I could see hundreds of open cavities in the walls. I could even see some of the backs of sleeping and dreaming reptilefolk. It was an oddly peaceful scene given the horrors that I had just seen and had now left behind by coming here. The part of me that relished the violence that I had just left behind felt that this sensation of peace wasn"t something deserved by the reptilefolk.

Hundreds of the creatures were closeby. None of them detected me, amazingly enough. I wasn"t sure if their guards were all standing by the fire that blocked them from going to the aid of their companions, or if they were just not in this interior area for reasons unknown to me.

The first thing I did was quietly activate my "Religious fervor" power. I was silent as the area all around me took on a dim blue tint. The power"s range actually extended further than it had in the past, which was both helpful and odd but I knew to figure that I had been steadily acc.u.mulating power and this was just one outward consequence of that.

I suspected that the ability to reduce a creature"s innate skepticism would come in handy. I did want to finish these negotiations before my undead horde reached here after all and that power would no doubt help.

I was quiet while I considered my options. After a moment of contemplation, I figured I ought to go in full powers on display. So I opened my mouth and activated one of my newest powers.

"Wake up." I said, quietly in my mind but thunderously in the ears of those who heard me. I felt my words escape my lips as words in the language of humanity but I felt the sounds shift and enter the air as words spoken in the language of reptilefolk. I sensed the panic and shock that reverberated throughout the cavern due to my voice awakening the inhabitants of the area.

And then a moment later I heard the footfalls of over two hundred reptilian-humanoids as they dashed to get to a place from which they could investigate the cause of the thunderous noise that had just woke them all up.

As I did so, I attempted to get myself into the right head-s.p.a.ce for the sort of intensive negotiations I was about to force my enemies into. Doing so properly would undoubtedly require that I start off by clearly demonstrating the brutality of my powers and showcasing my inner pride as a G.o.d. And so I quickly decided to ask a question.

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"So I feel this... weird sense of pride in myself." I muttered, speaking inwardly and to the ent.i.ties that dwelled in my head.

"I don"t know... why I feel it but it helps in moments like this. I was wondering if you happened to know anything about it?" I asked, directing my question to the domains and the system in general rather than directing it in any particular direction.

There was a sudden silence as if the voices in my head were conferring amongst themselves. I had to wait a moment, but I was heavily in thought and thus felt the pull of time slow to a crawl while the voices left me in the cold.

[Althos, you possess a G.o.d"s sense of pride. It"s... a skill of sorts. It allows you to enter an altered state of mind wherein you properly and fully channel your divinity. When you do that you effectively become your true, divine self.] The system explained, speaking abruptly after a few moments of awkward silence. It was immediately followed up by another voice.

"Additionally, G.o.ds themselves also evolved over time. One of the things that helped G.o.ds gain more power was a speedier acquisition of worshipers, so G.o.ds who could do what you can do with regards to pride were more likely to survive." Explained a familiar voice, the voice of the domain of knowledge.

This shocked me because it suggested that G.o.ds had genetics and could inherit traits from their parents if they possessed any. I felt encouraged after hearing the system"s explanation, but the realization that some G.o.ds possessed genetics made me feel... alone.

It was odd to feel alone given my existence as the only and possibly last G.o.d in existence. But the reality was that though I knew that G.o.ds could arise spontaneously I had never really put together the implications of such an origin until just now, confronted with the possibility that G.o.ds could have parents.

[Even by the middle of the mythic age, there were no G.o.ds that were fully alive that had existed at the beginning of time. Killing a G.o.d was difficult, but over the course of billions of years even G.o.ds died. New G.o.ds appeared and either replaced the old or coexisted with them. As more G.o.ds appeared they took on traits that had most helped their ancestors or parents.] The system explained.

I nodded subtly, as this made a certain kind of sense to me. I could imagine that even the strongest creatures would find surviving for billions of years or longer a bit of a challenge.

