When I woke up, I was in agony. My body had been torn asunder. Most of my flesh had been charred or blistered. My limbs had split open, as if someone had torn into my skin with a jagged flesh hook. I don't know how long I was out for, but the rain had ceased and I wasn't losing any blood.
Even breathing was painful, but I mustered through it. I managed to pull myself up, but my legs instantly gave out. There was no way I would make it anywhere, and even if I were to go somewhere, there wasn't much I could do. Medicinal knowledge was nonexistent, and supplies were certainly few. Yet, in that moment, my mind urged me yet again. That feeling of, knowing, a feeling of knowing my body and what it was capable of, it had me sit up, legs crossed, and meditate.
The pain was still there, but as I shut my eyes, I began to feel it disappear. Before I knew it, it was daytime, and my wounds had healed a lot. Still, it took a more hands-on approach in order to heal completely. I had to peel my charred flesh off, like picking a scab.
'Fuck... Fuck... Fuck... Fuck!!' It was of course painful, painful to the point that I ended up biting my lip hard enough to bleed. It took hours to finish, and I then began to meditate once again, which got me to thinking. 'Is this true meditation? I can't remember what they are called... But I remember robed men, bald men, who would live in the mountains and meditate. This also reminds me of cultivation. Could I actually do that?'
When I opened my eyes again, my bodily wounds had closed completely, leaving only gnarled scars in their wake.
'Amazing...' I thought. 'I'm healed. Wounds that would have killed a normal man a hundred times over, healed in days. I suppose the downside is that it consumes a lot of energy since I'm practically starving. I can't remember the last time I felt such hunger. ...I suppose I should get a change of clothes before going into the city.'
The city was little more than just a large, rural village of homes made of wood, mud, and hay. From time to time, whenever I would get hungry, which would normally be around once a week, I would go to the city and get the food my worshippers prepared for me. It was never anything fancy: some bread and dried meat, all of which I taught them how to make. I was never a baker, so it was a given that the bread's quality was terrible. Still, I ate it.
The food would always be placed on an altar of stone the mortals made for me. The altar was located in a would-be temple, basically out in the grass fields, surrounded by a few columns of stone. Just about every mortal would come here to offer worship to me, to the point that most of the ground had been stomped to a path of dirt.
When I walked through the temple, many of my worshippers would kneel at the sight of me. At this point, I didn't find it to be all that satisfying. It didn't feel deserved; as if they were only doing it out of nature, and not because they wanted to.
Ever since I'd awakened, and the pain subsided, I could feel something crawling beneath my skin. When I returned to my mountain, I immediately began to investigate. I stared in focus at my arm, until eventually, a flicker of electricity crackled around my fingertips. It was a strange feeling, the kind of feeling you get when your arm isn't getting enough blood and starts to go numb, paired with the feeling of the tip of a feather being scraped against the skin.
The science behind it eluded me, but the control I had did not. It coursed through me like my own blood, and it bent to my will like a muscle. It crackled brightly, like molding pure light in my hands. The pain I endured would be worth the power I gained in exchange.
Channeling it between both my hands, I could feel the raw power, power that excited me. 'Amazing... But... How much can I use?' That question, I immediately put to the test. I threw bolts of lightning against stone, one after another.
It all started there. That moment when I learned just how creative I could get in obtaining abilities- it made me feel as if I were in a game, unlocking new abilities by clearing specific conditions. Once I learned that, it made me wonder what else I could do, just how powerful I could become. From there, I began to indulge, I would tell myself, but the truth was, that moment, was the moment I began to lose it.
'How far can I go? If I drown myself, would I be able to breathe water? If I stand in fire, would I become immune to higher and higher temperatures? Not to forget my healing ability. Could I regenerate limbs? Bone?' As I pondered, I came to the thought that there was a simple way to test it. I chipped a tooth with my fingers, putting only a little bit of strength into breaking a small one, and not just yanking the whole thing out. After that, I thought to test more ideas, beginning with holding my breath. The end result of that was, I still needed to breath.
Eventually, I came to the idea of spilling a little bit of my blood onto this little rat-like creature I found in the mountains, just to see what would happen. I kept it in a hole I dug, and after a few hours, I determined that nothing seemed to happen.
"Ehh... Well that was a waste of time." I let the rat go and it scurried off down the mountain.
I later realized that my tooth had actually grown back, so I snapped one finger. "AGH!! Fuck!!" It ended up healing after a day, but I didn't stop there. I continued to test the abilities I possessed at the time before later thinking of ways to unlock new ones.
I would do all sorts of stuff on that mountain, slowly losing it as time passed. Before I realized it, it had been a decade. My hair had grown longer, and I at some point, stopped bathing. I had an extensive beard, and my muscle mass had increased drastically.
As a result of the population of my worshippers having increased with the birth of new mortals, my available power skyrocketed. By then, I had become more god than human.
I could leap across the sky as if I were skipping on clouds. I moved so fast, that I created sonic booms in my wake. It was around that time that I became obsessed with the next level of power, which was martial arts. Of course, I didn't know any, and since martial arts wasn't invented yet, there was no one to learn from. I ended up making up my own moves and took up weapons.
