To say that Baltamiros was stunned out of his mind would be the understatement of the millenia.
He laid there motionlessly staring in shock at the little bit of power within him which was a glowing, shiny bit of liquefied God Energy.
It was much denser than the rest of his energy within him, and he felt like its applications and potency had more than grown multiple times over.
After eons of absolute boredom and eons of failures in attempting to do what just happened to him, the shock of finally realizing that he had stumbled upon the method to power up was too much for his god mind to bear.
He was stunned for a very long time.
For an entire year, to be exact.
After one full year, Baltamiros awakened to a startling view. He was lying on his Royal Bed, and the undead spirit of his buddy Jacob was hovering near him.
"Huh? Why am I back here? Jacob! You didn't survive the fall? Damn it." Baltamiros cursed loudly.
"My Lord. I survived the fall. Thank you very much for your selfless rescue. But you were somehow stunned senseless because of that. After I brought you back to the palace, your ministers accused me of trying to harm the king and sentenced me to death. I awoke in this spirit form and have been standing here ever since." Jacob replied emotionlessly.
As an undead spirit, he had lost all of his emotions except for the one that forcefully tied him to the realm of the living. His devotion to Baltamiros.
"Come with me." Baltamiros got up, burned down the little Kingdom to ashes in slight irritation for what they did to his buddy, and retreated back to his Folded God Realm with Jacob.
Baltamiros glanced at Jacob, expecting to see a glimpse of his satisfaction at finally getting revenge on those that sentenced him to death, but there was no emotion on his face except for steadfast devotion.
Baltamiros sighed, opened a portal and stepped into his throne room.
There, he questioned Jacob for every single detail with regard to the fall, and he finally came to a startling conclusion.
"Undying devotion from my subject is the trigger for my power liquefying?" Baltamiros frowned deeply. "I had no idea that such a level of devotion could exist. Let me breakdown the factors that let to the formation of Jacob's undying devotion.
First he was awed that I was a king. And then while in that state of awe, he was touched by my willingness to sacrifice my life to save his life.
Awe and being emotionally touched by me?
That first part is easy to recreate on a massive scale. but that second part… Hmmmm. Tricky. Tricky indeed."
Baltamiros was not one to dawdle.
He immediately set out to recreate the situation with Jacob in the millions of kingdoms in the millions of worlds under his control.
But alas, undying devotion did not come easily. All of them felt gratitude. Varying degrees of gratitude, but none even approached the level of undying devotion which Jacob had.
"The situation was the same, and so was everything else. The only variable was… the devotee. So that means that I need to select someone that has a similar background to Jacob. Alone, without families who need them, and introverts who enjoy living outdoors. Let's try it again." Baltamiros did not give up.
He diligently searched for his targets first for a couple of years before putting his plan into motion.
But alas, it did not work as well!
"There must be something missing in the equation." Baltamiros realized. "And maybe it is me. I too, must be in a certain state as well. In the grand mystery that held the power to liquefy my God Energy, every single thing is important. Being the subject, I am the most important."
"My state was that of reflexive concern for Jacob. I wanted him alive, even at the expense of my then life. So it is sacrificial in nature. I see… That makes sense.
And it is probably not an equation at all, but a chain reaction.
When a god lowers himself to sacrifice his life for his devotee, that sacrificial power opens the door for the devotee to feel true devotion. And when that devotee resolves in his heart to devote his very fibre of being to the god, transformational power occurs within the god." Baltamiros summarized to himself.
However, Baltamiros found himself in a massive connundrum.
"Sacrificial power from me cannot be achieved if I am seeking to gain something from that act! This is tricky. Very tricky." Baltamiros frowned deeply in thought.
But the answer to that connundrum quickly presented itself.
"If I can't act it out, then I should just do it sincerely. I will split my soul into a million pieces, and send them out to live a million lives. Fall in love, make good friends, and prepare to sacrifice my life sincerely for their well being." Baltamiros decided.
Split!
A million Baltamiros souls exploded forth from the Folded God Realm and started to live their lives in various positions of power.
Being a sincere God, there was no problems for Baltamiros to achieve what he set out to do.
Within fifty years, all one million soul fragments made their way back into Baltamiros main soul.
And all one million souls came back with a drop of liquefied power.
The infusion of one million drops of liquefied power sent Baltamiros into a deep slumber as his life force started to digest the power.
And just like that, Baltamiros slumbered for a million years.
When he woke up a couple of years prior to Elliot's arrival, he woke up as a massively overpowered god with a million drops of liquid energy at his disposal, and a deep, deep hunger to continue his project.
But alas, in that million years, all of his believers had died.
There were no more flames in his grassland!
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