"I am in the process of unifying my planet's people." I began, speaking rather ambitiously of a world that was far wider than just one kingdom. Riezel and Sofia both turned to look at me amusedly and waited to see where I was going to go with this.
"I am currently establishing a religion devoted to myself and a pantheon that I seek to create over the course of the next few centuries. I also seek to rid this world of the constant threat posed by the various dungeons located throughout it. I intend to begin with this world and then spread my influence and the faith devoted to me throughout the cosmos." I explained, which caused Zaria's eyes to widen in both shock and interest. She spoke up next.
"You seek to establish a pantheon? How... intriguing." She said, her eyes twinkling with interest and excitement. I chuckled and realized how fully the truth would fuck me in this instance. Internally I chuckled, and externally I just shook my head at the strange starmazon.
"I only just became a full deity. I lived my entire life believing that I was a human, a regular, mundane, human. On my 21st birthday, I ascended spontaneously and was informed, via my own iteration of the system, that I was a deity and a grand adonis. That was just over a week ago. I am still adjusting to my powers and learning how to... be a deity." I informed the group of extraterrestrials, speaking honestly. This shocked them and caused them to look at each other in surprise.
"Raul... You know you don't have to be alone anymore." Zaria offered sympathetically, only for Sofia to immediately interject.
"He isn't alone. He hasn't been for many days." The half-elf replied, an edge to her voice as she spoke to the demigoddess. Zaria locked eyes with her and shook her head.
"I didn't mean it like that. However, he is a deity. And... so am I. I know what it's like for him. At least a little. Deities exist on a different sort of... scale, compared to mortals. What we can do... What we are... Surpasses what mortals can do and what mortals are." Zaria revealed, causing Fara and the rest of Zaria's family to turn to her in shock. They weren't surprised that she was a deity, they were surprised that she had revealed a partial truth so freely. She noticed their stares and shrugged at them before replying to their wordless actions.
"He has freely revealed so much about himself to us and he has given us the power to communicate with his people. Plus he almost certainly already knew about me. We'd be wise to show him the same sort of trust and kindness he has shown us." She stated, smartly. I nodded lightly, and this caused my fellow natives to turn and stare at me in surprise.
"Well of course I knew. The two of you know that I'm a telepath. I didn't pry very far, but it didn't take me long to discover Zaria's complex heritage." I told my allies. They glared, annoyedly, at me. I sighed and turned to look at the extraterrestrials.
"Listen, I know that all of us have complex situations. I would like to offer you, all of you, a space here in my home. That includes private rooms that I can decorate for you however you wish, even Alpha. In time we can see about either fixing your spaceship or finding a portal to another world or dimension wherein we could hope that the ship works as it should since it doesn't work here. Until then you all can stay here, safe and sound. Including the goblins." I offered. I actually told two lies in this statement.
The first lie I told was a direct one. It was the lie about "fixing the ship". Mere minutes ago I had fixed the starmazon vessel, but I had also secured its promise that as long as I asked it would continue to pretend it wouldn't work in this world. The second lie was a stealthier one.
One power I had discovered that I possessed was one I discovered while gaining new worshipers. Some of my worshipers had been to distant kingdoms and cities, and one evening I attempted to use my ability to make portals that take me from one place to another to a place someone whose memories I possessed had once visited, but I myself had never been too. I was delighted to learn that I could do that when I successfully made a portal to a distant city far from Vanheim.
By suggesting that I needed to find a "fix" to the spaceship, or find a portal off-world, I suggested that I didn't have the power to take us off-world myself. That was not true. If I wanted us to leave this planet, between the various memories I had theoretical access too I could find a safe place that wasn't on this world for us to go to.
My new companions quietly considered my offer before opting to take me up on it. I was unsurprised when Zaria and Fara decided to live in the room right across from Sofia's, though their choice to live in the same room did catch me off guard. Once inside of the room I quickly added a second door and gave each of the women a private living space. Both of their rooms were modeled after plain rooms of starmazon make, though Zaria's room included small shrines both to her father and to myself, which she insisted I make.
