As the two deities clashed, the mortals below could only tremble and hide uselessly. Karl and his wife had fortunately been able to escape in time, as had most of the nobles. However, while they fled, they abandoned the common people to their fate.
The moment Sacred Light's skull cannons were taken out, the city Karl and the nobles had been in was annihilated within an instant. The countryside wasn't spared either, as the God-Tree's root attack broke the land into a million pieces.
And as the titans clashed further, natural disasters were created left and right. Earthquakes broke apart the land, tornadoes were formed out of the slightest of movement from either deity, and titanic explosions of lava erupted from where the ground was shattered.
And that wasn't even to say for when Sacred's cannons began their full barrage. The land itself was roasted, with hundreds of thousands of casualties for all races, with humans not being spared from the massacre either, albeit their casualties being far lower due to Sacred's previous orders.
With a titanic roar, the God-Tree's fist smashed onto the ground, narrowly missing Sacred Light. In response, she formed a bright golden spear and harshly stabbed it into the offending arm, blowing a large hole all the way through.
As the two continued to trade hits back and forth, Sacred directed their fight away from Jade City and towards an already existing wasteland. Fighting with the fury of an ambitious conqueror, she now had literal millions of house-sized skulls covering the skies and constantly firing off rays powerful enough to evaporate entire cities.
Meanwhile, the God-Tree's was forced to split its attention between defending from Sacred's main body and cannons, giving chase, and also attempting to flatten her into a pancake.
"Descent of Fury!" Sacred murmured as she constantly backtracked away from the tyrannical body of the God-Tree. A large circle appeared above the both of them even as the skulls moved away, and soon enough, a gigantic pillar of light descended upon them.
"It's useless!" The God-Tree roared as it reared back it's fist and smashed it into the rapidly approaching death pillar. It was successful in holding the attack back... for about 3 instants.
As Sacred faded away into her own attack only to reappear outside of it, the God-Tree's pained roar echoed through the land as the attack shattered it's fist and crushed it down into the earth, all the while melting away its bark/skin.
However, when the attack ended, the God-Tree slowly got up, it's skin and arm easily regrowing. With hateful eyes, it glared at Sacred. "As I said, useless. You will be crushed, and I will enjoy feasting on your flesh!" It tried to leap towards Sacred, only for another pillar to fall upon it and smash it into the ground once more.
"Yeah, yeah. Die already, you inferior creature." Sacred hissed venomously as she continuously used her power to call forth pillar after pillar of light. After a couple hundred pillars had descended and thoroughly ravaged both land and enemy, she once more fled, with the God-Tree who had already healed quick to the chase.
"Almost there..." Sacred murmured to herself, one eye carefully judging the distance between her and the God-Tree, as a single hit could easily cause massive damage to her, and another determining her future path.
Finally, she spotted her destination. An evil smile showed itself on her lips as she charged forth at full speed, abandoning her half-fleeing, half-defending of before. Noticing this, the God-Tree hesitated for a moment before it too charged ahead, trying to catch the much, much faster and more nimble goddess.
Finally, Sacred stopped when she was in the middle of... something and turned to face the God-Tree, who had cautiously stopped some distance away from Sacred.
The dark and greedy smile on Sacred's lips sent very loud warning bells off in the God-Tree's mind. In fact, it was tempted to abandon the chase and try to finish off the opposing deity later... but it was too late.
"It was not fun knowing you, a mere plant. However... as all plants should, your final job is to die and to fertilize the ground beneath you..." Sacred said as she noticed the God-Tree's hesitation, which only furthered her smile until it was a full-on crazed grin.
"Gates... Open!" She roared as she slammed her palms down upon the ground, and just like that, the fight was over, and the slaughter began.
Gigantic pillars that towered even above the God-Tree rose at four corners miles away from the two combatants, and barriers then formed between all the pillars, trapping both fighters within.
The God-Tree was frowning now, confused. "Mere tricks will never be enough to defeat ME!" It ultimately roared before charging forth and smashing its fist into the closest barrier, only to roar once more, but this time, it was in pain as its fist was repelled and also burned severely.
"HOW!?" It shouted at Sacred, who had still not moved from her position with her palms to the ground.
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"Well... You see, inferior little shits like you have to abide by the rules of the divine. I, on the other hand, am smarter and better than you. Thus... Hehehe..." She giggled slightly at the end, with more than a little insanity in her voice.
"Divine Realm... Teleport!"
Immediately, both fighters vanished from where they were, along with the pillars. Where they reappeared should be obvious.
"Oh no..." The God-Tree visibly paled despite being made of wood as it took in the heaven-like appearance of its new surroundings.
"Oh... Yes!" Sacred's smile dropped as she too took in her surroundings. "Well then... Any last questions?"
"How in the world do you have a divine realm as a demigod!? How did you teleport us??" The God-Tree asked, obviously trying to stall for time.
