The battle seemed a little short, didn't it?
It really did.
With Existence supporting Damien, the Count was practically fated to die. There was nothing he could have done, and at every turn, nothing worked out for him.
His mana didn't listen to him, the atmosphere disallowed him from correcting his stance or balancing himself, and he was always open to Damien's attacks no matter what he did.
The battle was indeed short, because Count Verex was turned into a puppet who had no free will of his own.
But that didn't mean it was a quiet fight.
Damien did an insane amount of damage. It had to be remembered that the releasing of his aura alone razed tens of millions of kilometers of land to the ground.
Every time he struck the Count, massive gashes were made in the jungle's ecosystem.
Other than Thalia and her group, who watched on, the village, from which the surviving villagers were slowly starting to emerge, and Tiamat and Darius, who were just now returning from their battles, nothing was left untouched.
Half of the jungle was nonexistent at this point, while the other half was barely holding on.
When Damien threw Count Verex into the ground and formed that crater, the horrifying tremors in the earth managed to wake most of the Ancients who had been slumbering or hibernating while alerting the rest to danger.
But it wasn't over yet.
BOOM!
Damien took Count Verex into the sky.
The first impact razed the rest of the jungle. The air pressure was truly a weaponized wind that even endangered some of the Ancients.
The second, third, and fourth impacts only became even more ferocious.
The amount of force Damien was using had to be remembered.
His own physical force was enough to destroy planets without any supporting energy.
When he hit the Count, Damien used that physical force amplified thousands of times by the weight of Existence.
If he returned to the lower universe with that kind of power, entire galaxies or maybe even Sectors could've been destroyed in the same amount of strikes.
What would happen when that force exploded and sent its power in every direction?
The devastation spread far past the bounds of the sacred jungle and into the rest of the territory.
Earthquakes plagued the citizens, making many houses and buildings collapse.
The rushing winds that slammed their way through the lands picked up many a straggler and threw them into the sky. As for the infrastructural damage caused by the winds, it didn't even need to be mentioned.
Damien's attacks, while simple in the moment, were catastrophic to those not involved in the battle.
It truly was a battle of Gods.
No, it was more than that.
The destruction did happen.
Because of Damien's recklessness, the entire territory was almost destroyed. Countless lives were needlessly taken, an offense beyond offenses.
When Damien was finished absorbing Count Verex's existence, he looked down at the world and saw the result of his actions.
This was not the domination he desired.
He did have the desire for conquest.
He did want to rule over existence.
But he did not want to do so through fear.
Just as he did in the Sanctuary, he wanted the people to live as they pleased, free to choose any path whether that be rebellion, servitude, or anything else.
Damien did not want to kill for no reason. He didn't want to become like the people he despised, even if he made the decision to become a monster to fight against monsters.
At least for the innocent people who had no involvement in his path, he wanted to be something better than a monster.
'Fix this.'
He told the mist to take care of it.
Their souls were still present in this world, yet to ascend into the Wheel of Samsara.
The mist voiced its hesitation.
If it did as he told it to, the repercussions he'd have to face wouldn't be a joke at all.
If he wanted to rewrite the world like this…
"I don't care. Just do it."
The concept of domination.
Not only was it a concept related to the domination of all things within existence, but also a concept that allowed one to dominate Existence itself.
Since Damien gave the command with surety, the mist could not deny him.
The world began to change.
The damaged jungle regrew, and the bodies of those injured or killed in the aftermath were healed back to full health.
Their souls found their vessels soon after, and as if nothing had ever happened, the world was reverted to the way it was before the battle.
But their memories remained.
Damien said he wasn't going to take away their free will.
So he allowed them to remember what had occurred, so they could make their own decisions on how to view him.
Whether he was a savior or a monster…
'...it's not up to me.'
Damien took one last glance at the world below.
'Since the Count is dead, there aren't any other Gods in this territory. Tiamat and Darius can handle things for a while…'
Damien had a few plans in mind, which he used this moment to share with the two who had just returned to the village.
And with that, he disappeared from perception.
He'd once again acted against causality.
As such, he had to bear punishment.
But, unlike that time with the homunculus…
…this time, Damien truly would suffer.
***
The events that had just occurred were truly a shock for any and everyone, including Tiamat and Darius.
They had been in the middle of their own battle when it happened.
Cairo died at Tiamat's hands, and when the sun finally set, giving Darius access to the Moon Flame, Caissa was also taken care of.
At the end of the day, her power of twisted darkness came from the emotions in her soul.
When Darius used the Moon Flame that was created to burn the ethereal and specifically target the soul, what more could she do to resist?
She was made quick work of, and as Tiamat and Darius prepared to rush back to the village, the entire jungle around them was blown to shreds.
They were fine, of course. Damien sensed them and gave them protective barriers as well before he started the fight.
However, neither of them had expected Damien's power to have grown so much.
They watched the battle in awe. As Demigods, they couldn't see it directly, but they could sense it vaguely and interpret what was going on.
It was a brutal battle, a true one-sided massacre as Damien intended it to be.
They watched as the Count was killed in the most visceral way, where even his soul was forced to eternally suffer.
They watched as the destroyed territory around them was brought back to normalcy, and they received Damien's message soon after.
It was something along the lines of, "Take care of the rest. I'll be gone for a while."
But they knew Damien better than most.
They knew that something like what they'd seen at the end was not something he should've been capable of.
Which meant…
Tiamat sighed, while Darius gritted his teeth.
Damien didn't know it, but just as he watched others and noticed the small things, others watched him and did the same.
It was things like this.
It was the moment when he decided to take on punishment from the heavens themselves to right his wrongs when people looked at him and felt the kind of reverence and loyalty they usually felt.
It was because of moments like this that his people never viewed him as a monster.
And so, as Damien silently sacrificed himself to save those trillions of people who were affected by the battle, they swiftly made their way back to the village.
They would accomplish the tasks he'd assigned them.
Because he was a man worthy of their loyalty and respect.
