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It took Agustino a few moments to shakily stand up once again. As he unsteadily rose to face me, I chuckled and stared him down. I was not afraid of this egotistical monster, nor had I ever truly been. He was not a threat to me, and I was merely having fun with him.

The only possible beings I could even abstractly begin to view as actual threats to my power were Technos and Morehammer, the two vestiges I knew of. I had faced Morehammer in battle, and even after suffering just one blow I knew that at the time I stood no chance against him. Though it didn't help that he was the vestige of a greater deity.

Technos on the other hand was a minor deity of creation and technology. I knew that I'd need to locate and defeat him, eventually, and aside from Morehammer, I suspected that Technos would be the strongest enemy I've encountered to date. Agustino was probably, in strict theory, the next strongest foe I've faced in battle, but Agustino is nothing but a demon of pride who possessed an artifact. He wasn't an enemy anywhere near my level of power.

I studied the oddly human-like demon and chuckled. He was one of the more humanlike demons I had encountered to date, though I hadn't really devoted much time to the exploration of the Heart of Darkness. He was tall, taller than my human form by a few meters, but other than that, the appendages that he had in place of hands, and his eyes, he was almost distractingly human in appearance.

Agustino's eyes were startingly golden orbs that sometimes flashed violet. His limbs were odd tentacles that ended in hands with sharp claws for fingernails. And the rest of his appearance was that of an enormously tall, muscular man. And without saying a single word he rose one of his alien limbs and darkness began to gather in it.

The darkness began to take on a distinct shape, that of an aptly named longsword, and when it was fully in that shape it solidified into a true longsword made of something that resembled obsidian, but clearly wasn't. The sword in the demon's "hand" was magical and radiated sinister, chaotic energy. The demon smiled and his eyes glowed as he grabbed onto the sword and began to try and move at me.

I smiled back and I focused, feeling the world slow down around me as I began to speed up. I gazed up at my enemy and began to move, even as I felt him "slow down", or rather as I felt the entirety of existence slow down around me. I took a few steps toward the demon, and I casually swung my sword at him.

---

The demon Agustino, a creature composed of malice and chaos, watched helplessly as his divine enemy closed the distance between the two of them and casually swung his own strange, shape-shifting weapon he wielded. The god was impossibly quick compared to the demon, little more than a blur with a blade, and the slash was just as swift as he was.

It took Agustino everything in his considerable power to back away from the slash and to leap back, out of its reach. Althos' eyes flashed with delight when he saw the demon successfully evade his attack.

"That's the spirit!" He said, before laughing hauntingly at his foe. He was still after almost jokingly slashing at his opponent, and there was a palpable amount of killing intent wafting off of him.

"Stay alive as long as you can. Heck, even launch a few swings at me yourself. It won't matter in the end." Althos declared, his eyes filled with confidence and self-assuredness. He was unafraid of the demon he was hunting.

Agustino paused for a second and he considered his next move. After a moment's hesitation, the demon leaped up and then began to hover in the air. From in the air he now looked at his enemy and glared at the man.

---

Seriously? I thought as this once insultingly arrogant demon took to the air before me. He glared at me while in mid-air and I had to work to not audibly laugh.

This was one of those instances where I had a number of abilities at my disposal that would have given me the means to handle my enemy. He had made a foolish choice by attempting to fly in my presence. I rose my free hand and aimed it at him, before hitting him with an ability from the air subdomain, "Flight mastery". I tended to use this power to grant someone flight, but today I used it to strip someone of their natural ability to fly. 

Agustino's eyes widened as he fell to the surface he had attempted to escape from. I chuckled as the god hit the floor hard. 

"You can't escape me." I said, speakingly rather bluntly. "I am not just a god. I am an elemental overlord as well." I told the demon, my eyes flashing menacingly as I spoke to him. 

"What?! That's not possible!?" He shouted in response to my words. I audibly laughed at this, and proceeded to lift my sword and point it at him again. 

"I'll gladly demonstrate my power to you." I said, warmly, a grin on my face as I spoke. I didn't take a single step forward and instead just slashed the air in front of me, while using powers over both the air and destruction to make my slash not a useless gesture but a visible attack that hovered in the air between my opponent and me. Agustino's eyes narrowed in anger, and he prepared himself to try and avoid my attack, but before he could I pointed my open hand at him and seized control of his blood. 

As an elemental overlord, liquids were one of the things I had power over. As a true elemental overlord I even had power over blood inside of someone. My old weaknesses like limitations to such powers were no longer applicable and in this moment that made me feel amazing. 

