The instant after I transferred my consciousness to the dark cloud that I had weaved together in the air over the palace of Agustino I silently took stock of my situation. At the moment my followers were moments away from commencing their final attack on Agustino's last stronghold aside from his palace, and I was in position to begin to attack my foe.
My current form was perhaps the most unusual form I had taken to date. I was a massive cloud, floating aimlessly above the needlessly expansive palace that was, for a few more minutes away, owned and controlled by Agustino, the soluto demon. I waited until the first notification appeared in the corner of my mind that my followers were attacking the final demonic city before I finally made my own first move.
The palace beneath me was filled with demonic servants of Agustino. These servants were lesser demons, ones weaker than the powerful centipede-type demon that Solomon was, and ones were more easily mobile than he was as well. Nevertheless they were but... targets for me to destroy.
While hovering over the palace, I began to activate my own powers over darkness. For one of the first times in my life I was planning to use my control over darkness offensively. Umbrakinesis, or "Darkness manipulation" was one of the basic powers I had over darkness, and in this moment it was going to be used to devastating effect.
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Hundreds of demons and a handful of half-demon harpies, and their mothers, lived in and worked in the palace once controlled by the "Silver Tongued Demon", Morthos. It was an imposing structure, that even half a million years after it was last controlled by a demon lord had not lost its majesty.
Tragically, the demons inside of it were not the regal and intellectual monsters that Morthos' own followers had been. Agustino was not the intellectual giant that Morthos was, and as such his followers reflected that.
The moments before Althos acted, some of the more powerful demons in the palace froze. They weren't sure of how, but they instinctually sensed danger. All around them milled lesser demons, blissfully unaware of the strange and powerful killing intent directed at every living being in the palace.
Had they not been demons and been some other sort of creature perhaps the greater demons who could vaguely feel Althos' killing intent would have tried to warn their inferior kin. Not that it would have mattered. The demons would not be given the time to try and warn their lessers of the incoming danger.
A nanosecond after the demons, including the general who remained behind as well as Agustino himself, sensed the danger Althos launched his first attack on the palace. His first attack was more of a demonstration than anything else. One nanosecond lights of various sorts illuminated the interior of the palace, and the next nanosecond the lights were extinguished and the darkness flooded the palace, powerfully filling every centimeter of the palace as if the darkness were some sort of eldritch gas.
Agustino himself was rather unsurprisingly in his throne room and he was seated atop the potent artifact known as the Scarlet Seat, which was itself his only external font of power. Yet even its deific powers were not enough to grant the demon sight in the wake of this bizarre attack. That said, the greater demon didn't hesitate in his response.
"Servants! We are under attack!" He shouted, his voice exploding out of his mouth, but not allowed to be heard by anyone else due to the powers utilized by the god he had once arrogantly ordered his minions to bring to him.
For a moment everything in the palace was still, and the few demons with the sense to try and flee were not heard by anyone else even as they blindly tried to find a way out of the besieged palace. This was because of Althos' own powers over sound further cutting off the demons and causing them to feel even more alone and powerless than they would have if he had actually blinded them, which he hadn't even bothered to do. He had a plan and it wasn't just to blind his enemies.
A handful of the demons in the palace, the greater ones that served Agustino, had actually tried to communicate with each other when the darkness flooded the palace. They had shouted to the other demons that they knew surrounded them, and yet Althos' frightening powers over sound prohibited their attempt at teamwork from succeeding.
The darkness that surrounded the demons was seemingly absolute, even though it was purely natural. Althos hadn't used his potent "Absolute Darkness" power, he had merely generated and spread darkness throughout the palace, purely natural darkness that wasn't even altered to induce any particular emotions or do anything like poison those who were surrounded by it.
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I had just launched my first attack on the palace and in doing so cut off the hundreds of demons that lived in the palace from each other. It was a simple attack utilizing a few of my abilities. First and foremost I flooded the palace with darkness, intense, impenetrable darkness. And secondly I used my powers over sound to ensure that no demon could communicate with another demon.
It was almost cute to watch the demons attempt to communicate with each other. Their voices were loud, but with my absolute power over sound they had no chance of being able to communicate with each other successfully.
Now that the demons knew that they were under attack, I wasted no time commencing the next phase of my plan. I effortlessly located the second general that Agustino commanded, and I assaulted her with a number of potent powers. The first thing I did was blind her, targetting her with a potent burst of darkness that permanently shrouded her eyes in impossible to overcome darkness. She howled in rage as she received the notification that she was blinded, but again, no one could hear her howl.
