Damien's mana began to flood the sky.
He didn't aim at the people below. No, he had other plans.
VOOOOOOOOOOM!
The gathering of dark clouds that encompassed the entirety of the surrounding principalities was hard not to notice.
The battle that was about to begin came to a complete halt as both sides stared at the unexpected event that neither of them caused.
Damien didn't pay attention to them.
His body had been completely concealed in the folds of reality, so nobody could perceive his presence. They were busy believing the clouds were a natural phenomenon, so he didn't have to worry.
His mana was spread out over a massive distance.
When Damien became a Divinity, the Ananta Matrix experienced a huge evolution.
Its circuits became thicker and denser, and as it learned to constantly draw a small amount of mana from the surroundings to utilize for its own purposes, it came infinitely close to the concept of perpetual motion that Damien had in mind when he created it.
As long as he wasn't in a manaless environment, he'd never run out of mana.
But he'd never been able to explore what that meant.
There were usually cases where he could extend his power to the heights of his capabilities without having to worry about risking the lives of innocents, however, he was different now.
He'd understood the concept of harmony. He may not have been able to totally control Existence yet, but he was confident in distinguishing between friendlies and enemies.
Therefore, as he spread his mana, he didn't give it a limit.
He let it expand and expand until it didn't just cover the Aeria Principality, but Liensia, Reistone, Bristeria, and even several billions of kilometers of Divine Order territory.
The massive storm rumbled and thundered, giving off an aura of majesty that made countless Divinities reel on fear.
They had no idea what they were facing.
All they knew was that it was dangerous.
That was when the rain started.
From a single droplet of water, no bigger than a crumb, a huge rainstorm appeared, pouring with such intensity that it turned the ground into a swamp within minutes.
Rain?
Rain was odd.
While it wasn't always sunny weather, it was rare for there to be fluctuations in temperature in set areas.
Where it rained, it would always rain. Where it was sunny, it was always sunny.
Aeria became so popular as a hub partly because of its beautiful climate and location. For it to rain over Aeria…
People began to doubt if the phenomenon was truly natural.
However, it was already too late to doubt.
From the moment the first drop of rain touched the ground, the hidden attack had already struck true.
Perseus and the rest could only look up at the sky in confusion.
To them, there was nothing strange about the rain. It was simply odd in nature, and due to its ferocity, their opportunity to strike had been ruined.
It wasn't as if normal rain could inhibit a practitioner, but rain like this…?
In rain like this, there was even a chance they could die.
After all, it was already turning the environment into something it had never been before. If the intensity became focused on the quality of the rain rather than quantity…
…it could become a true natural disaster.
The forces supporting Aeria retreated back into the stronghold behind them and began preparing for the situation where the rain was weaponized.
They left before they could see it.
The forces from the Divine Order didn't retreat.
They didn't even try to chase their retreating enemies.
Entire armies stood in confusion. Millions upon millions of people, including tens of thousands of Demigods, were frozen like statues creating a natural wall around Aeria.
The rain that touched their skin, entered their bodies through their pores, and assimilated with, that rain invaded their minds.
There was a question Damien asked himself before he decided to attack.
What was the best way to deal with these enemies?
He could always use the abilities he was confident with like space, time, or even destruction.
But he was practicing Existence Law now. He needed to use it properly if he wanted to get a grip on it.
What was he to do, though? Existence was such a broad concept that he couldn't think of any ideas.
He'd never tried being a necromancer, and they were quite rare in general, so he thought about killing a few, having them kill their allies, and slowly turning the enemy army into his own.
However, it was a bit bland.
Still, he liked the idea of turning them against each other.
And the best way for him to make them do so?
Naturally, it was by abusing their own vices.
He made rain. It poured down not just on the armies surrounding Aeria, but those stationed in nearby principalities and even across the border.
He targeted every member of the Divine Order he could find in the distance his mana covered.
And he made them face their own greed.
Glory, wealth, power. Whatever they aimed to reach in the end, it appeared before them, and the negative emotions in their heart gained a voice.
Like devils and demons, those vices and desires tempted the ones who birthed them. Whispering in their ears, they slowly corroded the wills of their creators until they were no longer able to think logically.
No, the evil hidden in their hearts became the very thing defining their every action.
And for that evil, they were willing to do anything.
If two people were standing next to each other, if one of them had an immense greed for wealth, and if the one next to him possessed even a single coin, he would kill.
It didn't matter if that person was his sibling, his closest friend, or his lover.
He would kill for that single coin.
The first death sprouted in the crowd.
It went unseen. It went unspoken. It was a silent death where the murdered party didn't even have the sane mind to mourn his last moments.
It was a death followed by a storm of the same scene, making it obsolete in the greater picture.
For wealth, for power, for control, for desire.
The people of the Divine Order showed their true colors, and those very true colors slaughtered them en masse.
Damien's work ended the moment the rain started.
He stood in the sky and silently watched the carnage below, his eyes indifferent to any emotion.
This was just the start.
A massacre like this was just like the death of one Divine Order soldier in his eyes.
It was irrelevant in front of the countless massacres that would occur in the future.
'This is just the start.'
The Divine Order was the closer enemy. They were a greedy bunch who only cared about growing their own power.
But they were only the first.
'The Straea Clan…'
The ones whom he encountered in the Forbidden Secret Realm.
Unlike the Divine Order, the damage they'd done to Void Palace wasn't something that could be repaid in blood.
For the Straea Clan, even their souls wouldn't be spared.
And to prepare for that, Damien was going to exterminate the Divine Order.
In totality.
