The pregnant silence that followed the explosion while those present comprehended what had happened didn't last for long.
Yulia broke it within a few seconds, yelling towards the armies.
"SPREAD OUT AND SEARCH THE REGION! LEAVE NO STONE UNTURNED!"
Dominic, Yiren, and the Archangels followed suit, giving the exact same order.
It didn't matter whether the explosion had actually killed the amount of people it had the ability to kill.
What mattered was the fact that the explosion that took place was too far away for it to have been controlled manually.
A true remote explosive.
Their existence wasn't a surprise. Remote explosives were just as common as any other weapon in this world.
However, the scale of that explosion, and the fact that it truly was pre-planted, made the situation extremely hazardous.
Whether it was a farce or not, as long as there was a possibility that such explosives were spread throughout the region, it could not be ignored.
Even more so because those explosives hadn't been sensed by anyone in any of the three allied armies.
It had to be known that this was the last step of the plan. This was the end of the Divine Order, which meant other than those in the main headquarters, everyone affiliated with them was dead.
The citizens had to be freed from mind control as well, so at least one combat army and one purification army had to sweep through every single populated area in the entire Cardinal Region.
The fact that not a single person was able to recognize the fact that there were mines below them was extremely disturbing.
Those five Gods were willing to do anything for survival.
Their willingness to call for extermination couldn't be doubted.
As such, despite knowing that there were several ways to make them stand down, Yulia and her fellow commanders decided to ensure the safety of the masses.
This was a territory that would be under their influence regardless of whether the Five Gods lived or died.
If the enemy was going to escape, they had to be absolutely certain that they wouldn't have the ability to influence the newly conquered territory.
The armies that had gathered around the Divine Order headquarters dispersed into countless groups of somewhere between five and ten people and spread throughout the cardinal region.
Immediately as the search began, those closest to the headquarters reported that they had indeed found explosives buried under the town they'd reached.
The mines were filled with an extremely chaotic mixture of laws and contained within a case with the ability to isolate mana signatures.
Unless they were at the level of Claire or Yulia, no God would be able to sense these.
And Yulia, while she was indeed a participant in this war, never went near the cities.
She was fighting other Gods. To make sure they wouldn't harm the common population as they battled, she had to remain in the unpopulated areas between cities.
After all, even if Gods fought in the Heavenly God Plane, their presence would affect the world's mana. That atmosphere wasn't something anyone under Divinity could handle.
Nevertheless, the explosives that went unnoticed were finally uncovered. Proof that they existed had been found.
That was enough justification for the decision of the commanders.
Extra forces were called in to assist in the search for explosives, while those on the backlines kept their eyes on the movements of those five Gods.
They were being allowed to escape.
But nobody spoke about it.
Those Gods, in their minds, they were probably over the moon about their "genius" plan that allowed them to get away from such a massive enemy presence.
However, they had no way to know they were being watched.
Because the person who was watching them was not someone they could ever compete against.
***
It had been a few months.
Since time was nothing but a concept for Damien, it had been quite a bit longer for him and his people since his vacation started.
The Young Lord's residence and experienced quite a unique time flow for the last few months, to the point where those within had difficulty readapting when it was turned off.
Really, only Damien and a few others could go in and out of the residence without being knocked unconscious by the rapid change in flow.
But that was beside the point.
The point was that while vacation time was nice, Damien was raring to get his hands dirty again.
The timing was perfect as well.
Wasn't there a group of rats on the loose trying to stir up trouble?
'Gods of their level…'
Damien knew all about those five Gods. Unlike with Straea, Damien was able to devour beings from the order and learn everything about their inner workings.
He knew how strong they were.
'And they're definitely not stronger than a Count.'
Damien's Authority of Existence had gotten even more powerful since he fought the Count. If it was Gods at the bottom of their class…?
'They're nothing now, aren't they?'
'Status'
[Status]
[Damien Void]
????
Male - Age 120
Level ???
Divinity: Hegemon God
Legend: Enthroned King
Title(s): [•••••••, Apostle of the Void, Evolver, Heaven's Wrath, Supreme Genius]
Physique: Void Physique
Authorities:
[Devouring - 100%]
[Immortality - 80%]
[Elemental - 100%]
[Spacetime - 100%]
[Samsara - 100%]
[Cosmic Duality - 100%]
[Existence - 80%]
When his status looked like that, what did he have to worry about?
The system could no longer quantify his level. Damien was comprehending Existence, but his actual Divinity wasn't seeing much change.
He was extremely powerful, but technically, he was still the lowest-level Demigod.
Of course, Damien knew that he'd likely promote as soon as he comprehended Existence, but the system wasn't privy to such intuition.
All it knew was that he'd gotten stronger.
It had read his Legend, so it titled him a king.
It saw him control Existence, so it could only try to judge how far he'd gotten by reasonably increasing the percentages next to his Authorities.
It knew his titles, it knew his age, it knew his name, and it knew his physique.
But that was all the system could see from him.
He was practically already acting outside of its control.
'Isn't that fun?'
Was it because he'd spent time relaxing, or was it because he'd finally seen his wives after such a long time separated?
Whatever it was, Damien's mood was lighter than a feather right now, and his fighting spirit was in the clouds.
He wanted to go dominate on the battlefield.
He'd found that he didn't like extended fights anymore. They weren't any fun when the enemies weren't on his level.
He still had to go out and fight even if he couldn't find the perfect opponent.
So as he took some time to himself and thought back on his past experiences, he started to appreciate a different form of fighting.
Could it even be called fighting?
'No.'
What Damien wanted to feel was–
'Domination.'
Absolute supremacy.
A position where no man or god could ever rival him.
'Let me go feel it again.'
He was ready to take action.
And the five Gods who'd happened to become his targets…
There was no way they could know what was coming for them.