"Well... You asked your questions. A shame I don't feel like answering them. Die." Sacred casually responded as she teleported in front of the God-Tree and flicked her pinky at it.
The God-Tree's whole body exploded into a million pieces, it's regenerative abilities useless. With a casual grab, it's relatively weak soul for a deity was captured by Sacred.
"Well... That was disappointingly easy." Sacred said, now feeling a bit let down by the God-Tree's miserable end. After all... The enemy that she had been preparing to fight for such a long time... died just like that. With a mere flick of her pinky.
Shrugging tiredly to herself, she looked at the terrified soul that now rested within her hands, completely at her mercy. And she wasn't feeling very merciful.
Opening her mouth wide, she shoved the golden-green soul into her jaws and masticated it for a bit before swallowing it. Teleporting herself into her throne within the main temple of the realm, she spent the next couple hours absorbing whatever little domain pieces she could from the remains of the God-Tree's soul.
'He truly was a demigod by a fluke' Sacred thought, somewhat angrily. She felt that any deity should be more like her, with their focus on comprehending the world rather than focusing on their material body. But, in the end, that was just her opinion.
Satisfied with her gains in both the Life and Plant domain, especially that of Life, she focused on the next task at hand. She gathered all the remains of the God-Tree's body and distributed it all through the divine realm before returning to her throne once more.
There, with everything now in place and her last enemy within the continent having been annihilated and absorbed, she felt confident to break through and shatter the shackles still holding her back from her ambitions of knowledge.
Within mere moments, all 3 of her domains reached 100% completion. A bell went off through the entire divine realm, soon spreading through the entire continent and beyond.
Despite the unimaginable amount of life within the universe, the number of deities was pathetically low. Hence, each deity would usually make quite the splash when they appeared. But, at the same time, because the universe was so vast... It was borderline impossible for other deities to notice a new one emerging.
With her domains having been completed, Sacred's soul began transforming and becoming stronger. Her body didn't quite receive the same boost, and it likely wouldn't reach the God-Tree's power for a very long time... but she still received quite a power-up.
As each hour passed, Sacred had fallen into a state of semi-consciousness. She was faintly aware of the changes in her body, but by the third hour, she'd finally fallen asleep for the first time in this life. And with that, the transformation could truly begin.
On the outside, she didn't change. Her aura, however, became much more mystical and powerful. By the end of the 10th hour, the first power-up had finished.
For most deities, that would have been it. However, Sacred had been much more ambitious, lucky, and talented than other deities. She already knew the path she wanted to take further down the line, and she already had the necessary building blocks for it: the three domains.
The Soul, Ruler, and Light domain soon begun fusing together into a single more powerful domain, one which was named the Sacred Light Domain because of course it was.
Thus, by the end of the second day, Sacred had officially become a Medium God, skipping straight past the Lower God level.
As her own transformation continued, her divine realm too transformed. Strange energy entered it from an unknown realm, fueling the transformation. In addition, the energy-filled remains of the God-Tree were also absorbed, at the Divine Realm's nascent consciousness' delight.
Even further, the vast amounts of accumulated faith were consumed to fuel the transformation even further. With all three sources of energy combined, the realm was able to expand a hundredfold it's normal size, and the density of its power was increased by almost a thousandfold.
In theory, a divine realm should only be formed once becoming a real God. But, with Sacred's stupidly high talent and stubbornness, she'd successfully birthed one before becoming a true god. The benefits of this showed themselves, as the immense resources that came from advancing went straight into upgrading it rather than building it.
The massive Sea of Faith became a literal ocean, giant golden trees pushed themselves out of the earth, the clouds that carried the realm became much denser and numerous. Giant mountain ranges also began to appear, along with corresponding ravines that seemed to reach unknown depths.
As both creator and creation finished their transformations by the end of the fourth day... The world had fallen into complete and utter chaos.
The devastation of the horrifying battle between the two deities had left smoldering ruins if lucky in their wake. If unlucky... Nothing was left.
While the elves waited anxiously to see their legendary patron god return and lead them to glory... It never came.
The humans, on the other hand, knew full well that they beloved goddess had won, as everyone who's soul had been influenced by Sacred's power instinctively knew that their goddess was still well and alive, and the priests only confirmed this fact.
However... This didn't mean it wasn't without its own problems. With the vacuum of power and management created by Sacred's temporary sleep, Helen had stepped forth when it looked like the fight had ended, and taken on the full reigns of the church and republic in her hands.
Thankfully, while the democratic system and divine-focused management weren't perfect by any means... They could easily hold themselves together and organize everything properly.
While Helen didn't dare organize anything major without the approval and oversight of her Lord, she did successfully reassure the nation and people, as well as manage the drastic famine that was sure to result of the massive fight.
And, indeed, at the end of the week following the divine battle... Sacred Light awoke.