A few minutes after I unfroze Lilith's pets, she, Qu'Ren, and I were behaving very civilly. We were even sitting down together! We were seated in a different part of her manor, having moved out of the place to allow for our emotions to settle and to see if a change of scenery helped.

I was responsible for this. I had requested it for a very pragmatic reason: during the time it took for us to walk to the room I finished absorbing Lilith's extensive memories and knowledge. And even now her knowledge percolated in my brain.

So this is the mind of a head of a noble family that I didn't already have followers in... I thought as knowledge streamed into view, improving my awareness. My vision was flooded with textboxes revealing facts, spells, skills, and more to me. How positively delicious. I said to myself, my thoughts quiet and hidden but no doubt suggested by whatever eerie smile was likely etched onto my face.

This is new though... Not that I'm complaining, but my mind absorption powers have never been like this before. I thought, wondering why I was undergoing this odd, and pleasant experience.

[Hello Althos. In order to address your curiosity and slight confusion here's an explanation: the domain and subdomains that challenged you with the "Master Manipulator" quest came together and granted you a sneak peek of what you can expect to see in the future when you absorb knowledge, memories, and thoughts.] The system explained, causing me to nod internally.

Oh, that makes sense. I guess. I thought, grinning, hopefully, less weirdly than before.

We found ourselves in one of the rooms belonging to one of her younger children. I didn't mention it to her, but I actually knew which of the children it belonged too: one of her girls, Helena.

The room was a drab place, but Helena had a dour personality so that was unsurprising. The room was ruthlessly spartan and the table was only there for Helena to make notes on assorted strategies and plots she was working on all over Undermoon.

She was one of the few politically minded members of her family aside from her mother so her mind was constantly active and the table saw regular use for its intended purpose. I looked forward to restoring her and empowering her as one of my worshipers.

Lilith looked at me, her scarlet eyes filled with curiosity and interest. She was no longer the angry woman she had been when I first met her. Qu'Ren watched her, her eyes not filled with intrigue and a curious fascination. She was the first of the three of us to speak.

"This is a nice atmosphere. The three of us, alone, together." She said, suggestively. She winked at Lilith, and Lilith looked at her. There was no hostility in her gaze, just a mild level of curiosity. After all, she didn't know that Qu'Ren charmed her youngest son, and my little witch hadn't had an opportunity to do anything in the brief standoff I had with Lilith's other children. I chuckled and then began to speak myself.

"Look, Lilith, I am a god. And that means a lot more than just me being able to enter dreams, do some cool stuff, and even grant people powers, which I can also do." I said to her, smiling pleasantly all the while. I fell silent for a second, while I considered how to continue from here.

"Being a god, at its simplest, means that I am a creature with the capabilities to alter reality." I told her, breaking it down to its most essential component. She looked at me with an eyebrow raised to signal her skepticism. I could already tell she was going to challenge me from that eyebrow alone. Oh goodness. Here we go. I thought as she prepared a sassy response.

"Look, if that's what it means then I'm a god. Or... a goddess." She said, the exhaustion from earlier becoming audible yet again in her voice. I chuckled at her. I'll go ahead and have some fun with this. I thought as I began to prepare my first bit of proof, something even I had never done before: create a portal to a place I had never been to.

I know... a lot more about The Heart of Darkness now than I used too. A small part of me realized while I focused on trying to find a relatively safe place in the nightmarish dimension which would be safe for the dark elves and I to get a glimpse of.

What I was finding while diving into the memories and knowledge I possessed was that the entire dimension was a deadly, chaotic mess. Which I already knew. I know so much about the specific dangers of this place, but not much about how to navigate it. Not even Raverangos' or Aggothas' knowledge is particularly useful, the two of them more or less stayed near where they became their current selves. I grumbled while wracking my brain.

For a second I considered creating a sort of peep-hole into the dimension, but then knowledge about types of demons including minuscule and vermin-like ones that were no less dangerous than other, bigger types flooded my consciousness. Oh damn it! I complained, managing to be both annoyed by and appreciative of Hagitha's encyclopedic knowledge of demons.

I'll just show her my dimension then. That'll have to be good enough. I told myself, mildly annoyed that showing her her birthplace within the demonic dimension wasn't an option that was safe for her or her family's holdings in the long run due to the possibility of a demon sneaking into the house.

"No. I mean on a fundamental level. As a god, I can do forcibly do things that humans misidentify as natural phenomena." I explained a grin on my face as I did so.

"Let me show you an example." I told her, as I prepared to activate a power of mine that I knew, in time would soon become one of my favorites.

The darkest part of Helena's room was a corner of it that was undecorated. It was where two sections of the dark walls of the room connected and there was no furniture to take up any space there. It was from there that my usage of one of my newer divine powers, one which allowed me to create portals linking even extradimensional spaces, manifested.

The portal was birthed in seconds, manifesting itself as an impossibly dark hole that seemed to lure in what little light existed in this place and devour it. This is only the third time I've used this power. I noticed as I grinned at the thing. I gestured in the thing's direction and urged them to look at it. They did that without fear, but nothing else.

