“Apologies for the delay!” I announced my final return to Noctis Reach with a resounding shout, sending the newly christened Captains into a hastened frenzy of cheers and applause that morphed into shocked gasps and confirmatory jeers once I came to a halt with an illusory display of Telin’s Blessings and the Eternal Path orbiting around me.
“I am a devil of my word.” I bowed in mid-air above the writhing mass of bodies before starting my slow descent to the central dais. “And you all made of pact with me. Whether you all have realized the implications of this is something we’ll soon find out. That aside, however, I am a God. I met the creator of this universe just before I was born in Maru and just now received his blessings. He is the source of mana and the reason behind the portals’ appearance. His name is Telin. I, Amun, am his Champion.
“I am his Cleric, but a Cleric unlike any other. I walk the Eternal Path. The path to that leads beyond Godhood. Thus I do not pray to or worship him. But.” I dismissed the path in favor of making the blessings large enough for all of them to read. “That’s not the important part right now. These are.“
“So that’s why we got so lucky with our affinities.” Jaimess laughed wryly from his place on my left. “Though, I suppose it wasn’t luck, but divine intervention.”
“Not quite. As I said, I just received this blessing. That was all you.” I grinned, then pointed first at the illusion before turning my finger towards Jaimess. “The second blessing, however, Telin’s Sight, is the most important. It allows me to see your paths to the end and the rewards you'll receive for them. Or, in other words.” I smirked. “I know that your game of tag set you down the path of a Prestige Ranger Class of legendary proportions. The Divine Beast Tamer.
“And you two.” I turned to face Roheisa’s steel-hued eyes before turning to study the likeness of her knight. “You, Roheisa, are on the path of the Vulcanox Berserker. But you can multi-class into a paladin as well, and, like her.” I gestured to her knight. “You can become a Valkyrie. But, then again, she's not only a Valkyrie."
“I- I can?” Roheisa’s eyes faltered as she stammered. Down they fell, in confusion, before rising in sudden disbelief. “You’re a Valkyrie?” She asked her knight softly.
In turn, Lucia nodded proudly. “Queen Valkyrie.”
Meanwhile, I turned to my knight. “From what I can see, you have the most options, Toril. Depending on your oath, you can either go the undead servant monarch route or continue down the path of the Storm Thief. Or, you can mix them up and take up this… Oath of the Undying Tempest. But, as always, it’s up to you.
“And the same goes for the lot of you,” I shouted, turning to the waiting crowd. “By the end of this night, I will share with you your paths, but I will not give you the knowledge of how to level up in them. That is already within your capabilities. Thus instead, I will guide you. Or rather, the class you have obtained by making a pact with me will show you the way down your paths.
“You are all Prestige Warlocks: Prime Noctis Legionaries. Or, you will be once I finalize the specifics of the path, as I did for Hogaz. But that comes later. First, we raise our towers. And after I take care of a few more things, we’ll celebrate the month away. So, uh.” I turned my awkward gaze over the others. “Just give me a minute.”
Few, if any, understood what was truly in store for them. But all of them gained enough trust in me over the last six months to just go along with it no matter how crazy it sounded, giving me the peace I needed to peruse the immense database of knowledge that came with Godhood.
It wasn’t long into that endeavor when Mani spotted one of the items on my list of things to take care of, making its way to the tower. A pair of them, traveling in tandem under the light of the moon. Thus I split the task between my separate minds and waited patiently for Doyle and Olga to descend into the foyer.
While Doyle declared his reasoning behind his appearance with the full zeal of a devoted cleric, Olga remained behind him, sunken into herself like a crab seeking solace within its shell. He, of course, intended to sell his soul for a truth he would have received anyway. So, while he scoured his mind for another dream, I scoured his spirit for any hidden paths. But alas, the only one to be seen was the one he told me about. Fighter, a Battle Mage of a relatively high level. However, his next words and a mention of something called a proxy gave me the perfect idea for his placement.
He wanted to walk under the light of the moon for the rest of his days. And so, I decided he would and, agreeing to his terms, infused moonlight into my words as I uttered my compliance. Opening up new baths to him while I turned my attention to Olga.
Still, she seemed apprehensive. I knew of what she dreamed of and I knew, for fear of the unlikely truth, that she was hesitant to say it. “I just want to live." She muttered at last. "Do I have to sell my soul to do that?”
“No.” I quickly shook my head and smiled as I gazed upon the moon, imagining what I would create from it. “This tower will be changing soon,” I said, not moving my gaze. “You can live in what it’s to become. Just give me a few hours to make it.
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“As for you.” I turned, motioning silent details of Doyle’s fate to my subordinates while I said to Doyle, “I have a special job lined up.”
“I am in your care.” He bowed low, hardly concealing the great smile spread across his face.
“It’ll be a while though,” I assured him with a low chortle. “So consider the time until then as a vacation. Now, uh…. Just give me a minute.” I turned an awkward gaze over the others while I drifted into the air. “I need to make my Divine Profile.”