The second thing I did to her was create a portal in the air above her, even while I manipulated her personal gravity so that she was suddenly brought crashing to the floor she had been standing on a moment before I struck the palace. She cried out in impotent, pained, fury as I toyed with her, before I reversed her gravity and sent her upwards into the portal. The portal would spit her out in the city Drow and an army of my followers were attacking, the final city my forces needed to conquer, which was one of the conditions I needed to fulfill before acquiring the second tier of influence over the war domain.
With the demoness dealt with, I could now turn my full attention to Agustino. Which I did the instant after I closed the portal that had teleported the simian demoness far from here.
I turned my attention to the roof of the palace. It was a long, thin covering that kept out inclement weather out of the palace, and was also an obstacle that was in my way for the moment. One of my favorite powers, which I only rarely used, was telekinesis. I possessed a limitless form of telekinesis that, like me, was not burdened with weakness. And it was that power that I used on the roof of the palace.
I focused my immense will on the roof of the building, and with the power of my mind, like it was a physical muscle I could exert, I began to pull the roof towards me. I felt the roof resist me, I felt the entire building push back against me, and inwardly I chuckled. That said I was a god with limitless power. I wasn't about to be deterred by this palace.
I mentally gritted my teeth, and I forcefully pulled the building's roof towards me, and I felt it begin to give. I knew that with my endless power this was merely a matter of time, time which I didn't feel like spending.
I took a second to steel my will and I readied myself for one more attempt at pulling the roof towards me. I didn't care that this weighed millions of kilograms. I was a god of power, of strength, and that included my mind.
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The third time the god attempted to lift the roof off of the enormous, kilometers long palace, he grabbed onto his target with his mind firmly. This time he was well and truly serious, and his telekinesis was powerful enough to target entire planets and force them off of their orbits if he wanted too.
For a brief second, the god stopped using his powers over darkness and sound. That instant was the same instant that he forcefully tore the roof off of the building, his mind gripping onto the target of his focus, and tearing it off of the palace with an enormous, deafening sound as millions of kilograms of demonic stone were moved all at once. A dim amount of light began to flood into the palace, which combined with the sounds of the roof suddenly being lifted into the air caused the panicked demons to stop running around or screaming just long enough for them to look to the sky.
They watched as the roof was lifted higher and higher into the air, until it was well over forty five meters in the air above the palace. Plenty of strange, demonic light flooded into the palace, allowing demons who were in the same room to see each other, but the sight of the roof of their home floating so high in the sky was so astounding that they couldn't really tear their gaze away from it.
The roof was so enormous that it actually hid Althos' alien, dark cloud form from view, though Agustino knew who was attacking. For a single second the roof hovered in the air motionlessly. And then the god casually hurled it off into the distance, and the roof vanished from view, leaving only the enormous, inhuman form of the god in view.
Althos' cloud form was a gigantic cloud composed of darkness that hovered motionlessly over the palace. It was high in the sky, and at the moment it didn't disrupt any light or prevent light from shining down on the demonic palace. The demons in the palace, now fully exposed to the terrible majesty of their divine enemy, were silent as fear filled them. However, their enemy was not as quiet as they were.
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"Demons... My name is Althos and I am your new god." The deity said, his words coming directly into the minds of the hundreds of demons who inhabited the palace. There was no arrogance in the voice of the god, instead the words were spoken with a sort of forceful bluntness as if the deity were restating the obvious.
For a moment no one spoke. The deity, still in his cloud form, floated, menacingly, in the air. The truth was that the deity was merely gathering his thoughts. This was the first time he had ever laid his eyes on the demon he had long opposed, and it was an almost emotional moment for him. That said, the silence was swiftly ended by the god himself.
"Agustino... I have come here for you. For your heart." He said, his words almost piercing the dense shield of ambition and pride that guarded the demon's heart against emotional attacks.
"You have been a delusional fool, who believed that your forces could stand up to mine. Two of the cities you controlled have been taken, and the third is being conquered as we speak. That said, you don't need to think about anything else, anymore. Today you die, and with your heart I shall become a demon lord." The deity "said", speaking not only to Agustino, but also projecting the words into the minds of the demons who served him.
"I have come to this place for one purpose and one purpose only. I have come to take everything from you. Now... Die." The deity said, telepathically. That said, his last words were not aimed at Agustino, but rather at the servants of the demon.
