Upon returning to his "home", insofar as he had one in the Heart of Darkness, the god immediately entered his laboratory and began to busy himself. He wasted no time going out and absorbing the memories of the demons he captured.
While he did this he made himself incorporeal and was basically a dreadful phantom. He incorporeally flitted from room to room in the subterranean area he had created, sapping the captured prisoners of everything that made all them distinct individuals. The god's dark parasitic powers were effectively reverting the demons he had captured into blank slates, canvasses which he could mold. And he also did one other thing to them.
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I found myself standing over a succubus. She was not the same succubus I had stood over earlier, before I went and recruited the Mi-Gos. She was so thin that she was almost sickly looking. She had long blonde hair and bodily proportions that would appeal to many heterosexual men, as well as bisexual or gay women who were attracted to voluptuous women.
She was unconscious and she was strapped to a stone slab. I had captured over fifty demons and she was the last I investigated and while doing so had drained her to what was effectively "blank slate" status. "Blank slate" status referred to a condition in which she possessed no memories of her own, and was in essence something for me to mold however I wished. All of the members of her horde were reduced to this status as a punishment for daring to attack my village.
One of the things I did to her, that I also did to the other demons I had captured was drain her strength to its lowest possible number: 1. I had discovered, in part thanks to this, that I couldn't drain a stat past 1. Whenever I tried I'd get a notification alerting me that it wasn't possible for me to do that just yet.
Over the course of the last half-hour, I had drained all of the other demons and I had quietly accepted my inability to leave a stat at 0. I was still quite fond of my ability to absorb such a wide variety of things from my foes. In draining her strength to 1, I was sure that she'd be unable to escape from the laboratory when it was time for the Mi-Go biologists to awaken her.
The succubus was currently trapped in a dream of my own design. In it she was also trapped in a laboratory but her circumstances weren't quite the same as they were here. In the dream-laboratory, she was trapped in she had been captured by mortal scientists and was both fodder for them to study and a toy for their collective use.
Succubi and incubi were lust demons, and many of both species of demons tended to specialize in sexual lust. I had trapped all of the succubi and incubi in highly sexual dreams, mostly because that felt fitting. After all succubi and incubi were dream and desire demons, so trapping one of them in such a dream made sense.
I had trapped each of the dream demons in unique dreams. It was only at the end of them that I intended to reveal myself as the god of dreams, and as the master that they'd serve for the rest of eternity.
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"It is time that I begin to build a cult of dreamers." I told myself, in the depths of my mind. One of the only innate domains that I had yet to build even a single cult around was the domain of dreams.
That didn't mean I didn't have worshipers who worshiped me as a god of dreamers, I did. My dream-based worshipers were mostly Gugs, terrifying and gigantic abominations who dwelled all over the cosmos and worshiped me as a potent god of violence, pain, and dreams. And now, having gained more succubi and incubi I could begin to slowly give myself more primarily dream-based worshipers. And to make that even easier for me I had a clever idea.
Wordlessly I opened up the menu I navigated whenever I created new abilities myself. It was time that I begin to become a true god of something quite potent: memories. I spent a few moments requesting the system devise two truly potent abilities for me, ones that I knew would immediately give me the ability to change a considerable amount at once.
Alert: You can now use two new synergistic abilities: "Memory creation and editing" and "Memory destruction".
Memory creation and editing: This passive, synergistic power takes from the domains of knowledge, minds, trickery, creation, and the subdomains of falsehoods and lies. With it you can create as many memories as you would like too. Importantly, this ability also allows you to edit memories, through which you can insert yourself into a creature's existing memories, or remove someone else from them with ease.
This ability allows you to effectively rewrite history, especially since this power isn't limited to mortals. That said, there are still counters to this power. For now you can't remotely edit videos, books, or other more permanent and immutable fonts of knowledge. If you want to change that gain more influence over the relevant domains and subdomains.
Memory destruction: This passive, synergistic power takes from the domains of knowledge, minds, trickery, destruction, and the subdomains of falsehoods and lies. Through this ability you can destroy memories. It is a simple power with a frightening number of applications.
This power has the potential to be utterly devastating in a number of contexts if used creatively. It also synergizes well with things like sloth, and with building cults in general.
When I finished reading the notification, I grinned. The smile on my face was a savage and immoral one that suited me, as a creature capable of great cruelty and who often tormented my victims in ways that weren't physical. These two powers gave me incredible toys with which I very easily and, if I so chose anyway, permanently alter the world around me. Perhaps most importantly, these abilities gave me a mean tool with which to spend a healthy chunk of the next two months.
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Over the course of the next two months a few different things would happen. The first thing that would happen was that the Mi-Go researchers who Myzriel told me would come would indeed come. The team consisted of three dozen fanatical scientists, who'd quickly begin to inhabit the area beneath my demonic village. They were among the first beings whose understanding of history I'd manipulate. I planned to become an artist when it came to memory manipulation.
