“Hey there. Could you plea-”

*SMASH*

With a growl, Aethelx brings his blood covered fist back to his chest, leaving the crimson imprint of his fist on the forest ground.

Licking off the blood with an angry expression, he feels the sweet human taste he almost forgot whirl around inside.

Mildly satisfied, he turns to his other side and wills himself back to sleep.

…

“Seriously, do you know how l-”

*SMASH*

The speaker turns into a bloody pulp once more and Aethelx finally sits up, pissed off about being interrupted not once, but four times successively by the same being, possibly.

It had started a few days back, when he was awoken from his deep slumber by someone tickling him under his chin.

He hadn’t bothered to open his eyes that time; just swung his fist in the vague direction.

Most monsters in his dimension know that he is not to be disturbed when he slept, so only the most stupid or strongest would dare do such a thing.

Luckily it didn’t seem strong as he felt it become pulverized with his fist, so he didn’t have to fully wake up.

That would usually be the end of it; stupid being annoys him, he kills it, he goes back to sleep.

However for some reason another stupid thing came up the next day asking whether he was awake.

He too had killed that one mercilessly.

The day after, a similar if not the same voice approached him and he had opened his eyes to see a human man looking at him with a cocked head.

He killed the man out of annoyance and shock.

Since then his sleep became truly troubled. For he swore he had killed the man before.

Thinking it may have just been the trick of a damnable Illithid, he had put the thoughts away willing himself back to sleep.

That is when this fourth disturbance happened, on the fourth day in a row.

It had been the same voice, the same face. It had been the same person as before.

Thus he now sits up waiting for ‘it’ to return.

Although he may be one of the seventy two Demonic Divines, he can still be visited by pesky mortals, as is the consequence of allowing them to enter his dimension.

Aethelx can count the number of things this man could be with one hand since not many beings can be seemingly pulverized and appear fine the next day.

And out of those possibilities, most are ones that he would rather not meet, for his own safety.

Sitting on the grassy forest for many hours, he finally spots ‘it’ traversing across a hill a few miles away.

Being the size of a three story house gives Aethelx quite a good viewpoint and thus he watches the man make his way towards him, waving at him from a distance, since his large red body is quite easy to spot.

Aethelx does not respond, only waits silently till the man reaches the large flattened area he mad for a makeshift bed.

“Hello there, you finally seem to be awake” The man speaks in a gentle voice, showing a slight hint of fear and awe in his voice.

“What are you?” Aethelx narrows his golden eyes

“Bit rude is-” The man doesn’t get to finish his sentence as a fist comes flying down, smashing him into a pulp.

Aethelx doesn’t like people talking back to him, much less puny things like that man. Though he does regret his rash action as it means he has to spend another day waiting for this man.

Luckily, a flying chimera foolishly makes its way past him, giving him much distraction as he slowly rips its skeleton whole from its body.

He was quite into it that he almost missed the man arriving at his feet once more.

“You should really stop doing that, because it’s quite tiring to walk back here” The man complains lightly

“Then learn some respect for the lord of this dimension” Aethelx growls back, puffing out his chest and leering over the man in obvious dominance

The man’s eyes widen “Oh you must be….” The man shakes his head “Sorry have no idea wh-”

Another fist shaped imprint litters the ground.

Aethelx has always had little patience, but towards one who doesn’t even know the lord of the dimension he is currently in, not even the Overworld Divines would tolerate such ignorance.

…

“So this place is a dimension and not another world?” The man cocks his head towards the angry looking Aethelx after finally returning after another day passed.

“Yes” He answers back.

He rarely hears of or sees individuals who don’t even know such basic information. However such individuals are proof of the stupidity of some races in the world.

“What are you?” He squints analytically

“I’m just a man looking to find the way out of this place”

“...So you woke ME, lord of this dimension, to ask me how to leave MY dimension?” He fumes towards the man, restraining his fist with all his might

“Pretty much”

*Smash*

…

“So are you going to tell me ho-”

…

“Ok, please stop doing that” The man raises his arms defensively while Aethelx just looks down, his frustration somewhat abated.

He was frustrated with the man, but every time he killed him he became more curious and fearful as to what the man actually is; because the man just wouldn't die!

“If you answer all my questions, I shall tell you how to leave my dimension” He finally says after some internal debate

“Everything for one? I would prefer it if I could ask you a few more questions since I don’t often get to speak with the lord of a dimension”

Aethelx doesn’t reply, just looks menacingly towards the man. The man keeps eye contact, albeit heavily sweating from doing so due to having to look into the golden eyes of a being hundreds of times bigger than himself.

“Fine” Aethelx finally spits out deciding that he could keep smashing this man to bits but he would rather gain some possibly useful information. “Are you human?”

He asks the most prominent question on his mind, because he had tasted the man’s blood and it tasted just like a human’s blood.

However he knows that no human should be able to get past the portal that is the sole entrance to his dimension.

