The darkened hallway within the depths of the khan was silent, but it was not empty. A single creature moved noiselessly through it.

That creature was disguised as a large and handsome desert giant and the thing moved with ease in that form, almost as if it were its natural form and not a disguise it had taken on merely hours ago to for the express purpose of infiltrating the city.

The creature crept past numerous doors, all made of sandstone, and all of which protected the privacy of the diverse clients of the khan. The deceiver listened to the range of noises coming from beyond such doors with mild interest. He heard them and committed them to memory.

A few of the doors obfuscated the quiet grunts of sex. Some of the people having sex were men and women, but in a number of the rooms within the khan, the coupling taking place was between diverse groups of people.

Same-sex couples, interspecies couples, and sessions of sex involving more than two people were all heard by Althos as he walked towards the entrance of the khan.

Some of the doors dampened the noises of conversations. Althos heard a number of those as well, the thick doors not preventing his powerful hearing from picking up what was being said in the privacy offered by the khan. Only one particular fragment of a conversation really stood out to the monk, and it was a doozy of a conversation.

He heard it not far from the end of the hallway and noted that according to his radar the room where it was taking place was inhabited by three desert giants. The primary reason it stood out to him was that the person who had prayed to the cosmos for intercession and whose prayer was the deity's driving motivation for leaving the khan was mentioned in it.

"Did you hear about Berk?" One of the fellows asked the roundtable of thugs he had brought to the inn. His voice was deep, and his breathing was labored.

"No, what's going on with him?" One of the people who came to the room asked, leaning in as if his colleague was about to whisper a secret requiring tight-lips. This man had a higher-pitched voice, one that to more violent fellows might be associated with whining.

"He's... apparently started to... pray." Another fellow said, speaking almost the instant the person who was ignorant to Berk's fate finished his quest. This mafioso had an unusual speaking pattern, taking deep breaths between every few words. Because of that, his speech pattern was unusually easy to remember. Not that it needed to be for the undetected spy whose attention they had attracted to be capable of remembering it.

This last statement was followed by silence, and then peels of cruel, predatory laughter. And Althos responded to it by speeding up slightly. Within moments the young deity activated his invisibility spell and walked out the open doorway into the reception area. As he walked past the desk he had met Elif at, he noticed that she stood there blankly facing the entrance to the inn and awaiting new guests.

I wonder how often new people arrive at this khan... The will thought to himself, as he edged closer and closer to the exit out of the inn and into the city of Namira.

When he stepped out of the building and back into the open, moonlit city, he felt a cool breeze kiss his skin and face and grinned as he began to head in the general direction the prayer came from.

At that moment he received a surprising notification.

[Alert: New Prayer Quest Available.

Prayer quests are quests that are asked of gods by non-deities. Prayer quests are significant quests that revolve around challenging objectives, come with potent rewards, and require that those who create them be praying while asking for them.

The prayer quest that caused this notification comes from an angel trapped in the dark tower that overlooks the city of Namira. She is asking for salvation, a very literal kind of salvation in her case as she just wants to be freed from the prison, and she is willing to pledge herself towards any deity who saves her.

The basic breakdown of this quest is simple. The objective is to bust this angel out of prison. The reward is her. Her service for as long as she lives. She's an enemy of Paimon, and she was leading resistance efforts from within Bastille itself, which was why she was taken in the first place.

If you choose to accept this quest you'll receive a more traditional quest notification. Would you like to accept it?]

The second will made up its mind the moment it saw that the person who requested the quest was an angel. He immediately responded to the system, eagerly and without fear.

[Yes I would.]

And seconds after receiving and then promptly willing away the formal quest notification, Althos proceeded in the direction of the first prayer he sought to answer. As he took his first steps down towards the family of farmers, he noticed that he approached the strange tower looming overhead with each step.

Althos' mind maintained a bird's eye view of his new dimension, his own private playground, after the thing's initial construction was completed. How beautiful... He thought, unexpectedly admiringly and completely sincerely.

This whole dimension is my home. It's where I am free to create, experiment, and learn. He told himself, joyously. And at that moment Althos' mind was hit with a strong and undeniable urge to look at his dimension's alien, organic version of the city of Undermoon. He had a few moments to observe it before the cause of the urge to examine it would reveal itself.

In the few moments the reality-warping creature had before the cause of the overwhelming urge revealed itself, he stared at the city with his bird's eye view of the place. Even at a glance, the sight of his city was awe-inspiring.

The city was entire kilometers across. Countless buildings, only some of which were made of stone, lined its length. The rare few stone buildings were dismal things, tiny and possibly designed for smaller creatures.

Althos' divine sight allowed him to realize that many of the buildings that were within the city's limits were made of countless incredibly tiny, compacted fungi and thick, alabaster colored plants.

