Of Deities and Dimensions: Book 1

Zackery Taylor squeezed his hand strength clamps in order to prepare for the morning’s practice, then his hands flew over the keyboard as he ordered his virtual army to perform a variety of tasks. He recognized the name of his opponent, it was a Korean that had repeatedly whooped his ass throughout several E-sports circuits. Zack’s ships weaved about in intricate patterns, flanking and getting flanked, ambushing and getting counter ambushed. When the match was over and the defeat window flashed across his screen, he typed ‘GG’ and sat back in his chair. There was just no beating some of these Koreans, he put in just as much time as them practicing and he had just as many ideas as any other pro E-sport player, but they always came out on top for whatever reason. But still, there was no way he was going to give up after making it to rank 79 on the Korean server and playing in several round of 16 matches. He was making money as a professional gamer, just not the millions of dollars that the top ten players in the world did.

A hard tap on his shoulder brought him out of the trance that the game always put him in and he turned around to see Coach Kamozuto looking a bit troubled.

Zack asked “What’s wrong?”

There was no surprise in Coach Kamozuto’s voice when he spoke “You all don’t know? Right, you wouldn’t. Everyone lives here, sleeps here and practices every waking moment. I would’ve done a backflip off the second story railing if any of you already knew about the most momentous event the world has ever seen.” he looked around at the other professional real time strategy gamers in the hub. A picture of a platypus with a sniper rifle emblem of their team ‘Platypus Assassins’ emblazoned the walls. The constant sound of furious rhythmic keystrokes making plinking noises in the air.

The Coach called out “Gather round all of you.”

After several minutes of tapping shoulders, matches ending and people chowing down on their daily breakfast of hotpockets, everyone was giving the coach as much attention as they could, given the fact that they were all masters of multitasking.

The coach said “There’s been something of a world event. Humanity has finally come into contact with aliens.”

One of the other gamers, Luke T. Ace stopped tapping his fingers on the table to practice his macro and micro exercises and said “Well if that deep space satellite SETI has finally found another civilization then woohoo. But that’s hardly any reason to be shaking like you are.”

Kamozuto shook his head “I think it’s time we all went outside.”

Everyone stood up and followed the coach. While exiting the gaming hub, each member of the group held their hands over their eyes to shield them from the Californian sun.

Zackery saw it first and exclaimed “What in the cosmos is that!?” as he saw the giant humanoid alien filling up the sky.

Coach Kamozuto said “That thing has introduced himself as Akmadouric and he has rather forcefully requested that virtually everyone watch his interview. You all would know this if you watched the news or listened to the radio. It’s been spammed across the airwaves for the past thirteen hours. The police are going around informing people.”

Ace spoke up “That’s just excessive.”

The coach shrugged “They’re doing everything they can to fulfill the alien’s demand. They don’t want to anger a being that can make several hundred nukes disappear into thin air.”

The other members of his team began to talk excitedly but Zack just tuned them out and looked to the sky ′How will you change this broken world of ours?′

ZackaryTaylor sat on the overstuffed coach while waiting for the interview with the other members of the hub. Eating potato chips and slamming energy drinks. Experts from all over the world had been theory crafting about the alien’s environment upon which it evolved, most saying that it couldn’t have naturally become a thousand times larger than the largest known dinosaur without some form of manipulation. Others said that the smaller version that had appeared in front of the NASA astronaut was the real alien and the larger one was a hologram, or maybe both were. Zack sneered at them all for speculating when the possibilities were endless. They were just ego stroking their own imaginations.

The timer on the screen reached zero and the celebrity talk show host John White appeared saying “Tonight, I can say with absolute certainty that everyone in the world is watching my show. Even people in the most remote areas have been flown a television set. Including several previously uncontacted tribesman, but not to worry, their spears cannot penetrate the plexiglass screens on the televisions we dropped.” the audience chuckled after the talk show hosts joke, but the man seemed nervous by comparison of his usual confident demeanor. After all, who the hell wouldn’t?

