Exponential Power

In outer space, in the area just outside of both the atmosphere and the gravitational pull of the world of Ta Hendo, a god was freely flying. He had a grin on his face as he set about to achieve rather peculiar ends.

The deity was not idly floating in outer space. He had come here to act on his specific goals and he set about doing that with terrifying ease. The first thing the deity did was raise one of his hands and begin to think on a scale unimaginable to himself just days ago.

He began to visualize the interior and exterior of a truly massive starship. He mentally decorated the vast vessel in seconds, filling it with extremely advanced machines and high-tech living quarters. The machine's crew consisted of thousands of robots and androids, who served every conceivable function and many of whom were types of robots or androids that had never been created by Althos before. That wasn't an obstacle to him though, since he could effortlessly create all manner of advanced technology by combining powers and areas of influence of dozens of domains.

The previously empty space around him began to instantaneously fill with the incredibly large starship. The first object that appeared in the void of space was the gigantic starship, itself the size of a small city. This advanced, once strictly hypothetical, starship was made instantly thanks to the god's power over creation and technology.

The spaceship was a marvel of technology, a truly impressive gem of a mobile space station. It also wasn't the only thing the deity created.

As his servants spread across the cosmos the god's mind was actively expanding. Its expansion, coupled with his immense, conceptual power over domains like knowledge, one of the few domains he acquired the third tier of influence over while expanding his empire, and time, granted him a number of truly fun abilities.

The god began to reach out into empty spaces in the galaxies where he was only just now gaining his pseudo-omniscience and he began to act. Those empty spaces tended to be solar systems that lacked life, but other places where the god acted were the strange spaces in outer space known to astronomically advanced civilizations as "voids".

Gods grew in power exponentially, with each tier of influence they acquired over a domain or subdomain granting them tremendous new power. Althos, in acquiring the third tiers over domains such as life, destruction, and stars, had just grown in power to absurd degrees. His power was such that among the new powers he had just gained were ones with terrifying names such as "Galaxy destruction", and powers that were universal in scale such as "Psionic derivation".

In acting across the universe the deity didn't do anything as dramatic as annihilating entire galaxies. Instead of that, he was actually a creator deity. The god quietly filled empty spaces in the cosmos with galaxies, ending voids whenever he came across them with a bright smile on his face.

These galaxies were created quite casually by the deity, despite the immense, unimaginable power it took to create them, however, that wasn't all he did. The god wasn't just a god of creation, after all, he was in his own eldritch way a god of life. He filled the solar systems he created with planets which he, in passing, populated with all sorts of creatures.

The god's mind was powerful enough at this point that he could effortlessly split his focus to nonillions of different trains of thought at once, which he did. A small part of his mind focused on managing the septillions of civilizations he was creating by roaming through the universe and creating galaxies.

Galaxies he created in passing were automatically inducted into his empire, as he filled the souls of the lifeforms he created in these galaxies with knowledge of his existence and empire, as well as his role as their creator. They automatically flocked to his worship, be they kind-hearted creatures, malevolent beings, or neutral creatures, as they all sought to know their creator.

The "main" Althos was still floating in outer space, and before his very eyes, he watched a truly immense number of distant stars begin to come into existence. His eyesight wasn't dependent on sight, so he could already see the stars he was creating, and his knowledge of them brought a smile to his face. Incidentally, these acts of creation on a cosmic scale awarded him the third tier of influence over the creation, darkness, civilization, and light domains, which would have made him smile had he not been already.

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"Now this is power..." I uttered, as I felt power flowing into me. The two biggest changes I abruptly felt were that I was suddenly keenly aware of all light in the universe, which was itself a very strange feeling, and also my sudden encyclopedic knowledge of every civilization in the universe.

Each time I hit the third tier of influence over a domain or subdomain I experienced a singular boost of power and influence over that domain or subdomain that was truly enormous. Until the point that I had hit the third tier of influence over something it took either a truly immense power such as necroscience or the power of domain sense to understand a domain on a universal scale, but the instant I hit the third tier of influence over something that changed.

The third tier of influence over a domain or subdomain was a domain that granted me conceptual power over the domain or subdomain in question. The keenest example of this was that with the third tier of influence over time, which was one of the very few domains I had four tiers of influence over, I could actually freeze time on a universal scale which was a power that was unthinkable in scale.

I was also now fully capable of traveling backward or forwards in time, and opening up the portals that Akamal could open up, and either sending creatures to different points in time or bringing creatures from different points in time to my time. I had every single power Akamal had ever had, and more which was something I hadn't yet given my mind much time to contemplate. Among other things this meant that I could save Ava, and also that the instant I wanted to see whatever caused the ancient apocalypse that allowed me to rise to power so meteorically I could go and see it.

Time was one of the greatest domains in existence. It was matched only by domains like the eldritch domain and the reality domain. Gaining this level of power over it in an instant as I had done had completely transformed my existence and the instant I actually devoted true thought to it it would become very, indisputably real.

