A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse

Other less notable tasks that I took it upon myself to do were transport the ogresses back to their lair, bestow flight upon a few myrmekes ants, casually connect with and befriend three wolves, bless numerous bears throughout the forest above me, and devote myself to evolving more ants. It turned out that my ability to mentally mult.i.task made me able to pa.s.s time this way rather efficiently.

I unlocked the first tier of influence over the Canis and Ursidae subdomains without any difficulty as whenever I interacted with wolves I made sure to bless them repeatedly and I discovered that bears evolved when they gained sufficient wisdom and strength.

I helped a single bear become a dire-bear, the natural and animalistic evolution all bears have access too. These actions greatly endeared me to the animals I mentally interacted with, and they quickly became my friends and followers.

When the notification came that alerted me to the new abilities I had gained I wished for a summarized version of the lengthy notification I"d normally otherwise receive. The system opted to oblige my impatience.

[Dual subdomain summarized notification:

The Canis and Ursidae subdomains are two subdomains that grant those who influence them power over potent predatory animals: bears and wolves. Bears and wolves are among the most dangerous, large predatory animals that can be found in several biomes.

By gaining influence over these subdomains G.o.ds gained loyal, dangerous, and feared servants. Many humanoids and non-humanoids alike recognize and fear the power of bears and wolves and wise G.o.ds of nature made effective usage of these subdomains to influence societies in a number of ways.

Many kinds of animals possess two different evolutionary paths. As you gain more influence over a grander number of animal subdomains you"ll gain greater abilities to alter and influence animals and you"ll come to see these paths yourself. One of the two makes the animals greater versions of themselves. The other path transforms animals into humanoids with animalistic traits.

You"ve gained enough influence over enough animal subdomains and the first tier of influence over the disease domain so you now have a potent new ability: the power to inflict therianthropy upon humanoids. You possess therianthropy as a power, but when you inflict it on others its a disease that either curses them to shapeshift into animals or grants them the power to shapeshift into animals, depending on your mood.

To gain greater influence over these subdomains gain more servants and worshipers who are wolves or bears, and build cults of humanoids and other creatures who worship you as the king of these animals.

Dual subdomain pa.s.sive powers:

Therianthropy: If you will it when you strike or touch a humanoid they can either become diseased and suffer from uncontrolled shapeshifting or they can be blessed and gain the power to shapeshift. If you infect them with these conditions then you can cause their alignments to shift when they shapeshift, as well as decide when they are forced to shapeshift, but if you bless them with shapeshifting then their alignments when transformed match their alignments elsewhere.

Currently, you can cause humanoids to gain the forms of wolves, bears, and myrmekes ants along with hybrid forms that fuse their humanoid features with those of the animals you"ve chosen for them to transform into. As you gain influence over other animal subdomains you"ll be able to cause them to transform into more things.

Antherion: This ability is the inverse of therianthropy. With it, you can allow animals to shapeshift into humanoids. Both this power and therianthropy are synergistic abilities that are bestowed upon you by your influence over chaos and diseases mixing with your influence over the animal subdomains.

You can bestow this condition upon ants, wolves, and bears.

Mastery: Unevolved and undomesticated bears and wolves recognize you as their master the moment they gain awareness of you. They immediately begin to worship and obey you.

With this power, you can also cause them to become friendly towards other creatures, or hostile towards them.

Domesticated or even magically charmed bears and wolves, even unevolved ones, are rendered friendly towards you and won"t take any hostile actions against you unless you attack first. This includes if they are ordered to attack you. They"ll ignore the order, unless of course, you attack them first.

Evolved bears and wolves sense that you are a superior member of their species, even if the form they find you in isn"t one of theirs. They would be confused, but also probably wouldn"t strike first.

Evolution knowledge: As you gain influence over a number of animal subdomains you"ll gain abilities that apply to all of the animal subdomains you have influence over. This is one such ability. You gain an instinctual knowledge of what conditions need to be fulfilled in order for animals to evolve and your knowledge of what you can cause creatures to evolve into is greatly expanded.

