The differences between gods and even angel lords, the second strongest and greatest of the higher beings, weren't just a difference of power. It was true that in the ancient past even lesser deities could clash against even groups of their fellow higher beings and come out on top, but the differences didn't stop there.
One of the greatest powers possessed by even the weakest gods was their peerless minds. Deities could pay attention to countless events in innumerable locations at once and not seem to lose focus on anything going on in any of the countless places they wanted to pay attention to. This was one of the secrets to the remarkable success of the young outer god named Althos.
At the moment his body was in an unremarkable world named Htrae, and his mind, or a projection of it anyway, was inside of the newest place he had become an overlord of; the divine realm belonging to his slain foe, Technos. Those weren't the only places he was paying attention to either.
Althos' mind was so powerful that even as it spoke to Aringoth, it was busy elsewhere. His mind, for the first time in his life, sought to push past boundaries that he had previously established. Empowered by his powers over death, and by other new abilities, the god's will reached out into the vast universe for the first time in his life.
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The universe was a vast place. I knew that intuitively the moment I came to life, but now, empowered even further beyond the old limits I once had, I well and truly felt the vastness of the universe I sought to unify, so long as the unification meant that I was the one the universe was unified under.
As I allowed my mind to begin to play with the countless notifications I received per nanosecond, I pay attention to the vast size of the universe. So far I had lived in two galaxies, and in two solar systems, even if I had visited multiple dimensions and several different worlds, but as I sorted through the notifications I received I began to enhance them.
I silently crafted an upgrade to my domain sense that alerted me where in the universe the notifications I received came from and that was the key that well and truly gave me some sense of scale for how vast the cosmos was. I began to read about wars in galaxies on the other end of existence, and about deaths taking place in solar systems adjacent to the ones in my empire.
In my mind, I could see a vast, undetailed map of the universe and when I looked at a notification a little dot appeared on the map in the general vicinity of where the notification took place. That said less than one one-millionth of a percent of the map had any detail to it. I knew why this was... I had explored a fragment of a percent of my own galaxy, and my galaxy wasn't even a big one. That meant that even for me, in my present state, exploring and gaining even localized pseudo-omniscience would take hundreds or even thousands of years.
The map in my mind was also capable of penetrating other dimensions and allowing me to learn their sheer scale beyond what I had been able to learn on my own. I could count just under one thousand layers of the Heart of Darkness, of which I ruled just one, and I could also vaguely see the rough shapes of the eight remaining layers of Infernius.
It was incredibly annoying to not be able to see more of the universe in any real detail, but I knew the way to fix that. The key to my problem wasn't to speed up my investigation, it was to gain a greater sensory and detection-based power. And I knew precisely how to do that. I needed to acquire the third tier of influence over the star domain and gain a power that came with it: "Galaxy perception", the perfect upgrade to "Stellar awareness".
The number of galaxies in this universe was in the trillions, which was something I had learned over the course of building my empire. That was a daunting number, but nowhere near as daunting as the knowledge that each galaxy housed millions, billions, and in a few cases even a trillion or slightly more stars. Without gaining greater power over the domain of stars and the "Galaxy perception" power, it'd take me millennia to map the universe. If I gained that upgrade to "Stellar awareness", then it'd only take me a few dozen to a few hundred years to be able to have manually mapped the universe.
But before I did that, I could do something new. Something that I could do only because I was an outer god. And it was time that I begin to have some fun.
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Outer gods were once the titanic generals of the combined forces of the eldritch domain in an ancient war on reality. They were the unspeakably powerful, reality-destroying agents of a malicious force that sought nothing short of the mass perversion of reality. And hours ago I had gained their power.
One of the potent powers of an outer god was the ability to contact entire abominable races, the creatures first created when the souls of lesser beings from other universes attempted to cross universal boundaries, or their horrifying children. As an outer god, I could contact and command any of them to do my bidding. Or all of them. And I knew which ones to contact first.
