[-=Nox=-]

The river bay lit up with greens and blues as some sort of bioluminescent organisms became active therein. I started at the glowing water for a bit, then back at the purple night sky.

“Damn. Is that Zealand up there?” I squinted at the flying bits of the planet.

“Huh?” The foxgirl asked.

I pointed my finger at the continental shard that was slowly traversing across the sky.

“You mean Zeniah?” She asked, her voice shaking. “How do you not know this?”

“Spend six thousand years sleeping and you’ll miss some stuff too.” I answered her with a sigh.

She blinked back at me, looking quite distracted, hurt and confused. She was curled up on the colorful glass pebbles of the riverside beach, whimpering, crying and shaking. “My tail... really hurts. I also got singed all over by the flames. It hurts to move... I really need a healer. I can't afford one!”

“Pfff, healer. I can fix you!” I leaned down towards her. “I have just the thing!”

“Wuh?” She uttered.

I leaned down and kissed her again. Drawing Shadow mana from her soul, I catalyzed it into the Void kind and shot a spell matrix into her head through my tongue. This lovely spell would rearrange her pain sense into pleasure just as I had done with mine. My White aura didn’t screw stuff up when I did it.

Excellent. I could do complex magic on her without exploding when we kissed! It was incredibly inefficient and slow, but that was all that I could do. I did not like exploding. Kissing was acceptable in comparison.

I even included a little visual display bit into her eyes, that would visually confirm that my spell was still working. Whenever the pain to pleasure converter became activated, a heart rune would display in her eyes. I ended the kiss, lifting my head to evaluate if the spell matrix set in.

Little hearts ignited in her eyes as pleasure overwhelmed her senses. It worked! Ha!

“Huuhhh. Uhhhh… My tail... it hurts so goood… Whyyyyy?! What’s happening?!” She moaned.

“I’ve rearranged your mind, switching most of the pain pathways with pleasure. Isn’t this better?”

“Yes… better…. it’s so strange… uhhhh…”

Something that she said earlier was bothering me.

“You said… you’ll pretend to worship me?” I inquired. “I want actual worship from you! None of this pretending bullshit. Pretending doesn't feed me belief."

“Uhh uhhh.” She moaned. “Come on! Ah! You’re not a Goddess. Ahhh! You’re Valerianne Yul, a human. What have you done? Is this a real painkiller spell?”

“What were you doing in my room if you do not believe in my divinity?” I demanded, looming over the smaller foxgirl.

“I… got locked out of my room! I climbed into your room by accident. Please get off me!” She stammered out. She was lying, I could tell by the faint pulses of Void that I inserted into her soul.

“Liar. You know my human’s name.” I said. “Who told you my human name?”

“Nobody.” She stuttered. I knew that she was lying. I was getting tired of her hogwash. I grabbed her hands, forced her down and kissed her again. When our tongues connected, I sacrificed a bunch of Void mana and shot a truth spell matrix straight into her head.

“Tell me the truth! What were you doing in my room?” I demanded.

“Captain Nicodemus gave me a Quest to watch you while he went off to do some town business! I’m a Rim Brotherhood Shadowmancer, a thief. I can become invisible, turn eyes away from me. I was curious why I had to watch you. I sneaked into the Captain’s room, hid there using my magic. Nicodemus was using a long range spell-sphere to report back to someone high up in the Brotherhood. He found an ancient, Void dungeon map on you, a way to great, arcane treasure and power. He deduced that you found that great treasure because you’re an impossibility, a Void mage with White aura!” She hastily blurted out, unable to stop herself.

She yelped and grabbed at her mouth with her hands, realising that she told me something that she really didn’t want to utter, wasn’t supposed to say.

“I see.” I grinned.

“Huh? Ahhh!” She whimpered. “Why can’t I lie?! Gods, what is happening to me?! Uhhh!”

“Void truth spell. No gods. One goddess. Me.”

“What? But you’re a level zero! How can you weave such advanced Void spells?" Her mouth dropped open. “Void magic has been illegal for millennia, forbidden. All written records of such dark magic have been destroyed by the Church of Virtue!”

"Pfff... your humans think they can stop me just because they banned some specific magic. What fools!" I laughed.

