Earth is a retively young pnet in the grand scheme of things. Yet, unlike most rocks floating through the Astral, it is home to billions of living creatures.

  Thanks to its ability to produce and maintain life, Earth has distinguished itself from its barren brethren, making itself one of the most valuable jewels of reality.

  However, it is also thanks to its life-bearing capability that Earth and many other life-bearing pnets are considered treasures to be devoured.

  Earth. 1950. Anno Domini.

  Unknown to Earth’s inhabitants, their future doom was approaching.

  A Living Ship, as they were known to the rest of the Astral, had just spotted Earth and was quickly approaching the pnet. As its name implied, the ship was not a metal husk piloted using advanced technology.

  Contrary to its name, it did not resemble a ship at all. The vessel was a living entity that could traverse the chaos-filled vacuum of space, and its kind could be found inhabiting a variety of shapes and sizes throughout existence. This particur ship was shaped like a weaving of three giant tentacles that connected at their base.

  The first sighting of a living ship would always gain odd reactions as the entity did not have normal skin, and all its veins, muscles, and general flesh were exposed.

  Living ships were rarely factionless, and like many other Astral Aberrations, they often bound themselves to more powerful Astral entities such as Eldritch Gods. These entities often used the ships as scouts, sending them far and wide in search of weaker Eldritch Deities or, in this case, life-bearing pnets.

  As such, when this particur ship reached Earth, its first task was to confirm that the pnet was indeed a life-bearing pnet. Of course, the living ship already knew that the pnet contained life as it could feel the Ethereal Barrier of the pnet warping space to dey its entrance into the world. However, the fact that the pnet still had its Ethereal Barrier did not mean other life forms hadn’t already conquered it. So, the ship dutifully sent out a psychic scan that would allow it to more accurately judge what kind of creatures lived within.

  A pnet was still a pnet, however, and the living ship was only so powerful, so it took a couple of hours before the scan was complete. On its completion, the ship received an incoherent garble of thoughts, words, and feelings. After processing and tasting the psychological data, a rush of mental excitement passed through its alien psyche. Then, without hesitation the aberration sent a telepathic message to its god.

  Shu’dral Megduth’Azo was traversing the Astral with Its legion of Aberrations when it received a message from one of the scouting ships. The message informed the deity of a newly found pnet that met the requirements of its rather unique diet. Shortly after receiving the message Shu’dral Megduth’Azo began channeling mana to form a massive spell. As the Eldritch God worked, an enormous spell circle began to form around itself.

  The circle glowed with bright white light, and within it, runic symbols spun faster and faster as the whole construct grew brighter and brighter. Soon, the spell formation grew to the size of a small pnet encompassing the god and its entire army.

  Then, with a bright fsh Shu’dral Megduth’Azo and its legion disappeared from space.

  They appeared a fraction of a second ter next to Earth.

  Meanwhile, on Earth, not a single being was even remotely aware of the apocalyptic force that had just arrived at their doorsteps.

  After arriving in this new sector of the Universe, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo reyed further instructions to its aberration army. They were to spread out and scout Earth’s sor system while also setting up the required rituals. After all, the st thing the god needed was another Eldritch God surprising it while it pnned Earth’s destruction.

  Once the command had been sent, the Eldritch God directed its full attention toward Earth and began a thorough investigation of the pnet.

  As the god fully focused, it quickly noticed that Earth’s Ethereal Barrier was retively weak compared to other previously encountered Ethereal Barriers. Though flimsier, the Ethereal Barrier could still block the god from entering the pnet, and it would still take pnning and energy to weaken the barrier further.

  The good thing was that a weaker barrier meant the Eldritch God would spend less energy breaking it. Typically, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo wouldn’t have concerned itself with bothersome things like energy expenditure as not many things could threaten an Eldritch God even at their weakest. However, after destroying a pnet a century or so ago, the Eldritch God had felt something watching it. The god had been surprised at first but had quickly realized what or who was observing it. It seemed to have caught the attention of the Chaos Walkers. Even so, the god knew that the Chaos Walkers would only make a move if they deemed the god had become weakened, like when failing to consume a pnet some thousand years ago. At the time, however, Shu'dral Megduth'Azo had just ascended to Godhood and only had a fraction of its current power or, more importantly, experience.

