When time began to flow again, my mind was inundated with messages and notifications. I had acquired the final tier of influence over many domains, even truly powerful ones like the dragon domain or the disease domain, and having those tiers of influence over those domains empowered me immeasurably.
As I began to take in my surroundings with my new ultra-powers I smiled and allowed my mind to wander. As it did, it began to process the innumerable new abilities I had just acquired and I looked out at the cosmos that surrounded me.
The eyes I now possessed were more than keen enough to see even the tiniest fluctuations of the quantum foam, the collection of virtual particles, underpinning all of existence. I could see and manipulate the smallest bits of existence, the most subtle, previously undetectable even to me, level of reality.
My eyes were now greatly enhanced by my powers as a nascent overgod and the fact that my powers over physics were incomparable to how they had been before. When the dust had settled on the quiet genocide I had performed, through the power of absorption, I had hit at least the third tier of influence over every single domain in existence, even reality, luck, neutrality, and fate, as well as goodness and law, and as such my powers over all things were conceptual in level. I could manipulate what it meant to be good, evil, or any other alignment and that made me want to laugh.
I was floating in empty space still, and originally I had come here for a simple reason: I wanted to create my spaceship and I wanted to create a new type of spirit: a solarian. I had already created my spaceship, and I had acquired immeasurably vast power in the wake of my decisions following the creation of my spaceship, so much so that my original goals felt quaint.
Creating a spaceship and creating a new kind of spirit felt like the kind of goal that a child would come up with, as my mind surged with knowledge concerning the very nature of reality. But it also felt fun, and now I was great enough that I could focus on having fun in a whole new way. I rose my hand and pointed it in the direction of the sun that formed the center of Ta Hendo's solar system.
I then focused for a single second and unleashed a beam of spirit-creating energy at the bright, heat-creating orb that floated, indifferently, at the center of the solar system. The beam I had unleashed flew at speeds that easily exceeded the speed of light and collided with the sun effortlessly.
For a moment the sun changed colors, but only for an instant. I listened as the star itself began to create a sort of avatar with which to interact with me and the rest of the solar system.
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What I had done was utilize a new synergistic power I had gained when I became a spirit lord. I had gained the power to allow anything to create a spirit of itself, so long as I allowed it. In the case of objects like this solar system's sun that was an unusual and immeasurably powerful ability, as it meant that I could bestow life, consciousness, and sapience to the sun itself.
I had just, in essence, given this solar system's sun a personality. And a small part of me was tempted to do that to every star out there, as this was a fun power and it had enormous potential.
The name I had decided to give the new kind of star-based spirits I was creating was "Solarian", and I knew what sort of powers they were going to possess as well. I was going to give them a "standard" set of what some worlds referred to as "Superpowers" in their fiction. I intended for "Solarians" to be among the strongest lesser beings out there, on par with angels and ancient dragons in terms of raw, physical power.
As a true god of things like life and biology, I could now easily bestow superhuman abilities and physiques on those who served me and anyone else I wanted to. I had not done this before, in this true and permanent sense, but I wanted to create spirits who would stand above all other beings aside from angels and other higher beings, and who would represent me as my field agents throughout the Althonite Empire.
Ta Hendo's sun continued to slowly select options regarding its spiritual body, and I chuckled as I sensed the... object, turned living being, work towards coming to true life. The star in question could not select its powers, but it could select the appearance of its spiritual form. I had given it that much freedom at least.
It was while I was waiting for it to finish up, that I quietly extended my mind across all of existence and hit every star in the universe with this power. The total number of stars in existence was a number that was so vast it was basically impossible to fathom, at least for a lesser being. I knew that this meant that I had created septillions of solarians, a number that was almost funny to try and think about logically.
What was even funnier than that was trying to think about the fact that my powers were now on such a level that I could actually affect entire universes at once if I wanted to. My powers over destruction and death were equally as powerful as my power over life, which meant that as easily as I had gone and created my race of solar-spirits I could just as easily wipe out entire species, even ones as powerful as dragons, pride demons, giants, or angels. That realization was the first that allowed me to realize just how powerful I actually was, and how I was not tremendously far from being omnipotent.
"If my power is actually on the verge of becoming unlimited... I wonder if I could actually begin to try to bend reality." I asked myself, before almost instantly devising a scheme to test just how far my powers had advanced. My new, keener mind, was easily able to think up what I needed.
I reached into myself, and effortlessly found the magical contract that bound me to an agreement I had once made with my archenemy, Morehammer the god who had once created the dwarven race.
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In order to flee Torus, my birth-world, with my life I had once been forced to bargain with that world's sole vestige who was far more powerful than I had been during our initial encounters. I had agreed to a humiliating contract that forced me and my allies to leave the planet, after learning that one of my worshipers had died. The contract was unbreakable by someone of my level of power at the time and gave Morehammer everything he had wanted. I signed it and fled my homeworld, and since that day I could only have dreamed of the day that I'd inevitability returned to Torus.
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Deep within myself I found the mystical contract and chuckled. It was still exerting its power over my soul, but I knew with but a glance that I had the power to destroy it and to begin to achieve my vengeance against Morehammer and against Aoife, who had betrayed me and sided with Morehammer three years ago.
I reached within myself and activated one of the several new chaos powers I possessed, "Absolute freedom", and froze for a second as I felt the oldest effect that had ever affected me begin to melt away. As it did, I felt an intense wave of nostalgia wash over me.
"Years ago... I'd have never imagined that this would be the path I'd take to free myself from this accursed contract but here we are..." I uttered as the contract's binding effects began to fail. I grinned darkly as I reached out across the cosmos and dealt my first blow to my enemy, using a new power I had acquired as a god of reality. It was going to be a doozy.