"You didn't think you'd be able to run, did you?" I asked him, my eyes flashing in cruel joy as I forced him to stand still. I paralyzed the blood that was inside of him, as well as his bones, and muscles thanks to my power over biology. Power over muscles was one of the new powers I had gained as a result of having earned the second tier of influence over biology. 

"In fact... Come over here." I told the demon, beckoning him to me and to the slash I had created. To a creature as weak as he was this was probably quite scary. After all I had created what was in effect a cut in reality using powers over air and destruction. That said the fear he actually felt was irrelevant, he couldn't disobey me.

He began to slowly walk towards me even while pushing against me in his mind. I felt him try to resist my command, try to regain control of his body, but I knew that it was pointless. I also knew he'd try, as that was a natural response for a demon of pride to someone stronger than them. He couldn't help but try to fight back, even though he knew in his heart it was pointless. I was simply a creature that existed on a greater dimension of power than he ever would. 

When he was right in front of the cut in reality that I had created, which hovered unmovingly, he stopped. Because I had allowed him too. He towered over me, and inwardly he was still defiant but I knew that our fight was basically already over. Which was why I began to speak to him. 

"You pose no threat to me. In fact you never posed a threat to me. And yet your pride caused you believe, in your heart, that we were... equals." I said, as I scanned the demon's soul. "What's almost sad about all of this is that when I told you I'd take everything from you, I meant it." I told the demon, even as I abruptly willed him to hurl one of his tentacled limbs, his dominant one that was holding onto his soul sword, into the cut I created. 

The limb sped into the cut, and was severed cleanly. Blood shot out of the wound and splattered across my face, as well as around me. Agustino's blood was almost supernaturally hot, which didn't truly bother me but was still a bit annoying. The sword vanished from his severed limb and instead flickered into being in his other, less dominant one. Agustino was stunned for a moment at the speed of what had just happened. And then the demon began to scream. 

"Ahhhhhh! You fuck!! I'll fucking kill you!" He roared, as pain flooded his senses, almost blinding him to everything else around him in the way that immense pain could wrack a creature with something like a nervous system. I chuckled and continued to speak. 

"I am beyond you. I am, to you anyway, for all intents and purposes, power itself. What's funny is that if I wanted too I could easily cause you to fall in love with me." I remarked, which was a true remark. 

"Or I could trap you in your own body for the rest of time. I could make your body my puppet, while I allow your mind to exist, and be stuck inside of a body it can't control." I told the demon, aware already that I was the victor here. 

"I'm gonna break free of your control and get to the Scarlet Seat! When I do I'll gain enough power to kill you, you arrogant fuck!" Agustino roared, causing me to turn and examine the throne he had just mentioned. 

"Oh I suppose I should do something about that shouldn't I?" I asked, before pointing a hand at the thing and activating a property of the "Angelic physiology" power I had acquired thanks to the faith domain. I quietly claimed ownership of the artifact, thanks to the inherently angelic ability to use artifacts, and as I did I felt a rush of information flood my mind in the form of a notification.

---

---

"Huh... That's neat." I muttered, as I read through the notification. I studied Agustino for a moment, smiling as I did so. 

"To corrupt an artifact created by an actual overgod... That's some real power right there." I told the demon, admiration plainly audible in my voice. I wasn't lying either, it must have taken Agustino hundreds of centuries to corrupt the Scarlet Seat, especially since he himself was weak. 

"What...? How did you know who created that artifact?" Agustino asked, shock entering his voice and edging out the normal anger and pride he audibly displayed. I smiled at him as I told him the truth.

"Oh, because I just claimed ownership of the artifact. As a deity that's a thing I can do." I explained, freely and honestly telling the demon how I was able to seize control of his prized possession. Agustino, almost certainly knowing incredibly little about how deities worked, was caught off guard by that declaration. 

"Now... The time to end our 'battle' draws near." I told the demon, smiling at him as I did so. I rose my sword and pointed it at him. He shivered, and backed away from me. I allowed it and began to laugh as I next swung my sword, aiming it at his soul-weapon. "I will use you as a stepping stone to greater power than you could ever imagine!" I informed him, even as he began to try and lift his blade up.

I corrected the trajectory of my sword as it flew through the air and when it collided with my enemy's soul-sword it cleaved through the thing like a hot knife cutting through butter. I felt virtually no resistance from my enemy's sword, and a split second after my blade cut through his I heard a keen howl of pain come from him. 

"Ahhhh! Even my soul-sword?!" He roared, stumbling backwards as he was wracked with pain due to the destruction of his weapon, something tied to his very soul. I knew now that I had overwhelmed him and defeated him both mystically and in terms of raw swordplay. All I had to do now was kill the demon, and take his heart. 