Aster was given a room on a lower floor, not far from the goblins. His room was similar to that of his cousins. Alpha was also given a room close by on the ground floor, and hers was filled with technology from her memories and homeworld, which comforted her greatly since she wouldn't be sleeping in one of the rooms of the spaceship she had been piloting anymore.
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The rest of the day passed as per usual, aside from our new guests taking the day off to enjoy some delightful downtime, the first bit of downtime they had had since crashing onto this world a few weeks ago. I went adventuring with Riezel during the day, while Sofia interacted with the National Arcane Academy. At night I was again on the streets, now accompanied by and aided by clerics-in-training. Shortly before midnight my companions and I returned home and we went our separate ways.
Sofia returned to her room, ready and eager to do research. Riezel went to her room, ready to rest and lounge around after a day of hard work. What differed from how the past few nights was what I did. Instead of taking a shower and then going to greet Riezel, I took a shower and then went to say hello to Fara and Zaria.
I found them together in Zaria's room, laying on her bed like they were sisters about to fall asleep on the same bed, and greeted the pair warmly. They returned the greeting with seductive smiles and asked me to come and join them. I hesitated but managed to decline to join the pair on the bed, though I did go and sit in one of the chairs right beside the room's desk.
When I managed to resist the temptation the pair of them pouted at me, their stunningly beautiful faces growing increasingly hard to say no to. Zaria asked me why I wasn't joining them on the bed and Fara challenged me to be honest in my response. I complained to them that I was almost always honest and that I'd like to be a bit less honest sometimes before I contemplated Zaria's question. I was silent for a moment after my complaint before I spoke up and offered an answer to Zaria's inquiry.
"I declined your invitation to join you on the bed because if I am too close to you, in private, then I fear I may succumb to temptation before I, or you, are ready. I feel a longing to feel your touch. Both of you. Fara, the sight of your hair inflames a passion in me. And Zaria, you have no idea how much I want to awaken the spark of divinity within you. I want to make that spark explode into an inferno of divine power. However, I shall not rush and do something I cannot undo." I warned the two while admitting that I did indeed desire them.
"You see, I have a rule I stick to. As a grand adonis when I have sex it has powerful effects on the hearts, minds, and souls of the people I am sleeping with. Some grand adonises take advantage of this and abuse it, but I am not like them. I... I do seek a harem of beautiful women to bed, love, and live with, but I will not take advantage of someone in a moment of weakness, or bring someone to my bed who doesn't understand the consequences of sleeping with me unless I am doing so as an act of self-defense." I told the cousins, admitting for the first time that I desired a harem, before briefly explaining how I met Riezel. When I was done with that story I wasn't fully finished speaking.
"I refuse to use this power, one I cannot control, lightly. I will not use it on someone who doesn't fully understand what I am and what sleeping with me can do to somebody unless I am forced to do so. If there comes a day when you fully understand how my sex with me can warp the soul and alter beliefs, and you still desire me then and only then will we have sex. Until that day comes I will continue to sleep with only Riezel and with spirits." I explained, simply. The cousins looked at me thoughtfully when I finished speaking. There was a quiet moment in the wake of me telling the cousins my story, before Fara began to speak.
"Raul, I have heard you. I listened to you. None of that matters to me. What attracts me to you is your strength, not your... magic sex. Your strength is real, even if it's untrained and imprecise. What starmazons value, what I value, is strength. I will, out of respect for both you and my cousin, listen to you and wait until you feel ready, but I view you as my mate. When you are ready, we will begin the process by which starmazons keep our communities powerful." She told me, gazing at me with those dangerously beautiful eyes. Her last statement was fairly poetic, given her rather direct way of speaking. Zaria giggled and also began to speak shortly after her cousin spoke.
"Unlike my cousin... I actually do care about the fact that you're a grand adonis. But I don't think that's a bad thing. If anything I think the opposite of that. As a grand adonis, you're precisely the sort of being that I dreamed of finding as a little girl. My father raised me on myths and legends about your kind. I was raised on stories of the love shared by a grand adonis and his grand venus. I never imagined I'd actually get to see one with my own two eyes. And yet... here you are." She whispered, awestruck.
