and rage.

Qu'Ren had a look of innocent confusion on her face. She seemed genuinely puzzled by her husband's outburst. Sombra was watching all of this delightedly and was positively engrossed in it.

"Honey, of course, I knew about your curse. I'm a high-level spell-caster did you think that I was only capable of using magic to blow things up?" The evoker asked, a look of something close to hurt pride making itself visible in her gaze. This revelation only served to further hurt Zelda, albeit unintentionally.

"You knew... How long have you known?" The dark elf asked, rage gaining more and more prominence in her eyes. I watched this and readied myself to intervene. I could feel Zelda's rage beginning to bubble over. An eruption was bound to happen.

"I've known for years. I thought eventually you'd tell me but you never did. I don't know why you never told me... It didn't make much sense to me that you never did." Qu'Ren admitted.

Zelda heard this and paused. And then she began to laugh. That was when the dark elf's muscles tensed and even mid-laugh she was able to hurl herself at her wife. I chuckled and focused. And everything slowed down.

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Zelda slowed to a crawl, and I got up out of my seat and walked over to her. She was still moving, but I was moving at a speed that was impossible for her to perceive. A speed beyond her reflexes.

I merely walked in front of her and then relaxed enough for my perception of time to speed ever so slightly up. I waited until the dark elf noticed me in front of her, and I punched her in the gut. Her health took a massive hit and she crumpled to the floor.

I looked at her mangled and bleeding form and sighed. And began to heal her. I did so by quietly channeling healing energy into her guts.

Her bloodied form immediately began to recover. I could sense her lifeform growing stronger as she received healing. All it took since I was as strong as I was when it came to healing, was a few seconds of effort for the dark-elf to recover.

When I was done with that, I looked at her and broke the curse. I did so by activating my innate ability to shatter curses. Undoing the curse should have felt exciting to me, this was the first curse I'd ever broken, but the truth was I felt inconvenienced by the whole thing.

I felt inconvenienced by it, even as I received a notification alerting me that I had earned the first tier of influence over a new subdomain. Apparently "Gender" had its own subdomain, and the subdomain liked the way I handled this situation. Even that wasn't enough to leave me feeling satisfied. I could tell I still had more work to do.

Before Qu'Ren's, Sombra's, and my eyes, the dark elf I had knocked unconscious began to change. "His" features softened and became her features. Zelda's. I watched for a few moments as her body took on a more feminine appearance and as some of her anatomy changed, before diving into her unconscious mind.

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I found myself standing in the middle of a vast plane made entirely of darkness. I had to wonder what was going on just for a second before the domain of dreams snapped at me abruptly.

"Zelda isn't dreaming! You're in her unconscious mind. The only reason you can be here at all is because you healed her." The domain told me, evidently as annoyed about this as I was about this whole scenario.

"We're retrieving her right now, but your expanding powers are... really annoying." The domain told me, suggesting it was performing a minor intervention of its own to aid me.

In an instant Zelda, in her true form, was uncouthly thrown in front of me. I chuckled as the woman landed on her face, and then was still for a few moments, before picking herself up off the floor.

"You!" She hissed, as soon as she saw me. She looked at me intently, rage in her gaze, before she suddenly paused and thought about something.

"Wait a second... My voice. My voice!" She said, experiencing shock and confusion in equal measure. I grinned at her and gave her the time she needed to process what was going on. Nearly a minute of dream-time passed before she pieced it together. When she next made eye-contact with me there were confused tears gathering in her eyes.

"Althos... Is this something that'll fade when I wake up?" She asked me, her voice soft and filled with both fear and hope. I smiled at her and shook my head.

"I've made you, you again. I broke the curse that was cast on you. And before you ask, the person who cast the curse died some time ago. Before I break curses I get notifications about the type and the caster. Yours was intense enough that even the caster dying didn't undo it." I explained to the unconscious dark-elf.

Her face fell when she learned that she couldn't kill the caster of the curse herself. She was silent, and I could tell that she was debating what to say next.

She was, in her own way, probably going through some sort of grief. That was when she looked up at me and had a determined expression on her face.

"You know... I can't forgive Qu'Ren." She told me, her face filled with angry determination. I sighed and looked at her.

"Why not?" I asked, annoyed with her emotions. I felt as though she was being childish all things considered.

"Because she lied to me!" The dark elf angrily declared. I gave her a single sharp look, one filled with anger. It caught her off-guard and I felt fear flow out of her for a moment.

"What do you mean she lied to you? You were the one who didn't tell her about your curse!" I replied, keenly aware of the difference between Qu'Ren uncovering the fact that her husband was cursed, and Zelda explaining her condition to Qu'Ren. I felt a swelling of dark anger emanate from the elf.

"Listen, Qu'Ren was in all likelihood looking for a way to help you break your curse. When I healed her she wanted me to come here. She prayed to me, asking me to come. Don't you find it strange how she looked to you and asked you to talk about your curse?" I pointed out, annoyed that the elf couldn't put two and two together.

