Unfettered Divinity

Time unfroze and the world seemed to exhale around me. It took a conscious effort for me to keep standing, but even as the sensations of thousands of little creatures beginning to worship me I was able to stay on my feet. Raiz continued to speak.

"Cosecha, the god I worship and who literally created me, is an entity unlike any that has ever existed. It will possess the powers of all of the higher beings that once existed." The dryad explained. As she spoke there was a rapturous expression on her face, one that expressed her immense pride and loyalty to her creator, to me. My allies looked at her in confusion and shock.

"Could we... meet this god of yours? This... 'Cosecha'?" Farrane asked, a dubious expression on her face as she spoke. I could tell that she didn't actually believe Raiz, and I suspected Raiz did as well. The dryad fell silent in response to her question. And though I didn't say anything, I wasn't silent.

"If I use 'Unfettered divinity' here, would the elves automatically know that Cosecha and I are the same entity, even if I say... use my 'image manifestation' power to create an illusion depicting Cosecha?" I asked the system, ready for it to tell me that that wouldn't work, but also hoping that it would.

[Actually... that would work. Alternatively, you could create an avatar...] The system suggested, to which I transmitted the energy of shaking my head to communicate that I was rejecting that idea.

"Creating an avatar isn't something I feel comfortable doing at this moment. And especially not for something this low-consequence." I replied, refusing to do something as powerful as splitting myself for something as relatively simple as convincing a few elves that I was a real god. But I was eager to attempt to convince the elves of the existence of Cosecha.

Raiz was still silent. She was carefully considering how to advance through this delicate situation. I was pretty excited to be able tell her exactly how we'd navigate this situation, together. And so I quickly composed a mental message to send her.

"Tell them that Cosecha is on its way." I told her, simply. When I did, I saw her eyes flick towards me, an unspoken question in them. I just grinned, and she gave me a confused look before finally nodding and doing as I commanded. She turned towards our elven companions and smiled.

"My master is coming. It was just informing me that it is on its way. Please, ready yourselves. It is very fast." She said, politely and while doing her best to suppress her own shock. I grinned and envisioned my alternate form before activated my ability to manifest images.

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Raiz was the first to react to the image I manifested. In fairness, I manifested it behind the elves and I, just to mess with the elves. Raiz's eyes suddenly went noticeably wide, which provoked a reaction from Calorron. The elf gave her a relaxed look and asked her a quick question.

"It's right behind us isn't it?" He asked, his tone indicating that he was amused by my antics. She nodded, speechlessly, and Farrane quickly turned around to stare at the fabricated and manifested image of Cosecha, in all of its omnielemental glory.

The unreal illusion I had created stood a good distance behind us, but due to its size and distinct features was easy to see. Calorron turned as well and looked at the eerie entity who was looking at us ominously. I silently used my mental abilities to tie our minds together, the elves and my own and waited for a second to see how the two scouts would react to my other form.

Neither of them opened their mouths to speak. Instead, they took a step back, carefully adding a bit of distance from the deity, but plainly aware of the dryad and the three two-beings behind them. Their faces were stoic masks. And they remained impressively still, even when I activated both "Religious fervor" and "Unfettered divinity".

The first of my activated powers, one I was growing increasingly familiar with, manifested as a subtle field of blue light tinting the area around us. The second of my powers manifested in an unusual way: the area where Farrane and Calorron were standing was suddenly bathed in beautiful, radiant light. It illuminated them and cast their features in a soft, golden glow.

They were baffled by this, looking visibly stunned, but they made no attempt to move. Instead, they both began to mutter something about feeling light as a feather, and that they felt healthier than they had in centuries. I was behind them now, since they had turned around, and I gently grinned. And then I began to speak to them, using my mind to trick them into thinking that Cosecha was being telepathic when it was actually me.

"Hello, Farrane and Calorron. It is nice to meet the two of you." I told them, making my voice a powerful one filled with regal authority and divine might. To them, it was like listening to the sounds of an earthquake with a voice. Their eyes once more filled as they were shocked to their cores to hear me speak to them as my true, divine self.

"I am Cosecha, the god that Raiz worships. I am a god of both nature and civilization and the oftentimes... chaotic ways in which nature and civilization intersect and interact." I explained, speaking both confidently and happily to the elves before me.

Farrane was the first to open her mouth to speak, but it did take her a second to actually begin to talk even after her mouth opened. "Hello... Cosecha. We see that you know our names already... Do you know why we're here?" She asked, speaking shyly, despite the fact that I had communicated mentally with her and her colleague. "Cosecha" nodded at them, its airy head bobbing up and down.

"Yes I do. You are here from the Ansari empire and you are here to investigate and almost certainly create a report detailing what I did last night." I told them, putting a twinge of mischievousness into my telepathic voice. This caught the two of them off-guard and caused them to blush embarrassedly. They didn't speak for a second, so I opted to continue speaking.

"Make no mistake I hold no grudge against you for this. I don't even mind you doing it. I simply know why it is that you're here. Something you didn't hesitate to tell my high-priestess..." I pointed out, reminding them that they had already informed her of what they wanted. Calorron smiled at my illusion, and this time he was the one who spoke.

"Cosecha... You have to understand that we're in an odd situation here." Calorron said, letting the sentence linger in the air for a moment as if I could understand what he meant from that alone. I couldn't.

"Why? I am not asking you to keep this a secret. If you want I'll tell you exactly what I did." I told them, surprising them with my candor. They looked at me in shock and waited for me to continue telepathically speaking. After a few moments, I did.

"I am a god. One of the things I can do is heal people. When it comes to healing... it'd be difficult at the very best for a mortal to match me, even though I don't doubt some of mortals, somewhere might know more technical knowledge than I do." I told the elves, immediately before beginning to launch into an explanation of my activities.

"Last night I healed the creatures in this forest. All of them. I cured them of everything short of magical diseases. Their health was restored, their stamina was restored, if any of them had missing limbs those were regenerated, and any non-magical diseases they suffered from were healed. Heck, the power I unleashed was so powerful that even the symptoms of magical diseases were temporarily overcome." I explained.

"I did this, by targeting this area and activating a power I possess called 'Healing burst'. This power covers an area I target with potent healing energy and heals anyone in the area." I told them, causing their eyes to grow wide in both amazement and shock. I opted to not reveal that I had undergone an upgrade just now and could heal both magical and non-magical diseases.

"So wait, what happened last night... that really was just you? That incredible, record-breaking burst of energy was all you?" Calorron asked, a few moments after I spoke. Cosecha's unreal form nodded at the high-elf. He chuckled, not quite believing it. My fake form laughed, while I, speaking telepathically, made the high-elf an offer.

"I can understand your skepticism... So how's this? I'll heal you and Farrane of any conditions you're suffering from, and then I'll show off my healing mastery. I'll use my power to cure someone of a magical disease. I know you believe that I am a real god. I can sense it. Now let me prove my other claims." I asked and then told the elves. I wasn't lying either, I could sense their belief in my, or rather in Cosecha's divinity. It radiated off of them, a consequence of both my honesty and the powers of the faith domain.

The two elves turned to look at each other, silently, before turning their gazes back towards Cosecha and nodding. And now I smiled, unseen, and barely remembered in all of the "revelations" of the last few minutes.