An instant after my draconic foe-turned-pet was defeated and put away I looked out and studied the chamber I found myself in. I was in the same chamber that Bisi had done her rituals in.
The chamber was a large and wide-open one. I could see an exit off in the distance and began to walk towards it. As I did, I began to turn my mind towards the future, and the surprising but delightful fact that I was hours away from gaining greater power over time, stars, as well as becoming a spirit lord. By the time I left this place, I'd have far more power in incredible domains. As I began to scheme and dream I allowed one domain to hear my thoughts: the domain of spirits.
As I made my way towards the exit, a smile crept across my face. The power boost I was on the verge of receiving, just a battle away from me in fact, was a gigantic one. With it I'd not only gain tremendous powers over time, but even the power to create the sort of enormously powerful spirits that were the multiverse's newest objects of worship. My awareness that I was so close to receiving that power filled me with pride.
As I stepped over some of the circles that stood between myself and the next chamber, I envisioned the games I'd soon be able to play. In hours I'd be able to create something akin to local pantheons for people to worship by creating spirits of worlds, stars, moons, and time. I knew what I wanted to do immediately upon my transformation into a spirit king: I was going to create a spirit of this solar system's sun.
"Creating spirits huh? And not the small kind like Raiz, but world and solar system level spirits? That's a big plan. How exciting!" Whispered the soft voice of the spirit domain. It had a gentle voice and the excitement I heard in the being's voice was genuine.
"Your status as an omni-higher-being, a champion among the strongest beings in all of existence, has resulted in you accumulating considerable power despite your remarkably young age. The knowledge that you plan to usher in, in effect, a new mythical age is something that greatly excites me." The domain continued, clearly approving my plan.
I smiled as I listened to the words of the domain. I knew that what I was planning to do was ambitious. The sort of spirits that I planned to create and sprinkle throughout existence were cosmic level entities, powerful beings that were not much weaker than demon lords. And I wasn't planning to create just one or two of them, but to make many.
"I want to create beings that make superheroes look weak." I told the domain, an amused smile on my face as I spoke, mentally, to it. "Superheroes" were beings that had appeared in fiction created on worlds like Htrae and Ryths, though in the latter case only prior to the apocalypse that I had caused.
These "Superheroes" were beings who possessed "superpowers", superhuman abilities that normal humans did not and often could not possess. Their superpowers often included things like superspeed and superstrength, and the strongest of them were in possession of such strength that they could perform feats like juggling planets and moving at speeds that made the speed of light feel slow. They were capable of feats that were frankly godlike in scale and scope.
The existence of superheroes in fiction on worlds that had long lacked any real magic and where any sort of supernatural ability tended to have been introduced by aliens was extremely fascinating to me. It suggested curious things about the human ability to be creative, which was the trait that in my opinion had allowed the race to survive in worlds that had magic and were populated by creatures greater than humans like elves, dwarves, orcs, and dragons, such as Ta Hendo.
One of the things I had liked to do during the time I spent building up my empire was to research superheroes. I had even practiced bringing them to life, using the same powerful abilities that I had used to bring the troll that was now combatting the Akamalians in the first large chamber I had entered to life. It was a fun pastime, and the knowledge that I would soon be able to create even stronger beings inspired me.
I finally reached the other end of the large chamber after stepping over no less than five circles, representing my enemy's different interests. Beyond the final circle stood a large wall and in the middle of that wall was a single doorway. I approached it and phased through the thing, rather than destroying the metal door that filled the doorway. As I phased through it, I began to smile lewdly. I was entering a chamber where Akamal had once satiated his lustful desires.
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The chamber on the other side of the metal door was one that was a good deal smaller than the one I had just been in. It was a square chamber, and it was filled with beautiful undead women who turned to stare at me the instant my face had begun to phase through the door.
