A Solitary God In A Dark Multiverse - 211 Technological Experimentation

The speck of darkness was alive. I sensed its lifeforce and even if I wasn’t the demon’s creator I would have been able to detect the creature and determine that it was alive thanks to my sensory powers. I had successfully if a bit anticlimactically created a demon!

The praereptor was currently in a state similar to unconsciousness. It was technically conscious, but was unresponsive and when I attempted to read its mind in the still annoyingly shallow, at least compared to how I read mortal minds, way I could I saw that it was being taught extremely basic information about the universe by its own iteration of the system. I could tell that this might take a while. Fortunately for me that gave me a natural opportunity to begin to learn new things and experiment with my newfound powers.

I closed my eyes and turned my mind inward. In doing so I effortlessly “reached” the mental location “within” myself where the domains resided. Within me the domains and subdomains idly chatted amongst themselves, many of them excited by my decision to defeat and overthrow Agustino.

I was mentally quiet for a moment, before I began to “speak” or rather transmit my thoughts, to the domains and subdomains gathered within me. I was “speaking” to a single specific subdomain. In an admittedly unusual move I was immediately reaching out to a newly acquired subdomain and being proactive in my interactions with it. I was reaching out to the technology subdomain.

“Hello, technology subdomain.” I began, and I allowed my mental voice to be heard by all of the subdomains. The idle background noise produced by the subdomains conversing with each other came to an abrupt end. That said, a split second later the subdomain replied to me.

“Greetings lord-god. It is kind of you to ‘stop by’ as it were and initiate a conversation of your own accord.” The subdomain told me, greeting me with sincerity and respect. If I could nod, in my own head, I would have. That said I approximated the motion with my mental energy and then continued to speak internally.

“It is admittedly not my style but I am interested in becoming a more fitting god of knowledge. And given the tools I have just acquired in the form of the powers you’ve given me, I suppose the best way to begin to do that is to converse with you.” I told the subdomain, seeking to learn from it.

“Anyways, allow me to begin to expand your knowledge about my powers. I can sense an interest in you in my abilities, and I am not surprised. Many subdomains don’t offer the immediate boost in power that I offer. After all, prior to acquiring my powers creating robots and androids would have been beyond your reach, but now you are the god of such technology.” The subdomain said, just before it began to chuckle.

“Oh believe me, I noticed. The power that seeped into my soul in the wake of acquiring the first tier of influence over you… It didn’t feel like I was acquiring power over a new subdomain, it was more like acquiring power over a new domain. And the customizability of this subdomain too… It’s quite impressive.” I exclaimed, even as I began to move again. I opened my eyes and began to experiment with the newly acquired abilities.

I stayed still as I began to visualize robots. To date I had never had an up-close encounter with a robot, but I had seen them before. I had actually seen robots more than once.

The closest encounter I had had with a robot was when I visited the island colony of the Mi-Gos. They had had a robot experimenting with magic and I was able to observe its efforts from a safe distance. I had also seen robots in Infernius, and a significant part of my excitement related to the technology subdomain came from that simple fact.

The first area someone reached when they physically traveled to Infernius, the homeworld and dimension of devil-kind, was an abandoned wasteland inhabited by devil-like robots and both simple and complex machines. I had seen it myself. For the first time in my life I possessed the perfect ability to secure control over that portion of the tyrannical dimension.

The part of me that was focused and thought about being an emperor constantly, though admittedly a quite small portion of myself but one that was growing, relished the idea of going into Infernius and colonizing it while also gaining access to its undoubtedly plentiful lawful-evil resources.

“Robots and androids are truly fantastic servants. They can be made far more sapient by giving them souls, any kind would do, and they retain their loyalty, to you at least, no matter what. Both robots and androids are also incredibly diverse. A god who is as… well-traveled as you are, can bestow countless abilities on your robots and androids through the ‘Customization’ ability.” The subdomain told me, teasing me with the possibility of creating incredibly versatile technology that served me and aided my minions.

As the thing spoke, using the knowledge I had of robots that I had actually seen with my own eyes, or was quickly becoming aware of thanks to domain-sense, I began to picture all sorts of technology.

“One of the key perks of robots and androids, a staple technology for any technologically advanced empire, is that they don’t need sleep and are perpetually loyal to you. They are like undead in that regard, but without the hatred for life that undead possess.” The technology subdomain bragged, speaking of androids and robots like a proud parent might speak of their children.

That said, it was impressive. Androids and robots, especially ones I created, could become the new default for my troopers. That meant that if I wanted I could keep my organic and even my undead followers safe and out of the fray. I wasn’t sure if robotic minions would make for adaptive front-liners as my understanding of robots was that they were known for being inflexible, which was something I’d need to test someday to see if there was any truth to that line of thinking. But even then I already knew that androids didn’t suffer from that problem.

The source of my knowledge in reference to technology was unusual. The mixing of the knowledge domain and the technology subdomain proved to be quite informative. The two of them mixing in my mind filled my head with opinions, impressions, and even random bits of trivia concerning all sorts of technology. Among these bits of trivia were the “facts” that robots tended towards inflexibility in their thinking and their execution of their directives, meanwhile, androids were apparently quite responsive, mentally, and possessed growth-oriented minds.

Without focusing on which robot I created, I rose my hand and created my first robot. The very first robot to appear in front of me was a bit of a surprise, even to me. On the ground ahead of me a large, perhaps meter tall and few meters wide, drone popped into existence. The thing popped into being fully formed and even painted a nice purple color.

