Divine Realms

I took in the paradisiacal sights before me, and stood still on the beach. As I did so I quietly mulled over what I knew about divine realms. Truthfully... I didn't know a lot about divine realms.

What I did know was simple. Divine realms were where gods were at our strongest. I could infer that each god had a personalized divine realm, essentially a blank canvas with which we could do whatever we willed and warp reality however we wished.

Divine realms were the mysterious destinations where the souls of those who worshiped gods went. From time to time I badgered the system with questions about the mechanics that seemed to underpin reality, and one question I had asked the system was the fate of souls who didn't worship gods.

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"For half a million years... gods have been gone. I don't know what happens to their 'divine realms' when they die, but I'm assuming that mortals who worship a dead god aren't sent to their divine realms. What happens to faithless mortals and those who worship dead gods?" I asked the system.

"For thousands of years mortal souls went to the dimensions that matched their alignments. Each possible alignment combination corresponds to a specific dimension and the souls of deceased mortals were one of the things that helped those dimensions operate as they do now. Back in the mythical age the old gods often sent souls to dimensions that matched their alignments, but the other dimensions didn't get nearly as many souls." It informed me.

"So now these other dimensions, places like 'The Heart of Darkness' are filled with souls? And am I right to assume that these souls become extraplanar entities? I have a law-domain power that does that for devils." I wondered.

"Yes! That's actually exactly what happens. Some types of extraplanar entities can get pregnant and give birth to extraplanar entities, but as it is that's not the case with most extraplanar entities. That said, extraplanar entities can impregnate mortals and thus create new kinds of creatures." The system eagerly informed me.

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I stood right where water and sand met. Waves lapped at my feet. Ahead of me was a dense forest, so thick that only my vision was powerful enough to see through it entire kilometers away from me. The island was impressively wide, and inhabited by a variety of lifeforms. I took a pair of gentle steps forward and I stepped out of the area where water lapped at my feet. As I did my senses continued to acclimate to this strange new place.

I sensed an array of life around me. Within the waters behind me I could sense all sorts of aquatic life, sea-dwelling animals and plants of all sorts. In the forest ahead of me I could sense not just plant life, but even animals of all sorts. Beneath me I could audibly hear all manner of machinery, technology, and also other, more organic sounds. Above me I could hear the noises produced by birds and when I looked up I saw a clear blue sky. It was mid-day and the sun, or rather a copy of it, was beating down on the island and the sea that surrounded it.

I quietly began to take steps towards the forest. I knew where I was going, but I had all the time in the world to get there. There was no point in rushing things. I began to leisurely walk towards the heart of the island. Which housed the sole entrance to the area underneath the island, the heart of the Mi-Go colony.

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As I slowly walked towards the terrible colony, my senses adapted to this strange dimension. As they did I felt each step I took infuse me with pure power. Exploring my dimension, my apparent true home, was filling me with an exciting sense of my own powers.

The very air in this place, when it entered my lungs, felt like it filled me with power. The ground under my feet felt good, and I felt solid whenever I stepped on it. These sensations were not like the sensations I felt on Torus, which this version of my divine realm was based on. I could reasonably conclude that it was like this entirely due to the true nature of this world.

I entered the forest and as trees surrounded me I momentarily considered animating some of them. They were thick things, standing several meters tall, and topped with beautiful leaves of all colors.

"It wouldn't be a bad idea to make some company..." I muttered, chuckling as I stepped into the forest. I lifted a single hand and began to craft some company to escort me. A procession fit for a god.

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The god silently took steps through the forest as he focused on the potent powers he was about to use. He thoughtfully created and shaped something from nothing, creating silver using his own powers over earth, metals, creation, and art, and began to shape the raw material he had divinely created.

The god was walking even as he did this, a smile on his face as he inched closer and closer to the destination he intended to step into. He effortlessly created four massive, floating clumps of unshaped silver, defying the common process by which silver was found in many worlds in the universe of his birth. He then turned his gaze towards the clumps, even as he stepped deeper and deeper into the forest. They formed a floating square that surrounded him and followed him as he tinkered with their shapes.

The god, using nothing more than the potent strength of his mind, began to forcefully shape the clumps around him. He gave the four of them assorted sizes but they all had large, humanoid frames, though ones that lacked hands, instead where their hands would have been they possessed a single weapon and a single shield and they were closer in size to young giants than humans. He leisurely took his time beating the clumps of metal into the proper shapes, sculpting them by bashing them with telekinesis.

Though he shaped them simultaneously, he didn't bring them to life at the same time. Instead he took a moment to admire them. He found them quite handsome, having given them hulking frames and powerfully built "bodies" insofar as a sculpture could have a body. Without saying a word he prepared himself to bring the creations to the mockery of life that lesser constructs, those without souls, possessed. He had a neutral expression on his face as he prepared to do this.

