Robin sat on a small smooth seat as hundreds of baby angels fluttered around. He would gently push them away and pull only the ones to react and connect with them.
It was almost like breathing, he let them go and then focused on the waves and just filtering more and more until no reactions remained and got one of the three councils to take the batch away.
A summer of this had already gained Robin near the thousands in angel followers.
Beyond them, other more advanced angels of different religious types, not just the ones known about christian religion hierarchy, appeared.
There were a number of hierarchy systems but it was all racial and not religion based. The reason they were attracted was because of earth’s religious systems channeling through him and those races naturally gathered towards earthlings.
These more developed ones came in clans but could not bind but accepted serving Robin and the area of his domain was already forming small clans and villages and were under the vigilance and command of the three councilmen.
The raw plateau was also slightly changed as the rough rock had been smoothed out and some angels were masons and were beginning to produce material for him. Robin sighed, “Is there a reason for a palace?” Robin asked.
“This is heaven and displaying your majesty is highly suggested.” The Throne suggested.
Robin rubbed his eyes, this was said several times but he finally gave up. He breathed in and drew in the holy power of the realm and channeled his divine spark through it. Then released it weakly. The flame excited and reacted to the domain. It spread and soon extended like a string despite being fire and grew in magnitude as holy power infused and powered it and it kept expanding and piercing into the mountain top until it formed a palace and temple. It was like looking at the outlines of a building that was not there.
The three and all the angels collapsed and began to speak in angelic languages. It was all words of praise and prayer towards the god. The spark of flame left over to maintain this remained at the middle of an outline that looked like a brazier.
Robin looked and then looked at the central idol that was to be a statue of him. Where he looked he could extract information and the idol would be like a symbol of power, the control center of the holy power within his domain. He knew he would have to spread this far to solidify the domain’s stability as well but it felt too… authoritarian to him.
He decided to just go home, “You guys should know what to do with this.” Robin said.
“As you will, my lord!” they say and the angels fly off and Robin returns home. It was too strange. The workings of gods have been mysterious at best, a speculation, to have to be the one doing it while living a normal life is too much of a shock.
He closed his eyes and sensed any calls.
One thread of black, one gray and one gold formed as he focused and sent a call, to seek a reaction.
The black one reacted first and Robin found a city in south america suffering from flooding, he remembered hearing about it as a number of earth manipulators and even Lola and Milo were there to help with their minions.
Robin sensed several cries and pleads hidden under buildings and he extended his senses to them.
He drew power and blessed them. Pain and intense injuries were given blessings to heal and strength to get heavy rubble just up off themselves and be able to get to a more free location or just heal them to survive.
Others that could get out with enough of a push were given that help. Those getting washed away in the flooding but could barely stay above the mud or water were given that ‘miracle’ as a piece of wood or stone hit their feet and sent them up to the top and towards the edge.
Robin kept using all his domain's energy and as these people started to get free, help arrived at the brink and pulled them out, removed rubble and more.
It was that last minute intervention that saved them.
Sadly at least half of the ones he tried to help could not make that last ditch effort because they were at the end and had given up hope.
Still the other half cried in happiness and once they could get their bearings they thanked the people but also the source of the blessing and he felt the heat of faith return and he channeled it into the heavenly realm.
“This is one way to help.” he said as the last of it was in.
Then the gray thread reacted, the people here were in more normal, less life threatening situations. People who were exhausted in nature walks, climbing and other stuff that was dangerous but not life threatening.
He gave them a small boost to get them to the next rest area.
The final one was the rarest but the one that gave him a smile. The golden thread was of great things such as women in labor or other emotionally and stressful situations. He gave that little help, especially with complex births. The blessing could only help improve the mother and child’s chances and improve healing in case the women might get hurt but it was that little push that made a difference.
He didn’t wait to see the results he just sought them out and helped how he could before he had to stop.
Robin soon went to class but half the 12th grade was not there. Most of the last year is training, regular classes, classes on morality and how to treat certain situations or active duty.
In the club room, Robin was literally rubbing his head.
Shoji could see the intense irritation his shadow was displaying, spewing curses as he thought.
“What’s wrong Robin, talk to us.” He finally said after watching from the side a bit. Robin had been in the corner running through note.
