Before Althos uttered another word he carefully activated the ability of the faith domain. He sucked in a breath as he felt the power surge out of him and slowly creep towards his allies. It infused the air around him and infected it like a sort of gas.
This ability was aimed at each of his followers and in making the decision to activate it the deity was hoping to create circumstances that allowed him to gain more worshippers.
Once his power reached them, it began unconsciously rendering each of them more vulnerable to his presence and to his influence. He waited silently until it took hold. Once he felt that it had firmly taken hold he began to speak. He decided to start at the beginning.
"The truth is I came to life three days ago in this very forest. Well, technically it was two days ago to you all. And the first thing of importance that happened to me was that I met an angel. Now that very same angel is... well it's my advisor."
At the end of that confession, Althos wordlessly willed Samyaza out of himself. The angel materialized directly on top of the tall godling and descended to eye level with Althos's party. The party was stunned as they watched the angel descend, particularly Raverangos.
The demon glowered at the angel and barred its fangs at the metallic orb. Althos sensed the fear in the angel and responded to the physical drama between the demon and the angel quite simply.
Althos rose a hand in the direction of the demon and infused his flesh with divine energy so as to remind Raverangos who was in charge. There was an intense, divine fire in his eyes that made the threat even more clear. The demon relented and took a step back, averting its gaze from the menace in Althos's eyes.
After being reassured that Althos was in its corner and seeing that the demon had relented, Samayaza spent the next minute spinning in a circle, greeting each of the followers the deity had gained over the course of the time he had spent in this particular mortal world.
The orcs silently starred at the godling and the angel. Even the sight of their master and his advisor was awe-inspiring and while under the effects of the faith domain the observers of the deity were especially moved by the scene before them.
They were quietly processing the implications of a master who had an angelic advisor and a demonic servant. The one person who wasn't starring at her master silently? Silander.
Silander fell to her knees in reverential worship once her master unveiled his angelic advisor. She was prostrating before him, her head touching the grass. Her companions were so stunned by the revelations of their master that they didn't even respond to Silander's display.
Althos silently observed their reactions, before opening his mouth to continue to speak. His next declaration was quite simple.
"I am a god."
Upon finishing his declaration he thought for another second and then emotionlessly added the following sentence:
"Now allow me to tell you my story."
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A few minutes later he had informed his servants of his true nature, and the unplanned excursion he had taken into the realm of Infernius. They were quiet and respectfully listened to their master as he explained what little he knew of the nature of the prophecy, as they learned about his odd allies, and the escapades he had gotten up to in the Tomb of Agowraith.
As he physically spoke with his allies he mentally informed M.A. as to his connection with the system, and she decided to not change his settings back. Althos didn't mind this, as it allowed him to received all of the notifications and shuffle through them himself.
In the aftermath of the revelations Althos revealed to his allies a hush fell over the party. After minutes of silence, Althos himself brought it to an end.
"If you wish to worship me... I'd be quite pleased and would be happy to welcome you to my fold. If not, I won't force the issue. If there is some proof you wish for that would allow me to prove my divinity to you and convert you from my servants to my worshippers let me know of it. If I can't provide it now, I will seek to provide it for you in the future."
Althos's words were haughty, but the members of the party that he had built knew that his power was real. Another silence fell over the party. Althos patiently waited for their reactions.
Eventually, the first of the orcs to speak was the newest member of their adventuring party: Gallow. The rogue looked at his master and spoke softly.
"Master... You saved my life. And unlike the others, you and I never fought. I... will worship you. I have experienced your magic firsthand, and I know how powerful it is. If you tell me you're a deity I'll believe you."
At the end of his declaration, the rogue's eyes meet Althos's and the deity noticed a new fire in them. They burned with new intensity and Althos sensed the orc's sincerity. Althos smiled at his servant and felt his own powers surge as if in direct response to the orc's declaration.
The sensation was pleasant, a rush of endorphins that began in Althos's head and gradually flowed down to the rest of his body. That was when he received a new notification.
[ALERT: YOU HAVE GAINED A NEW WORSHIPPER, GALLOW THE ROGUE.
Stolen story; please report.
GALLOW'S SKILLS HAVE BEEN COPIED AND ADDED TO YOUR OWN. YOUR INNATE STEALTH AND YOUR ABILITY TO PASSIVELY DETECT TRAPS HAVE BEEN AUGMENTED.
IF YOU GAIN MORE ROGUISH FOLLOWERS YOUR SKILLS RELATED TO THE ROGUE CLASS WILL IMPROVE. THIS IS THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO INCREASE SKILLS RELATED TO CLASSES, THOUGH YOU CAN ALSO IMPROVE YOUR SKILLS RELATED TO CLASSES THROUGH HARD WORK AND DETERMINATION. AND OF COURSE BY GAINING CLASSES AND PROGRESSING ALONG THEM YOURSELF.
CURRENT WORSHIPPER COUNT: 2.
YOU MAY AT ANY POINT AND OVER ANY DISTANCE ESTABLISH A MENTAL CONNECTION WITH YOUR WORSHIPPERS AND GIVE THEM COMMANDS OR ELSE COMMUNICATE WITH THEM.]
The notification was pleasant and Althos smiled as he willed it away.
The next orc spoke up. This time it was Bazur, the orc who surrendered to Althos during the battle for the ruined village.
"Althos... I need time to process this news. I don't... I'm not skeptical of your divinity, but I need time to fully process what you've told us. Please allow me some time to think through how I feel."
