Chapter 38: God Realm

July first, Year 0

The day was hot and the monsters weren't accustomed to the sun beating down on them, they had grown accustomed to living under trees. Nevertheless, their work felt unending and the fruits of their labor were only seen by the construction workers, the farmer's crops grew to an unsatisfactory state, much of it had died because of improper watering and seeding. They thought that Scitus would be angry but he expected as much from beginner farmers, he told them it would be alright and that they would have to plant something else for the next four or so months. the new seeds came from around his territory, a collection of 6 plants, 2 of which could not be used for eating. The crops were still very wild and provided little food production for the work put into it but in time with enough selective breeding, the day would come when the harvest would be large and bountiful.

On that day Scitus was preparing to leave and enter the God-plane also known as the God realm, the god realm was one of ten realms, two of which were within another realm entirely. The god realm was one such plane, despite being its own plane it was considered to also be a part of the Celestial plane, the other plane was the Ethereal plane which lay directly above and partially attached to the terrestrial plane.

When in the god realm, all gods have their own private piece of land that can never be entered for as long as the god owns a piece of land in the terrestrial plane, the land is as large as the land owned in the terrestrial plane or as large as their rank allows, though if the god so chooses he can shrink it to the size of a single person, or in other words, enough for just them to fit inside. The gods meeting takes place in an area known as the neutral zone, the piece of land is as large or as small as the god who enters there sees fit, they can see every god that is in the neutral zone and even shrink the world to get to them faster, in the neutral zone combat is prohibited if this rule is broken, it is said that the True gods themselves come for the god who broke the rule, even without that threat, no one ever attacks one another in the neutral zone since its nearly impossible to kill another god there since they control the land as if it was their own and if they do manage to kill their target, every god would try to kill them for breaking the rules.

In the god Realm, Rank is everything, Rank allows gods to do things that other gods are not permitted to do, one such privilege is the privilege called rule maker. The highest ranking person in a given area of the god realm is allowed to change the area as they see fit, for instance, if they want the area to look like their kingdom, they can do so, and only someone of equal or higher rank can change this new feature of the land. Though in the god's own territory, his rule is absolute.

There are 12 neutral zones, one for each piece of holy land, this is thought to be because the neutral zones actually belong to the true gods and the true gods simply allow gods to enter their territory.

Entering the god realm is very simple for a god, they simply have to close their eyes for a few moments and think of their place in the god realm and in a matter of moments their body materializes in the god realm. Mortals and celestials can enter the god realm as well but only through invitation, celestials can attempt to force their way inside but even if they succeed they have nothing to gain by entering and in truth even the weakest god becomes almighty in the god realm compared to celestials and even a horde of dragons are no match for the weakest god in the god realm.

Scitus entered his land in the god realm. Everything was a cloudy white, this was because of his perception of heaven, every step he took created earth beneath him. When his mind composed itself, the world itself was growing into an Earth-like world, trees sprouted from the clouds, the sky glowed pink, meaning it was near morning in his land, the ground around him changed from summer to winter to fall and spring. It was as if the seasons were changing every minute he was there. After ten minutes of the world contorting and shifting, it finally stopped, what remained were large mountains that decorated the background of the world. Some were filled with ice tips, one, in particular, was pink due to the trees that the grew on the mountain and despite being so large no a speck of snow was seen. The trees around him were of different colors some were red others were blue, the leaves were just as majestic, one tree had pink and red leaves mixed into one, he didn't know if it was beautiful, but he certainly enjoyed looking at it. Several miles from his position he could see an elegant waterfall that gently fell into a river, that river went underneath a tree, the bottom of that tree was split in two, forming a small archway. A space large enough for the river to flow through and around. The tree's trunk would never exist in the other reality, but this was his world and in his world, this was not only a reality but a commonality. He felt the edge of his territory and with a single step, he entered the neutral zone.

“I feel like I’m on drugs” the whole thing, to him, felt like an acid trip. It was strange, in the god realm he was truly omniscient, he could see everything in the land, he knew how large it was down to the millimeter, suddenly the ground beneath him began to contort and change. it was his doing.

"damn!!" He suddenly realized that what happened on his territory was happening in the neutral zone. He forced the growing grass beneath him to cease its expansion beyond a couple feet.

“Are you trying to control your changes to the world?” Scitus whipped his head to the left, there stood a young man wearing an ancient Asian grab, in short, he was dressed like an emperor. Scitus gulped, he couldn’t afford to have the other gods discover his rank, if the did they would certainly hunt him down even if he existed on the opposite side of the planet.