I was a god of knowledge, who had begun to deepen my relationship with the domain of knowledge. And many of my most useful and beloved followers were those who deepened my knowledge of the universe. I had cultivated cults of sage-kings and philosopher-queens on worlds throughout my empire because I wanted their knowledge, and I had even taken the time to speak to some of them. The luckiest had been allowed to enter my fortress city and speak with me directly on matters of divinity so that the wisest mortals may gain some understanding of divine beings.
Among abominations, there were a few races that were of special interest to me at this moment. The first were the Mi-Gos, fungal creatures who resembled something like a nightmarish cross between crabs and massive bees, and who were amoral scientists that I could rely on with regards to discovering all manners of knowledge. They existed across the cosmos and if I contacted them I knew that they were very likely to become my servants in truly phenomenal numbers.
Another race was the Great Race of Yith, prolific body-snatchers who were ruthless in their desire to survive. I could make the entire race an offer it couldn't refuse: I could offer them an endless supply of bodies, ones that were made to their specifications and that would be immortal and virtually invincible, so long as they agreed to serve me.
The final pair of races I intended to bring under my dark banner, for now, were the Gugs and the Deep Ones. The Gugs were handy as they were truly terrible brutes who by and large only wanted to return to the eerie dimension known as the Dreamlands. I had the power to return them there, and so I knew they'd serve me in exchange for returning them to their ancestral home. In acquiring their service I'd gain powerful and monstrous allies who'd serve me in this dimension and in the Dreamlands.
The Deep Ones on the other hand would serve me because I was their god. I was a deity of water, evil, and the eldritch energies that corroded reality, and I would claim them as my servants. With them I could gain servants who'd be incredibly useful in worlds with oceans and humans, servants who could trick the humans and who could begin to prepare the worlds for eldritch invasions.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I silently extended my mental tendrils and reached out across the cosmos, activating my outer-god power to contact entire races at once. As I did that there was a smile on my faces, even my avatar was smiling.
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Power began to creep across the entire universe, from deep within a long dead divine realm. Quiet tendrils of mental power that had the ability to tempt and corrupt any of their targets snaked outward and began to reach into the depths of places like the Heart of Darkness, Infernius, and even realms that had yet to be explored by Althos weren't able to resist the corrupting, eldritch power he now wielded.
It took a matter of moments, not even minutes, for the reality-defying powers wielded by the multiverse's youngest outer god, to stretch out of the galaxy that the god's body was in and into other, neighboring, galaxies as well as the empty space between them.
The power that he was using caused his mind to exude utterly undetectable mental tendrils. The tendrils were made of corruptive energies, energies that weakened reality and sanity and that would tether the minds of any sort of beings they were targeting, but could leave other beings undisturbed aside from making them feel a bit light in the head.
The power sped up over time, and in a matter of minutes, it took mere seconds for it to cross entire galaxies. At the rate it was going, how easy it was going faster than the speed of light a thousand times over, it would take a little over an hour before it finished crisscrossing the universe. As vast as the universe was, it was finite, even if it was finite only on a scale that a god could appreciate or understand.
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While my power navigated the cosmos, I did two things. The first thing I did was easily persuade Aringoth to serve me. He was a reasonable elf, and I was an emperor. He had an elf's amount of pride, which was how he was able to withstand the mental attack, but ultimately the years I spent studying, befriending the domain of knowledge, and gaining experience allowed me to easily persuade the elf. When I presented him with the contract he learned that I was serious, and willing to be fair, which was the last step in securing his allegiance.
The second thing I did was begin to devise notifications for the creatures I was contacting. I was, in effect, expanding my empire so I needed to introduce myself to my newest subjects. I hadn't done something like this in months, as I tended not to need to make such large announcements. Thanks to my robots I had other means of declaring my intentions and making my will known than to rely on the system.
That wasn't the only way I had evolved beyond a reliance on it either. Ever since it was momentarily "rebooted" to update and gain the power to process my demonic abilities I had made sure to practice organic usage of my abilities and to never rely on it, even though I fully intended to master it someday. One day I would be the undisputed master of existence, and that meant gaining mastery over the system and using it to help make my will manifest.