Bazur's words were logical and Althos didn't fault the creature for feeling how he felt. The deity nodded at his second companion and waited to see how the others would react.
One of the more shocking moments of Althos's young life was what happened when Bazur's siblings reacted to the Althos's declarations. Both orcs were indignant.
It wasn't shocking that Anthus was indignant but Ragnor's frustration was shocking. Both orcs roared as one, and Althos felt their anger. The deity waited to see what happened next and took a second to try and assess how their anger was directed.
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Anthus was seething with rage. The orc had been okay with being defeated by a powerful mortal, one who had grown up and trained to acquire their powers, gaining experience on battlefields and in life-threatening situations. But this? Being defeated by a powerful child?
By a... powerful child whose powers were granted to him for no apparent reason? That hurt. His pride was in shambles and his anger stemmed from his pride being shattered not once but twice in as many days.
It was that fractured pride that caused the orc to shout his feelings.
"Althos... no wonder we got defeated so easily. You were a god this whole time!?" Anthus shouted at his master, before throwing himself at the deity in an effort to deal with some rage. The orc was a well-built humanoid and the amount of force in his charge wasn't insignificant.
Althos grinned and was appreciative of the patience he had begun to build up over time as such patience guided how he responded at this moment. He wasn't so cruel as to lash out against the orc for being angry over being deceived, and he knew better than to fight back at that moment.
Althos effortlessly handled the charge by reaching out to gently grab the orc's shoulders and direct the charge away from him before the creature could tackle him. He did this in a single swift and coordinated motion, not giving the orc time to react. He allowed the orc to rush past him unharmed.
The deity knew that anger had overwhelmed the youngest and most bull-headed of the orcish siblings and wasn't going to hurt him for that, though he was aware that just days ago he definitely would have fought back in this situation.
The deity resolved himself to bring no harm to his servant and waited to see how the orc would react to the deity's decision to simply redirect the charge.
Bazur's eyes were wide open as he watched his sibling lunge at their master, but was relieved that the deity didn't instantly slaughter the orc for his insolence. Instead the orc's charge was gently redirected and the orc sailed past the deity. When he came to a stop he didn't move anymore, and stood still as he contemplated the idiocy of what he had just done.
Ragnor, on the other hand was still fuming with anger. His anger was aimed more chaotically though. Instead of being aimed uniformly at Althos, the anger was directed towards several things. Some of it was aimed at Althos, but much of it was aimed at traditions and beliefs themselves.
The orc was clearly working through things, so instead of addressing the conservative orc, the deity turned to the orc who had just charged at him. He spoke gently, his voice different than it had been before he spoke his truth to his followers.
"You okay? I won't begrudge you for being angry. I did willingly deceive you. I willingly deceived all of you aside from Silander, who knew my true identity from the start. If any of you are angry... that's understandable."
Anthus was silent. The orc was headstrong and he wore his emotions on his chest. He took a deep breath and then he finally spoke.
"Althos... My pride is wounded. I feel, or at least I felt as though I was weak but I suppose I never really stood a chance against a god did I?"
His voice was calmer now.
"I can accept that you are a god. But if you seek my worship... I don't think I'm ready to give that quite yet."
Behind the two of them Ragnor nodded respectfully. The orc himself hadn't finished cycling through the wide variety of feelings he had on the matter so he made a conscious choice to not speak until he was sure about how he felt. The only things he said were to alert his companions as to this reality.
"Friends... I will not lash out like Anthus. But I am also in need of time to sort out my thoughts. I hope you all, particularly you Silander and Althos, can respect that."
The orc brawler had noticed that Silander was a true follower of Althos. He made the fascinating choice to include the deity's awakened creature in his remarks. Both Althos and the great-frog herself found this curious.
Both creatures nodded at the orc, and Silander, in particular, had a newfound respect for the strange brawler. The orc himself had again fallen silent.
There was but one orc who had yet to speak. The archer named Ranthor. He himself had been unusually calm after hearing everything that Althos had said.
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Unlike the orcish siblings, Ranthor's pride didn't suffer in the wake of the orc learning the truth about the nature of his master. In fact, Ranthor was actually feeling quite proud that not only did he fight a deity, but that deity actually wanted him to be one of his worshippers.
A deity wants me to worship it? A deity that spared my life, when it could have very easily killed me? That's... really cool! To think that a deity that fought me wants me to be one of his first worshippers...
The orc's mind was being slowly overwhelmed and undermined by the power of Althos's influence over the faith domain. The domain was quietly and insidiously sapping at the orc's will, and it was doing something similar to the other orcs. But since the domain was being used on several creatures at once, none of the targets were being forced to endure its full effects.
It just so happened that the orc with the lowest resistance to magic happened to be Ranthor. The orc spoke after a few moments of silence and his words were music to Althos's ears.
"Althos... I will worship you. Please instruct me and allow me to join Gallow and Silander."
Althos grinned at his new worshiper. And then he received one more pleasant bit of information. He winced as he heard the voice of M.A. ring through his ears, but what she had to say was quite exciting for the young deity.
[ALTHOS! I RECALL YOU MENTIONING THAT ONE OF YOUR ALLIES IN INFERNIUS IS INTERESTED IN TEACHING YOU ABOUT NECROMANCY... I CAN DO THAT INSTEAD. WOULD YOU LIKE FOR ME TO DO THAT?]