Robin groaned, “I was thinking about what comes after this year.” He said.
The other 12th grade members, the original club members, looked over.
“What do you mean, obviously we are going to found a hero company together.” Lilian said with a laugh.
Robin froze and looked at everyone with a confused expression, “With everything going on, you guys still want to continue with that?” He asked.
“What ‘is going on’ that you think we would change?” Lola asked.
He paused and pointed at her, “God of Hell, needs to begin expanding and managing your domain.” then he pointed to Milo, “God of Death, needs to start managing and expanding his domain.” then he pointed to the twins, “Close to becoming demigods of the digital world and will have to deal with that afterwards. Harold feels like he is close to joining Bookkeeper’s company along with his younger sister who joined school last year since your powers are complimentary.” He said.
“Just because we have personal projects doesn’t mean we don’t have goals. Our group of four has planned for a company to research abilities and disabilities for the better part of a decade.” Shoji said.
“Yeah and now it is all leading down to physiologies and being resolved, even disabilities.” Robin said.
“Yes but even with so many, how many others have failed to activate their abilities to achieve a healthy body condition. Active activation is a serious thing Robin. Also a Hero company is still a crime fighter organization so in the end we will also be running to and from doing hero work and not just research and development.” Lola explained.
Robin’s lips pressed but Shoji came over and before Robin could react, gave him a resounding slap with highly condensed psionic energy in his palm.
The sting burned his cheeks for a moment before Robin looked like a deer in headlights.
“Is that better? You were getting into one of your episodes of self doubt.” Shoji said.
Robin’s mind was a buzz and slowly calming down from the impact. Then Shoji grabbed his shoulder, “We aren’t going back on our goals or promises even if each of us have a personal life. Remember that the digital world makes it possible for all of us to be in different parts of the world and still work as a single company. Milo moving to replace Vincent in the Land of Death is not a problem because it is connected there.” Shoji said.
“Right.” Robin said and breathing.
These episodes had appeared more and more and he had to close his eyes and think about the therapy for a long moment. It had been a part he was still working extensively on. The therapist had noticed that despite all that he accomplished and planned, there was immense self doubt about anything and everything. The higher he walked, the more doubt he developed because in his mind, he was still subconsciously the defective rubber boy who just barely got into heroics by chance with the help of his friend’s blooming. Living under Ruth’s shadow had left deep scars he was still working through, primarily because of Marcus’ bullying in their early years.
Robin took a deep breath, “Right.” He went through the paces he had learned to and slowly his racing mind calmed down and thanked Shoji.
“What is everyone planning to do for funds?” Robin asked.
“I will be expanding my Undeath Pharmaceuticals. I was given authorization for human trials already testing with the scum of the earth. This way we will be able to tell all the effects of netherworld medicine on the living. Of course, there are medicines clearly marked out as usable by the living and those are just going through the testing to see their exact effect and how strong someone has to be to safely use it.” Milo said.
“I’m going to expand my beauty products. Yez and the succubi aren’t the only ones who have things and it seems each ‘sin’ possesses different products. Wrath demons surprisingly have medicine that helps pacify their anger so they don’t destroy their own homes even. I’m going to start producing them and make my Seven Sin’s Devil Brand.” Lola said
The club was filled with chuckles and laughs.
What was surprising was Shoji speaking up, “I’ve been exploring the capacity of my domain in the heavenly realm and it seems that my domain is already affecting the herbs and plants.” he said and smiled.
“Oh? What kind of effect?” Harold asked, very curious.
“Well, my domain is stability and soul searching to make the heavenly connections told me it is related primarily to emotion but also just general stability, balance of energies if you know what I mean. Well, after basically a summer under the domain it seems the herbs around my domain are starting to affect emotion. I’ve found herbs which radiate an energy to counteract anger, others which contain a pacifying effect on stress and more. I’m thinking about going to some major cities in the heavenly realm and seeing if there aren’t tea recipes, medicine and other similar things to produce a line of either medicine or natural cures for mental stability. Hell, I’ve even found some natural fruit trees which were literally gathering the energy produced from joyful emotions and it was developing young fruits filled with it.” He said.