This remark caused the dark elf to pause. A look of puzzlement flashed across her face, and I saw her finally beginning to piece together the obvious.

"You were so angered by the fact that your wife didn't force you to reveal everything to her until something could be done about it that you attacked your wife. Think about that for a second." I told the dark-elf, fed up with her childishness.

A look that mixed embarrassment with frustration flashed across her features.

"When you awaken, ask her about this. Just so you can hear it from her." I told the dark elf. And then I turned around and willed myself out of Zelda's mind. As I did so I felt a familiar rush: the rush I felt whenever I earned a new worshiper. The notification I received documenting the gender subdomain also widened. I chuckled as I realized why.

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"When Zelda awakens, which she will, she and you will have to have a conversation. I was able to calm her down though." I explained to Qu'Ren, the second the part of me that entered Zelda's unconscious mind returned to the rest of me. Qu'Ren smiled at me, happiness pouring out of her.

I studied her for a second before asking her a curious question. "So... is your marriage to her over? Because Zelda's Zelda and not Behemoth." I asked, legitimately curious as to what was going to happen to the two of them. Qu'Ren laughed when I finished speaking.

"No silly! Our marriage will be fine. Unless... 'Zelda' wants to separate? In that case we'll have to cross that bridge when we get to it. But I want to stay married. It's not like I love her or anything, but it's a convenient marriage. Separating wouldn't be convenient." Qu'Ren explained, dismissing anything like "Love" with startling ease. She looked at me and then laughed. My shock at her comment must have been visible to her.

"Oh Althos, are you from the surface or something? Dark elves don't marry for love. We marry either for power or for convenience. I like power but my arrangement with Zelda, I didn't know that was her real name, by the way, is one of convenience. For both of us. Zelda no longer being Behemoth doesn't change that." Qu'Ren told me, revealing a lot at once.

I considered her words and chuckled. All of the married couples I knew were surface-dwelling couples. I even knew some married former slaves. All of them had married for love.

"I don't care for love. Zelda is pretty. 'Behemoth' was handsome. I can slake my lusts with either form." Qu'Ren told me, speaking oddly dismissively about this whole thing. I mulled over her words and considered what to say next before opting to hint at the true power of the gods.

"Well... If Zelda wants to split and you still want someone... I can create Behemoth." I told my companion. And for the first time aside from when I came to her in the first place a few minutes ago I got to see Qu'Ren be truly surprised. Her eyes widened and I could tell she wanted an explanation.

"Okay fine, you're practically begging for more information. I've never seen someone do that with their eyes before..." I muttered.

"I am a god of enchantments, souls, and life. By mixing those things together I can create life. I mean I can create life in other ways too, but I can absolutely give you a 'Behemoth' that can be your husband if Zelda wants to end your marriage." I told the dark-elf, and in doing so revealing a way that gods were extraordinary and world-changing beings.

Qu'Ren gazed at me, newfound awe and respect in her eyes. I chuckled at that. She couldn't even speak, she was that stunned by the awe-inspiring powers I could use. I felt her emotions radiating off of her, and grinned as I absorbed them into myself.

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[Dual domain and subdomain details:

Your method of acquiring influence over this domain and subdomain was unusual but that's not your fault. Your handling of a delicate situation was enough that these two entities felt you earned your influence over them.

Personally, I feel as though you have earned your influence over the domain of peace, not so much for the subdomain of gender and sexuality, but their choices are their own.

The domain of peace and the subdomain of gender and sexuality have awarded you their first tiers of influence. You're also the first deity to ever earn influence over this pair in a single series of events.

The domain of peace governs peace, tolerance, and absences from conflicts both big and small. It is an exceedingly powerful domain, especially for a deity as relatively non-violent as you.

The subdomain of gender and sexuality is the actual subdomain that governs sex, sexual desire, and the components of charisma that relate to physical attractiveness, sexuality, and attraction. It is also the subdomain that governs gender and the physical component of someone's sex.

It is a subdomain of the biology domain. It does not govern love. Love is governed by the emotion domain. Beauty is also not governed by this, beauty is governed by the art subdomain.

These are both conventional and to gain increased influence over them use their powers and build cults that worship you in ways that incorporate them. These powers also bounce well off of each other and a single cult could easily worship you in ways that incorporate both sets of your new abilities.

Special note:

Many of these powers are either direct or indirect upgrades to powers you already possess. This is because this domain and subdomain are effectively either a more generalized version of something you already have powers over, in the case of the virtue you have powers over and the domain or a more specialized version of something, in the case of the vice you have powers over and the subdomain.

Dual-domain and subdomain passive powers:

Attraction mastery: Your powers over lust, the mind, and sexuality have granted you the ability to detect the sexual attraction a creature feels and manipulate it. You can increase it, decrease it, or even transfer it to someone else. You cannot transfer it to someone the creature cannot be attracted too.

Attractivity: Your form adopts subtle shifts that maximize how attractive people who can be attracted to you find you. Some of these are subjective, such as how you smell, while others are less subjective. For example: in your base human form your hair will begin to silver, making you a 'Silver fox'.

