In the area just in front of the famed "Owner's Manor" "within" the confines of the mythic artifact known to treasure hunters as "The Sacred Sanctuary", an enormous number of living beings stared at the two individuals deemed by the sanctuary itself to be the most important people in the whole place. The thing's "Owner" and its "Commander" gazed at each other in silence, stunned looks on their faces.
The Sanctuary and its inhabitants recognized Nathan and Olivia as the two protagonists of the moment and as if it were the setting of a dramatic romance the place itself began to shine daylight on the unlikely pair. The two of them studied each other, the middle-aged, blonde, authoritative woman, and the young, masculine, brunette openly watching each other, making both mental and eye contact as the silenced crowd waited to see what would happen next.
"So... Nathan... I think it might be best if you introduced yourself to your people." Olivia eventually stated, causing Nathan to chuckle and turn to look at "His" people.
As Olivia and I linked minds, and she began to learn about me, I did as she suggested and turned to face the enormous crowd. I sensed Olivia's surprise as she began to learn about me and I allowed her deeper and deeper into my mind, having chosen to trust the woman now that I knew what I knew about her and part of the expectations placed on her as a result of her role as the artifact's "Commander".
"Hello people of The Sanctuary! My name is Nathan Hernandez and I am the newest lord to rule over this place. If you have been brought here it is because you wished with all of your heart to leave your home and The Sanctuary itself deemed both you and your desires worthy to come here. This place is a refuge for those fleeing their homes and seeking freedom, and also your new home." I began, smiling as I spoke.
"I intend to be a strong but fair ruler and to build functioning communities where we all can pursue what makes us happy free of the stigmas of the worlds we've left behind so long as what makes us happy doesn't harm others. It is my intention to be an active member of the lives of everyone here and to eventually to welcome more settlers and refugees to come and dwell with us in our home." I continued, watching relief wash over the faces of many of the different people in front of me as I spoke.
"Now... Unless there are any pressing questions I would recommend that we begin the work of scouting the immediate area and preparing it for immediate habitation. This sanctuary, at least under my command, is as massive as it could be. It is likely that this place is dozens of kilometers large, as I can hear roughly that much life around us." I explained, only to suddenly hear a loud, cow-like roar.
"Child! Why are you the one in charge here?!" Asked an enormous creature not far from me, that I had originally thought was a minotaur. The beast had purple fur, gigantic muscles, and only wore a simple loincloth to cover its more intimate areas.
The creature came forward, walking so far forward that it was the creature closest to myself and Olivia. It had dark blue eyes, a gigantic nose-ring, and was clearly eager to fight. I chuckled and stepped forward myself.
"Well, Bigman..." I stated, giving the brutish beast a clear nickname, as I rose my fist into the air.
"I am the owner because I defeated the last owner, a reclusive witch, in battle so thoroughly that to escape she had to sacrifice her connection to this place in order to even survive. She and her family were hermits who hid in the 'Owners Manor'. I am not." I explained, and I sensed others in the crowd begin to change their mental estimations of me.
"I see... Well let's see if you can do that to me!" The beast abruptly roared, and right when I sensed Olivia tense I subtly motioned for her to relax and stand down. She, knowing my true nature and powers, hesitantly did so, right as "Bigman" began to dash at me. I took a few steps closer to the thing, putting some distance between Olivia, the manor, and myself so that I could safely counter the monster dashing towards me.
The crowd watched the gigantic minotaur-like creature dash at me and saw my calmness in this situation. I sensed their curiosity rise higher and higher with each footstep the creature took in my direction. The beast began to growl inarticulately when it was within striking range and I heard its muscles tense as it prepared what, to someone else, might have been a devastating attack. And when the creature actually attacked I smiled and watched the beast's clawed limb streak towards me.
It was when the limb was close enough for me to reach out and touch it that I did so. I reached forward and grabbed the creature's forearm, my grip strength incredible and instead of draining the creature of his prodigious strength, a score of his that was at the eighty-point-mark, I instead revealed my own super strength by flipping the beast over and sending him sailing towards the ground behind me.
The creature couldn't even react in time, and instead had a dumbfounded look on his face as he sailed over me and then into the ground, his impact causing the ground behind me to crack like it were made of glass.
"What...?!" The creature gasped, truly astounded by my effortless counter. The crowd of inhabitants watched this with a satisfied look on their faces, and many of them gazed at me admiringly. I chuckled and looked at the beast.