  Shu’dral Megduth’Azo still remembered feeling invincible and engaging the pnet in a head-on charge. The god had quickly discovered that its powers were indeed vast but still limited, at least when fighting against an entire world. Though the pnet’s barrier had been broken, the denizens of the pnet had been able to unite and had secretly created a weapon of mass destruction that almost took its life. Luckily, the god had been able to retreat into the Astral, and the pnet's natives were unable to give chase as they cked the required magic or technology.

  That failed attempt had taught the godly aberration much, and over the millennia, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had come to learn even more. As such, the god knew that its life was at risk now more than ever. After all, all it took was one lousy invasion, and the Chaos Walkers would strike.

  So, finding a pnet with a weak barrier was a stroke of good luck. Not only would breaking the barrier use less energy, but after the Eldritch God consumed the world the godly abomination would only grow stronger, causing the unwanted observers to think twice before engaging.

  Without much worry, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo kept studying the pnet and swiftly found something rather unique. There was a subtle, almost unnoticeable connection between the Earth and its moon. The link would have been impossible to find for virtually any other creature in existence, but Shu’dral Megduth’Azo held the title of Eldritch God for a reason.

  Soon after noticing the connection Shu’dral Megduth’Azo promptly began inspecting the moon and was surprised yet again upon finding an Ethereal Barrier protecting the pnetoid. The barrier was just as fragile as Earth's and could very well be the reason for its counterpart's fragility.

  With the god’s curiosity piqued Shu’dral Megduth’Azo continued a careful examination of the problem. The god quickly grew confident that this oddity was the reason for the retively weak Ethereal Barrier around the Earth. The confidence in its theory was backed by the Eldritch God’s millennia of experience encountering numerous life-bearing pnets.

  Many of these pnets had moons, but not one had ever been protected by an Ethereal Barrier. This fact validated the theory that the world sharing its barrier with another pnetoid had caused it to produce a much weaker barrier than it typically would have. The godly aberration's issue was that there was no way to confirm the theory. The chances of the god finding another pnet experiencing the same exact conditions were next to impossible. As such, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo swiftly lost interest in the theory, as what truly mattered were the implications brought by being unable to cim the moon.

  Though the Earth’s weaker Ethereal Barrier was a good thing, it was slightly counterbanced by the protection of the pnet's moon. This shift in bance came due to one of the most well-used tactics by Eldritch Deities across reality, the act of taking control of a pnet’s moon. This tactic of conquering a moon or, in some cases, moons was used for two significant reasons.

  The first reason was the psychological damage the act inflicted on a pnet's inhabitants. Most moons had often been around for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years. This fact often caused many cultures and religions to base themselves around their pnet's moon. Even if a pnet did not possess moon-reted cultural history, a moon floating in the sky was often a scene that comforted many.

  As such, when an Eldritch God came along and converted the moon into a sphere of darkness in the sky, the mental damage done could be incalcuble. Of course, it all depended on how much importance a pnet pced on its moon. However, even if the inhabitants of a world did not put any significance on their moon, seeing a sizable part of reality being influenced by some unknown entity was an unnerving prospect. This psychological trauma would be helpful in sowing discord within a pnet which then made the act of conquering easier.

  The second reason for invading a pnet's moon was rather evident and practical—a moon made for a great base of operations.

  The fact was that most pnets whirled through space, which meant an invading force had to follow after their target in order to deal with it effectively, and that's when a pnet's moon came into py. Aside from a few odd anomalies, a moon would always orbit around its pnet. As such, moons were great unching points for relentless attacks against a world.

  So even though Shu’dral Megduth’Azo’s invasion would be easier due to Earth’s weak barrier, it would also be less than convenient as the god would have to chase after the Earth while the pnet traveled its orbit.

  Taking all of this into consideration, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo was actually fine with the whole ordeal. Sure, chasing the Earth would be less than optimal, but finding new ways to torment souls was always rewarding.

  Since it had no moon to conquer, the Eldritch God adjusted the pns that were being made and continued the investigation.

  The pnet known as Earth was rather intriguing. Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had seen a couple of technologically advanced worlds, but every single one had incorporated magic into their technology. This put Earth in an odd pce as the pnet did have mana but rarely was any actual magic being used, and the magic used was weak and only detectable in remote areas. The Eldritch God could even detect connections to some of the Realms, but they were faint and way too fragile for any truly powerful entity to use.

  Wanting to learn more about how Earth had gotten to its current state, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo explored the psychic energy given off by the countless living creatures of Earth. Using this mental energy, the god began piecing together some of the pnet's history.

  It seemed it wasn’t just the pnet's low ambient mana that was the issue. From what the god could gather, Earth had been more magical thousands of years in the past.

