2

These gods seemed to have never have seen something as powerful as me in their entire existence. For in their approach they were cautious and they surrounded me. Being a cautious being myself, I stood still. Trying not to provoke attack from them just yet.
It was strange though. Other than the ones I had brought into existence, I had never seen another god before. I’ll admit I was intrigued. These gods(seven of them) though not as powerful as me, were a wild looking bunch. The tallest of them was dressed in bright blue fire. Assuming these gods followed the same patterns as my gods did, this would be the chief or leader. The give away is that he looks more impressive.
I decide to try befriending these beings, hoping no messy fight would break out. You see beings gifted with as much power as us, tend to leave marks upon our ruled lands when fighting. The same goes for these gods. Although they had enough sense in them to make the universe in a way that it would balance itself. I made mine much the same way.
“Elvest?” came a shaky voice from behind.
Oops nearly forgot about the girl for a second.
“Yes child?”
“What did you do to bring the gods forth?”
Uh oh. How to explain this to her. From her point of view it would look like I had angered her gods. Also I really don’t know how religious she or the rest of the mortals were. Worst case scenario I could end up having to fight for however long I would be here searching a way to get home. What a cliché.
“Well,” I started, “it would seem to be I make these characters nervous. Should I ask you or someone else for their identity?”
The flaming god stepped forward and proclaimed “We be the immortal masters of this world. Now speak who thou are, be you friend or foe?”
Ugh, old worldly dialect. Guess these guys aren’t so different from my universe where just about every god sounds like some old drama show. It gets old real quick.
But I still want to avoid conflict so, “I be called Elvest and a friend if your willing. I was summoned by this child here and my arrival seemed to cause a stir. Which no doubt brought you all to be here.”
“Indeed Elvest. It would be due to your ‘stirring’ that we are here. A being has not been seen as so powerful as you in our immortal lives as you but, it would seem you can barely contain it. We want to test you Elvest. Your strength amazes us and we need to know your prowess with it.”
This isn’t good. I may end up having to fight anyway. Not that I’m afraid to fight but the damage I could do is immense. Must negotiate out of this. Kind of irked about his comment though, about my control.
“You know my name but I don’t know yours. Please tell me.”
The burning god hesitated for a moment. As if pondering why I would want to know. Seeing no harm he answered, “Marnost, Marnost the mighty.”
Ugh, he’s got an ego alright, “Alright then Marnost. Tell me is this world able to withstand the damage of several deities fighting?”
“Yes. You see we’ve all had disputes among us, and we constantly bicker. Fighting would become inevitable. We made this world to survive them.”
“Oh good then I have no worries then.” crap, I thought, I won’t be able to escape fighting.
“Then let the test begin. You must beat Ramos in a duel. Do not hold back, we can’t die, and I suppose its similar for you as well.”
“Very.”
“Then begin.”
Marnost and the other gods stepped back from me and my opponent. He was a well built fellow, with full armor on. A war god I suppose. Typical I would wind up on another world with war.
He unsheathed a sword from his belt and stood there staring intently at me. I just stood there impassively. I shifted my body just slightly to offer my torso as a target. Seeing it open for attack he charged. I changed into a defensive stance quickly to knock aside his sword. He was three feet away and…gone?
Then I felt pain. The source? Probably the sword sticking through my gut. I’ll admit he’s quick. Able to get behind me and stab me is pretty good. Unfortunately(for him), its not good enough, that and now I’m serious. Time to really screw with this guys’ brain.
I turned as best as could(a sword in your gut will hamper your movements) to look him in the eye. He had a triumphant look in his eyes. Unfortunately me grinning like a feral cat seemed to unnerve him somewhat. It also caused a slight stir among the others.
“I’ll say your good Ramos, but not enough to beat me. By the way I’m over there.” I pointed to the edge of the clearing, away from the huddle.
As everyone turned to look I dissolved my clone from the sword(yep I can do that, what god can‘t?). What they beheld was me…sleeping. Yep just reclined against a tree taking a nap. For the strangest reason this seemed to infuriate Ramos to no end. Again he charged me while I was asleep(don’t ask how I’m narrating even while asleep. It just takes too long, though it would show all of you how great I am.) and stabbed downward into my gut. Still asleep I coughed out some blood. Here’s where it gets interesting. I then raise my hand and pointed to the left(my left his right). Ramos of course looked, RIGHT INTO MY FIST SLAMMING INTO HIS NOSE!!
This punch then made him go sailing through the air into the trees on the opposite side of the clearing and fall through the branches in a heap. Course being a god he stood right back up, shakily though I might add.
I adopted a western accent then to bait him into attack(don‘t know why I thought he would recognize it though). “Well pardner, it would seem that I’m better than you on the draw, unless ya want another shot at the title.”
Apparently he’s a glutton for punishment because he attacked me again.
