While one of my clones wandered the nunnery I was back in my Perfect Vehicle with Imani, Rebeza, and Titania. I had finished up my business with the mayor and he knew that for now all he needed to do was keep things as they were, while I expanded my influence to other people and places. I'd tell him when it came time for him to be bold about his ambitions. As I rose, so would he.
The car had expanded and shifted on the inside to accommodate the newcomer. She wasn't particularly big or anything, but the car, at least when coupled with the "driver" had not been big enough to accommodate all of us.
That said, as the two women to whom I was romantically linked and my high priestess surrounded me in the car, I began to think of other expansions. The omniverse was a grand place, and Earth was only one world of literally hundreds of quintillions in just one universe. There were more universes than this one in the multiverse, more multiverses than just this one in the pleniverse, and of course more than one pleniverse in the omniverse. At some point, I'd need to expand. What's more... Ever so slowly, parts of me were wanting to do that sooner rather than later.
That said, my ambitions were tempered. As fun as it would have been to go all out, I knew better than to be overly ambitious from the jump. If I were to somehow make a mistake, whatever strange calamities occurred to defeat my ancestors may well repeat themselves and see to it that I fell. I was not going to do that. That was why I turned to the women in my retinue with a question.
"Rebeza... Should we spread the word that the Grand Adonis is real and has arisen?" I asked the archdemoness, curiously. I knew everything she knew, but our minds weren't the same. She was more ambitious and prouder than I was, a natural conqueror if there ever was one. I knew that her ultimate goal was conquest and the creation of a hedonistic empire.
The archdemoness paused and considered my question. As she did Titania spoke up, with an amused smile on her face.
"The Grand Adonis? The mythical, literally fictional, love and sex deity to rule over all love and sex deities? Did you actually make yourself one?" The Titan-born woman asked me curiously. I turned to her and nodded, with a smile on my face as well. My reaction caused her to audibly laugh, a bright smile bringing a vibrant glow to her face.
"That's so cute! That's such a downgrade from your existing powers. How does it even work?" She asked me, to which Imani had an answer.
"He clearly used 'Power Architect'. With it, he could probably grant himself powers of up to just below... Multiversal Overdeity levels of intensity." She explained, being perhaps the most researched of my followers aside from Alphor regarding the inner workings of the powers of Living Gods. Nevertheless, she was quite interested in what I had just revealed. Rebeza, meanwhile, had just finished considering my statement and pipped up when Imani was finished speaking.
"There would be upsides and downsides to announcing that the Grand Adonis had arisen. The upsides would be a guaranteed following for you. Throughout the omniverse, there are septillions of civilizations that understand the vast power of sexual and life energy, and as the Grand Adonis, an Archdemon, and the Anael you are uniquely powerful at generating, channeling, and manipulating such energies." Rebeza explained, with a proud smirk on her face.
"That said, there'd also be downsides. Civilizations led by gods of love, or controlled by cults devoted to archdemons of lust would be actively searching for you so that'd likely lead to the discovery of alien life by humans. I know you don't want that this early, since this Earth's humans have not discovered aliens yet. And of course, you'd have to deal with the people, many of whom would be very powerful, who'd carnally want a piece of you." Rebeza revealed, calmly. This caused Titania to chime in, with a smile on her face.
"That might not be bad. The sheer influence you'd wield as a Living od who is also, effectively, an overdeity for things like love, lust, beauty, fertility and the other domains of the Grand Adonis would be truly gigantic. Multiversal Overdeities would pray to you for your aid and patronage with regards to those areas." Titania stated, proudly. In its own way, the Grand Adonis was an epically powerful figure, one that in a place without a being like myself would have been a staggeringly powerful entity. Imani glanced at me and looked me in the eyes as she began to speak.
"Have you... selected your power sources? I have as close an understanding of 'Power Architect' as possibly anyone but you, and while I'm not as familiar with the stories revolving around the Grand Adonis I'm pretty sure they can select power sources to grow in power can't they? Like how lesser divinities and Cosmic Gods can." The woman asked. Surprisingly enough I actually hadn't selected the power sources available to a Grand Adonis to focus on, and as she asked I mentally pulled up the "Menu" which showed me the options I had to pick from.
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In my mind's eye, a new mental "theater" appeared in a previously unused corner of my field of view. Inside of this theater a bright blue box filled much of my vision. The bright blue box detailed information on power related to the Grand Adonis.
As the Grand Adonis, I primarily and innately drew power almost exclusively from sex, and also generated a tiny trickle of power every second. Had I been some sort of natural Grand Adonis this would have, possibly anyway, been an issue but thankfully I wasn't. As a Living God I wasn't so limited with what ways I could attain further power. The "currency" I was using to "purchase" power sources was a sort of internal energy that I knew I had in spades so I wasn't stingy with it, especially since every purchased power source would ensure I'd gain more power much faster than I previously had.
Many of the ways a Grand Adonis grew in power were related to sex and various aspects of the identities of those with who I had sex. For example, I grew in power at a higher speed if I was having sex with someone I loved or with someone who was in love with me. I purchased all of these sources, even though I still wasn't sure how much I'd be having sex. Fortunately not every way that I grew in power as a Grand Adonis needed me to have sex with someone, as there were four potent sources of power that were perfect for someone who wasn't especially lust-crazed.
