As I slipped into unconsciousness I’d have readily admitted that I never anticipated going to sleep after I imbibed the essences hours ago. And what was weirder still was that upon falling asleep the next thing I experienced was not immediately waking up.
Instead of immediately waking up I found myself limited to twelve mental windows through which I could perceive… Not reality, but twelve distinctive landscapes that seemed to belong to twelve different creatures.
The first landscape was the interior of a bright, golden castle. The second was the heart of a vibrant forest. The third was a strange hellish plain from which fire would spontaneously erupt out of the ground.
The fourth was the top of a gigantic glacier. The fifth was the top of a gigantic mountain in the dead of night. The sixth was a massive graveyard, and in the distance, I could hear the sounds of undead creatures.
The seventh landscape was an empty outdoor marketplace. The eighth landscape was the deck of a ship that had long ago sunk into the depths of the ocean. The ninth landscape was a strange and positively gigantic city with buildings that seemed to be designed for some sort of alien species.
The tenth landscape was a small field, and in the heart of it stood a single cherry tree. The eleventh was a shrine that was attended to by invisible, weak spirits. The final landscape was the interior of a small store.
As I studied each of my surroundings I could loosely sense the passage of time. Time was zipping by while I was in this bizarre set of landscapes, and I vaguely knew that each relative second I spent here was countless objective seconds. Normally this shouldn’t have been possible but when I tried to edit how I perceived time I quickly found that I couldn’t.
This caused all twelve of “Me” to frown. I wondered what caused this event to occur, and was dismayed when my knowledge-essences revealed to me the answer; deliberate intervention by other divinities, and deity-level-entities.
Other gods, and their kin, were actively fucking with me! This was to be expected, of course, but it was still annoying. They were keeping me, temporarily at least, in this strange set of landscapes.
The artificial knowledge which filled my mind informed me that this wasn’t for the purpose of hurting me but for the sake of communicating with me. Almost as soon as that was revealed words began to appear in front of “me” in the various landscapes I was temporarily trapped in. In all of them but four, that is.
In the vibrant forest, the graveyard, the hellscape, and the glacier no text appeared. Instead of text appearing, four distinct bodies appeared in front of me!
In the forest an elf of nearly indescribable beauty manifested in front of me, seemingly stepping out of one of the nearby trees. The elf embodied the stereotypes as far as elven appearances went, with long pointed ears and golden hair. She smiled gently at me.
Atop the glacier, the wind howled for a moment before it began to snow. Some of the snow began to come together, even as the flakes descended to where I was standing. By the time the snow had reached the peak of the glacier it had the form of a male human-like being who towered over me. He was something of a tribrid fusion of giant, god, and man.
In the graveyard, a strangely beautiful, ghostly corpse clawed its way out of the ground! It took her several moments to liberate herself from the ground underneath me.
In the bizarre hellscape, flames would mightily erupt out of the ground under my feet from time to time. During one particularly violent eruption, a tall silhouette appeared behind the curtain of flames. When the curtain of fire disappeared the creature that had come into existence behind it was still there.
The strange creature was a demonic-looking bipedal entity with an almost draconic face. As I gazed at the entity I began to become aware of the horrifying acts the creature had done during his life, a life that stretched back millions of years.
In the nine other landscapes, there were an array of floating text boxes that greeted me in place of the gods who owned the places. Each of the text boxes had an image of the god in question, and besides which floated large paragraphs of introductory text. Below the image and the paragraphs of text meant to contextualize the deity it described were three images, three quests, and three rewards for the aforementioned quests.
The images were of powerful items, allies, and abilities that would be awarded to me for completing the quests laid at my feet by the gods that the textboxes were dedicated to. This reminded me of the U.I. of a video game like World Of Warcraft. It was almost kind of charming, though the charm was lessened when I remembered that the deities who had created these text boxes were absent and couldn’t greet me “in person” as it were.
The names of the creatures that didn’t bother greeting me in person were all distinct. Andea, Vokhlaardejm, Memnoph, Nektos, Tchzinadkth, The Spirit King, Megumin, and Shokunin, each of whom was a divinity, eldritch entity, or a spirit from various parts of the world.
Some names were of special interest to me. The creature here that I most hated was the goddess named Andea, who I already knew a ton about thanks to my Elderia-tethered Worldmind and the potency of the essence of the tree of knowledge.
Andea was the goddess with the strongest stranglehold on Andor, especially Anduvia. She was a goddess of light, order, and a sworn enemy of all magic users who didn’t get their power through her. I read through her quests silently, while eyeing what she was offering as a reward. The last quest she was offering as part of forming a pact with her was one beyond just about any other quest.
