I was also keenly aware of the darkness of punishing someone with this power, but at the moment it was hard for me to care about that. Dark crimes would naturally merit dark punishments. If someone chose not to care about how their actions stole someone else"s freedom, one could say that I shouldn"t care about how my actions stole their freedom. And there was no guarantee I"d use this against them anyway.

The "Parasitic spores" power opened up a whole new world to me, and it was also one of the few powers I possessed that could affect virtually any target. There was something incredible about that to me since plenty of my powers were currently restricted to working only on mortals.

The more I thought about it, the more incredible that power seemed. All it took for me to win a battle against a creature vulnerable to this power was for me to get close and activate my aura. I didn"t doubt that powerful enough creatures could resist the spores for a few moments, but with my powers, I could stop an enemy in their tracks if I wanted too and then just wait.

I could also create new limbs for myself and use them to directly infect enemies. I could create the proboscis that some animals used and inject my spores directly into creatures I wanted to infect. This one subdomain gave me a wonderful new list of toys to play with. As much fun as it was to consider how to play with toys I had just been given, I focused on my current situation and wondered what I should do next.

To best do so, I turned inward. I felt the world around me slow to a crawl as I mentally went to the place where all of the domains and subdomains lived, deep within my mind.

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"There are so many fun routes forward." I told myself, now fully inside my own head.

The defeat of Ygaynth and the conversion of the gigantic dragon into an Althonian was a significant victory. It might not have been as cinematic as I was expecting to gain the dragon as a follower, but it was every bit as culturally and historically significant as I could have hoped.

The world beneath Puerto Rico was already reacting to my declaration that the dragon had found religion. I was receiving dozens of prayers a second from creatures both skeptical and in awe of my powers. I wasn"t surprised by the skepticism if I was being honest.

"Since some creatures still cling to their ideas that my powers aren"t as powerful as I say they are, and even appear to doubt the system, maybe it"s time for a more dramatic demonstration..." I muttered, an arrogant smirk on my face as I did so.

Of the domains that had offered me quests to acquire influence over them, there were still a few I had yet to complete. One of the most interesting ones was the domain of destruction. All I had to do was destroy an object or building that was over 5,000 years old. And one such building immediately came to mind. A certain dark-elven mansion.

The mansion in question was an object dating back to the mythic age. It had once been the seat of power of the clergy of an ancient demon-lord and now served as the hub of a bureaucratic network that helped the city of Aronms function. The mansion on my mind was the Morothonian mansion.

When I had first learned of the quest I needed to complete to acquire the first tier of influence over the destruction domain, my mind had immediately turned to the mansion. It was easily the most recognizable building that fit the criteria that I had come across to date.

The only thing that had kept me from destroying it then and there had been the busyness of the next day. Thankfully I now had some free time with which I could focus on gaining new powers and followers. And I intended to do precisely that.

I refocused my attention to the world outside of my mind and swiftly teleported myself to the city of Aronms. I chuckled as the mansion, an immediately recognizable and imposing landmark, came into view.

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I found myself floating in the air above the city of Aronms. I considered making myself invisible, but then quickly realized that I didn"t really care if people saw me. I didn"t doubt that in a matter of minutes people would recognize my floating form as that of their G.o.d.

Off in the distance, I could see the dark mansion of the demon lord whose words had been enough to bring people to the side of evil. There was something admirable about being that persuasive even though his mansion itself was a bit of an eyesore. Thankfully I intended to fix that, today.

I studied the imposing building for a few moments. My sensory powers were strong enough that even in mid-air and over an entire kilometer away from the gigantic building I was keenly aware that it was inhabited. More importantly, I knew how many people inhabited the building. And I chuckled.

"I know the building is always inhabited. It"s still annoying though." I complained, speaking aloud even though no one was close enough to me to hear me. That said, this did present me with a good opportunity.

The purpose of the Mansion was to serve as the hub for all bureaucracy in Aronms. I didn"t doubt that within its depths important doc.u.ments were safely stored away. The part of me that was influenced by the domains I held some power over recognized the importance of those doc.u.ments as historical records and as critical legal doc.u.ments. I didn"t want to destroy them.

"How could I most swiftly see to it that the doc.u.ments within the building are safely removed from it?" I asked myself, eager to get this boring part of the task ahead of me out of the way.

I wasn"t oblivious to the potential this moment had for me to make use of one of the newest subdomains to fall under my limited control. This definitely felt like a moment in which an army of people controlled by spores would shine: doing simple, menial labor. That said, there were permanent consequences to me using my newfound powers on mortals and I didn"t intend to do that to them for so simple a reason.

I was also cognizant of the reality that a horde of undead, led by a single, educated necromancer would shine here. And though this solution felt rather tempting as well, I wasn"t sure I wanted a horde of undead just inside of the Mansion, at the command of a necromancer who knew this place well enough to order them to successfully clean it out.

I spent a few minutes ideally hanging out in midair before coming up with a solution I liked. It was also, unsurprisingly, one that involved an ability I was growing increasingly fond of: my power to send alerts and notifications to non-higher-beings.

I spent a few moments thinking about the sort of message I wanted to compose. It didn"t take me long to come up with one that struck the right tone. Once I had the contents of the message just right, I targeted all of the people in the mansion and sent the message with a flex of a mental muscle.

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[Alert: Letting The Past Die

Althos has come to the Morothonian Mansion. He intends to destroy it, but he isn"t seeking to kill any dark elves or to destroy anything of value.

The Morothonian Mansion is a symbol of a bygone age, an ugly monument to the distant past. Althos desires to destroy it, and in doing so to smash any lingering fantasies about that period in history that people may cling too instead of turning to him.

It is not Althos" desire to see any dark-elven lives ended, or for anything that has actual value to be lost as he destroys the city"s biggest eyesore. He will give the people who work within the Mansion an hour and a half to empty it of valuables, legal doc.u.ments, and historical artifacts.

At the end of the hour and a half, the mansion will be destroyed. Do not be within it.]

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The next hour and a half pa.s.sed by in a blur. Moments after I transmitted the message the first dark elves who had been within the Mansion dashed out of it, doc.u.ments in hand and a look of fear on their faces. They placed the doc.u.ments not far from the mansion, in some cases even placing them on the floor.

The dark elves had wisely chosen to believe me. They had immediately moved to act when they received the eerie message I sent them, warning them of the Mansion"s destruction. Their speedy decision-making had no doubt saved them valuable time and enabled them to be as successful as they"d end up being with regards to saving the a.s.sorted doc.u.ments and other items within the Mansion.

The next ninety minutes were filled with scenes like this. Dark elves worked in unison to empty the Mansion of valuables, opting to cooperate out of an understanding that the doc.u.ments in the Mansion were worth saving. It was unusual behavior, but I didn"t hate it so I silently watched it happen.

In the end, the dark elves stopped entering the mansion just under seventy minutes after I sent them the message. They all waited around the building though, evidently curious to see if I would destroy it, and if I did, how I intended to do so.

During the time that the dark elves were hurriedly trying to empty the building of valuables, I had given this some thought myself. Ultimately I had come up with a solution I liked. It was one that involved a power I had never used before. When I came up with the idea to use that particular power I immediately knew it was the right way to do what I sought to do.

When the ninetieth minute pa.s.sed, I immediately focused my vision on the building. I quietly activated a potent destructive power I possessed and chuckled as my vision took on a bird"s eye view. It only took me a moment to center that bird"s eye view on the Morothonian Mansion.

When my top-down perspective was centered on the building I was able to activate the chosen power in full. And in doing so something never been seen happened within the dark cavern that housed the city of Aronms: luminous, white light appeared within it, and that light was centered on Morthos" most holy Torunian temple.

The potent power I had activated was the mighty destructive ability known as "Disintegrating radiance". This incredible power was the first offensive ability I had been granted due to my influence over the light domain. And right as it began in full my vision went from being top-down, to my normal, impeccable vision.

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I wasn"t near the Mansion when my attack struck it. I was actually quite far away, over an entire kilometer away in fact. That didn"t change the fact that I could see the destruction of the imposing building.

Due to its imposing size and centralized nature, everyone could see the Mansion from virtually any point in the city. Thousands of dark elves were able to see a thick pillar of radiant light that appeared out of nowhere and illuminated the Mansion itself.

For the first time in its history, the Mansion was bathed in light. Anyone with sight would have been able to study the fine craftsmanship that went into making the ugly building. For a few moments, they would have been able to see every edge, every sharp corner, of the building"s bizarre and unholy architecture.

