The moment Maximillian scanned the resources in front of him, the creature underground in that area moved as if it saw its children fall into the hands of evil enemies.
Minos saw the creature move and alerted his people. "It's coming! Stay back!"
Meanwhile, his level rose to 94; at the same time, he activated his soul avatar and brought Ruth into his soul projection.
The people in the area moved backward as roots like the ones that had started this whole incident broke out of the ground and struck out in the direction of all of them.
The ground shook as several rocks broke, and the surrounding plants withered as if they had lost contact with their life source.
Then, a strange creature emerged from the ground and attacked Maximillian directly.
"It looks like I pissed you off, huh?" Maximillian muttered as he sensed the magnitude of the threat before him. This subterranean creature, which looked like several roots piled together, was strong, as strong as some of the Gods Maximillian had faced in the first battle of the War of the Worlds.
But this creature was no warrior, and this human God could clearly sense that.
He took from the resources he had summoned the creature's tiny particles, which, Minos thought, could infect those who consumed them.
Once infected, such a being would have its soul degraded and its body possessed by the consciousness of this sentient being.
This being had already reached a very high level, but he was looking for something more. There were things that someone like him could only access with a human body or by moving freely on the surface in order to make a more important breakthrough.
Dominating creatures like these newcomers to this great world was a good strategy, and that's why it had attacked them when it was discovered. If it were going to lose its nutrients and soldiers, it would rather do it by destroying the group around it.
So it attacked Maximillian in a rage while having its nearby roots, which were connected to the trees in the area, attack Minos' group.
Meanwhile, Maximillian laughed as he picked up his trident, feeling that this would be a good opportunity for him to vent his recent stress.
He moved the special energy of this world nearby and made a powerful attack, creating a gigantic trident of energy that descended from the skies towards the creature.
The creature caused several roots to sprout from its surroundings, creating a shield over itself that was so strong and large that Maximilian couldn't help but recognize the enemy's strength.
"Hold my next..." He was about to say when he suddenly felt a sinister device being hurled at him and his opponent.
'Tsk! Damn, Minos!' Maximillian recoiled as he felt the eerie sensation of Minos' Black Hole Bomb, which seemed so terrifying at the moment that even this God quivered!
Everyone in Minos' group broke out in a cold sweat when they felt the sensation coming from Emperor Stuart's menacing weapon. In contrast, the strange creature itself felt its roots tremble.
That weapon had swallowed not only the powers of the mid-level and high-level Demigods infected by that creature but also their spatial rings, the resources they had collected, and the natural things of this world.
Mixed with Minos' immortal energy, it became a potent fuel for Emperor Stuart's weapon of mass destruction.
As all of his allies moved away from the area, the Black Hole Bomb exploded right next to the level 100 creature, completely wiping out an area up to 50 kilometers from the focus of the explosion.
The explosion brought chaos to the area, causing strong winds to spread out and bring storms with them.
Flames covered part of the forest, while tremors in the area frightened all sentient beings nearby.
Minos' group watched the chaos as they took cover from gusts of wind strong enough to blow them away if they weren't careful.
Maximillian looked into the smoke mushroom in the area and saw the enemy's body still intact but riddled with wounds over nearly its entire being.
Its roots had retracted into themselves to protect it, but almost all of them had been obliterated by the massive explosion a few moments ago.
After looking closer, the creature seemed to be focusing its attention on Minos, who, despite his apparent level 94, seemed to be the biggest threat in his group.
Minos kept a close eye on the creature and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that he hadn't hurt it more. But if he could defeat a level 100 being so easily, he would still be disappointed, so he quickly moved on, this time merging three of his techniques, curious to see how his Divine Sword would behave in this world.
If his black hole had evolved this much just because he had arrived in this world, then his Divine Sword would surely have evolved a level as well!
Maximilian said nothing more and prepared to do his best, knowing that his enemy was not easy and that it would be best for him and Minos to finish the creature as soon as possible.
As soon as the temperature around the explosion of the Black Hole Bomb dropped, the two attacked the wounded creature in the devastated area.
Their companions stopped fleeing, no longer pursued by the enemy's roots, no longer in danger from Minos' weapon of mass destruction.
They then began to use their powers to help Minos and Maximillian fight the level 100 creature.
Even though level 100 creatures were much stronger than Demigods, that didn't mean that the collective action of Demigods wouldn't make things difficult for the Gods.
With that strange creature wounded and Minos and Maximillian working together to kill it, the action of those thirty or so individuals between levels 95 and 99 was enough to make things difficult for their enemy.
The creature realized this soon after the battle resumed while experimenting with the blades of the Divine Sword's third movement and Maximillian's own supreme weapon.
At first, the creature would withstand the enemy's movements for a while. Still, after a minute of fighting, things would change, with Minos' side gradually gaining the upper hand in this battle.
Over the next few minutes, they would deal with the creature, avenging their companions who had been killed earlier and eventually obtaining the first level 100 corpse of their current journey.
As they would later discover, level 100 corpses were extremely valuable to people of their level!
That was the end of the Minos party's first major battle in this new world, a great and mysterious place where they would stay for a long time and face many problems on their way.
That was just the beginning of their journey in Zocarro!
