Chapter 147: Adaptation

"F-Fuck, you’re a real freak..." A Little Goddess speaks in a pained voice as she takes a deep breath, being careful.

"Freak, huh...interesting concept, Little Goddess. Why do you think I’m a freak? I only punched you once, what a premature judgment." Typhon speaks in a calm tone. She arrived on the fourth floor a day ago.

However, unlike Nio and Nioh, who could barely find anyone, Typhon immediately ran into a "Little Goddess." The deities are divided into several levels because there are gods who are far too powerful to be called merely "Gods," such as Yggdrasil, Typhon with her original power, and Níeh?ggr Tiamat with her Original power.

As such, there are several sublevels, [Little God] is the lowest level at which a god begins.

[Little God] This is the beginning of a deity’s existence. They are normally above level 50, have low divine power, but immense potential for existential growth. They hold no titles and do not rule over any aspect of existence.

"As a follower of the deity who rules Chaos, I can’t just ignore the monster you are...I had to test you by attacking, but a single attack from you is enough for me to evaluate you, I’m not premature." The blonde-haired girl was the one who initiated the fight. She expected both of them to have similar levels of strength.

And although she was right about their power level, the difference in experience and abilities is monstrous.

"..." And the biggest difference is their fighting style. The Little Goddess is a mage like Nio, while Typhon is someone who fights in a mixed manner, and she is currently using a combined fighting style.

[Fist of Destruction + Fist of Annihilation] This is the combination of two attacks, where the left fist is covered in [Destruction] and the right fist is covered in [Annihilation]. Each punch from the left fist compresses the air, pulling in the atmosphere and destroying anything that gets hit, while each punch from the right fist corrodes the existence of everything it touches. If an area is struck by both fists within a 10-second interval, it creates a [Rift]. The Rift cracks everything that was struck, spreading the cracks throughout everything, whether air, atmosphere, space, flesh, or even magic.

This meant that Typhon’s very first punch completely damaged all of the Little Goddess’s defensive magic, shattering it as if it were nothing.

"...If you’re going to keep being so evasive, I’ll reserve the right to attack, Little Goddess." Typhon advances. Her left fist creates ripples in the air. The girl manages to dodge, but her face is pulled toward Typhon’s fist as if she were a magnet.

The attack makes the Little Goddess bleed, but before she can even retreat to use magic, Typhon’s right fist strikes her stomach. A hole immediately appears in the Little Goddess’s abdomen, and she retreats backward with a quick step.

"High-Level Magic: Ex-Tatic." The Little Goddess uses magic that stops time over an immense area, creating a bubble that separates what is outside from what is inside.

But Typhon’s fists are still moving. She punches the air repeatedly, causing time itself to gain cracks as if it were glass. The Little Goddess’s magic shatters as Typhon strikes her in the face with her left fist once again.

"Little Gods are so arrogant." Typhon steps on the Little Goddess’s chest, crushing her torso and making her spit blood.

"You are the scum of the scum among the deities. You’re neither gods nor mortals, you’re stuck on this fragile line trying to climb...potential means nothing compared to talent." Typhon finishes crushing the girl’s chest completely, even as she still tries to recite magic.

"..." A sphere of pure energy is fired at Typhon, but she deflects it to the side with two fingers. The worst-case scenario for Nio is happening.

Typhon is completely humiliating a being with the same level of strength as Nio, and not because Typhon has grown stronger, but because going through the second and third floors of Hell while her body was forced to continuously take damage from the magic she herself used, together with encountering a powerful enemy on the fourth floor, finally made her adapt to her current level of power.

Typhon didn’t have a good metric. For a being capable of erasing universes, having her power reduced to a level where she could barely destroy a country with a single attack simply messes up any sense of scale regarding power.

Typhon, however, is now understanding her physical and magical limits better, and just how far she can truly go. It’s not the most frightening adaptation of all, because it took her a considerable amount of time to learn her current limits.

But it also wasn’t slow, considering the only strong enemy she had fought was Nio, who had no experience.

"Magic...magic is beautiful, don’t you think, Little Goddess? Mortal beings who are born as physical beings cannot understand the true nature of magic." The Little Goddess uses another attack, but Typhon catches the magic with her hand, interacting with something that isn’t physical.

"Magic is just energy in the end, in a way...I think I’m rambling too much. Nio liked listening to me talk, I think." She grabs the Little Goddess by the throat.

’Only Nio can fight me, only she can entertain me, only she makes me feel emotions...’ Typhon thinks about Nio again. If Nio were the one fighting, she would have done something creative to escape her hands and would have fought in a very unique way.

"H-Hahaha, what will you do to me? Just because you’re a little strong, are you going to make me your slave or something? Know that I will always follow Chaos!! Chaos is my only master." The Little Goddess speaks arrogantly. As a follower of Chaos, she doesn’t care about losing, after all, she’s already in Hell.

"...Haaa...this is why Little Gods are so pathetic...Yggdrasil can’t protect you from me, Little Goddess. Let me explain something to you."

"The moment you became a being that touches the divine in some way, all of your protection disappeared. Do you know what that means? It means you can be permanently devoured by me."

"...?" The girl doesn’t understand, and Typhon sees no reason to explain. Typhon simply opens her jaw in a disturbing manner, placing the girl’s head completely inside her mouth. She begins pushing her inward, swallowing her completely.

"..." The difference between gods and mortals is simple. A God escapes some of Yggdrasil’s rules, which means a god’s soul in Hell has no guaranteed protection against the divine spaces of other beings.

This means that Typhon indeed cannot kill a God in Hell, but if Typhon devours a god, it leaves the divine space that is Hell and enters the divine space that is Typhon’s body. This means that any god devoured by Typhon in Hell dies permanently, regardless of the immortality granted by Hell.

All of this is thanks to Typhon’s special class [World-Devouring Beast], the same one she used to permanently damage Nio’s weapon.

"If you were a mere mortal, the fact that I devoured you wouldn’t kill you...that’s why I never let Nio become a Little God in the past. Little Gods are full of disadvantages without having any advantages, and they even lose their protection against divine scenarios. It’s much better to skip this low level..." She murmurs, thinking about Nio as she begins walking through the fourth floor.

Divine Scenarios are anything that is born from the creation of a God and has the rules defined by that god. Hell is a Divine Scenario created by Yggdrasil, and Typhon’s stomach is also a divine space because Typhon’s body was built by her rather than being something she was born with.

’I can smell those two...they’re on this floor...’ Typhon smiles as she begins flying low, but calmly, going after her wives.