God Of Velmoryn [ LitRPG, Progression, High Fantasy ]

A/N - Thank you, Aranox, Miakaru, Bradyn Maloney, DeShaun Wideman, Gustavo Claude, & Bdku1, for becoming God of Velmoryn's Patrons!

The blue notifications kept popping up in front of me, flooding my vision so quickly that I wouldn't have been able to read them even if I attempted. But I didn't even try. My attention was elsewhere, fixed on a far more beautiful sight.

One by one, crimson stars lit up in my divine realm. The growth wasn't just steady, it was exponential. Moments ago, there had been barely over eight hundred. Now, that number had almost doubled. More than fifteen hundred stars pulsed within my realm. The new ones weren't fully formed yet - thin, glowing threads were still stretching from each new star, reaching toward the divine tree that anchored my plane, but they were slowly taking shape.

With every new star, more voices filled my awareness. I expected it to be overwhelming. It should have been deafening. But it wasn't. Somehow, I could hear them all at once and still keep them sorted, each one distinct, each one clear. It was effortless.

"My Lord, your lost children have finally found their way…"

Tekla's voice seeped through my thoughts, soft, happy and reverent, snapping me out of the trance for a moment. But I let it pass. My focus returned to the stars and the way the threads moved toward them. It was like the thinnest crimson hands were stretching to grab the new additions in my divine realm. The threads moved slowly, far too slowly… almost as if time itself had bent under the weight of what was about to happen.

The moment the threads reached the divine tree and made contact, I understood why.

My vision blurred. For a heartbeat, everything went dark. I thought I was about to lose consciousness, but just before I faded, something clicked into place. My senses realigned. The darkness receded.

And then, a new, golden notification appeared before me. A yellow tore through the lingering haze, clearing my vision.

[Congratulations, Verde! You've raised a Rank!]

I felt elevated. I knew part of this excitement, this constant, clawing desire to grow stronger, came from the system. I had realized that long ago. But knowing didn't dull the feeling. It still felt good. A tangible reward. The result of the effort finally bearing fruit.

But I didn't get to savor it for long.

My divine realm trembled. The stars swayed violently, and for a moment I wondered if they might break loose altogether. If not for the crimson threads tethering them to the divine tree, I was certain they would have drifted into the depths, lost in the mist that had always cloaked my realm.

Only now, that mist was receding.

I froze. The gray clouds that had been there since the day I became Verde began to pull back, expanding my plane in size. And then my vantage point also started to change. I was rising, or perhaps everything else was sinking. It was difficult to tell. There was no gravity, no sense of orientation. Just motion.

Below me, the crimson guardian projection shuddered. I felt it, an ache radiating from the divine tree itself as its roots expanded, pushing farther outward, swallowing the space that had once been buried under the dense fog. I knew it meant that the Crimson Guardian now covered a wider range in the mortal world below.

I wanted to check on Orrvyn, to see if the changes had affected him, to understand what this expansion meant. But before I could focus, I was struck by pain.

Real pain.

The kind I hadn't felt in a long time.

I-I can feel pain?

I had almost missed it. I had even told myself it was a price worth paying. But the moment it returned, I realized how wrong that thought was. I would have burned through dozens of Divinity Points just to erase it again.

But I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. My thoughts stuttered. Even thinking hurt. My vision dimmed, my will faltered, and I struggled just to stay conscious. I winced, eyes narrowing. My instincts told me to run, I tried to… and to my surprise, I did.

I looked down.

There were no legs, not in a real, physical sense, but I saw the faintest silhouette, like the shadow of form not yet complete. Next, I tried to lift my hands, but the pain surged again and shut my will down.

No sound escaped me, but I moaned all the same.

The agony lingered. I had no idea how long it lasted, only that it felt endless. But eventually, it began to ease. My mind returned, sluggish at first, then more fluid. The first thing I did was try again to raise my hands.

But what I saw instead were two long, hazy columns of crimson smoke extended before me, faint, but undeniably mine.

Despite not having actual limbs and a body. Despite my new form being crimson cloud, I was happy. Genuinely happy.

It meant something. It was proof that when I rose in rank, I would become something more. Perhaps not a Velmoryn, but definitely more than a faint crimson haze. I still couldn't smell or speak or feel in any traditional sense, but at least I could move now. I got closer to the divine tree, reaching out. And though I couldn't touch it, I sensed something. The closer my smoke-like hand drew to the projection, the more vivid that sensation became. I didn't know what this sensation meant, but I knew that it was something new, and I loved it.

And only then, as I hovered beside the tree, did I realize how impossibly vast it truly was. The stars I had once thought of as glowing specks were also massive.

I feel small now…

The thought came from amusement. But before it could even settle, the stars and the crimson tree projection began to shrink. Or perhaps I was the one growing… I couldn't tell. Still, I didn't like the change, so I willed it to stop, and it obeyed.

My mind, however, was still a complete mess.

A thousand thoughts flooded in at once. Unfinished, overlapping, colliding. The multitasking that had once felt like an advantage now teetered on the edge of chaos. I was focused on too many things simultaneously, and all that information poured into my awareness without pause. It was unbearable, at least, in this raw, unmastered state.

What should I do?
What is my new rank, I wonder?
Tekla is still praying…
Avenor is getting closer to the tribe, I must observe when Karla and Gundir meet each other....
Woah, the sphere above the Crimson Guardian projection also changed…

The divine realm around me was still shifting, reshaping itself to match my new rank. But I couldn't observe, I needed to distract myself from new thinking materials. I needed a single point of focus, something to anchor me before I lost myself completely.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Let's check the status window first. And then slowly analyze everything one step at a time…