The first such power source was a simple but tremendous upgrade to my own innate power production. I selected that one without hesitation, and let out an audible sigh as I felt the power I was internally generating and had been internally generated for a few hours increase in intensity quite intensely. It went from being akin to the gentle flickering flame of a lit candle to feeling more like a massive forest fire within me, but in a pleasant and exciting way.
The second such source was more interesting to me. It was referred to in the menu in my mind's eye as "Dedication", and it was definitely a potent power source for either active Grand Adonises or ones who were voyeurs, or someone who was both of those things. As I selected it, I read through the description and chuckled.
This power source reminded me of the sex-ritual power source for Cosmic Gods in that it involved other people acting with intent to please their divine masters. With this source, any time someone had sex with someone while dedicating it to me I'd feel some of the power they generated flowing into me. For now, due to my very limited influence, this wasn't very useful, but in time it'd surely become a great source of power. This also amplified the effects of sexual rituals as far as actually worshiping me went.
The third power source was dubbed "Odah" by the menu and it referred to a room within a harem which itself was not always a term used to describe the... "collection" of sexual and romantic partners one had but once referred to the part of a household where one's wives resided in privacy and comfort. This power source allowed me to dub a place so long as it was within a portion of my "territory" as an "Odah" and whenever I was in there any power I generated would be magnified. It also allowed me to dub one place my "Grand Odah" and further magnify the power-boosting effect, and I could name more than one place at a time an odah. I selected it without hesitation.
The first place I named an odah was my mansion. I then named the nunnery another odah and shivered as I felt the boost it inflicted on me due to my clone being in there, since clones were themselves every bit as much myself as my central body was.
The most interesting power source for someone who wasn't very interested in sex and sexuality was the one dubbed "Ambient Power Draw". This power source, which I immediately purchased after reading its description, caused me to passively absorb power from things related to my precepts as the Grand Adonis within my "scale" and within my territory. That meant that I'd absorb power from every sex act committed within a certain distance of myself and any territory I possessed, which wasn't small at all.
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A split second after I attained those potent power sources, and while still reeling from the pleasant feelings some of them caused me to feel, I asked Imani a question.
"Imani, I'm the ruler of the thirty-six megaworlds given to me by Atlas Incorporated right?" I asked her, curiously. It wasn't a rhetorical question, I had given them fairly little thought but now they had direct relevance to my power. She looked at me and smiled before nodding.
"Yes, you are the true lord of those places. Now... as for how known you are, that is a wholly different question, but the thirty-six worlds given to you by Atlas Incorporated are fully yours to control. Why?" She asked, quizzically. I smiled at her, as I began to feel the power within myself beginning to swell as my power sources attuned to even the events on distant worlds in another universe. I felt the potent ocean of power within me continue to rise as my body adjusted to the new realities affecting it.
"Well... It turns out that one of the power sources of a Grand Adonis allows them to absorb power from events related to their domains in their territories. So every single sex act is in every one of the megaworlds is empowering me. As is every kiss, every bit of life energy, and more." I explained, as I delightedly relaxed and allowed my mind to feel the potent power affecting me.
Megaworlds were so gigantically vast that a single, minor city in one could hold a population large enough to make the entire human population of Earth feel like a playground in an elementary school in a small town by comparison. And that meant a truly vast amount of people were unknowingly filling me with power.
"Thirty-six megaworlds filling you with power... Goodness!" Imani exclaimed, surprised at what she had just heard. The potent power flowing into me felt as good as anything I had ever felt, due to the very nature of the power in question.
Nevertheless, with the power sources purchased and filling me with might I felt a touch more ambitious than I had previously. I rose a single hand into the air in front of my face and chuckled as I reached out across the entire planet with my powers and activated "Ex Nihilo". Now armed with power that infused me and flowed through me I felt like being a wee bit brave.
I was going to destroy only one type of thing. One thing that I personally deeply detested; weapons of mass destruction. As I prepared to unleash my potent power I rose another hand and activated "Worldmind". I began to use its selective omniscience to ascertain the location of every single WMD on Earth, chuckling as I prepared what was easily my most ambitious move to date.
In the background, I used my limitless mind to study the timelines I was going to create by doing this. I watched the different reactions world leaders would have as they lost their capability to instantly annihilate each other, and felt my previous apprehension fade to nothingness. The ability to see the futures that one could create with even the most minor actions was something that tended to soothe one's nerves and steel one's will.
"And so it begins." I said, to no one in particular, as I activated my potent power.
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All over the world, at the exact same time, something occurred. Deep underground hundreds of nuclear silos were suddenly invaded by a potent force. This potent force ignored all barriers, bothered approximately no one, and touched every single nuclear warhead in every single silo across the United States, India, China, Russia, and every other nuclear-weapon-state simultaneously.
The touched warheads immediately vanished, irreversibly so unless this act were ever undone by the literal god responsible for it in the first place. And distantly the god responsible for this strange miracle smiled as he made perhaps his second overt move ever, and undoubtedly the most dramatic and far-reaching action he had chosen to do to date.
Nuclear weapons were not the only ones that vanished, but they were the most dramatic and spectacular ones to vanish in the wake of the mighty action done by the powerful god. And in the seconds that followed his actions, government agents throughout the world tasked with surveilling nuclear weapons began to notice their absence on security cameras and began to call those higher up than them on bureaucratic totem poles, panicking. The world was about to change, and that was pleasing to the shadowy being responsible for the change.