It was shocking to hear something like that. Robin had not been able to focus, his mind was all over and he was going through therapy so he hadn’t focused much beyond binding angels and leaving them to their own thing.
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“I… haven’t been able to focus on heaven’s bounty.” Robin said.
Shoji smiled and opened his inventory to take out a few herbs but looked above Robin several times. He constantly took out samples of plants until he stopped at one and took out a batch. They had a heater and kettle in case someone wanted tea or a warm drink so he chopped up the leaves and put them in the water to boil.
The smell wasn’t entirely good but as they watched, they saw him take a few groups of leaves before taking out something that looked like a lemon or some kind of fruit and chop it and squeeze the juice into the mix and mix it.
Robin focused to see and saw many strange colors surrounding it. When he looked in the normal spectrum, he found hints of holy power mixed in.
When it was done, he brought it over and filtered out a cup without any plant bits.
Robin looked confused before taking it and drinking. He had developed enough metabolism that weak poisons wouldn’t affect him.
He drank about half the cup before stopping as a warm and bright feeling spread from his stomach and filled his entire body and pushed away the clouds in his mind.
Instantly his expression softened and he drank the rest. “Woah… this is amazing… forget medicine, this mixture could probably bring someone out of depression. I don’t remember the last time I’ve felt this calm and relaxed… this happy.” Robin said and asked for more.
The others were curious and each got a cup and drank. The feeling everyone got was no different, it nearly caused the room to brighten for everyone.
“These are just the first plants to be affected so I assume they will grow increasingly more affected by the domain as time goes on.” He said.
“You should definitely do that. There will never not be people who need this. Hell, since the 20th century this has been a necessity for people needing a boost to aid their psychological problems.” Lola said.
“Is it safe for you to drink that Lola?” Robin asked.
“Yeah, Sin and Virtue are the same thing but on the opposite spectrum. If it was a normal demon it would be like drinking holy water but I’m the creature providing stability to my corner of hell.” She replied.
Robin took a glance at Milo who also had a very peaceful expression.
He took a breath and knew he had to plan his own future. In the end, living off crime fighting is good and all but with the gamer space growing almost yearly, it is definitely going to be harder and harder for crime to happen as time goes on.
“Any plans for you?” Shoji asked.
“I’ve been too stressed and dealing with other things. I didn’t even sign up for hero work yet and have just helped through blessings so that I don’t stress out. I’m still working through the things I need but I think I will start examining what I have access to in the heavenly realm. By the way Zack, with so much energy running through your dungeon, so many new animals added and new monsters born, aren’t you producing a massive amount of new vegetation that is adapting to the monsters you make?” Robin asked.
“Yeah but it's too much to look through and it's not affected by my domain like the heavenly realm is.” Zack said.
Robin nodded and sighed. He got another drink and it lightened his mood again but it was clearly just a momentary thing. The feeling was great to calm his mind and pull him out of his episodes of near depressive doubt but Robin still felt it returning after.
After school he entered his domain to find the plateau had been dug out and all the stone was being sculpted to become the structural beams of the temple.
The entrance of the portal had moved slightly to the ‘lobby’ of the temple but as there is no floor, he had to levitate there while he watched the angelic masons working on the stone.
He then called upon his council of 1st circle angels.
“Tell me something, how good is your understanding of the effect of domains on the native flora?” Robin asked.
“We have intrinsic and innate knowledge of our bound domain. As we are promoted in ranks, that knowledge is expanded and as a Seraphim, we are aware of most intricate connections our lord's domain produces.” The Seraphim said
“So tell me about it. I have only vague descriptions.” He said.
“My lord is the one who witnesses, judges and grants the blessings to all who preserve through life. Fighting your limits to become stronger, fighting your body to survive against an enemy, fighting fate to discover a cure or survive against death. Your domain can change one’s fate if they possess the will to continue pushing.” He said simply.
“How does this affect vegetation and how does this affect things produced from materials affected by my domain?” Robin asked.
“Wood gains properties to endure more, food will produce more energy while others will gather nutrients to enhance stamina and produce more sugars to survive through drought.” They said.
“And medicine?” Robin asked.
“The effect varies, the plants are all the same throughout the world but the effect will cause change and so even to us, it requires testing to see.” The seraphim replied.
