Haru swung the Scepter again and the strike hit Malakar's Sea of Origin, sending him coughing golden blood for the second time.
"Don't wait for Varkath." Haru said, "He can't even save himself right now."
The two ancient Supreme Gods exchanged a look. They'd both made the same calculation about Varkath before arriving. He was a peak Supreme God with a top-level Supreme God Tier natal artifact, backed by the full resources of Obrys and the Titan Pantheon.
He was so powerful that even the two of them combined couldn't match him. If Varkath was in trouble, this Empire had a second peak Supreme God. Just imagine, two peak Supreme God Tier combat forces in a single empire that had existed for less than two months.
"It's Celestia." Skarion said quietly, "She has ascended to become a peak Supreme Goddess."
Haru didn't confirm it. He didn't need to.
Skarion had reasoned it out: Celestia hadn't appeared on this battlefield, and the fact that she was the first Supreme Goddess the Great Aetherium had cultivated. Since she wasn't participating in the battle here, either she was in retreat or Haru had sent her somewhere specific.
Given that Varkath was apparently unable to intervene, the answer was obvious. And the only way she could hold a peak Supreme God like that, even suppress one, as Haru implied, was if she'd reached that tier herself, with her top-level Supreme God Tier Natal Artifact.
"If we'd known." Malakar said, mostly to himself, "we never would have touched this cursed empire. Not for that idiot Maddox's soul, not for Celestia's artifact, not for any of it."
It was true. Against two peak Supreme Gods, their Evil Pantheon had never had a path to victory.
…
In the second war zone, Zakaria had completely stopped pretending.
"Truce!" He called out, "Skarion dragged me into this, I have no quarrel with the Great Aetherium! Let me leave and I'll go immediately!"
Yvonne didn't respond. She drove the Sea of Thunder of Creation into him with one hand and pressed him at close range with her sword in the other. At Arboriel, she held her ground against the Demon Lord Dantean, an intermediate-stage Supreme God Tier Demons, while being an early-stage Supreme Goddess herself.
Now at the intermediate-stage herself, with the Holy Light Temple's twenty-percent buff running, Zakaria was being suppressed completely, and they both knew it.
…
In the third war zone, Micteya and Mordra had been besieging Nova for some time with nothing to show for it.
Nova wasn't trying to win. She was holding. Her Divine Power laced with the Creation Law layered into a defensive structure which the two Goddesses couldn't crack. She knew she couldn't suppress both simultaneously, so she didn't try. She just defended, and waited.
"We need to finish this." Micteya said urgently, "When Haru or Yvonne ends their fight, we're finished."
"I can't break through her defense." Mordra said, "The Creation Law…"
"Then hit harder!"
"I AM hitting harder!"
Nova chose that moment to launch one precise slash at Micteya, which the Goddess of Death barely dodged. By the time she recovered, Nova had already reset into her defensive posture.
"Why is this empire like this?" Mordra muttered, "That Haru has mastered nearly two hundred Divine Laws, and then this one masters the Law of Creation, one of the rarest laws in existence."
"If I'd known, I never would have come." She added, "I just wanted to weaken the Nature Pantheon, not this."
"Don't blame us." Mordra said sharply.
"This started with your brother—"
"Don't."
"—Maddox—"
"I. SAID. DON'T."
They went back to attacking Nova. It still didn't work.
…
First war zone.
Malakar looked at the battlefield. Zakaria was losing. Nova held Micteya and Mordra indefinitely. The fourth war zone's Evil Gods, unable to make their kills stick. Varkath unreachable. His own Sea of Origin a fraction of what it had been.
"We concede." He said, "Name your terms for a ceasefire."
"One term." Haru said, "Surrender and let me suppress you."
"And then?"
"I will resurrect you. Like Maddox."
Silence.
"No." Malakar and Skarion said in unison.
They didn't even need to discuss it. Becoming believers of Haru, losing everything they were, wasn't acceptable. The million Evil Gods on the battlefield could die, but their own transformation was not negotiable.
"Then we keep fighting." Haru said.
"Kill!!"
Both ancient Supreme Gods came at him together, everything committed, their Seas of Origin fully extended. If they were going to fall, they'd make him work for it.
Haru met them without stepping back. His combat experience was thin compared to theirs, but it didn't matter. Power was power and his Sea of Origin absorbed theirs. His scepter expelled a hundred and thirty million Divine Power per swing. He didn't need technique. He needed to keep swinging until their Seas of Origin collapsed.
"Killing you both plus the exp from this entire war." He said, between exchanges, "I'll reach the peak directly. And if I can comprehend a God Monarch Tier Law before the Divine War begins, I'll become a Pseudo God King."
He looked at them across the colliding Divine Power.
"My odds of taking the God King's Throne just keep improving."
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