And I walked some more.

And then I kept on walking.

While I was walking I noticed that this place felt sterilized. It felt unnaturally and impossibly clean.

I only stopped walking when I reached an end to the hallway I found myself in. I came to a stop right in front of a set of doors. They were odd things, made of gla.s.s and some sort of concrete-like material. I looked through the gla.s.s and saw that they led outside.

Beyond the doors was a path that led out to a gra.s.sy field. A dreamy sun was providing the gra.s.sy field with bright illumination. And standing out in that gra.s.sy field was Andrea. I walked towards and then through the doors, finally able to see the person I had come here to meet.

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Andrea or at least the dream version of Andrea that was standing out in the gra.s.sy field was a plain-looking girl. A part of me was surprised that she wasn"t particularly attractive or especially ugly already.

She had back-length red-hair, a slim figure, was of average height for humans that I had seen so far, and her back was turned towards me. I took my first steps onto the path that laid out before me and waited a moment to see if she reacted. She did not.

I closed my eyes and envisioned my form changing. I quietly worked to construct a form of incredible handsomeness, and when I felt the subtle touch of the subdomain of corruption aiding me I was thankful to have its seductive touch imprinted all over the body I was giving myself.

My normal, somewhat middle-aged human form faded into ethereal nothingness. And in its place came a new form. One made of light the color of tanned skin, and that rippled with charisma and allure.

I felt my muscles swell and vibrant wings explode out from my back. I turned my head towards the wings, and noticed that they were bird-like wings with thick and brilliantly dark feathers protruding out from them. I mentally tried to flap them and after a few seconds I was delighted to see that they began to gently move, obeying my mental commands, albeit in a rather delayed way.

I had a new human-like body. My body was that of a tanned and muscular male. I was currently shirtless, exposing handcrafted and attractive muscles to the daylight that shone over the gra.s.sy field and I was quite tall. As my new form was being created and as I was donning it, I rose in height until I was almost twice as tall as she was.

I mentally examined myself and chuckled as I saw a few touches that were added to the form I speedily crafted by the subdomain of corruption. One of them was that the pants I wore were made of skin-tight leather and I had a noticeable bulge that strained the material that kept my most private body-parts out of view.

It took me a second to fully grow accustomed to this form, and when I did so I felt the bulge. It was a part of me that I wasn"t yet super familiar with, but one that my other human form possessed. An intimate body part. I audibly chuckled when I realized fully what it was. And that sound echoed across the outside of the strange building I had just left, and captured Andrea"s attention.

The young woman turned in my direction and I let her behold my new form. When she first saw me she audibly gasped. I chuckled and began to approach her, quickly going from the path before me onto the gra.s.sy field on which she stood. I made no hostile movements, and didn"t match her gaze at first. I took careful, graceful steps, and felt thankful to my recent mastery over dexterity.

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My multi-faceted mind wasn"t in Andrea"s dream and nowhere else. I was also physically present in my tower.

I walked over to my transformed creatures, right as the earth-bear"s head smashed through some of its earthen prison and thus freed part of itself from the coc.o.o.n of earth it had been inside. I walked to the thing and began to pat its head. As I did so, the creature sleepily looked up at me.

"h.e.l.lo little one." I said to it, smiling. It was now a bigger and more powerful creature than before. It began to push itself out of the rocky coc.o.o.n that had entombed it. The creature moved its head against my chest, doing so with unexpected force and momentarily lifting me off my feet. I chuckled and a second later I was back on the floor of my tower.

I waved a hand in front of the rest of my minion"s coc.o.o.n and watched as the thing crumbled, freeing my newest minion.

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"h.e.l.lo Andrea." I said to the young woman in front of me, grinning as I approached her. She stood silently and examined me with a look of shock on her face.

"Are you not feeling talkative? I suppose that makes sense." I said to her, a few seconds after a thick silence fell over the air between us. She kept her gaze locked onto me and I kept smiling nonthreateningly at her.

"My name is Althos. And I am a friend." I told her, as I finished approaching her. She bravely stared me down, her head tilted almost straight upwards. Finally, she spoke.

"I"d ask how you know my name, but frankly I"m a.s.suming you"re just a part of my dreams." She said to me, speaking sternly. I chuckled, momentarily curious as to whether or not she was also a lucid dreamer.

"I always hear that from humans, it"s somewhat annoying how skeptical your kind is." I explained, chuckling at her. This caused her eyebrows to arch upwards in curiosity.

"I am a friend, and I have the power to change your appearance. I can grant you the beauty you seek. It is indeed, why I am here in the first place. Your desires led me to find you." I proclaimed, a grin on my face as I said so.

When I mentioned the word "beauty" her body language shifted for a second. It was swift, even for my eyes, but I heard her heart hammer in her chest, a single loud heartbeat. She scooted forward, her face keenly locked on mine, and there was a glow in her eyes. A newfound intensity shimmered in them spoke to how powerfully she desired beauty.

