In the moments before the god and the echo of one of the ancient gods who perished at the end of the mythic era signed a historic contract, the god's mind scattered to distant corners of the globe. This act resulted in many small and some not-so-small changes to the world, but they all served a single purpose: to forever alter the world.

  Scattered throughout the world were a number of potent secrets that the chaotic god Althos fully intended to use to leave Torus a changed place as he and his minions left the world behind. In the moments before he signed the contract he was negotiating with the mighty vestige of the dwarven god Morehammer, he activated his powers carefully and in targeted manners to unleash these significant surprises.

  The first of the surprises he unleashed on the world was one located beneath the city of Aronms. The dark-elven city had been the location of the grandest Morthian temple in the world and deep beneath it lurked a potent portal to the nightmarish dimension named "The Heart of Darkness", the hellscape from birthed vast demonic hordes. He intended to unleash the dangerous denizens of the cyclopean plane beyond the portal onto the world.

  That said he wasn't without mercy and didn't intend to unleash demons on his own worshipers. So he was cautious as he did this. First he transmitted a notification to the inhabitants of the city.

  Even as he crafted the notification, Althos carved out an amount of space within his own island home that was the same size as Aronms. He didn't yet possess the powers to craft an exact match of the city of Aronms but he was able to make the roughest outline of the city possible.

  This was an epic display of his eldritch might but it was one that happened privately and one he didn't care to show other people. For now, his intentions were merely to save the dark elves of the world because he saw them as a tool with which to acquire greater power over darker and more malevolent domains and subdomains. The fact that he was able to do this in less than a minute was a testament to how vaster his powers were now than they had been before, as he nonchalantly vaguely recreated an entire city.

  Moments after this notification went out to the inhabitants of Aronms, tens of thousands of portals appeared in front of dark elves throughout the city. Many of the dark elves hesitated, but when they glanced through the portal and saw a dark, distorted, and imperfect replica of what they were leaving behind, they shrugged and stepped through the portal. In a matter of moments, the city was nearly completely empty. And this allowed Althos the room to do what he wanted to do.

  The god's mind turned to where the Morothian Manor had once been located. The Manor had once been Morthos' most ornate temple in the world, and even now underneath its ruins lurked one potent toy with which Althos intended to unleash devastation on his Morehammian foes. Althos' mind reached deep underground and "grabbed" what lurked beneath the ruined temple. A single fel-portal.

  The god lifted the vast portal through the ground that surrounded it, while mentally speaking to whatever creatures waited just beyond it. He yanked it out of the stones that prevented it from unleashing fell-hordes on the world. And as he did his words reached through the portal and to the denizens of the maddening realm that laid through the portal.

  The portal that Althos was yanking out of the ground led to a part of the Heart of Darkness that was once thought to be civilized. Or at least as civilized as a portion of that plane could be. What was once true was no longer true, and the layer known as the "Spoken Scourge" was now a place of just as much openly murderous chaos as any other layer of the Heart of Darkness.

  The portal, as it was buried deep beneath the earth of Torus, and surrounded by stones on every side, was inactivate at the moment. But as the portal moved through the stones, thanks to the reality shifting powers of the god who was moving it, it began to stir to life. The portal, on the side of the Heart of Darkness, manifested in the middle of a massive and now ruined city on the layer. This place was coincidentally inhabited by a plethora of demons, who were able to hear the words of the god who was forcibly reopening the portal by placing it in a place where it would work. And his words stirred their dark hearts.

  "Demons... If any of you can hear this message, know this. I, the dark god of chaos and freedom, freely give you this gift with no expectations or special qualifiers. Dash through this portal and freely feed, corrupt, and destroy, whatever lies before you." The god commanded, his words being heard by every demon in entire kilometers.

  On the Torunian side of the portal, the dark god was smiling. He was gleefully dragging the portal closer and closer to now largely evacuated city, and as he did so he imagined the hordes on the other side of portal clashing with the dwarves throughout the world. But he wasn't done speaking to the demons just yet.

