Even one small universe was a gigantic place, and as such was filled with all manner of civilizations, organizations, worlds, stars, and people. Beyond the confines of Raul's burgeoning empire laid an endless array of other worlds, each rife for exploration, study, and of course; conquest.
The particular universe that Raul was born in, both in his current life and his vastly longer past life, was not an especially large or especially small one. It was roughly the average size for a universe in its particular multiverse, or collection of universes. And the multiverse that housed the universe Raul was from was also average sized for its pleniverse, or collection of multiverses.
Three weeks after Raul's ascension and apotheosis his intergalactic empire was also quite average as far as raw area went. He controlled an entire galaxy, and had countless smaller holdings beyond the confines of the galaxy he controlled, as well as owned several galaxies worth of resources thanks to both his first successful conquest and his particular nature as a god of fertility. His empire, speaking from a strictly geographic and astronomical point of view, was firmly average in comparison to other empires throughout the portion of his universe where mortals where originated.
The largest empire in the universe of Raul's birth was the vast empire known as "The Majestic Fiefdom", a highly militaristic empire controlled by a single, frighteningly powerful man known solely as "The Conquering King". That said, that particular empire was on the other end of the universe and for it to reach Raul, barring him suddenly turning outward rather aggressively would take years, even if it was almost certainly a destined conflict that would one day rock the very foundations of the universe of Raul's birth. However, a confrontation between the two of them was surely years, if not centuries away, since the vastness of interstellar space and literally trillions of civilizations stood between the two conquering warriors.
The smallest intergalactic empires in Raul's universe were ones that loosely unified an entire galaxy, and nothing else. The galaxy under Raul's command was, surprisingly, an impressively large one, which allowed for his empire to be a good deal larger than other empires that solely controlled a single galaxy.
There was also the complex matter of Raul's territory in the Nine Circles, his increasing sway within the Eternal City, and the number of other worlds that he controlled, several of which he had begun to move into the galaxy he ran, even creating new stars and solar systems to do so during downtime moments over the course of the last three, standard weeks, which were a unit of time consisting of seven, twenty-four hour days.
At the moment, the unusual deity had countless bodies throughout the universe of his birth engaging in various tasks. Some of his bodies were indulging their baser needs, lounging around beautiful and devoted women who had felt the soul-altering pleasure he could bestow and had fallen in love with that pleasure, and often with the man himself. Some of his bodies were actively working in various worlds, completing both menial tasks and vital ones that needed doing but were unpleasant.
Some of the god's bodies were engaged in imperial politics, wheeling and dealing with all manner of verbose politicos and viziers, and others were hard at work in deep forests, engaging with monsters and the civilizations that interacted with them. He was also a hard working deity who helped out with farming, city-maintenance, and other arduous tasks.
Many of his bodies were with members of his harem, a vast and politically complex group of queens, goddesses, mortals, genies, fey, demons, angels, monsters, spirits, and even eldritch entities. It was due to his immense powers related to his body, especially his powerful ability to operate countless bodies on his own, that he could have meaningful relationships with the lovers he had taken to date, which was beginning to inch ever closer to a grand total of one hundred different women, though that was far from the number of lovers he dreamed of one day having.
This surprisingly conservative estimate was not counting the spirits he had seduced via "Seduce the world", the women his avatars had had sex with or members of factions such as his vampiric spawn, his demonic followers, and the order to which Maria belonged, any of which would easily skyrocket the number of lovers he had taken to a number much closer to one thousand separate lovers. And he intended to one day have many, many more lovers than that. For him the term "Lover" had a much more personal meaning, and was not used to refer to one offs or so-called "One night stands".
All of this sex was for multiple purposes but primarily for the sake of boosting his powers. He intended to perpetually be growing stronger, and he instructed his followers to behave in ways that empowered him, such as by dedicating their pleasure to him and by having sex in general, both of which gave him minute increases to his power that over the course of several million, billion, or even trillion small boosts had meaningful effects on his level of power and allowed him to reach the scale that even the least of his powers were gradually reaching universe-shaking levels of potency.
As he did countless things all at once, empires from throughout the universe he resided in, the multiverse he resided in, his home pleniverse, and even other corners of the omniverse felt the impact of the emergence of the Anax of Anal and began to prepare for him in various ways.
