A few moments after opening my eyes and laughing in delight as I remembered the vivid and intense dream I had, I began to notice something strange. I felt... light. Every part of me felt light. I wasn't exactly a heavy or unwieldy person before last night, but this was a sort of sensation unlike any I had ever felt before. 

I was still laying on the cold floor of the cave. My little stone wall kept away any strange monsters that might have otherwise tried to get me in my sleep, but a small part of me quietly whispered that I would have been fine, regardless, since that small part of me believed I was a "reality-reshaper". I quietly shook my head and began to get up.

When I got up, I noticed something else odd. I noticed that I could see more than I had been able to, last. Somehow it appeared that... I was taller than before.

What could the cause be? A sudden growth spurt perhaps? Last night I had been perhaps 170 centimeters tall. Now I was... much taller than that.

"Thank goodness for magical clothing that adapts to one's size" I uttered, softly. And as more of my mind began to fully awaken, it took in more of what I could see. Which happened to include my newly strengthened arms. I quickly noticed that all of my muscles were thicker, which would explain why I felt lighter than before. A small part of myself began to hope and believe that the impossible and ridiculous news I had gotten last night, in a dream no less, was somehow true, but I quickly silenced that part of myself.

"No point believing in fantastical dreams..." I muttered. I wasn't about to believe a dream, especially one that claimed that I was some "Grand Adonis" and a "Reality-reshaper".

"And if I was some powerful and regal changer and shaper of reality I'd surely know in time, wouldn't I?" I asked myself, as I slowly began to stand up. A split second after I asked that, my mind's eye was filled with a familiar and almost frightening sight: that of the strange text box from before.

[Do not deny who you really are. Do not be afraid of your true power. This is a part of who and what you were meant to be.]

The words of the text box were cryptic but also clearly meant to be encouraging. I read it and then reread it, before deciding to see if I actually was what the thing said I was. I would have begun to do tests of my own if the words inside of the text box didn't immediately shift the instant I committed to testing myself. 

[Since you desire a test, here is an easy one: undo the stone wall that prevents anything from outside of the cave from heading deeper inside. You are currently inside of a safe, protective zone, erected by your iteration of 'the System' as an act of kindness to help you accept your true nature on your own terms. Once you unmake the stone wall you'll immediately know the truth and there'll be no going back. You'll be able to understand all forms of life, including plants and animals. That is evidence that you are no longer human.]

I took a deep breath when I reached the end of the message. If that was true then one way or another I was moments away from discovering the truth. I rose my newly strengthened, and at a glance, noticeably more tan arm and pointed it at the rock wall that separated me from the way back to my home, a town on the other side of the forest just outside of the cave. And right before I called to the wellspring of magic I possessed to unmake the stone wall, the text changed again. 

[As a Grand Adonis you possess great and terrible power. One of those powers is the ability to unleash potent explosions of raw energy that can destroy, stun, or kill as you please, from deep within yourself. Instead of relying on a cantrip you know and can reliably use, you should take this opportunity to practice unleashing the first and simplest offensive power you possess as a Grand Adonis.] 

This time I didn't need to reread the message. I paused and looked inward. To do so I closed my eyes and envisioned myself in my idealized form. As I did so, I began to smile and allowed the image to change. In my mind's eye, I visualized the pathways through which chi traveled, the soft, almost ley-line-like pathways that the energy flowed through to traverse the human body. More and more of me was starting to believe in this so-called "system" and the strange things it was telling me. 

I focused and forcibly changed the mental image I was focusing on in my mind's eye. I envisioned a single bit of energy starting in my stomach and traveling upwards to the tips of my fingers. And then dramatically leaving my body and exploding outward, in a devastating attack. I allowed myself to stop thinking and focused on that mental image until I could feel the energy in the pit of my stomach. And then I opened my eyes. 

"If it's true... then I can do this. I... I think I want to believe." I uttered, out loud, a smile on my lips as I spoke. And then I moved my arm, first retracting it and then flinging it forward, as I willed the energy to freely spread from my stomach to my fingertips and beyond. I watched as bright blue energy momentarily filled the air between myself and the wall for just long enough for my facial expression to change into one of astounded awe, before violently exploding and almost instantly annihilating the thick wall I had created to protect myself last night. 