The portion of my mind that was devoted to writing the notifications I was creating was still and calm. It wasn't quite the same portion of my mind as was dealing with Aringoth, nor was it the same part of me that was with Ashlen. It was another, quieter part of me. The part of me that perpetually schemed.
Notification: The Deep King Rises
Deep ones, arise! The Outer God, Althos, calls to you. He beckons for you to serve, to become his worshipers. He desires for you to serve him in the deepest, darkest trenches of the oceans of your worlds, and for you to spread the faith of the ocean into your neighbors, to prepare them for the day the oceans swallow up the coast.
Althos is the tyrant of the trenches, he is the dark lord of the fathomless depths, and to show you his power he has a gift for you. He will return your lost loved ones to you, those who've long perished. They await you in the depths. Swim to them, and together prepare your homes for the arrival of your one true king.
In order to show the Deep Ones my power and the inevitability of my victory, I decided to give them a wonderful gift. One that would surely show them my benevolence, at least to them. Resurrecting dead deep ones was an easy task given that it meant that I would in all likelihood gain septillions of worshipers in the countless oceans throughout the worlds of this universe. I began to resurrect the dead Deep Ones wherever their souls were located, my power easily giving them new bodies to inhabit or just fixing the damages done by time to their corpses.
I shivered as I felt the power of their newfound piety filling me. Long dead and freshly slain Deep Ones alike sworn to serve their savior as they came back from the dead, and the few Deep Ones near their bodies, who saw my power flowing into their once deceased companions and then read my notification also sworn their souls to me.
That was an understandable reaction since they knew that I could reach out across the cosmos and undo death. If I had been a lesser being and a creature with that kind of power appeared before me, demanding my service and submission it'd be hard for me to say no.
Notification: A God Of Knowledge Calls Upon You
Fungi of Yoggoth, listen to the voice that penetrates your mind. A new master demands that you serve, one who has schemes as enigmatic as the Black Pharaoh once had, with the same passion as the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young, and who is their dread equal in power and ferocity.
Althos, an Outer God, has arisen in a small galaxy that he is in the process of conquering. He believes in the supremacy of knowledge over morality, and he calls upon you to serve. Even across the cosmos, he can sense you, and he demands submission. He desires the knowledge you possess, and to empower you to acquire more knowledge both in his name and for your own satisfaction.
Serve the dark god of the void, submit to its dark designs, and be rewarded with power, eternal life, and knowledge to add to your own secret repositories. Feel his power within you, feel it alter you. Embrace it and become his fel-children.
Even as my mind connected to the vast number of Mi-Go in the universe I blessed them. I blessed them with an array of conditional blessings, ones that would go away if they didn't become my worshipers.
I increased their intelligence and their wisdom, and I allowed them to feel an echo of the ways I could improve their dexterity and their strength. Mi-Gos, despite their strange appearances, were adept surgeons who had long since mastered the usage of their fiendish looking claws, but my powers bolstered their claw-eye coordination to new heights. I sensed them feel it in their mutated, corrupt souls.
That said, I had another way to create Mi-Go servants if I wanted them. As a god of fungi I could create Mi-Gos, now that I had two tiers of influence over it, the eldritch domain, and the life domain. So if I needed too I could create my own Mi-Go legions and just kill the existing Mi-Gos, but I preferred not to do that if I could avoid it.
Notification: A Pathway Home:
Gugs, listen, and obey. In a small corner of the universe, an unsuspecting world has given birth to a god. Over the past few years, this god rose in power to the point where he has acquired the power to allow you to return home, to the eerie dimension known as the Dreamlands. He seeks to do so, in exchange for your service whenever he demands it.
Althos, this young outer god, would like for you to worship him as the rightful king of the land of dreams and as the soverign whom all gugs serve and revere. If you agree, then he shall give you a new home and elevate you to a level of power beyond that which you had in your ancient past.
This process was... A little bit more involved than the processes I had done for the other races. For one of the first times ever I needed to use my powers over the Dreamlands, a place I had largely ignored. I also had to use a set of powers I didn't frequently use, those over civilization, to make good on my promise to the Gugs.