“Good people of Eaglesville, open your hearts and listen to me.” The powerful god uttered, having decided to take on a persona that was more akin to a sapient force of nature than a mundane person. 

The people observing the stranger heeded his words and listened to the divinely beautiful entity. Everything about him was divinely charming to the point that even in the short time that they had spent aware of the being they felt almost drunk around him. 

“My name is Andrew and despite the mundane sounding name I am a divine being. A god.” He proclaimed, powerfully. As his words left his lips the eyes of those who were observing him widened, and some of the people present with stronger wills than the others stared in disbelief at the powerful creature before them. 

Andrew himself began to gently laugh as he saw their expressions change in response to his words. He knew he was telling the truth, so only the people with the very strongest wills could actually resist his proclamation in anyway that mattered. Several of the people in the camp felt the seeds of belief be planted in their hearts even while they attempted to disbelieve. 

The deity then sighed and willingly turned on one facet of an essence he knew he’d enjoy in the future; the essence of the teacher. That particular essence was normally maximally useful in classrooms but it had one especially potent aspect for the context of creating believers. That aspect was that it allowed those who had imbibed it to be believed anytime that they told the truth. Andrew had not turned on that aspect of it because it could be quite dangerous, but now it was perfectly fitting for his current set of circumstances.

“I see that some of you are attempting to deny the truth. I can see the contents of your hearts, and I know that you wish for me to be wrong. You hope that I am mentally unwell, that I am lying, or something else like that. I am not any of those things.” The deity uttered, as his eyes began to glow and radiate potent light. This time his words had much more weight. 

They hit their listeners with an almost physical heaviness. The deity was telling the truth, and as his words were heard those who heard him had no choice but to accept the reality that the being before them was a divine entity, an incarnate deity. 

“Disease… Death… These fundamental enemies of mankind obey me. I am their lord and master. And those who follow me shall be freed from their clutches, spared their depravity, and shall witness a planet-wide transcendence.” The deity explained, channeling the inner might and light of a glorious god. 

Andrew was actively harnessing the grand power of the essence of the manipulator, one of the ultimate essences as far as charisma went. By focusing on that essence and pushing its power to its current limits, he was able to increase the already considerable impact of its abilities. 

The divinity performing his first sermon grew even more resplendently beautiful. As he spoke pairs of white wings began to appear in the air around him, floating freely and orbiting the strange figure. These wings were gigantic, easily more than twice the length of his body. 

“I have come to uplift humanity and to take your species to the stars. I shall usher in a new golden age of hope, progress, and unification. And all who join me shall see a glorious new world.” Andrew revealed, his light growing stronger and more brilliant as he spoke. 

As the light grew even more alluring to those in Andrew’s presence the strange sensory stimuli he was radiating grew even stronger. The sounds of the choir became more beautiful and the smell of baking goods became positively mouth-watering. 

“I lived for a time as one of you. As a human, I mean. During that time I was able to eke out a life for myself, just barely. I will not pretend to understand the suffering you have endured, but I have come here to bring about an end to that suffering.” Andrew told his audience, speaking sincerely even though there was a deception baked into his grander statement. Nevertheless, his audience was positively enraptured by his words, and by the compassion he was demonstrating. 

“I do not seek the approval or assistance of the rich and powerful. I have come here to give salvation and hope to those who had long lived without either. I shall end the current era. This age of selfishness and excess shall be ended not solely by my hand but by our hands, joined in purpose and in fellowship.” The spirit in the flesh stated. His voice was filled with glorious purpose, and those who heard him speak began to picture the post-scarcity future he was talking about. 

“If you wish to be a part of the glorious future I and those who join me shall create, step into the light. Be healed by my mercy and be the first to devote yourselves to my radiant mission.” The creature told the gathered individuals. As his words washed over them they felt his power seeping into their very souls. They felt his devotion to his mission and they felt his honest desire to bring about the future he had described. And they began to surrender to his purpose. 

The first person to step into the light was an older man. He had been making a decent living until the great recession, and in the wake of the pandemic lost his last job. He was evicted when politicians in Vermont began to undo the few protections put in place to protect those who had been laid off during the pandemic. He had been homeless for about a year now, and when he stepped into the light that the god was radiating he himself began to faintly glow. 

