I used to be interested in mythology, and with them being rather widespread in modern media, it was easy to learn about the strange history of gods. I had believed them to be nothing more than fictional stories with insane events, such as the end of the world, or the birth of a god through insane means. However, living on this world, I came to understand that there was some semblance of possibility. My granddaughter, Centaria, was the perfect example. This is what led me to create the very heavens I had told my worshippers about.
My mind may not have known, I may not have known, but when it came to my capability and my abilities, my body would. As my worshippers have grown, I came to realize just how my power grew.
'Many die every year, but I can still feel their worship and the power it brings me. Killing those, demi-gods, increased my power far more than any single worshipper would give me. My power grows with the more worshippers I have, the stronger their faith in me is, and continues when they die. I should imagine it like a literal soul... That soul will go somewhere, and if they die in my name, or I kill them, they go to me. However, I can lose souls if they decide to worship another god. Does this count towards my own blood? This would explain their varying strength. My daughters live simple lives, and Perius does nothing but dote on his wife and children. Centaria, however, is worshipped by the people who have come to see her as a loving caretaker for all of the good she has done for them. That should confirm it. They too are gods whose power is dependent on the worshippers. If that is the case... Then that power could split between us. That would explain why the gods that I killed were so weak. There must be a way to prevent that...'
I eventually came to a solution that had me sit down with the most renown scholar in the empire; a man by the name of Julius.
I was able to find him through the temple, who sent word of his summons. He was a devoted follower and answered my summons with zealousness.
I decided the best place to meet would be in the very temple my worshippers had constructed for me, taking seat in what was a essentially a throne at the center of the temple.
"You are Julius? The renown scholar?"
The man fell to his knees and splayed his arms before me. "Yes! Oh Great Orion!"
"You are very skilled at writing, therefore, I have called for you to write the Zova."
He raised his head in confusion. "Great Orion, I shall write whatever you shall have of me!"
"Good. The Zova is a book I want you to write for all the empire. It will require you to tell the history of my pantheon. This will include my kin and the events that have to happen."
Needless to say, he took it as a divine honor and did as I wanted.
The writing of the first Zova would become an artifact, passed down through the church, and kept safe in the temple, the only place where he could write.
Copies were difficult to make at the time, so the stories began being told by the Brothers and Sisters of the temple who began traveling around the empire and even beyond, to tell of the Zora's stories. This way, while my power would bolster more worshippers, the power of my blood would too, as the mortals' worship would not be to an individual, but rather to the whole of my pantheon.
I like to think I raised my children well, as they did not grow up to be arrogant and foolish. They did not misuse their strength, and if anything, they considered themselves closer to the mortals than to godhood. Something of note was that when they seemed to stop aging as time passed, all of them seemingly at the age of young adults, around twenty years of age. I would now consider them immortal, or perhaps they just aged slowly to the point that it was unperceivable. Regardless, they were gods, capable of doing godlike things. I needed to prepare them, and so, I began to teach them.
Perius was gifted with a strong body, and had a love for the sword. I taught him all I could, and tasked the empire's greatest smith with creating a weapon for him.
"Of course, Great Orion!! I am humbled and honored to be tasked with such an honor!!"
Needless to say, the smith poured his heart and soul into smithing his greatest work. When he finished, he revealed his masterpiece; Vandyrmere. The sword was the perfect length and width, a broadsword that on its own, was strong and sharp, but I would further increase its strength by blessing it as a divine artifact. The weapon's very properties would change, and the weapon would now be capable of splitting the earth and mountains, which we learned from the very first swing Perius did.
We were astonished to say the least, the reach of the damage that it did from where we were, out in the open fields. The ground had split in half, even traveling up to the mountain. With the dangers of the weapons, I sealed it away, only allowing Perius to ever call for the weapon in a time of need.
"This weapon is only ever to be used when necessary. If there is ever a battle or a war. Do you understand, Perius?"
"I do, father."
"Mm. Good."
Despite knowing the capabilities of the artifacts I blessed, I knew it was a necessary evil to create them, even with the chance that they could do more harm if something were to go wrong. I needed them to be prepared.
Centaria took a liking to the bow, as it was one of the few weapons she was able to use proficiently with her body. A beautiful bow was carved for her by the empire's most well-known wood carver. The finished result would be a finely crafted longbow, a figment of nature itself. I enchanted the stringless bow, which when pulled, would conjure arrows of light.
I myself, would have a weapon made, a special weapon that would be considered the most powerful and dangerous of them all.
'A last resort. That is what I need. A weapon, that in my time of need when I am backed into a corner, I can use to win outright. But what? I imagine a nuclear weapon, but I know nothing about such a thing. Against gods, what would be the point of a gun? I need something that could kill a god, no matter how powerful they are, without restriction.' I would lose myself in though for days over the problem. I would come up with hundreds of ideas, recycling them over and over as I pondered the question again and again. Then, I reworded the question.