Not the wisest choice of words, in retrospect, as the crowd surged forward as I drifted out of reach. Each set of eyes, desperate to get the first glimpse of any changes brought to my body, fought over the next pair for the best view in the house. If there ever was one.
Turning my attention away from them, I killed my relative velocity after drifting a few dozen meters above the crowd and turned my thoughts inwards to provoke the ever-present wall of energy before me into reforming into words and glyphs and symbols I could make sense of.
“Well, that’s interesting,” I muttered to myself after a few moments. Though I supposed the more apt word was amazing.
It was… complex to say the least. A deity's very existence influenced everything in their profile, which was powered by faith. In this way, a deity couldn’t alter their profile just by willing it so, but in return, they were able to affect mortals in ways that ranged from visions to blessings that touched entire species to class abilities and, as I saw with the Captains, create new subclasses altogether. As vast and complex as it was, however, there were five essential aspects to any Divine Profile: Alignment, Nature, Species, Aspects, and Domains.
Alignment and Nature were the simplest, with the first stating I was chaotically neutral and the second being both the designators people most often used to describe me as a God and the divine classifications granted to me due to my lifestyle. Designators as in being called the God of Freedom, Duality, Change, and Devils. Classifications in the sense of me being one of many Gods of Nature, a Marulean God, and a God associated with Fae. In that way, they somewhat bled into the Species innately or otherwise associated with my entire being, not just a domain. Namely Devils; Umbra Draconis: Shadow Dragons; and… Elven Devils.
The implications of that aside, the other Species within my portfolio consisted of those that either revered me, as the devils would, were I not a rogue, creatures in the Menagerie, or my favorite creatures. Regardless of the type, they were now considered physical manifestations of my divine essence, either partially or wholly. Like Mygalomorphae to the Drow-Goddess Lilith, shadow dragons, wolves, orcas, owls, and a couple of other animals would be divided across my domains and exalted in my pantheon and thus were tagged to be tracked and ‘recruited’ at once.
On the other hand, my Aspects directly influenced my Domains. I- and every other deity- could only have four, but those four could have four sub-domains and a potentially infinite number of Aspects associated with them, though they were limited to our interests, knowledge, skills, abilities, and, most importantly, the interpretations of those who had faith in me. In essence, the Aspects were ways my followers could worship me and were simultaneously actions that would become buffed with divine mana while I performed them. Naturally, the domains decided the powers granted to our clerics.
My four wound up being the Moonlight, Twilight, Engineering, and- due to my connection with Telin- Mana; and each of those encompassed a wide range of things.
Mani and its light, for instance, had been an object for people to gaze upon and dream since it was first woven. Shortly after, it began to affect animals and the tides. Many had grown to depend on it for nighttime navigation across the lands and seas and had begun to refer to the skies surrounding the First World as a great sea. thus Light merged with Darkness; Illusions or dreams; Creation via Destruction; and the ‘Seas' of the World were part of that domain; or simply World Seas. So too, however, did the Domain of Moonlight encompass aspects of freedom, change, exploration, darkness with light, gravity, and a few others. As for the Moon’s creatures, it encompassed Cervidae, or true deer, as well as Canids, Cetaceans, Cephalopods, and Lepidoptera.
Twilight, having been likened to Stars and fantasized about in the Darkworld below, grew to have both of those aspects on top of the sub-domains of Purity and Corruption; Life and Death; Curses and Deals; and Light and Darkness; with minor aspects of leisure, exploration, stealth, transitions, freedom, and other things. The creatures contained within, on the other hand, were crepuscular creatures of the Menagerie. Strigiformes, Felidae, Rodentia, Serpents, and Mustelids.
Naturally, Engineering was the most exciting domain for me. The four sub-domains consisted of Civilizations, Militaries or Guilds, Industry, and Science. With those alone, I could take my MagiTech Military-Industrial Empire to heights even I couldn’t have conceived. Yet the animals contained within were just as fascinating. Isoptera, Hymenoptera, Araneomorphae, Simians, and of course, Castor. The architects and engineers of the animal kingdom.
And then there was Mana, the most overpowered domain of all, for its first sub-domain was the very Universe; the three fundamental forces I had as magical affinities along with space-time and mana itself. So too did it encompass Evolution. It encompassed affinity cores as well- with those even being incorporated into the path’s rewards. Lastly, it encompassed Sorcery, which was fair, I supposed, considering Faenya was the Goddess of Wizardry on top of being the Goddess of Magic- my mirror, as my mother so eloquently put it.
But then there were the creatures associated with the mana domain. If I could have even called them such. Wise Rocks and Divine Trees. Evolved Mystics; Magic or Divine Creatures- or anything born from or changed by mana, for that matter; and perhaps most interestingly of all, Paragons. With aspects of mana molding, mana wells, mana casting, classes, and more, I would be able to, in one sense or another, grant abilities that even I didn't have to my followers. Or, in some cases, gain new abilities entirely. Abilities that my blessings gave me no hint of discerning. So, without waiting any longer, I gave everything a final look-through before I mentally finalized the options.
Then, I started preparing for the return of that immense pressure I felt just a short while ago.
It was time to become divine.