Riezel and I found ourselves in the elegant and luxurious private chambers of the Gomez family mere minutes after reuniting them. We were ushered to a pair of seats on one side of an elegant table and the family claimed three seats on the other side of it. Almost as soon as we were seated they began to question us.
"Why did you choose the city of Jasper to be the first place you established your church?" Asked the baron.
"How did you know about me if you are a traveler who has only just arrived in the city?" Asked Margarita.
"What are you a deity of?" Asked Sofia.
Their three questions came one after the other, and I chuckled and grinned apologetically at Riezel as the three humanoids questioned us. I closed my eyes and thought for a second about how to best approach this. I knew it would be a consequence of my choice to reveal my true nature so early and so I couldn't be too annoyed about it. I opened my eyes and looked at the family, resolving to answer their questions one at a time and honestly, for now at least.
"I chose the city of Jasper because it's the kingdom's magical capital. The National Arcane Academy is here, this is where the country's strongest magic users can be found, and it has close proximity to a dungeon. The capital of the kingdom does not have those things. Plus I am a native of the kingdom, which given my nature as a god is something I am keenly aware sounds odd. I lived my whole life believing I was a mortal until the night before my 21st birthday, which was yesterday." I began, chuckling as I again realized just how incredibly insane all of this sounded.
"I turned 21 yesterday and upon gaining my powers I opted to come to the city to study magic. Which I now have thanks to my powers. After my studies, I met my companion here, and I revealed the truth to her, after which I empowered her. Now she is my ally and we travel together." I explained, briefly, before turning to Margarita, the wife of Baron Gomez.
"I am a deity. I can read minds and memories. I knew how keenly Baron Gomez mourned your loss. He never imagined that he'd have to live in a world without you. I decided, upon studying his memories that he was a good man and that you died too soon. So I brought you back. Plus bringing back the dead is the sort of thing only higher beings, gods, and our kin can do. It is indisputable proof that I am what I said I am. I can only bring back one willing person a day, and I think that bringing Margarita back was the right choice." I explained, revealing my rationale while also speaking honestly. The baron smiled when he heard me explain my choice. As did Margarita.
"I am a deity but I am also a grand adonis. Grand adonises are a type of deity that is affiliated with sex, sexuality, lust, life, passion, joy, love, and pleasure. I am also personally associated with nature. I want to grow and become a deity of heroism, civilization, goodness, and peace." I explained, while turning to Sofia and gazing at her which caused the young woman to begin to blush. She was actually older than I was, she was 26, with the same blonde hair as her parents and purely green orbs for eyes. She was a half-elf.
I knew that the system had explained the nature of divinity and deities to the family and to the other people in the infirmary. During the time it took the family to guide us to the baron's personal chambers I also blessed Sofia and the system had shared basic information on deities and divinity with her as well.
"You're so young... You're just 21? Incredible. And to think that you did this during your second day as a deity..." The baron whispered, believing my words without hesitation. I had proven myself to him in his eyes and he knew better than to believe that I was lying or hiding something from him. I sensed his awe and love for me, in the ways that many mortals loved the deities they worshiped. The baron was silent for a moment, before gathering his thoughts and beginning to speak once more.
"You mentioned something earlier. Something that stuck out to me. You said you wanted to become the city's patron deity. Raul, you've done more for me and my family than we could ever repay, even in a thousand lifetimes, but for the life of me, I do not understand what you meant when you said you wanted to become the city's patron deity. Could you please elaborate on that? I want to understand what you meant." He told me, gazing at my face and working hard to hide the desire he had to ask me a thousand questions. I smiled and turned to him before I began to reply.
"Of course! I seek to become the deity who protects and guides the city of Jasper and its people. I want to be a god worshiped by the people of Jasper, and I want to build my first temple in this city. You see the surest route to power, for deities, is for us to acquire the worship of mortals. I intend to build a religion around myself and possibly other deities, if they opt to join me, that worships me and empowers me so that I can protect and bring joy to more people." I explained, honestly. Riezel rolled her eyes, as she was still a succubus, but I knew that some moments of joy had an effect on her. She too was moved when everyone in the infirmary was healed and began to weep from joy.
"I want to become a healer who not only heals people but also a hero who makes life better for those he helps. I came here and revealed myself to you all just a day after I learned of my true nature because I knew that the longer I waited the more people would suffer unnecessarily. Starting a religion will allow me to grow in power and to thus help more people, more quickly." I told the family, speaking seriously and earnestly.