'No... I am thinking about this all wrong. Thinking about how to kill a god I can not imagine is a waste of time. How would I kill myself? Surely, other gods have managed to gain abilities as I have. They will surely have divine sight and hearing like I do. A strong and tough body, one that can heal fatal wounds. They would surely be able to hold their breath for as long as I can. They would have a resistance to sickness and poison. How would I kill someone like that?' Then, as I looked up to the sky- to the blazing sun above, it came to me. 'That demi-god I killed used fire against me... I had already trained my resistance to heat by standing in fire, but there is a limit to how much I can take. There is a limit to how much every living organism can take. If they managed to somehow gain the ability to conjure fire, then I should be able to, just like with the lightning.'
Fire used to be able to hurt me, but now, I was immune to it, or at least to the lowest level of flame. I needed something hotter. My understanding of furnaces was basic, so it took me a few tries to manage to make one that worked, one that would be improved with the assistance of my granddaughter, Centaria.
The furnace was large and sturdy enough that I would be able to stand within it and it wouldn't crumble from its own heat alone.
"Centaria. Look away." I told her as I took off my robe and stepped inside.
"Yes, grandfather."
The furnace was surely much hotter than the open flames, but it was not enough to break my skin. Slowly, Centaria raised the temperature as time passed, something I had her do until I exclaimed for her to stop, something I didn't do. I refused to leave before I mastered it, and I held that mindset even as I began to feel my skin burn from the heat. Every bead of sweat sizzled instantly as it escaped my pores. The hot air mixed with flames and ash felt suffocating to breath it. Yet, I persisted. It got so hot that it was as if I was being cooked alive, but it eventually became easier to handle.
I spent hours of grueling pain in that furnace, before the flames died out and I emerged, radiating heat from my own body.
"Father!! I'll save you!!" Perius screamed as he splashed a bucket of water on me that instantly evaporated into steam.
"Perius, what would you have been saving me from?" I managed to ask before Aqua too, splashed me.
"I will save you too! Father!"
What I learned from that day, was that my body's ability was to adapt, given time, and the heat that I endured was nothing only something that I grew to be able to resist, but something that I was able to withstand absorbing.
I walked over to the field of grass, and the blades would sizzle at the slightest touch against my skin. I couldn't create flames, but I could feel the heat within me, the same as the lightning. If I focused enough, I could create flames that danced on my bare skin, but I would have no control over them.
For months, I would practice and develop this new ability, climbing to greater heights, day after day.
I would make use of the greatest source of heat that already existed. The very sun that the planet orbited around.
I climbed to the peak of the sky, flying higher than I had ever gone before. I was intent on breaking through the atmosphere, building enough momentum that I began to burn from the friction, but alas, I fell victim to the tale of Icarus. Half of the reason I was only able to move through the air was because of the air itself, while the other half was from my momentum carrying he forward, however, as I broke through the atmosphere and the air thinned, I could climb no further. I plummeted to the earth in a ball of fire, barely able to stop myself from spinning, which I only managed to do by creating explosions in my hand.
Simply put, I was still too weak to escape the clutches of the planet, unable to extend my reach outside of the laws of existence. I was no genius nor was I talented, so my hopes of reaching that peak felt too far for me to grasp. But I was stubborn. I refused to stop, refused to give up. I kept reaching; fall by fall, leap by leap, bound by bound, until my perseverance alone allowed me to reach that goal. I was a god, no longer was I just another faceless spec of dust in the infinite. I stood at the top of the planet, and I was determined to do so literally.
Silence befell me as the oxygen escaped every crevice of my body. Rapidly, the cosmic, neverending void that was outer space sapped me of my warmth. I had managed to break through the atmosphere, floating fast away from the planet. I slowly began to lose consciousness, my mind, drifting away as my body did.
I refused.
I refused to lose myself. I refused to give up. I tightened every muscle in my body, I grit my teeth, and I took what I wanted. In that vacuum of space, before the sun, nothing lay between us. It's radiation and its heat, I would take it for myself. I absorbed it, making it my power, and though my lungs had collapsed and there was no air to carry the sound of my shout, yet the intensity of my roar managed to ripple across the planet's atmosphere despite that.
The many smiths across the empire began forging armor and weapons. The Zova told the mortals of the existence of other gods, such as the demi-gods whom of which I had slaughtered for the crimes. This would begin a new age of zealousness among my worshippers, sparking the first war the world would ever know. The mortals would march and kill in the name of their god, and the deaths of the many would catch the attention of their god. I knew that war was inevitable, that one would spark sooner or later. I choose sooner than later.
The finest smith, alongside the sword he crafted for Perius, I would have craft a set of armor for me, which upon completion, I would bless and name the Armor of Orion. The set consisted of a metal helmet and a tunic of leather and metal. With my armor and spear at the ready, and my power welling, I would be prepared.
"Graith." I scoffed at his name as I put on my helmet. "You destroyed my city in your name. I will destroy you in theirs."