Chapter 578: The Descent of Divine Plagues (III)
The power of the Holy Light domain swiftly eliminated the two ugly Killing Corpse Demons. Although the Worm Mage was far stronger, he immediately created a gray domain sphere to protect himself the moment the Holy Light and Flame appeared.
Unfortunately, even his legendary-level Evil Illusion domain could not withstand a demi-god-level divine domain for long. It was quickly suppressed to a size of just a few feet around him, its surface covered by the Holy Flame. Once his domain was broken, destruction awaited the Worm Mage.
The Worm Mage was both lucky and unlucky. Knowing that his master needed the intact bodies of these invading void monsters, Uther did not destroy him right away but instead trapped him with the Holy Flame and moved him outside the Divine Kingdom.
“Well done. Leave the rest to me!”
At that moment, Donald’s Punishment avatar stepped forward, snatched away the Holy Flame sphere trapping the Worm Mage, and imprisoned him in the Land of Truth. Although the Worm Mage wasn’t as troublesome as the Void Slime Toad, he was still a highly sinister creature. If even one of them escaped, they could revive again, so it was safer to keep them imprisoned in the Land of Truth.
With all three monsters dealt with, the other two, regardless of their intelligence, realized the situation was dire and wanted to retreat. However, hindered by their opponent, they couldn’t escape right away.
By then, the swarm of void creatures that had been following the five powerful monsters finally arrived. With limited intelligence, they immediately divided into several groups to attack the beings outside the Divine Kingdom, while the rest scattered toward the Divine Kingdom in hopes of feasting inside.
“Are these Void Beetles?” Donald asked the Goddess of Agriculture, observing the invading creatures.
The plump goddess smiled and nodded. “Exactly! They’re part of the Lamia swarm. You’re really lucky, Donald!”
Lamias, also known as Void Beetle Monsters, were extremely troublesome void creatures, but their value was almost on par with legendary void monsters. They were among the favorite prey of lower gods. For beings below demi-gods, these Void Beetle swarms posed a deadly threat, but for those above demi-gods, dealing with them was merely troublesome rather than dangerous!
It resembles a worm mage in appearance, but a Lamia is composed of a group of living Void Beetles, rather than a swarm of worms controlled by dead evil souls.
Each Lamia colony has a single beetle leader with independent will, known as the Controller. The other beetles are mere soldiers with instincts but no self-awareness, following orders from above.
An individual Lamia beetle typically only has silver-level strength, easily defeated by a bronze-level mortal swordsman. However, the terrifying aspect of these creatures lies in their collective body, which can achieve legendary or even greater strength—the more beetles there are, the stronger they become.
Moreover, such a combined body is extremely difficult to kill outright, as opponents generally cannot distinguish which beetle among the swarm is the intelligent Lamia Controller. Only by killing the Controller can this monstrous entity be completely destroyed.
Otherwise, even if part of their body is lost, they can reassemble themselves. Additionally, every creature killed generates numerous new beetles from its corpse, resulting in an incredibly fast reproduction rate!
Although the process is complicated—only a god-tier being’s divine vision can identify the intelligent Controller among billions of beetles—other abilities like normal vision or divination spells cannot detect it.
The Lamia colony before them was extraordinarily powerful. With tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of beetles forming a massive combined entity, it exuded half-god-level strength!
Donald didn’t intend to go through the hassle of using divine vision to observe each one and determine the Controller’s location. He had a simpler method.
Before the Avatar of Divine Punishment arrived at the Lamia swarm, the divine light of the Book of Truth covered the entire group. The Book of Truth’s computing speed and analytical capabilities could rival those of an upper god. As a divine artifact, it was also unrestricted by divine status and could operate as long as divine power was supplied.
In just a few breaths, Donald located the Controller among the billions of Void Beetles. During this short time, the monster formed by the Lamia colony hadn’t even managed to break through Donald’s divine force shield!
“That’s you!”
As he spoke, Donald swiftly thrust his Spear of Natural Wrath forward. A green glow lightly touched one of the ordinary beetles in the swarm.
