BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Countless explosions lit up the air. The clouds that formed from them were not made of dust, debris, or natural elements, but of pure infected air that would cause one to rot on contact.
But Damien wasn't paying too much attention to it.
Only enough to confirm Iris' state and progress in wearing down the Plague Lord.
His job was easier, but only because of who he was.
'Fighting him head-on is definitely a pain in the ass, but the scene down here…I can only say it's a real blessing that he wasn't too involved in the universe.'
This man's power affected the entirety of his surroundings whether he desired it or not.
If a scene like what he was seeing happened in Grand Heavens Boundary, countless innocent mortals would've been massacred.
'What a terrifying power.'
Iris couldn't see it because of her position. To her, the green fog was prominent, but it wasn't all-encompassing.
But the ground below was completely different.
When Damien landed, he quite literally could not see anything but fog.
He had to rely on his awareness to see since the All-Seeing Eyes couldn't help him with this.
'I have to be as quiet as possible, at least until I've cleared this up a bit. If he notices me at this point, I won't be able to react in time.'
It was insane.
It was like the entire world was filled with rotting abscesses. The ground was impossible to see under the piles of rot that manifested at a time unknown.
'It's crazy. To think just a few plague bearers could multiply into this in such a short span of time.'
Damien completely concealed his bodily fluctuations. Because of his new soul, as long as he could hide his body properly, he was free from all perception.
Therefore, when he stepped out of his secure dimension, the Plague Lord, who was already occupied by the battle above, didn't sense his existence.
'Good. Now…'
"Huuu…."
Damien took a deep breath. He could feel the tiny infected particles entering his system and instantly attempting to corrode him, but a power that had disappeared for a very long time returned at this time.
Swoosh!
Streams of pitch-black energy flowed through his internal body and devoured the infected particles, turning them into energy that was devoured by his soul.
'Nice.'
It had been a very long time since Damien encountered a mana-based poison.
The Void Physique's very first benefit was its ability to completely conquer hostile foreign energies.
And it seemed it was done testing him for now.
Since he'd unlocked a portion of its true form, it was obediently listening to him.
Damien's body entered a cycle of being infected and cured constantly, which not only built up his systems, but provided him a surplus of Divine Energy to repurpose.
As he affirmed his safety, he began to move.
For now, only Iris could properly fight the Plague Lord. He was too strong for Damien to interfere.
But the Plague Lord didn't have much real attack power.
The rotting abscesses Damien was standing on were the source of his power, a cumulative effect that couldn't be stopped unless they were destroyed.
'But if you try to destroy them, they'll explode and infect you further. It's a lose-lose scenario for anyone but me.'
Numbers, strength, none of it mattered as long as the Plague Lord had time.
'And that fucker is tricky. His escape ability is unprecedented.'
Damien paused for a second.
'Well, second to mine, of course.'
With a smile, he knelt down and touched one of the abscesses.
'He has a mana connection with them. He'll sense it when I start, so I have to finish quickly.'
'Devour.'
Damien spread his mana similarly to when he used Absolute Perception to create a net that encompassed the entire infected ground area.
Like flames on oil, Void Mana traveled through the net and pushed into the ground, consuming not just the abscesses, but the infected ground under them.
It was a strategy to cut the weeds and pull the roots!
'He should've noticed me by now…'
BOOOOM!
'...yup.'
An explosion tore through the fog above Damien's head, but he didn't move.
As expected, a multicolored ethereal barrier formed, forcing the force to redirect into the air and explode away from anything relevant.
'As expected of her.'
Perhaps Iris looked like she was struggling, but Damien knew better.
That woman would not fall so easily.
'She's still hiding so much, after all.'
He smiled and focused on his task.
'Time for phase 2.'
Devour worked fast, but with this much rot to plow through, it would take a few minutes to finish.
While that was ongoing, Damien raised his other arm into the air and gave commands.
'Separate. Entrap. Banish.'
Space bent to his will.
The Void formed walls that pushed different plague strands away from each other to defuse their cumulative effects.
Space acted in tandem, trapping the infectious mana in separate dimensions before Time showed its face, combining with Space to banish the mana from existence completely.
'Phew. What a tiring process.'
Unfortunately, because mana was of the ethereal plane, Damien's control over material existence couldn't be exerted here, but this was good enough.
That power could be saved for a better moment.
'Luckily, it's just mana. After getting used to Divine Energy over time, it isn't the same inviolable force that it once was.'
He just needed to do his job.
It felt easy, but he was a sitting duck. The second Iris made a mistake, his life would be over.
But Iris…
She wasn't so careless.
Unbeknownst to Damien, the battle had already moved a few million kilometers away from him.
Though it was still within the infected area, as Iris didn't want its radius to get bigger than it already was, they were far enough for both Damien and Iris to have sufficient time to react if the Plague Lord decided to aim for him.
That is, if he had the chance to target Damien in the first place.
BOOOOOOM!
It wasn't an explosion, but a footstep.
As Iris drove the Plague Lord into a corner, she dug her mana into a nearby mountain and did several complex procedures in secret.
The Plague Lord was able to gain an advantage in that time.
Because her attention was split, the protection around her body failed, and his rot started to corrupt her.
'I have ten minutes. Once Damien finishes, that time will be doubled.'
It was more than enough.
For a battle of Demigods, ten minutes was an eternity.
So as she endured the damage she received and used her remaining attention to keep the enemy occupied, she completed her hidden maneuver.
And the mountain stood up.
Rocks and debris crumbled and tore off its side, creating a landslide that fell to the ground and destroyed several abscesses unintentionally.
By the time the mountain fully stood up, it was already a man.
A stone giant almost a thousand kilometers tall, completely under Iris' control.
"Go!"
"Useless, resistance!"
BOOOOOM!
The mountain swung its massive fist.
The Plague Lord was fast enough to dodge the relatively slow attack, but despite his confident words, the air pressure assaulted him from below and directly blew up the corrosive tentacles extending from his lower body.
The stone giant stepped forward over and over again. Without the exhaustion or worry for infection of a living being, it pressured the Plague Lord and disallowed him from gaining the advantage.
Iris finally had time.
And she found a strategy that worked.
Against inanimate objects, what could someone who controlled plagues do?
Her power wasn't limited to mountains, after all.
As long as she had time…
As long as she had energy…
…she could make an army with the sole purpose of slaughtering the Plague Lord!