“Both yes and no”

“What do you mean by that?” Aethelx growls annoyed at the beginning of the man’s riddling

“Well I am a human but I am not a human from this world to put it simply”

The information was both useful and worrying to him, since if this man was just one of many, his dimension was no longer safe from these ‘humans’.

“Are you the only one?”

“No, there are a few thousand of us in this world, but that’ll soon turn into millions” The man answers back calmly “So tell me about how dimensions work”

“Dimensions are the homes of divine beings, which are not necessary but mingling with the lower races is quite a nuisance to us” Aethelx answers willingly since he feels that this man can be squeezed for much useful information. Telling him something as valueless as religion is a trade to his benefit by all standards.

“So you’re a divine being?” The man raises an eyebrow skeptically

Aethelx chuckles darkly at the man’s ignorance “Divine beings are not limited to those Overworld 'gods' of yours which you deem to be the only ones. There are many more divine beings which have just been labeled differently by the churches of the overworld”

“Such as demonic gods?”

“Yes; there are seventy eight major Demonic Divines which all possess a dimension for themselves. I Aethelx am one of them” He puffs out his chest proudly “So which Divines do your ‘humans’ worship?” He asks casually, laying thick the threat of death if answered incorrectly.

“We are a varied bunch; some worship Overworld gods as you say while others would gladly worship Demonic Divines, which I guess is your word for gods?, such as yourself” He answers with a non-committal shrug

“Divines is the term we call each-other by and in the world of mortals it is used when addressing all of us. Gods is the word mortals use since calling us Demonic Divines seems morally wrong to then" Aethelx quickly confirms the man's thought before leaning forward,baring his teeth "So who do you follow?”

“I am a devout follower of Aegi” He says standing proudly

“Aegi? I see…”

Aethelx suddenly felt extremely intrigued with this man, since not only has he claimed to be a worshipper of the goddess of immortality and undeath, he has already proven to be blessed by her in some way; since he doesn’t seem to stay dead.

Also since the man worshipped Aegi out of all divine beings, he was an enemy of sorts, but he may also become most valuable asset.

“You seem to know her…could you tell me more about her?” The man asks a question which Aethelx finds quite strange for a follower to ask.

A follower should know much about what they are following, but this man doesn’t show that.

“Tell me what you know of Aegi”

“She’s the goddess of Immortality”

Aethelx looks towards the east peering at the air in wonder at what Aegi is playing at, blessing this quite ignorant man.

“Go to the Seventy sixth Demonic dimension, for that is her dimension” Aethelx decides not to tell the man about her since he really doesn't feel the need to give her unnecessary praise.

“Demonic dimension?” The man asks sound confused.

“Ah, there are three types of dimensions; Demonic,Overworld and Tricksters. The Demonic Divines hold seventy eight dimensions. The Overworld Divines hold two hundred and fifty two dimensions while the Trickster Divines hold eighteen”

“Right, so I get the idea behind Demonic and Overworld, but who are the Tricksters… are they just ‘neutral’ Divines?” The man asks questioningly.

“Both yes and no. By human terms: Trickster Divines are ones who either swing towards neither or both sides, or they are beings who tricked their way into becoming Divines, and thus have been outcast by the other Divines, who worked truthfully to gain their position”

“Wait, one can become a Divine?” The man cocks his head.

Aethelx looks mildly dumbfounded at the man “Just where have you been for your life in this world?”

“At a church mostly”

“…” Aethelx is speechless.

Out of all the places, being in a church should have made this man more knowledgeable with religion. As a Divine, to see such an ignorant follower is an affront to his divinity.

“Sit down; I am going to teach you everything you need to know about religion” Aethelx commands with a growl to the man, who finally sits down cross-legged.

As a Divine, Aethelx must teach this follower properly, for even though it is not his follower, he cannot let such ignorance continue to smear his fellow Divines.

“This will be different to whatever your ‘church’ has tried or failed to teach you, since this is the Divines way of religious categorization”

The man nods in understanding.

“Firstly, there are three different types of Divines; Epitomicals, Tricksters and Elevated. Elevated Divines are the simplest to understand; they are beings who became Divines through the massive amount of worshippers they rally. For one to become an Elevated Divine, they require billions of worshipers, which doesn’t happen very often.

The more common type of Divine is an Epitomical; beings which are so outstanding in a singular thing that even the other Divines notice and with a majority vote between all of us, that being is granted divinity. In church terms, these are your minor gods, such as Dimi, goddess of Archery or Yaldor, the god of Drinking. There are a stupid amount of these Divines, but in terms of power they are the weakest and are usually servants of some form.

Trickster gods are altogether different since they become Divines by either tricking mortals to worship them for elevation or they kill a Divine, taking their place” Aethelx speaks slowly, allowing the information to sink in for he won't bother saying it a second time

“Kill a Divine? But isn’t the point of being a Divine is that you’re immortal?”

“That is what the churches tell you, however Divines are killable; Epitomicals die within a century or so of being granted divinity; usually through inner conflicts but sometimes through Tricksters.

Elevated are unlikely to die, since they are much more powerful. However Tricksters have shown that it is possible before.”