  "Transform the world of Torus into a swirling nightmare of chaos and evil." He told the demons lurking on the other side of the portal. And as his words spread out across the layer more and more demons turned to face his voice.

  As they slowly realized the implications of what he was saying they began to cackle and fly towards where his voice was coming from, the ruined city at the heart of the planet-sized layer. In a matter of moments, a horde hundreds-strong was gathered around where the voice was spilling through into the dark plane.

  The demons gathered around the portal had a variety of forms. Some were recognizable as certain types of demons, such as the handsome yet violent looking incubi, and others were not and had nightmarish bodies made of constantly swirling slime or even an impossible number of limbs on visually disturbing bodies. They all gnashed their teeth together as they salivated around the slowly solidifying portal.

  Their half of the portal resembled a vast doorway, dozens of meters tall and equally wide, that was filled with swirling green energy. They could peer just past the portal and on the other side they saw rocks, endless numbers of rocks. Until they didn't.

  When their view beyond the portal abruptly went from an endless number of rocks to an empty city they let out a collective cheer, though no mortal listener would have thought that the unholy chorus of noises they made was anything even remotely resembling cheering. Their cheers were an amalgamation of noises, some loud and awful, others sinisterly delightful and disarming. The portal abruptly solidified as the god responsible for uplifting it yanked it out of the earth.

  And at last, the demonic invasion of Torus began. Hundreds of demons slithered, walked, flew, and crawled through the portal and into the dark elven and abandoned city of Aronms. And distantly, thousands of kilometers away, Althos smiled.

  Another secret weapon that Althos unleashed against the dwarves who worshiped Morehammer was in some ways a far more sinister one. Throughout the world existed tens of thousands of dragons who never worshiped Althos. A small part of the god had wanted to convert them one by one, but he hadn't had the chance. That said, they were now neat tools in his covert war against Morehammer.

  The dark god targeted them with an especially nasty set of his powers. He inflicted all manner of cruel diseases on them, after awakening them with singular usages of his "mind blast" power, painfully snapping them out of their, in many cases centuries-long, naps. And he quietly took advantage of their existing hatred towards any number of creatures and turned it towards dwarves who worshipped Morehammer. He was priming them up to go to war with Morehammerians as soon as he and his worshipers were gone from this world.

  The god wouldn't be able to leave Althonians in Torus, but he could turn the hearts of creatures who stayed here forever against the followers of the dwarven god. He also spawned literal tons of food for them to eat, which would cause them to fall under his influence. And it was at this point that the god felt a small pang of regret for not acquiring influence over the sins of gluttony or wrath, but only a small pang. He valued the sins he had influence over at the moment and he knew that in time he'd acquire more influence over more sins. He just had to be patient.

  The final thing the dark god did in the moments before he signed the contract was to target all sources of food for all dwarves with what was, contextually, a wicked combination of powers. He targeted animals and plants alike throughout the entirety of the dwarven kingdoms, and he awoke them.

  Awakening something was an especially elaborate move in the context of the contract he was about to sign. By awakening things he instantly converted them into his worshipers, thereby preventing them from staying on Torus and being eaten by Torunian dwarves. It was also something that Morehammer hadn't known Althos was capable of doing, as Morehammer did not know that Althos was more than just a god, that he was something quite unlike anything else that had ever lived.

  The moment the god began to sign the contract, his mind was assailed by notifications. And he transmitted one of his own, as he began to do something else as well. Something that was unthinkable to his old self.

  The god quietly began to create floating islands and even floating oceans the size of his own sanctuary. He did this effortlessly, displaying confidence with his powers as he constructed homes for his people and prepared for the days to come, days he knew would test him in ways he had never been tested and push him beyond what he believed himself to currently be capable of.

  Althos felt his followers go through a number of moods all at once. Disbelief in many cases. Sorrow in others. Anger in some. But he also felt them experience joy. He felt them experience love. He felt them experience relief. Their emotions washed over him more intensely than ever before, because in signing the contract he had acquired an incredible number of new powers including an unparalleled sense of empathy, one far keener than any creature alive currently possessed.