"Many young G.o.ds appeared and ether built empires, or had empires built for them by their followers. One example of this is the Athenian empire, which was located on a planet called Earth in another universe. Humans built that empire and devoted it to the G.o.ddess Athena, an ancient G.o.ddess of wisdom, defensive war, and civilization." Said the domain of knowledge, giving me a history lesson about a universe far, far away.

[That said, your pride is a sign of the heritage you"ve inherited as a G.o.d. Use it to shape the world as you see fit. Embrace the pride you feel as a G.o.d and use it. Go out and negotiate from a position of strength. You are already the one in control.] The system told me, reminding me of a simple fact: my strength and the strength of my enemies were incomparable.

I sensed my followers ready to lunge into the tunnel and dash into the second cavern. And in order to aid them, I remotely blew away the reptilefolk warriors that were guarding the exit to the tunnel that connected the outermost and second outermost caverns, while extinguishing the violet blaze that prevented the reptilefolk from rushing to the aid of their allies.

I shivered as I felt my undead minions experience a rush of delight as they began to dash through the tunnel and spot new enemies to face. My reanimated servants were excited to continue their murderous rampage. And a part of me was excited for them as well.

That allowed me to relax, and enter the proper state of mind I ought to have been in when entering a negotiation I was guaranteed to come out on top of no matter what.

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As the first of the reptilefolk to lay their eyes on the G.o.d who had invaded their territory managed to catch a glimpse of him, he entered his altered state of mind. This didn"t cause a physical change on its own, so all they saw was that same youthful G.o.d standing in the center of their cavern.

He looked out at them, grinning. There was something... unsettling about the air of confidence that he projected. He was eerily calm, and every few seconds he visibly shivered. Those who were able to behold him before he next spoke noticed that he didn"t seem altogether focused but he still visibly exuded a strange, and potent aura.

He also made sure to will his shadow into not attacking. He knew that if it did it would be calamitous. He wasn"t here to cause devastation, he was here to bring an end to the bloodshed. He wanted less deaths, not more.

His face fell for a second, and then he opened up his mouth to speak.

"Reptilefolk! Come and lay your eyes upon me!" When he spoke the sound exploded out of him. Impossibly, the sound was audible throughout the entirety of the cavern, and the next cavern where combat was just about to break out.

Althos was in his usual form. He looked like a regular, middle-aged human and not at all a deity who could destroy this entire place in the blink of an eye if he wished too. The reptilefolk were deceived by his weak-looking appearance and were beginning to come out of their homes and in some cases even inched towards the dark deity who stood before them.

Sensing that some of them were growing braver, Althos quickly focused and made eye contact with the few of them were looking at him. He did so peacefully and seemed weirdly serene given the current appearance of his circ.u.mstances. And after doing that, he began to increase his size, doing so slowly. As he did so he figured that that was as good a time as any to introduce himself to the reptilefolks.

"h.e.l.lo. My name is Althos and I am a G.o.d. I have come here to punish you. And I am actively doing so right now." He informed the creatures, who proceeded to look at each other in confusion, unsure of what he was talking about.

That was when the deity, feeling confident in himself and his ability conjured a ma.s.sive moving image, almost an illusion, showing the carnage that was occurring in the other caverns. The image appeared in the sky above the bizarre G.o.d, and depicted a real-time simulation of the battle between the Althonian undead and the vicious reptilefolks.

Althos didn"t bother to look up at it. He knew how it was going. He could sense and even heal his minions, and was actively doing so. That was why his forces had yet to lose a single warrior, even though the reptilefolks were viciously and effectively defending themselves.

Althos enjoyed the sensations his warriors were experiencing. Everything they felt, he felt albeit an echoed and watered-down version of what the undead were feeling. And even that was t.i.tillating.

He sensed when their claws, or jaws tore into his enemies. He felt the sensation of reptilian blood dripping down his face, and the warmth of their guts on his fingertips. It made him feel like a real G.o.d of death and undeath to command such monstrous warriors, and to enjoy the violence they were enacting on those he decreed were their enemies.