A second later he was lying face down in the middle of a small crater covered in scorch marks with his sword clipped at my belt, panting like he had to hold the sky on his shoulders(this was Atlas’ punishment from me-although the Greek gods took credit-because he decided that he was supreme and I was inferior. Boy he got pissed when I showed him just how wrong he really was). Anyway I’m sure all of you want to know what exactly happened anyway. I admit just saying I beat him in a second is kind of lazy so I’ll break it down into the more major parts for you.
.0001 sec. Ramos charged me(wow so unexpected!)
.0002 sec. Ramos tried cleaving my head and I ducked.
.0003 sec. Ramos did a downward swing which I stopped with my fore and middle finger.
.0004 sec. I kick Ramos in the stomach launching him into the air. I leap after him.
.001 sec. I land on Ramos’ back and push him into the ground. HARD.
.009 sec. I stay in midair readying my own attack.
.01 sec. I launch bolt after bolt of lightning at him, hitting him every time somewhere different on his body.
.05 sec. I finish the lightning barrage.
.07 sec. land knees down on his back breaking his spine.(he’s a god, he’ll be fine)
.1 sec. I stand up and dust my self off.
.5 sec. steal his sword and strap it to my belt.
.9 sec. returned to my starting position.
See I made sure he knew I was the best. Course that was nothing compared to Amita and companies faces. Priceless I tell you, simply priceless.
I turn to the rest of the gods who were checking Ramos and yelled,
“Next”

3

The native gods tended to Ramos because I had gone a little too far when fighting him. This left me with about five minutes to do whatever while they healed him to where he could heal by himself(I’m sorry already, I didn’t mean to hurt him that bad). This left me with the time to talk to the child. I walked to her and she appeared apprehensive.
Trying to disarm her I smiled warmly and sat on the ground, inviting her to join me. After a few seconds she crossed her legs beside me. Time to talk of this bonding thing she was rambling about.
“O.k. Amita please tell me more about this ritual of bonding. Since I am a god, my blood can affect you very badly unless you protect yourself.” I paused to think, “Also my blood, even if diluted, can pose still a threat to your life if too much is taken in.”
She sat there thinking. This dilemma had obviously never before came up in one of these rituals before. I could tell she was going through ancient legends of some sort in her mind. At this thought I started to wonder what this world was like. I had never seen such a wondrous place(again, that I haven’t made)before. Its simplicity was charming to a newcomer such as me.
Amita then shook me out of my musings by announcing “there is only one other way to bind us together in these rituals and that is to take a flame from Marnost and then press it between our foreheads. Its his prized possession, so you can see it hasn’t happened mu…”
At this point she realized she was talking to air, since I was grabbing a bit of flame from Marnosts’ back. I didn’t even get five feet before he yelled “HEY!!?” of course I just ignored him and was back to the girl with a handful of blue fire.
“It’s surprisingly straightforward and easy to do.”
“W-well we aren’t all as brave as you, Elvest.”
“True, but still.”
“Anyway,” regaining her composure, “I must first recite a spell of bonding to the flame. Then we just put it between our foreheads and press together until the flame is out.”
I had one of those ‘gut feelings’ you humans are always talking about. Like it was saying something awesome or unexpected was about to happen. Well, I’m not going anywhere soon. Might as well give a go at it. Besides what could possibly go wrong(and yes I know these are famous last words). So I handed the fire over to her and she began to chant. It was unlike any chant I had ever heard. There was definite power in her words. I had not ever felt such a definite surge of power from my universe. None of the magic that earths’ humans had could compare to even the feel of the raw energy I sensed
“Leave her be. It will take about 30 minutes for her to finish.”
I turn to gaze at the elder. He was a small man, hardly 5’ 1’’. like the others he wore long robes of brown. A plump and jolly looking fellow with a broad, kindly face. He continued on about her chants complexity and how if even the slightest error was made she would have to start again.
Anyways I had a couple more tests to pass so I wasn’t in a rush. Besides the gods had restored Ramos to good enough health. Time for another showing of my awesomeness. Marnost walked up to me accompanied by a goddess(he still looked kind of mad about the fire but what could he do). She was tall, with long brown hair and covered in what looked to be feathers held together with fur from many animals. P.E.T.A. would have had a heart attack other it. Course P.E.T.A. is one of my universes’ humans worst ideas ever. One is their name. I mean they set themselves up for cracks like People for Eating very Tasty Animals(the author has used this one to general applause more than once). Anyway she seemed to be an animal goddess, or a shape shifter(couple of those gods on earth too). Also she seemed wary of me, like a predator assessing its prey before an attack. This expression seemed out of place.
This usually would be nice for an arrogant person like Ramos, but I am a kinder more humble person. Yes I know I sound like I’m not, it’s irony for my sake(darn it a pun).
