Eldritch

 

"I don't understand." (I)

"Was I too vague? You made up a god. The mere idea is ludicrous. So, given that we are talking about you it's just more of the usual." (Z)

"How could this be possible? I didn't even do anything!" (I)

"Oh my, did you seriously already forget how gods come into existence?" (Z)

 

The thing is, I can perfectly remember everything that recently happened.
My memory works better than ever before.
It's not like I always have to deal with the whole weight of my life, rather I can access it any time I want.

For example, I ask myself what I had last week for dinner and know that mum made Oden.
Or in the last test, I suddenly knew what the teacher said about this before.
I have no idea how that filter exactly works but it's quite efficient.
And so I also know what Zika said back then about gods.
Or how she called Soraja when they met.

 

"Gods are kinda like dreams. People pray to them and their joint efforts coalesce and form something concrete." (I)

"Good that you can learn. Now what do you think happened in your dream world?" (Z)

"But wouldn't this need many more praying people? Like thousands upon thousands? That society consisted only of several hundred." (I)

"There are different ways how a god can manifest. Well, actually it's kinda always the same with the only difference being how the faith assembles. The usual is that a great number, thousands upon thousands, constantly believe that there has to be a reason for a simple concept and they slowly form their god over the course of centuries. They reinforce the idea over and over till it appears like a factum to them that is undeniable. This kind of complete conviction is what brings a god into existence. When the idea becomes the truth for a sufficient number of believers then it will affect the world itself." (Z)

 

Okay, makes sense.
If dreams can be real to a degree as I experienced it, then it's not too farfetched that with enough backing something smaller could be brute-forced in what appears like reality.
However, I doubt this was the case in my dream.
What Zika describes is a long process.
Furthermore, I'm quite sure that the several hundred I have there would never be enough to make it happen as Zika describes it here, especially since my dream is already regulated by me, which should interfere.

 

"But this can't be the case here! I don't even have so many people!" (I)

"This brings us to the second variant. It's also possible that a smaller group of fanatics with unparalleled vigor achieves in a short time the same result as a far greater number of less-intense believers. It's the difference between a widespread religion of people who don't care too much about their holy edicts and a small but extremely devoted cult. The difference between quantity and quality that comes down to the same. And this is a newly created god. Which brings us to your case." (Z)

"B-but they weren't even very fanatic. Okay, they often mentioned his name but nothing too extreme. Chiaki!" (I)

 

I didn't see any rituals, shrines, or temples.
This doesn't seem too fanatic.

 

"I'd agree. They were grateful but I'm not sure if they could rival a big religion." (C)

"That might be as it is, however, what our outer god here described was the prime example of a manifestation event. Not only are those people isolated in a plane that has not much else going for it than the monsters that want to eat them alive, but in addition, she threatened them on an existential level. They were cornered and in their desperation went with all they had to their god. This kind of pure devotion to entrust their own self to another entity is much more than the superficial faith of someone going once a year to the ceremonies and certainly enough of a spike to push an established idea over the edge to reality. You, my outer goddess, created a god and should now really work on getting some order back into your world. I mean, the beings in your own world don't believe in you." (Z)

"But I don't even want to be worshipped!" (I)

"Then it works out for you, right? You only should establish your superiority to that god or it might mess up your inside. They tend to shape their own realms according to their concept. Which would be bad if you have your own idea of how your world should look." (Z)

"Oh, right! We still have our list to work with!" (C)

"List?" (Z)

"Sigh. Because we realized that there are people over there and I'm in some way responsible for them we wanted to work on improving their lives a bit." (I)

"Don't see why you'd voluntarily take this stress, especially if it already works out for them." (Z)

"I can't even do it that well because everything I create often ends up nightmarish. This includes plants, animals, even water." (I)

"You are aware that you could just..." (Z)

 

At this, she makes a gesture as if she's trying to say: "Isn't it obvious?"

 

"No? What could I do?" (I)

"You're constantly absorbing stuff, why not make use of that? Okay, your world has a small effect of generally corrupting everything that gets in there but if you use what already exists in another world as ground material it should maintain most of its form while carrying over." (Z)

"That's possible?! Iori! We could plant rice or grain there! This way we could even solve your issues with the food costs!" (C)

 

This almost sounds too easy.
Like a simple solution to my problems.
I usually have trouble trusting those.

 

"But wouldn't that mean I had to acquire them first? As far as I know stealing crops from the fields is a crime." (I)

"Oh, great ones! How could I forget? We wouldn't want law enforcement to investigate how some plants got swallowed by the abyss! Then get them wild-growing or whatever! I don't have a nerve for this and a bunch of duties I need to attend to!" (Z)

 

I'm not sure if I want her to leave like this.
Unfortunately, I remember too late that I still wanted to scold her for this morning but at this point, she's already consumed by her usual fire portal.
Maybe I should learn to be more willful.
However, now it's too late.

 

"This leaves us. So, where can we get seeds for your world?" (C)

"You seriously want to do this? Even more directly now?" (I)

"Sure, why not?" (C)

"Because I doubt that you have a plan." (I)

"Couldn't you just buy some rice in a food store?" (C)

 

This isn't even too stupid, but it still wouldn't work out.