The violent force of the explosion sent rocks and stones sailing outward, and I watched as even bits of the wall that survived the blast began to quietly crumble. As I watched, I quietly began to walk to where the explosion had first occurred. As I did that, the words in the text box in my mind's eye changed again. 

[Be warned, Reality-Reshaper. Once you step past the wall you will begin your true metamorphosis. It has already been said that there would be no going back. Your power as a Grand Adonis is indescribably vast. Grand Adonises are minor divinities and you have a particularly awe-inspiring seed of divinity within you. Until you learn to truly control it, your power as a Grand Adonis will be palpable to those who are sensitive to the divine. Fortunately for you, no such beings are native to your world.]

"My... world? As in there are other ones?" I asked myself, upon reading the full message. And again the text box changed, almost as if it were eager to get me up to speed. 

[Yes. And equally importantly, there are other dimensions, universes, multiverses, and even pleniverses. A multiverse is a collection of universes that share fundamentally similar rules for magic, physics, and to some extent the supernatural. Pleniverses are collections of multiverses that share the same pantheon of overgods. And a number of pleniverses exist within the omniverse, which is the totality of existence.]

When I finished reading the explanation given to me by my "iteration" of the system, I almost fell backward out of shock. Not only were there other worlds, presumably with lifeforms of their own, but there were also other universes! That was far from the most shocking thing the system had just revealed but it was the only one I could fully wrap my mind around. I wanted to sit down and absorb the news, but I also knew that the longer I stayed here the longer it would take me to understand myself as a "Grand Adonis". 

Seeing the explosion I had created through apparently non-magical means, combined with the fact that my form seemed to match the ideal form I had envisioned in my dream, I could accept for now that I was a "Grand Adonis", even if I didn't fully understand that. I also knew I could have stayed here and asked the system more questions, but I was the sort to get up and do what I wanted to do my way and learn through experience rather than immersing myself in research and becoming too afraid to do what I needed to do. I shook my head and watched as the system provided me with one more message while I lifted my foot into the air and readied myself to take that last step. 

[As you step out of the safe zone erected by the system to give you a place to undergo your metamorphosis, or rather your apotheosis, know this: there is no tutorial or easy mode which allows you to safely understand what you are and what you can become. Other divinities of various sorts have felt that such a mechanism often stifled the creativity of young divinities and instead insisted that the system and other regulatory and assistance providing multiversal mechanisms be entities that require permission from those who can use them before they offer assistance. In this safe zone, "I" can be more talkative, and once you step outside of the safe zone "I" will enter a mode where your permission is necessary before I can speak, barring special emergencies or other similar circumstances.]

I read through the text box's entry and waited a moment. I could feel there was more it wanted to say, so I was willing to hear it out. There was an awkward moment wherein the text box didn't change but then I watched as the words I had just read vanished and were replaced by another set of words. 

["I" see that you are giving "me" more time to talk before you leave the safe zone. Excellent! And also, thank you. "I" am adjusting to your world and to the native language you speak so that "I" can sound less robotic. Before you go are there any burning questions you have?] 

This particular message caused me to pause for a moment. I considered it, and as I did so I was suddenly quite grateful that I hadn't rushed out. I figured I ought to take this moment to gain at least a little bit of knowledge. The first question that came to mind and filled my mind was a simple one. What in the world was a "Grand Adonis"? And just thinking that question was enough for the text box to change. This time a second text box filled another corner of my mind's eye that expanded on the answer given to me by the first text box. 

[A "Grand Adonis" is a powerful type of spirit of life, sex, sexuality, pleasure, lust, passion, joy, and beauty. They are the male counterparts to a female race of beings known as the "Grand Venuses", and they are far, far rarer. Both are equal in power, and gain power through a variety of means. There are also beings more powerfully tied to things like joy and love specifically, such as an "Anael", an incredibly powerful spirit of life, joy, and love. "Grand Adonises" are tied more to lust, pleasure, sex, sexuality, and passion than life and joy, even though they are connected, to some extent anyway, to all of those things.]