That said, though Althos enjoyed this moment and felt like his victory was ensured he wasn"t the only person whose opinions mattered. Many reptilefolk who were now witnessing the brutal savagery of the first true Althonian army were enraged and lost themselves in their fury.

Dozens of reptilefolk warriors roared and proceeded to hurl their spears at Althos. The reptilefolk at this encampment were warriors through and through and when they felt rage their reaction was to stab the source of their rage.

Other reptilefolk warriors, ones with somewhat more rational heads but equally bad emotional control, grabbed their spears and dashed towards the exit of the cavern so that they may go and aid their fellow warriors. Althos, to the surprise of the reptilefolks observing him, allowed this. He didn"t speak to or interrupt the warriors as they fled past. He was doing something else.

The spears that had been hurled at the young G.o.d were destined to never reach him. They sailed through the air, aimed at his enlarged form, but they stopped before they ever made contact.

The air a few meters around Althos was tinted a strange shade of purple. When the thrown spears reached the outer edge of that purple area they stopped. They didn"t clatter to the floor or anything, they just stopped moving altogether. They hung in the air, and Althos looked at them absentmindedly.

"Oh, it"s cute that you think that that will help." He remarked, while lazily making eye contact with each of the warriors who had chucked their weapons at him. He made no hostile movements, nor did he prepare an actual counter-attack.

"I speak the truth little ones. I am a G.o.d. I am beyond your ability to harm." He said, before allowing the weapons to clatter harmlessly to the floor at his enlarged feet. The sounds of the weapons dully striking the floor amused the G.o.d, and he visibly chuckled when the last of them fell.

He allowed silence to fall over the cavern. In that silence, some of the warriors in the innermost cavern grabbed their weapons and began to move briskly past the G.o.d and towards their allies and neighbors who were throwing themselves at the undead horde that was making their way into the innards of the encampment.

They were smarter than their companions though and kept their gaze locked on the deity in case he tried anything else. That said, he was still frighteningly pa.s.sive towards them and allowed them to pa.s.s undisturbed. He chuckled when they were out of view.

"I have come here to see if any of you possess wisdom." He said, to those who stayed. His mind was at work, moving frighteningly quickly in ways that only the mind of a higher being could. He was a.s.sessing each and every living enemy of his in the interconnected caverns. The reptilefolk who remained here looked at him in annoyance and open hostility. He laughed, openly and loudly.

"I am willing to be surprised. I hope you"ll surprise me." He told them, an arrogant smirk on his divine face.

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The reptilefolk were a species of warriors. That was one of the two things I had gleaned during the time I began to a.s.sess them. Each of them was trained as a warrior and had martial cla.s.s-levels. It was an exciting development since I sensed that one way or another they"d soon be mine to command.

There was a part of me wanted to conquer them and add them to my forces, but another part of me knew that murdering and then reanimating them would work just as well or even better.

The other was this society was wholly evil. It was impressive really, seeing a society of so many evil creatures who didn"t possess the sort of arguably advanced building techniques of the dark elves and were still part of a cohesive society. It brought a grin to my face.

I quickly a.s.sessed dozens, if not hundreds of the reptilefolks still alive and each and every one of them was some variant of evil. The majority of them were neutral-evil, which was an exciting thing to realize as I had no influence over the neutrality domain.

I could sense the intoxicating mixture of fear and anger I inspired in these odd creatures. And the more I smelled it, the more I wondered if it was to me what alcohol was to humans. I could just bathe in it and enjoy the pleasant light-headedness it caused me to feel. But I wouldn"t, not yet anyway. There was work to do after all.

And so, while I lazily glanced at the warriors I had already subjugated I smiled and began to speak once more.

"I told you earlier I came here to punish you." I reminded the lizardlike creatures I was clashing with. This reminder caused them to pause and look at me curiously. None of them spoke though. A sound that was almost a chuckle escaped my lips as I looked out at my targets.

"Do you wish to know why you"re being punished?" I asked a cruel grin on my lips. None of them responded to me, and indeed many of the older ones either exchanged harsh looks or inched closer to their weapons.

