The Heavenly God Plane was an ethereal plane, which meant when Gods went there to battle, they'd leave their mortal shells behind in the real world.
It wasn't necessarily a bad thing. The soul of a True God was effectively their true body, so a physical shell could be considered a limiter for them.
However, it was still necessary, because until one reached the highest levels of True Godhood, one's soul wouldn't have the capacity to exist without a physical vessel for a long period of time.
After all, souls were fragile. No matter how much power they could output, what was the point if they could be shattered in one or two attacks?
There were several protections every God would take when they entered the Heavenly God Plane. Their physical bodies couldn't stay unguarded, and if they were injured, the damage would rebound onto their souls as well.
Therefore, whether it be through mana or physical materials, there were always layers upon layers blocking the physical bodies of Gods from any outside force.
However, in front of Damien, those defenses were paper-thin.
He already knew how to meld with the mana. When he moved, he did so in perfect synchronicity with the ambient energy to the point where even the Gods that were a few feet away from him couldn't sense his presence.
He already knew how to meld with the mana. When he moved, he did so in perfect synchronicity with the ambient energy to the point where even the Gods that were a few feet away from him couldn't sense his presence.
And when he attacked, using that extremely destructive force of blackness directly on the head of the enemy God…
The effects could be imagined.
First and foremost, a chaotic burst of mana from Damien's body disrupted the relatively even flow between the two sides that were facing each other.
The balance they'd created before entering the Heavenly God Plane was broken, and they were all thrown away from each other as the rebound struck them and pulled them out of the Heavenly God Plane.
It was relatively less harmful to the Veritas Gods since they weren't directly attacked, so once they woke up and took a second to stabilize their bodies, they didn't have many problems.
However, for the opposing Gods…
The man among them was thrown back several hundred kilometers by the waves of power emanating from the mysterious figure who attacked them.
He had several internal wounds, nothing too severe, but more than enough to stop him for a few seconds.
And the woman who got attacked, naturally she couldn't walk away easily.
The skin on her head was completely burned off and the muscles and bones beneath were scarred beyond belief.
Her body wasn't given the chance to move with Damien holding her in place, so all the force that landed on her was tanked directly without any external aid.
Because of that, she was riddled with internal wounds and even her mana was fiercely rebounding, causing constant damage to her organs.
Her soul wasn't in better shape. Because it received a portion of the physical body's injuries, it was crippled to an extent that made her no different than a Demigod.
She was dangerously wounded. Even as she screamed in agony and tried to tame the rampaging forces within her, she wasn't able to identify her enemy.
'Not bad.'
Damien already retreated before all of the above happenings took place. He was using a clone to maintain the female God's position so she would be hit with the maximum damage possible, and even then, that clone was soon torn apart by the energy naturally emanating from her.
'I knew I could do damage, but I didn't expect it to be this good.'
The Heavenly God Plane mechanic was a great way for Damien to cripple Godly enemies, at least if he just looked at this instance as an example.
However, he knew this wasn't true.
'If they were this fragile, they wouldn't be using the Heavenly God Plane in the first place. Either I'm even more of an anomaly than I thought, or…'
Damien's eyes narrowed.
'...these Gods are at the lowest ranks of their power level.'
The latter was far more probable.
Because if they weren't the lowest-rank Gods, not even the great clans like Veritas and Straea would be willing to use them as disposables for an operation like this one.
After all, even if the Straea Clan succeeded here, they'd have to answer for their crimes somehow. If they controlled the situation well, these Gods being sacrificed was the best way for them to avoid greater retaliation while maintaining the upper hand.
'That was probably their plan from the start. If these are just scapegoats, then…'
Damien marveled as he got a glimpse of how strong the strongest of Gods could be.
Though, he didn't get to maintain that attitude for long.
"Who goes there?!"
The male God among the enemies roared and let his mana loose.
The ambient mana was disrupted, and Damien's position was revealed to the world.
'As I thought, I can't hide from them when they're present in reality.'
Damien figured this would happen, but it was still part of his plan.
"You…are you the one who did this?" The man questioned.
"And what if I am?" Damien responded with a grin.
"Then you must die first."
The man charged towards Damien without hesitation.
At the same time, his female companion finally stopped suffering under the aftereffects of Damien's attack.
She managed to calm the chaos inside her body, however, the wounds on her head were not easily healed. Damien used Void Energy to support his attack, so her common Divine Energy wasn't enough to heal those scars.
Her muscles healed to an extent, and a grotesque covering of something similar to skin covered them, but she was now deformed and had lost sensation on a majority of her head.
She was livid to say the least.
She felt a thirst for blood beyond anything she'd ever felt before.
And as her male companion's yells rang out, telling her exactly who caused her current circumstances, her rage boiled over into something uncontrollable.
Both Gods were now charging at Damien with fervor, but he didn't panic.
Even this was part of his plan.
His eyes went to the Veritas Gods who were watching everything happen.
They were just about to start acting to protect him, since they remembered who he was and were thankful for his help, but he stopped them before they could.
"This is where your people are. Regroup with them and start a counterattack."
That was the mental transmission Damien sent to them. With it, he included both the location and situation so the two Gods could understand everything they'd missed while they were fighting.
"The two on the ground are fine too, so be sure to protect everyone. As for these two…"
He grinned to himself.
"...just leave them to me."
Without giving the Veritas Grand Elders a chance to respond, Damien vanished, teleporting while leaving enough traces of himself to keep the Straea Gods on his tail.
'Very good.'
This was perfect.
He was able to feel the power of Gods personally, he was able to gain several favors from the Veritas Clan, and more than anything else…
'...I found a great weapon to use against the boundary steles.'
He was able to get away from his duties as a protector because of his actions, and he didn't leave any loose ends that the Veritas group couldn't handle.
So now was his chance.
He was headed straight for the mysterious force that had been calling him since he got here.