 

"We would need more than a bit and it would only be one plant." (I)

"But couldn't you simply copy one and the same seed?" (C)

"First, you should very well know that this would end in a genetic disaster. Second, I already dread what my dream would add if I provide the base and then say it is free to reproduce its own variant." (I)

 

This would only mean getting nightmare rice.
And I have no idea what that one's properties would even be.

 

"Hmm... Uh, uh, I have an idea!" (C)

 

Now I'm worried.

 

"Sigh, okay Chiaki, what did you come up with now?" (I)

"How about I just check on my phone where rice fields are? I'm sure there are some webpages that show locations." (C)

"I just told you that I don't want to steal from other people's fields." (I)

"No, no, we wouldn't. Instead, we'll just check the area around them. Wherever big monocultures are there are also going to be some wild plants nearby. It's only natural. The seeds get blown away by the wind and gather in the surrounding environment around the fields. But there they don't belong to the field owners anymore and are free to harvest. And when you're there you'll just use your eye powers or whatever else you have to spot them." (C)

 

I'm quite surprised.

 

Okay, I knew that Chiaki is quite smart.
Her test scores indicate as much, or the way she actively participates in class.
Yet if you know her personally it's often hidden behind a layer of insanity.
Or at least too many weird ideas to believe that she's a reasonable being capable of common sense.

 

"That.. actually sounds like a good plan. Do you really think that'll work?" (I)

"Got it!" (C)

 

She shows me her phone and there are some marked places.
I don't know the site but I doubt there's a scam about crop locations going on.

 

"I just followed some links from our farming ministry's webpage and voila!" (C)

 

Now she's also an IT geek.
This girl is just too talented.
It might be vexing would one make the mistake and compare themselves to her.

 

"Okay, and what now?" (I)

"Isn't this your part? You can just teleport where the map shows you and check the environment." (C)

"Uh, the problem is, I’ve never been there. I don't know if I can.“ (I)

 

That's actually a concern.
At all the places in the real world where I willingly teleported to I went before at some point.
Chiaki's place, school, my home, all known places.
Places I had kinda a feeling for.
And in other cases, I just randomly appeared somewhere.

Here I only have the image on Chiaki's phone to pinpoint the location.
And that's only a very rough one.

 

"Hm, then how about this? Here, give me your phone! I’ll open  'Maps' on the net and use the satellite version. That's far more natural. I'm marking the places and you can teleport while knowing our relative location. Even if you miss it, you can just use your phone to recheck everything and you can just close in till you're there." (I)

 

Sigh, after today I'll have to wait for some time till I can tease Chiaki again.
Not only because she's helping me out here, but even more because she's being so capable.
But I'll surely soon find a new reason with her.

 

"Thank you, Chiaki. Ehm, do you want to accompany me?" (I)

 

At this, she looks guiltily away.

 

"Uh, not if I can avoid it. And I don't think my presence will be needed over there." (C)

 

Well, she's not a fan of my teleportation.

 

"Well, then thank you again, and see you tomorrow." (I)

 

After this, I look intently at my phone.
I ingrain the top perspective as strongly into my mind as possible.
Then I activate the thought as all the times before and blink away.

When I look around I'm somewhere in the wild.
My phone needs a short time to re-establish the connection and my position on "Maps".

When it does so it proves that I'm almost exactly where I wanted to be.
I just hope that no one's going to read out my tracking data.
I heard several IT companies do this.
Wouldn't be good in my case.

Anyways, I came here for something.
So I establish another thought of mine and bring it forth.
This time, instead of using my eyes, I use my mist.
Especially because we're far away from the city, I'm extremely concerned about all the pollution I cause.

However, for now, it can assist me.
Because everywhere the mist is I have some kind of awareness and I can use this sense to scan for stuff.
I'm especially looking for rice here and fill the image with everything I know about the plant.
Naturally, I soon receive a ping since there are fields nearby.
But the fields aren't my target.
I'm looking for wild, isolated plants.
On the other side, with the comparatives, it should now be much easier to spot the right ones.

And truly, Chiaki was right and I locate some.
The only concern I have is how worryingly far my mist spread.
I'm rather sure that my corruption isn't great for flora and fauna.
But this is just another reason to make it as quick as possible.

I blink directly there and see them with my own body's eyes.
Now it's just a question of how I go about this.
Do I just need the seeds or should I take the whole thing for replanting?
Ah, whatever. That's too complicated.

I'll just absorb it and store everything inside me.
This way I’ll have more to work with.
It doesn’t look pretty when my body grows this mass of tendrils, a billion tiny tendrils that envelop the plants and pull everything inside me, but it gets the job done.
Then I repeat this on some other locations for my storage till I deem I have enough.

It's quite uneventful, especially since I feel through my mist how every living thing capable of doing so runs for its life or goes into hiding.
And so I'm quite quickly done.
Before the next step, I write mum a message that it might get a bit later today since I don't want to worry her and the connection is going to cut off.
Then I prepare myself for my leave back into my dream.
There's one important thing I have to do now.

 

"Haaaaahhhhhhh..." (I)

 

I breathe in as deep as I can and suck all the mist back inside.
I noticed that it's not too great for nature and want to remedy it.
Or at least not be some big-scale polluter.
I inhale and inhale and inhale far above any possible capacities, be it human or inhuman, it's simply unexplainable.
When I feel that I've got almost everything in and that proceeding would cause completely different issues for our atmosphere I stop.
Now I feel a terrible need to breathe out again.

But before that happens, I blink.
And am inside my dream.