That said if I truly wanted to be a god of knowledge I needed to show initiative during these moments of fate. As a true god of time with the power to freeze time, I could go ahead and forcibly gain nigh-omniscience, if I accepted the true and new nature of my existence.

"If there was ever a time for pride and for bravery... I suppose it was now." I stated, bluntly, speaking to myself in outer space.

I shuddered and activated the power, and the instant that I did I chuckled as I watched everything come to a complete and utter halt.

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The god quietly activated his near-total power over time and watched as everything came to a stop. The instant he opted to activate his power every single thing in existence around him froze, from the planet of Ta Hendo, to even his domain-sense notifications. It was the first time since the end of the tutorial that he was alone in any meaningful sense.

The god couldn't even hear the voices of the domains or subdomains in his head. He suspected that the domains of time and reality were unaffected by this and also that the system was as well, but so far none of them spoke to him.

His avatars continued to roam the cosmos and also to fill it with Althonian galaxies whenever they came across voids. And the god himself silently studied his surroundings.

His avatars were beings that could travel as fast as he could, so they were capable of immense, unimaginable speed. He knew that if he allowed time to be frozen for what would have otherwise been a few "days" he'd gain his particular brand of sought-after omniscience.

He chuckled when the system interrupted him and gave him a quest to acquire the fourth tier of influence over the knowledge, the third tier of influence over the physics domains, and the third tier of influence over the technology subdomain. All it took was him doing what he was doing at the moment: earning a false or rather nigh-omniscience. It seemed that the system wanted to reward him for utilizing his utterly incredible powers, which would explain why it was that he was gaining so many fundamental boosts to his power.

The deity himself flew into action upon gaining that notification. He began to fly through the universe, at speeds that made the speed of light seem positively glacial. The god knew that now that the secret regarding his existence was out he might as well as not be subtle anymore. To him, this was a real chance to go ahead and gain the power needed to extend his empire across the universe.

The deity's mind began to turn inward and in doing so he found that there was a shortcut to acquiring the false omniscience he was pursuing. A power that let him be anywhere and everywhere where there was darkness, including in black holes. This power was one he instantly activated and his perception was suddenly enormously enlarged, even as he felt his soul blaze some more due to his already enormous powers undergoing an immense explosion in diversity and potency.

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"Whoa..." I uttered even as I felt my mind expand in every direction imaginable. The power over darkness I had been granted was an immense one, and in using it I had gained abrupt and total perception across the totality of the mortal universe, which was only one reason why my mind was actively expanding.

My brain also raced to keep track of the new knowledge domain abilities I possessed, which made me laugh. Among other things, I felt my class list explode as I abruptly gained level 20 in every class in existence, and I began to smile, darkly, as I gained an awareness of the locations and nature of every vestige in this universe.

I felt my mind sharpen keenly as I acquired more and more power and I realized something very important: the system wasn't helping me along to speed up the process by which I acquired more power, the vastly increasing number and power of the powers that I possessed was allowing me to exponentially increase the speed at which I acquired more and more power. And that realization came paired with another one.

"There is a way for me to go ahead and gain greater power than by completing quests... A way for me to finally break free of the rules of the system. I can drain vestiges of their power." I realized, with a sinister grin.

"After all, it was because I parasitically stole all of Akamal's power that I first acquired this explosive burst of power. And if I go ahead and use this new knowledge... Well, who knows what would happen?" I asked myself, as I continued to smile evilly.

For the first time since I first created my very first avatar, I recalled all of my avatars. I had no current usage for them after all, but I didn't doubt that that would eventually change. If my scheme worked then I'd need my avatars to help me speed up my wicked plot.

"It's time I acquire the power to do something about Morehammer." I uttered, even as I teleported deep into the gravesite of the first good-aligned vestige I heard of, a god named Qhronos.

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I found myself in the private study of an ancient god of magic and goodness, one who I found seated at a desk. He had the appearance of a wise old man, and he was busying himself by writing notes in a journal. He was also, like the rest of the universe, perfectly still.

I took my time and explored his study since he couldn't do anything to hurt me. He kept his study sparsely decorated and the main thing that was here were rows and rows of bookshelves on various forms of magic. After contenting myself by glancing at them and thus absorbing their contents, I turned my attention back to the reason why I had come here in the first place.

I placed my hand on Qhronos's head and instantly absorbed every single one of his memories. My mind eagerly began to race through every second of his ancient existence. And then I began to do what I had come here to do: absorb him.

The first thing I took from him was his magical power. Since he was a god of magic that might have seemed cruel, but in actuality one of my new absorption powers, my greatest absorption power, in fact, began by draining whatever creature I was absorbing of their greatest attributes and strengths first.