The plant-based buildings were all a single color: a dense shade of alabaster. They were of various sizes, and of different styles, throughout the city. They differed from the fungoid buildings because the plant buildings were not made up of innumerable plants working in concert, but instead, these things were singular and positively creatures in the shape of buildings.

The fungal buildings were variously colored and differently sized, but the largest one of them all hung from the ceiling of the city and looked down on the rest of the cavern.

Look at those buildings... He told himself, in awe of the things. And as he did so, he felt curiosity welling up within himself.

The buildings themselves are alive, aren't they? He questioned, sensing the incredible number of plants and fungi that already populated his city, long before other lifeforms were even created. He could faintly detect something resembling thoughts, faint mental energy, wafting off of the organic buildings, which was remarkable when he considered how far he was from the city.

[Yes they are. This city incorporates elements from the domains and subdomains you've gained various degrees of influence over and has incorporated them into the architecture and vision governing the city. Buildings made of fungi answer to you and you alone. Even the smallest fungi here are fully awakened beings. These buildings are considered awakened, mobile creatures, but only move at your command.] The system's explanation was simple.

I definitely prefer this sort of matter of fact explanation. Althos realized, after reading the system's message. He was grateful to it, and when it expanded further he was again grateful that the thing was being direct.

[You can awaken the plant buildings if you wish. If you do so, they become as intelligent as the fungoid buildings.] The system provided another direct statement, one that educated the fairly uneducated deity as to neat aspects of his city.

Mobile buildings... Even the thought of it was enough to cause the deity to tremble in awe.

And when he looked at the gigantic, palatial fungi that hung from the cavern's ceiling, his awe only grew.

[System... I want to explore this city on foot. Can I do that yet?] He asked, wanting to stand within the gigantic city, wanting to explore it as an individual, and not peer down at it like a sort of omniscient, third-person narrator.

[If you wish to explore your realm, you are more than welcome to do so. Just design a body so that if your servants see you they'll know who you are at a glance.] The system informed him.

[On it!] He told the strange voice, eager to appear on the surface of his dimension and experience it from the first-person point of view.

As he retreated into his mind to begin the strange, divine process by which he designed his disguises, the city began to glow a deep shade of blue. Countless circles of swirling, dark blue, mystical energy appeared all over the city, and all over the dimension's surface as well.

Inside of her strangely designed prison cell, the angel stayed on her knees. Her hands remained tightly clasped together, and her eyes stayed shut.

The young angel stayed still while praying her heart out. She was motionless in the lightless cell Paimon's prison-keepers had thrown her into hours ago. Her mind was hard at work, repeating her prayer over and over. Eventually, though, she got fed up with the endless repetition of her self-assigned task.

Must I repeat this same, blasted, prayer over and over? It's obviously not working. She snapped, after uttering the prayer for the sixth time.

What can I do? Can I change it somehow? She questioned, wanting to do something. I hate this feeling of hopelessness. This... inability to act. She told herself, feeling it eat away at her with each passing moment.

I should probably change the prayer somehow... The angel realized. And then she got to work on doing just that.

Unbeknownst to her, there was a god not far from where she was. He hadn't heard her prayer though. Not yet anyway.

Minutes later, the angel was still on the floor in her cell. Her knees were now dripping black dirt, the same black dirt that littered the floor of her cell. But the angel was satisfied with the new version of her prayer that she had cooked up.

I doubt this will change anything but... at least it was a nice distraction to kill some time. She told herself, almost smiling as she took a deep breath and repeated the prayer once again.

Is there anyone out there who can hear me? Gods, I hope there is.

My name is Angelica. I know that's not a creative name for an angel, but I didn't pick it. If someone can hear this message, and they oppose Paimon, the overlord of the city of Bastille, then I hope they listen.

I am an emissary angel. And I am also a prisoner. I was part of a force of angels from the home dimension of angel-kind. We were sent into Infernius to unify and rally the enemies of Paimon, the true-devil who rules over the city of Bastille in the second layer of Infernius, some time ago and for months we were left alone to operate in relative peace.

Days ago something happened in his city. Some creature escaped his lair or something. Whatever happened caused Paimon to go on the warpath and he sent out dozens of patrols throughout the entire place. One caught us. And so it caught some of the few devilish rebels who were the right mixture of bold and stupid to stay within the city while wanting to rebel against the overlord.

Now I am imprisoned... somewhere. I don't know honestly. I suspect I am not in Bastille anymore because I can't sense my brother, an angel of war named Klaus and because this prison differs from any we knew of in Bastille. He was with me when we were captured. I don't know where he is, nor do I know where other angels who were with us are.

I don't believe gods exist anymore but if there's one out there... I hope they can hear me.

Until now, that had been the moment where the prayer had ended. Each of the seven times Angelica had repeated her prayer, the utterance ended with Angelica declaring that she hoped that she wasn't screaming into the void. That was understandable, all things considered.

