A large group of Gods, numbering twenty in total, came to a stop after spotting traces of a battle.

“The Avarus,” said a hairless God with what looked to be a permanent frown on his face.

The other Gods nodded and began using their abilities to scan the area and soon, they all found one presence sitting in the distance.

With the fog dispersing, it wasn’t very difficult to spot the lone silhouette. The Gods cautiously approached, some of the ones with better prediction abilities could feel something was off but still proceeded.

“It appears to be Kara...A few of us can go restrain her while the rest search for the Avarus.”

More than half the Gods split off from the main group while several floated toward Kara, surrounding her on all sides.

“It took you long enough.” Kara turned to face them with a calm expression.

“You were already expecting us?” A familiar-looking Goddess asked. She was the same glowing-haired Goddess who first attacked Ira and Kara in the Divine Beast Forest. Her motive for arriving at the current time could have only been revenge.

“You could say that.” Kara grinned ever so slightly.

“Enough of this! Where is the Avarus?!” The hairless God seemed to be impatient and full of anger.

“You mean Ira? He’s no longer with me. We had a few disagreements and personally I find him to be strange. He’s also an extremely bloodthirsty young man...But do you perhaps know what his most defining feature is?”

The Gods gathered around Kara felt a sense of danger has her smile bloomed.

“His strength.” As Kara spoke, fiery towers of black flame exploded from underneath the ground incinerating the Gods who were spread out in the distance, catching them unaware.

“It’s a trap!” The hairless God’s body puffed up before he changed into a towering giant. “Die for your insolence, Kara!”

His roar shook the earth as he moved his hand with the intention of crushing her but she quickly flew away.

The other Gods were too busy screaming in agony from the unending black fire that eroded their bodies away leaving less than half of their original number left to deal with Ira and Kara. Even then, most of the Gods left were better at predicting locations of others than fighting.

“We have to retreat-” A God tried to make a rational suggestion but it was cut short by a burning black claw that pierced through his chest, emerging on the other side with a bright orb in its hand.

“Don’t spoil the fun.” Ira crushed the stolen divinity in his hands, allowing it to feed the black flames even more. He teleported away and moved toward the glowing haired Goddess who was about to flee once again.

“Stay away, Avarus!” She shouted fearfully while moving backward.

Ira managed to place a single hand on her shoulder before she escaped as a bright light. In her haste, she didn’t have time to notice the black hand print sinking into her skin and fading away. It was one of Ira’s newest tricks that he regretfully wouldn’t be able to see play out. The Mad God he stole divinity from specialized in disrupting his enemies bodies by leaving unstable energy inside of them. With the influence of the Void, Ira would be able to much more, making whoever he chose into his own personal weapon.

With one God dead and another who ran away, he moved onto the others in a flash. The Giant Hairless God was too busy with Kara flying around him and attacking to notice Ira hunting his comrades down like livestock.

Ira was face to face with four Gods who adapted to his abilities after observing them for a few moments. As Gods with battle and war centered divinities, comprehension of their opponent's strengths were their strong points. From Ira’s brief display they understood that they shouldn’t get too close and should avoid the black flame at all cost. They also realized he could teleport so took preventive measures, one of those being to be the aggressor.

“I’ll be the one to kill you and mount your head on my wall, Avarus!” A God with four massive arms shouted as he charged toward Ira.

Ira only smiled as he met the four-armed God head-on, but soon noticed it was a diversion. A God riding a chariot pulled by spectral horses rode past and waved a bronze sword. Suddenly legions of bronze soldiers began falling from the sky and tried to attach themselves to Ira.

“What the fuck?” Ira punched through one of the living bronze soldiers before flicking a black fireball at another. The number of bronze soldiers increased and so did the intensity of his counter attacks.

Meanwhile, the other Gods weren’t still and moved while Ira was distracted. The four-armed God smashed his fist together and a giant orange silhouette similar to his own formed behind him. Another God who was quite small compared to the others clasped his hands together, the simple action caused his allies to become covered in a warm green light, enhancing their divine power. Even the bronze soldiers of the chariot-riding God were affected with their movement becoming faster as a result.

The last of the four, a Goddess with three reptilian eyes made various hand symbols before three house-sized dragon heads flew out in front of her while hundreds of miniature ones flew into the bodies of the bronze soldiers.

Ira shifted into his beast form to adjust to the increasing number of hazards. After ingesting the essence of the First-Flame, Ira’s beast form had changed once more. His body was only seven or so feet and comparatively thinner than his previous form. A layer of black flame now covered his body and produced a faint cloud of black mist that drifted through the air. His burning black horns and four bright yellow eyes made him look like something even the Gods would call a monster.

“This is your end, Abomination!” The chariot riding God waved his sword and the bronze soldiers all piled on Ira endlessly.

“Now!” The Goddess with three serpent eyes shouted confidently and the bronze soldiers, infused with dragon spirits, turned into a molten red color before swelling up.

Ira growled in frustration but before he could teleport away, the bronze soldiers exploded and released a massive burst of energy.

