The choice wasn't a difficult one. In fact I made it without any hesitation. I chose to acquire the second tier of influence over the ten basic schools of magic.

I hadn't often used true magic, the sort of magic that spell-casters could use, but many of my worshipers did. Worship of me was universally more common on primarily magical worlds than it was on Htrae-like or technologically advanced worlds. Acquiring greater power over magical schools I could already influence was more efficient than skipping universally easy introductory quests.

I also had knowledge of the intermediate schools of magic and both were intriguing. Voodoo was a school of magic that among other things had spells that were "Sympathetic" in nature, meaning they could affect people or events with which they had ties, such as a "Voodoo Doll" containing someone's hair and then being used to help or harm that person. Abjuration magic was defensive in nature, and allowed those who used it to create shields, barriers, and other defensive objects with which to better defend themselves and others.

I was enormously intrigued by abjuration magic, but the first quests to acquire influence over subdomains had universally been easy so I was sure it'd be possible to swiftly accomplish when I was done here. I knew acquiring the second tier of influence over the beginner schools of magic was the right choice.

I informed the magic domain and the system of my choice and felt the new powers I had just acquired wash over me. I was still standing atop the rooftop I had been on before, and as I looked out I felt far even more powerful than I had before. I had just acquired the second tier of influence over eight subdomains and in doing so become a not insigificantly powerful true deity of magic. And in time I planned to ascend to ever higher heights of magical power.

My drones, the fastest of my robotic servants, had begun to unleash their payloads on the city. I stood alongside the pair of spore-infested demons I had tamed. All around me I could see other buildings as they began to be hit by an astounding number of bullets and incendiary bombs.

The buildings themselves initially appeared to be quite resistant to bullets, though many of them had windows that weren't so well-built, but none of them could resist the power of the incendiary bombs. The flames of the bombs were also acidic, thanks to my active manipulation of them due in part to my relatively close proximity, so the least sturdy of the buildings quickly began to deteriorate due to the vicious attacks of my minions.

Off in the distance I could clearly hear the agonized wails of demons who hadn't realized that the flames my drones were capable of producing through their bombs were also acidic. That brought a macabre smile to my face.

It was while that was occurring that I began to act, slowly and insidiously in the manner in which only a lord of sloth and a god of pain could.

The city the Althonians had invaded was a large place. It was comprised of dozens of buildings, all of which were very slowly sinking into the stinking swamp underneath and around the buildings. Each building housed hundreds of demons, and so too did the swamp itself.

The swamp was a fetid place, and a gross one. The water was a sickly, bile-like shade of brown and all manner of flith could be seen floating through it. Equally disgusting demons slithered and swam through the plague-infested waters of the swamp.

More powerful demons lived in the buildings themselves, making dens and nests in various parts of the buildings. Some of the buildings were one-story buildings where demons powerful enough to escape the swamp but not powerful enough to challenge their peers dwelled and hid. Other buildings were multistory skyscrapers with dozens to hundreds of floors that stretched into the sky. The building Althos was on was one in the middle of those two extremes.

Althos began to move as he activated a number of his powers and used them to attack the city's demonic defenders and occupants. The attack wasn't particularly complicated but it was swiftly proven to be effective.

All the god had to do was assail the wills of the demons. Their wills and egos were nothing compared to his so he was able to swiftly use his corrosive influence and power over sloth to drive all manner of demonic occupants of the city to apathy. It was a devastating power and though he hadn't often used it offensively he had always known that he could.

Demons who fell victim to this power were effortlessly robbed of even their desire to stay alive. They knew they were robbed of their emotions, but they couldn't bring themselves to care. And so they were lost.

My powers over sloth were frightening. With them, and with my powers over minds, I was able to creep into the minds of my enemies and steal away their desire to fight me. And more than that, I was able to render their resistance to me virtually nonexistent.

I had invaded the minds of the demons and infected them with apathy and numbness. This made them suggestible and so I proceeded to give them a single suggestion, while distorting their attitudes towards their own pain.

