The scene at the outskirts of the town was a chaotic one. In the middle of a block of small huts, the tiny housing available to the poorest residents of the small town, a fight had broken out.
Two orcs were engaged in what had originally felt like a vicious battle against a creature that looked like a tall human but one who moved much faster than most humans could, and with an oddly androgynous face. Due to their opponent's odd behavior, the orcs felt like they were nothing more than practice for their foe, a sensation which was both shocking and insulting.
The two orcs seemed to fight as a single organism, doing their best to try and overwhelm the strange human-like creature by relying on their teamwork. Behind them, sitting with his back to a wall was another orc.
This orc was bleeding internally due to significant damage it had taken from an earlier attack by the strange human-like creature. From time to time this orc would softly groan in pain. If the orc's fighting in front of it had the time to look at their friend, they most likely would have suggested he was also suffering from a concussion he sustained due to smashing into the wall he was leaning on earlier in the encounter.
None of the three combatants fought using weapons. One of the orcs seemed to prefer attacking with a storm of punches and only rarely lashed out using his legs. His fellow orc was the opposite way, sometimes launching punches that would have been powerful if they connected, but normally striking with swift kicks.
Their opponent focused on defense and meticulously observed their attacks. It deflected, blocked, or dodged each of their techniques in careful ways but sometimes seemed to try things they were less likely to anticipate as if testing out how to fight in the middle of what should have been a life or death encounter.
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Samyaza quickly recovered from the embarrassment it felt for forgetting to inform the deity as to why it wanted the god to stop.
The angel sent the god a mental message. As it transmitted its message the angel noticed that the godling began to go on the offensive and actually fight the orcish fighters, but none of its blows had the same ferocity that its initial strikes did.
[I asked you to stop because I didn't want you to waste this opportunity. All of the other gods I've served and knew about gained power through their servants and worshippers. Given what orcish culture is like and their devotion to strength, they make ideal servants and worshippers for you to try and gain this early in your life. I think you should try to convince them to serve you.]
The godling lunged at one of the orcs and hurled its fist at the brutish brawler. The blow caught the brawler square in the chest and the creature was knocked back, but nowhere near as far as the godling's first blow sent it. It seemed to be consciously holding back. This was because it was, and it was considering the perks of keeping the orcs alive.
As it moved to follow-up on its attack by running after the orc as he sailed through the air, the divine being sent a message in response to the angel's initial mental statement.
[Do you think these creatures, who are busy presumably trying to kill me, will want to stop trying to kill me and instead serve me? Because I am skeptical that if I stopped and offered them a chance to join me they'd be eager to stop this fight.]
That response reminded the angel that though the godling was naive, it was by no means an unintelligent creature. Lacking worldly knowledge didn't inhibit its ability to logically think things through. And the angel instinctively understood that sometimes that'd be a bit annoying.
[Orcs don't think like a lot of other creatures. They value strength even when that strength comes from their enemies. And I bet right now they understand the strength you possess. Plus they don't strike me as the magical sort and you can do something they can't.]
The godling pondered that last mental sentence for a bit as it continued its fight. It sensed that the angel was waiting for it to make a choice.
The angel enjoyed the mental silence that followed its enigmatic declaration. It wanted the godling to make its next moves on its own. It hoped the creature would be smart and would opt to spare its enemies, or at least try too.
It threw itself underneath a kick that otherwise would have hit it in the face, and turned in time to throw a punch at its attacker, the orc who preferred to strike with a storm of feet. It's fist connected with the stomach of the orc and at the same time, the creature used its own leg to strike at the orc's knee connecting with a solid close-range kick that made the orc hiss in pain.
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After another minute or so passed of fighting, the godling made a decision. It was in the middle of moving into place to throw a punch or two so that it could build some distance between it and its opponents. That was when it wanted to send a mental message to the angel who it knew was waiting for it to decide whether or not to kill its foes.
[I can't believe I'm gonna try this, but I'm gonna try and see if I can stop this fight. Let's do this.]
At that moment the godling smiled at its foes and for a second moved at a fraction of its maximum speed. In the eyes of those who had been fighting it for a few minutes at this point the creature seemed to vanish for but an instant.
In the instant, it had vanished the godling sprinted to where one of its enemies was and then reappeared. The creature smiled gleefully as it launched a single punch with a bit of force behind it. The punch smashed into the orc's abdomen and the force of it not only tore through the creature's armor but also launched it off its feet and into the air.
The orc didn't sail through the air for long. The godling didn't want the creature to die so it hadn't used as much force as it had when it kicked the orc's sibling.
