'That should be what he's thinking, right?'
Damien was able to easily read the flow of Maveth's thoughts, because he was the one who created it.
Maveth's carefulness had been slowly broken down by Damien's schemes. The dark beast and Grand Duke Klaus just served to perfectly wrap everything up and absolve the rest of his doubts.
Damien needed to find a way to keep up his facade while reaping all of the benefits of the plans he set up.
When Klaus died, Damien was able to sneakily devour him because Maveth didn't know what devour was. If the dark beast disappeared the same way, then suspicions would arise.
As such, Damien coughed blood as if attacking Klaus and the dark beast required him to sacrifice something. As he fell, he acted desperate and used fluctuations of spatial mana to pretend he was storing its corpse, when he was actually devouring it whole.
Damien gained a lot from those two. Klaus didn't have as much to contribute since Damien didn't need more knowledge about the Foreign Races at this time, but there was definitely something interesting in his memories.
That was a story for another time, as was what Damien gained from the dark beast.
Power-wise, his pre-existing knowledge was strengthened to another degree, leading his control to improve yet again.
None of it really mattered to Damien. More than for his benefit, Damien devoured them out of habit, and…a little bit of another reason.
Nevertheless, with the performance he put on, the main goal of this operation had been achieved.
Damien stayed on the ground, collapsed and seemingly lifeless. Blood pooled in his mouth, and his eyes seemed hazy.
His head swung from side to side, his consciousness slipping from reality.
Maveth arrived in an instant. He was far away, but he could cover these distances easily in the Sacred Abyss Universe.
He glanced down at the ground, not approaching it just yet.
Damien felt an aura rinse over his body as Maveth scanned him with his awareness.
'The state he can gauge should put me somewhere near death.'
Damien tried his best. His insides really were a mess to keep up the illusion. Since Damien's body hardly relied on them anymore, he was able to destroy and rebuild them as he pleased.
His soul was also giving off incredibly weak fluctuations, which was the most important factor for a God to consider.
His entire image lowered Maveth's guard, even though his guard was supposed to be all the way down before he even arrived.
Damien could never be too careful.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})He wanted Maveth dead. He didn't want to wait for a long time and slowly whittle him down. He wanted him dead right this instant.
For that, his current strength simply wasn't enough. Even if he fought, he would need days, months, or longer to bring Maveth close to death.
And that was if he could keep Maveth fighting for that long.
'I've gotten a lot stronger, but right now, the best strategy is still to use external force.'
Eventually, it would become completely irrelevant.
Unfortunately, that was not now.
It didn't matter how much Damien could dominate against people under the Supreme God level, did it?
His enemies were still above him.
Damien's cards didn't end with the ones he'd already used.
He didn't have a lot of Supreme level powers, so he had to carefully plan how he was going to obtain them and kill Maveth.
Malefice's essence killed Lance in such a way where Damien couldn't devour him, but Klaus was different.
As was the dark beast.
Damien only needed the memories of their existence and the essence of their Legends.
The actual power they'd built up…? Their law comprehensions, techniques, and pure energy…?
Since when did Damien need any of that from anyone else?
All of it had been stored, compressed, and morphed into an essence incomparable to its original form.
Everything that the dark beast and Klaus had accumulated was turned into power to be used against Maveth.
Damien truly didn't have any better use for it.
Why was it described in such detail…?
Everything was laid out so Maveth didn't get the chance to fight.
Pain amplification wouldn't be allowed to see the light, neither would force control.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})None of Grand Duke Maveth's strength as a Supreme God would be exerted.
That was the perfect future Damien and envisioned, and one he assured would happen through extensive preparation.
Grand Duke Maveth approached slowly. He carefully set up a barrier around himself as he got closer to Damien, sending his energy out before him so he could test the waters.
Bzzt!
Damien's body was shocked by the malakh. His pain was immediately doubled, and his body jerked as if his nerves were being controlled by the electricity.
Maveth watched his limp body flop around and return to normal, though more rigid than before.
Bzzt!
He struck again. At four times the pain, Damien's body gave the exact same reaction, and his lifeless expression and lacking vitality didn't change in the slightest.
'Is he truly…?'
Maveth was close now.
'Just a few more feet…'
Damien waited patiently for his moment to strike.
BZZT!
Yet another strike. This one was far worse than its predecessors, a combination of several attacks in one.
Damien immediately returned to the mindless state he reached when he was trying to escape the hidden principality. All of the pain Maveth tried to inflict on him was pushed away, and his body was able to give the same natural reaction without giving anything away.
How could Maveth not be convinced at this point?
No proper living being should've been able to handle that much pain without even the slightest micro expression.
If Damien was truly in an almost deceased state, if he was truly only a breeze away from passing…
Grand Duke Maveth took the last step.
And Damien saw his opportunity.
His arm flashed out. It passed through Maveth's malakh barrier as if it didn't exist and grabbed hold of his leg.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})"That's game."
It was a phrase that Damien was starting to like a lot.
His eyes connected with Maveth, and they both had the exact same thought.
'He got played.'
'I was fooled.'
Maveth had a flash of an instant to react, and to his credit, he did succeed in doing so.
He pulled away, ripped his leg out of Damien's grasp, and summoned his malakh to create a stronger barrier.
But…if Damien was relying on something as flimsy as needing to maintain contact, then he never would've implemented this plan in the first place.
No, the concoction he created had mounted itself on Maveth from the moment they touched.
A shining blue light pulsated under the skin of his shin, highlighting the veins and arteries hidden within.
It got brighter and brighter, alerting Maveth's attention too.
SHIK!
Feeling the chaotic energy, he severed his leg without hesitation.
But as Damien said.
It was already game.
He snapped his fingers with a smile as Maveth tried to retreat away from his leg.
He teleported away, getting clear of the expected blast radius.
And…
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Damien watched as the world was showered in light.
And soon enough, he experienced an important fact directly with his body.
The "expected blast radius" was nowhere near reality.
Rather, it was the grossest understatement that could've possibly been made.
And it made sure to let everyone know exactly that.