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The instant that I finished speaking I unleashed my first true attack. Liquified darkness poured out of me, out of the cloud that my current form was composed of, and began to rain onto the palace. That said I wasn't the only one who attacked.
"Demons... Together!" Agustino shouted, even as he rose an inhuman appendage in my direction and was the first creature to attempt to strike me. A jet of violet fire, thin and wicked, exploded out of the demon's eerie limb and snaked towards me.
A second later the palace's inhabitants also attempted to attack me and more mystical attacks filled the air that separated me from the demons. Hundreds of lines of arcane and elemental power zipped towards me like speedy misslles on a collision course with destiny.
I chuckled and reached out with my mind until I had targeted every single attack that was heading my way. When I did, I immediately snuffed out the attacks that were heading my way. I did so by merely using the powers of various domains and subdomains, combining my powers over magic with my powers over the various elements to effortlessly cancel out the attacks that the demons had targeted me with. All the while the dark rain drew ever closer to the demons.
The demons gasped in fear, almost collectively, when they saw their attacks wink out of existence, thanks to my much greater power. Agustino roared in anger, and that made me chuckle. He remained seated in his throne, and pointed his other hand at me, unleashing a thunderbolt I effortlessly dispelled the instant it left his appendage. Some of the other demons were about to try and aid their companion, when I entered their minds and telepathically uttered a single word.
"Stop." I commanded, loading my word with holy and axiomatic power, powers that were especially powerful against demons. Most of the demons froze and my absolute empathy power allowed me to detect the incredible, mind-bending pain they were in. The one demon who didn't freeze was Agustino, and the throne he sat in began to glow brightly. He looked up at me and began to laugh.
"Althos... You think you're so mighty... Come down here and fight me yourself!" He shouted, his voice effortlessly audible even across the vast distance that separated us. That said, his display of bravado was not as intimidating as it would have been had his followers not been on their knees, moaning in agony from my usage of my holy voice. I chuckled, inwardly, at his attempt at appearing brave. I could sense uneasy within him. My powers had unnerved him. That said, his throne was apparently something quite interesting in and of itself.
I didn't respond to his words. My rain was about to land on his troops. When it did he would know fear. I wondered if his throne would protect him then.
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Agustino continued to glare at his powerful foe, feeling fear well up within his heart. The darkness that the god had sent at his foes was now almost upon them.
"Althos... You are so much more powerful than I ever could have imagined..." The demon thought, in the quietest corner of his mind. "Can... Anyone stand against you?" He wondered, while working to keep his face a mask of prideful wrath.
The key to the demon's pride was his throne. On his throne he felt safe, even though the darkness from before had momentarily blinded him too. The demon clung to pride, to hope, even as he began to try to frantically come up with a strategy to counter the powers of the impossibly potent god whose wrath was aimed squarely at him. It was while Agustino's thoughts were elsewhere that the dark rain Althos had hurled at his foes landed on them.
Every single demon and other inhabitant of the palace was exposed to the eerie rain. The only demon who had any protection from it was Agustino, whose throne once more flashed and protected the demon from the foul substance that the deity had dropped on the palace. Other demons were not so lucky.
The pained moans of the demons who had suffered a grievous injury from Althos' earlier command now transformed into terrifying screams of pain as rain drops made of darkness fell on them and immediately began to melt them. Agustino was snapped out of his thoughts by the sounds of the screams and looked at his minions only to see them beginning to sizzle and continue to scream, as acidic darkness ate at their flesh.
Althos had launched an effective, but cruel attack on the demons. Agustino's attention was again pulled in yet another direction when he heard a distinctly non-demonic cry of pain. An all too mortal one. Agustino turned and he saw some of his own daughters, half-demonic harpies who were the children of his grotesque harem of mortal harpies, writhing about in agony as dark acid bit into their flesh and seared their bodies.
"Salicna! Maritza! Fiona!" He shouted as the harpies looked at their own wings, terror visible in their eyes, as the wings began to melt due to the acidic damage they were taking. Their mortal flesh began to melt apart, and in the skies above the palace, Althos began to laugh. Agustino roared in pain, emotional pain, and he turned his gaze to the darkened sky, shouting incoherent curses at Althos, rage audible in his voice.
"Althos! I'll kill you!" The demon shouted, having been unprepared for the day when the god would appear before him, and not having considered that the god might easily destroy everything and kill everyone the demon cared about, even in the limited capacity that demons could care about things and people.