That only lasted a few moments though. After around five seconds, the light intensified so much so that it became blinding. As it did that, it also heated up and began to melt the building it was called upon to destroy.

The people of Aronms who had been gazing at the illuminated building quickly turned away as the light began to glow brighter and brighter. I didn"t. I was immune to the light"s radiance and thus could safely watch it begin to destroy the building.

The building"s destruction started off slow, but somewhat sped up after the first bits of it began to melt away. For nearly a minute, entire floors of the manor melted and vanished before my very eyes, reduced to mere particles. In a matter of moments, the entire top half of the manor was completely gone. And that brought a wide grin to my face. My smile faded a few moments later though.

The destruction of the building slowed to a near crawl after my light had consumed its top half. What was left of the building began to leak energy dark enough that some of the light I had created was consumed by it. The building also began to radiate a dark aura, one that pushed back against my all-consuming light.

I huffed in annoyance and quickly came up with a hypothesis. It wasn"t hard to piece together what was going on.

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"So I have a theory, and I suspect you"ll be able to confirm whether it is right or not." I mentally muttered, turning inward faster than ever and approaching the domains and subdomains that dwelled within me. They all closed in and waited for me to talk.

"The dark energy that the manor is radiating is demonic energy, isn"t it? I"ve never used that energy myself, but Morthos was a demon lord and this place was his most holy site in this world." I told the domains, confiding in them my suspicions. The domain of evil immediately began to chuckle.

"You are correct. What you see before you, pushing back against your light, is indeed demonic energy." The domain told me, speaking arrogantly about the matter. I chuckled, a bit surprised by this development but at least confident that I was able to identify it. And that led me to my next statement.

"So if it"s demonic energy then I can push back against it right? Because I can control all sorts of energies, including holy energy. If I infuse the light illuminating the manor with holy energy that should allow me to finish this, shouldn"t it?" I asked, fully intending to destroy the manor here and now. And this remark made another laugh. The voice of the subdomain of healing. It began to laugh wildly, before regaining its composure and speaking.

"Sorry, I apologize. That was just such a great response, so quickly that I lost it for a moment. Yes, if you infuse the light with holy energy that will give it the push it needs to complete the destruction of the manor. Holy energy and demonic energy are opposed forces, and you possess more holy energy than the building possesses demonic energy." The subdomain revealed, speaking confidently.

This brought a smile to my face, and I activated another of my rarely used powers: the ability to create and control holy energy.

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The light that I was controlling took on a less white and more of a golden hue, and proceeded to be bolstered by my powers. My decision to infuse the light with holy energy took effect immediately and gave the light more weight and more power, and it proceeded to immediately vaporize several more floors of the manor, floors that had been stubbornly clinging to existence thanks to the demonic energy that infused them.

The darkness the building was radiating didn"t cease, but it also didn"t grow. The building stubbornly clung to existence, trying to resist the advance of the holy light I intended to destroy it with. It didn"t succeed, and even though the lower buildings seemed to be better protected by the dark powers of the lingering demonic presence, it wasn"t enough to stop the inevitable advance of holy light.

It took perhaps ten minutes, but by the time those ten minutes had pa.s.sed the last bits of the building were wiped from existence. Over the course of ten minutes, I had destroyed what was both a symbol to an ancient religion that worshiped an insidious demon-lord and its greatest global holy site. And by the time another five minutes had pa.s.sed, the light I used to destroy said symbol and site was gone, and darkness reinvaded the cavernous city.

The area where the manor was once located was now just an empty depression like it had been at some point in the ancient past. I chuckled as I considered what might happen to it now since another G.o.d lived in the city. A part of me was tempted to order some dark elves to build a grand temple to me and place it in the same spot the manor had once occupied. But I knew that I had all the time in the world to do that. And for now, I had other things to focus on.

When the last of the light faded and the darkness native to the gigantic cavern had retaken the city I received a special notification. Its contents were surprising enough to bring a smile to my face.

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[Special alert:

A naturally occurring, extradimensional portal to the Heart of Darkness has been detected deep in the earth beneath where the Mansion had once been located. This portal radiated and still radiates demonic energy, but your light, combined with your holy energy was enough to overcome the energy it radiated to the extent that you could destroy the manor.

Naturally occurring extradimensional portals are quite rare. Without investigating the portal it"s impossible to know what layer of the Heart of Darkness it leads too, but if I had to guess... I"d say there"s a really good possibility it leads to the layer once ruled over by Morthos.