"You found this truth spell... in the Void dudgeon?” She whispered.

“Found it? I invented mental magic, my little, clueless fox.” I said proudly. “I created the Rewards System! I designed it to connect to the mind of every human in the world! The ultimate mental magic."

"You're a good liar." She whispered, unconvinced. "I almost believed you there." Drats, she could also tell that I wasn't being entirely honest.

"Well, okay. My Rewards System excluded a number of... unfortunates who had absolutely no darkness in their aura. White magic was never my thing.” I shrugged. “Murdering and devouring all other Gods doesn’t exactly make one pure of aura. Took me quite a while to end them all. I can’t even remember what aura color, affinity or species I was when I started.”

I paced along the glass beach recalling my rise to power.

“When I became omnipotent I was pure Void! Absolute darkness is the essence of absolute power that’s able to bend space and time. Did you know that everything of value in the universe spins around gargantuan Void spheres? That nearly every star in the sky orbits around, is a vassal to the Void? Supermassive black holes from which no light or matter can escape are what holds up, wields every galaxy out there!” I pointed at the fading galactic spirals in the heavens, beaming with pride.

“Murdering Gods? The stars are held up by the Void?! But… but…” She floundered, overwhelmed with information.

“Indeed! The Void is the nail upon which all of creation hangs, the center of everything!” I nodded sagely.

My acolyte descended into confused, incomprehensible muttering.

“Right, I know it’s a lot to take in for a little, simple fox from this sad, clearly discordant epoch. Think it over and realise my greatness.” I said, interrupting her muttering. “Back to mundane matters. Nicodemus told you to observe me because he thinks that I’m a Void mage. What else?”

“I wanted to learn exactly how you harvested Void mana while having White aura. I assumed that maybe it was a hidden artifact of some sort. I thought that I could easily overpower you, threaten you into revealing your secret. But then you set fire to the room and...”

“Overpower me? ME?! The Avatar of the Void? Idiot mortal!” I squinted at the foxgirl in agitation. How dare she fail to instantly acknowledge my divinity!

“Nicodemus was talking about your stats! You’re a level zero with only one Void mana.”

“Sixty two Void mana now.” I nodded with a grin.

“Sixty two… Void…” The foxgirl gasped. “That’s incredible.”

“Yes. Congratulations. You’ve found the amazing treasure that you were looking for. It’s me! The Great Devourer, Goddess of Eternal Night!” I said proudly.

I was no longer starved for magic, but my stomach growled, demanding human food. Ringrise broke over the river bay, painting the world in pink and purple shades.

“Foxminion!” I announced. “We must acquire sustenance and grow in power!”

“Wuh?” She looked back at me, looking quite skinny and unkempt.

“You also need to be fed,” I commented.

“Acolytes of the Nox must look respectable and round. This won’t do at all," I jabbed a finger at her skinny ribs, making her squirm.

“Okay… okay! Just let me get some clothes from...” She rose.

“No.”

“But…” she protested, trying to cover herself up.

“Whatever clothes you have are likely as pathetic and useless as you are now. Honestly, they didn’t even survive a little fire.” I stated. “Follow. NOW.”

The naked foxgirl followed me, her face reddening.

“Don’t be trying to cover up! Walk with pride! You’re a chosen acolyte of Nox, a servant of the Goddess of Eternal Night!” I announced. “You’ll never become a great Apostle with this shy attitude! Why, I remember when my Apostle Lexx Ludar came up with a spell matrix to create moddable clothes made of solidified mana, discarding fiber-based fashion as inferior and obsolete!”

“Can I at least have some mana clothes then?” She looked up at me with a tidbit of hope.

“Nope. Totally forgot that Matrix! Lost a lot of memory while I was asleep.” I said, crushing her dreams of fantastic, mana-based fashions.

We walked into the human town, my glorious red cape full of holes fluttering behind me in the morning breeze. At the center of town I saw a white tower of substantial size, tinted pink by the arrival of the day. A large gemstone shined at the top. The clouds slowly rotated around the top of the tower. Hrm. This was suspiciously high magic, compared to the rest of the local architectural mediocrity. I put it on my to do list to check this tower out.

Quest: Figure out what’s really up with that mysterious white tower. Reward: 1000 points.