Those watching this gasped as they saw their friend bask in the light of his new god. The man himself fell to his knees and began to weep tears that looked like liquid gold. The man felt the resplendent power and magnanimity of the god he was giving himself to. 

As his physical body wept at the feet of his new god, the mind of the man who had stepped into the light was touched by the god who he was kneeling in front of. The man humbly wept as he felt every ache, twinge of pain, and the perpetual echo of discomfort he had begun to feel over the last few years begin to lessen in intensity. 

“You are a good man Ethan…” The voice of Andrew whispered into the man’s awestruck mind. Andrew turned his celestial gaze to peer at the man and as he did the myriad of powers he possessed began to steadily affect him further.

Everything from his mega-attributes to the potent powers of infamous figures like Amanda Skyes began to affect him all at once. These things only benefited him, further bolstering his physical beauty or the power of his benevolent aura. Ethan, the figure who had come to hear the will of the god, felt his heart fill with even more awe and love for the deific being in front of him. 

Ethan audibly gasped when Andrew stepped towards him and placed a single gentle hand on the humble man’s bald head. Those watching the two interact also gasped when Andrew touched the elderly man. 

The very instant that the deity’s hand touched the head of the man the divinity himself gasped though the sound was far too quiet to be heard by the human’s dull ears. The reason for the god’s quiet gasp was that the moment that he touched Ethan’s head he activated a significant power named “Psychometry” for the very first time. That vast power was one that he possessed most directly through the essence of the composite psionic.

The essence of the composite psionic was the reason that the god was a deity of minds. It was an unbelievably powerful essence that granted those who drank it nearly infinite psionic power. One of the many individual powers it contained was psychometry, and that power allowed those who wielded possessed it to be able to peer into the past and future of a person, place, or object merely by touching them! It was an incredible power and one that even Andrew still needed time to adjust to since it meant that any glancing touch of anything filled him with vast knowledge. 

The god began to radiate light of such intensity from deep within himself that his facial features vanished and he took on the appearance of a stark white reverse silhouette. As he did this he poured actual holy energy into Ethan, energy which seeped into every single one of the man’s cells. 

As he did this, Andrew healed Ethan of every disease that the man was plagued by. In an instant every single disease that had ever left even the smallest impact on Ethan was wiped awau by the powerful mercy of the elderly man’s new god. 

Pains that Ethan had long ago learned to forget and almost block out mentally were wiped away. Aches that resulted from long defeated diseases vanished, and so too did a variety of health conditions that had lowered the quality of life enjoyed by Ethan. 

Ethan, in very real and powerful ways, felt younger than he had in over a decade. And that was before the strange god he now worshiped continued to telepathically speak to him.

“Ethan… You are the first of your species to worship me.” The god proclaimed, lying but only somewhat. Ethan was not the first human to worship Andrew, though he was the first one who was born on Earth. Andrew had other worshipers who were human, though they resided in his vast personal reality. 

“Now I shall use you as the canvas on which I perform my first miracle.” Andrew exclaimed before he activated his vast sarkic abilities and using them in a way not far from how a painter might use a paintbrush on a canvas. 

Andrew used his vast artistic abilities, which he further improved by pointing polymath charges into his “Art” skill, to dramatically improve the appearance of his first disciple. His powers washed over the man in the form of a strange green, an aura-like field that surrounded the figure and reshaped his body.

Ethan began to become younger-looking, smarter, faster, and not to mention stronger. The god he had given himself to was giving a new chance! He was even showcasing his power over age!

“Ethan… Allow me to make you younger.” Andrew uttered, in the depths of the mind of the man. Ethan’s eyes opened and he nodded at his god. The truth was that he’d have easily given Andrew anything the deity would have asked for, without hesitation, but all Andrew wanted was his old age. And there was a reason why that was Andrew’s first real ask. 

It all had to do with vampires, dragons, and other mighty creatures whose existences were uniquely tempered by age. The god wanted to go ahead and begin to feel the heavy power of old age, already, and he had drunk the essence to do just that. The power of the primordial vampire sire began to flow out of him, even as his eyes became beautiful, dark orbs.