Aphrodisiac creation: This is a synergistic power mixing your powers over lust, biology, and alchemical with your powers over sexuality. It allows you to create foods, drinks, vapors, and drugs that stimulate sexual desire. This power turns your bodily fluids into aphrodisiacs unless you will it otherwise.

Beauty manipulation: You can modify how conventionally attractive someone else is for their species.

Bliss inducement: You can cause someone to experience bliss. By making them experience bliss they lose all desires to harm others and instead are filled with a desire to share the bliss they feel. This is a mind-affecting power but it works on the living and the undead. Not on extraplanars though.

Blissful creatures worship you as their source of bliss and obey your commands unless they involve harming someone else in anything other than self-defense.

Bloodlust dismissal: You can reduce the amount of bloodlust a creature feels. You cannot do away with it entirely, but you can reduce it and make it easier for a target to be talked out of committing violent acts.

Dream manipulation: Even without walking into a dream yourself you can now cause sleeping creatures of any kind, even those whose dreams you can't walk into, to experience sexual dreams.

Gender and sex transformation: If the target is willing you can cause someone's gender and sex to change. This transformation is permanent unless you undo it and not only swaps someone's sex, but it also causes them to be truly perceived by others as the other gender.

Hormone mastery: You can increase or decrease the hormones in someone's body. Hormones do a wide range of things, and this power is a synergistic one stemming from your influence over biology and sexuality.

Enhanced allure: This togglable power causes you to exude an aura of sexuality that rouses desire in others. Even creatures not attracted to you that are capable of sexual attraction feel enhanced desires in your presence, though those desires are not aimed at you.

Kiss: Your kisses can now cause a number of effects on targets. They can cause them to fall asleep, be filled with an urge to commit violence, to cease violence acts committed in front of them, inflict pain on themselves, pleasure themselves, and a number of other things.

Non-violence: You can hit a creature with a curse that makes them less effective at violence, reducing their effectiveness in battle and also making it more amenable to efforts to end violence.

Peace aura: Creatures who want to fight in your presence must resist an incredible urge to cease violence. It can be overcome, but it is difficult to overcome especially if you apply other status effects on targets.

Pheromone mastery: You can create pheromones, and will them to have a variety of effects on those who smell them. Pheromones are exuded by the body and affect other living things.

Pleasure manipulation: This grants you the ability to induce pleasure in someone and to manipulate it as you see fit. Too much pleasure can cause other effects.

Sexual soothing: You can cause creatures to be healed by performing sexual acts. This power can also be applied to areas, creating zones in which creatures who have sex are healed.

Sexuality detection: You can determine someone's sexuality at a glance.

Siren's song: You can unleash a sound that causes creatures who could be attracted to you to temporarily lose themselves unless they possess indomitable wills and be filled with a desire to be close to you. This power can be excellent for crowd-control.

Violence detection: Creatures in combat and acts of violence are automatically detected by you.

Dual-domain and subdomain active powers:

Lust manipulation: You can manipulate the amount of lust someone feels. This allows you to make them more suggestible and can be also be used to enhance the effects of the mental conditions you can inflict on someone. This can be used three times per hour.

Peaceful persuasion: You can speak to someone and prevent a violent clash before it happens. Synergistic power fusing the domains of enchantment, peace, purity, and the mind. This power can be used once a day.

Unholy radiance: Once per week you can transform yourself into a vision of handsomeness and sexuality so potent that it overwhelms anyone who sees it. Doing so causes anyone who beholds you to worship you as an embodiment of divine sexuality. This power is also moderately mind-breaking. This power lasts for an hour.

Blessing and curse details:

By blessing someone with the peace domain you make them twice as likely to engage in peaceful behavior or end violent conflicts peacefully. By cursing them with it you doom their attempts to cause peace altogether.

By blessing someone with the sexuality subdomain you increase their attractiveness, and you increase their sexual stamina. By cursing them with it you doom their efforts to have sex with others by lessening their attractiveness to anyone they're attracted too and tearing apart their sexual stamina.

Second special note:

Now you can bless or curse someone's charisma in a way that actually affects their physical appearance.]

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The notification alerting me to the new powers I had gained made me feel conflicted. Many of these new powers were astoundingly powerful, and I felt that I could use them in legitimately amazing ways.

I felt their power within me. I could tell by the way that Sombra was looking at me that my physical changes were significant. But these powers, at least the sexuality ones, were corruptive and felt... wrong.

That said, I already knew how I'd test them. These new powers, all of them really, gave me incredible tools with which I could easily free the slaves who were stuck in the Ardor family's property. They deserved to be free, and I enjoyed knowing that I'd be taking these powers for a test run.

I quietly bid Qu'Ren farewell and departed from her family's property minutes later. It was time for me to pay the Ardors a visit. And for me to make good on my promise to free the enslaved peoples of Aronms.

Every step I took filled me with a quiet determination. There was a smile on my face as I began to approach the massive property owned by the one family I was ardently opposed too. I was ready for whatever came next.