God Among Men

A short story about a man who becomes a god.

I realized the true potential of my power shortly after I had become an adult. I had the ability to do things, many things, almost any thing. I could create objects from raw materials just by willing them together with my mind, I could telepathically communicate with others, I could use the pure energy of my being to destroy things, to move things, to influence everything around me. My god-like power was near limitless.

I at first began with simple tasks. Acquiring things I wanted, eventually creating them for myself. I kept my power hidden from the public for many years, honing it, refining it. Eventually the time came where I decided I would make known the awesome powers I posessed, show its greatness to everyone across the world. I wanted people to see me as a god, as their god, and they did. I flew through the air, proclaiming my greatness, I sat at the top of the world and bellowed out so loudly that every creature on the planet could hear. I visited many countries and performed miraculous feats. Mountains grew from the ground as I passed above, storms dissapated as I neared. I spent seven days constructing a golden statue in my likeness, its size so immense it could be viewed from space.

These presentations naturally induced panic amongst the people. They could not comprehend the sheer brilliance of my existence and reacted with fear. They even tried to fight me, thinking me to be some sort of extraterrestrial threat. I put an immediate end to this behavior. I gained their trust and companionship by providing them with aid. I cured their diseases, saved their lives from wars, famine, disaster. I showed them new technologies, gave them a new understanding, a new perspective on their existence. Eventually, as the years passed and their trust in me grew stronger, they would seek me out and approach me for assistance or advice. They prayed to me. This connection grew even stronger when I began to provide them not only relief from their dilemmas, but material wealth, power, satisfaction. Their lusts, their envies, their greeds were fulfilled and replaced with a happiness brought about by the physical pleasures of this world. Dedicated religious followers began to renounce their faith. Where their faith had only given them a belief, a hope, I gave them something to see, to feel, to experience in this life. As their belief in me solidified, I became their god.

And my plan was finally realized. My presence was so powerful, my influence so strong, that even the truest of believers had abandoned their faith to follow me. These people of Earth had traded their morals, their values, their idealism, for the pleasures of the material gain and physical happiness that I had promised and granted them. My father rose, the humans of Earth attracted even moreso to his enticing promises of eternal happiness than to mine. Succumbing to the temptations of their world, these frail creatures turned their love to us and away from Him, relinquishing what was left of their humanity in the process.

But celebration came too soon. At that very moment, when the people were completely overcome by their bliss, something happened that we believed only to be lies crafted to bluff us into giving up our mission. A divine aura, a holy light, engulfed all those worthy. They were transported away from this forsaken land and brought to a higher existence. Despite our success in tempting them away from their humanity, they had been rewarded with rapture, as promised by Him. The rest were left behind to suffer the torments of this new world. I heard the clatter of the horsemen as they descended upon the planet to punish all those who had lived their lives in sin. A light broke from the black sky and its power overwhelmed my father and I. We had ultimately failed, even when we had managed to turn every human on Earth away from Him, His power succeeded. We fell as the light washed over us, fell into a thick darkness we would never return from. We cursed His name, falling until we plunged into the fiery depths of hell.

Author's Note

Wrote this tonight, hopefully an improvement on the last one, feedback and criticism is much appreciated.

Reviews

[Jūdan FyreHeart]

The beginning seemed a little rushed as though you were trying to get down to the good bit.

Once you got more down to the fulfillment of power and achieving the goal it flowed much better. The descriptions were very good though giving a great insight into personality of the narrator. The ending was a tidy twist with a smooth feel to it, it wasn't entirely predictable and it worked very well.

[Detective Watts]

That was suprising.