Technos further surprised me by actively beginning to move, even if he was, while I was in my true-speed mode, laughably slow. He attempted to back away from me while gathering energy in his open mouth again to fire another laser at me. I tightened my grip on my shield and began to laugh. This caused my enemy to glare at me.

He was behaving irrationally. He knew his laser attack was an ineffective measure against me, someone whose speed well exceeded the speed of light and who had at least one means to not only avoid but deflect the attack. He was about to learn that I had more than one way to deflect the laser if he fired it at me.

"Althos... I'll acknowledge your strange powers. It seems there was some truth to your claim that you were a deity, but that alone is not enough. Now, die!" He shouted, and the instant he stopped speaking his nanobot aura created an opening right in front of his mouth for his laser to fly towards me without slamming into any of his minions. I chuckled and watched as the beam parted from the small canon that was where a tongue would have been on another creature.

He was amused when the beam didn't immediately disappear, but he also noticed that I was standing still which caused him visible confusion a split second after he noticed that. On the other hand, there was a look of amusement on my face. I was not afraid of his laser attack.

The laser, compared to me, was slow which probably would have terrified any lesser creature with knowledge of lasers. My ability to exceed the speed of light was fairly new but it was extremely handy as it meant that I could avoid pretty much any conventional attack.

The laser was approaching me, but in my eyes, it was doing so quite lazily. When it was finally close enough I tightened my grip on my shield and used it to strike the laser, parrying it and sending flying back at Technos.

Technos, to his credit, was much wiser about this than he had been about firing the laser in the first place. His nanobot swarm that constituted his version of an aura responded to what I presumed was a telepathic command and closed in around him, forming a barrier that took the blow that was meant to devastate him.

The laser exploded against his barrier and for a moment he was shrouded in smoke, though that didn't interfere with my ability to see him. His technological barrier was smaller now since he sacrificed many of his nanobots in order to keep the laser from hurting him.

Looking through the smoke and the barrier using my ability to see through solid objects I could see that he was glaring at me. He was a creature of technology, laser-based attacks were probably one of his greater offensive abilities and yet against me lasers, missiles, and more were rendered quite useless. I pointed my sword at him and spoke again.

"Is that all you've got? The garden beneath us could use some more grass." I taunted, before beginning to smile savagely. I sensed a slight feeling of hopelessness beginning to creep into the heart of my enemy. That was good. I wanted him to despair.

I was going to kill him and grow stronger because of it. Technos began to move, attempting to approach me, and as he did I silently blessed the acidic oozes inside of him, giving them tremendous buffs to their speed as well as increasing their sizes using an ability I had acquired from the physics domain while I had been battling Agustino years ago.

He continued to approach me even as he howled in pain and as more grass grew behind me. Since he was approaching me I targeted him with another burst of "Disintegrating Radiance", which wasn't intended to harm him. There was an explosion of powerful, primal light centered around him even as he moved as fast as he could at me. The explosion wasn't able to harm him but it was able to do away with his swarm of nanobots, completely consuming them. I grinned and when he swung his swords at me I was able to completely deflect them without even beginning to sweat.

For a moment there was a triumphant look on my face as I did away with my enemy's initial, distracting techniques. That said, my foe was being deceptive and his efforts here were a smokescreen. When he was close to me I heard the various bits of machinery inside of him begin to creak to life, even as it took him everything he had to focus on launching a layered attack like this at me. I hissed when he opened his mouth and I heard the sounds of missiles firing at me from close range.

My enemy had launched a risky feint and even with my speed, it would be impossible to dodge everything since he was right on top of me. That said if I had to take a blow that would hurt so did he. I looked up at his face, meters above me, and I did something I had never done before: I generated acid inside of my body, my mouth specifically, and I immediately spat it at him.

I aimed at his eye, and even as his attacks were fired at me my attack flew through the air and then collided with his face. It wasn't enough to make his blow miss, but he did hiss in pain as my acid began to eat away at his face.