Robin nodded and looked out, “My friend, a demigod of stability, had fruits that carry the energy of literal joy and herbs which helped momentarily improve and stabilize a person's mental state. Are there any things within my domain that have those kinds of immediate effects?” He asked.
The three angels were quiet and surprisingly they even looked at each other as if communicating. Robin’s eyes shifted and he actually saw that they were indeed communicating by controlling invisible holy power and making the ultraviolet and infrared lights shift around them.
He could guess that there were many forms of communication and from their display, speaking through these lights was one of them.
When it calmed down the Seraphim spoke for them, “The domain of Perseverance has a lesser effect of vegetation… currently my lord’s domain is also young and unlike a rare domain, such as stability of emotions, perseverance is a common domain which stretches the domain among countless producing a lesser effect to domains that form.” He said.
“Wait… you mean native gods right?” Robin asked.
“Affirmative, lesser deity and greater deity all have their own domains, especially greater ones who develop a domain but as more are born, the domains are spread out…”
“AND THAT IS WHY WE ARE HERE TO HARVEST ONE MORE!” A booming voice exploded above them and a bright figure appeared. It had a Lion’s head and was almost 8 meters big.
“Who are you?” Robin asked.
“I am Finviz! Great Deity of Perseverance! You, mortal, have the honor of granting me an extended domain of my divinity! Be grateful that your finite life will serve a grand purpose!” He said, bellowing a laugh.
Then other voices exploded and in moments there were ten gods surrounding Robin. He then looked at the three council. “Why did they only appear now?” Robin asked.
A laugh came from Finviz, “Because only after you ask about domains and other deities are we allowed to enter, such are the rules of the heavenly realm. Now you will relinquish your divine spark to me!” He said.
Robin looked at them, many different forms and looked like any host of gods of myth but Robin’s anger was starting to boil inside him when he felt the flame within them.
They resonated, a thread that had not moved, it was the thinnest and connected directly to the divine sparks, came alive and within his consciousness, it hissed. The hiss was not the kind that you hear from danger but one of hunger.
Robin’s eyes narrowed and he asked the council, “So I assume these are invaders and there are no penalties to me for killing them?” He asked.
“My lord defends his honor.”
Robin’s eyes brightened and a dark grin spread as his eyes began to glow gray and shifted with several colors while his pupils grew into slits. It was the only part that fully transformed while his body turned black from the hardening.
“It seems you need to learn your place, mortal!” Finviz said and shot forward with blinding speed that a god should have. Even with Robin’s immense speed and perception, he saw a blur from his natural vision but his supernatural perception and vision activated instantly.
The brightness from behind him slowed down into a fist and they all heard a deep thud before Robin dodged and turned.
He turned punching and the lion god raised his arm to block the punch. His speed was far from matching but the immediate wrapping of Robin’s arm made the lion god feel danger and with a roar, Robin punched directly.
CRACK!
Like being hit by a comet the full force of Robin’s brutal strength with the spring powering it followed by the immense gravity affecting him instantly sent the deity into the ground and crashing into a mountainside to stop.
It exploded and the lion came out with its arm limp.
“What did you just do!” He growled.
Robin grinned as he coldly looked at the creature, “I see, you natives are just different shapes, you all have only the same powers and maybe a few things similar due to the domain but you are not unique.” Robin said. “You’re all just like the parasite that invaded my home world, greedy pests that survive by killing and stealing in the hardships of other realms.” Robin said as his aura grew more volatile.
Moments later the entire domain under his effect became suffocating as the entire world gained gravity several orders of magnitude higher then natural and the deities barely held on in the air. Angels not bonded to Robin collapsed to their knees while his bonded ones dropped to the ground in fear.
His anger brought fear to them.
Robin’s gray eyes shined as the air trembled as wave after wave of gravity pushed the deities further and further to the ground until it was 100 times earth gravity and they collapsed onto all fours.
He floated down to them and pulled them forward; they could barely fight the force of gravity Robin was producing and to their utter horror, gravity began to condense into orbs and fill the surrounding until 30 graviton orbs exploded.