"And with that... Our time begins to draw to a close." I told the demon, speaking dramatically. As I spoke I utilized powers over pain to bring the massive demon to his knees. 

"Wait... Is there no way I can convince you to turn your sword away longer? I know... So many secrets." The demon muttered, and I was honestly a bit disappointed in him. 

"To think that you'd beg for your life... How disappointing. And no. You can't convince me to wait a second longer before embracing my destiny. Everything you know either is or will be known by me in a matter of moments." I told the demon, even as I liquified the ground beneath him. He began to sink into the sludge I created, and I began the true final stage in my plan. 

"That said... I want you to watch me carefully." I told the demon. His eyes slowly focused on me and began to watch me. 

"I told you I'd take everything from you... I meant it." I said, reminding him of my words from when I began our confrontation. 

I rose a hand and created inanimate bodies of figures painfully familiar to the demon. I had created bodies that were exact replicas of the strange harpies, be they half-demon or otherwise, who lived in the palace. For the briefest of instances there was a slight smile on the slowly sinking demon's face. And then it turned into an expression of sheer horror. 

"What... What are you planning on doing to them?" He asked, fear and a slight tinge of anger audible in his voice. I laughed openly at the concern he displayed for them. 

"Relax... I'm not actually planning on being malicious to them. That said they died during the earlier attack. I can undo that. Well, 'undo' isn't exactly the right word, though I certainly could do that if I wanted too. Instead I'm going to free these women from you." I told the demon, as I created souls perfect for harpies, even half-demon ones. I was being honest to the demon, I didn't plan to hurt the harpies I had just created, and I even planned to give them the memories of the creatures I had killed during my attack.

To do so I silently designed and gave myself a handful of new powers which allowed me to absorb the memories of the dead instantly and activated said power on each corpse in the palace. As I did that my enemy sunk further into the palace floor, a defeated look on his face as he accepted the vast difference in power between us. 

"You shouldn't be so down on yourself. You are, after all, only a demon. Not even a demon lord. You flew too close to the sun, so to speak, and this a natural consequence of that." I explained, smiling at my foe. 

"In a few moments I shall cut out your heart, ending your life, and using it to fuel my own ambitions. You should be proud that that will be your legacy." I told the demon, and he replied to me wordlessly but by spitting at me. 

"Would it make you feel any better if I told you that your body would be the first thing your reborn daughters and wives would eat? That your death will aid in their resurrection?" I asked, taunting the demon. His eyes began to glow with rage again, and I chuckled. 

Originally I planned to blind the demon, but instead I opted to allow him to continue to see, until the end. I rose my sword and stabbed it into him, my blade effortlessly sinking into his flesh and causing the demon to grit his teeth and crash together in an effort not to scream out in pain. His stubborness was funny. 

I used my powers over heat and fire to cause my sword to burst into flames, all while it was stuck within him. Almost admirably he clung to his pride and still resisted screaming out in pain. That said I wasn't trying to stab him. I was cutting him. Or rather I was cutting something out of him. His heart. 

I began to forcefully drag my blade around his chest, drenching myself in blood as I did so. I was slowly and viciously extracting his heart, but I doing so as painfully as I could imagine. He stubbornly managed to hang on to his pride for a few more moments before I silently lifted a hand and amplified his pain, causing him to begin to cry out in agony. 

That said his agony wouldn't last much longer. After a few minutes of cutting him open, I reached into his chest and grabbed his T.V. sized heart. At this point he was unconscious but still alive. That said, I possessed infinite strength and pulling out his heart was easy. I did it with a single tug, all while destroying his soul and absorbing his memories, secrets, powers, and more with my ability to destroy and absorb souls. 

I pulled his heart out of his chest and lifted the thing into the air at the same time as I gained the power to create pride demons from nothing, earning two significant victories at exactly the same time. 

"And with this... There's just one more step I need to take to become a demon lord." I said, a triumphant look on my face as I spoke. I bestowed the harpies with the souls I made for them, and the memories of the people they were modeled after. They bowed to me even with my back turned and I didn't really acknowledge them. Instead I moved out of the way and said a single word. 

"Eat." I commanded the harem and daughters of the demon of pride I had just crushed. The harpies rose their heads up in unison and flew at the corpse. They were cruel creatures who valued only strength, not any bonds of family, or of something like fatherhood. I didn't hate that at all, it made keeping them loyal quite easy. 

I still hadn't received a notification alerting me to that I had acquired the second tier of influence over the domain of war, which must have meant that Mazek and Drow were still fighting. I shook my head and dropped the heart of Agustino my fallen enemy into my shadow and teleported to the city where my general and the last Agustinian loyalist were fighting.