I gritted my teeth when I felt his laser attack slam into me, and the most painful sensation I ever felt occurred a second later when his missiles began to hit me and explode, but only a few could before I began to respond in kind to his attacks. Pain washed over me and clouded my consciousness to the point that for a few nanoseconds it was tough for me to think straight. The pain that wracked my consciousness was immense, but fortunately, I was able to clench my teeth and not lose myself in it.

I shrouded myself in two distinct auras after feeling his attack slam into me and deal actual damage to me. I was in pain, but thanks to my powers as a deity of pain I was able to ignore some of the worst effects of pain even the kind that could break through my resistances.

I shrouded the area in front of me in an aura of darkness, which thanks to the advanced powers I had over darkness thanks to my godhood and my nature as a demon lord of darkness would allow it to prevent lasers from being fired in it, and I shrouded the area behind me in an aura of antimatter that would hopefully block anything like missiles from hitting me.

I shook my head and immediately healed myself which immediately cleared my head of the pain I felt. Once the pain I was suffering from was gone I glared at my enemy and began to speak.

"That was admittedly quite clever. I'll remember that and learn from it when you're dead." I told him, before blessing the oozes inside of him with the power of the pain subdomain. He froze for a moment before rearing back and screaming in pain. As he screamed in pain I myself reared back and reached out with my mind, grabbing his entire body and forcing it to be still.

---

The mind domain was an incredibly powerful domain. It gave me an impressive array of powers, especially after I bolstered it with the demonic power I had acquired when I became a demon lord. It was one of my more valuable domains even if I didn't use it all that often.

Using it and its incredible power I reached out with my mind in much the same way as one might extend a hand to grab an object and wrapped a mental limb around Technos. There was fury visible in my gaze as I was determined to repay pain with pain.

I took another mental limb and began to move it towards my enemy's wings. At long last, our battle was drawing to a close and I was determined to deal as much damage and pain to my foe before ending it as possible. I had a few reasons for doing this, but it wasn't just because I was malicious and determined to make him feel the pain that he had made me feel. I knew he wasn't damaged enough for me to kill him yet, so I needed to weaken him further before I dealt the killing blow.

When my mental limb had reached my enemy's wing, I grabbed it and audibly roared as I began to attempt to pull it off of my enemy's body. The dragon, realizing what I was doing, roared at me and craned his neck back as far as he could so that he could fire a laser at me. When his head was just out of range of my aura I rose my sword and pointed it at him, creating an invisible portal that would have shielded me from the attack. That said the dragon stopped when he saw my sword pointing at him, freezing in fear.

I continued to pull the wing, my mind straining due to the immense weight. This was one of the heaviest things I had ever pulled, even when I had used my telekinesis to influence the orbits of planets. That, coupled with the resistance of the dragon itself made this no joke.

"There is no point resisting me... Let me win!" I roared, as I turned my gaze on my enemy and attacked his face with an assault of heavy telekinetic fists, utilizing one of my new demonic-mental powers: creating telekinetic constructs. A huge number of telekinetic fists appeared next to me and flew at my enemy, slamming into the core of his body.

---

The battle was a mess. On one hand, there was a young, ambitious god, who was throwing an array of his powers at his foe, and on the other hand, there was the ghost of an ancient, long deceased deity of technology attempting to weather a blizzard of raw power.

The small, ambitious god was no stranger to battle but he was not used to having to go all out. He had taken serious blows during this battle, the sort that penetrated all of the hefty resistances and immunities possessed by deities. On the other hand, the ghost was not used to fighting at all as a ghost, but he had fought other divinities during his life so he had some experience fighting brutal enemies like other gods.

The young ambitious god was more than a god and he had shown some aspect of all of his various forms during this battle. He was currently fighting and winning this battle as an archfey of light and the day, but he had used deific abilities such as his power to create portals, elemental powers like his ability to manipulate earth and the ground, and demonic powers such as his telekinetic barrage.

