Another month passed.
Unexpectedly, after Damien's encounter with Wrath, the situation came to a grinding halt. News about Damien's position didn't spread through Evotech and they even withdrew the forces that have been harassing Shadow Garden in the past.
As for Asgard, they were also oddly quiet. The only thing Damien understood about that side was that the Moon Squadron's elites had already infiltrated Evotech. As for the movements of Asgard itself, they were unclear, always hidden behind the Cloud Plane forces.
Like this, the three main forces that Damien was aware of began a small standoff. The atmosphere between them continued to intensify, but none took action. The second one of them did, a war would start.
Meanwhile, Damien found himself out of the spotlight. His own role in the happenings of the world became minute, and he mainly kept updated on the situation through the connection between his and Long Chen's AI assistants.
In this way, he came to know of Evotech's general status. In the three or so months that he was in the military, Long Chen showed exemplary growth and talent. After joining his brothers in life-or-death battles many times, he proved himself and slowly rose through the ranks.
Although he wasn't abnormally powerful, he had the support and absolute trust of the General Strohman whom the duo met in the Armament Hall. Like this, gathering information wasn't much of a problem.
But after Damien met Wrath, he realized that any information he received this way was iffy. With Wrath's personality, changing his entire organization on a whim wasn't out of the question.
'Not to mention, the Core Extraction research…'
The leading figure in the Core Extraction Project was none other than Lynn Carter, who brought him into Shadow Garden. Perhaps in a better scenario, he'd have been able to use this connection to view the research site. But now, entering Evotech was seeking death.
Damien realized this in the first few days after his encounter with Wrath. But he had no desire to stay uninvolved in this world's disputes.
His original plan was to take it slow and steady, using the entire 6 months of free reign he was provided to collapse Evotech, but this didn't work out in the slightest. He vastly overestimated the capabilities of his intelligence which only recently began growing.
His previous plan filled with infiltration and carefully planned, precise movements didn't fit his character at all. From the beginning, it was bound to fail.
Aishia's plan was a bit better than his. For Damien and Long Chen to work their way up in the system before taking it over, this could've worked with the proper patience and timing.
But Wrath was the key obstacle that stopped everything from proceeding forward. His presence alone made almost all viable plans inviable.
'There are already many Demigods in this world. Albeus, the other two experts of Shadow Garden, Wrath…I've already met three Demigods in this world, but I'm sure this isn't the last of them.'
Asgard needed to have at least a Demigod to stave off Niflheim for so long. And judging by the fact that everyone from Shadow Garden was a refugee from the two aforementioned organizations, the number of Demigods wasn't small.
There were at least two or three in both organizations, maybe as many as 4. This number was unheard of. If the total population of Demigods in the unnamed world was truly somewhere around 12, that was enough firepower to instantly raze a harrowing amount of land.
'That must be the reason for the initial stalemate that persisted before I arrived. If too many Demigods move, the world is destroyed. If the world is destroyed, many conveniences are ruined and many plans are foiled. They can't allow this to happen.'
Damien smiled. This meant that he could move with at least some assurance that he wouldn't be randomly targeted by a Demigod. Another encounter like Wrath's was the only thing making Damien wary.
After he came to this realization, Damien left Shadow Garden. For the next month, he practically disappeared off the face of the earth. He didn't enter any Hub Cities and only explored the Outer Wilds, making it impossible to estimate his location.
But news of his adventures did indeed spread. His name simply wasn't attached to these reports.
A Death God appeared in the Outer Wilds. A single swing of his sword would turn thousands of kilometers into an abyssal hellscape, slaughtering all his enemies.
Nobody had seen this Death God. Even the ones who spoke of it only did so after seeing the destruction left in his wake.
Many small organizations and influences in the Outer Wilds disappeared under his blade. While these slaughters seemed random to the common eye, it wasn't the same for those who understood the ongoing situation.
Each targeted force was a subsidiary of Asgard. There were hundreds or even thousands of these subsidiaries spread through the Outer Wilds for various reasons, but none of them could hide from the Death God who ran amok.
As their cries reached their peak, a new rumor began to spread.
The Death God was no longer one, but two!
A new reaper appeared after the first reaper's advent. This reaper's methods were far more cruel and bloodthirsty than the first. His enemies were always found torn to shreds, burned, and sundered by flames and lightning.
And soon after his actions began, people began drawing a connection. This reaper only targeted those subsidiaries of Niflheim! This was clearly a silent war between the two forces!
This was the speculation many had, but it remained true that neither of these Death Gods were ever caught. The 4th classes that moved from both organizations couldn't seem to find them. As for the Demigods, they couldn't be bothered to move for something so minuscule.
A month had already passed since the two Death Gods began their advent. And currently, both of them could be seen sitting together on a cliff overlooking an underground forest in the Outer Wilds…
But there was only a single person there!
Naturally, both Death Gods were Damien. Against Asgard, he used a convoluted spatial power that looked more similar to shadow to match the Nox's methods. When his Demon Transformation was activated, this was especially easy. As for Niflheim, he used his Void Flames and lightning.
At first, he simply wanted to target Niflheim and instigate them into action. He had no plans about Asgard as he still didn't understand their intentions.
But that viewpoint was forced to change. If there was one thing Eve was useful for, it was information. And because Damien broke his AI chip away from Asgard's control, there was no filter on said information.
Finding Asgard subsidiaries wasn't hard. In reality, these smaller companies and businesses were clean on the surface. Anyone who went without the intention to find fault wouldn't see anything.
But Damien was exactly the opposite of these normal people. The only thing he wanted to do was find fault. Of course, his view could be considered biased, but Damien didn't care about such small matters. As long as he was right, there were no problems.
And soon enough, he found that he was more than just right…