"That, 'Bigman', was me showing you why I could defeat a witch and her coven. I am more than I appear." I explained, my eyes staring deeply into his own. He was almost twice as large as myself, a truly impressive feat, and had muscles that at a glance were denser than mine, but he was not nearly as strong physically, nor did he have quite as much combat "experience" as "I" did. That was due to my potent powers over memories and my abilities to copy the memories of others. It was while I was staring at the fallen figure that the system once more spoke to me.
"Alert: Your soul has finished synchronizing with The Sanctuary. As a result you are currently acquiring powers linked to the artifact, powers that had been possessed by previous owners and champions. Ms. Drakos was not able to synchronize as fully with the artifact as you can and thus only possessed a few powers, several of which she has lost as a result of her loss of the artifact. In some cases you innately possess greater abilities than the artifact would give you, and this doesn't weaken you, but in many cases this further diversifies your existing power set." The voice in my head declared, as I felt my soul swell with new powers.
I rose my hand in the direction of "Bigman" and utilized one of the new powers I possessed, a sort of ability that I had wanted since first gaining new powers, an ability to heal. Bigman's eyes widened and he felt relief begin to course through him as the pain that he had felt as a result of him crashing into the ground faded away.
My soul was now swollen with power. As a result of synchronizing with the artifact I possessed I had gained a litany of new abilities, and immediately began to set them to work. One power I activated was the ability to make a clone that possessed only my changeling abilities and attribute-based abilities. I utilized a few of my new powers to send him back to Earth.
He immediately returned home and began to interact with my family, while, in The Sanctuary the next few minutes would be filled with me issuing orders to everyone in the place, beginning with me ordering the settlers to go ahead and begin to work on creating temporary shelter.
I would order all of the "Trapped" individuals to come and converse with me in a gigantic living space in the "Owner's Manor". When we had gathered together I found myself at the head of a truly gigantic table, and staring at close to fifty individuals of various races, including ones other than the races of the various peoples who made up the "Settler" class.
Seated next to me was Olivia, my sanctuary's "Commander", and on the floor between the two of us was a powerful looking hellhound with dark red fur. On the other side of me was a powerful looking demon named Xander who seemed hellbent on being either my right-hand man or my left-hand man, depending on how well Olivia and I get along.
I stared at the gathered crowd of unique individuals and smiled. I could see a handful of goblins, creatures with no-clear race such as "Bigman", dwarves, orcs, humans, human-like elemental beings, a deity, and members of various other races gazing at me curiously.
"Welcome to our home." I began, gesturing to Olivia, who smiled at me, as I spoke. Many of the "Trapped", powerful, skilled, and unique entities who had found their way to The Sanctuary and were trapped here, smiled back at me as they saw me accepting the traditions and norms of this odd place.
"For the time being, this place can also be your home, though I'd prefer that in time we build you all unique homes in the area right around here. Allow me to more fully introduce myself than I did earlier." I continued, before briefly summarizing my life's story, and explaining that the Earth of my birth is only just experiencing a rebirth of magic and the supernatural, and the circumstances under which I encountered Ms. Drakos, the former owner of the artifact who was a rather mysterious and reclusive figure. When I was done speaking the first person to speak was "Bigman", who meekly rose his hand and began to speak when I looked at him and nodded.
"This... 'Ms. Drakos' lady had nothing to do with us. In fact we were all sealed away when she was this place's owner. We can only exist, in a real sense, if the owner of The Sanctuary either consciously allows it or would have consciously allowed it." The minotaur-like creature uttered, his voice considerably softer than when he had bellowed at me. Which made my eyes widen in surprise and then made me chuckle. The fact that this was news to me was something that was not lost on some of the other people seated around me, who all glared at Bigman. That said, not everyone was annoyed by this.
One figure who was seated not far from me laughed softly. He wore an elegant, semi-modern-looking suit and had fur that looked like it came from a lion wrapped around his shoulders and neck. He had a modern cigarette in his mouth and looked at the young woman next to him and smiled. She smiled back at him, love in her eyes.
The figure was the oldest-looking human-like entity in the room, though when I studied him for a moment I found that I couldn't properly appraise him, though I could see his name; Caiden. The young woman next to him was actually a half-human half-darkness-elemental, and upon seeing that I immediately intuited that she must have been either his daughter or a relative of his. He began to speak after exhaling a light cloud of cigarette smoke.