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At the precise moment that Althos shattered the contract that kept peace between himself and Morehammer, Morehammer was inside of the Emerald Palace. The Emerald Palace was not only the gravesite of the creator of dwarves, but it was also the very same monument to Morehammer's glory where figures like princess Rachel's father king Abel had once ruled over the majority of dwarven kind dwelling on or in Torus.
Morehammer had been recovering from his latest venture into the world of Torus beyond the confines of the Emerald Palace. His eyes suddenly flashed open as he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and for a split second he considered checking on the status of the contract he had signed with his foe, Althos. However, he'd never get a chance to do so.
The moment he thought about trying that he suddenly and totally froze, captured by the very entity that he had feared had found some way to bypass the contract. Althos appeared in the same room as Morehammer for the first time in three years less than a heartbeat later, an enormous and dark grin on his face as he materialized in front of his enemy.
Althos stepped forward to place a single hand on Morehammer's head, and smiled when the vestige didn't move even as his archenemy messed with his frozen form. He took in the sight of the frozen vestige and had to work to contain his laughter.
"To think... I am beyond even Morehammer." He uttered, amazed at the boundless depths of his power. His ability to freeze Morehammer meant that his powers over time were indeed strong enough to grant him the sort of cosmic untouchability he had long sought, which coupled with his reality-warping powers were enough for him to feel ready to begin to exact his vengeance against the two beings he truly hated from the depths of his heart.
He turned to face the door that led in and out of the quiet chamber that Morehammer had been resting in. He pointed a finger at the finger and smiled when the thing ceased to exist, on a conceptual level to the point that beings other than him would absolutely forget that it existed in the first place.
"These new destruction powers are handy." He muttered, as he effectively trapped Morehammer in the chamber until the instant that Althos decided he was ready to go and kill the creator of dwarves. The god then abruptly departed from the room, and reappeared elsewhere in the Emerald Palace, in the upper chambers of the building.
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With Morehammer dealt with I still had one more target I wanted to make the subject of my vengeance. I smiled as I dematerialized from the depths of the Emerald Palace and rematerialized near the top of the gigantic building. I found myself inside a small bedroom that happened to be ornately decorated. And in the bed of said bedroom laid a sleeping dwarf.
I recognized the dwarf instantly, she was the heroine, turned traitor, Aoife. One of several dwarves who'd be freed from slavery by me, only to betray me in the wake of encountering the dreadfully powerful vestige Morehammer. Her betrayal, especially since it had been a willful one she made while possessing her true consciousness, not under the influence of Morehammer's aura of love and devotion, had keenly stung. Now I had the power to respond to that betrayal.
Aoife was an image of surprising beauty as she laid on the bed and peacefully dreamt of her birth-place. I almost chuckled as she peacefully dreamt of something so innocent and so free of betrayal, politics, or death. She even dreamt of her sister, the very same one who had hated her for years before her untimely death, and before Aoife's second great betrayal, her choice to side with her sister's murderer over the man who sought to fulfill Ava's dream, without harming either sister.
"That dream is more peaceful than you deserve, but it shall be the last peaceful one you ever have so I hope you enjoy it." I uttered, practically spitting at her as I spoke. I walked over to the sleeping dwarf and began to consider which of my powers to use here.
Her betrayal of me and of her sister stung just as badly as Ava's death at Morehammer's hands so I wanted to inflict her with a truly horrifying fate. I didn't necessarily want to hurt or maim her in a physical sense, though I knew that that would please Ava's spirit, even though her spirit was now gone. In time I planned to resurrect her, but not now, not yet. I still had work to do before I felt comfortable doing that.
I gazed inwardly and stared at all of the new powers I possessed, powers which now felt like toys to me. I had no such thing as "active" powers anymore, instead, I could freely utilize any of my powers without worrying about things like a cooldown or any other such silliness. It truly made me feel as powerful as being a god was supposed to feel.
It didn't take me long to consider the evil powers I possessed, and most interestingly the powers related to corruption that I possessed. I was the lord of the seven deadly sins, and a powerful prince of pain and evil, as well as the nascent-overgod of diseases, all of which afforded me true freedom when it came to exacting a truly terrible revenge.
I sorted through hundreds of powers over the span of several seconds, before finally settling on a truly fun ability even by my standards. "Ontopathogenesis", the single greatest power possessed by the disease domain. It was a disease that was utterly controlled by me and was capable of infecting anyone or anything on an existential level, meaning that it was incurable and became a part of them. It also encouraged them to behave evilly, but without stripping away their conscience, which meant that even when they performed evil acts they would mentally torment themselves due to guilt.
I grinned as I gently placed my hand on Aoife's firm shoulder. I didn't utter a single word as I infected her with what, for her, would be a truly terrible disease that ate away at her very soul. I also firmly remembered that I wasn't the only one with a vengeance to exact against her. I fully planned to keep her alive until the day that I resurrected Ava, and on that day I would allow the dark dwarf to exact her vengeance against her sister.
As my infection began to spread through Aoife's sleeping form, I smiled and vanished, disappearing deep into the cosmos. I wasn't just going to be a true terror to Aoife, there were other dwarves who needed to suffer as well.
I was going to wage war against all dwarves who felt the call of my foe in their hearts, and all those who had succumbed to him. And I wasn't just going to kill them either, I hated these creatures and I was determined to carve my vengeance deep into their racial memory. As a god of evil, one who had unified many trillions of evil extraplanar entities, I was going to go to war with the followers of Morehammer. And he had many, which gave me many targets to torment.
By the time I was done, the universe would pity the dwarves who had not ignored the call of Morehammer. That knowledge brought a wicked grin to my face.