It had rolled the concepts and names around in its mind for years and had still not named itself. It had created names for most things in the universe it currently fed on. It was so massive that it would take decades yet to consume. Currently, the space in this universe had shrunk considerably and many of the creatures were dying due to the lack of light. It had consumed the high energy portions of the universe first, for the biggest gain. When it had taken most of the energy of this meal it would move on, and continue its quest for a name.

It watched the last flakes of easily reached energy flow into itself and the universe buckle under the vacuum. It retreated ready to breach into another plane of reality. Focusing its energy it created a link, further than it ever had before it felt the reality tug back. Both sides wanted the connection and it snapped into being far stronger than before.

It felt curiosity and something else, something it had never felt before. It felt like emulating motions he had seen the small squid now named ‘space squid’ do when faced with peril. Flee. It was not accustomed to fear, the sensation was new but looking at the accumulated experience and watching the space squids flee he could think of no other explanation.

It tentatively shoved some of its power and sensory material through the breach. It was flooded with complex information as billions of living things immediately entered its awareness, he saw all in his sensory range and never before had such diversity been displayed to it. It was intoxicating. From the smallest microbe to the largest organisms it had ever seen, huge creatures that propelled themselves on limbs. Humane he would call them.

He reached out further discovering the rock on which the connection had been made. He saw a positively vast realm to explore. Seemingly endless, even after exhausting half his power to extend into the universe he could not fathom its end. He retracted his power back to just a few miles radius around his connection to home.

This was a great clearing opportunity, every living thing was living off each other, each complex stage becoming more, more in control, more aware. From the larger animals, he could sense complex thought patterns making them unpredictable and new. Once again he saw the world in a new light, much brighter more interesting light than the space squids. He had the desire for something more, he had never wanted much apart from his few goals in life and through the decades had hungered and thought. He had set himself the goal of naming all things, this was still a noble goal but as he watched the two-legged Humane interact he could sense them become exited. They gained something more than food and life from interacting with each other.

From them, he sensed emotions, excitement, and joy. Had he ever felt these emotions, would he ever. The seemed to gather the most of this ‘joy’ from interacting with similar members of the same species. Could he find others like himself, perhaps they existed but looking at the circumstances that created him he thought it to be a rare occurrence? Perhaps unique.

He shifted his point of reference moving the link to his dimension so he could explore. He may have been bound to a certain radius of the opening but it was not static. Regular physical laws did not apply to the breach in reality.

As he moved his perspective over the world he saw many things. The care of other animals to provide food the symbiotic relationship of the world below, all things had reached an equilibrium. They sustained themselves with near-perpetual cycles. Many of the Humane were powerful, they had there own way of manipulating the raw energy that the world provided, as unsophisticated as it appeared to him it was powerful, relatively speaking. The less aware creature that acted on instinct used the power from an instinctual understanding, they strengthened themselves with it some reaching truly powerful states. But the more intelligent ones did not, for the most part, have natural magic it was instead more of a mental will. Those with talent shone as having an instinctual understanding of how to use mana, but most of the population were not talented and without proper education, they could not prosper.

He felt himself analyzing what they were doing as he watched boys grow into men, men grow into graves and the world move on. He watched an learned how they worked deriving infinite pleasure from the goings-on of the small creatures. They build little structures and picked people to tell them what to do, to try and lead them into a better future. At this rate, it would take them an eternity.

It was during his musings that he felt something brush against his mind. A far smaller influence was reaching out to connect with him, it was sending a small information packet. He was surprised, he had slowly been eating away at the seemingly infinite energy of this place but it was slower than usual like something was stifling the flow of energy. Like someone was holding on to it.

Never the less he had slowly grown his influence and expanded his area of focus to miles in every direction of his contact point. The small connection that was reaching out felt not harmful, but hopeful. Intrigued he reached out and secured the connection. He felt surprised by the connection, it was a Humane as he had named them. It stifled its surprise and delivered its message.

‘Please god of war do not let this act of evil go unpunished for the enemy had attacked during a truce. By your laws, this is a sin and they have dishonored themselves in combat. Lend me your aid and bring you, children, to there judgment. My sword is you will…’

He could now tell, this was a prayer. He had seen the ritual conducted many times before with many names, but never before had he had someone contact him. He had still not chosen a name, perhaps this request would help him discover something. He had never been requested to do anything before and he felt almost a compulsion to test it out, new experiences were how one learned after all.

He reached out to the connection and shifted his perspective to above the connected Humane, what he saw was a city under siege. An army was coming from around and slaughtering the garrison. He could not understand what the Humane meant when he said they were breaking the rules of war, perhaps they had agreed not to attack, he had witnessed some similar truce situation before. Well, not matter he was not here to watch the humans, he was fulfilling a request. Something about that felt right.

He gathered some of his hard-earned power, not very much in the grand scheme of things, he collected the power above the outside of the city. He condensed it into the head and made it squeeze the air, causing its volatile components to liquefy and fall as rain. When the combustible element reached the ground he gave them a burst of energy, just enough to set off the chain reaction…

***

Primar Jacob Al-Dapper was not a religious man but when the men of the kingdom had invaded their land he had wanted to pray. They had demanded a tribute be paid after reaching the city-state and they had paid. Then expecting them to move on they had all been disappointed. They had broken the agreement despite the king's ransom they paid in gold and gems.

It was as the advanced that he dropped to his knees and prayed, the first god he could thing hearing about, the god of war. A lesser worshipped god who stood for honorable combat and upholding the rules of war. When he reached out he felt something, in his desperation, he had reached out with his limited mana and found something. Like a veil it permeated everything in the area, he reached out to it with a plea and sent his prayer.

‘Please god of war do not let this act of evil go unpunished for the enemy had attacked during a truce. By your laws, this is a sin and they have dishonored themselves in combat. Lend me your aid and bring you, children, to their judgment. My sword is you will…’

He felt something, a thought process so fast so massive as it comprehended him, with his connection he felt something searching him and the huge presence around him shifted like something was looking at everything. At that moment Jacob knew he had linked with the divine.

He watched as the presence manipulated the very air above the battlefield and a gentle rain began. The rain felt off to those that it fell upon outside the city, it was too light and seemed to be made of multiple densities. It was shockingly cold to the touch.

Jacob looked as the whole field burst into flame, it clung to the battlefield and burned flesh withing seconds men started dropping their lungs scorched and skin smoking. Within a minute the fire dyed down to reveal a smoking landscape. Only a handful of the enemy's powerful mage had been able to rid themselves of the fire and raise a shield. Less experienced mages had raised shields but the fire had already been inside and cooked them like an oven.

Jacob stared at the carnage and felt a tingle. His connection remained with the entity.