"Starting a religion will also allow me to inspire people to be kind and to treat each other with respect and open-mindedness. It is not just about me, it's about inspiring people to be decent and good to each other." I explained, already having clear visualizations in my mind about the sort of religion I wanted to inspire. It was while I was speaking that Margarita's eyes grew bright with realization and she turned to face me. She began to speak as soon as I was done talking.
"Wait, Raul... You say that you're a deity who was born in the kingdom of Vanheim and you've only known about your divinity for two days correct?" She asked me, and I nodded at her. For a moment she was silent as she considered what to say. I momentarily wondered if I should have gone ahead and absorbed her memories but before I had time to seriously consider that thought she began to speak again.
"When I died, when Sofia was just three years old, I went to the underworld. The underworld is where mortal souls who didn't worship anyone and who weren't otherwise sworn to other fates after death went. It was a very relaxed and free place, where spirits were free to continue to pursue the passions they had in life. My passion was knowledge. And so I would spend every day, or rather the underworld analog of a day, in vast archives. I gained considerable knowledge. Have you had time to absorb my memories yet?" She asked me. I shook my head, answering her question honestly. That made her smile brightly at me.
"In that case, you might not know one of the things I learned while I was immersing myself in research. Namely that there exists a realm known as 'The Eternal City' which is the supposed 'home' of the good and neutral aligned gods. It is said that every time a good or neutral aligned god ascends and becomes a true divinity as you have, the city grows a bit larger and a temple to that god materializes in the city. Every one of those temples is believed to grow in size as the god's following grows in size." The elven scholar informed me, causing everyone at the table's eyes to grow wide from shock. She smiled proudly as she revealed that.
I considered her words and closed my eyes. I began to transmit my thoughts to the system itself, curious to see if she was telling me both the truth as she understood it, which I didn't really doubt, and also that she was actually, factually correct. I was delighted when the text boxes in my mind's eye began to change.
[Yes, Margarita is correct. The Eternal City is a real place, home to countless gods, angels, and other divine races. It is located in its own dimension and getting there as a young god is a complicated task. Most good and neutrally aligned deities are invited there when they earn a meaningful number of worshipers, but particularly ambitious go-getters can go and find a deity who has been there and remains a good or neutral god can convince the older or more ambitious god to open a portal for them. Once you've visited the city you're allowed to go in and out as you please.]
[The city is an important destination for all good and neutrally aligned gods, but with you in particular there is a special wrinkle that makes it both more important and infinitely more complex. While you are immune to scrying and other such things to the extent that you cannot be located or spied on, it was not impossible for people to predict your eventual emergence as a divine being. There are people who know that you will exist, they may not know who you are on a personal level but they knew that someday a multi-higher-being would emerge. Someone who has the power of many different species in themselves.]
As soon as I finished reading the messages they changed again, far faster than they usually did. Which was itself concerning given what the text boxes were revealing.
[A grand adonis who arises spontaneously and by themselves is unheard of. To those who know of the eventual existence of you, a creature who can be many different types of higher beings in one, if they heard of the grand adonis who ascended without the aid of a grand venus they'd at least be suspicious of you. And every time a new being enters The Eternal City, every being who is welcome there is alerted to the newcomer's first entrance into the city. Which by itself won't tip anyone off.]
[My choice to not mention the existence of The Eternal City to you was a deliberate one that I stand by. I did not want you to feel rushed or to pursue an objective simply because it was out there. Now that you are intent on building a religion there will inevitably come a day when you gain the minimum number of worshipers needed to gain access to The Eternal City, especially with your attitude. And when you do other deities will learn of you. The more inquisitive deities may ask you about your origins, and if you are honest about being a grand adonis there will be deities who ask about "your" grand venus, the one who would have helped you ascend had you been a normal member of your kind. You need to know how you will handle being questioned when you eventually enter The Eternal City.]
The revelations that the system had just revealed were both surprising and concerning. They had significant implications that I needed time to fully unpack, and not all of them were necessarily bad but it definitely meant that I needed to be careful and proceed with caution. Inwardly I chuckled and opened my eyes to speak to Margarita and her family.
"Thank you, Margarita. That knowledge is invaluable to me because it sounds like the sort of place I'd want to visit and would actually benefit from visiting someday in the future. There is still a truly tremendous amount of information I do not know. Every day I learn a truly tremendous number of new things, but for now, I am still simply trying to help people while I begin to understand so much that I never could have imagined." I say, smiling at the beautiful elf.
"Earlier I mentioned that part of the reason why I chose Jasper as my home is that it is close to a dungeon. Allow me to expand on that. As a grand adonis I possess a power entitled 'Seduce the world' which allows me to make even inanimate objects and places fall in love with me and work to aid me. This power works on dungeons, but there is a complication." I revealed, pausing for a moment to consider how to explain the complication.
