Zatiel did not waste time, and a vortex appeared in the two Depravitas, sending them into his right eye before focusing on another God's Stronghold.
He was in his Sacred King Battleform and already deep within the terrains controlled by the Gods, so with a single step teleported from the Valefor Continent to the Marbas Continent.
A powerful force field assaulted him as soon as he did that, but the Eros Eye countered it without a problem.
Just as Zatiel was about to reach the Magic Castle, he saw how the Divine Avatars chose to hide inside it. That surprised him a little, but he soon understood their reasoning.
The six Gods controlling those Divine Avatar understood Zatiel's might and that of the Depravitas, so they believed that the best path forward was to rely on the Magic Castle.
There was no way the Gods did not know that their tactic could cause damage to the continent and incite the wrath of the Plane Consciousness, but they saw no other way to face the monster coming for them.
Zatiel's eyes narrowed as he felt there was something more behind the Gods' actions, but he did not waste his time trying to decipher it. He came to this place to test his abilities and the monsters he created.
'They are pouring their energy into the Magic Castle, so its defenses are as solid as a weak Rank 8 Artifact. Although I could destroy it given enough time, it would possibly force my full power and make the Plane Consciousness expel me.' An idea appeared in Zatiel's face as he waved his blue lightsaber, splitting a fireball coming toward him in half.
His right eye glowed, releasing the three Depravitas. The creatures noticed the Divine Avatars hiding inside the Magic Castle and were ready to lunge toward it but were not allowed to move.
Zatiel engraved a command in the creatures, and only once he was sure they would have no other choice but to follow it did he let the three Depravitas go.
The nightmarish creatures immediately let go of their solid form and transformed into a toxic fog that covered the entire continent and concentrated around the Magic Castle.
Although they saw how a Depravita used this same method to siege a Magic Tower and then managed to infiltrate it, they were oblivious to how it did it. Hence, the Divine Avatars enhanced their focus and poured as much energy into the Magic Castle as possible.
Luckily for the Divine Avatars, that was an excellent strategy. They maintained their emotions under control by focusing their minds, and the Magic Castle at full power managed to keep the foul black fog at bay.
In all fairness to the Magi, their approach was similar, but unlike the Divine Avatars, who were only puppets, the ones inside Gods' Tomb were their real bodies, so it was harder to control their fear.
Zatiel kept dispersing the spells that the Magic Tower launched at him, and he saw the Depravitas could not pierce the magic defenses. His right eye focused on the Divine Avatars' God Core and assaulted the Gods' seed of consciousness, generating fear and doubt.
Directly creating more Depravitas would have been the best scenario, but they required him to burn part of his bloodline, so until the Neo-Demon was at his peak again, he would not do it.
Those negative emotions soon reached the point where they became gates for the Depravitas, and when the foul aura vanished from outside the Magic Castle, three Divine Avatars began to scream in pain.
Shock appeared in the Divine Avatars when they saw that. None of them felt anything when the Depravitas surpassed the Magic Tower defenses. Still, they were not stupid and understood that the negative emotions that assaulted them just a moment ago had something to do.
The Depravitas had chosen the stronger Divine Avatars. The moment they appeared in their minds, they immediately headed for the God Cores.
Rage and impotence appeared in the golden giants when they saw their comrades twisting in pain. They knew that the only reason these avatars acted like that was that the Gods were withstanding immense pain.
Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do. Magi are much more skilled in using the soul than Gods, yet those inside the Magic Tower could only watch when the Depravia assaulted the woman.
The Divine Avatars chose the same path that the Magi before then, gathering the power of the Magic Castle into a net around their comrades. There was no way they could have known this method was flawed, as they only saw the exterior of the Magic Tower that the Depravita assaulted.
When they saw the light in the agonizing golden giants' eyes shut down and the screams of pain vanished, the Divine Avatars knew that the creatures must have utterly devoured the God Cores and the seed of consciousness inside them.
Just as the Divine Avatars prepared to receive the Depravitas once they left their comrades' corpses, they saw that the fallen golden giants began to twitch, and a foul black aura permeated their bodies.
Shock and terror appeared in the Divine Avatars, and before they could act, the Corrupted made their energy explode, wracking the interior of the Magic Castle.
Unlike the exterior defenses that could resist a weak Rank 8 spell, the interior was much more fragile.
Zatiel immediately flashed forward once he saw the Magic Castle defenses shutting down, and his red lightsaber struck with so much force that it blew into pieces.
Three golden and three black figures emerged from the blast and flashed to the sky.
A solemn expression appeared in the Divine Avatars as they saw the people they called comrades a few minutes ago now had black eyes secreting tar and a dark foul aura covering their bodies.
Zatiel watched the Corrupted with a smile. He deduced that Depravitas could perform possession just as ideas can infect and guide people's actions, and it seemed he was right.
"¡AAAAAAAAAAA!"
"¡AAAAAAAAAAA!"
"¡AAAAAAAAAAA!"
The Corrupted unleashed their screams as their foul aura grew stronger, and they lunged toward the Divine Avatars.
