Akmadouric walked through the portal and entered dimension Ulgroth K2HB15. Or more accurately, one one thousendth of his splintered hive mind consciousness entered the dimension where the new offensive front was being launched. The body he was using for the task at hand was only six feet tall, had a skin color of his signature blue and was wrapped in a robe that featured a purple star system on it.

Looking around he could see that the portal base camp was being constructed speedily enough. Metal gateways blocked the entrances to each of the tunnels, made out of one of the most durable carbon and titanium compounds. The husk of the now dead tree in the center of the cavern was being cut apart by teams of saw wielding workers. The chunks of wood that fell were quickly picked up and stored in highly pressurized containers in order to shrink the amount of space required for their transport. Specialists stood in front of beakers filled with samples of some of the more interesting items that had been found thus far, analyzing in order to learn. Mid-tierman personal floated around the cavern making passive sensor sweeps to detect approaching hostiles from miles away, or erect their various protective barriers in case a weapon of mass destruction was used against them.

For the foothold base to not have been attacked thus far meant that either Ulgroth didn’t know about the incursion yet or he didn’t care. From the information received, this dimension had been converted into a feeding ground a very long time ago. All of the living creatures within it had been converted into minor fiends and abandoned. And most importantly, all of the matter had been corrupted.

The deity Akmadouric bent down and picked up some of the black soil beneath his feet, then began to analyze what some of the multiverse’s intellectuals referred to as; a Universe’s base code. As expected, Ulgroth had transformed all of the matter on the sub-atomic levels from their normally beautiful and complex structures into horrid perversions. The silver strings had turned into jagged dark violet barbed wire. The shimmering white foam had become an icky brown sludge.

Akmadouric had spent a great amount of time admiring the beauty of all that is and ever was, even by deity standards. For Ulgroth to inexplicably tarnish and trash everything he came across, it enraged Akmadouric to the point that he waged a multidimensional war that had gone on for almost four thousand years. With the sole goal of wiping Ulgroth from the face of existence.

The blue deity let out a sigh. He didn’t know that if achieving total victory simply meant that the dimension would split and another dimension be born in which the opposite outcome were to occur. What he did know was that in all his years he had yet to encounter two different versions of a being, nor had he ever encountered two dimensions with the same histories, even from a cosmological perspective. But the laws of physics did not lie. The dimensions were definitely splitting with every decision that anyone or anything made. Which left Akmadouric with the belief that some great entity was somehow getting rid of the excess dimensions in order to keep everything from getting too chaotic. But then again, infinity is a lot to keep track of, even for the highest of beings.

He gripped the dirt in his hand and used his newest willpower technique on it. Energy flowed into the perverted sub-atomic structures. They vibrated, changed color and completely disintegrated. With a frown he opened his empty hand, revealing that the dirt had turned into nothing.

Yet another failed attempt at purification. Without a sentient consciousness to use as a marker, returning someone or something to it’s prior state seemed to be impossible. But those who managed to protect themselves during the corruption process were exceedingly rare. Hopefully some clues on the corruption would present themselves when Akmadouric attained dominion over dimension Ulgroth K2HB15.

Kerink’s voice interrupted his thoughts “Lord Akmadouric” she stood with her hands clasped behind, standing at attention.

“Mid-tierman Kerink” Akmadouric consulted his records for a moment to remind himself of who the being before him was, then said “I’m sorry. The favor markets are still frozen. You know what the priorities are.”

Kerink said “Initiates first, upgrades and then revivals. It’s still bullshit that I have to wait for these backwaters to get started before I can revive my people.”

“Ah yes, the beings of dimension Akmadouric M5VL9087. Too bad there is nothing left of it.” He scratched his face for a moment “I need to revive a few human warriors from the past before I unfreeze the markets.”

Kerink’s face grew terse. The Elrin people’s military had only just barely managed to hold out against Ulgroth’s monsters until a detachment of Akmadouric’s army inexplicably arrived to rescue the survivors. But by then most of the matter in the dimension had been corrupted and Kerink’s people had no choice but to abandon it. Akmadouric eventually gained dominion over the dimension. Thus enabling him to set off a chain reaction to turn the corruption into nothingness, alter physics and revive the dead.

Kerink of the Elrin race said “I have been very patient for these past three hundred years. Focusing where I spend my favor on reviving my people’s warriors, most of whom I have never met before. Now I would very much like to start reviving my close friends and family members.”

Akmadouric frowned, he needed more personal with great combat abilities, minds and willpower. The people whom his loyal subject wanted to revive did not meet any of those three requirements “I will bring back your sister. I don’t expect her to pay for her own cost. Ever. But I will make an exception to my own rules as a measure of gratitude for your magnificent career.”

Kerink put her hands and at her side and bowed “The gratitude is mine, my lord.”

Akmadouric found it amazing at how lowering one’s head had the same value in so many cultures across the multi-verse “I need to continue to find a way to gain dominion over this dimension without expending too much willpower. Then I will be able to revive a few of the Kulabv people.”

Kerink said “You have planned out how you are going to spend your willpower energy to such an extent. But might I suggest that you skip the favor cost reduction phase for the humans? I wasn’t too impressed with the humans flight abilities. Well, aside from the one named Becker at least.”

‘You are not scoring any points with me by asking that’ Akmadouric said “You can’t expect bipedal land animals to have as great of a grasp on three dimensional maneuvering as beings that grew up in aquatic or aerial environments.”

Kerink felt like pressing the matter “I’ve educated myself about the human’s world during my downtime so I could know who these people are. I was aghast by how many problems they have. They are an extremely flawed people and not worth your effort.”

Akmadouric said “And you’re not entirely wrong about that. In fact, one of their greatest minds: Leonardo Da Vinci. Summed it up fairly nicely when he said ‘Most men are good for naught but turning food into shit’.”

Kerink tried to keep her face from turning to disgust but Akmadouric still caught the micro-expression “Gyah. You’re quoting one of them.”

He raised one finger in the air “However, there are the exceptional few.”

Akmadouric suddenly stopped analyzing the the sub-atomic levels and looked over to see a portal forming in the middle of the base. It had a black interior and gray wispy energy streams coming off of it’s edges.

Out of the portal made by one Ulgroth’s minions appeared a tan wrinkled head on a long neck. It had no eyes but it’s tongue flicked about like a snake’s tasting the air. The fiend had long saber like teeth and an extendable jawline that looked like it could be opened to almost 180 degrees. A soft cawing that sounded like nails on a chalkboard came from the intruder.

Glancing at the lesser fiend that had arrived for it’s dinner, Akmadouric said “Oh, would you get that for me?”

Kerink already had a condensed ball of white light forming around her fist. The fiend had just enough time to cower in fear before Kerink’s fist shaped energy blast flew into the portal and vaporizing the head before it could even screech. Kerink’s solid energy attack flew into the gateway and crossed into whatever dimension the fiend had come from.

Akmadouric locked the portal and went about checking for more in order to prevent anything else from entering through any of them. Hroyd’s memories had made mention of there being portals in which hungry fiends routinely entered from. So a slight frown appeared on the Deity’s face as he went back to analyzing the base code of this universe ‘How could I have forgotten such a detail?’