I checked my other Quests. They were still there. My dumb human didn’t cancel any of them. Maybe she was still thinking it over. Humans were slow and indecisive like that sometimes. A shame. Did I spook her too much or not enough? Whatever, I had an acolyte now. I figured I could use my little fox as a way to teach my disobedient human to respect her betters.

There was a new Quest there too.

Quest: Help the river Altaira with her sewage waste problem. Reward 10’000 points.

I sighed. The damn river spirit must have muscled this into my human. This wasn't relevant to my interests. I was a Goddess not a damn sewer worker!

I ignored the new Quest and turned back to my follower. She was lagging behind me. She tried to use her Shadowmancy to turn invisible and failed, flickering in my view for a minute. “Status.” She whispered, calling up her info window and gasped.

“Where did my shadow mana go?! I had so much last night!” She whined.

“I ate it.” I replied casually.

“WHAT?! How?” She trembled.

“Sucked out all of your Shadow mana, compressed it into Void mana.” I shrugged. “Conversion ratio is one to ten. The more you know.”

She looked extremely befuddled by my incredible wisdom and power.

“Wait... I have one Void mana?!” Her eyes bulged in shock.

“Yes. You are my dark acolyte and have one Void mana now. I infused your soul with my divinity when the pact was made. Over time, your physical body will become more and more attuned to me. Slowly, all of your cells will become irradiated, imprinted upon, changed by the absolute darkness blossoming in your soul. Eventually, you’ll be able to use your blood, bone, flesh and marrow as alchemical ingredients - inert on their own, but quite powerful when combined with other things and activated with magical energy aka mana. This process will accelerate as long as you consume my Void.”

She froze, her mouth opening and closing in trepidation.

“Ah, now I remember! My Apostle Archmage Agnosticus Mallium used his bone marrow to fuse his human subjects together with felines and vulpines to create an army of catkin and foxkin servants. He was really unhealthily obsessed with making perfect catgirls. Quite the alchemy prodigy and a bit of a nutcase, but then all human geniuses are a bit deranged in one way or another. Comes with the territory, I suppose.” I laughed. “I reckon most potent magical beasts roaming your world now were made with the bone marrow of my Archmagi experimenting with combining existing things to forge new life into being.”

The little foxkin paled. She didn’t want to believe what I was saying, was inexcusably clueless about history and sciences, but I was hammering away at the inadequacy of her education with every word.

“You’re welcome! Now, where do humans obtain sustenance?” I demanded of my acolyte as my human stomach growled for food.

“Uhh… There’s an all-hours pub in town for Adventurers. Hammer and Shield. That building over there with the big sign of a hammer on a shield.” She said, unable to lie to me. “But we really should get some clothes before…”

I wasn’t listening to her whining about current human customs. Human fashions changed with every decade and their cultural values shifted with every passing century. I never bother paying attention to such nonsense, as I had better things to do - all of their values had revolved around my divine work regardless of the epoch.

I grabbed her by her arm and dragged her after me towards the aforementioned pub. Upon closer examination the human temple of feeding didn’t look very impressive. I judged the architecture as quite sad and utterly inferior in comparison to the grand temples built in my Empire of Darkness. In fact this entire “city” was a sad sight to see. Local civilization had clearly gone way downhill without my supervision and fear/love based motivation.

The interior of the human feeding establishment was even less impressive than the exterior. It was a cramped space filled with haphazardly arranged humans, who stared at us as we descended from the rackedy stairwell. They wore absolutely random, clearly handmade armor. The inefficiency and randomness of it all annoyed me.

“Yes, observe me, the great Nox! Bask in my glorious presence.” I smiled at them. The smile came out somewhat crooked and my declaration came out weaker than expected as the full extent of my civilization’s downfall finally hit me full on. Everywhere I looked there was decay, chaos, backwards sadness and disorder. The humans sitting on wooden benches facing wooden tables were participating in a ritual of devouring a variety of burned and boiled beast flesh.

I really needed more acolytes to work with. I stuck out my tongue, scanning the human congregation. There weren't any more darklings here as far as I could determine. I passed by many of the humans, looking for any signs of darkness on their person with my tongue scanner.