I could see rage beginning to blossom in their eyes and felt the daggers of their hate, even as I slowed down time and began to think about how to react to them. I chuckled and without a moment's hesitation, I froze every single woman in the chamber, well over two dozen Atlani women, encasing them in solid ice so cold that even their minds were abruptly and powerfully stopped.
The chamber itself was mostly flat, but in the middle of it there was a wide but shallow pit filled with pillows and blankets. The pillows and blankets in it were clearly meant for comfort and lounging, and as I stared at the pit I began to receive vivid, unholy visions of the past. Visions of Akamal, in the past, satisfying himself and making use of the bevy of women in this chamber. He was not a kind, selfless lover.
I swiftly blocked the vision, and for not the first time felt annoyed at the powers that spontaneously manifested whenever I was close to acquiring more influence over an important domain. This was one of my own mutations, a rare instance of a power I'd soon gain full control over making itself known to me.
I turned and stared at the women, studying them and considering how to free them from the influence Akamal had over them. This wasn't as simple as necromancy was, where the animator had total control over the undead being. If it had been I'd have been able to usurp the control that Akamal had over them and make them undead beings under my control. This was voodoo, with which one could more easily reanimate greater beings, but had a different sort of connection to them than a necromancer would have had.
I turned inward and for a moment the possibility of just passing through this chamber and not freeing the women crossed my mind. But that thought only lasted a second. I needed to defeat Ravanthan, the undead spirit queen that Akamal had made into an undead being through potent voodoo and gaining experience overcoming voodoo here would be incredibly helpful.
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I began to search the mental database I possessed of the assorted powers at my disposal. I had thousands of powers, thanks in part to my status as a unique higher being, and as such it took me a second to begin to formulate a real plan that would allow me to overcome the powerful control Akamal had over his lovers.
One powerful and new ability that I had acquired as a result of becoming a deity with the second tier of influence over the domain of chaos. Seeing it brought a smile to my face, and filled me with the knowledge that I'd be able to free these women from Akamal's control. And perhaps free Ravanthan from the monster I had come here to slay, without slaying her herself.
I closed my eyes and began to activate a number of powers. I shuddered as I felt the very air around me change, and as I embraced my original nature as a deity of peace and chaos.
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The chamber was filled with the frozen forms of various women, and the god who had come here to end the deadly, murderous vestige responsible for so much horror and suffering. As the god prepared to enact his scheme, he began to glow.
Radiant, overpowering, existence-changing light began to pour out of the god's skin. The dimmly lit chamber became fully and beautifully illuminated as sunlight began to radiate out of the god who had come here to end the terrors in this temple. The god smiled as he looked out at his surroundings, and once he took stock of where everyone was he began to act.
The first thing the deity did was activate a power of his known as "Aura of freedom", which caused the silvery light that the deity was exuding to have a powerful effect. The second thing that Althos did was raise a single hand and instantly melt the ice that had encased his former enemies. As he did, their minds were freed as well, and the instant they gazed upon him, they didn't see any enemy anymore.
The creature that had now fully stepped into the chamber was not their enemy. He was their savior, and as their minds were freed from the mighty, mystical powers of Akamal, they gazed at Althos in awe. He was not just their savior, at the moment he was a radiant, impossibly beautiful being utilizing a variety of powers to become the embodiment of beauty, of hope, of light.
Althos, in his gleaming armor, and carrying his sword and shield was a vision of hope. The first such vision that the women had seen in millennia. He wasn't just an invader, he was, in this moment at least, a hero.
The deity didn't utter a single word to the women. Instead of saying anything, he merely rose his hand and fully resurrected them, freeing them fully from Akamal's devastating power. They froze as the powerful god of life and chaos touched their very souls with his life-altering powers and purged the sickening magic that had ended their lives so long ago from them. With but a thought Althos was freeing them from the wicked monster who had controlled them for so long, whose magic had corrupted their very souls and tethered them to this nightmarish grave site.
"Be free." Althos uttered, even as the sunlight he radiated infused the women, some of the worst off of Akamal's victims, with life and with joy. The women all fell to their knees as they felt the darkness that had tainted them, that had filled them, leave them for the first time in eons.
