Solomon stood deep in enemy territory as he managed to focus and slowly began to ignore the pain inflicted on him merely by his opponent speaking. That said, the struggle to draw past the pain caused the demon to regain his focus and inadvertently lessened the rage he felt. That granted him the clarity of mind to properly examine his current situation. And the more he studied his surroundings the worse he felt.

His opponent, the god his master had declared he go and capture, had created a private battlefield just for the two of them. Behind Althos were a number of massive open portals, spewing out a large number of Althonians, innately a diverse bunch, who saw the two creatures and wisely chose to give them a wide berth. Even creatures as large as dragons opted to steer clear of the hundred or so meter area Althos had cleared for their fight using potent prowess over wind and air.

Althos himself was in a "battle" form and had the appearance of a fierce-looking and enormous angel with six massive wings. He had radiant, almost golden skin, a sword made of angelic energy, and a shield made from the same aetherial substance. He had his eyes locked on the demon and slowly rose the sword in its direction. There was a smile on his face as he did that, a confident and unafraid smirk that served to taunt his demonic foe. Solomon, for the first time, began to feel just a bit of fear.

The demon, not quite as wrathful as a demon of wrath, was every bit as foolish as one. The opponent in front of him was capable of inflicting real damage on him without even attacking. The demonic centipede couldn't remember the last time he had met a new sort of opponent who was capable of such a feat. Even Agustino would need to attack to harm him.

After a few moments of standing still, Althos silently took to the air. His massive wings beat every few seconds and kept him aloft as he continued to focus on his enemy.

The demon in front of me was in all likelihood the second strongest creature I had fought one on one. The strongest was, unsurprisingly, Morehammer was infinitely stronger than this demon. I studied the demonic insect and felt the powerful energy radiating off of Solomon.

The unarmed and unarmored creature was enormous. His two hundred segments were each at least the size of a man, and thus his total length was titanic, and originally my impression of Solomon's strength was a bit higher. However after harming him with nothing more than an uttered word I could see that even as powerful as he was in comparison to his peers, his strength was nothing compared to mine.

I was in mid-air, facing my opponent and smirking at him. I had wanted Solomon to be stronger than this, but since he was so weak I knew I'd be able to have fun with him. Meanwhile, his forces would be losing the battle raging behind him. I sensed the inkling of fear he felt and was a small portion of me was annoyed that he wasn't more afraid.

The sword and shield in my hands were synced to my soul and matched the size of my form perfectly. Both of them exuded angelic energy and I felt their power. I knew that with the blade in my hand I could destroy demons, their structures, and maybe even the very essence of this place. I felt the blade's power and it filled me with confidence. I continued to point my blade at my enemy but now I spoke again, though this time I wasn't channeling holy energy.

"Agustino made a mistake." I warned Solomon, ominously. I wasn't at all afraid of the demon and for me to continue to let the general live was a display of my confidence. Solomon glared at me, though I could see the fear continuing to circulate throughout the creature.

"Your master made the decision to send you and the other demons he's gathered, to your deaths. There is no chance you stand of victory against me." I told the demon. My words were filled with confidence, and I felt them lower the demon's morale. That said the demon's prevailing emotion was still a quiet fury. His azure colored eyes remained locked on mine. When I opened my mouth to speak again, the demon interrupted me and snarled a few choice words my way.

"Talk, talk, talk, is that all you do!? I thought gods were supposed to be destroyers of worlds! Masters of entropy! Lords of death! Where is that side of you?" He asked, trying to power through the bit of fear that had wormed its way into his heart. He had made the choice to act tough, and in response, I sighed softly.

"So impatient..." I muttered before the demonic general attempted to charge at me. The demon bounded across our battlefield, his multitude of legs allowing him to effortlessly cross the area separating us quite easily. I allowed him to approach me for a second, giving him more than enough time to move several meters closer to me, before he was buffeted by winds that exceeded the speeds of brutal hurricanes and tornadoes, the winds suddenly and painfully stopping the demon.

"Gruh!" The demon roared, as its charge was painfully stopped by the unnatural and divinely empowered winds. They were so fast even the demon could almost see them, but their unnatural origins had kept the monster from reacting to them in time to dodge out of the way. The demon may have been stopped, but I could hear his countless legs working to push him past the winds. I chuckled at his display.

"When this is over I may resurrect you and bring you over into my service. Or else I'll devour your soul and use it to create an army of demons just like you. If I'm feeling cruel I may even order them to hunt down natural centipede demons and devour them." I said, taunting the demon. This caused the general to roar ever louder and ram into the winds with even more force.

Without uttering a single word I targeted the innards of the demon, aiming for one segment near the demon's rear end, and silently activated one of my new destruction abilities: "Explosion manipulation". The demon froze, confusion quickly overwhelming all of its other emotions, and I watched as one of its last segments suddenly began to expand. The expansion took over three seconds, and at the end of the expansion, a loud and violent explosion occurred from inside of my foe which sent portions of my foe everywhere.