After turning to acknowledge the new, eerie addition to the room, their facial expressions changed. Both Lilith and Qu'Ren looked at it with trepidation. After watching them for a few seconds I shrugged and spoke once more.

"Look, I can't force you through that portal," I said, beginning a statement. I was lying, I could easily force them through the portal, with or without actual physical force if I wanted to.

"But, I can tell you what lies on the other side: a secret place known only to a few mortals. An entire dimension created by my power. A place you can find on the other side of darkness." I told the two of them, purposefully making a grandiose and enigmatic statement to entice them to overcome their fear.

They were still for a second, while I got up and walked to the portal. I listened to hear if they were behind me and on their feet. When I realized they weren't I sighed and stepped through the portal and into the Althonian version of Undermoon. I took a few steps forward so that I wasn't immediately in front of the portal and heard them emerge from behind me, only to look out into a city extremely like theirs and gasp when they looked in the sky and spotted the gigantic mushroom that overlooked the city.

"It's... real." Lilith said, in gasping, shocked breaths. I laughed softly at her reaction and nodded.

"It's very real. And it's my home." I said softly, admiring my handy work, and I wasn't alone in that.

A few minutes after finishing up my conversation with Tristan, I was hard at work in another place. I had teleported here to begin making preparations for the raid. Something I thought would be more fun than it actually was. And for once I wasn't alone in my world. Another me was hard at work as well, having a conversation with a pair of dark-elves.

Preparing a raiding party is simple, they said. It'll be fun, they said. They could have told me I'd have to make weapons, armor, and nets. I grumbled. I wasn't near the other me, in our version of Undermoon. Instead, I was at the only permanent portal that linked my realm and the mortal realm.

The tunnel was a perfect place to plop a portal into existence. It was an unmanned place, and because it synchronized perfectly with its destination: another mining tunnel. Most of my surroundings were lazy shades of dark colors, and a still, quiet tunnel. But in front of me was an experimental invention: a dwarven minecart.

The thing was an odd invention. It functioned and even resembled a normal minecart but had no need for rails. It rolled around on its own, powered by magic, and was an incredible aid in gathering materials. This was why my human followers in the tunnels between Golden-Gate and Undermoon used it to supply me with an impressive amount of metal over the last few minutes.

The invention was packed to the brim with assorted metals, all of which came from the tunnel that connected the city of Undermoon and the small rebuilt community of Golden-Gate. I had a handful of iron from the minecart in one of my hands and I was waiting for the right moment to use a skill on it. The right moment was approaching, but it wasn't here quite yet.

I wasn't actually focused on the lump of metal in my hand. My focus was elsewhere. It was on the three similar forms in my mind.

These things are so... big. And furry. I thought, in reference to the creatures whose bulky forms filled my mind.

They were bovine things with the basic limb composition of humanoids. In my mind's eye, they were naked, and I knew they'd come to life covered in thick fur and possibly leather or fur armor but I wanted the minotaurs to have real weapons and real armor when they sprang to life. And I had begun the process of making such armor and armaments.

The floor next to me was where I deposited the weapons I had already created. I created two throwable nets designed to ensnare harpies, which were on the floor next to me, and a single bastard sword. I had also created two breastplates designed to accommodate a minotaur's frame.

I'll be done with this soon. I noticed, as I only planned to create three minotaurs to accompany me on the raid. The rest of the preparatory stage would only take a few minutes. Good. I want to go ahead and get this started. I thought, a grim smile on my face as I envisioned completing this quest soon.

An impossible, unprecedented affliction struck the city of Namira. Minutes ago a strange blanket of mystical pollen descended on the city and coated every corner of it, even seeping into buildings.

This strange golden pollen seeming rained from the sky, though they were no clouds in sight and it was difficult for rain to penetrate the barrier over the city. That didn't change reality though. The reality of the situation was that a pollen-like substance fell from the sky and coated the floor, roofs, and indoors of the city of Namira. And that same pollen fell moments before an even more noteworthy thing happened.

The inhabitants of the city of Namira fell asleep. All of them. Every man, woman, and child was fast asleep. As were all of the animals that roamed the outskirts of the city. The city was impossibly, almost unimaginably quiet.

If someone had been able to take a tour through it, or rather this version of it, they'd be stunned to see the gigantic streets deprived of all traffic and activity. And they'd be scared of whatever caused this because it was so quick that giants were caught off guard and outside when it happened.

The streets of Namira were lined with giants who had been going about their business when the supernatural phenomena occurred. Some were men, some were women, and many were children. They were caught in a range of positions. Some had been working. Some had been playing. Others had been committing crimes. Or tending to their herds or crops. But now no matter their occupation, or their social status, they were all caught in the middle of a single, ambitious dream.

They were flies, trapped in a spider's web. Unfortunate victims caught in someone else's rhythm, the rhythm of an incredibly ambitious woman and the god who had decided to support her. And they'd soon learn what that meant.