As she stood in her animal furs Marnost introduced her, sounding like he was holding back very intense language. I wonder what could have caused this, “This is An-Shan goddess of form and beasts,(wow, double jackpot on guess’). Her test is to see how subtle your technique can be, we have seen your strength you possessed against Ramos but we want to see how sly and crafty that you can be. To win here you must beat her in imagination and quickness of completing your attacks.”
“Sounds simple enough. Anything specific you want or should we just wing it?”
At this he turned thoughtful, “Hmmm, well it would be best to try to subdue the opponent WITHOUT” he emphasized, “striking to kill.”
“humph, nearly kill one god and you get branded for life”
“ Oh shut up and start.”
We stood ten feet apart, calmly analyzing our opponent. One thing that helped me is that she didn’t seem to be aggressive. This helps because it won’t take much to subdue a pacifist.
We stood there for three minutes, figuring what to do. I decided to go for irony. I created a swarm of fleas-invisible to the eye-and threw them on her. She was quicker than she looked, as soon as the first hit her they all disintegrated. I felt a stirring around my ankles and saw snakes curling around them, holding me tight. I did the humane thing and moved them elsewhere.
She was slightly harder to handle than I thought, but nothing yours truly can’t handle. I decided on being winner with the most subtle(yet slightly cruel) trick: nerve poisoning.
This would be simple enough to pull off. I started by stopping my breathing(just a bit of a habit anyway) and then I surrounded both of us in nerve poisoning gas. The trick with this is that it takes a minute to grab hold. She will have breathed in enough to stop a thousand whales(can‘t go light with a god you know). So of course she would try to struggle out of it, she started writhing around trying to get fresh air. I had to grab her and keep her still in the cloud, but before long she was on the ground laying there completely paralyzed and glaring at me as if she would do anything to blast me apart into millions of pieces. I hastily turned the poisons make-up to also stop up all magic as well(Osiris of the Egyptian gods told me this was not an enjoyable experience).
Since it was a relatively easy and painless to defeat her, she didn‘t need healing so much as a paralysis cleansing. They then informed me that I only had to pass one other test before they would leave me alone. Since they had seen my brass, my brawn, and my cunning, they only could just test the last bit of me: my brain.
Hey I have created worlds out of nothing so this should be easy.
Marnost led another goddess forward. This one was comparatively small to the others. hardly 5’ 5’’. Her hair was short and bright grey like a light covered in grey tissue paper. Her appearance matched her powers of intelligence. It constantly shifted in form but always had a connection to intelligence. I could only assume it was unique to whoever saw it because there were clothes from my universe along with others in the random shifts. She had a heavy influence around her, a sort of aura around her. This particular feel was nostalgic. Many of earths gods had a similar effect about them.
Marnost then interrupted my reminiscing by stating, “Elvest your final task is to keep Alchiam the wise from controlling your mind. This test is to be sure that you not be easily taken over by enemies that may wish to exploit your power for their own purposes.”
“Whatever, lets hurry this up now I don’t want to be late for my partners bonding ceremony.”
“Then sit and begin.”
We both sat facing each other and closed our eyes. Alchiam immediately tried to seize my mind but found an obstacle, the fact that I had erased the presence of my mind from her awareness. She started floundering, becoming distraught at the fact that I had become invisible to her inner ‘eye’. being kind I decided to show her where I was. I popped back into the unconscious world and felt her surprise, tension, and her attempt to brace herself from a mental attack. I made no move to attack, you see my strategy was to make someone either reckless by infuriating-like Ramos-or confusing them into being overly cautious.
Alchiam set up mental barriers to protect herself in case of a surprise visit from me. Afterwards she set up a mental assault ‘beam’ to attack me. I just sort of floated in the subconscious realm of our battlefield. Here’s the rundown, one, she is preparing herself to either attack my mind or receive an assault on her. Two, she sees me unprotected. Three, I’m sensing that she sees her caution and what seems to be over worried self and takes a glimpse at how my strategy works. Finally she is tensing to make an attempt for my mind.
I’ll be the first to say that there are endless possibilities on how to win this. I could simply disappear again and then do a sneak attack, or I could swat aside her attack and sidestep her defense. It comes down to what you choose. I Decided to let her know just what she’s dealing with. I am going to let her enter my mind just enough for her to know what force she is trying to control, what incredible power I have, and share all I have done with her. If anything it will be more of my own test, to see if she can handle it.
I made a psychic shield. I made it weak, just enough that she could bust through it. She must have sensed how weak it was, because as soon as I threw it up she attacked with all she had. With a bit of effort she broke through my defense and entered my mind.
