Having gods as subordinates definitely came with perks.
Wherever Damien went, they went too.
If the pair spotted a Heretic God lurking in the Netherworld, they could try forcing it out into the material world. Even if they came up empty, it didn't matter. Summoning one on the physical plane that matched its divine realm in the Netherworld would always be smoother and more reliable than picking some random spot.
"Ahem!"
"Though I hate to admit it…"
Damien asked, "Which way is Egypt?"
Violet: "..."
Testarossa: "..."
Diablo: "As expected of Lord Damien!"
"Really laying it on thick, huh?!"
The two women's deadpan jabs instantly torpedoed Diablo's attempt to salvage his lord's dignity.
Damien didn't mind at all. He had no problem letting his subordinates see his less-than-perfect side. This wasn't some public setting, after all. In private, it actually helped close the distance and made him seem more approachable.
Besides, it was precisely because he wasn't some flawless, all-powerful leader that Diablo and the others had a real purpose—pouring everything they had into supporting and assisting him. Otherwise, they would have felt completely superfluous.
"Let me guide the way for you, Lord Damien," Diablo offered, still trying to preserve his master's image.
In his eyes, Damien would always be the infallible sovereign who orchestrated everything from behind the scenes. No matter what happened, his perfect-lord filter for Damien was never coming off.
"Is it this direction?"
Damien locked onto the bearing, then launched himself forward in a powerful leap. A sonic boom cracked the air as he streaked toward the distant horizon. "We've got about a month. Before then, we'll claim the Egyptian pantheon as well!"
He skipped airplanes or any conventional transport. Relying on a Campione's superhuman physique and the Lost Atlantis Authority Diablo had seized from Poseidon, he commanded the storms directly and flew straight for Egypt.
The journey gave him the perfect chance to get familiar with his newly acquired Authorities while on the move.
Including the one taken from Zeus—In the Name of the Father—he now had five in total. Each would need time and practice before he could truly unlock its full potential.
In this world he couldn't tap into his Void God powers, and Violet couldn't fuse with him to enter that omniscient, omnipotent state. Here, Damien had to rely on himself alone.
"Both can control storms, but In the Name of the Father feels a little less fluid than Lost Atlantis."
"Still, its upper limit is definitely higher."
While flying, he experimented with manipulating storms using In the Name of the Father and compared the two directly.
If he thought of them as skills, the mana cost told the story: for the same output, Lost Atlantis might cost ten units while In the Name of the Father only needed five—or even four. Roughly half the consumption.
The trade-off was complexity. Lost Atlantis responded like an extension of his will—wind and rain at a thought. In the Name of the Father required issuing actual commands to the sky first.
It was like the difference between activating a skill from a hotbar versus manually chaining combos in a game. Lost Atlantis was noticeably faster—sometimes by a wide margin. What took one second with Atlantis could easily take two or three with In the Name of the Father.
"Half the cost, but two or three times slower to cast."
Damien wasn't sure whether that counted as a good deal.
In a fight against another Campione or a Heretic God, that delay would be a serious disadvantage.
On the flip side, if nothing interrupted him, his previous limit might have been leveling one country. With the reduced consumption of In the Name of the Father, he could spend a little extra time and take out two—or even three or four.
That was why he said its ceiling was higher than Lost Atlantis.
And the most important point: its range far surpassed Lost Atlantis.
Lost Atlantis could summon storms, tsunamis, or earthquakes.
In the Name of the Father could do all that and more—call down meteors, unleash lightning, blight the earth, invert day and night.
Theoretically, it could replicate nearly any Authority he had ever witnessed.
"Like some kind of universal mimic Authority?"
The only catch was the manual input versus instant activation.
"Still, casting speed seems tied to proficiency."
It wasn't fixed. As Damien switched up his flight methods along the way, his efficiency simulating Lost Atlantis with In the Name of the Father improved noticeably—from three seconds down to about 2.8.
Don't underestimate that tiny 0.2-second improvement. It meant there was still room to grow.
If he maxed out the proficiency, who was to say he couldn't fire off a devastating technique in half a second?
"Damn," Damien thought with a chuckle. "It really is the difference between a newbie spamming hotkeys and a pro pulling off manual combos."
The more he studied In the Name of the Father, the deeper his understanding grew. Raising proficiency was development in itself.
"The more Authorities I encounter, the broader the range I can simulate."
"With enough practice, the copied effects could even surpass the originals."
Of course, it wasn't truly all-powerful. Things like summoning divine beasts or creating special arenas were beyond it. It leaned more toward laws, concepts, and transformations.
"Next…"
Once he had a solid grasp on In the Name of the Father and had grown accustomed to Lost Atlantis, Damien turned his attention to the remaining three Authorities.
Hell's Path wasn't easy to test under the current circumstances.
The two newest ones, however, were worth trying.
One thing to note: turning Little Black and Little White into subordinate gods didn't mean Damien had lost the chance to usurp Authorities from Lucifer and Lilith.
It was more like fusing each Authority with one of the two Primordials.