The power of the Light of Damnation instantly turned that void beetle, which looked exactly like an ordinary beetle, green. No matter how it tried to hide among its peers, it stood out like a swan among ducks. Next, the incarnation of Damnation punched, creating a large hole in the combined body of the Lamia colony. With a single grab, it seized that unusual beetle in its hand. When the leader was captured, countless void beetles let out screeching cries and rushed at Donald. The divine light confined the beetle in his hand, and Donald said coldly, “I know you can understand me. Stop your minions from attacking, or I’ll crush half of your body!” Without the protection of its colony, the controller was just an ordinary silver-level beetle. Unable to resist the power of a true god and threatened by Donald, it could only emit a pitiful cry. With that cry, the beetle swarm that had been charging fiercely stopped immediately and formed a dense sphere not far from Donald, waiting for their leader’s next orders. Donald then smiled in satisfaction and said, “Very good! Now, have your minions follow me!” With that, his incarnation of Damnation carried the Lamia controller in one hand, followed by the swarm of void beetles gathering like snakes, all entering the barrier of the Divine Kingdom. Once inside the Divine Kingdom, the void beetle swarm, without a controller’s command, was quickly confined by Donald using the rules of the Divine Kingdom. Without a leader, these beetles could hardly cause any damage. As for the Lamia controller, which interested Donald more, it was sent separately to the core of the Divine Kingdom to be studied by his true form. After returning outside the Divine Kingdom, the Destroyer Sand Beetle had already been subdued by Ciri. Aside from its consciousness remaining, this semi-earthy elemental creature, which contained vast amounts of water-elemental power, had become nothing but a flesh bag, finding it difficult even to move. However, the God of Adventure and Navigation, who had completed his mission, was also extremely tired, having expended at least 60% of his divine power. After all, the massive size of those legendary void creatures and their strength comparable to that of semi-gods were no easy opponents. While Donald dealt with the Destroyer Sand Beetle, Amps had also defeated his opponent. After some testing, this Abyssal Demon Forger finally succeeded in cutting off the three spikes on the Soul Piercing Prison Demon and the souls attached to them.
The sub-divine sword, the Demon-Slaying Sword, exerted its powerful capabilities by directly absorbing that portion of soul energy, causing the Soul-Piercing Prisoner Demon to lose three souls. With only two souls remaining, its power dropped to the mid-legendary level. It turned out that the souls controlled by the Soul-Piercing Prisoner Demon were its source of additional strength—by accumulating the souls of powerful opponents, it was able to wield semi-divine power even at the legendary level. Losing the souls on its spikes meant losing most of its strength, naturally leading to a decline in its power.
“Die!” The semi-divine demon swung the Demon-Slaying Sword, cutting off the last two spikes still attached to souls. The Soul-Piercing Prisoner Demon, now reduced to legendary strength, could no longer contend with Amps, who wielded a sub-divine weapon, and was easily restrained. Seeing the battle over, Donald’s avatar flashed over to clean up the battlefield. Not only did it take the Soul-Piercing Prisoner Demon itself, but it also collected the severed spikes, which were extremely valuable materials for crafting divine artifacts related to souls!
“The battle isn’t over yet. Go rest and regain your strength! There’s another tough fight ahead!” As soon as Donald finished speaking, he disappeared from Amps’ sight, ignoring the semi-divine demon’s astonishment.
Because before the five great void monsters and the large group of Lamia creatures could be dealt with, an even more powerful presence was approaching from afar toward the divine kingdom. The lowest among them was still at the semi-divine level, and there was even one with a powerful presence on par with that of a lower god.
“Something’s not right! Normally, unless the outer barrier is breached, we’d face at most a few legendary void creatures. How can such incidents keep happening?” said the Goddess of Agriculture, quite concerned.
The Goddess of Magic, Euryana, sneered and said, “Of course it’s not right. Donald showed tremendous potential during his rise to the throne. It seems some entities are getting restless!”
“You mean someone is deliberately luring these powerful creatures here?” Elaine asked, her expression dark.
At these words, everyone present paled. Even the Elven Goddesses of Moonlight and Night, Lauren, though silent, showed a cold look in their eyes.
Euryana nodded. “They’re very stealthy. Even when I used my true form to investigate, I couldn’t find any clues. But with us here, their attempts will only cause Donald some trouble—they won’t pose a real threat!”
Even though she said so, this powerful goddess didn’t really think that way. As one of the most mighty supreme deities, she had descended in person to protect her allies and maintain their thrones. Yet there were still true gods who dared to plot in secret—this showed that either they lacked the confidence to confront her or they simply didn’t respect Euryana. The magic goddess kept this in mind. If Donald had known this goddess would think in such terms, he would have felt honored while also realizing why there used to be a saying in his past life: It’s better to offend a scoundrel than a woman! Even goddesses can hold grudges, and those who caught this powerful goddess’s attention had better be careful!