At the moment the young warrior was flying beneath the dragon he had come to slay. His mind was launching a brutal assault on the dragon in the form of holding it still with raw telekinetic power, firing an endless barrage of telekinetic, solidified fists, and even ripping its wing off. The dragon was stubbornly holding on, but ultimately the god had a pair of critical advantages here.

The first was that he was capable of diverse attacks, not just lasers, swords, bombs, and nanobots. The second was that he could heal. Vestiges could not heal themselves but Althos was not only capable of healing himself he also had immense regenerative powers thanks to him being a god and archfey of healing.

Althos was roaring at his foe and was growing increasingly angry at Technos' ability to resist his telekinetic powers. That said, even in the throes of rage, as a being of wrath Althos was capable of thought. For a moment the god showed one of his original powers, that of a druid.

"Fine... My mind alone isn't enough to tear you apart, but if I combine everything I have... Well, that'll do it!" Althos said before his shield vanished from view and he pointed at Technos, who was being kept still in mid-air. Technos even in the throes of pain was a bit confused by Althos' latest action until he heard a distant explosion.

"I am... a druid! A magic-user who can manipulate plants. And I am an archfey of life, light, plants, and more. Eat this!" The god yelled, his voice exploding out of him even as Technos' deific eyes witnessed the "this" Althos was referring to. From outside of the arena the two fought in, an enormous tangle of vines crossed the doorway into the arena and stretched unnaturally towards Technos.

Althos, in the middle of his rage, was activating and overcharging an incredibly simple druidic spell known as "Tangle". The enormous vines were a result of that, vines that Althos had forcibly, impossibly, spawned in the factory itself and then brought here with magic. They crossed the length of the battlefield and when they reached Technos wrapped around him and dragged him towards the ground of the arena. Althos smiled triumphantly as he felt the wing of his foe finally begin to forcibly be torn from his shoulder.

---

"Yes... Yes!" I shouted, triumphantly as I made use of my first power as an outer god: "Reality Defiance". It was an ability that allowed me to ignore a minor rule of reality, in this instance I used it to allow my spell to affect the area beyond the arena and summon the tangle of vines that I overcharged and brought to me.

Technos was sinking the ground, wrapped in vines, as his wing was being forcibly ripped off by my telekinetic barrage. I could see his wing straining to remain connected to him and I smiled.

I lifted my golden blade and I slashed at the wing, activating one of my destructive powers known as "Cutting", relying on the fact that vestiges weren't gods to allow my slash to cut through the parts of the wing that were still loosely connected to the deific ghost. My slash cut through the air itself before finally severing the actual wing and freeing it from Technos' remaining body. Technos didn't howl in pain, he merely slumped over, finally and utterly defeated. Behind me a truly enormous amount of grass began to grow, covering nearly the entire battlefield in one instant.

"Finally... Victory." I said, smiling widely. I immediately recovered from my rage, as I was also a creature of patience. Technos' wing fell slowly to the floor beneath it, moving as though it were a feather and not an enormous, metallic wing. Before I slew Technos I turned my gaze towards the wing and when I studied it I received a notification.

What little information that revealed to me was enough. I momentarily transformed my sword back into a staff and activated the parasitic property of my staff twice. Once on the wing, and another time on Technos himself. The wing froze in mid-air just above the ground and I knew my power had worked when a tiny notification filled my head altering me that neither of my enemy's artifacts would vanish when I slew him.

I again transformed my staff into my sword and I approached Technos. Technos was still, and he quietly accepted his defeat. I was quiet too, as I sensed that I was moments away from becoming far more powerful than I had just become perhaps hours ago.

When I was fairly close to Technos I launched a single strike with my sword and flashed through him. I heard his head, be looped from his body, and fall through the air, before landing on the tangle of vines that entangled his body, and then roll to a stop on the floor as growing grass caught it and slowed it to a halt. There was just one more cut to make.