Ira’s body was blown back and the flames covering him had begun to dim but the Gods didn’t stop just yet.

Three dragon heads flew toward him before combining into one and snatching him into its jaw, exploding once more and sending him crashing into the ground and bouncing a few feet into the air right after. That’s when the four-armed God struck, his summoned avatar smashing Ira even deep into the charred soil.

“Was that really all he had to show for such a grand display?” The four-armed God descended to the darkened crater where Ira was embedded.

His beast form now completely dim without a sign of flame on his entire body. Seeing the fire gone, the God approached arrogantly, he covered his hand into a layer of orange divine power and grabbed Ira by the throat.

“A thousand years and this is what’s left of the Avarus? Xandes needed a weapon refined from the great Origin Realm just to deal with you?” The four-armed God shook Ira.

Even the bright yellow eyes which were now half-closed seemed to have darkened a few shades, giving him a defeated appearance.

“Enough, we need him alive.” The three-eyed Goddess said. “We need to restrain him so that he doesn’t use that black flame anymore.”

She looked toward Kara who was cutting the Giant God’s body apart with each swing. “We also need to help him.”

The four-armed God looked to the giant briefly and then back to Ira but was surprised to see the weakened yellow-eyes had regained life. A strange laugh escaped Ira’s throat as the black flames covering his body resurfaced.

Before the four-armed God could flee, Ira stabbed his hand into the God’s chest and fished out his divinity before eating it.

“...Ah!” The cocky God, assured of his own victory, was too late in his reaction and could only watch as a black hole formed in his chest and swallowed his body.

Ira forcefully digested the divinity as fast as he could, ignoring any possible side effects and two dark arms sprouted out of his side. Tiny spheres of fire gathered in each palm before they grew to the size of an apple. They slowly condensed and then shifted into a more solid form, showing a glossy black reflective surface. With an eerie laugh echoing from his burning maw, Ira threw the black spheres at the Gods.

“Dodge them!” The three remaining Gods quickly moved away, traversing thousands of steps in a single moment but the black spheres stuck close to them. They began to fire off long-range attacks in order to destroy the spheres but they absorbed anything they came in contact with.

“Flee! We are not his match!”

The three Gods immediately realized that Ira was growing stronger with each person he consumed and moved away but the decision was too late. The black spheres suddenly accelerated once more, sticking to the bodies of their targets before exploding into a expanding waves of shadowy fire. Each wave of fire wrapped around the Gods before it suddenly pulled them inside the black spheres and shrunk before disappearing from sight.

The last black sphere hit the Giant God from his rear side and killed him without him even being aware he died.

Kara quickly descended to evaluate Ira’s condition but stopped a few feet away from him since he was in his beast form.

“Are you...still you?” Kara asked cautiously.

Somehow, his current form reminded her of a rabid beast that would lash out at any living thing.

“I’m…” A distorted voice emerged from behind his teeth before his form began to get smaller. He cleared his throat once he returned to his human appearance.

“...I’m tired,” Ira said before letting out an exhausted sigh, glancing the few remaining Gods in the distance who survived and were already in the process of fleeing.

They were Gods who had powerful clairvoyant abilities but weak battle capabilities when compared to other Gods. They could defend themselves of course, but when they saw Ira’s ambush attack they had no inclination of fighting him. And the death of four combat-related Gods was just another confirmation, pushing them to retreat and report what they saw.

“Is that alright, letting them go after all they’ve seen?” Kara asked with dissatisfaction.

Ira killed the Giant God she was about to finish off with a few more strikes. Since she wanted to enjoy the battle rather than end it immediately she delayed in killing him which lead to the opportunity being stolen by Ira.

“Why? Do you want to chase them?” Ira plopped onto the ground, ignoring the devastated land around him.

“Now that they’ve actually witnessed your capabilities, they’ll make better preparations and bring far more Gods to capture you.”

“Good, I’ll probably be hungry when that time comes.” Ira smiled wistfully as he closed his eyes.

“Be serious if you have a plan. After you used that...black fire to ambush them, you were barely able to kill four of them.”

“This was just a necessary demonstration. They still don’t know about my hidden card so it doesn't matter in the end. The only thing that matters is whatever weapon that Xandes is making.” Ira opened one eye and looked at Kara.

“What hidden card?” Kara narrowed her eyes suspiciously, focusing on that one phrase only.

Ira closed his eye again while bringing his finger to his lips, “Shhh.”

Ira’s Reality Separation ability would have even more possibilities after absorbing the First-Flame’s essence. Even a hundred Gods would be wiped out if he could gather them all in one place. The only problem would be the immediate aftermath as the more he pushed his ability the higher the toll it took. If a few Gods managed to escape the attack or survive he would be too weakened to fight with them properly.

“Just know I’ll be depending on you after I use it.” Although Ira used his ability in front of Kara once, she still didn’t know anything about it and wouldn’t unless he explained it.

“I don’t understand what you possibly mean by that but I’ll assist you as much as I can.”

“Good.”

Ira laid still for a few more moments before he jumped to his feet and teleported away with Kara.