"My system has already confirmed to me that you are what you say you are. And somehow, even now, I can scarcely believe it. I know you're all alone, and I want to ask why that is, but... It doesn't matter now. You aren't alone. Not anymore. You have me. I have... so much I want to say. We're both gods. We're both beings of fertility, love, lust, and pleasure. I..." She paused, tears forming in her eyes, as she considered what to say.
"I know we just met. I know there's still so much you don't know. I have a thousand thoughts running through my head right now. I know now that you were all alone for so long. You had this spark of divinity nestled within your soul your whole life." She whispered, lost in thought.
"And yet you never knew. I was blessed, and cursed, with knowledge. I always knew what I was. And more than that, my father was there to tell me about my divinity. When my powers began to manifest he was there for me. I had a lifetime to adjust to this. You've had a little over a week." She uttered, sympathetically. When I gazed into her eyes I felt her sincerity. She wasn't talking down to me, she was expressing genuine sympathy.
"And at the same time... I've waited my whole life for you. Over forty years. I can wait longer if that's what it'll take to convince you of my sincerity. In the meantime let me teach you. Let me teach you about divinity. Let me share my wisdom with you." Zaria told me, catching me off guard and making me smile. I was about to reply, when she began to speak faster and faster, excitement overtaking her.
"Earlier you said that you wanted to create a pantheon? I'm a goddess and I want to join that pantheon. I am admittedly just a demigoddess, but I will grow. I am not Sofia, and I am not Fara. If you'd have me, I'd eagerly be your wife and a member of your pantheon. Not just your mate, and certainly not your doubt-riddled 'fiance', but your wife. A goddess of motherhood, feminity, fertility, and knowledge." She told me, speaking more directly, and more excitedly than anyone I had ever met. I could sense her enthusiasm, but I rose a hand to silence her for a moment.
"Actually... Before we go any further, I need to talk to you, both of you, about Sofia." I stated, firmly. Fara, who had been watching Zaria show more energy than she had in years, turned to face me with a smile on her face. She didn't say anything and instead paused to see what I was going to say.
"I need both of you to at least feign respect for Sofia. I know that she has her doubts but I don't want you two to start fights with her. I'm not asking you to like her, or even to get along with her, but at least feign a small level of respect for the girl." I asked, causing both of the women to sigh and look at each other.
"She's just so... I don't like her. She's too soft." Fara remarked, disdain clear in her eyes.
"She has so many doubts. I feel them. I hear them." Zaria replied to me, her powers having grown incredibly fast ever since we met allowing her to freely hear surface-level thoughts happening in unshielded minds around her. I sighed at the two of them.
"I know. I know you don't like her. That said, I don't want fights to happen here. If you feign respect for her and don't overtly disrespect her, I will find a way to reward you." I told them, offering the cousins a "carrot" if they'd help me out here. Those words intrigued one of the cousins, Fara, who immediately lunged at me with a smile on her face. I was much faster than she was, infinitely so, and so I simply focused on the little warrior and waited for her to reach me. She was moving at a speed that exceeded the speed of sound but was still slow for me, so I allowed her to approach me.
When she was next to me, she smiled as her lips closed in on my face. I got one look at her lips and froze, long enough for the warrior to reach me and kiss me. Her soft lips gently pressed against mine in a kiss that was itself a bit of a tease. The lip-on-lip contact only lasted for the briefest of instances, but when it was over I wished for more.
"That's my reward. Each day I don't fight her, I'll do that. Oh, and you should let me teach you how to fight. I know you're stronger than me, but I'm a more proficient warrior. And I can't protect you, given the vast disparities in our level of power, unless you use 'Bless' on me, so you might as well learn from me." She explained, smiling flirtatiously at me. Zaria sighed and her next words were uttered in an annoyed tone.
"I'll not disrespect her, overtly, if you let me teach you about the divine. No peeking into my mind or anything like that, just good-old-fashioned learning. What do you say?" The demigoddess asked, causing me to chuckle and nod at her. She smiled delightedly back at me, evidently quite excited to have met another deity and to now have a student.