The drone, much larger than the small ones I had “seen” through sensory powers in the solar system of my birth or even throughout Htrea, was a combat type drone. Upon studying it for a moment I realized it was a type of flying combat vehicle meant to respond to ground incursions from range: a gunship. It was also fully autonomous, though I knew that if I wanted too I could change that at will. That said its “mind”, as far as the vehicle even possessed, was unexceptional.

By “glancing” into the mind of the robot I sensed that it would loyally fulfill tasks for me, and even directed a modicum of worship my way but it wasn’t as intelligent as it could be nor was it meant for true independence, as far as its design went. This was a simple gunship, not an advanced command-ship or even an elite soldier. I took a step forward and placed one of my hands on the thing.

The drone lifted off the ground ever so slightly and slowly approached me. The vehicle was capable of movement thanks to a number of silent rotors that spun blades at extreme speeds. Even this drone, one of the simpler military robots I could create, was more complex than anything that could be found on Htrae and I knew that its performance was not to be underestimated.

As far as armaments went the thing was a veritable invasion killer. One of the advantages of the drone’s size was that it was armed to the teeth, or rather the rotors in this case. A number of small but dangerous turrets lined the top of the robot. The turrets were capable of firing a variety of types of bullets and energy, as it could shoot bullets or it could fire electricity or plasma at foes. On the drone’s “face” where it was the thickest it had three sets of dual missile launchers that could handle enemy tanks. The final method of enemy disposal that it had was a bomb bay which were capable of holding three small bombs at any one time.

Gunships were usually intended to handle infantry but this brutal weapon could repel all sorts of grounded enemies. And this was not the most complex gunship I could create either.

As far as enemy visuals went, the vehicle was covered in sensitive sensors and had tiny but ultra high-quality cameras that gave anyone who commanded it and could see through its sensors perfect clarity of vision in every direction. The vehicle could be used for scouting, so long as it was just going to be fighting against ground-based enemies or it had adequate aerial support. I could see this sort of drone becoming one common drone found throughout any mechanized legions I built in the future.

The somewhat sapient piece of technology approached me and I gently placed a hand on its “face”. The “face” of the machine was a thick central core that connected its rotors. The object was made of adamantine, a powerful and magical metal. I had recently gained the ability to manipulate even mystical metals thanks to my upgraded earth abilities, and I now knew that I could create machines and robots from the stuff. Such knowledge filled my heart with excitement, especially since I could generate the material even in places where it didn’t or even shouldn’t exist.

I physically grabbed the sliver of darkness that was my newest praereptor pet and I willed the mind of the drone to shut down. As soon as the mind ceased operating, I threw the darkness I had grabbed onto my newest creation and I watched it immediately expand to the size and shape of the drone for a moment before shrinking until it was so tiny that it was basically invisible.

A part of me wanted to cheer when this actually worked. I was testing out if praereptor demons could possess sufficiently advanced technology and was delighted to see that they could! This was one way I could mix technology and another sort of power.

I’d need to test this more thoroughly in the days to come, and praereptors were not exactly stable testing subjects, but it was an exciting thing to add to my knowledge. The drone took a second to come fully to life, now that it was possessed by a praereptor but less than a minute after my minion successfully possessed it the thing began to strafe from side to side.

I watched, curiously, as the demon experimented with the body it now possessed. As it did, I made contact with the thing.

“Hello there little one. How are you liking your first body?” I asked the tiny demon, which was now possessing a person-sized robot. The demon, still getting used to the body it now inhabited, turned on bright headlights located on the robot’s “face”, which were swiftly turned on me. A second later, the robot began to emit static, before its static turned into actual words.

“Hello creator! This body is… Is it even a body?” The creature asked, displaying an amusing amount of both skepticism and curiosity. The creature was more intelligent than I had anticipated it being. Sombra had given me her memories and she was not even this inquisitive when she first began to exist, many millennia ago. I chuckled at the demon and responded bluntly.

“Well, it’s a body. That said it’s definitely not a body many praereptor demons would think to possess even though it has a lot of destructive potential.” I informed the creature, grinning as I spoke. I now had enough praereptor worshippers to know that most of them wouldn’t think to try and possess technology unless they had a master who directed them to do that. Frankly that was a shame, as technology had a lot of destructive power.

The drone fell silent for a moment. I touched the mind of the demon possessing the bit of technology and I grinned when I realized that the tiny invader was taking stock of the weaponry the machine it was possessing had access too. When the demon next spoke, its excitement was audible to me though I doubted anyone else might be able to hear it even if the words would have given away the emotional state of the creature.

“Oh yes. I… I love this.” The creature said, gasping as it playfully reached into itself and studied what sort of armaments I had given it.

A part of me had wanted to give the demon an android body, but frankly the creature seemed to truly love the toy I had given it. I could sense the creature’s joy and the gratitude it felt towards me for creating it and immediately giving it such a potentially destructive body it could go wild with. It was a distinct type of joy compared to the joy felt by praereptors who were given true physical forms, but it wasn’t a bad sensation. It was at this point that another voice chimed in.

“Even a tiny drone possesses such destructive capability… I had almost forgotten just how destructive the technology subdomain was.” Whispered a quiet and calm voice from deep within me.

“I… encourage creativity in pursuing further destructive approaches.” The same voice whispered, clearly speaking to me privately. The voice’s tone was one of awe and joy, which suggested that it enjoyed this. I had a feeling that the voice belonged to the destruction domain, but I felt it “leave” my presence, insofar as domains and subdomains could “leave”. It was an odd sensation, like someone invisible was next to you and then they weren’t.

I thought about the voice for a moment, before shaking my head and committing to continue my experiments.