The Anax of Anal was one of a handful of unique beings. It numbered among the ranks of entities like Joy, the cosmic overgoddess of well... joy, and Glory, the cosmic overgoddess of her namesake, in being distinctive, conceptual entities who held unquestioned authority over their domains. While the actual Anax himself might not have known that yet, mostly because of how busy he had been since he became the Anax, others most decidedly did.
Throughout the omniverse all of reality felt the impact of the emergence of the Anax. His emergence sent out a wave of sexual, blissful energy far stronger than Cassandra's return had, that touched every corner of existence, of infinity, and had been felt by countless beings, each of whom had felt it in their very souls. It was enough to change the lives of countless people, from humble farmers who now desperately ached for a needed release, to despotic monarchs of massive empires, even up to universe-spanning sizes, whose minds and sanities were slowly being gnawed away at due to the perpetual lust they felt.
Raul's ignorance of the raw potency of his unfathomable power as the Anax of Anal did not mean that others were ignorant as to what he had unknowingly done. Even as Raul slowly plotted how to spread his empire to the farthest corners of existence, others throughout existence wondered about how to deal with the emergence of a new entity that could someday grow to knowingly and consciously affect the entire omniverse, a being whose potential maxed out at a truly mind-blowing level.
In the weeks that followed Raul's emergence as the Anax empires with technology that allowed them to traverse from universe to universe, multiverse to multiverse, and even pleniverse to pleniverse wondered what to do about the young upstart, and ancient beings who were older than the universe Raul lived in awoke from deep slumbers that had lasted trillions of standard years, to the sensation of incredible, mind-bending pleasure. As they awoke from long rests, they were filled with a desire to experience the sort of pleasure only Raul could bestow again, and almost unthinkingly resolved to find the source of that soul-searing bliss, ready to do whatever it took to feel that sort of sanity-affecting ecstasy.
Raul's power, when it was not deliberately lessened or blunted by his goodwill and his innate desire to not harm or unduly change other living beings, was capable of leaving indelible marks on the souls of even other ascendant beings, and in fact, had done so already. Across the great tapestry of existence, around a month after he was declared the Anax of Anal, many ascendant beings of every type silently swore oaths of servitude to Raul, and declared their intentions to head to the home of the Anax of Anal, and as he learned of these oaths he began to grow in power thanks to his nature as a sanguinarch, all for the sake of indulging themselves in the endless pleasure he was capable of allowing them to experience.
Some of the more interesting allies and servants Raul's emergence as the Anax of Anal had granted him were archdemons of each of the seven deadly sins, due to individual philosophies related to both sin and anal sex, and a number of dragon lords, male, female, and even other gendered, who saw anal sex as a way to determine submission and dominance and recognized the lord of said sexual act as a worthy master to serve. Even other grand venuses and a handful of both women and men from the nefarious Clearbrass Estate began to immigrate to the empire and joined Raul!
That said, he didn't just gain new allies as a result of his apotheosis as he learned over the next few weeks. His enemies, and he had previously had none, began to increase as well. Throughout the omniverse there were countless forces that didn't approve of anal sex and saw the one true lord of anal sex as a mortal enemy to oppose and eventually destroy.
Such enemies included the "League of the Pure-Hearted" a multiverse-spanning force of virginal puritans who opposed any and all sexual acts but especially anal sex, various archdemons who vehemently opposed the sin of lust and were especially hateful of the fact that a lord of sex had appeared who was also an archdemon of lust. There were also other ascendants who hated anal sex for a litany of reasons and saw Raul as the ultimate embodiment of the most blasphemous sexual act. The Anax also gained enemies who were driven by a desire to become lords of sex themselves and who saw him as a rival and competition, since he was the first lord and thus had a healthy chance of eventually becoming the only lord.
Curiously enough, Raul learned of the existence of his enemies as a result of their oaths to destroy him. As it turned out oaths of hatred and enmity were still oaths that connected souls and Raul, both as a sanguinarch and a deity of souls, could sense those sorts of ties. As he learned about them over the course of the days that followed the swearing of their oaths to oppose him he began to more slowly reach out and engage with more and more of the omniverse.
About a month and a half after becoming the Anax of Anal Raul opened his empire to foreign dignitaries in full. Countless such individuals, from neighboring worlds, distant empires, and even organizations from other universes and multiverses came to visit worlds like Hasperburg and other stunning planets that were now unified due to Raul's own gradually growing powers and began the process of setting up embassies on various worlds throughout Raul's empire.
In key worlds such as Hasperburg and the former capital of the Hacivat Galaxy, a planet named Stellaris Prime, portals to other worlds, empires, and even universes were established for the very first time as treaties were signed and friendships that expanded the influence of Raul, both as a deity and as an emperor were begun.
Many such individuals also came to the empire with gifts and tributes for the emperor. The simplest of these tributes were things like artwork and artifacts from their homes, all of which were treated with great respect and accepted by the emperor with a considerable amount of humility and joy. The more complex of these tributes were things like technology that had previously been beyond the ability of the emperor to generate, such as machines that could open stable portals to other universes and multiverses.
The most complex of these tributes was, rather unsurprisingly, things that went beyond what could reasonably be called tributes. These potent gifts included territory, which was a common thing for other ascendants and emperors or empresses alike to offer Raul, and "gifts" of living or undead beings, which was almost equally as common.
Gifts of territory came in two distinctive forms. The first form of that particular sort of gift was territory that was freely given by another empire or ascendant being, as a part of a benevolent welcome or a sign of allegiance. The second form was much more unusual and only tended to come from one particular type of emperor or ascendant being: ones who were desperate to experience more of the special sort of pleasure that only Raul could cause.
Countless dignitaries, and on much rarer occasions emperors or ascendants themselves were eager to ingratiate themselves to Raul. This wasn't just because of Raul's power to bestow happiness, it was because of the fact that he was a lord of sex. As such his power over pleasure and bliss were great enough to change alignments and to cause states of near mindlessness.
Those who knew that and approached the emperor were often intrigued by the prospect of bliss so soul-searing that it forever satisfied them and offered him vast rewards and bribes if only he'd allow them to experience that sort of ecstasy. Once he learned of this he accepted their bribes, and allowed them to experience true ecstasy, often in exchange for truly staggering amounts of wealth and resources.
Some individuals who had attained grand resources throughout their lives decided to offer Raul more than just territory. They offered Raul people in exchange for the opportunity to taste true bliss. The intelligent dignitaries didn't offer people as slaves, as one well-known facet of Raul's personality was that he celebrated personal freedom and absolutely loathed the institution of slavery, but as companions, wives, bodyguards, and servants.
Raul, using his powers over souls, scanned the souls of those who were part of the offerings he was being offered and when satisfied that everyone involved had truthfully and knowingly consented to the agreement also accepted these gifts. These gifts made him feel a variety of things, but he knew that this too was part of diplomacy and friendship-making on a truly vast scale.
Thanks to these "gifts", all of which Raul accepted, in part because of the nefarious influence of pride on his sense of self, the theoretical size of Raul's empire shot up and skyrocketed, expanding immensely and even branching out into universes and multiverses beyond that of his birth for the very first time ever.
Raul immediately set about utilizing the resources and territory he had acquired, spreading vampires and other followers into the newest portions of his empire, for the sake of expanding his dominion and cementing his control over the newest places to be added to his territory. He also began to make deities and other higher beings into vampires, choosing some of those who had sworn themselves to him in the wake of the wave of pleasure his apotheosis had unintentional unleashed on the omniverse to turn into the next generation of powerful vampiric spawn, as well as spirits he created by utilizing his "Seduce the world" power of things like stars, moons, and planets.
By the time two months had passed since he became the Anax of Anal, his empire was a vast, sprawling thing that was part of a vast web of intergalactic and inter-universal empires connected to each other through a complex series of pacts, alliances, and marriages. Raul was no longer a lone emperor adrift in the cosmos, he had stepped out of isolation and into a larger stage than one the him of even a year ago could have ever imagined existed: a multiversal stage that consisted of all sorts of players at vastly different levels of experience, skill, and resources.
And with that, he finally began his final preparations so that he could go and begin the reclamation and restoration of the Empire of Etherscape.
