The Inhuman Emperor's Divinity was far simpler than Damien's.
Its name was "Blissful Agony."
It did not refer to finding bliss in a state of agony, but rather, in line with his character, represented the bliss he felt forcing other people to endure agony.
The attacks he used were more akin to torture than killing techniques, and the laws he used had been convoluted to the point where they weren't necessarily laws anymore.
His Demonic Providence, Executioner, also backed his Divinity extremely well.
Using a combination of Blood Laws, Metal Laws, Illusion Laws, and several others, he created a power that was hard to explain as just magic.
When the Inhuman Emperor heard of Damien for the first time, his thought was just as simple as every other thought he'd ever had.
Such a talented human was a perfect subject. Someone who could hold the weight of the universe's hope on his shoulders…how blissful would it be to see him suffer?
He couldn't wait to find out.
When Damien appeared, he was bursting with excitement and couldn't contain himself.
Uncaring of anything else, he charged forth with his Divine Energy flaring.
He infused his mana with a plethora of effects like pain amplification and wound aggravation as he struck out, forming a serrated blade and covering it with an aura of rust that would dig into his enemy's skin and force its way into their bloodstream.
As long as the rust particles made their way into a practitioner's bloodstream, it was already his win.
They would not be able to endure what came next.
Damien knew this.
He didn't know much about the Saint Emperor or Soul Emperor, but he'd killed and devoured so many of the Inhuman Emperor's subordinates that he was well aware of all of this man's abilities.
Yet, he didn't move.
He stood stalwart as the Inhuman Emperor appeared before him and slashed out with his blade.
The attack was aimed at his arm, not a fatal location.
And Damien offered that arm up to be cut.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The eyes watching from the distance collectively widened in disbelief.
The mana felt more like bloodlust. It twisted and warped the surrounding air, bringing forth a purgatory of suffering for anyone who got close enough to feel it.
In the midst of that purgatory, Damien felt its effects firsthand.
The sensation of his soul burning, his limbs being eviscerated, his bones being shattered one by one, and countless other torturous pains.
However, they were just illusions.
Time stopped.
Damien closed his eyes and took a breath.
"Huu…"
He exhaled, and with the mana infused in his breath, the illusions themselves were dispersed into nothingness.
He looked down at his arm with a smile.
The Inhuman Emperor's blade was mid-clash against his skin, yet, despite its power and sharpness, it could not penetrate his skin.
'As expected, the Authority of Immortality is broken.'
Or was this just the Void Physique's doing?
Regardless, Damien started to understand the strength of his body, and he was satisfied with such an outcome.
He stepped back.
Nothing changed. The Inhuman Emperor maintained his posture.
Damien casually took a few steps, walking behind the Inhuman Emperor.
"This is nice too."
He pulled his fist back.
Time resumed.
BOOOOOOOOOOOM!
He punched out, his fist slamming into the Inhuman Emperor's skull.
CRACK!
It was so loud even the onlookers could hear it, that sound.
The Inhuman Emperor was pushed into the ground, cracking it with his face.
Before he could understand what happened, Damien lifted his foot and stomped on his already cracked skull.
BANG!
The back of his head caved in disgustingly.
'If I control existence, then…'
Damien flicked his finger, sending his mana into the Inhuman Emperor's body.
He could feel it.
That man's mana.
'Become mine.'
He exerted his influence, and the mana had no choice but to follow.
"AGH!"
The Inhuman Emperor coughed out blood. His body turned a painful shade of red.
However, he wasn't going to be defeated so easily,
In that instant, he rolled to the side and flared his mana, using it as a crutch to lift himself up.
He manifested another saw, along with several needles and other torture tools.
He slashed out before Damien could read his movements.
As expected, the blade couldn't cut his skin, but that didn't matter. It was just a feint.
While Damien focused on the blade, the needles flew through the darkness between space and stabbed into his eyes and ears.
His blood splattered for the first time.
Damien's hands went to his eyes, his teeth gritted in pain.
The Inhuman Emperor wasn't one to miss such an opportunity.
He created chains of mana that held Damien's body in place, and in the same breath, he summoned a new device.
It consisted of four pillars in the four cardinal directions. The two to Damien's left and right connected to the chains on his arms and legs, while the one behind him held his head and the one in front held his waist.
They moved as one.
They pulled Damien in every direction. His torso was forced forward, while his neck was tugged back. His arms and legs went in four different directions away from each other until they were practically seconds away from tearing off his body.
VOOOOM!
Damien's body went aflame with mana as he tried to cut the chains, but the Inhuman Emperor learned from his mistakes.
He may have still been young, but Damien was no amateur.
Pain amplification, wound aggravation, festering rot, paralysis toxins, soul-rending poisons…
Every method he had at his disposal was used to make sure Damien could neither move nor withstand what was going to be done to him.
"Kekeke…" the Inhuman Emperor cackled.
"KEKEKEKEKEKE!"
He couldn't stop himself.
As he inserted needle after needle into that man's seemingly impenetrable skin, as he listened to that man roar and scream in pain, he couldn't contain the ecstasy in his very soul.
Eventually, it happened.
Damien's arms and legs could no longer bear the pressure. They were torn away from his body with no sense of cleanliness at all, leaving large gaping and uneven wounds in their place.
Only a few seconds later, his waist was torn away as well, leaving him with nothing more than the top half of his body.
But…
"Kekeke, boy, play with me for a bit longer!"
The Inhuman Emperor was well equipped for such tasks. He wasn't willing to lose his fun so easily.
His power had one miraculous effect that allowed him to reach his current position, even if everything else was discarded.
That was a power eerily similar to Life, but far too twisted to be called such.
Vitality flowed into Damien's broken body.
His soul was malformed into a size befitting of its current vessel.
Despite his grievous wounds, he would not die as long as this state was maintained.
The Inhuman Emperor was giddy as he went to work.
His mind was consumed by the screams of his victim, almost to the point where his reaction looked orgasmic.
Yet, he felt a bit strange.
He felt like, vaguely, somewhere beyond reality, a voice was speaking to him.
"So is that how it is?"
Damien nodded in understanding.
"I didn't know I could use mana like this, but it was a good lesson."
He stood with his foot on the Inhuman Emperor's head.
The previous scene was obviously not real. Since when was Damien someone who could be toyed around with like that?
But it wasn't an illusion either.
It was a reflection of the Inhuman Emperor's mana. It was the thoughts infused in his energy, the desire that provoked him to fight.
The Inhuman Emperor was currently experiencing bliss in that desire, but his soul was no longer attached to his body.
Rather, it was in Damien's hands.
'I want to take some time to play around with it, but it can't be helped.'
He was interested in how souls functioned, and this one would've been nice to experiment on since there was no need to feel remorseful to someone like him.
But, unfortunately, Damien was in need of its power, so he'd have to wait to find a better soul for that purpose.
"Before that…"
He looked down at the man below him.
"It would've been a good battle, I'm sure, but you're not that much better than Immortal Blood Asura, so I probably wouldn't have been able to gain anything significant from it anyway."
Damien clenched his fist and pressed all his weight into his foot.
CRUNCH!
The Inhuman Emperor's soul disappeared into a void of blackness as his everything was given to Damien, and his body was crushed into nothingness by pure physical power.
Damien smiled.
"Good fight."
He looked into the distance.
It was time to go meet that man.
So he could finally put an end to his time on this damn battlefield.