Her eyes were thin things, barely visible against the sun"s glow as it beat down on her skin. They were a bright blue color and were lovely to behold. They were perhaps the prettiest part of her face, and now that they were filled with desire they were even prettier than usual.

"Oh? I see that that intrigued you... I am not surprised that it would." I told her, speaking smugly. A flareup of anger flashed radiantly in her eyes for a moment, but it quickly pa.s.sed. Now she took a bit of initiative.

"What are you?" She asked, curiosity and annoyance mixing in equal measure in her voice.

"I am a G.o.d. But I know that that might not mean much to you. I suspect certain civilizations have forgotten what G.o.ds are entirely." I explained, opting to go with a familiar strategy: honesty. She audibly laughed when I told her that I was a G.o.d.

"Oh? You"re a G.o.d?" She asked, skeptically. Her tone was so indignant that I actually laughed at it.

"I take it that you"re a skeptic?" I asked, smiling at her. She kept her gaze locked on me, and nodded. I shrugged my shoulders at her.

"Humans are so skeptical, all the time." I muttered, almost amused by it. I found that it was an interesting contrast with the way I was reacted too by goblins and dark elves. This garnered her interest as well.

"You said something along the same lines earlier. You muttered that humans were skeptical. The way that you said was odd... Have you encountered lifeforms that aren"t human? Do you have non-human allies?" She asked, studying me cautiously. I began to smirk at her, knowing that she was curious now. I quietly used my "Appraisal" power on her.

[Name: Andrea Handsfall

Species: Human

Alignment: Neutral

Personal virtue: Diligence

Personal vice: Greed

Magic sensing: Htrea"s humans have evolved in a peculiar way; they lack magic. Andrea is non-magical. Any magic she gains she would gain by virtue of your abilities to grant magic to your followers.

Faith sense: Andrea"s loyalties are to herself, as befits her status as a neutral creature. She is also loyal to the general pursuit of knowledge, which is fitting since she is a student of the sciences. She is a student at a university, an inst.i.tution dedicated to research and teaching on Htrea.

Authority detection: Andrea has no authority on her own but she is likely to earn such authority, given her status as a university student and the fact that she"s studying what she"s pa.s.sionate about. Genetics.

Soul sense: Andrea"s soul doesn"t sync up to any particular religious cla.s.s. She would most likely be a regular partic.i.p.ant of any faith she could be convinced to join.]

After studying the ama.s.sed information I looked up at her, and began to speak.

"I do have non-human worshipers. On a different world." I revealed. Now her eyes genuinely widened in shock. But she took a deep breath and regained her composure.

"I don"t believe you. Can you demonstrate your claims?" She asked, properly questioning and challenging me. I smiled at her, now a bit impressed by her dedication to her skepticism.

"I actually can. But tell me... what would meet your skepticism?" I asked, keeping my gaze evenly locked on hers.

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Another part of my mind wandered into a different dream. And so it found itself in a simpler place than the distant, alien dream Andrea was having.

That part of my mind found itself in my Cosechian form and stood in the middle of a large field. It was unplowed and lifeless. I could see the front of a simple and cute wooden house. I walked up to the front door of the pleasant wooden house and knocked on it.

I did so using my liquid-limb by transforming the thing into a simple frozen mallet and lightly tapping on the door. The door felt weak, and I suspected that if I had wanted too I could have bashed the thing down without much effort. After knocking on the door, I only had to wait a few moments before it was opened by the person whose dream I was occupying.

Gustavo came to the door and pulled it open. He had opened the door ready to speak but immediately shut his open mouth when he beheld my earthen legs. He quickly began to look up, his eyes drifting upwards and beholding my strange body. Unsurprisingly there was a look of amazement as he examined my body.

"h.e.l.lo Gustavo. My name is Cosecha. You"ve met my servant, Althos." I told the amazed man, lying to him a tiny bit about my relationship to "the servant" I had just mentioned.

"Would you like to come outside? I think you and I ought to have a conversation." I explained, a wide smile on my airy face. Gustavo, quite shaken up by my sudden appearance, stepped through his own door and out onto the field.

"Althos and Alma spoke to me earlier today. They revealed to me that you have a pair of problems. I am here to help you with those problems. But first, I"d like to hear about the problems from you. I want to hear your point of view." I explained to the leader of the laborers and farmers. He took in my perspective and was quiet for a moment. And then he began to speak.

"Well... Cosecha. If you"re serious about this, I"d be eternally grateful. I suppose the least I could do is oblige you by letting you hear my point of view." The kindly laborer replied, speaking to me with a tone that mixed amazement, disbelief, and grat.i.tude together into a mixture that was deeply heartfelt.

The laborer than began to reveal to me the background of the dual tragedies affecting his life. As he did so, I listened attentively.

The truth was that I was doing this for show, as it was well within my power to fix all of this in an instant. That said I wanted to do so in a way that earned me the worship of this communal leader and those who trust him. Doing so would require that I act with patience and compa.s.sion.