It was a happy coincidence that right as Althos' secondary will was exiting the khan he had met Zabuli and Elif for the first time, Angelica decided to tack on a new ending to her prayer.

If there is a god somewhere out there, and they can hear me I have a quest for them.

If they can hear me and if they want an angelic servant, they must come and rescue me. I'll pledge myself to any god who rescues me. Frankly, at this point I'd pledge myself to anyone who'd rescue me.

If you're out there and you can hear me... use my prayer to come and find me. Save me and I'll serve you loyally, for as long as you wish.

In a way perhaps only the system itself could explain, her prayer made something happen.

The prisoner's prayer was a powerful one. It filled her cell with potent angelic energy, something comparable to a watered-down version of divine energy. Each repetition of it, even before the prayer was muttered relatively close to Althos, had caused her prison cell to gloriously glow for a few moments.

The source of this strange glow was Angelica herself. It was her angelic energy pulsing out of her veins in staggeringly powerful and momentary explosions of light.

The light that exploded out of her at the moment she transformed her plea for salvation into a quest wasn't merely glorious, it was remarkably radiant. Even her shut eyelids weren't enough to shield her from the intense, sun-like glow she momentarily radiated. The darkness of the prison cell fared no better against the unstoppable onslaught of her glowing skin.

The all-consuming light that poured forth from her body escaped her veins, temporarily defeated the darkness of the lightless room and was only kept from illuminating further areas due to the interference of the obsidian walls of her cell. As it began to occur, when her eyes stayed tightly shut, she had a few moments in which she was able to question what was happening.

What is this light? Is it something helpful? She asked when her eyes were still shut. She had no desire to harm her vision after all.

But in time, specifically a matter of seconds, she excitedly opened her eyes after her prayer was finished. She immediately began to search for the source of the light and discovered to her dismay that she was the source of the explosive light, a realization that saddened her. Her mood got worse instantly as she realized that the light was beginning to dim.

This dismal atmosphere would only last for a few minutes. Because minutes after learning she was the source of the light she received a surprising and earthshattering notification.

[Prayer Quest Alert:

Angelica, your prayer quest "Save me and I'm yours" has been accepted by Althos, a young deity who possesses a number of titles, including "The Honorable Liberator" title.

Prayer Quests are quests that non-deities ask deities to undertake while in prayer. In order for a quest to become one of these sorts of quests, there are a number of hurdles that must be overcome.

First, the quest matter must be something of considerable difficulty. If a non-deity asks a deity for a pet while in the middle of prayer, or for a small amount of money, that won't be enough for that request to become a prayer quest.

Second, a prayer quest must be something that the requester sincerely and whole-heartedly wants. Prayer quests cannot be made deceptively or under duress unless the prayer quest is about saving the lives of the people who requested it.

Third, a prayer quest must be requested while the requestor is in prayer. This one is really self-explanatory.

Fourth, the reward that a requester offers a deity must be something of considerable value. A pledge of loyalty or the pledging of one's soul is enough to fulfill this regardless of what resources they have at their disposal, but people of considerable means need not pay this permanent price to secure a prayer quest.

If you rescind your reward, turning your back on your savior, the system itself will punish you. And if Althos quits the quest then you will be notified immediately.

In your case the prayer quest was made for the following reasons: you are trapped in a well-protected prison behind layers of guards and wards, you sincerely want to be free, your quest was asked while you were praying, and your offer to serve whoever freed you was deemed significant enough to make this a prayer quest. Congratulations!]

Is this... real? She asked, trying to temper her optimism with careful skepticism. I haven't heard of any new gods appearing in... my entire life, and now one just agrees to save me in my moment of need? The angel questioned. But her skepticism was responded too by the system itself.

[Althos is very real. And incredibly young. He appeared, fully grown, mere days ago in a distant and unremarkable mortal world, but has since done some incredible things. That said, your skepticism is both commendable and understandable. If being skeptical makes sense to you, stay that way until he appears. And when he does he'll convince you of his divinity.] The system told her, its distant, mechanical voice ringing in her brain.

Angelica tempered her optimism and got off of her knees. As she did so some of the black dirt that covered her pants crumbled off of her and crashed back onto the floor at her feet.

I'm... cold. The first complex, verbal thoughts of the first humanoid Althos ever created were simple thoughts. But they weren't inaccurate. The barely clothed humanoid was, in fact, cold.

Deep in the subterranean depths of the divine realm the air was indeed frigid. The humanoid who was cold was a male high-elf, and his body was the first to emerge from within one of the womb-like eldritch circles.

The circles, presently a common sight throughout the dimension, were powerful divine devices that used divine energy to actually create physical bodies for souls. In order to do this, the things were supplied with metaphysical blueprints for bodies. They then used a costly mixture of ambient magical energy and divine power to mystically weave physical shells that souls could inhabit.