Agustino began to prepare a potent evocation spell, but even as he reached inward to try and muster the magical energy he would need to unleash at his enemy, Althos intervened. The god targeted the demon and utilizing one of the powers he had earned due to his powers over contractual magic. Agustino roared and lifted one of his limbs even higher than he had before, lifting the limb directly over his head and expected a potent magical attack to explode out of his limb. Nothing happened, aside from Althos opting to speak again.
"This is your power? How disappointing." The god said, his voice scornfully entering the enraged demon's mind.
"Allow me to show you... True power." Althos said, even as he began to cast a spell of his own.
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I had to fulfill a handful of conditions to become a deity who possessed the second tier of influence over the war domain. The first was to conquer the cities controlled by Agustino. The second was to defeat him in a one on one battle both in magic and in swordplay. I intended to go ahead and defeat the demon, magically, right now.
As he had prepared to hit me with some powerful spell I drained him of all of his magical energy. It hadn't been difficult to do either. Without it he couldn't do anything to me magically, and I could do anything I wanted to him with magic. Especially since I possessed one especially nasty ability that dealt with barriers like the one that was protecting him from my attacks.
I wove together a potent spear made of dark fire directly beneath the strange mass that was me in my cloud form. It was a gigantic spear that was over eleven meters long and hovered in the air while I mentally targeted the blasted throne that Agustino sat on. It was clearly a powerful magical item, perhaps even an artifact of some sort that he somehow got his hands on and it was extremely annoying so I was going to go ahead and deal with it right here and now.
Without uttering a single word, I activated one of my destruction domain powers: "Barrier buster". Agustino's eyes abruptly widened as the throne he was seated on began to glow impossibly brightly for a moment. I chuckled, but this time the sound was audible, emanating from me like some sort of potent attack.
The ruby throne that the demon sat on glowed brighter and brighter over the course of a few seconds before beginning to hum impossibly loudly. It was at this point that the glowing began to dim, and that was the prompt that I took as an invitation to hurl my blazing spear at the demon I was fighting.
The spear shot forward at the demon. Agustino's eyes widened as the spear approached him, a blazing product of magic and divine power mixing together to forge an unstoppable attack.
"That spear... Can't penetrate the barrier created by the Scarlet Throne!" The demon declared, fear audible in his voice. I began to laugh as the spear rapidly began to close the distance between it and the demon.
The demon's eyes began to change color as fear gripped it in the last few moments before it would have stabbed into him and the throne. That said, demonic instincts are truly enviable, and at the last possible instant the demon hurled himself from the throne, right as the spear reached the dais the throne was on and then slammed into the throne.
The fiery spear washed the Scarlet Throne in unholy flames, and the rose the temperature of the throne room so much that even where I floated the change was palpable. I continued to laugh even as I wrapped my physical form over to the throne room and moved to continue the battle in a more personal way.
Agustino was too busy crawling away from the throne, itself engulfed in flames, too notice me, and therefore to try and stop me. I had shattered the barrier on the throne, opening Agustino up to my attacks.
My consciousness returned to my physical body, and I began to approach Agustino, in my default human form. I effortlessly transformed my artifact staff into a golden blade, and I was grinning cruelly at my enemy.
"Agustino... Will you die on your knees, or on your feet?" I asked him, smiling cruelly at him. He heard my voice coming from behind him and he twisted his head so that he could look at me.
"You... Is that your true form?" He asked, anger, despair, and defeat seeping into his voice all at once. I didn't respond, and instead I formed a spear made of lightning in my off hand, and I hurled it at the floor close to him. The lightning spear shattered against the ruined stone floor of the palace, sending sparks spraying onto the floor next to the demon.
"Answer my question. Will you die standing, or will you die on your knees?" I asked again, readying myself to continue our fight, or rather his execution, by causing another lightning spear to form in my offhand. Agustino glared at me, and as he struggled to get onto his feet I prepared myself to begin to unleash more of my cruel powers against him.
At the exact same time that I was readying myself to defeat Agustino, Drow and Agustino's demonic general were about to put their lives on the line each other against in the besieged city that was the last bit of territory owned by Agustino.
I pointed my sword at the demon and began to laugh menacingly as I began to approach him, ready to end his life now that I had thoroughly bested him in a magical showdown. All that was left was for me to overpower him in a sword battle, and then for me to cut out his heart.