I sighed and activated my ability to control the earth. I immediately manipulated the earth underneath their weapons, creating a sinkhole just big enough for the tools to fall into. I then swiftly closed that hole and smirked at my foes.

"I don"t feel like sitting through another temper-tantrum. Listen to me." I told the creatures I was in the process of subjugating. There was a steel edge to my voice, one that hinted that I had a bit of a temper. I wanted to frighten the creatures, and I could tell that I had because now all of their eyes were locked on me.

"You are being punished because you enslaved other creatures. I have come here to free your slaves and to hold you accountable. I started this battle off by liberating those you pretended to own for years before you even knew who I was." I told the creatures, smiling serenely at them. And this provoked a reaction from them that caught me off guard.

"What?" One of them shouted, speaking in the reptilian language they spoke. There was a look of genuine anger and shock in its slitted, snake-like eyes. I chuckled, happy to have gotten under its skin. I took a second to let the reality of my words sink in, before haughtily replying to the little slaver.

"Yes, the slaves you once kept are now gone." I told the monster. In response to me the thing began to roar, and abruptly so did other nearby reptilefolks. The sound they made together was impressively loud and would have intimidated other, weaker creatures than myself. I waited for them to wear out their lungs, which took about half a minute.

When silence began to fill the large cavern, I was about to speak once again. Annoyingly, I was prevented from doing so by another one of the lizard-like ent.i.ties clearing its throat and beginning to speak up.

"If I may interject here, I believe I can explain what is happening better than my friend can." Chimed in a voice, from my left. The speaker was well-mannered enough that I simply turned to her and gazed at her. I looked at her silently for a moment before she realized that I was waiting for her to continue to speak.

"Excuse me, though I also strongly disagree with your decision to free our slaves... I think you"ll find that we have good reason to be upset." She told me, evidently feeling the need to contextualize her companion"s reaction.

She was a slim hybrid of a lizard and a human with a mostly human body that was covered in armorlike scales, an elongated snout, and a thick tail. Her voice was gentle and she spoke quite politely enough for me to listen to her without interupting.

I opted to stay silent until I knew fully what was going on. She realized this faster than before, and quickly began to talk again, speaking more strongly now than before.

"Althos, though you may be an ideal moralist what we fear you didn"t understand before doing this was that we had an arrangement with a local... tyrant. And the slaves we kept were a part of that arrangement." She said, attempting to chide me but not really committing to it enough for it to emotionally sting. Instead, I chuckled at her.

"I don"t care about your arrangement. Though I suspect you"ll tell me about it soon enough." I told her, speaking snarkily and arrogantly to her. I felt above her, and in fairness to myself, I was strong enough that how I felt wasn"t incorrect.

"I understand that, but I really wish that you would have. Because we made an arrangement with a powerful dragon. And it"s... an arrangement we can"t exactly go back on." She told me, teasing a dark deal in a world already shrouded in darkness.

I considered her words, treating with the seriousness which I felt that they merited. After a few moments of silence, I eventually spoke once more.

"I am not from here, and you obviously don"t know about the power of a G.o.d since you seem to fear this dragon even though I"m here in front of you and you aren"t exactly scared of me. That said... I"m gonna go ahead and guess that you"ve made a deal with the dragon named Ygaynth, didn"t you?" I asked, a wide smile visible on my unusually tall face.

For the first time, the reptilian humanoid who had spoken to me politely looked at me in surprise. It seemed that my remarks actually got to her this time, which only increased my sense of arrogance.

"I"m a G.o.d. Though I suppose I should explain what that means." I told her, opting to explain my strange powers and odd knowledge that way from now on to cement the differences between us in her mind more readily. And I wasn"t done yet.

"How about this... You"re in trouble and I"m not a bad guy so why don"t we strike a deal?" I asked, a smug smirk on my face. I watched the color drain from the woman"s face, and sensed that she and her people were in a desperate situation. Apparently in more ways than one.