The explosion, caused by my cruel power, sent hefty and dark chunks of carapace and muscle alike flying dozens of meters in every direction. The demon remained frozen in confusion until the instant the explosion happened and when it did the creature began to wail in agony, the pain in its voice exceeding even the pain the creature had felt earlier when I had utilized my holy voice on it. I hovered over the monster and studied its pain. I was, after all, a god of pain.

The creature, like many mortals, appeared to not like the pain it received. And like many demons, it seemed to relish the chance to inflict pain. Earlier on, when it was dashing through my forces to get to me the monster had at least somewhat enjoyed the pain it brought my worshipers.

"So you're telling me you can't handle a little pain?" I asked, rhetorically. I smiled at the monster, my angelic lips twisting upwards in a cold sneer. The demon heard my cruel question and looked at me, and now the fear on its face was overwhelming.

I continued to point my sword at the demon, but I also began to lift the thing into the air with my unlimited telekinesis. The creature gasped as it felt me abruptly lift the middle of its body off of the ground and it began to try and back away from me before I rapidly lifted it high enough into the air that even it couldn't reach the ground. The body was light to me, but my telekinesis possessed unlimited strength. If I wanted too I could probably move stars with my version of telekinesis.

The demon refused to give up, and I allowed it to continue to resist me for a few more moments before I targeted it with a familiar power. One that I was more than a bit fond of; "Soul Destruction".

The floating demon opened its mouth as if to let out one final wail but no sound escaped its lips. All color faded from the creature, and I felt its life seep out of it and into me. As I felt the creature's life seep out of it and into me, the body began to shrink even in my telekinetic grasp and my eyes were suddenly filled with blue light as a notification appeared in my mind.

Multi-Part Alert:

You have acquired the powers of a centipede demon, and now possess the power to create souls of these creatures. Which means you can create full-bodied centipede demons. This is also the first time you've destroyed the soul of an extraplanar entity, even though you've devoured such souls before. As such... Additional information will be transmitted to you.

Extraplanar creatures differ from mortals on both physical and immaterial levels. Mortals have a soul that is separate from their bodies, but the bodies of extraplanar entities ARE their souls. By creating the soul of an extraplanar entity you can create the creature outright and freely.

To gain the second tier of influence over the domain of souls, acquire the ability to create fifty different types of extraplanar entities. To facilitate this, you can now absorb the souls of those sacrificed to you, be they willing sacrifices or not in much the same way as you could absorb the souls of those you destroyed using your "Soul Destruction" power. The "Soul Destruction" power becomes a passive power the moment you acquire the second tier of influence over the soul domain.

The souls of extraplanar entities are similar to blueprints and in using them as such you can acquire greater power than you'd be able to otherwise. Acquiring knowledge of these blueprints is also a necessary step in gaining the power to rule over dimensions inhabited by extraplanar entities such as angels, demons, devils, and celestials.

I read through the notification and then I felt... Odd. Power, memories, and more began to flood into my mind quite unexpectedly. My form changed, for perhaps the first time ever without my consent, back into my human-like form, and I began to fall to the ground. I stopped myself from falling completely by creating a gust of wind underneath me. I used the gust to slowly fall to the ground and land on my knees.

Solomon's body was now completely gone, not even a speck of the demon remained. That said the demon itself wasn't really gone. And in a sense it would never be. Because now I possessed the power to recreate it and I knew that I also possessed every shred of the creature deep within myself. If I wanted too I could create a centipede demon, model it after Solomon, and give it the memories of Solomon. It'd be as close to a perfect clone as possible.

I felt something I hadn't realized was possible occur within me: I felt my own soul increase in weight. This was happening as all that Solomon ever was settled within me, It happened as I absorbed his every memory, his every thought, his every secret. A second later, another notification filled my view.

Alert: Unexpected Synergies

Normally absorbing a soul, even a greater soul, isn't so intense, or so comprehensive, but it turns out that one of your innate subdomains is responsible for this: the subdomain of vermin. The parasitic aspect of the vermin subdomain latched onto the soul you were absorbing and in doing so drained it of everything. That is why you are enduring what you're presently enduring.

The vermin subdomain is a sly and dangerous one and with it a clever deity is capable of much. The fact that it is an innate subdomain of yours suggests it resonates with your soul which means that your parasitic abilities will always be capable of the unexpected.

When I finished reading through this notification, I mentally commanded my minions to take on a defensive stance and then rose a hand in the direction of my enemies. I was still experiencing the odd sensations as Solomon's essence was absorbed by me but now that I had an avenue to greater power I was going to take advantage of the smorgasbord before me.

I took a second to will the earth beneath the feet of every one of my enemies to open up below them and swallow them up. Distantly, I felt the earth of the plain obey me and instantly end the battle. I could sense the disappointment of some of my soldiers, but given the conditions, I needed to fulfill before I could acquire a new tier of influence over a major domain I was in front of an all you could eat buffet and I intended to feast.

With one move I brought the first battle in my war against Agustino to an end. And I knew that distantly the demon lord would be infuriated by both what I had gained in fighting this battle and also what I had taken from him. That knowledge brought a cruel smile to my face.