Sunset

I put on my most beatific smile, one that would easily sell the smartyness, truthyness, and goodyness of our family at our meeting with the Asuran Council regarding our admission to the colleges. Despite Scarlet Briar, formerly Ceara, leaving a sour taste in the Arcane Council's collective mouth for foreign students, I knew I sold the benefits of our tuition like a slimy salesman convinces a naïve young teacher to buy a car she can't afford.

Assured of my success, I listened in on the deliberations using my super hearing after we were asked to step outside a sound dampening field.

"My word, that smile," one of the diminutive councilors stated, "the supernatural dread it made me feel is a phenomena we must study in greater detail!"

"It did feel like my personal doom was running its fingers down my spine." Another stated, "If we can weaponize that effect it will severely demoralize enemy combatants. I say we approve their applications so we can observe it in its natural form. Its not like these tiny Norn will have the mental agility to learn much before we figure out how to harness this newly discovered phenomena."

"All in favor of having these freaks stick around!" one shouted.

"Aye!" The rest agreed.

"No need to tally the nays. The freaks can attend the colleges!"

I took a deep breath to either calm down or stock up on air for a gout of divine flames, but just barely managed to keep from cooking these arrogant little cave rats. After all, they threw down the gauntlet, and I accepted the challenge.

Over the next six months I destroyed every academic record I could apply myself to and finished as the top ranked student in both the College of Statics in two months and the College of Dynamics in four months. I did this through a mix of being the smartest person to ever attend the Asuran Colleges - minus Jack who was roughly my equal but had applied herself to different fields - my own negligible sleep requirements, and liberal use of the Ring of Namira to stave off mental fatigue.

Not only was I smacking down these little rat men in their own games like golemancy, but I was also pushing the unification of my own various tech masteries into a merger with Tyrian magic and materials, including power armor, plasma cannons, and even nanomachines. As far as I can tell, orichalcum nanomachines are the shit.

But more importantly, far more importantly, I was working to break the curse on my crafting skills that turned all the work of my hands brutal. I grinded away day in and day out to create a single sword, and on the morning of my graduation from the College of Dynamics, I set about bringing the legendary Sunrise greatsword into the world. I'd gone through so much shit to make this happen, and in a secret mystic forge I combined the precursor weapon Dawn, with the Gift of Sunrise, the Gift of Fortune, and the Gift of Mastery. I watched as the angelic greatsword with a blade like a window into the morning sky came into being, the warmth of the rising sun filling the room and calling out to all of nature to wake and greet the day.

It was fucking glorious.

And then it spontaneously combusted and the golden angel wings of the hilt were replaced with a darker golden orichalcum runic head of Ormagoden, his tusks forming the crossguard and from the top of his head the blade that had once looked like a piece of the morning sky burned the orange, red, and purple of a setting sun. A leather and threaded gold hilt descended to a pommel that consisted of a quartet of conjoined skulls.

It was a vision of brutal glory.

"Fuck!"

After cratering the nearby wall with a few new dents from my fist, I took up my newly created Legendary Sword, and the same dimensional energy that formed the blade crept up my arm to the shoulder, encasing me in the burning sky that also formed a pool under me with each step. It was flashy as hell and I loved it.

On top of looking dope, the sword thrummed with power ready to amplify any magic I pour into it to create incredible attacks. A few test swings created trails in air that mirrored the sky my sword allowed us to gaze upon.

I made my way to the top level of Rata Sum, and lifted my hand… for a while. People were now staring at me like I was some kind of special idiot with a really special sword, but the moment Volendrung met my left hand a wave of godly aura washed over the assembled and the chrome of the hammer mixed with the gold of the sword and the sword mixed with the chrome of the hammer and both were made more beautiful for it. The plasma axe feature of the hammer activated and it shown with the same sunset as the sword, but the energy remained in the hammer rather than encapsulate my other arm giving me that A-symmetrical cosmetic effect that gets the ladies soggy.

I set out to recreate an artifact of Dwayna, ended up creating a divine relic of my own, and converted the Hammer of Might to my own divinity as well.

It was a good day.

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"The fact that no one figured out you were a god before today really shakes my faith in people." Zojja, a bald female Asura of legendary status and achievement told me as we sat in her lab after she had been assigned as my mentor upon my entry into the College of Synergistics.

"To be fair, I can't have pleasurable sex with Asura, and I haven't been fighting anyone since I got here, and you are all so wrapped up in your own work no one noticed all the neat stuff I have been making." I brushed aside the cynicism.

"So you are a god of sex, battle, and crafting?" Zojja asked.

"Pretty much." I answered.

"Great, another Human god running around." Zojja muttered, "Are you here to steal Asuran knowledge so you can give your favorite race another huge leg up against everyone else?"

"To be fair, my dear. I use to be a dragon-man, so you should probably be thankful to the dick head who warped me into this human form." I laughed, "Last thing you need is a dragon god descending on this world to speed up the desolation."

"I'll have to send him a thank you note the first chance I get." She nodded.

"You won't even find him in the afterlife after I got done with him." I said as I looked up at the ceiling, "I had four testicles. A great big quad!"

"I am sure there are many people that care about your loss of testicles." Zojja stated, "I am not one of them. What I want to know is what you are doing here in Rata Sum."

"The loss of my testicles was a crime against the omniverse." I spoke up against the atrocity, "And I came here to learn how the Asura do SCIENCE."

"Why?" Zojja inquired, "Why would a god be interested in Asuran research and technology."

"I want to fight the Elder Dragons, and they are more powerful than me. I can put the hurt on them no doubt, especially with my slick new sword and my empowered warhammer, but to actually win the day I need more." I answered, "So I either need to drag them down to my level, or find ways to get to theirs, and I chose magi-tech to get it done. Hell, Snaff's telepathic tech has already improved the speed at which I can develop new tech, and I am sure that Synergistics is where I will find the solution to infinite endless energy."

Seriously, Snaff was solid gold. The dude made technopathy a thing in this world and now I can program my nanoswarms hands free and even assume direct control like a Harbinger wannabe.

"Hold on, infinite energy and endless energy are two very different concepts and both are way beyond the current cutting edge of Synergistics research." Zojja sought to curb my enthusiasm.

"I picked up infinite energy decades ago." I told the Asura, "Even with my best efforts I can only get those batteries to last for twenty years, and the resources required to make them are not always available, but if I can fuse what I know with what the Asura know, even if I can't make a truly endless source of power, I know I will be able to greatly extend the lifetime of my power cells. After all, the best Asuran Tech is highly stable, capable of operating for centuries without maintenance."

"You have infinite power cells!" Zojja screamed.

"I could run the entire grid of Rata Sum for twenty years with a cell that fits into my armor." I nodded my head.

"Are you sure you can't have sex with Asura?" She looked at me with a familiar hunger in her eyes.

"Zojja. My cock is almost as big as your torso." I informed her.

"What about just the tip?" She shrieked.

"With some good lube we could maybe make it fit without too much tearing…" I theorized.

"Get your pants off!" my government appointed mentor shouted, "We are going to make the smartest babies ever!"