Any living being capable of reproducing could be treated as a renewable resource. Land though, was neither renewable nor could it be created easily unless one achieved the ability to stably terraform.
While Darius had that ability, he was not, as a matter of fact, Goddess Vena or even close to her level of power. When creating Faust, Vena had done more than just wave her hand to create 10 landmasses. Each landmass had been given its own specific set of rules, powers and laws.
Darius could at best, observe and manipulate rules, powers and laws but to create them? Hah.
As omnipotent as he might seem to the inhabitants of Faust, he was a far way off from exploring all the rules and laws this world contained, much less create his own. So even if he did use a mixture of magic and Transmutation to spawn a huge landmass and develop it into a continent, what would be its rules?
It might end up being a raw piece of land with no magical/special aspect, like a normal continent on Earth. Able to support life yes, but forget about there being mana, Source Energy or the like available.
So no, Darius could not simply treat the landmass of Gravitas with the same level of contempt like he did its population. Of course, that wouldn't stop him from the soon to take place genocide...
After that, he could secretly develop Gravitas as a second base.
Like Pokterr, but without being in the limelight.
Darius rubbed his chin as the idea appealed more in more to his mind.
"Miranda, do not detonate the warheads within their silos. Wait for them to be launched and then detonate them in the atmosphere, high above the land. That way, the shockwave and heat will only kill living beings and irradiate the land after." Darius commanded.
A little radioactivity wasn't a big deal. Miranda and her robots could easily clean it up. The question that Darius was already pondering on was what kind of life to spawn on Gravitas. He was in love with the act of creation, but was getting tired of limiting himself solely to humans.
As a qualified Supreme, would it not be best to diversify his portfolio?
So then, what kind of race to spawn on the continent after? Darius would have to consider that in detail.
(Author's Note: to put it bluntly, here is your chance to influence my novel, so give me suggestions!)
(Editor's Note: Feel free to give us as much information as you want, be it in the comments, or in the discord ;) )
As for now, he simply looked up into the sky as the entire continent shook. Hundreds of missile warheads had been launched from the silos situated all around the continent, flying into the sky as they released tons of waste due to the burning of fuel in the form of Ether.
Darius could vividly imagine how the military heads and all those technicians in charge of these warheads must be in a panic, filled with awe and shock, wondering who or what had breached their system to simultaneously launch these weapons… and why.
Helpless and unable to stop them, they could only make like the civilians of Gravitas and look up into the sky to watch these missiles go up with almost morbid fascination.
A part of them told them that they should not just be standing there like idiots but seek immediate cover, but another part of them knew that unless they could suddenly dig hundreds of feet underground in seconds, they were not going to escape what came next.
In these last few seconds until the end, leaders were rushed from their places to nearby preprepared bunkers meant to withstand the nuclear fallout. They did not know that locking themselves underneath such a thing would only leave them trapped and open to slaughter once Miranda's robots would come over for the cleanup.
Eventually, the warheads reached the apex of their launch, and detonated without any suspense. The shockwaves spread out, collided with each other and caused unbelievable damage to all things that existed above and below.
The sky was painted yellow, as if the sun had risen from the ground, and there was a blinding flash. Those standing below only had one second to cry before their skin was torn of their body, their skeletons standing there like it was Halloween time.
Unfortunately, before the lovely Halloween theme of spooky scary skeletons could play, the heat washed over the land and turned these skeletons to ash immediately, destroying buildings and vehicles.
Ah but remember, these things were not powered by electricity, but refined Ether. Refined Ether was a form of energy, and was extremely susceptible to change. Not only that, but it was suitably volatile.
This meant that the heat caused a chain reaction, causing any device, car or property containing Etheric energy or an Ether Refinery to explode as well.
So to summarize, there were big explosions and millions of small explosions. The entire continent was swept up by this, shaking to its very core.
Luckily, due to extensive development by the humans that had formerly called this place home, the continent was far sturdier than others. It withstood the abuse without crumbling unlike that sad excuse for a continent called Elysium.
You'd think that a continents made for gods would have more resilience and more defenses, but no. The Gods did not bother to fortify the continents itself because they had their Divine Kingdoms where they invincible.
What made them extremely stupid in the eyes of all onlookers was that their very same 'invincible' Divine Kingdoms were attached to the continent itself. If the continent perished, then they would perish too, which was why Athena's warning had been timely and heeded without delay.
As for Hercules and Theseus, they should have been given forewarning by Miranda and escaped that place.
What was interesting to Darius was the fact that Deia had not perished from that act, a fact he knew for certain as he had already tried to buy her soul from the True Supreme System's shop. Since it was unavailable, it could only mean she was still alive, though it told him nothing about how well she was doing.
Be that as it may, after dealing with Gravitas today and planting the seeds for takeover, it would be time for him to rest a bit and let Gunner complete the conquest.
Once Luna also retrieved all the Collectibles he needed, he and his trio of Branded Servants would travel to Pan next, to experience the wonderful world of the Immortals.
