Chapter 877: Northern Battlefront
"So, what's the current plan? How is the war going?" Marina asked with a worried face.
"No need to worry. I'll find Lucifer and Astaroth and assist them. We shall push the war to the outer realm and force the abominations to retreat as far as possible. We'll then concur territories around the gate and expand to get more resources and land for us to thrive." Cain smiled, "This world would be like my kingdom. I'll do my best to not allow the war to be fought on my land."
"So the first step would be uniting the world under one banner. Our banner," She smiled.
"I don't intend on conquering or robbing the kingdoms or gods of their rights to rule. All I want is for them to respond to me as the overgod in case of crisis, their cooperating would be a key factor in winning the war."
The two started walking through the marbled ground, looking at the gold-plated walls and colorful crystal windows. "I do get divine power from the gods and myself so I don't really need believers like them so there is no need for me to preach a new religion, but It'll help a bit to have mentions of me in their scriptures. Can you handle that?"
"I'll send a letter to all the gods to include you in their teachings. But… Don't we have a problem? With the people, not the gods." She got even more worried.
"To the people, I'll look like the villain. I already knew that, and heard you think about it." Cain smiled.
"Well, do you have a way to deal with that?"
"The only reason people see me as a savior or a hero is because I'm their hero. The one murdering their enemies in cold blood, and not them.
It'll be hard to deal with if I align myself with a kingdom or a race, so I'll be a neutral power that stands above the heavens." Cain smiled, "That means I'll protect the mortal world as a whole, I shouldn't care if it's evil demons or devils, religious people or farmers. As long as you're a resident of this world and have a problem with an outsider, I'll help you."
"Someone with your power and the ability to peep into people's minds, secrets, futures, and lives is horrifying to know exists, but as long as at our side, it should be fine." She started thinking.
Cain waved his hand, conjuring a tiny ball of blue magic. "I have a lot of work lined up for me. It's usually impossible to save everyone, but it shouldn't be impossible for an omnipotent god to achieve."
"How will you do it?"
"Like this…" As Cain smiled, the church was filled with copies of himself, and tens of clones all stared at Marina simultaneously. "Infinite clones. I have the mental capacity to control them all, and I'll be using them as avatars to fight the abominations that slipped across the world."
"This many Cains!" She gasped.
"They are all me. In fact, I see all that they see and feel everything. It's like a fly's mind seeing through hundreds of eyes. It's like me and Aria, we're the same person."
"Yeah, Albeit it's hard to control now." All the clones spoke at the same time and moved in the same way. It was painful to listen to the echoes of their voices.
Cain flicked his fingers and the clones disappeared, spreading across the world to every corner that he sensed an abomination in. And two of them got sent to Lucifer and Astaroth to inform them of the latest events.
"Let's go home, my clones will take care of any immediate threats. They might be considerably weaker than me, but they are enough." Cain smiled as he grabbed Marina's hand, teleporting with her to his mansion.
****
You can imagine the world as a massive sphere swimming in an endless void. AO is the will of that void that gave birth to the world. Inside the world sphere, we find multiple other spheres that contain the mortal realm, the abyss, the hells, and the other realms of existence, all flowing in the ethereal sea.
Like an egg that has two outside layers to its shell, you can't escape from the world without walking through the world gate that AO made, but there exists a vast and near-infinite realm between the outer shells called the land between layers.
To explain it better, the land between layers looks like the mortal world but is desolate and wasted due to eons of neglect. Where the ground should be, is the inner layer, and where the blue sky should be, is the outer layer, albeit the distance between them is thousands of times bigger.
Lucifer and Astaroth are fighting the abominations on this layer, trying to prevent them from entering into the ethereal realm. Like the immune system trying to prevent bacteria from seeping into the bloodstream through the skin and then invading the organs.
Lucifer is protecting the upper side of the land between layers, and Astaroth is protecting the lower half, albeit they are getting exhausted after countless battles in a place where air barely exists.
****
Lucifer flew back, his endless white and black wings covering miles over miles of the land, blotting the faint magical light emitted by the outer shell of the world above. "You never stop coming, like cockroaches." He growled, pointing a finger down, "Begone!"
From the tip of his fingers, a bright flash of brilliant light fell down with a roar, burning hordes of abominations in a single swoop. But, the archon of archons wasn't done, his worry didn't end yet as his eyes jolted around, looking for that vexing woman. For a while now, she's been slowly chipping away at his strength, using each opening possible to strike and weaken him.
SWOSH! Out of the ashes, a naked human woman flew at him, laughing as her strange blue hair sparkled with light. Even though she looked like a human, it was obvious at a glance, that she wasn't one.
An abomination taking the shape of a human, but on all levels, she wasn't something that should exist. A being that flips time and space as rules, she grows older by moving forward in space and moves freely through time. Taking her down was especially hard due to that, and with each touch, she forced Lucifer to grow older thousands of years by moving him around.
What was worse, is that as if time slowed down, he'd feel each second of those thousands of years passed on his body.
"Damn it!" Lucifer growled, flying away to dodge her attack, ^Even my magic gets older and fades upon touching her, that's why she's naked, she needs direct contact and would rather take any hit on her bare skin to age it.^
ZIP! As she got closer, she teleported right to Lucifer's face with a time shift, erasing time and accelerating herself further.
^I can't dodge, damn it, another hit…^ He wasn't a fan of spending several thousands of years motionless each time she touched him. Even though it was just instant aging and he was an immortal, it was still agonizing.
"You look nice." Thud! A hand caught the woman's fist and the two fighters froze in place. Cain flew between them, his body glowing with magic.
"Overgod!" Lucifer cried and the woman gasped, trying to age Cain as much as she could now that he was touching her, but it didn't seem to work.
"Why aren't you aging?!" She gasped.
"Hmm…" Cain stared at her, his eyes shifting to her breasts, "Probably since I'm the overgod and you're in my domain? An omnipotent god should be timeless, isn't that right?"
"No! Shut up!" She swung a kick at his face, but grabbed her by the neck, violently swinging her around before throwing her to the ground.
"What you're doing here? It's dangerous to put the king on the front lines!" Lucifer growled.
"Calm down, look at me for a second." Cain looked at him with a smile.
"Wait…a clone? So you're still safe down there," He sighed in relief, "Thank god, you aren't that stupid."
"I'm god, are you thanking me?"
"My God is AO, not you. I have my right to believe in whomever I want." Lucifer replied with a smile.
"That's fair. Go rest for a while, I'll deal with them now. I've sent a clone to Astaroth as well, so don't cut your break short to help him." Cain smiled.
"Got it." Lucifer was about to fly away, but Cain called him again.
"About Ereshkigal, Beelzebub. I'm taking her in, you don't have a problem, right?"
"Why would I care about that woman? We never saw face to face in the past thousands of years, take her away. She only tricked me into her emotional turmoil." Lucifer replied with a tired face. "I'm off now."
"You two!" The abomination woman screamed her lungs out, "Ignoring me like this!"
Lucifer ignored her and started flying away, and when she tried to give chase, she got stopped by Cain pinching her nipples. "Hmmmm, the time magic is faster when I touch you here."
She gasped, terrified at the fact she never saw him move.