Not all that far from the 4th wall floated a sight that should have been impossible in this part of the multiverse. Light.
At least that was what it looked like. Floating there bright and thick like a liquid substance. It resembled a tiny version of the thick cluster of galaxies.
Yet it wasn't one. After all Erizos had yet to reach here.
Whatever it was it was something worth informing the All-father about. This was Tepes thoughts as he quickly turned to one of the Eternals his intent clear.
Just as he made to speak a spike of energy pulsed from the dense floating liquid light. The waves created from this spread in all directions. Tepes could feel the shivers he got from it. A feeling rose within him that sent a chill down his spine.
Tepes' arrogant smirk was suddenly gone from his features as he took a step back while floating. His mind reeled and his heart pounded.
This was a totally new feeling to him. Since his birth and before in his past life as a direwolf he had never come across anything that made him feel like this.
"I haven't felt this. Even from All-father." his thoughts were valid since none of the creations had ever felt the All-father hostility.
The white liquid suddenly moved. Tepes froze. The surface of the liquid moved again and he floated back even more. His earlier thought of calling to the All-father had disappeared due to the panic from the suppression he was feeling.
"What... what is this?" he stammered.
If anyone asked the Eternals behind him they'd all make one statement. "The liquid answered".
Like a wave, it splashed up suddenly. But instead of receding like normal waves, it rolled about as it elongated and stretched up.
Tepes watched as the thing stretched out itself. He could feel the suppression on him growing. Even the Eternals behind him could feel it. Each one of them bending as seconds passed. Their bodies creaked from a weight that constantly amplified in multiple dozens.
'ABN ÊIKE! MÊA'SSÅ! (1)'
The thought was just as the liquid finally completed its rise and slowly solidified while taking a very distinct shape.
Yet just as the thing was taking shape a weakness grew in Tepes' bones. He could feel it but he could think of it. He would later come to realize what his thought had done. While nothing exactly damaging it was something that would define the pantheon and divine beings to come.
At the very moment though all he could do was watch as his body floated in a kneeling posture behind him the Eternals were totally suppressed into floating horizontally while facing downwards.
Fortunately or maybe unfortunately the liquid completed its transformation and the light dimmed to reveal...
" me?"
*************
MITAWAS (IST REGION) - SECTOR DUZTROS
Erizos looked up from the 3D image of a transparent winged female floating above his module. His eyes looked ahead far into the distance.
Though to anyone he was searching for something he was in fact reading and talking to Berus.
[Tepes Sends A Prayer]
[Prayer Inline]
[Prager Received]
[Choose -
[Audio prompt] - [Video Prompt] -[Audio and Video prompt]
"You rearranged it."
[Indeed.]
Looking straight at each of the words he got a clearer explanation for both.
[Audio prompt]
Only let's the receiver of the prayer hear the words. To transfer such a message energy is needed.
Depending on the life grade of who sends a prayer, a bit of energy is deducted. This grows according to the increase in life grade.
+2 to Divinity. (x2 per life grade increase).
[Video prompt]
Can only see the entire scene playing out from the perspective of the praying individual.
Depending on the life grade of who sends a prayer, a bit of energy is deducted. This grows according to the increase in life grade.
+4 to Divinity (x2 per life grade increase).
[Audio and Video prompt]
Can see and hear the events in the individual's surroundings.
Depending on the life grade of who sends a prayer, a bit of energy is deducted. This grows according to the increase in life grade.
+6 to Divinity (x2 per life grade increase).
[The God receiving a prayer can only pick an option depending on the individual.]
*
"Huh".Erizos was confused at first. He would have still been confused if suddenly the first two options had lost their glow looking almost dull like. The last option instead grew brighter blazing in a reddish-gold glow.
[That's urgency. The fade of colors in the other two and the increase in the glow of that one means whatever it is. Tepes wants you. No needs you to see it]Berus who designed the new display for receiving prayer could only hurriedly explain it to Erizos.
After all, he knew what the lights meant and also what would happen if the prayer intensified.
Erizos sensing the urgency in Berus's voice chose the third still active prompt and for a millisecond his vision changed.
It wasn't his complete vision though. In a way he could see with his lower blue eyes while his upper golden ones were glazed over as he found himself searching through the environment.
What did it mean to pray?
How exactly would it work?
Back on earth several beliefs and practices revolving around prayers were rampant. Most said that prayer was a two-way conversation. For some, it was merely a way of requesting the aid of one's god or gods.
While many people had different concepts about prayer or how it worked. Erizos for the first time experienced what it was like and saw for himself what it could do. It was something that made him realize a lot of things. And would also bring future problems and future ideas.
What was an All-father? The answer was something that Berus had not yet answered for Erizos. But he already has a bit of an idea. His conjecture came from the few things Berus had shared with him back then on his very first day in this multiverse as a God.
When a multiverse was born, although he was sure how long after whether immediate or later on. It created for itself a being. A manifestation of its power.
It was like in those novels where a planet lived long enough to get a will.
The multiverse had formed a will. Him. Though his theory felt shaky since planets made wills out of sometimes their people or from gathering enough energy. The first was less likely since the multiverse was empty.
The second would be on point if not for him.
He was once a living, breathing human. Yet somehow he had wanted up here. How?. Did it mean other All-fathers also were once humans?
Erizos doubted this. Berus would have shared this with him if so.
So how did he a human end up being right where the multiverse created a personification of itself?
That was if his entire logic was even correct. It felt correct though. It had to be correct. Yet he knew that trying to understand something like this was still far off from him.
Yet he couldn't help but feel that old taste rise in him again. The sense that something or someone somewhere was in control of everything.
Yet it made little sense to him. What or who could be powerful enough to manipulate the process of an All-fathers birth?
Things were getting even more confusing and the need to know was increasing in him.
Suddenly his goals upgraded.
Yet not all of that helped in the correct situation. Except for how it all came down to the prayer.
Divinity was a funny energy. All powerful and refusing to be swayed. It could be spread out in various parts yet know where to go or who it belonged to or what its owner wished.
It was a power that no matter how low it regressed would always passively or actively act. Actively for those able to wield it and passively for those who had it but couldn't sense it.
All beings had divinity.
From the highest lifeforms to the lowest lifeforms. Erizos in his tweakings of creating species and life for his realms and soon-to-be-born worlds had realized something that Berus had hinted at.
Souls were points of divinity that had been broken down. If divinity was seen as 1 energy. Then souls were seen as little as 0. to the minimum.
So what happened when one prayed? The divine energy was activated. Like a metal pulled to a magnet, it would be drawn. Alas just like metal could only be drawn by a magnet that it was placed close to, so too prayers went to those to who they were directed at.
But the divine energy went and never returned. In other words.
"Tepes sacrificed his divinity to call to me". Erizos muttered shocked as his senses swarm through the body of the Azkolve and materialized outside it.
The scene which suddenly played out made the next very important question slip from his mind.
If humans lost the soul points they had whenever they prayed then wouldn't they all just use up all their soul points? Alas, his thoughts were washed away as he locked his sight on the white being that floated in front of Tepes.
The spikes of energy he felt from it made him think of where he had felt something like that from. He'd barely scratched his head when it clicked. But when he realized his face froze and his module disappeared as his lips parted in a shout that was repeated simultaneously by Berus.
"Another All-father?!".
[Another All-father]
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(1) Meaning - Help
From the (Tongue of Erlezoian) records.