The instant that the deity sensed the abrupt appearance of the powerful archdemon the gears in the deity's mind began to turn. He thoughtfully considered how to best handle the encounter he knew he was about to have.
The archdemon who created this dungeon was an ancient ascendant. He was a creature who had fought in wars hundreds of thousands of years ago. He was a being of hate and devastation, of power and carnage. And as powerful as Raul was, Raul knew that with his current level of power he couldn't beat the creator of this place.
Raul was a unique being. He was not only a trifold ascendant, he was also an anael and a grand adonis. He was a creature of love, lust, life, and more. And he was minutes away from facing off against a creature that he had identified as almost his polar opposite.
Raul could gain power in a number of ways if he needed to do so instantly. He could transform people into vampires and then gain power from their souls, he could gain the worship of people through the performance of miracles, or he could command his followers to engage in highly sexual worship of himself which would send him waves of power. Normally he didn't actively pursue these methods of strengthening himself because of his morality and one decidedly pragmatic consideration of the consequences of the acquisition of power.
Beyond his commitment to his morality, the primary reason why he refused to expand quickly was that there were beings in the local universe who'd sense him acquiring an immense amount of power all at once. That was one of the more subtle reasons why he had insisted on acquiring power slowly and "correctly", but that slow and steady approach had its weaknesses. And one of those weaknesses was a moment like this when he knew he was outclassed by an enemy he was fated to come to blows with.
In a rare moment of pragmatism, as the deity walked down the stairs towards the final floor of the dungeon, he decided to finally fully embrace who and what he was. And as he did so his eyes began to change, becoming fully golden spheres. At the same time, he reached deep within himself and unleashed his power on the world of his birth, finally and boldly stepping out of the shadows so that he could truly begin his quest to defeat evil and erect an empire.
One of the more subtle but astounding powers possessed by a deity was their awareness. Deities and other higher beings had senses that were sharp enough to at least allow them to have near-total awareness of what was going on for kilometers around themselves and the stronger the deity in question the greater their senses were.
Raul's senses, thanks primarily to his powers as a sanguinarch with the savagery focus, were sharp enough that he was aware of everything going on throughout the entirety of the world of his birth. And that was what allowed him to be so precise now that he was fully unleashing his power.
The entire planet of Hasperburg was irrevocably changed when the young anael unleashed his potent abilities. The first thing he did was target every single living being in the world with a potent explosion of healing energy. No matter who they were, or what they did, every single living being in the world was abruptly healed of any pain, any diseases, any injuries, they once had.
Men who had lost limbs in battle, women suffering from diseases, children who had injured themselves while playing the games children play, elders who were suffering from potent curses, they were all healed. It didn't matter if they were asleep, awake, or even unconscious, they were magically healed of both the most minute aches and pains they had been suffering from as well as the most dramatic ones that agonized them. Limbs regrew, scars vanished, even lingering mental traumas were supernaturally healed. And that wasn't all the anael did.
The young god was determined to gain a massive amount of power all at once and in order to do so, he had to acquire entire nation's worth of worshippers all at once. To do that he had to introduce himself to the people he had just healed. He synced the minds of a truly uncountable number of beings to the system and introduced himself to the people of the world through the system. He immediately revealed that he was the one responsible for curing their aches and pains and that that was just the beginning of his plans for the world.
Mere moments after he synched up the inhabitants of Hasperburg with the system, he immediately activated his most immediately potent power on a scale he had never activated it before: his "prosperity" power. The power swept through the planet, creating entire new harvests to feed billions of mouths, transforming the climate to be pleasant year-round, and even mixing with the anael's "Peacemaker" power to fill the hearts of the people of the planet with a desire for peace, a love for life, and an unshakeable joy and faith in him.
Hearts were touched by the radiant power of the anael and permanently transformed by his power as it seeped into their souls. Even the most hateful and cruel-hearted beings were touched and permanently changed by the unbelievable goodness and joy of the anael. Their dark souls were brightened by his power and his intrinsic goodness shattered the darkness that had corrupted their souls. Even eldritch beings were touched by the brightness and joy of the majesty of the anael, their souls also being changed by the hope the anael embodied.
As his powers shook the world, he revealed the complexity of his powers to some. The darker, vampiric nature of some of his most potent abilities reared its head and throughout the world members of every race with hearts dedicated to order were informed of the power and purpose of Raul's vampiric spawn. They were asked if they would give themselves to Raul and dedicate their lives to him as the newest people to become his spawn. Each of them was touched by the trust the savior of their world had placed in them and pledged themselves to him.
His powers took their souls and warped them using necromantic, vampiric power. They were remade and the potency of their powers and belief in their new creator caused him to receive an immense amount of essence, and also spontaneously transformed much of the world into his dominion.
As Raul's powers spread through the world, touching every corner of it, the belief in himself he had generated through his world-shaking actions suffused him. As he neared the bottom of the stairwell leading to the fifth and final floor of the dungeon he began to radiate a soft golden light. The hearts of trillions of beings, many of whom had been spontaneously awoken and given true consciousness or higher awareness because of his actions, were now filled with belief in him and an incredible joy and faith that there was a kind, generous, guiding presence who cared for them and would give them purpose.
Their belief in him had spontaneously elevated him to the next grand scale of power, allowing his powers to both evolve and diversify. As he took his first steps off of the stairwell he gained the full breadth of powers of a true deity of beauty, an incredibly rare type of deity, which were surprisingly potent. His physical features became perfected, conceptually attractive things, his scent became addictive, and even his aura became impossibly beautiful.
As he began to approach the final room of the dungeon, he reached a conceptual level of power. A new level of might which he hoped would give him the power to overcome the powerful archdemon of wrath that he had made an enemy of. And elsewhere, prying eyes from other solar systems, galaxies, and dimensions began to turn to watch the strange little world which Raul had just claimed for his own.
At the bottom of the stairwell, there was a single door. It was an unimpressive thing made of mystical wood so it never aged and remained surprisingly humble looking. Almost welcoming. I knew better than to fall for its simple looks though. Behind it waited not a boss monster but another ascendant being; the archdemon of wrath, destruction, and hatred, Gorgomuth.
At the moment the eyes of my followers were glued to me. They stared at my new form, my perfected form. Initially, they had only turned to look at me when I began to radiate a golden light, but now they couldn't take their eyes off of me. And as annoying as that was, it was understandable. Hitting a conceptual level of power had fundamentally transformed some of my powers, including my passive ones like my physical attractiveness. Now I was, according to the system, "Absolutely beautiful".
My mind was filled with an annoying, extensive report on my new powers. I glanced at it and instantly memorized the contents of the message. As I approached the door I glanced at my followers and whispered to them to stay here. I knew that the enemy waiting for me beyond the door was beyond their abilities and I wasn't about to let anyone die at the hands of an archdemon.
I silently reached the door and opened it. The thing wasn't heavy, and what awaited me was the single largest boss chamber I had seen to date. It was a truly gigantic room that easily dwarfed the previous chambers I had seen and fought in. The room was perhaps as large as the very first chamber I had fought enemies in inside of this dungeon, and about halfway inside of the chamber stood a lone, stoic figure dressed in dark red armor who held an enormous sword.
There wasn't any usual boss, no strange monster or dungeonified member of a normally civilized race. Only the archdemon who had teleported into the dungeon to keep me from fully claiming this ancient hideout of his.
The archdemon twisted his head slightly to better study me, even as he lifted his sword into the air to point it at me. And then the centaur-like enemy I had made bellowed at me, and I stepped into the chamber. The door shut behind me and I knew that one way or another the decisive battle to free Cassandra, to claim the Emerald Cavern, and to begin my empire in earnest had just begun.
"Onwards towards the end." I uttered, even as I focused and then dashed at my enemy, instantly crossing the distance between us in a single move, my own sword out and pointed at my enemy.