This knowledge is only gained relative to animals under the subdomains you have influence over. So you now know what causes Hymenopterans to evolve, as well as evolutionary conditions for bears and wolves. Animals you cause to evolve are basically awakened, but they don"t gain the ability to speak the languages of humanoids automatically. Unless you opt to push them down the humanoid evolutionary path.

Blessed aura: The dual auric abilities you gain from these subdomains grant your allies increased strength, more sensitive senses, and higher speed whenever combat initiates.

Dual subdomain active powers:

Feeding frenzy: This power allows you to force unevolved bears and wolves to enter into a state of dire hunger that makes them attack any targets you select. This is a fierce power that causes already dangerous hunters to become even more dangerous. It can be used twice per twelve-hour period.

b.e.s.t.i.a.l devolution: This active power is an amplified curse. By using it you can forcibly devolve creatures, causing humanoids to become ordinary bears, wolves, or ants, or causing evolved ants, bears, and wolves, to revert to their devolved states. You decide if the effect is permanent or not upon use though you can always undo it.

This power is useable twice per three-day-period.

Dual subdomain blessing and curse details:

Both subdomains grant the same blessing: more animalistic power and bears and wolves are made friendlier towards them. The subdomains curses are basically the opposite of that: they weaken their victims and make the animals more hostile towards them.]

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I was quite amused by my new abilities, and I appreciated their ability to earn me new servants. Shortly after I gained them I made contact with one bear and one wolf, and felt their worship surge into me.

The pleasurable sensations of gaining new worshipers compelled me to do something unusual: transform the creatures into true servants of mine.

Wolves embarked down their more animalistic evolutionary path by gaining strength and dexterity. Those were my two strongest traits as well so I opted to bless the wolf I made contact with, pouring enhancements into the beast until I received a notification alerting me to the fact that I could make the thing evolve.

I warped the creature to me, and upon doing so the thing meekly walked over to me and sat down. It was a beautiful creature with dark red fur and large amber eyes. I quietly accessed the evolution menu I had first used when gaining myrmekes servants and looking at the information on display for wolves.

[Evolutionary alert:

Now that you"re beginning to gain influence over a decent number of domains and subdomains you"ll find that you"re going to be able to cause creatures to undergo a wider range of evolutions. If you were are interested in mutations or templates the number of them at your fingertips are also gradually expanding.

It"s also worth noting that more evolutionary paths open to you as you gain more experience causing creatures to evolve. Even with your new pa.s.sive power you don"t automatically possess an awareness of all of the evolutions you can make things undergo. You need to gain experience evolving a wide number of different creatures, not just one type of creature thousands of times, before you gain such knowledge.

Wolf evolutions:

Wolves have a number of different things they can evolve into. Currently you can evolve wolves into dire wolves, simply larger and stronger wolves with improved intelligence, Amaroks, which are wolves with darkness-based powers, and Lupinefolk which are wolves who go down the humanoid evolutionary path.

Amaroks are large wolves who possess dark fur and darker dispositions. They can see in any amount of darkness and possess eerie magical powers that allow them to teleport if they are shrouded in darkness and are teleporting into another place shrouded in darkness. They gain greater darkness related abilities as they mature.

Lupinefolks are wolves who"ve gone down the humanoid evolutionary path available to most animals. They are humanoid-framed wolves who are most commonly found in places like the Tundra. They can speak humanoid languages, but also speak their own native language. They are hunter-gatherers who live in packs led by powerful nature-based spellcasters who commune with spirits.]

The choice I had to make wasn"t a difficult one. I instantly opted to increase the abilities that the wolf before me possessed and caused it to evolve into an amarok. The creature stiffened and fell over before darkness enshrouded its body.

I watched it carefully as its fur darkened and as its breathing slowed. A few moments pa.s.sed before the thing regained control of its body and it slowly staggered to its feet. As it did so it grew larger and wider, expanding from the size of a decently large canine to a ma.s.sive creature over three meters tall and four meters long.

The fur of the creature was the color of shadows, and its once amber eyes were now a stunningly beautiful shade of purple. The creature looked at me, and I could sense much more profound and introspective intelligence in its gaze than before.