At first I was subtle, deleting people from their memories one by one. Eventually though I grew more bold, and I completely absorbed their memories. When I did, I destroyed the earliest memories the eerie creatures had and I quietly rewrote their understanding of their personal origins. I edited their "earliest" memories and changed them so that in their minds they were creations of mine and not naturally born beings descended from inter-universal travelers. They were far from the only creatures whose memories I'd manipulate.
With my new powers I swiftly set out creating new cults. In the Heart of Darkness I began to summon all sorts of evil beings, summoning demons, devils, and other foul creatures. In each case I would absorb the memories of the creatures in question, and proceed to put them to sleep while I edited their memories and permanently changed their allegiances. I wiped them of their abilities to recall their old masters, be they Agustino, or other high-ranking evil extraplanar entities.
While raiding the minds of my victims I learned much about other dimensions. I learned more about the nine-layered hellscape that was Infernius, the home of devilkind, and about the mysterious dimension that to conquer I'd need to be an overgod of necromancy and darkness alike.
I created foul and complex cults devoted to all manner of wickedness through my newest servants which I was only able to do thanks to my new abilities over memories giving me the ability to make even extraplanars believe I've lived a longer life than I had and had been their dark master for many decades or even centuries. Some of these cults were devoted to the apocalypse quadrangle, with the two most common components being war-cults and death-cults.
I was especially fond of targeting two groups: firstly devils, who had an incredibly complex society and a rigid hierarchy. I transformed conjured devils into pious worshipers of mine who worshiped me as a god of tyranny and war. The second group I was fond of targeting was humans, who I'd warp into cultists of mine devoted to death and necromancy. In no less than one hundred worlds I had tiny human cults who worshiped me as a god of death, and necromancy.
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That said, I didn't needlessly restrict myself. During the next two months I'd travel freely between my divine realm, Htrae, and the Heart of Darkness. I'd use my newfound knowledge and power over memories to effortlessly acquire influence over contractual magic, spiritual magic, and divination.
To gain power over contractual magic I'd make a contract with one of my human cultists who worshiped me as a god of death, while pretending to be a devil in my service. To gain power over spiritual magic, I'd use my memory editing powers and my powers over magic to trick a spirit into thinking it lost its magic, and I'd "give" it its powers in exchange for its service.
I gained power over divination by using scrying spells to spy on Infernius' first layer: the surface of a hellish world, which was an abandoned wasteland that was "inhabited" exclusively by infernal machines. In doing this I gained an unexpected reward; the quest to gain the first tier of influence over the technology subdomain, and at last the ability the quest I needed to complete to earn second tier of influence over the magic domain. WIth that I inched ever closer to the next tier of godly might: intermediate godhood.
During my time on Htrae I mostly stuck to behaving mundanely, at least on a physical level. Whenever I spent a day on Htrae, I joined Geoffrey and my fungal creations and I actually helped out on the farm. I tended to animals, and I utilized my powers to help speed the growth of crops, giving my first servant in this world a chance to reap a larger harvest than ever before.
The one physical thing I did on Htrea that wasn't related to farms was earn influence over the subdomain of blacksmithing. This was a simple enough task that I completed by visiting the city of Ireland and gaining access to a forge where I proceeded to forge all of the items I needed to forge to take my first step's onto Morehammer's most powerful subdomain.
I would turn my mind towards the few cults I had built throughout Htrae and I would help them grow. I would also build new cults, such as in the city of Ireland where I invaded the dreams of those I had healed and those who had gazed at me while I was in the Saint Rose hospital and introduced myself to them as a god of goodness, healing, and law. Convincing them to worship me was easy, they had already been touched by my powers and their hearts snatched away by my fel-powers over love.
Perhaps the most significant thing I did on Htrae itself was build three distinct cults of law. These cults were made up of high-ranking government officials throughout the few hundred governments that existed on Htrae. I made a cult that was distinctly good, one that was distinctly evil, and one that was neutral. Each of them was led by a member of the odd group of races known collectively as the "Leyes", lawful extraplanar beings who obeyed and served gods of law, and ones who were connected to each other and myself.
Elsewhere, in other worlds, I built a grander number of cults. I built cults of dreams, of vermin and parasites, of agriculture, and of every other domain and subdomain I had influence over. I built cult after cult of dreams, at least one on each world I could detect that had life.
Eventually, as a consequence of my incredible work, I began to steadily acquire quest, after quest, after quest. It didn't take me long to earn the right to complete all of the quests I'd need to finally be able to become an intermediate god. Along the way I even acquired quests for other, unrelated domains and subdomains.
It was at the end of the second month after I acquired powers over memories that I finally earned the right to complete the quest to gain the second tier of influence over the mind domain, which was the last quest I needed access too. When I earned that quest, in the aftermath of establishing my third psychic cult, I began to ready myself. It was finally time for me to grow in power.
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Quest Tracker:
Here are the quests you need to complete to become an intermediate god.
Agriculture/Famine: A cult of yours devoted to agriculture must feed a community of 100,000 people for a week, or a famine cult of yours must destroy the food of a community of 50,000 people.