[Grand Adonises normally emerge when someone who has a spark of the right kind of divinity has sex with a Grand Venus, who themselves are a species that is naturally born but only discover their true power when they are both adults and have sex, but you emerged by yourself. That means that your power is far more intense than that of normal Grand Adonises, but also that you lack a normal source of the strange energy that your kind uses to power their abilities, which other members of your kind gain through sex. Fortunately for you, it appears that you innately generate and radiate a truly astounding amount of life force, which you will use as the fuel for your powers until you gain more sources.]

"So... I guess at some point that I should try and have sex? Weird." I muttered, even though I was aware of the power of lifeforce. Some magic required lifeforce, so it wasn't the strangest thing in the world to consider that that the apparent source of my newfound and evidently immense power was lifeforce. I was unsurprised to see the two text boxes in my mind's eye change again. 

[There are other ways to gain power and the energy your kind uses to become stronger. In your particular case, thanks to the nature of your apotheosis you can gain considerably more power from worshipers than others of your kind could, you could also gain immense amounts of power by being around people who are in love, or even who just desire each other if you don't want to have sex or ask your worshipers too. Your soul is capable of siphoning the energy such emotions produce and does it without harming the people who produce the aforementioned emotional energy.]

[Your soul and your spark of divinity resonate strongly with magic related to life, fertility, and nature. One way this manifests is that you innately have two of the stranger powers that Anaels have: the power to be a "life-walker" and a potent ability over nature and animals that make both friendly to you. Your "life-walker" power allows you to will plants to life anywhere they could grow naturally, spontaneously. This is a significant power that hints that in the future you could become a powerful divinity of fertility. You could even try your "life-walker" power now, if you wish to see it for yourself.]

That second message was fascinating. After reading it I glanced at a corner of the safe zone the system had erected for me and pointed a hand in the direction I was looking. I grimaced, skeptically, as I was unsure of if this power could work but I envisioned the energy leaving my body again and visualized it hitting the rocky floor of the corner I was staring at. This time there was next to no pause, the energy seeped out of me and hit the floor of the cave. A second later a small mushroom began to grow where the energy had seeped into the floor, causing me to almost jump back in shock. 

"Whoa, that's seriously cool!" I uttered aloud, amazed at the power I now possessed. I could do more than destroy, I could create life! I could grow food, not just for myself but for others! And of course that caused the text boxes to change again. They were ready to really get the most out of their time in this safe zone, weren't they?

[You don't need to eat ever again. Nor do you need to sleep. And you won't age ever again. You are what is known in the greater universe as a "True immortal", someone who can only die if they are violently killed. And you possess powers that make that difficult. You certainly can die and divinities including true gods and other, equally powerful beings have been killed before so keep that in mind.]

[While it's true that a lot of mortal fears no longer apply to you that's not to say that you shouldn't be cautious. As a Grand Adonis all of your bodily fluids, are powerful ingredients for a variety of potions. Even the seemingly weakest bodily fluids, such as your sweat and tears, make for potent ingredients that can amplify the effects of things like love potions and aphrodisiacs. Your blood and semen are incredibly potent and in the proper hands can be magically treated to make love potions and aphrodisiacs that can even affect true gods. You could use this to make a fortune or to earn favors from powerful beings, but it's also something you should keep a closely guarded secret.]

My eyes widened as I read that second message. It disturbed me to know that my bodily fluids could be used in such a way, even if it wasn't especially surprising. I waited a few more moments to see if either text box was going to change of their own volition and when they didn't I took my first step out of the safe zone and shuddered as I felt a variety of sensations all hit me at the exact same time. 

Lucianowrites

I mentioned "Anaels" in this chapter. The Anael is a powerful, unique type of divinity second in power only to the Archdeity of Eternity in TroyxPage's rad-ass NSFW CYOA omniverse. To read about the Anael, click here. Obviously, my story's version of an Anael will be different from Troy's, but Troy's envisionment of them is extremely rad and I hope you like reading about them.