He smiled at them, right before beginning to bring them to life, or at least a golem's version of life.

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I reached out with my mind and tapped the first golem I had created. As I did so, I infused the thing with the golem-version of life. The thing, a giant-sized sculpture made of silver with an arm that ended in a shield and an arm that ended in a spear, ceased floating and fell to the floor beneath it. It had been floating perhaps a meter off the ground so the fall didn't harm it.

The several meter tall piece of living artwork took position in front of me and I mentally commanded it to accompany me to the heart of the forest. It was silent in response to my command, but I knew that it'd obey me. My other constructs, both ones that possessed souls and ones that didn't, also obeyed me silently. I turned to one of its siblings and repeated the process, this time on a golem that had a scythe for a hand. It also fell to the ground and took position in front of me.

The two that floated a bit behind me were golems with ranged weapons for hands. One of them had an apparatus that served as a portable cannon for a hand, and was filled with cannonballs, and the other had a crossbow for a hand, as well as having a significant supply of ammunition. I brought them to life at the same instant, and ordered them to stand behind me and guard me from attacks from the rear. Not that any were ever going to come but this wasn't about actually being protected, it was about sending a message to anyone who'd see me.

This was for dramatic purposes. To reinforce the reality that I am a god, capable of doing things beyond mortal or even eldritch imagining.

Together, the five of us walked through the forest until at last we made it to where guards were posted. Human guards, dressed in modern, for Torus anyway, armor stood watch outside of it. They surrounded a deep hole, a strange cavity in the earth that allowed those brave enough to enter it to enter into a strange world of terrifying science and alien entities. I approached them and as their muscles twitched in response to the sight of me I targeted them and activated "Ascension", causing them to suddenly learn who I was.

When the guards realized my identity they leaped back and fell to their knees before me and my entourage. I heard them begin to mutter reverential greetings to me and to my creations, in one of the human languages one could hear on Torus.

They were human guards, ones who had been thoroughly beaten into submission by the Mi-Gos and who had quickly learn to accept the Mi-Gos as superior creatures who deserved to be served by humans in the days before I spontaneously came to life. My Mi-Go worshipers had told me about them in prayers.

I nodded at them as I walked past them and came to a stop right in front of the dreadful hole that would lead me into the maddening laboratories and colony of the Mi-Go. The pair of golems I had created to be my servants and guards who stood in front of me also halted right in front of the hole. I reached out with both of my hands and planted them on the shoulders of the creatures, before I gave them the ability to alter their own gravity, in essence giving them the ability to float, or lift-off, though not flight as a humanoid might understand it. I swiftly repeated the motion for the golems behind me.

And then I stepped off the ground and onto the empty air right above the mouth of the hole. My golems followed me, forming a tight square centered around me. When all of us were in formation I began my descent, allowing it to be quite slow, and was followed by my silent servants a second later.

The hole was impossibly black. And the ground at its bottom, perhaps a few dozen meters below sea-level, was also impossibly black. I could tell at a glance that no ordinary mortal would be able to see through the darkness that surrounded and waited for my entourage and I. Not that such a thing bothered me in any particular way. I could see through any darkness, thanks to my powers over truth, light, and darkness.

It took my creations and I a full five minutes of descent to reach the bottom of the hole. And when we did we found ourselves at the most visible part of a large chamber-like area beneath the surface of the island. Here the noises of the eldritch creatures that secretly controlled this island were louder than ever. At the bottom of the hole, it was possible that a particularly perceptive mortal might have been able to hear the distant screams, and the otherworldly machinery if they listened and were able to silence any closer sounds. To me, the sounds were incredibly clear, and if I had had a mortal's sensibilities they might have been frightening.

I was not as sensitive as a mortal was so the sounds didn't bother me. I wasn't especially fond of pain, but I knew that was going on here was science and the accruement of knowledge. The Mi-Gos were scientists who like me were unfettered by any particular sense of morality. I could relate to being interested in knowledge without any attachment to any sort of moral code.

They wanted to understand their enemies, the mortals, and their fellow abominations. They were willing to go to any length to do so. I could admire that about them. It made me grateful that many of them, a few thousand at least, had begun to worship me as a Great Old One, one of the titles given to gods worshiped by such otherworldly entities.

Deep beneath the earth, I turned and my entourage turned as well. As one we stared at an opening that would lead us deeper into the underground part of the island, and allow us to come face to face with the Mi-Gos who controlled this colony. Which was exactly what I wanted. I grinned, knowing that I was close to my goal and I began to walk towards the scientists and their underground homes.