It's... dark. The high-elf thought, seconds after his first earth-shattering discovery. This observation, while still true, was true in part because the high elf's eyes were closed.

The elf's creator stood beside him. The thing's faceless head was watching the new lifeform, studying his body with an intensity the god had only ever previously shown to footprints in the sand.

Althos peered at his creation. His new form's faceless head made for an odd image as he methodically scrutinized the high elf. Had there been any uninformed observers watching this without any precious context, what they would have seen would have been disconcerting.

They would have been watching a nameless street in a strange, organic city. And on that street they would have seen two creatures standing close to each other. One of them would have been a pale-skinned, lanky elf with closed eyes stand perfectly still. The other creature would have looked like an import from a child's nightmare.

If someone looked just at his legs, and then slowly panned upwards until they reached his neck, he would have looked like any masculine, ebony-skinned, elf with thick, combat-tested muscles. But the creature became something disturbing when someone peered at its head. And it was because of a single unusual cosmetic choice.

The difference wasn't anything major. Barely noticeable really. The ebony-skinned elf just didn't have a face.

His head was similar to that of his Mi-Go creation. A featureless oval. Althos' form lacked eyes, ears, hair, a nose, and a mouth.

[Open your eyes.] He commanded, his deep voice flowing effortlessly from his mind into the mind of his creation. The high elf who heard the voice of his creator began to move for the first time since forming within the circle.

Althos waited for the creature to truly spring to life, and while he did so he mentally wrote a message for the system.

[Hey, does my ability to create souls and shape them into various types of creatures improve as I gain influence over a broader spectrum of domains and subdomains? It does, doesn't it? Or am I misunderstanding something?] Althos' mind asked the system, the strange entity that seemed to play some unclear role in the day-to-day operations of the multiverse itself.

Seconds later, just as his first humanoid creature began to slowly convulse in front of him, and he mentally scanned his list of healing spells, Althos received an answer from the system.

[Hello Althos. Yes it does. And the truth is your influence over nature, animal, plant, fungi, and soul domains and subdomains are incredibly important in this context. Because of them, you can create well over a hundred different types of lifeforms, the majority of which you've yet to encounter. Your knowledge level will automatically increase because of this moment. Do you have any sort of creatures you'd like to meet right now?] The system informed him.

Althos thought about that, at the same moment as he received an alert notifying him that his knowledge level was now level 3. He sighed and willed the thing away, despite the fact that he was smiling. I've created a fungi-person now in the form of the Mi-Go... should I meet some plant people?... I should. Yeah. I think that's the right move. He thought, grinning at the idea of meeting plant monsters even remotely comparable to the Mi-Go he had created in Infernius.

[Yes I would actually. If there are any humanoid-like plants, I'd be thrilled to go and meet them.] He said, informing the system as to his desire to meet plant-people.

[There are a number of powerful plant creatures, some of which are humanoid-like plants. Including some types of faeries. Would you like to meet them? They are situated above your current location. On the surface of the realm.] The system told him, mentioning an odd word he had heard something similar to once or twice in the past.

I've heard that word before, but I didn't really get to know what it meant. I think it's time to find out. Althos recalled, while considering how to respond to the system's questions.

[I would but first... what are faeries?] Althos asked, curious about the things. [And by chance are they related to fey lords?] He added, remembering how that word popped up hours ago, while he dealt with Agitha and her husband back in the dark city of Undermoon.

[The terms "fey" and "faeries" refer to a loose grouping of creatures, spirits, and beasts with connections to aspects of nature. Many but by no means all of them are plant or fungal creatures. These strange beings inhabit a number of dimensions and countless worlds, but they are most often associated with a place known as the Land of the Faeries, a dimension like the Heart of Darkness or Infernius.] The system told Althos, readying even more information for the curious god.

[Fey-lords are a sort of superior being to them like gods are to mortals and arch-devils are to other devils. Fey-lords are also like gods and arch-devils in that they are worshipped by a range of beings but especially by faeries. Another similarity between the three types of beings is that they all have places they lord over. Arch-devils have layers of Infernius, gods have divine realms, and fey-lords have courts.] The voice informed Althos.

[Oh! Wow so there really are all sorts of "superior beings" aren't there?] He asked, excitedly learning about even more creatures.

[Oh yes. And each type of superior being has access to unique feats and abilities. But getting back to the topic at hand, if you'd like to meet plant creatures and faeries go up to the surface of your layer. Your forest is filled with wild animals, plant creatures, and faeries of all sorts. There are still innumerable faeries, plant monsters, and animals you can't create, but thanks to your unusual distribution of feats, powers, and experiences, your forest is... it's a sight to behold.]

Upon hearing that, Althos looked at the ceiling with a curious gaze, grabbed the slowly awakening high-elf to have a companion, and made use of his teleportation ability to exit the strange city and ascend towards the fertile forest.