"h.e.l.lo." It said to me, speaking audibly. The look in its gaze grew excited as it heard my voice, and I chuckled at it. The thing"s tail began to wag lightly. The small thing wagged vigorously and the large wolf approached me. It drew close to me and rubbed its face against mine. I chuckled as I felt the creature"s soft fur brush against my face.

"h.e.l.lo master." The creature said to me shortly after doing that. It spoke in its native language, a language that to those who lacked the ability to understand it sounded like an a.s.sortment of yips and growls.

As a final gift to the creature, I looked at it and activated one of my new powers: "Antherion". The creature took a step back and began to shiver as power emanated from my form and began to flow into it.

The power was colorless but plainly visible to my eyes. It caused the air to become hazy and shimmer, as it chaotically flooded into the room we found ourselves in. I enjoyed the sight of it, and found myself grinning as it seeped into my new companion. The creature continued to shiver, and I spoke to the thing to offer it some comfort and a.s.surance.

"I am giving you a gift. I am granting you the ability to shapeshift. With this power you"ll be able to join me whenever I travel, and in you, I"ll gain something I have yet to acquire: a real companion." I told the wolf. The creature was silent as it endured the torrent of chaotic energy seeping into it, but its wagging tail was indicative of the strong emotions it felt at this moment.

While the creature endured my newest gift to it, I warped the bear who I had converted into my worshiper to me. The creature suddenly materialized beside the large wolf, and looked at it in shock. I chuckled and studied the bear.

The creature was about the same size as the wolf, with light brown fur. It had two eyes that were small but flinted in a number of directions indicating that it possessed keen eyesight even in the dark.

The bear had a powerfully built body, one that was covered in long-healed scars that were a testament to its experience in battle. It had powerful limbs and when it looked at me it suddenly sat down. I grinned at the thing and felt that perhaps this was its way of showing submission to me.

I walked over to the thing and lightly touched the side of its snout. Without any hesitation, I activated my "Antherion" ability, and felt the creature"s body also begin to shiver as even more chaotic energy seeped out of me and thickened the amount of chaos already in the air.

I took a step back and curiously activated my new knowledge-based ability to determine more information about bears. I was immediately greeted by the voice of the evolution menu.

[Bear evolutions:

The most basic evolution for a bear is to become a dire-bear. These are just larger, stronger bears. These sorts of bears are perfect for use against humanoid communities and can serve you surprisingly well if you"re ever at war with enemies who live near forests and other places bears roam.

Elemental bears are another kind of b.e.s.t.i.a.l bears that possess powers related to the elemental subdomains. Currently, you can evolve bears into earth bears and wind bears, both of whom possess stats that are superior to dire bears.

Earth bears possess incredible strength and defensive powers and can tunnel through the earth with ease. Wind bears are sneaky, speedy bears who mix bearlike traits and abilities with the speed and stealth of the wind. Earth bears are fantastic for building tunnels, and wind bears are great for ambushing foes.

You can also evolve bears into Onik.u.mas. Onik.u.mas are a species of innately predatory bearfolk who have a humanoid frame, but a bear"s fur. They are a dangerous breed of bearfolk who like to plague farmers and can hara.s.s hikers coming close to their mountain homes by tossing gigantic boulders at them. When onik.u.mas develop communities of their own they are led by potent berserkers who encourage them to behave evilly.]

The knowledge I had at my disposal caused me to hesitate a moment. With my current set of powers, I could evolve bears into a number of different things. I looked over at the shivering bear and weighed my options.

I also considered the ramifications of the new abilities under my control. They were intriguing and I quickly gave myself a new minor goal: gain the ability to make an old friend a permanent companion.

I wanted at least one other companion that wasn"t the bear or wolf in front of me, my old black caiman friend from a few days ago. I liked the idea of it accompanying me and I wondered what I"d need to do to gain influence over whatever subdomain governed it. But I almost immediately refocused on what was in front of me. I had choices to make after all.

While this was happening I sensed something else of interest: the sun was descending. The night was falling. After a long and eventful day, the time of dreams was edging ever closer. And I could already detect creatures beginning to fall asleep. A wicked smile crept across my face. Dreams presented me with all sorts of opportunities.