Chaos: A chaotic cult of yours must plunge a community of at least 25,000 people into anarchy.
Dreams/Stars: This is a dual-domain quest. You must establish meaningful ties between cults of dreams devoted to you that exist in different galaxies.
Magic: To acquire the second tier of influence over the domain of magic, you must create a true artifact you intend to use yourself, and also you must create an organization that is devoted to your worship and to educating mortals in how to use magic properly.
Mind: You must tie together three psychic cults in three distinct star-systems.
Nature/Destruction: To acquire the third tier of influence over the domain of nature and the second tier of influence over the domain of destruction you must use your powers over nature, in all of its forms, the elements, and destruction, to destroy a civilization. This quest also turns you into a true elemental overlord, significantly enhancing all of your powers over the elemental subdomains.
Purity/Law: To acquire the second tier of influence over the subdomain of purity, and thus power over another virtue, and the domain of law, a worshiper of yours who worships you as a god of purity must become the rightfully elected leader of a community.
Vermin/Parasite: To acquire this subdomain's second tier of influence, a community of humanoids must fall apart due to the actions of vermin or parasites.
"Multiple quests... But nothing I can't handle. And I suppose I should start things off by tackling the easiest one first. All I've got to do is utilize my powers over nature, the elements, and destruction to destroy a civilization. That'll take me a few days at most, and maybe even a few minutes if I am lucky." I chuckled, as I read over the quests I had just acquired.
I thought for a few seconds, before silently activating one of the powers that the subdomain of divination gave me. In an instant I went from sitting in my home in Htrae, to flying high above the cloudline over a bustling city in a world in a galaxy that wasn't the galaxy of my birth or the galaxy Htrae was located in.
I found myself at the center of a seemingly endless blue expanse. I had arrived in this new world during mid-day, and high in the sky above me floated a single gigantic star that radiated a vibrant red light.
I gazed downward, my eyes effortlessly seeing through the clouds, and I readied myself for the destruction to come.
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Divination subdomain details:
Divination is one of the subdomains that is affiliated with the greater domains of time and fate. It itself is a fairly ordinary subdomain in terms of power, but its usages are incredibly interesting to information and knowledge oriented gods like yourself.
Divination is a school of magic that allows those who utilize it to gain information and knowledge about events billions, trillions, or even quadrillions of kilometers away, or even events taking place in other dimensions. The whole purpose of this school of magic is to gain supernatural insights into the world, worlds, and dimensions around you.
To acquire more influence over this subdomain, utilize its powers.
Divination subdomain passive powers:
Clairovoyance: With this you can leave behind sensors that allow you to be able to continue to sense events at a location, even if it'd normally be beyond your capabilities to be able to sense. You can also grant your followers the ability to use this as a spell.
Scrying: You can use a number of substances, materials, and objects to perform divinations. This includes things like mirrors, the elements, the stars, and other materials, and objects. When you scry, you can remotely use these objects to magically observe events or even to teleport from place to place. For example, you can step into one mirror and step out of another mirror, in another galaxy. You can also take others with you when you do this.
Mediumship: Synergistic power that allows you to call upon spirits, temporarily imbue corpses with sentience, and otherwise speak with the dead beyond reanimating them to serve as undead lifeforms. You can ask these corpses or spirits questions and they will answer you truthfully. You can also grant your followers spells that replicate these abilities.
Remote viewing: With this power you can view any area your divine senses can sense at will. This makes it possible for you to aim things precisely and for you to watch events happening trillions of kilometers away at will, without astral projecting.
Divination subdomain active power:
System teleportation: Once per every three hours you can choose to teleport to an area near where a notification comes from. With this power you can instantly go from one end of the cosmos to another and if you become strong enough to receive notifications from other universes you can teleport from one universe to another instantly.
Divination subdomain blessing and curse details:
This blessing and curse affects perception. A creature blessed by this subdomain would be able to perceive twice as much as they'd otherwise be able too, and a creature cursed by it would only be able to perceive half as much as they'd otherwise be able too.
I quietly activated powers over life, minds, and fungi, as I prepared my first wave of attacks on the random human civilization below me. As I did, I thought about the quests for new domains I had earned access too that weren't related to becoming an intermediate god. And they brought a smile to my face. But they weren't what I was going to focus on.
I gazed at the star above me, the sun that was illuminating the sky around me, and teleported to it. I only needed to be close to it for an instant before I gained a masterful awareness of the world I had teleported too in the first place. With that knowledge I teleported back to where I had been standing, and I unleashed a devastating malestrom of chaotic attacks.
I effortlessly initiated an attack on this world's sole civilization, and my potent attack was one that was made up of multiple natural and unnatural disasters. As a plethora of notifications began to appear in my mind's eye, I chuckled. To this world's people I would be a truly terrifying god of destruction, one whose power over nature ruined them. And one they wouldn't even see as he decimated their homes and showed them the true might of nature.