“This psychopath wants me to conquer the entire world in her name? Without using magic? There are gods here! I could do it, but the person I replaced certainly couldn’t have. What a dick.” I muttered though the “Me” that muttered that was situated in another one of the bizarre landscapes. I knew better than to say something so blatantly disrespectful in her own divine realm, even though one of my divine words was that of deception. I could trick her elsewhere, but not in her own divine realm.
Perhaps the worst part of her pact was that her final prize, the one she gave to me if I conquered the world, was just a shield. The shield was apparently able to nullify any attack and reflect them back at whoever launched them but given that you’d only get the shield for completing her quest… How irritating.
Each of the textboxes contained various quests of differing levels of difficulty. Some of them were quite easy, such as one quest simply asking me to detail what creatures were interacting with me right now and tell that particular entity what the other pact-makers were offering. That said… I had a secret weapon that was being utilized at this very moment.
Deep within me lurked an abnormality that was activating even as I read through the various text boxes arrayed in front of me. This abnormality was named “The End” and it was an incredible power.
Those who possessed “The End” had the ability to copy abilities and powers they saw in action when the ability was just in its infancy. When the ability had been used for a year it evolved an even more frightening capability; the power to copy abilities and powers that one read about or even just heard about!
I hadn’t had the power for a year but… I had acquired the lived-years of multiple of my own followers. And I had done that after I had acquired “The End” through the usage of “Skill Creation”. It turned out that that was enough to allow the power to mature within me. At the moment the empowered version of “The End” that I possessed was active and giving me fun new abilities that I could use to wreak havoc.
As I read through the assorted lists of quests and scanned the rewards that the entities making them would offer me I began to gain an enhanced understanding of not only the present state of the world but the direction these influential entities wanted to take it. My ultra-charged mind began to connect disparate dots and utilize information gathered from these text boxes to make sense of seemingly disconnected events.
The god Memnoph was the creator of an ancient artifact known as the Arkhen Stone. This ancient object existed to render this world impenetrable to eldritch entities intent on devouring and unmaking this world. This strange object had been split into four fragments, one of which had been stolen by agents of the entities who wanted to unmake the world.
This object’s fragments had been scattered to the four continents, and the fragment that had been placed on Ixtacotak was stolen long ago. One fragment had been located in the Shrine of Mysteries, a powerful and famous shrine in Mizuchi, but was now in the possession of one of my companions; a kitsune oracle named Yuubi. Another was in the possession of Ravenna, a Kaldgrimian goddess, whose most ancient temple was located underneath a sacred site to her known as the Summerstones.
Eventually, I’d need to turn my attention to all of these things, but for now, that time was off in the distant future. The god, goddesses, and demon who had called me to their divine or infernal realms for personal conversations were approaching me, smiles on their faces, as they readied themselves to interact with one of the few beings they could truly consider a peer; myself.
The demon approached me, striding confidently and powerfully towards me for a few moments. He was still a good distance away from me when I felt a slight breeze pass by me, in his general direction. When the same breeze hit him I watched him inhale slightly and freeze up. He inhaled again and the gaze he was giving me turned a touch less powerful and a bit more curious.
The demon studied me, from a distance, and began to speak. His voice was clear, authoritative, and proud.
“Hello Greater Dragon. I am Malgoroth, the king of Elderia’s infernal realm and the deadly dictator who rules over all demon-kind. May I know your name?” The creature asked, its noble voice filled with haughtiness and regality. I chuckled as I began to piece together some plausible explanations for why the demon had stopped so far away. I took a step toward the demon and nodded respectfully at him.
“Hello, Malgoroth. My name is Andrew and I am a primordial demon, as well as a Greater Dragon.” I explained, keenly aware of the weight of my status as both an eightfold archdemon and one of the universe-shakingly powerful primordial demons.
I owed my status as an eightfold archdemon who grew mightier every time someone in one of the universes I had explored sinned to a Choose Your Own Adventure I had filled out days ago when I was still conscious. My nature as a primordial demon was due to the essence of powerlisting, which had given me that ability as well as the ability to mute others as their first contributions to my vast list of powers.
Malgoroth paused as he heard this. And then he began to laugh, both quietly and powerfully at the same time.
He laughed and laughed for several seconds before eventually calming down. When he did he turned his gaze on me and there was a look of respect in it.
“To think that one of your kind would come here and confess to that so brazenly…” He uttered, almost impressed by the sheer gumption it took to confess one’s blasphemous status as one of the original demons to a demon king like that.
“I see… I wonder if you did not know why you shouldn’t confess that to me, or if I have just fallen so low in the eyes of my kin that one of you would be brave and step to me directly…” The demon king mused though the look of amusement continued to glimmer in his gaze. He fell silent for a moment, which gave me a chance to sort through the mountain of knowledge I had gained just by laying eyes on him.
The creature in front of me was the third demon king of Infernus, the hellish reality that the “Me” in front of him was existing within. He was a mighty, proud being who had helped slay many of the creatures like me, as far as demonic beings went, that once haunted and terrorized Elderia.