The godling and the other orc both watched as the other combatant crashed onto the ground and skidded for a few meters before finally coming to stop. He wasn't conscious, but he was breathing.
The godling smiled, turned slightly so that it could face the last remaining orc. It waited for its enemy to look at it so that the orc could see that the godling was enjoying itself. Then it vanished again, once again using a fraction of its full possible speed to overwhelm its enemy.
The orcs didn't know this, but the deity was being wary. It had decided to try and recruit them, and it figured that if suffered much more it wouldn't be able to recruit them. It wanted to end this fight.
The godling's plan was to break the wills of its foes. It was purposefully doing its best to keep its blows from actually being fatal, but it was still using a considerable amount of strength with each blow. It wanted them to not resist when it actually ended the fight, and right now that meant making them feel weak.
Now was the time for it to bring this fight to an end. And it wouldn't do that by launching another blow. Now was the time to try a new tactic: speaking.
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The remaining orc was scared. He had been in life and death confrontations before this, but at no point in his life had he ever felt so thoroughly outmatched.
The enemy he and his siblings were facing started the fight with a thoroughly devastating strike that had hit all three of them. And after that, it began to just play with them. He'd even say that the enemy they faced had started toying with them!
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But now? Now the creature was once again truly on the offensive. And in a single blow, it had once again changed the tone of the fight. And then it vanished again.
His enemy had once again disappeared from sight, but unlike last time the strange creature didn't reappear in an instant. When he realized that, the orc went on the defensive, and moved to guard himself. He knew that doing this might spell the end of his fighting days, but he moved to lift his arms in front of his gut and did what he could to mentally brace himself for what he presumed was an eventual impact.
What was the worst part of all of this though, was that he had been fighting by using adrenaline and relying on it to mitigate the pain. He could feel that that was swiftly reaching its limit. He was beginning to feel the pain of the first blow dull his senses, and knew that if this carried on much longer he'd lose his ability to stand or worse lose consciousness.
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The godling had spent the last few moments watching the orc while running around at incredibly high speeds that rendered it invisible to the creature. It wanted the creature to feel the terror of being the sole receiver of its attention to break down any remaining resistance, and seeing that the orc had quickly moved into a defensive position suggested that the creature was thoroughly cowed. He wasn't even raging anymore, just trying to predict where and when the godling would strike.
The godling decided now was the perfect time to try and see if the creature could be reasoned with. It was sure the being was now keenly aware of his impotence in the face of its own might.
It suddenly stopped moving and allowed the orc to see it once again.
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The orc was surprised when his enemy reappeared. Instead of reappearing directly in front of him and striking immediately, the strange enemy appeared a good distance away and was smiling. Its grin was eerie and spooked the orc, but he didn't let his guard down. He was looking for a way to come out of this encounter alive and was frantically mentally searching for a way to keep his siblings alive.
It was when the godling began to speak that the orc was effectively disarmed. He hadn't expected his foe, who started this fight off with an ambush, to have any interest in speaking to him.
"I've had enough of this fight."
The enemy sounded odd. Its voice seemed to come from multiple places at once like the orc was hearing multiple people speak at the same time. It actually took the orc a second to understand the creature, because of the abnormality of its speech.
The godling didn't move to finish the fight even while the orc tried to understand what it had said and the orc was stopped from lunging at it due to a certain unconscious fear he felt. His unconscious was telling him that if he moved forward to try and strike the foe in front of him, he would die. That was good advice.
After a few moments of silence, the godling spoke once again.
"Orc! Let's end this fight."
This time the orc understood the words instantly even as he misunderstood what the godling meant. He readied himself for a final blow, one of truly awful power, believing that the final blow would be happening very soon. His misunderstanding was understandable, but the blow he waited for wouldn't come.
The godling continued to speak without much of a pause this time, being mentally told by the angel that what it said was most likely misinterpreted as an invitation for a final exchange of blows.
"Instead of this fight ending with your death, and the deaths of your allies, I have a proposal for you. It gives each of you a way out, and doesn't result in any deaths. If you agree to it right now, I'll even heal your allies to their full strength."
This declaration from his foe surprised the orc. And intrigued the part of him that wanted to survive this. He waited to hear what the godling had to say, while realistically believing that whatever his foe wanted would be something considerably worse than what the godling actually had in mind.
He'd have to wait a bit nearly a full minute. Unbeknownst to him, his enemy was having a mental conversation that distracted the creature. The orc thought his enemy was being purposefully dramatic.
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[I'm mildly impressed that you realized that you could heal them, godling.]