Alas, none of them could become my batteries like the foxgirl. These humans would at the very least make acceptable labourers, I concluded. I just had to give my best impression and they would all bow before the greatness of Nox.

As I kept scanning the room, I caught sight of a witch who was wearing a long, black robe. The witch wasn’t even remotely dark, but her robe had a tiniest bit of darkness in it.

“You there! Where have you acquired this fine item of cloth?” I demanded, approaching the witch and grabbing at her robe.

“Uh. McGivers. It’s a clothing shop down the street.” She replied, staring at my breasts.

“Excellent!” I let go of the witch. “We shall visit this establishment after we satisfy our cravings for burned flesh.”

“How do I acquire food here?” I shook my foxminion. She was busy muttering something under her breath.

“Uhhh… sit down and order food once the barmaid comes to us.” She pointed at a girl that was circling the other humans with a food tray. The Void within my acolyte’s soul told me that she felt bliss, confusion, worry and embarrassment. I didn’t understand what she was so embarrassed about.

"Why are you embarrassed?" I asked. "Do you feel yourself unworthy of being my acolyte?"

"Wuh?" She blinked. "That's not it at all. I don't have anything on!"

“Pfff! Don’t follow human trends! Set them!” I told her. “Confidence is key to respect and power!”

The human food bringer aka “barmaid" arrived at our table and stared at us in amazement, just as all other humanoids in this place did.

“Um. Why are you ...naked and soaking wet? Did a monster slime eat your clothes?” The food bringer finally asked.

“I’m not naked. I’m wearing a cape!” I answered. “And my acolyte is lacking a basic uniform, because I’ve yet to reward her with a proper one. Not that she deserves one, she’s still quite untrained. Also, we fell into the river.”

“Uh-huh.” The barmaid said.

“I know you’re impressed by my presence in your town. Do offer a sacrifice at your local Nox temple for me.” I prodded the barmaid out of her shocked reverie. “I know. It’s not everyday that you get to meet a Goddess!”

“Umm… we don’t have a temple of Nox.” The barmaid finally uttered.

“Truly, a pity.” I sighed. “Make one! Build a miniature shrine and sacrifice a small beast. I’ll settle for a rabbit, even. Start small! Decorate it. Beautify it. Make up a blessed event. Say you’ve witnessed a miracle. Attract some pilgrims. Grow, build up, find a talented dark mage and install them as the local priest of Nox. Work hard and elevate them to Archbishop status. You know the drill.”

I was getting quite fed up with the ineptitude and inadequacy all around me. “Why do I have to tell you humans how to do everything?”

“Riiiiiiiight.” The human barmaid blinked. “What will you be ordering?”

“Ahmmm... Give me two of everything you offer! I wish to sample all human foods available in this establishment!” I declared.

The foxgirl sitting beside me whimpered, moving back and forth on her seat. She looked rather uncomfortable and kept trying to become invisible, but flickered in and out of view as she was out of Shadow mana.

“You can’t rush fashion, you know. The materials for your uniform must be perfect!” I told her.

I considered fighting the witch for her robe, but decided against it. At best I could explode things. Exploding things only solved some problems. I was still far too weak in this low level human body and the only available battery sitting beside me was currently out of power. Maybe the human barmaid would rush off to build me a shrine, but I was starting to doubt that ambient sacrifices could reach me in this human body. I felt the pull of something on my Void mana and looked up.

To my irritation, I noticed that there was a rune spiral in the ceiling, right over the table, feeding upon me. I squinted at it angrily. "What the hell is this rune doing?"

"It's an ambient harvest rune. It takes a bit of mana from everyone present to power the lights, cooling and heating in this pub," my acolyte responded, pointing at the lights and metal shields on the walls that radiated warmth. I stuck out my tongue and noted that there were receiver runes etched into glow spheres and metal shields. Lines of magical power stretched from the harvest rune to various devices around the pub.

“I know what it does, damn it!” I growled. “How dare they steal my spiral rune of devouring for something so mundane! Is there no place I can go to where humans aren’t perverting my runes?!”

“Huh?” My acolyte blinked.

"Tell them to turn these off at once! Only I should be allowed to harvest people's mana! I invented the triskelion spiral for eating stars! It's not meant to power tiny ass light bulbs!" I said grouchily. "The nerve of this place!"