“Who goes there?!”

A blonde man covered in heavy armor shouted. He was Paul Ashburn, 6th among the 12 Gods, and titled the Shield God.

When he turned around and saw the strange man who stood at his back, his aura flared. “Hmph! You must be the beast releasing that fowl aura! I shall defeat you today! For humanity!”

Paul held his shield in front of his body and charged at the strange man. His earthy golden mana raged around his shield as he did so.

Looking at the man currently attacking him, Damien rolled his eyes. When Paul approached close enough…

Pah!

A crisp slap across his face left him barreling into the desert below, his life or death unknown.

Damien sighed. To deal with these brats, a single slap would be enough. But he knew how earthlings worked. They wouldn’t be able to accept their defeat if he didn’t take the “bigger is better” approach.

‘I have to be careful not to break Earth. Although my attack force isn’t at a planetary level yet, the atmosphere here is weak. If I cause too much commotion, I’ll practically set the world up for extinction.’

Damien shook his head in remorse. It was a shame having to limit himself, but it wasn’t like it would make any difference either way.

Rumble!

Fierce thunderclouds gathered in the sky before the 11 remaining Gods could even process the fate of their fallen comrade.

The clouds swirled chaotically, forming a massive natural disaster that covered the entirety of the desert,

Boom!

A thick bolt of black lightning struck the ground, causing hundreds of meters of the desert below to explode. And as if that one attack wasn’t enough, countless bolts of lightning snaked through the chaotic clouds, waiting for their chance to strike.

The 11 remaining gods fell out of the sky one by one. The terrifying pressure of the storm wasn’t something they could handle, regardless of how firm their will was.

Damien descended calmly along with them, watching their struggle in scorn.

“W-who are you?” The old man questioned through gritted teeth.

Damien raised his brow. “Oh? You actually have the balls to talk right now? It looks like at least one of you has some potential.”

The 10 remaining gods gritted their teeth in indignation, but they couldn’t say anything back. Quite literally.

“You know, I came back here after so many years without much expectation for Earth’s growth. I have to say that this world has exceeded my expectations by a landslide.” Damien spoke.

“But what of it? The twelve of you actually dare call yourself gods? With the little power you have? Even a 4th class could squash the lot of you with a single finger, let alone a god.

“Considering how the people of this world have embraced space exploration, I’m sure the twelve of you are already aware that there are higher and better worlds out there, filled with strong opponents and fortuitous encounters to help you grow stronger. Yet, you actually ignored that opportunity and got comfy on Earth instead? Pathetic.”

Damien spit to the side to emphasize his point, but it wasn’t needed at all. The unadulterated scorn and disdain in his gaze were enough to cause them endless humiliation.

“Tch, I wasted time satisfying my anger. Listen up, you dip**s. I don’t think I’ll be back here for a while once I finish my business, so I need some good slaves to run the shop for me while I’m gone.”

Damien’s mouth curved into a devilish grin. His words sent a shudder down the collective spines of the 11 gods.

“You interested?”

***

p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、 A week passed since Damien’s scuffle with the 12 Gods. However, the 12 Gods were no more.

They were now termed the 12 Zodiacs for convenience’s sake. And because he was a defensive expert to begin with, the Zodiac named Paul didn’t end up dying from Damien’s strike, leaving the number a perfect fit.

Even though it was only a week, it was an extremely busy week. Not only for Damien, but for everyone who was participating in the purge operations he started.

On Earth, Damien stood at the peak of Mount Everest, thousands of bodies lining his climb. He looked down on the world from above and spoke.

“Only a few tens of thousands left. I’m lucky that this planet is so small.”

Compared to the sizes of Apeiron and the Cloud Plane, Earth was a baby. Damien’s awareness had become so powerful already that covering ten thousand miles in his detection range wasn’t a problem anymore.

And with the size of Earth? His awareness covered close to half of the world’s surface if he stretched it.

Due to this, finding large dens of traitors wasn’t hard at all. The problem was finding individuals within the mass of information he received when he spread his awareness so thinly.

‘It’ll take a while just tracking them all down, but killing them is easy. I should be able to finish in time.’

With that thought, Damien disappeared, heading to the next snake den to continue his slaughter.

The situation on Apeiron was different. Although they weren’t struggling per se, they were having a far harder time than Damien.

Whether it be number of traitors or power level, it was all greater on Apeiron.

At the forefront of the battle stood Damien’s three wives. Compared to what they originally expected, they were gaining far more from Apeiron.

The number of 3rd class traitors far outstripped the number of 3rd class members of the subjugation force. Because of that, the three women were able to practically monopolize the experience from those powerful enemies.

Their levels were rising far faster than they expected, and completion of Apeiron’s purge didn’t seem like it’d take more than 2 more months at most.

And when it was finished, they could return to the Cloud Plane and grind even more levels, becoming as powerful as they could before the Niflheim operation.

However, if one wanted to know which situation was the most chaotic, it was undoubtedly the Cloud Plane’s.

It simply wasn’t possible to keep all information about the purge under wraps for long. It was too large scale of an operation.

And once rumors spread, Tian Yang and Shangguan Yu were forced to withdraw from the battlefield to deal with the public. This did a number on the subjugation force’s efficiency during battle.

Even though they still had enough battle power to slaughter the enemy, Shangguan Yu’s formations and Tian Yang’s spatial awareness were key to their rapid movement.

Now that it was gone, clearing the remaining continents would take far longer, perhaps even until the end of the deadline that had been set.

Sector 3 was in a state of preparation. Whether it be the Cloud Plane and the other worlds Damien already visited, or the powerful worlds in Sector 3 that he didn’t know of yet, all of them were aware of the rapidly changing times.

The forces of the Cloud Plane already sounded the horn. With 5 months remaining until a large-scale war broke out to decide the fate of the Sector, there was no time to laze around.

And in this fervent atmosphere, another 2 months quickly passed.