As I skimmed through his memories I watched him perform countless sins, as well as a strange number of heroic acts. He was both a hero and a villain, in relatively equal measure. He was not like the demons of this world, he had risen above them and the more I glimpsed of his life the greater certainty I felt of one thing in particular; he hated members of his kind.
He took great glee in slaying demons. He relished opportunities to put a sword through the head of some monstrous demon. His smile was at its most joyful whenever he was standing beside mortals and charging toward demons.
There was a strange disconnect between what he was and what he wanted to be. There was a self-hatred within him that I could vaguely sense within him since he was a demonic being who was close to a divinity and thus had the ability to resist attempts to do what I was doing; empathetically peer into his very being to learn about him.
As powerful as his defenses against intrusions into his mind and soul were, they couldn’t keep me out. Not entirely anyway. I was able to learn much by studying him for even a split second before I continued to speak to him.
“I am a primordial demon Malgoroth. And I am one that does not fear you. I know who you are, Slayer of the Rebellious Rajah. Few things can escape my gaze, not even your heart is safe from my eyes.” I uttered, with a proud, performative smile on my face.
I was slowly beginning to come into myself as far as being a powerful being went but I was still not used to having the real cosmic power that I possessed. I wanted to grow and become more attuned to my power with time, even while I was growing and gaining greater and greater power.
The demon gazed at me for a moment, clearly gauging how seriously to take my words. After a few seconds he began to laugh, the sound more haunting than it had been when he had last laughed.
“That’s the kind of spirit I love to see! If you can back up that talk, then you and I indeed have much to discuss.” He said while beginning to smile sincerely at me. In a way, the demon-king’s smile was scarier than his attempts to look intimidating. It was like gazing at a happy creature from the nightmares of a madman.
In the heart of the arboreal landscape, I gazed at none other than the ancient ancestor of all elves in the world of Elderia, Asihlliel. She was a beauty in the same style as Princess Zelda, a tall, golden-haired, fair-skinned, pointed-eared woman. And even as she gazed at each other her brilliant beauty was growing before my very eyes.
Hours ago, or rather… days ago I had restored her connection to her holiest sites; the sacred groves. In doing so I made it possible for her to reconnect with her children, all of elven kind. Now she was actively reconnecting with her children, who she hadn’t been able to hear in millennia.
She was standing right in front of me, but dared not step closer to me. Tears filled her eyes, but they were tears of joy.
“Asihlliel… Perhaps I should speak first.” I said, after neither of us spoke for a few seconds. My utterance of her name caused her eyes to widen in shock as she realized that I knew who she was.
“Wait… Strange Dragon, do you know of me?” She asked, attempting to piece together how I knew her. I nodded at her and began to speak softly to the emotional goddess.
“Asihlliel, I am Andrew and I am an elven progenitor. The knowledge of all elves flows in me and my mind is an encyclopedic repository of all elven wisdom. I have seen how you have suffered. I have seen how you fought to keep your children unified. I am a friend… No, I am no mere friend. I am a savior.” I explained, as I keenly channeled the potent might of one of the more vivid species essences that I had consumed.
“I am so happy that even now you are reconnecting with your old followers. I can feel your power, your greatness, returning to you. With every passing second, you step closer to regaining your lost glory.” I told the goddess, softly. As I told the goddess this, she began to laugh melodically.
“Oh, little one… I am so happy to hear from my children again! For ages, the only times I could have heard them was when they died or before they were born. And now… Thanks to your kindness in fulfilling the wishes of Blackthorn and Delathwyn I can hear my descendants again! The groves… I am once more connected to them. I know what ails my children. What pains they are suffering even in life.” She told me, almost blissfully happily. Her face and voice only softened, slightly, when she uttered those last two sentences.
“Andrew… You call yourself a savior. How true is that?” She asked me, determination and steel slipping into her charismatic and enchanting voice. Mischief slipped into my eyes as I readied myself to answer her question.
“If you are asking for my assistance, you shall have it oh Mother of Forests.” I told her, with a bright, mischievous smile on my face as I spoke. She breathed a sigh of relief, and I felt her gratitude coming off of her in waves.
“Andrew… I shall see to it that you are richly rewarded for your labor. If you aid me I shall spread your name to every single worshipper of mine, and inform them that you are a true friend of all elves and that your interests, unless you say otherwise, are their interests.” The goddess told me, beginning to bable a bit at the end.
Nevertheless, babbling or not, I was happy to have made my first divine friend who wasn’t already a companion or servant of mine. In time I intended to aid her and safeguard elves throughout the world.
In the graveyard, I was face-to-face with a personification of death, one named Dhakepra. At the same time, the me atop the glacier was face to face with Ordin the god of war and winter.