As Althos' powers washed over the women who had spent years as slaves to Akamal's inhumane lusts, Althos himself received a notification. He smiled as he read over it. It informed him that he had successfully saved the women. And the second part of it brought a bigger smile to the face of the deity.
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Updated Quest Alert:
Your actions here, the wisdom and inadvertent mercy you showed, have resulted in your quest to defeat Ravanthan becoming updated. Now the quest has become an ultra-level quest, and the reward for completing it has become amplified.
If you free Ravanthan from the control of Akamal, as opposed to just defeating her, you will not just become a spirit king and gain greater influence over the domains of nobility and stars, you will gain the third tier of influence over the life domain. You will also gain the third tier of influence over the emotion domain, the third tier of influence over the mind domain, the third tier of influence over the soul domain, and you will be awarded the third tier of influence over the spirit domain.
Until now you have been stuck at the first tier of influence over the spirit domain, but becoming a spirit king will grant you the second tier of influence over it. And freeing Ravanthan is such an epic feat that the spirit domain is willing to grant you its third tier, if you can manage it.
When you acquire the third tier of influence over life, coupled with the second tier of influence over time you will have earned an upgrade to your true resurrection power. It will become an ultra resurrection power, a resurrection so powerful it can bring deceased higher beings, but not gods, back to life.
The third tier of influence over life represents one of the pinnacles of power available to true deities. It is a level of power over life itself that some overgods never attain. To attain it one needs to do something truly mythical in scope. Freeing Ravanthan from Akamal's power is such a task.
Please note: You can complete the quest of freeing Ravanthan and receive the boost that comes with it, while battling against Akamal.
In the corner of my mind, as I read the notification some words stuck out to me. "Ultra-level quests" and "Ultra resurrection power" were two of them. My mind reeled as I took in the knowledge that I was now capable of attaining a power so immensely powerful that it could resurrect higher beings, something which had been beyond my power my entire life.
Not to mention the other truly phenomenal powers I was on the verge of attaining. The third tier of influence over the spirit domain, over the soul domain, over the mind domain, and perhaps most importantly the third tier of influence over the domain of emotions. If I attained that I could become a deity of joy and hope, which as I processed the emotions that the women I had freed were feeling, I realized for the first time, at least consciously, were truly and immensely powerful emotions.
If I successfully completed my mission in this grave site I would leave this place infinitely more powerful than I had entered it, on a conceptual level. I would be taking my very first baby step onto the rung of power where greater gods once stood. Determination filled me as I readied myself to journey deeper into Akamal's lair.
As I readied myself I felt the faint echoes of divine power not far from where I was. I was about to begin encountering Akamal's angelic minions, his greatest willing servants. The smile that was on my face darkened as I realized that.
As I began to walk to this chamber's exit, the women around me kept staring at me. I sensed their overflowing emotions, and as I neared the exit I felt their emotions darken and begin to become tinged with worry about me. That said, none of the mortal women tried to stop me. They knew, due to the notifications that had filled their minds when I had freed them, that I was a god myself.
When I reached the metal door on the far end of this chamber I felt them begin to pray to me, and to send me their earnest hopes that I successfully defeated Akamal, and freed everyone from this wicked temple. Right before I phased through the door I stopped and made a fist, before raising it into the air in view of them all.
"I'm gonna defeat him. And free all Atlani people from his dreadful influence." I told the women. My words were spoken confidently and loudly and though they couldn't see my face, I was smiling. I felt my words hearten the women, and I stepped into and then through the doorway, emerging onto the other side of the thing and finding myself in a small chamber where numerous angels gazed at me.
They were confident and powerful angels, not just one like when I faced Technos' minion, but over a dozen. They all studied me, and they held numerous weapons in their hands, all of which were different sorts of blades. The angels all had multiple pairs of wings, and they waited for me to approach them.