He continued speaking with a shaky voice “Tonight I am interviewing an actual alien who has become the most famous person in the world over the course of a single day. The nukes that the various world governments launched against him had no effect whatsoever. And in a few moments we will find out what intentions this alien being has. However, the guest of our show has yet to arrive.” then he turned to the left and a look of surprise crossed his face. The audience gasped. The camera panned out and a blue skinned figure with white hair appeared on the left side of the screen, his robes looked like the starry night’s sky.

“I am Akmadouric. Deity and Lord of over a thousand realms.”

John eyes went wide for a moment as he tried to figure out what to say and what he just said “Shall we sit?” then motioned to the chair by his desk, where all his guests take their seats.

”Of course.” the deity teleported and in an instant he was sitting in the chair. The audience gasped again but the talk show host kept his composure as he walked to his desk and sat down.

John White picked up a stack of papers sitting in front of him “I have a great many questions for you, most came from the various governments of this world but the first and most important question is: Are you here to conquer us?”

The blue alien said “Not in the way that you think and I will be happy to go into more details later but first I gotta make something very clear.” A metal briefcase appeared out of thin air in his hands “This briefcase nuke is not capable of harming me. Neither will the satellite laser attack that is being planned by the defense force. So it would be wise not to waste resources. Alright?” he looked right at the screen.

John’s face went to a shocked pale white “I didn’t know that was there!”

Akmadouric said “You can relax. When I make my presence known to an uninitiated world, I go to great lengths to ensure that the death count is zero.”

John said “I had heard a few bizarre reports of people going completely still before they could commit acts of violence.”

The being that called himself a Deity smiled “So before I answer your question about whether or not I’m here to conquer you all, I need to talk about the very nature of existence.” He paused for dramatic effect while everyone on the planet stiffened “It is a multiverse. Just like some of your scientists have theorized. But what they don’t know is that there are two different types of dimensions. The first type is the regular kind that split into two when anyone or anything makes a choice. The second is a dimension that has been exposed to the nexus, it will no longer split. And as of last week, your world has now transitioned from the first to the second when I broke into it.”

John was quicker to process this information than most other people, but his voice grew higher in pitch “You’re from another dimension?”

”I did introduce myself as Deity and Lord of over a thousand realms.”

”A realm is a dimension. Okay.” he flipped the stack of papers over, since they were now useless “Why did you break in and why did you expose our dimension to the nexus? What does that mean for this world? In fact, who are you and who is that giant in the sky?”

Akmadouric let out a sad sigh “I am a Deity, I do as I please and I can appear at whatever size that I choose.”

For the first time in his career, John White was speechless, he visibly fought to regain his composure, then said “I was not expecting to be dealing with an interdimensional god.”

Akmadouric waved his finger at the man “The highest I will allow myself to be called is demigod and I denounce any religious person or organization that uses me as a focal point for their beliefs. Because I hate the mentalities of both the worshiper and the worshiped.”

John White sat back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair, unable to think about what to say next.

Meanwhile the demigod kept talking “As for what becoming a nexus dimension means for this world, essentially the people here can now travel to the other nexus dimensions. And beings from other dimensions can come here, both friendly and hostile.”

John White tried to raise his voice in anger, but failed “So we could be invaded at any given moment?”

“Anything that enters or leaves this dimension has to go through the barrier dimension, where I have posted guards. Furthermore, only myself and my most trusted minions know about this dimension.”

John glared “Still, you have put the lives of all of the people on this planet in jeopardy.”

Akmadouric simply looked at the talk show host, who began to cower “I am at war for reality itself. And I will use whatever means I have to achieve victory.”

John White asked “How exactly does breaking into this dimension help your cause?”

The deity answered “Because I require more consciousnesses to fight for me.”

“A recruitment drive for war. And why would anyone sign up?”

“Aside from not having your home planet get invaded by an unstoppable army of darkness. I will upgrade and repair the body’s of those who serve but for those who earn enough favor, they will be able to buy immortality.”