Iron was discovered in that decade, so I was able to get ahold of some that I personally forged into a spear that I named. "Ironpierce!! Legendary spear of the god Orion!"
One of the abilities I unlocked, was the ability to bless, which turned my ordinary spear of iron, into something that even I had trouble even bending. It was able to withstand my own strength, cut stone and iron with ease, and when I threw it, I could feel it, and even call it to me. It was at first, a crappy spear, but with as much time as I had, I was able to sharpen and forge it into a proper weapon befitting its status as a legendary spear. The end result was a long, black spear with smooth, sharp edges on the blade. I carved designs I thought looked cool into the weapon by manipulating electricity to shave off the metal.
This would come to be known as another part of my legend I think back on in defeat. I began making cloaks and costumes, trying them on one after another while looking at my reflection in my spring. My costumes were terribly made, but with a little imagination, I tricked myself into thinking they were good.
"Luke... I am your father!!" I would say as I then breathed raspily.
As time went on, I began to realize the sorry state of my life at that point. I could no longer distract myself with my abilities. There was no real work to do since the mortals did everything themselves, slowly but surely developing as time passed. The days become monotonous and repetitive as I would wake up, accept the offerings from the mortals, make something, practice, or just relieve myself.
'...Fuck... I miss anime. I miss reading. I miss soda and microwaveable food. I miss alcohol- something that doesn't affect me anymore. I also miss sex. I remember I had a girlfriend, but I can't remember her name or her face. Strangely enough... My memories of her, everything we did together, remain intact, but I feel no sentimental attachment. Is this something else that was wiped from my mind? Am I even really alive? Do I possess free will if my mind can be altered so easily?'
From there, I began to fall into despair, drifting in and out of consciousness as I slept the days away. It would be a cold, lightly snowing day in the winter season when one of my worshippers came to find me, laying in the snow like a corpse.
"Great Orion!! Great Orion!!"
When I came to, I was next to a fire in my cavern.
'Huh? Where am I?' The first sight of me moving prompted the worshipper who had dragged me into the cave to try and stop me.
"Great Orion! Please don't move."
It was the voice of a woman. I could feel her warm, dainty hands, pressing against my chest and shoulder. That was enough for me to react without thought. Like an animal, I violated her, partly due to my delirium and dehydration, which led me to believe it was all a lucid dream. Despite this, she accepted my actions welcomingly and continued to nurse me back to health after what I'd done.
"Drink, Great Orion." She would offer a cup of cool water mixed with snow, which I chugged down.
I began to regain my senses completely, and when I looked at her face, I didn't recognize her, but seeing the marks on her body, I realized what I had done.
"...Who are you?"
She introduced herself by kneeling and splaying her arms before me. "I am Ilyia, oh Great Orion. I am the First Sister of your church, the Order of Orion. As the First Sister, I was tasked with finding you, as it had been months since you had last been seen."
"Months...?"
"Yes, Great Orion."
'Have I been asleep for months? I must have been in a state of hibernation since last I checked, I could only go a few days without water, and only about a fortnight without food, but months?'
"Right... What year is it?"
"It is the year thirty-two of the calendar."
'Thirty-two years already? No wonder... I established the calendar to keep track of how long I've been on this god-forsaken planet. Thirty-two years on this world...'
"Oh Great Orion!" The Sister, Ilyia, grabbed hold of my hands. Her small hands were barely able to clasp around three of my fingers. She spoke while staring directly at my eyes with that alluring expression on her face. Her skin was clean, spotless almost, and she was beautiful. Her cheeks were red in blush, and her thin lips arced in a smile. "I thank you for this gift..." She said, glancing down where her arm was placed on her belly. I instantly knew what she meant.
"Ahh... Yes." I couldn't look at her in the face any longer, turning my neck as I sent her away as nicely as I could. She seemed eager to return, blissfully happy despite what I'd done.
'There's no guarantee that she is pregnant. Maybe I am incapable of having children, but to be safe, I should watch her.'
Using my divine sense, I was able to see down to the city from miles away. I would begin spending most of my time, if not all of it, watching the mortals' daily lives. They had developed a lot in my time away, having formed an understanding of math greater than what I could have taught them, and a greater understanding of agriculture, animal husbandry, and architecture. Even my temple had grown in size. It housed hundreds of devotees who lived and worked within the temple grounds.
I kept a keen eye on the First Sister, Ilyia for the first couple of weeks, which resulted in me confirming her pregnancy.
"Ah, shit!" I slapped my own forehead.
Word would spread of her pregnancy among the mortals, and at first, they suspected her of committing adultery and were soon to condemn her, but with a smile, she told them the truth of the matter.
"This child is a gift from the Great Orion. It was he, personally, when I went up to his mountain to visit him, who gave me his seed which has begun to sprout into a growing bud."
'What is she saying?'
"This child shall be his firstborn! A new god upon our world! His holy son!"
'Why are they all breaking out into tears?!?'