"It's time to surrender. Go up and walk into the fires outside." I told them, whispering insidiously in their minds. I smiled when I felt hundreds of demons move to obey my commands. They weren't able to gather the willpower needed to successfully resist my commands, as they were victims of my powers over sin.

I silently looked over at the nearby buildings and began to wait. All it took was a few minutes before the first of the demons stumbled onto the rooftops and threw themselves into the fire. They didn't even scream, they merely stood in the acidic fires as their bodies were set ablaze and began to liquify.

More and more demons began to join them, making their way to the top of buildings and also willingly throwing themselves onto the acidic fires. Once another five or so minutes had passed I received an alert notifying me that I had just earned the second tier of influence over the subdomain of poison, which was pleasant but entirely unexpected. That said, my acidic flames were killing dozens of demons so it made sense that I was "inflicting massive damage" as the quest asked that I do.

I felt even more new powers infuse me, and I grinned as I acquired the power to negate damage done by poisons or acid to whomever I chose to protect. My ability to negate notifications was a potent one, and with it I could cause a lot of chaos throughout the universe, even more so now that I this sort of control over poisons and acids.

I closed my eyes and thought about the subdomain. As I did the notification that was chock-full of details about it appeared in my mind.

Poison/Acid Subdomain Passive Powers:

Poison/Acid Immunity Bestowal: You can grant someone immunity to poisons, acids, and other similar things.

Miasmic Mastery: You can generate, manipulate, and destroy toxic gases.

Acid Rain: You can generate, manipulate, and destroy acid rain, including making it hyper acidic and capable of killing people and destroying structures.

Empowerment: You can empower the deadliness of poisons and acids.

Transferral: You can absorb damage done by poisons, undoing it, and then transfer it elsewhere. You can also generate poisons internally and transfer them to someone else.

Corrosion: You can manipulate corrosion, the electrochemical oxidation of metals in reaction with an oxident such as oxyogen or water. A common example of corrosion is rust.

Caustic Phasing: You can corrode solid matter with a touch and you can phase through solid matter while corroding it.

Poison-Granting: You can grant followers of yours enhanced power and skill over poison and acid. This functions similarly to a blessing but is permanently. Those who have this power become expert wielders of poison. This is synergistic with the domain of knowledge.

Spiritual Poison: You can generate and manipulate poisons that can affect intangible creatures.

Corrupt Poison: You can generate and manipulate poisons that don't inflict physical harm but corrode values and leave those affected by them extra susceptible to your powers over corruption.

Poison/Acid Subdomain Active Power:

Poison The Dead: Once per week you can target an area as big as a city and fill it with a powerful poison. This poison instantly kills any living creature that inhales it and reanimates them as an undead creature under your control.

I immediately utilized my powers over miasmas to spread a potent cocktail of a toxic gas throughout the entirety of the city. For a split second the entire area around me glowed a vibrant and nauseating shade of green. I chuckled as I began to receive notifications alerting me that demons were suffocating, an unusual way for a demon to die since normally they were immune to toxic gases. That said, it didn't matter at all before me and my ability to take away immunities and resistances.

I also took away their jubilance to be in pain, just to see them suffer for a bit. I wasn't doing it to be malicious, I was doing it out of curiosity. And also a desire to be efficient. This was one of a handful of cities ruled by Agustino, and even just killing all of the demons here would deal a real blow to the morale of his forces.

Their deaths by miasma took much longer than their deaths by acidic fire, and the suffocating hurt them much more than burning did. During the time they spent suffocating I was learning a lot about them. I got to see them flail about in agony and even got to see a few of them almost muster the will needed to push back against my powers over sloth. They didn't, but that some of them came close was curious.

If they came close in their last moments then Agustino would probably be able to resist sloth, unless I used something else to help boost it. So this was an important chance for me to learn about the mental fortitude of demons, which was higher than I had expected it to be.

That said, a few minutes after the cloying miasma descended on the city I received a notification alerting me that the city had been wiped out, aside from the pair of demons I turned into my spore-servants. They stayed beside me the entire time the city was burning and had eerie smiles plastered on their faces. I turned to one of them and gently patted its head. The demon began to smile even more at me, positively beaming in my direction.