  There had been more creatures of magic and, with them, more magic users. However, as time passed, those who wielded magic became more insur, and the magical beings that had existed were hunted down to extinction. There were, of course, the portals to the Realms, but only weak creatures could pass through them, and they were often confused with regur beasts.

  Then, as civilization expanded, other sapient species were hunted down by humanity, leaving them as the only sapient creatures on Earth. And as time passed only the tales of an ancient magical past were passed down through the generations.

  This past led to Earth’s current state, where magic users hid away as they feared their powers would have them killed or exiled. All of this made some sense in the god’s intricate mind since the magic humans currently wielded was too weak and wouldn’t stand up to current human technology. Even if magic posed a threat to the non-magical popution, the magic users were incredibly outnumbered, which further limited their power.

  Shu’dral Megduth’Azo spent hours unraveling and digesting Earth’s history as it slowly learned about humanity and its many weaknesses. The Eldritch Deity had learned long ago that even the weakest of pnets were not to be underestimated. So, the god continued constructing a pn like its life depended on it because it very well might.

  There were two things all Eldritch Deities across reality were known for - their meticulous pnning and incredible patience. It was even commonpce for Eldritch Gods to spend decades, centuries, or even millennia pnning the downfall of a single pnet.

  Of course, the total amount of time that an Eldritch God would take to conquer a pnet would depend on the difficulty the world posed.

  This meant that the Earth was doomed.

  Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had reached what could be considered the mid-tiers of power in the cosmic Eldritch Deity ranks. So, the god had plenty of world-destroying experience, and after investigating the Earth, it determined that the pnet had no chance.

  Not only did Earth have a low level of ambient mana, but it also had incredibly primitive magic, and, more importantly, the whole pnet was highly divided. All of these things put the pnet as one of the weakest the Eldritch God had ever seen. As such, there was no possibility of Earth fending off Shu’dral Megduth’Azo, let alone killing it.

  As such, mere days after arriving in Earth’s sor system, the god began its pn to conquer and devour the pnet. It even wondered if Earth would really be its easiest meal ever.

  The first step in the god’s pn called for a more detailed look into the world's inhabitants. This meant further investigating their cultures, values, technological levels, etc. A thorough investigation was needed to build a sturdy foundation within the pnet, which would ter allow for easier infiltration and control of the pnet's inhabitants.

  To accomplish this task, most Eldritch Gods, including Shu’dral Megduth’Azo, tended to use small aberrations called Shifter Drones. These drones were weak, which allowed them to burrow through a pnet's Ethereal Barrier much more quickly.

  Though Ethereal Barriers could completely halt Eldritch Gods or other extremely destructive forces like giant asteroids, it did not mean they were fully impassable or unconquerable. Most creatures, as long as they didn’t hold power akin to a god, were simply deyed by the barrier. Of course, the more powerful the creature was, the harder it was to cross into the pnet, but it could still be done. Even non-world-ending forces like small meteoroids were allowed through.

  This meant that shifter drones were perfect for scouting and surveilnce work. Not only were they weak enough to pass through a barrier in a matter of days, but as their name implied, they were shifters.

  Unlike other shifters, the drones did not use illusion magic to change their appearance. They simply shifted their bodies to become something new. They could grow fur, scales, cws, or any number of other physical traits.

  Due to this talent, shifter drones were often the first aberrations on a pnet. Upon arrival, they would transform into local fauna and spy on the pnet's inhabitants. Then, they would slowly record and store information that would be useful ter on in the invasion. These small aberrations were useful but only at the beginning of an invasion.

  This usefulness tended to plummet when a pnet's inhabitants became aware of the aberration threat, as the first thing the natives often did was create new spells or magical items capable of detecting said aberrations. These items or spells weren’t infallible and often didn’t work on the stronger aberrations but were perfect for much weaker beings like the shifter drones.

  In fact, in highly advanced magical worlds, shifter drones were often only deployed in rural regions where they were less likely to be found. These worlds were often aware of aberrations and had long since taken precautions against them. However, no matter the pnet, shifter drones were always valuable, as the information they gathered could be used to find minor weaknesses that could eventually lead to a pnet's downfall.

  Now, a pnet like Earth was where shifter drones truly shone. There were no means that the inhabitants could use to detect the drones. So, it was no surprise that within the first month of Shu’dral Megduth’Azo’s arrival, hundreds if not thousands of small shifter drones were infiltrating Earth as cute and cuddly animals.