"In the wake of killing the boss monster of a floor I could summon a spirit that embodies a fragment of a dungeon's core. According to the system, and I believe the system, I could seduce that spirit and thus gain mastery over that specific floor. If I used that mastery to make the floor of the dungeon a safe zone where monsters don't attack, the rest of the dungeon will turn hyper-aggressive and attempt to reclaim the floor. Therefore the proper strategy to conquer a dungeon near a city like this would be for me to acquire the aid of the city's guards and use them to secure and settle floors." I explained, elaborating on my enigmatic statement from earlier.
"Dungeons don't have to be hostile to humanoids. Not anymore. Not now that I exist. We could take dungeons and transform them into something positive and we can do it without hurting even the dungeons themselves. We don't have to shut them down, we could even feed them. They feed on magical energy and as a god, I have infinite magical energy. Just... imagine a future for Jasper where we can safely go into the Emerald Cavern and make use of its emeralds. One where no one, not even a dungeon, has to starve or kill to survive." I said, softly. The family was surprised to see me vouching, to an extent, for even a dungeon.
"So... This is the will of a god of life huh? Such a strong, nondiscriminatory urge to protect life in all of its forms that you would work to save even a dungeon? It truly is something to behold. And somehow after seeing how you came into my life, into our lives, and immediately made it so that not even death could separate me from my wife... A not insignificant part of me believes that you'd find a way to make this dream a reality, even if I were foolish enough to say no." The baron replied, speaking gently as he smiled at me. This reaction caused his wife and daughter to look at him curiously.
"Rafael... Are you saying that you're gonna support this dream?" Margarita asked, an awe-struck look in her eyes. Sofia's face mirrored that of her mother's.
"I... This man is a god you two. And beyond that, his dream is that of a world where one grand enemy of mankind, of every humanoid race, is no longer our enemy. He dreams of the world of tomorrow, where dungeons no longer take parents from children. Where monsters no longer fill the nightmares of orphans. Where the darkened depths of dungeons are no longer littered with the corpses of adventurers and magi who sought to use them to escape the evil grip of poverty. That is a noble dream. And this man reunited our family. He defeated death for us! Would you ask me to stand in the way of his dream, when on the same day that he entered our lives he gave me a dream so incredible I never dared to dream it could come true?" The baron asked, his voice filled with emotion.
His wife and his daughter listened to his emotional response and by the time he was done speaking neither of them could look him in the eyes. Neither of them was used to hearing such raw emotion in his voice as he was normally not the sort of person to have passionate emotional outbursts, at least towards them. After a few moments of silence, Sofia was the one to speak up.
"You know... We're so used to thinking like mortals that we discounted something. Not only did Raul resurrect mom... He remade her body. Part of my problem with the plan was that line of thinking. That it'd be dangerous for the men of the city's watch to go to the Emerald Cavern because they'd be in danger of dying. They would be, but that'd be an inconvenience, not an actual threat." Sofia stated, sheepishly, causing Margarita's expression to change as well.
"That's... I hate to admit it but that's a good point. Not only is this an incredible dream, but we could also potentially achieve it without any real losses... The more I think about it, the more I realize how truly astounding it is." The baron's elven wife said softly. Both the baron and his wife turned to face me fully now, an excited look in the baron's eyes as he began to speak.
"Okay... I'm in. Raul, please tell me about the religion you seek to create. I'm all in. You've done so much for me that I... Converting to your religion is very literally the least I could do for you to begin to show you my devotion and my gratitude." The baron told me before Margarita began to smile and speak, a devious look on her beautiful face.
"Actually... I can think of something more. Raul, how did you empower Riezel?" She asked me, and I immediately, intuitively realized where she was going with her thoughts. I chuckled and decided to humor her.
"I had sex with her. I'm a grand adonis, I can empower people through sex." I replied, revealing that quite simply. Both the baron and Sofia began to blush a bit as I brazenly revealed that. Margarita smiled at me and nodded, before beginning to speak up again.
"In addition to our family joining your religion... Sofia, what do you think of Raul?" She asked, turning to face her daughter who for the second time in the last few minutes was blushing furiously.
"Mom! I... You just got back, from being dead no less, and you're already thinking of an arranged marriage?!" She asked, causing my eyebrows to rise in curiosity and mild amusement. I was not especially fond of the idea of an arranged marriage, but I did think this interaction was amusing to watch so I was ready to allow it to play out for at least a little bit longer.
The baron, curiously enough, did not shut down this conversation either. He was watching it with a touch more seriousness than I was. But only a touch.