The angel's remark was mildly condescending but it was also telling. The deity itself was slightly annoyed by the bit of snarkiness it detected in the angel's mental tone, but it was happy to know that it was reasonable to believe it could heal the orcs. That knowledge was useful for both right now, and for the future even though it meant it'd have to discover whether or not such a belief reflected reality.
Of course, the deity's angelic companion heard the deity's thoughts and realized that the deity had been bluffing. That genuinely impressed it. It was a good bluff that played on the orc's concern for his allies.
And then the angel began to lecture the godling.
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The godling was considering how to proceed with legitimate caution. It was thinking carefully about how to phrase its next statement. The angel was busy warning it that it might be worth being cautious about using words like "god" or "worshippers". After all, the gods had vanished and it made sense to be skeptical of someone appearing and declaring that they were a deity.
The godling was somewhat aware of how significant this moment was. It didn't understand how historic it was, due to its worldly ignorance, but it was cognizant of the fact that this moment was a big one due to its knowledge that the gods who had existed before it had disappeared and the feeling of mysterious pride and power it felt welling up from deep within itself.
Its instincts wanted it to be proud and declare that it was a god and it was seeking worshippers, but intelligently it knew that such a move would invite unneeded skepticism. And that was what the angel had been lecturing it about as well so it thought better than to invite an angry lecture if such a move failed.
The godling opted to be careful and make an offer that it felt would be realistic and ensured that it would have a chance to convince the orcs to worship it in time.
"Surrender, swear your loyalty to me, and I'll heal you and your friends. Join me and act as the first of my servants, or die at my hands. The choice is yours."
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The orc smiled when he heard that that was the offer. Such an offer was an easy one for a defeated orc to accept. The brawler legitimately believed that the offer would be something worse than servitude to a warrior capable of fighting him and his family and winning.
"I don't know your name so swearing my loyalty to you formally might be a bit challenging, but I accept your proposal. As my first act as your servant allow me to introduce myself: I am Bazur."
The moment Bazur finished speaking the godling felt a strange rush of energy surge through its body and the angel shouted in delight and excitement.
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[YES!]
The angel's mental shout was louder and more energetic than the godling had ever heard the creature be. It actually pained the godling to hear such a loud voice ring out from inside of its mind.
After a few moments, the orb angel sheepishly apologized for being so excited. But then it immediately explained why it had shouted.
[Godling... the surge of energy you felt was just a fraction of what you'll feel when you turn Bazur into your worshipper, but it confirms what I had hoped. You gain power from your worshippers and servants. Just now you began to walk towards gaining control over a domain.]
The godling understood most of what the angel had just said, but at the end of its mental message, the angel said something the godling had never heard before.
[Samyaza, what is a domain?]
Moments after sending its mental message to the angel, the godling heard the angel mentally chastise itself.
[Sorry! Consider domains to be what the gods are in charge of. I'll explain this in detail later. For now, you should probably give yourself a name. And if you'd allow me I'll see if I can discover if you gained any new abilities that are available right now. Though that might take a few minutes.]
And after hearing that the angel heard the godling mentally chastise itself. The angel was right. Most living creatures had names. It needed one as well.
The deity thought for a second, and then came up with one it'd use for now and with the orcs. After all, there was no reason for it to stick to a single name.
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The godling's first words to Bazur following Bazur's wise decision an introduction, followed by a command. The orc listened carefully to its new master and hoped that the creature would do what it told him that it would.
"Bazur, you may call me Althos. As a way to reward you for your decision and show you that I keep my word, I will now heal your allies. Go select which one of them you'd like to see healed first. Unless you feel you need healing right now."
The orc nodded and turned to examine the battlefield. Both of his brothers had lost consciousness, but the orc selected his sibling who had been kicked at the beginning of the fight to be the first to be healed.
He rushed over to his brother who had gotten kicked at the beginning of their battle, minutes ago. The orc's breathing had begun to slow down towards the end of the battle, and at some point, during the battle he lost consciousness.
The orc's unconscious form looked to be in great pain. His conscious sibling felt worried about him, and hoped that the strange creature who had spared his life would be able to heal him.
After a few moments of the orc examining his sibling, Althos spoke to him. The godling allowed the orc to examine his unconscious ally while Samyaza instructed it in the very basics of healing magic. It was a short, useful introduction to one of the essential schools of magic. And the deity felt ready to try it out itself, and call upon Samyaza if it needed the help.
"I will heal him, and then you will convince him to join me. Prepare yourself, when he heals it's possible he'll immediately awaken and come at me. If he does, intercept him."
Bazur nodded at his master and moved to be in place to intercept his sibling if it came to that.
And then Althos's hand began to glow.