"I... would rather your new friend have not revealed that so lightly, but assuming you are not acting and are genuine in your desires to lead The Sanctuary justly you would not abuse such knowledge. That said, as one of the more powerful and ancient inhabitants of this place, I'd rather we all allow our new leader to more organically discover the many secrets this place has." The figure stated, his voice rather light and jovial. There was an arrogance and a might to his words that annoyed some of the other people around us, but no one directly challenged him.
"Not to worry Caiden, I possess a fair number of potent powers and secrets of my own. That said, that was a nice discovery for me to make. Thank you Bigman." I said, gazing into Caiden's cool, calm eyes, before turning to the figure I defeated earlier and smiling warmly. When the seemingly elderly fellow heard me say his name he nodded at me and I sensed his appraisal of me change. The next person to speak was Olivia, who slammed her fist down on the table in the enormous gathering room I had created through the utilization of another new ability of mine.
"Before we continue this dick-measure contest, allow me to state that if Nathan supports the upholding of the few traditions The Sanctuary has, I will loyally aid him, and that does include revealing the secrets this place can offer to the wise and perceptive. And now... Nathan, do you intend to uphold the traditions of The Sanctuary?" Olivia firmly declared, before turning and looking at me. I turned to her and gazed into her curious eyes.
Olivia's question was an interesting one. She was not referring to traditions, plural, but rather a singular, specific tradition. By linking our minds together I was able to learn what she knew about The Sanctuary, and about what tradition dictates is the bond between a commander and an owner. She was asking me if I was intending to marry her.
Olivia was a beautiful woman with curves to die for and she also radiated power. I could tell she was one of the stronger individuals before me, and by linking to her mind I could feel her ambition and her desires to make the omniverse a better place. That said, there was a vast age difference between us, and neither of us would age physically ever age. But... honestly the difference in age was something that a part of me actually liked.
This was one of those moments in my life when I needed to decide the sort of person I wanted to be. Would I be brave and take a risk, or would I play it safe and opt to take my time? The truth was that there was a healthy amount of compatibility between Olivia and I, which I knew thanks to our linked minds. Neither of us actually cared about our difference in ages, and we found each other quite intriguing. I was silent for a split second, in the perception of the others, and then gave my answer.
"I do intend to be a traditionalist in the context of the traditions of The Sanctuary, as I understand them. I have no doubt that I will also pursue progressive changes, compared to past owners, but with regards to the tradition that links Owners and Commanders, I believe that, assuming you are interested as well, I would be open to continuing to uphold that tradition." I explained, verbosely. This caused Olivia's eyes to light up and made the woman smile, as well as pleasantly surprised the others gathered around me.
"Hmm... How interesting. Perhaps you will be an intriguing ruler to follow and serve." Uttered one of the orcs who was seated at the table. He wore a heavy suit of thick, metal armor.
"It has been sometime since an Owner of The Sanctuary has behaved in largely traditional ways..." Muttered Caiden, as he turned to smile wryly at Anna, the half-human, half-darkness-elemental.
"So our new liege is somewhat of a traditionalist? How intriguing for an entity of darkness..." Whispered one of the human women in the room. She revealed a secret of mine that I had not revealed, and caused me to sigh in annoyance, as the rest of the room heard her, thanks to the fact that all of us had keen hearing. I began to read her memories, since she was not powerful enough to be shielded from my potent powers.
"Well Ceylan... I mean I guess it's fair that since I discovered one of your secrets," I began, turning to face the beautiful, middle-aged woman wearing an outfit that was weirdly similar to a hijab, despite the fact that according to her memories she did not come from Earth. When I first uttered her name her face blanched and I sensed her begin to regret her decision given my obvious and less obvious powers.
"You discovered and shared one of my own." I continued, before bringing my fingers to my face and sighing as I considered how to handle this sudden outing. I turned to the rest of the "Trapped" people gathered around me and continued speaking after only a momentary pause.
"I am indeed an entity of darkness. I was going to reveal that at my own pace and discretion, but since it's out there, I'll go along with it." I explained, before laughing gently.
"I am a darkness elemental. One of unusual intelligence and might, given my youth, but that is also not the only thing I 'am'." I stated, cryptically, while smiling at the gathered crowd.