She paused, with only half a glimpse in my mind she had seen a thousand years worth of memories. She had to soak it all in before moving, this pause gave me the second that I needed to grab her mind and force in more of my memory into her. I gave her a million years of my experiences. With each eon her struggle for control turned gradually to an awe soaked form of fear. The kind of fear a human goes through when they about to die in a way they cannot grasp, such as if they are about to be hit by a tsunami that’s a hundred feet tall. Or like a deer in headlights.
After I had forced in an exact 1,029,751 years of my experience I then removed all I had forced in(this is so that I can both keep my own life personal and still leave her an impression on her of just what she was dealing with). After the quick removal she still was shaken by what she saw but could not remember what she saw. Like a forgotten scare that still makes you fearful if something related to it comes into your senses.
When I finished I withdrew from her mind and opened my eyes. Apparently what Alchiam saw was having an adverse affect on her. Her aura she exuded was patchy and out of sync. All of the blood seemed to have been drawn from her face, leaving an impression of a cadaver. Her movements were twitchy and uncoordinated. I could only assume that Marnost would blame this on me so I took the initiative in this case.
I returned to her mind and what I found was a veritable wasteland. All her thoughts had left her leaving nothing but raw instinct. This would have to be dealt with first. I soothed the pain of her mind by showing her pure innocence(o.k. some of you might not understand what I’m doing so I’ll break it down. To help calm down the instincts that are raging I must show the mind pure forms of things opposite to what the instinct is set to see. Innocence is basically a collection of pure joy, freedom, and ignorance. Innocence will sooth her instincts of rage, madness, and the feeling of being trapped in her own mind in a way that disables her ability to see think or reason, although this particular innocence does not have understanding mixed in as well, this would calm her fear but, she should keep that for now). Also I threw in intelligence and agility to give her back control of herself and return her knowledge that she lost.
After the quick mental surgery I withdrew to view my work. She was instantly better, already up and walking. First thing she did was remove herself from my presence as quick as she could. As she joined the rest of the gods she recounted all that she could remember and told them that no being in existence could ever control me except me. They weren’t quite sure what happened but they took her word for it and deemed me a pass for all their tests. Only one thing left for them to do.
Marnost walked to me and motioned me to the side away from the others. He made his intentions clear quickly.
“Elvest you have passed the test splendidly but, we (that is to say I) would like to ask you to join us in our glorious haven in the sky. If you agree then you may have many of the same privileges that we hold.”
I didn’t even give it a thought, “No.”
Marnost took surprise at my quick answer.
“No? And just why not?”
“well look at it this way, I by defeating your friends I get all rights and privileges anyway. You probably were just trying to recruit me to your side so that I had to follow your orders, hoping against hope that I wouldn’t be sharp enough to see what I just saw. All you want is a powerful ally that is held tight by obedience. I am no fool. Although you on the other hand can’t have the same said for you. I might have been a nice friend that helps you in time of need but, you decided against being friendly and tried for a lackey.
Marnosts’ went through several changes as I talked, it went from nervous to guilty to his expression now, pure anger. He grew taller until he stood four feet higher than me, his face became more of a dogs with every second. His rage was making him turn into a crude version of my Egyptian gods.
He was at the peak of his anger when I invaded his mind and showed him innocence(this was a weaker version with only joy in it, the best I could hope for is that his anger is diminished). He reacted in a way I had never seen before, his anger and the innocence melded to a degree that it was transformed into a different substance, disdain.
“Fine Elvest you may walk this earth unheeded but, you will be watched with an eagle eye for forever and a half. You are free except in privacy.”
I made a mental note to myself to shield myself with a confusing aura that would turn any spying eyes away from me at the first chance.
“Fine,” I said. “it’s not like you’ll gain much.”
Surprising me Marnost only gave a disgruntled ‘humph’ and walked back to his posse. When he rejoined them they disappeared in a flash similar to how they arrived. Well back to the business at hand. If I wasn’t mistaken Amita would be finished with that spell by now. Also if I’m not mistaken I need to take part too.
I came upon her putting the finishing touches on flames in here hand. She was sweating profusely, small wonder as the fire was searing hot. Upon inspection I noticed that the fire had turned a golden color and was circling around her hand.
I waited for her to finish as I remembered what the old portly man had said about her messing up. It only took about three more minutes for the fire to change from golden to black and finally shift to red, upon which she stopped chanting her spell and noticing me beckoned me toward her. Through unspoken instructions she guided me to stand a foot from her. She then lifted the crimson flame between us and again through her silent motions told me to start moving my forehead to hers. When my forehead was just an inch from hers I started to sense something. I couldn’t place it though, it was like I was in for a surprise.
I found out when our heads met, in a single instant I was experiencing pain far worse than I had ever felt, it was a pain that actually made me lose control of my form. I went from what I was masquerading around in to having my flesh peeling off, then I turned into a bear with a fish tail, followed by a man with a snake for a nose.
Then I passed out.