I allowed the vines to cease entangling my foe's fallen form. When the last of them were gone I again flashed through my enemy, this time aiming my sword at the core of his form. I felt my sword, the blade of the king of spring and summer, slice cleanly through the central body of Technos and permanently shut off the divine robot. As I did that I recalled every key moment in my life so far, and I began to feel new power surge into me, a tremendous amount of it infusing my every cell.

As I did that the scenery around me began to change, due to the vestige I had defeated dying. As it did a notification filled my vision, one congratulating me for my victory and thanking me for freeing the first layer of Infernius, the surface of the planet-turned-dimension that was the home and birthplace of devils from the tyranny of the vestige. I had won.

---

Gehenna, the very first layer of Infernius had spent half a million years as an annihilated ruin. It was an impossible place to traverse, filled with decimated and long-dead technology, and the wreckage of a defeated devilish civilization. The place was long considered dead and not worth the headaches it would take for even creatures as resilient as devils to travel through. The actual reason for this, which occurred after the death of Technos, was a mystery. One that had long vexed devilish scholars.

Althos, in reading through notifications telling him the true history of this layer, was learning that was a conscious effect brought on by Technos, who had in death had generated a vengeful vestige who was driven by pride and anger. The vestige was still imbued with the authority that Technos had possessed in life, and that drove him to take out his fury on the only people he could: devils on the first layer of Infernius. 

That same authority was now infusing Althos, and as his first command as the layer's new guardian, he ordered the restoration of the layer. This had an immediate and supernatural effect on the layer. 

Gehenna, a name that Althos now knew, immediately began to heal. The ash and dust that suffused the air outside of cities simply faded away, and the constant clouds that covered the surface of the planet also parted, revealing the sun, the moon, and the stars. For the first time natural light was visible on the surface of the planet, and the world's surface began to heal. 

Althos' vision filled with multiple notifications, including one alerting him that he was the new ruler of the "Final factory", the divine gravesite of Technos, another alerting him that he had just become an archdevil, and one alerting him that he had just received multiple boosts to his tiers of influence over various domains including the draconic domain and the technology subdomain. One of the boosts he had long awaited was the boost to his powers over death. 

---

As power surged into every cell in my body I took in the impossible sight I was responsible for. The arena I had found myself in was gone, and instead, I found myself standing on the roof of the "Final factory", which was apparently the true name of this gravesite. This world's sun was visible in the distance, its light touching the surface of this world for the first time in a very long time. 

I gazed at it, smiling as I took in the implications of my victory. In becoming an archdevil I had liberated lesser devils from the murderous tyranny of a vestige who if not stopped would have ruled over a fallen, dead kingdom forever. I could now sense the entirety of this layer at once, and I knew just how many devilish cities, forts, and other infrastructure had fallen when Technos returned to "life" as a vestige and unleashed its impotent rage at those too weak to resist. 

On this layer alone there had once been billions of devils, all of whom either fled or perished underground, to other layers of Infernius, when Technos became a vestige. Even now those who died were being resurrected thanks to my power as an archdevil and a god, but the damage that Technos had done was unthinkable.

As the fallen devils were returned to life I sensed their awe at the power responsible for their resurrection, and their awareness that they had been returned to life through nearly impossible means: the power of a god mixing with the power of an archdevil. 

For one of the first times in my life I had just saved a population of creatures. It felt weird to be a savior and not a destroyer, especially since I was able to feel the gratitude of billions of creatures flow into me at once. I was lost in my thoughts until the table notification, one I had seen a few times before, appeared in front of me. When it did I chuckled and began to fill it out, determining the sort of archdevil I would be until I gained power over more, deeper layers of Infernius. 

The table was similar to the one I had seen when I became a demon lord, which made sense since demon lords were innately evil beings. One of the fun things I did was give myself power over the final three vices I couldn't control: greed, and the two most primal vices of all: envy and pride. I also gave myself power over magic and the elements, opting to go for fire and earth this time. I also gave myself power over life, souls, and spirits and several other things like technology and nobility.

When I was done I felt my powers as an archdevil suffuse my soul and I received a notification about the corruption subdomain.