I shivered in delight as all of his magical power was stolen by me all at once. Each of my magical subdomains and all of the normal schools of magic that I hadn't possessed were instantly absorbed by me and I felt my mastery over magic skyrocket up to the fourth and semi-final tier of influence over magic.

I fell to my knees as my exploding power instantly overtook me. And I wasn't done either. My omni-absorption power instantly drained my target of his power over goodness, which not only granted me the second tier of influence over the goodness domain, and thus the first tier over the neutrality domain, it granted me the third tiers over the domains of chaos and evil.

It was at this point that Qhronos's remaining power, nothing of note since he was just a true god who had had a special passion for magic, seeped into me and I felt myself accrue another divine realm, bringing my total up to four, counting my own. I also gained Qhronos's grimoire, a special tome that compiled nearly all spells in existence, and the true artifact of gentle god who I had slain.

"So... This is true power huh? I can instantly kill even vestiges, and make their powers my own? Unbelievable." I muttered as I took in the reality of my newfound and now fully accepted power. My mind's eye was instantly filled with a huge notification, one that would inspire me to make history.

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[Quest Notification:

Your actions here have been noted and your creativity will be rewarded. With your omni-absorption ability becoming a greater god if you decide to do things this way is guaranteed, so it has been decided that this is something that should be leaned into rather than discouraged.

To become a greater god track down and absorb every vestige in this universe, aside from the vestiges of the twelve overgods, and Morehammer. The time to track down and confront Morehammer will come, and soon, but you should know as a greater god of knowledge that even the vestiges of overgods are immune to your "Omni-absorption" power until you become an overgod of parasites.

As a reward for your creativity and your decision to do things your own way, you will be granted the status of greater god of every domain and subdomain that you won't just get to rule over as you steadily absorb each vestige you'll be hunting down. Some domains, such as the domain of dragons, only have three tiers of influence and in those cases, you'll automatically become the god of those things when you finish the quest to become a greater god, affording you something that's never happened before: the chance to instantly become a nascent overgod.

You are also now known as the "grim reaper of the gods", and the "god of deicide", two titles that will become more relevant when you become an overgod and enter into other universes.]

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I blinked away the notification and began to emit a haunting laugh as I rose my hand to the sky and targeted every single vestige in this particular iteration of existence, aside from Morehammer and the overgods. The system, recognizing the sheer potency of the strategy that I had come up with had decided to reward me for my efforts and afforded me a chance to become a greater god, one of the pinnacles of existence of even ancient, mythical times.

I activated my power, and I felt trillions of years worth of memories flood my mind, as even my own immense powers became ultra-charged. An instant later I felt my powers begin to turn the vestiges of even other nascent overgods, such as Selena, wither and fade away in the wake of my incredible power.

The third second after I activated my power I laughed as even the domains of reality, luck, and fate, opened themselves up to me. My powers over absorption were so vast that even wild traits were beginning to infuse me, an incalculable list of them, in the wake of my choice to behave optimally as a god of knowledge should have sought to behave at all times.

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All over the universe, all at once, tens of thousands of voices faded into nothingness. Those voices belonged to vestiges, the ancient phantoms of the gods, and they were the sudden victims of an ambitious and utterly heartless genocide. The one responsible for the genocide visibly trembled as he drank in their power, and ascended from a moderately powerful true god into the status of a greater god, all because he opted to be ambitious, wise, and murderous.

The god was an ambitious being, one who had long established himself as willing to do whatever it took to acquire power, and he had certainly done just that by wiping out the overwhelming majority of the very few creatures who could have plausibly stood up to him hours ago. Their powers, knowledge, artifacts, and divine realms all flowed into him as his powers drew them into the final oblivion that awaited all gods unfortunate enough to die twice.

In the depths of space, the god quietly chuckled and manifested one of his artifacts: the magnificent Sword of Spring and Summer. The god then grinned and manifested another artifact: a powerful scythe made of darkness. He had finally acquired the weapons he knew would take down his ancient enemy, and it came at the same time as him receiving notifications that were relevant to more than just his godhood.

The deity's actions had just granted him lordship over seven of the remaining layers of Infernius, lordship over the entirety of Zenith, and lordship over numerous layers of the Heart of Darkness, as well as the devotion of tens of thousands of Unseelie fae, and evil spirits. He had, for the first time, acquired greater powers over all of the things he was that wasn't either a god or an elemental overlord.

Before Althos allowed time to continue to flow once more, he grinned and began the repetitive task of going about and granting himself new things to be an archfey, spirit lord, archdevil, and demon lord of. This task was quite fun and allowed him to become creative, especially in the wake of his new and incredible powers.

It would take what felt like years for the deity to finish going through the notifications he had to sort through, and it was only when he was completely done that he would finally allow time to begin to flow again. When it did he was an incredibly different and altogether cosmically more powerful entity.

Althos had frozen time as a true god and was unfreezing it as a nascent overgod.