Morthos" layer was known as the "Spoken Scourge" and in the ancient past, it was a place of incredible, patient, and nonviolent evil. Thoughtful demonic scholars and wicked philosophers obsessed with the evils that didn"t require a blade or bloodl.u.s.t lived there in the tens of thousands and ruminated on the nature of deliberate, seemingly pacifistic evil.

That said, the Heart of Darkness as a dimension was left radically changed by the deaths of the demon lords. There is no telling what sort of chaotic nightmare you"ll find if you decide to cross through that portal and enter another dimension for the first time in your life.

Destruction domain details:

The domain of destruction is a greater domain that governs, rather unsurprisingly, any and all destruction, negation, the void, and concepts like nothingness. It is a domain that seeks to decimate, erase, annihilate, and undo all of existence.

The destruction domain offers a wide a.s.sortment of powers, including over behaviors, thoughts, and grants you new abilities. In the past this domain rewarded G.o.ds and higher beings who gave into urges to destroy things. It seeks to unmake that which has been made and is very loosely aligned with domains like chaos and evil.

To gain power over the domain of destruction build cults that celebrate destruction and use your powers to unmake things, concepts, lives, and even entire civilizations.

Destruction domain pa.s.sive powers:

Annihilation aura: You can radiate an aura that destroys artificial objects around you. You can choose to exempt objects from this effect, and it doesn"t destroy that which you are holding or have on your person. With this aura, an enemy that chooses to attack you might well have to do so unarmed and unarmored.

Anti-magic: You can nullify magic from the basic schools of magic at will. This includes undoing magical healing, ending magical effects on targets, canceling out spells as they are being cast, and immediately ending the more dramatic effects of magic like necromancy or ecomancy.

At the upper end of the capabilities of this power is the fact that you can deanimate reanimated corpses at will. That includes liches, vampires, and other potent undead that are reanimated corpses.

Broken: At will you can break an a.s.sortment of created objects by touching them. This includes things like potions, artwork, simple buildings, technology, and more. Objects can resist this power, but simple objects, including lesser golems, are automatically destroyed if you activate this power and choose to use it on them. Broken objects fall to pieces.

Disintegration: This power wipes away a targeted object"s cohesion and causes it to fall apart. This can be used with a touch, with a glare, or even with a breath. It cannot be used on a living target, at this level of influence over the destruction domain anyway, but it can destroy their clothing and armor.

Negation: This is a growing power that increases in might as you gain further influence over this domain. With this power, you gain the ability to negate things, including concepts.

For now, you can negate simple things, like damage. In time you"ll be able to negate more abstract concepts and can use this power to alter the world, universe, and multiverse in a variety of ways.

Nothingness manipulation/Null energy manipulation: You can manipulate nothingness itself.

With this power you can remove things from existence by wiping them away with null-energy, a form of energy that exists and was used by destructive G.o.ds to wipe away people, things, and even concepts. This destructive power allows you to a.s.sail reality in a way only a G.o.d of destruction could.

This power grants you new attacks and if you wish allows you to make attacks of yours potentially automatically fatal. With it, you can also create weapons out of nothingness that doom those they strike and automatically cut through things like armor. You can also create nearly impenetrable armor that absorbs and nullifies countless blows.

Permanency: That which you destroy is utterly destroyed. If you will it, an object destroyed by you cannot be remade or reforged. If a creature has a way of coming back from the dead this power can also prevent that unless you allow them to come back, and it automatically prevents creatures you killed from coming back unless you allow it.

Shatter: You can break apart simple objects at will, even from a distance. This power makes objects break apart violently into many, small pieces. Even large objects like statues or buildings can be targeted by this power. When used at range you fire an invisible beam of focused energy that shatters whatever it collides with, unless the targeted object successfully resists the power. This power cannot yet be used on living creatures.

Destruction domain active power:

Sphere of annihilation: You can create an orb and control an orb which destroys anything and anyone it touches, other than you. You can use this power once per day, and the sphere exists for up to a minute.

Destruction domain blessing and curse details:

Blessing someone with this domain makes them more p.r.o.ne to destructive temper tantrums and also increases their effectiveness at destroying things. Cursing someone with this domain also makes them more p.r.o.ne to destructive temper tantrums but also reduces their ability to destroy things and do harm to other people.]