  Standing in front of Morehammer, Althos almost fell to his knees as the sheer intensity of the emotions of not only his followers on Torus but also all of the creatures he could sense washed over him at once. It was breathtaking and positively powerful to feel the true intensity of the emotions of the plethora of lifeforms that existed throughout the solar system. Even for a god it was a bit overwhelming.

  Morehammer smiled at me as he saw me struggle to stay standing. The creator of the dwarves chuckled and asked me a question in a surprisingly jovial tone.

  "That absolute empathy is something else isn't it?" The echo of the ancient god asked me. There was a warmth in his gaze, and a joy that I despised audible in his tone. But I couldn't blame him. He wanted immortality and he had probably just acquired as close to it as he could possibly have. It made sense for him to be elated, this was a moment of triumph for him.

  "It's one of the many abilities I once had that I lost when I died. I can't say that I miss it if I'm being completely honest." He told me. He wasn't done talking either.

  "Absolute empathy is a bit overwhelming. Believe it or not you actually have my sympathies for having to endure it for the first time." He said, speaking honestly. That said he was still having a bit too much fun at my expense. And it's not like this "absolute empathy" power was the only power that was surging into me at the moment. Especially because one big notification hovered in the center of my vision.

  The choice wasn't a difficult one. Not in the slightest. I picked the art subdomain.

  Weeks ago I first heard of the art subdomain as the subdomain that governed beauty. I then heard of it again in the context of one of my shapeshifting powers. And at last, I now possessed the power to acquire it. And with it I suspected I'd experience a further upgrade to my potent shapeshifting prowess. When I selected this power I felt it surge into me, and I felt... changes happen to my body.

  As my mind filled with my understanding of my new powers I felt stronger than I had ever felt, and it felt positively wonderful. A serene and truly rapturous smile alighted across my face as I felt the plethora of new powers I possessed seep into my soul.

  All over the world, moments after the notification alerted the Althonians of their god's agreement with Morehammer, all manner of creatures who worshiped Althos were instantly teleported from their homes to the new floating islands and floating oceans throughout the planet. Plants, fish, humans, elves, dwarves, and other, odder creatures were yanked from their homes and safely deposited throughout floating colonies hovering all over the world.

  Creatures deep underground were teleported from their underground homes to new homes deep beneath the surfaces of floating islands. Creatures who lurked within the flightless depths of the seas were teleported to floating oceans made specifically for them that were impenetrable to the light of the sun. And for a few moments, these new places floated in the air, before abruptly teleporting elsewhere and placed in a unique temporal stasis.

  Htrae... Andrea's homeworld... I thought, a cruel smile on my face as I mulled that over. I wasn't sure what option I would pick just yet, but I did want to go far from here for now. Perhaps a restart would do me good, especially since I could still travel to and from the solar system at will.

  I wouldn't decide what to do until the moment before I was teleported away from the world of Torus. A bigger notification loomed overhead and told me to pick a destination, forcing my hand.

  As I was teleported away from Torus I quietly and silently said goodbye, for now, to the world of my birth. As I did I directed my final thoughts at the dwarves who stayed behind. It was a hateful one, filled with rampant malice and a desire that the demons and dragons who were now arrayed against them had fun devouring them.

  My smile turned malicious as I was yanked an unknown distance to a destination far from my homeworld. And as I was taken from my homeworld, my very body began to change on a fundamental level and in permanent ways.

  As I read through the powers granted to me by love and emotions I realized something: Love was a truly terrifying emotion. And with these powers, I felt far more insanity-inducing than I ever had before. And that brought a thin grin to my face.

  I was being forcibly teleported to a new world, with a whole new set of powers, and I intended to use these new powers to their maximum potential. Soon, I would be free to use all of these new powers on a whole new planet, one beyond the solar system of my birth.