“I still don’t understand how Tricksters can become Divines through killing ones?”

“When being granted divinity, think of it as being given a set of clothes. When killed, your killer can take them. Thus giving them divinity”

The man nods understanding somewhat.

“So those are the three types of Divines, which we base our hierarchies upon; Elevated are the major Divines, each ruling a dimension. Epitomical are the minor Divines, servants to the Elevated and are there to do their bidding, mostly because Elevated Divines are pretty much walking calamities.

A demonstration would be placing us on a battlefield; Epitomicals could handle about thousands of enemies, while Elevated could handle millions.

Tricksters are a force unto themselves and are outcasts of the Divines due to their malicious gaining of divinity, albeit they still have power within voting for Epitomical Divines. Though, we don’t actively destroy them as they are a lot more dangerous than normal Divines.

“And why is that?” The man cocks his head

“Because they’ve killed a Divine before, well most of them have. And it’s not easy to kill us, almost impossible even, so they are a lot more dangerous than your average Divine” Aethelx shakes the fearful memories of meeting Ikol from his mind. “Now that you understand our hierarchy, I shall tell you about the Demonic and Overworld belief mortals tend to have.

That is flawed thinking, since we do not actively fight each-other. The only difference between Demonic and Overworld Divines are their worshiper base. Demonic’s usually have monsters worshiping them while Overworlds have more ‘light’ races worshiping them.

We do squabble often because our worshipers end up killing each-other and a Divines power is based upon their worshiper number: The more we have, the more powerful we get”

“So shouldn’t that mean Tricksters are really weak since they shouldn’t have many worshipers from killing Divines?”

“No, because mortals do not know of the affairs of the Divines and thus when a Trickster kills a Divine they take their place, taking their worshipers too. This is why we call them Tricksters; because they continue to trick mortals into giving them power by worshiping them unwittingly”

“So some Divines we worship may actually be another?” The man looks quite shocked at the idea

“You know of Repleh, the aiding god?” Aethelx asks

The man shakes his head

“Well he is a decently large figure, worshiped by pharmacists and major clergies around the world. He’s dead, and has been so for the past two hundred and forty three years”

The man just raises his eyebrows

“The being who replaced him is Rerenum, Lord of the eighth Trickster dimension”

“But shouldn’t us mortals know about that by now?” The man asks confused

“No, it’s not hard for a Divine to continue giving blessings here and there to make sure they remain worshiped, Tricksters are usually a little more generous than the actual Divine; mostly because they do not have many if at all any Epitomical Divines in their service, thus they need a larger worshiper base”

“Because they need to be elected by the other Divines right?” The man scratches his chin in deep thought

“Correct, but we usually allow a few for sake of keeping balance as is necessary. Now let us begin on-”

“LORD” A screeching sound come from the forests and out runs a decrepit human who looks little different from a normal zombie, except golden eyes.

“Krith, what is it?” Aethelx turns towards the newcomer

“Föïron was killed recently and Mur has found a suitable replacement”

“An election huh? I will be there momentarily” He waves off Krith, who sprint out of sight.

Turning back to the man, he sees him look very confused and yet excited about the situation.

“Krith, minor Divine of cannibalism” Aethelx points towards the forest “He literally ate his way out his mother’s womb and slowly throughout the years proceeded to each his family and his village. I needed a subordinate” Aethelx shrugs noncommittally at the quite brutal backstory.

“So he’s an Epitomical huh…” The man muses

“Yes, and now I must be off. We shall meet again” Aethelx stands up and begins to leave

“Wait! You haven’t told me how to leave your dimension yet!” The man shouts after him

Stopping , he turns around and points to the east, past his giant volcano.

“Walk straight that way till you reach the edge and then simply jump off. It should take a good month to get there” He takes a step away, covering about a hundred metres.

“WAIT!” the man shouts after him, causing him to stop once more “I need a drop of your blood or I might not live past the next harvest”

Aethelx felt two emotions upon hearing those words; fear and a malicious sense of happiness.

After a short moment of thought, he pricks his finger and places it above the man, letting a drop fall into his mouth.

“That should do you for the month, now begone and find your goddess!”

With that Aethelx quickly sprinted off into the distance, whistling along the way.

Soon a large eyeball swoops from the sky landing on his shoulder

“Yes Lord?”

“Send someone to follow him”

Aethelx watches his subordinate disappear and he continues running, musing upon the fact that he just met what he thought was an Epitomical Divine to be, but now is sure is a Trickster Divine in the making.

For those who have drunk the blood of a Divine can only grow stronger through the consumption of the blood and flesh of other Divines.

Aethelx reaches the edge of his dimension and jumps off into the void, pondering about how to obtain and use this new tool for his benefit.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Author's Corner: Heeey, how'd you like the Religious overload :D

Well hopefully you've got a little sense of how the religion is going to be because well this is a story about a priest...so you're going to learn more about this in the future for sure!

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the side stories and read themmmmm cause i guess they're useful insiders?/fun.

Also don't hesitate to review, comment, say things!!!

-TRUE NORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD