The omniverse, all of known, recorded existence, was an incredibly vast and quite possibly infinite space. In that vastness existed truly countless pleniverses, and these cosmic bubbles were so vast in quantity that there were more of them in existence than there were stars known to the humanity of Earth in the universe Antonio sprang to life within.
In the sheer incalculable vastness of those pleniverses dwelled a truly incalculable number of civilizations existed. And some of those civilizations were united by unique figures who possessed a strength of character and ambitions beyond their peers. In a few cases those unified civilizations would promptly fall apart following their initial unification, and in other, rarer cases these unions would persist for years, decades, centuries, and very rarely they'd even manage to stay unified for even longer, millennia, and then even eons.
Nevertheless, time was an enemy to almost all things. The constant, deadly, passage of time eroded virtually all things, even the firmest and most solidly built empires were susceptible to it. Immortal emperors eventually died of unnatural causes, ancient empires were brought low both by internal disputes and external conflicts.
Whether it was the mighty, and currently emperor-less empire of Etherscape, the mighty eldritch-empires of EGS8p7, or even the as of yet undiscovered, by humans, eldritch city-states located in the depths of Earth's oceans, cities which were unknown to the tiny species dwelling on the dry surface of the planet, there were truly vast empires that existed within the omniverse. And these empires were both in need of an emperor, and actively utilizing the myriad of resources they possessed to find one.
These leaderless empires did not know about the strange events occurring on the dry surface of the unremarkable world known, to its human inhabitants anyway, as Earth. They did not know about the eerie being who was steadily unleashing change and power on the world. Had they known about the strange being, there were entire factions within the vast empires who would have eagerly debased themselves if they believed that would have been enough to turn the deity's eyes towards them, while other factions would perform elaborate arcane rituals to call to the mighty divinity.
Nevertheless, for a bit longer at least, these empires were to remain rudderless and stagnant. They would not learn of the strange divinity who was busy turning dark prisons into the first macabre "temples" to his glory.
And despite this simple fact, the most sensitive of the many oracles deep within these ancient, in some cases universe-spanning, empires were still capable of sensing something strange filling the aether that surrounded them all when Antonio's powers began to seep into the prison and he entered the office of the warden.
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Even as I physically stepped forward, and approached the warden my mind was well and truly elsewhere. This was because I wasn't just in any one place, I was also all over the Americas.
In the most directly literal sense, I was in multiple locations at the moment because a clone of mine was at my university, listening to a lecture on communications, but even beyond that, I was situated in every corner of the Americas, soaking up billions of years of information all at once. It was taking even my mind a little bit to sift through all of this information.
Everywhere I could see I was able to see things that were susceptible to my psychometry. My potent psychic abilities allowed me to learn about the past from gazing at everything from the very core of the planet to the clouds that floated high in the sky above the surface of the planet. And, very importantly, I had a potent sort of true vision that allowed me to peer past illusions put up by even skilled mages.
It was this fact in particular that resulted in a lot of important discoveries. The first discovery was that the "world" beneath the waves was home to creatures far more alien than I could have ever imagined existed. These creatures were positively Lovecraftian, and as I gazed at some of them I was able to quickly discover that they were, in fact, the inspiration for such beings, having only rarely interacted with humanity but opting to entrust knowledge of their existence to rare individuals, such as the man who helped inspire the genre.
The second fact, one that I was now able to appreciate in a much fuller sense now that I was done with my scheme involving the prisoners I had helped defeat, was that some of Earth's old gods, gods older than Felmoco, were situated throughout the Americas. That little bit of trivia was good for me since in the future I was planning to make friendly contact with some of these deities.
A truth that I learned as I stared at strange divinities throughout the Americas was that not every god behaved akin to Felmoco. Many lesser divinities were actually kind beings who had protected their worshipers and even risked their lives for them! Such individuals were not at all like Felmoco, and they may well deserve to be protected, or even rewarded for their dedication to their followers.
If I wanted to maintain balance, I needed to thoughtfully consider how I acted. And at the moment, I needed more information before acting on my more accurate understanding of the world of Earth and its... rather odd history. Nevertheless, every fragment of information I was learning was stored in the depths of my brain and would factor into my bigger, bolder decisions to come.
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Physically speaking, as I began to interact with the warden, I activated a handy little power known as "Absolute Beauty". The little beauty of a superpower was a potent one that elevated my beauty to beyond supernatural levels, and in turn, transformed me into a truly Adonis-like entity. Despite the name of the power this ability still wasn't able to truly channel my total beauty since I was currently in a human body and not actively creating a more suitable vessel, but the divine beauty of my current form was more than enough for my purposes anyway.
I was a figure of radiant, utterly divine beauty, and as my companions gazed at me I felt the emotions they were radiating shift and alter slightly. The warden viewed me as his creator and master, and I already sensed his view of his life before he became a vampire dimming. Even his happiest memories, ones involving his wife and their daughter, were losing much of the joy they had made him feel.
Rebeza was feeling herself become enamored with my current form and also feeling her appreciation of my more mainline form steadily increase. I could sense her infatuation with me increasing. Plus she was a member of my harem, formally, which ensured that her devotion to me was absolute and would only ever heighten in time.
Imani was openly staring at me, as of all of my companions who were traveling with me she was one of the weaker ones innately due to her fully mortal nature, compared to Titania being a demigod and Rebeza being an ascendant being.
Titania was already a formal member of my harem and thus affected by that, even though she was a demi-Titan and now a vampiric being. All of that actually heightened how she was affected by "Absolute Beauty" since that meant that she could feel emotions on a truly conceptual level. I could sense her love for me surging and swelling as she basked in the glow of my radiant power.
This potent power was boosted in intensity due to my nature as a Cosmic God, Grand Adonis, and as the Anael, all three of which were directly tied to things like love and beauty. Nevertheless, it was a frightfully potent power that I would have been willing to bet would have worked just fine on even other divinities without the boost, so to feel it be even slightly empowered was deeply exciting.
"Warden... I have come here to meet you face to face." I began, speaking rather simply. He listened to me and nodded as I spoke.
"It is my intent to steadily begin to influence the world. I want to begin to do this in places such as this one." I continued, before deciding to explain a fragment of the truth to the warden. I thought it might be good for some of my vampiric spawn, especially ones in positions of power, to have an understanding of the truth.
"I am a sanguinarch. When I, or you, or any of my vampiric spawn, feed, I receive a sort of... energy, known as 'Essence'. By acquiring enough of this energy from one location I can convert a place into part of my 'Dominion', territory over which my control is unquestionable. So unquestionable that I can exert actual control over the place, from affecting things like the weather to altering the interior of buildings." I explained, causing the warden's eyes to widen in surprise.
"I have selected a few people throughout the Americas and converted them into my spawn. All of them, including you, are connected, though admittedly not many of you have fully adapted to that just yet. It is your duty to spread my influence by collecting essence from the unrighteous. Not all of my spawn have quite the same mission as you, but many of you do." I explained gently.
"Master..." The warden exclaimed as he internalized this incredible news. I chuckled and rose my hand. As I did I heard the women around me begin to moan, due to my sudden activation of one of my powers; my ability to remotely feed on "Intimacy". This caused the room to be tinged a soft shade of pink, and I watched as the warden himself gasped and began to blush.
"Now... Not every method of 'feeding' requires violence or is otherwise unpleasant. There are multiple sources of essence other than blood. The first is the soul itself, which you can feed on by being close to someone and attempting to suck out their soul. Be warned though that if you do this to someone and kill them with it no one weaker than myself would be able to resurrect them, even to turn them into a vampire." I explain, causing the vampire's eyes to widen in fear. Nevertheless, I'm not done talking.
"That said the most pleasant source of essence is intimacy. By having consensual sex with someone you generate essence for me, and you spread 'Corruption' which is a potent source of energy and power that infuses you even now." I reveal, having opted to corrupt everyone I transformed into vampires. This news caused Rebeza's eyes to widen even as she gasped in delight.
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Corruption was the potent power that infused Rebeza. It was an eldritch kind of energy that made her body more sensitive to the pleasures of sex and other pleasures of the flesh, while also making her stronger, smarter, and more beautiful. It flowed through me, due to my union with Rebeza, and I was every bit as capable of manipulating it as she was.
Beyond its potent effects on the bodies of those we corrupted, spreading corruption also gave the two of us greater power to exert authority over a place. If we spread enough corruption we could command and control places in ways that were more subtle than I could through my "Dominion" powers.
I had infected my vampires with corruption to make it easier to get more essence, since corruption heightened the pleasure people felt while having sex. That in turn would both increase the amount of essence generated per sexual encounter, since the amount of essence generated per encounter was dependent on the pleasure felt, and also ensure that sexual encounters happened more frequently. It also had the impact of making people friendlier to vampires, since those they fucked would become similar to them, though to a much smaller extent since they lacked a vampire's immortality or most potent powers.
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"Another powerful font of essence though not one you can fully utilize in the same vein as you can other sources, are oaths. Oaths and pledges. When someone swears an oath to you they unintentionally feed me essence. And even now I am feeding on many sources of essence, throughout the Americas." I hinted, cryptically.
"So... There are others like me?" The warden asked, causing me to nod. I didn't blame him for missing portions of what I had said earlier. He was taking in a lot of information at the moment so it was easy to be overwhelmed.
"All over the Americas, there are other vampires. Not all of them are in prisons, though many are, for I seek to feed on the wicked and vile. I have converted many like you, people who seek justice and enforce laws, into something akin to my children. I give you power, and in exchange you feed me. And you also turn others into beings like you, be they obedient thralls or fellow vampires, so that the rate at which I feed grows ever faster." I stated, my eyes twisting and changing as I revealed this.
This was a dark scheme, but it was the kind of dark thing that I liked. In doing this I wasn't hurting innocent people, and I was still gaining power. I was building an unseen empire in the darkest corners of society, while making life a bit safer for everyone who wasn't seeking to hurt others. To me this was an example of balance. Doing things that punished the wicked, while helping in some way those who were not wicked.
"I will feed on the offerings of people like you, my spawn, and grow in power and influence. In doing so I will gain the power to mold and refine society on this planet. Until a day when the world is prepared to accept not only my existence but also my rulership." I explained, even as my eyes became void-like orbs that were filled with unrelenting ambition.
"I will remake society. I will turn it into something greater than this. Something... more balanced than this." I uttered, ambitiously. Slowly but surely my vision for the world, and for omniverse beyond it, was becoming more refined. I was feeling a narrow seed of ambition beginning to grow and blossom within me, even as I imagined feeling essence flow into me from all over the world and beyond.