The deities, creatures that should have immense powers, showed their weakness before Robin. The very first phrase he spoke had lodged itself into Robin’s mind and he knew exactly what kind of beings these were.
They were the trash, the rabble. Robin’s heavenly connection was just that, it was a connection that produced a domain from which he drew power to bless mortals. It never occurred to anyone that native celestials could not actually do that without mortal aid.
Grace’s deity succeeded because the connection was through Grace and it allowed the deity to set up a domain using it as a proxy and regain his ancient divinity it once possessed as a supreme god.
These deities however, were trash, they were the backwater trash that hid from sight until given a chance.
When the gravity bombs were done, what appeared was chilling, powerful deities that should be hero levels of strength were bloodied. It just showed how pathetically weak they were despite their supposed skill in using divine essence or divine power.
They were limited to their domains and did not possess unique abilities and so they did not know how to counteract gravity manipulation.
They groaned and coughed, a few begged for mercy but Robin wasn’t having it.
The hissing thread lunged at the lion deity and he roared in pain after the thread pierced into his body.
Robin empowered that thread and it became visible.
“You… you can’t! A mortal dares steal a celestial’s divine spark!” One of them cried out.
Robin just glared at them and the thread shined brightly as the source of the divine spark was pulled out and in turn, the lion’s body began to burn as the sparks spread through his body were pulled viciously from his body until the very last and the thread pulled back into robin’s body.
What happened next was chilling to all the deities.
The lion’s body broke down and was sucked up by the divine core and a psionic core that tried to escape but before they could move, Robin gripped both of them with gravity.
There was no escape. He grinned as he looked at the two cores. With a press, the divine core cracked cleanly and one half was sucked into his life core and the other into his world core while the psionic core was absorbed by his own.
“I see… so this is how deities grow so fast and why you parasites wait for a chance at a weaker mortal ascending.” Robin said, his eyes glowing as he looked at them.
They all cried and tried to run but the domain's gravity gave off and concentrated on all 9 remaining ones and they cried and screamed in fear but one by one he ripped through them and when it was done, he had absorbed 10 divine sparks and ten sets of cores into him.
The power radiating from that would feed his growth and he would definitely see an explosive growth in the coming days.
He sat down and began to channel the sparks and they blended, stretched and were eventually swallowed by his own spark, incorporating themselves throughout the divinity and he felt more whole. It was like puzzle pieces had found holes that were missing.
When at last he finished, he stepped to the floating spark, absorbed it and blew out a new spark which began to filter the entire temple’s outlining, making it more grand and once it was done, they all felt a pulse through the domain as it grew more stable in an unspeakable manner.
It also grew larger and the divinity of the domain grew more obvious and was likely to attract significantly larger attention.
The gravity of the realm returned to normal and the immediate reaction were ten masses of angels with reactions they were of many breeds and they all bowed to Robin, who contained the divinity of the ten deities.
“My lord, these were the servants of the ten.” The council of three said. “They have come to submit to you as their master's divinity is linked to them.”
Robin looked and smiled, “I see, no wonder I felt a phantom connection.” Robin said as he saw ten phantom threads and his minion bonding thread connected to all then.
Each group was in the thousands so the population swelled.
“Spread out and begin to make farms to sustain yourselves. I don’t need you guys dying of starvation because so many of you gathered around. You three, pay attention to all herbs, fruits, plants and crops. I want to know when there are plants that can be used to produce unique things.” He said.
Robin then went and sat down as he looked up with his special eyes. He then called the Seraphim and told him to teach him to read the colors beyond the light spectrum.
“My lord can see them?” He asked.
“I possess fae and dragon lineage and my eyes have naturally evolved from normal humans. I can see both spectrums at the same time or one at a time.” Robin said.
This revelation actually shook the angel who shouldn’t really understand much emotion but based on the reaction, mortals with this type of vision are exceptionally rare if they do not require the unique light spectrum as a way of life.
After it got over the shock, it began to teach him how to understand the isolated Infrared light language and then the basics of ultraviolet light language. Without knowing them separately, it is impossible to learn them together.
“There is immense power in being able to see both at the same time.” the Seraphim siad.
“I assumed as much.” Robin replied and let it continue because he had a mind like a steel trap and has long since developed perfect memory.