Damien hadn't had a chance to test his power in the Heavenly World yet, so he was definitely excited for this fight.
He did beat up a bunch of young geniuses, but that wasn't much of a test for him. It was more to see what the standard for geniuses was in the region.
He couldn't use the majority of his power in public yet, so he had been eagerly awaiting a moment like this.
And now that it had come, why would he hold back?
He slammed his foot into the ground with such force that the sand below was directly melted into particles of glass. He shot forward with the same intensity, approaching the chimera before it could even try to take the first move.
The chimera was massive. Its head was the size of a two-story building by itself, and the size of the rest of its body could be imagined. Damien arrived under its chin in an instant and punched upward with extreme force, lacing the Law of Destruction into his mana as he did so.
BOOM!
Its head was snapped back with such force that the rest of its body toppled over. It used its wings to regain its balance, but Damien was already gone, high above its head with his hands together.
BOOOOOOOM!
A beam of reddish-black energy struck down like a pillar from heaven and burned into the chimera's back, slamming it into the ground.
It opened its mouth to roar in pain, and its scorpion tail whipped through the air to force Damien away, but its attacks were futile.
After all, no matter how restricted he was, Damien was still a spatial practitioner.
How could the speed of a blind tail match his?
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Damien teleported all around the chimera and barraged it with beams of destruction. Once its skin was torn, he pushed in and dug his mana into the wounds, using his laws to make sure they'd never heal.
He tried to use Destruction exclusively. It was both because of the decision he made in the previous days, and because he wanted to train this affinity that he was naturally born with.
As for why Damien chose Destruction out of all his laws?
It was because Destruction was rare, but not absolutely unique.
According to Dante, Damien was the sole inheritor of Destruction, but that title was nuanced.
People still had Destruction Law. Just as the Saint Emperor did, others had also comprehended Destruction and gained the affinity in the later years of their lives.
These people couldn't be considered inheritors of Destruction, and they would never be able to wield it like he did, but they could still wield it all the same.
Damien wanted to be seen as a genius among geniuses. If he could be regarded like those people, as someone who comprehended Destruction and gained an affinity, but at an age far younger than anyone else, wasn't that perfect?
Plus, he wanted to get more familiar with the affinity closest to his soul.
Therefore, he fought with Destruction, and absolutely enjoyed himself while doing so.
The law of Destruction didn't have any real form of its own. It could be anything Damien wanted it to be as long as it was laced with the intent to destroy.
Damien's most preferred method was through fire. He could use his own Void Flame, which had been upgraded in the Ancient Battlefield, and combine it with the Flames of Destruction to create something absolutely terrifying.
The chimera felt it with its body.
The burning black flames seared into its skin and aggravated its injuries so they could never heal. It dug deep and corroded its flesh and bones to weaken it with every passing second, and no matter how much Divine Energy was used, it couldn't be extinguished.
The worst part was its effect on the soul. The chimera's consciousness was subtly slipping away, making it less aware of reality. It was so calm and indiscernible that the beast was barely able to sense that it wasn't a natural thing, and despite sensing it, it simply didn't have the time to counter it!
"HUMAN!"
The chimera roared. It was a Divine Beast, a Demigod-level existence, so naturally, it had a sentience of its own.
The process for beasts to reach Divinity varied a lot from humanoid lifeforms, and while sentience wasn't necessarily a requirement for them to do so, most of them had sentience by the time they reached 4th class.
The chimera was here as an altar guardian. It had been protecting this place for tens of thousands of years without any problem, but recently, it had encountered setback after setback.
Another man bothered its rest several thousand years ago and almost killed it. It only lived after begging for mercy, and it was still being used by that man who broke into the place it was supposed to be guarding.
It knew that atrocities were being committed in its sacred land, but it couldn't do anything about it if it wanted to stay alive.
That day, it learned how weak it was. Despite millennia upon millennia of training, it could still be treated like a dog when someone stronger arrived.
So it trained even harder to become strong enough to truly stand on its own.
For several thousand years, it did its absolute best for that purpose.
But…
Why did it have to be like this?
Why did it have to run into another monster out of nowhere?!
It tried to attack.
It used the height of its physical capabilities, the power granted to it by the combination of traits that created it. It used its laws, a twisted version of Fire Laws that was specifically designed for chimeras.
No matter how weak it seemed now, it couldn't be underestimated. It was a powerful Demigod that could cause mayhem if it was let out of the Vanishing Dunes.
It was a shame that it found itself facing an even greater monster.
That monster didn't give it a chance to shine at all. That monster made it look like some weak cannon fodder that had no business being an altar guardian.
Because that monster was enjoying himself greatly.
Damien explored every bit of Destruction Law he could in this battle.
He transformed it into thousands of different forms, caused physical and ethereal damage, attacked the mind, twisted the environment, and even affected the high heavens to cause phenomena that he then controlled to attack.
The chimera was definitely unresigned to dying like this, but at the same time, it didn't think it would ever find a better way to die.
The swirling colors, the twisted laws, the fractured environment…
When put together in the eyes of a beast that had never left its territory, it created a beautiful picture of chaos unlike anything the world had ever produced.
The chimera fought to its last breath. It accepted that it couldn't win, but it still wanted to fight.
To prove that its attempts to become strong weren't in vain.
And as Damien entertained the beast and allowed it to relish in its last moments, their battle came to an end.
He stood on its head with a pitch-black sword of energy stabbed directly through its eyes. The beast was already dead, and only he remained.
"Haha…" he laughed quietly, clenching his fist and unsummoning the sword.
"Good battle."