“My name is Soen, nice to meet you.” He had kind eyes and an even kinder smile, even without using the elf’s skill he could tell that the god before him was benevolent.

“My name is Scitus.” he responded still a bit anxious.

"yes, I know." His anxiousness grew but Scitus would never let it show on his face. Scitus had never interacted with any god, other than Mern. There shouldn't be any god who knows he exists and yet the strange god named Soen did.

"if you want your land control to stop, just say Cease land control, or better yet just name the specified size you want it to be, though even if you do that it won't hide your Rank" Scitus's anxiety reached its breaking point, that meant everyone would know his rank, or rather everyone knew his rank already because everyone in the neutral zone is omniscient like him.

“you can actually change your rank color to one of the lower ones, if you wish. Though, I doubt anyone’s noticed that your black aura is actually higher ranked than theirs” he says, chuckling softly. That is what he meant, Color determines rank and black or white are considered both the highest and lowest rank, but no one would, at first glance, believe that a god with a black aura is of a higher rank. That left Scitus with one final worry.

"Who are you?" the god besides him knew that his color black and was of the higher rank, but the god didn't seem to mind even a bit. The man smiled, it was as kind as it was before.

"A person who likes you, please keep up the good work" with that the god disappeared from the god realm. Scitus would find out much later that the god he spoke to, wasn't a god an at all but someone many times stronger.

Scitus quickly changed his color to the lower ranking black. The difference was subtle, but the aura was weaker and slightly dull in shade. With that finished he moved to the meeting place.

At the center of the territory, six gods were fighting for land control. One god had her land ordained with a holy aura, the trees and grass behind her glowed slightly, she wore white armor and had a blade at her side. She had long white hair that somehow flowed behind her helmet. She was a ghostly beauty.

“I’ll kill all you filthy Bastards!!” Her voice was far from threating, but as Scitus felt a chill go down his spine, he noted that she certainly had the ability to kill him.

Beside her was a young man with the ears of a black panther, Scitus didn't know why he knew the exact species of animal ears he had but he knew it was certainly the case. The man had the look of a warrior, at the end of his furry hands were long claws easily able to tear steel. His eyes were like looking at green marbles with single black irises.

His armor had scratches and dents from battles long past. He had a kind aura, he too was a benevolent god. His skin was a dark shade of brown and the land behind him was nearly all grassland with trees and even a jungle in the far distance.

“Even me?” He said half joking. The Women in the white armor turned to give the animal man a dirty look, her face clearly spoke the words, “of course not you, moron.”

Opposing the two gods were two gods that spewed a dark aura, they were Evil gods for certain. One looked slovenly, a man who enjoyed food but strangely kept his clothes clean, though that may have only been true in the god realm. The world behind him fitted that, the world behind him was filled with rivers made of milk and honey, and trees made of cooked meats and salted fish. It wasn’t all the grotesque and in fact appeared incredibly appetizing.

Beside that man, was a well-dressed man who looked ready to enter a fancy banquet, the kind that only the richest can enjoy. Behind him were mountains made of silver and trees adorned with golden leaves, somewhere deep in his land were statues of himself as large as a mountain. The man was filled with unsatiable greed and had a glutton for glory.

There were two more, one who had no aura, on closer inspection, scitus noted that it was actually a clear aura and another who had a malevolent aura.

Behind the man with a clear aura was a land without extravagance or change, it looked entirely like the terrestrial plane looked, and the malevolent man opposing him had statues made of naked women and lakes of fire where statues of peasants lay near, their faces expressing utter agony. Somewhere near the center lay a single strand of holy area with scrolls made of silver and a large pillar that had two banners, one read "Honesty", and the other read "justice."

Somehow Scitus knew that the god was lustful and easy to anger but at the same time was honest and never broke his rules or the rules he placed on others. Though it seemed his good traits were very largely overshadowed by his vices.

There was 1342 other gods present including Scitus, some stood behind the gods who were fighting, and others stood alone, and 5, in particular, stood beside each other.

"We can fight some other time, I'd rather get to business," Scitus told the 6 great gods. Every god present turned to face him, some gods looked at him in utter shock and others in pity, they couldn't believe someone dared to speak to the greater gods that way.

"Black aura?" it was the women, she looked at Scitus questioningly, measuring his worth. After another moment of inspection, she smiled.

"Another god to fight evil, very well young one, We'll move on to business."

"I don't want to be here all day either." This time it was the young man who sought glory and riches, on closer inspection, the man was clearly not human, but he also wasn't an elf, it was something Scitus had never seen before.

"let's start then." the beast man said with a big smile, a smile that was very clearly directed at Scitus.