Chapter 2337: The End of a Battle

"That was close." Doma growled as she waved her hands, flicking her fingers as threads of curses spread through the darkness, setting a titanic spiderweb that tracked the movements of every speck of Arad’s influence.

Asmodeus fueled her with as much cursed magic as she needed, and she even helped keep the Head Priestess’s mind stable as they extracted her from Arad. That was right; by the time they realized it, Arad already had control over 80% of the Head Priestess’s mind.

But there was one thing that they came to realize far too late. Arad’s brain wasn’t structured like it should’ve been; something was wrong with it, and the folds of his mind weren’t just restricted to reality.

Doma was the first to notice it, and that made her shiver. His mind was now calculating thoughts in both past and future at the same time as present, and he did that over many physical dimensions.

Every move she makes to confine him ends up being read or predicted in advance, and sometimes she even feels like he is changing the near past to suit his will. Doma quickly analyzed that and learned that Arad isn’t changing the past, but since he thinks in the past, present, and future, his future thoughts can influence his past and cause him to move unpredictably.

Then there was space, which was far easier to understand. Unlike a regular living brain and nervous system, Arad’s one isn’t built of flesh, but of folded space. Thoughts don’t travel from one neuron to another as chemical signals; they simply teleport and quantum tunnel through space itself to do all of the calculations and thinking his mind needs. That had resulted in a horrifying increase in his thinking speed and volume.

While trying to chain and banish his mind back to his hibernating body, Doma could only struggle like a spinning tire in mud, barely able to keep up with Arad’s ever-accelerating thoughts. Her black tendrils were ripped, came short, or outright missed him as if they were blind and drunk.

But if it ended at that, it would’ve still been manageable. But it seems that with his nervous system evolving, so did his senses. On top of the regular seven senses (Sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste, magic, and soul) Arad seemed to have gained two more. One that allowed him to sense time and space directly instead of perceiving through magic, and one that allowed him to sense fate. Doma noticed the last one since Arad seemed to be more aware of Asmodeus than her, who was fateless.

So even though she was trying to just capture his mind, she found herself feeling more stressed about it than fighting the Queen of Hell. "ARAD!" She shouted with a large grin on her face. "It’s been centuries! Hundreds of years since someone pushed me this hard!"

She flew toward him like a bullet, swinging her army toward his titanic and shadowy body. He dodged to the side like a ghost, and then quickly evaded the thousands of black tendrils of curses. He was fast, but Doma was also quickly on her feet. "Then let’s play! I’m it!" She started running after him at increasing speed, trying to at least touch him, but no matter how fast or clever she tried to be, Arad was always a few steps ahead of her.

If he carried a weapon, no, if he only fought back, she would’ve already been beaten to a pulp, which is a feat that even Asmodeus didn’t manage.

Seeing that Doma wasn’t making any progress, Asmodeus lifted her hand, aimed at Arad, and tried to create an opening for Doma to strike. She gathered her magic, took her time, and when she got the chance, she fired.

But her spell didn’t go anywhere. It just evaporated, and Arad was already standing in front of her face. "BEGONE!" One word was enough to disintegrate her from the Head Priestess’s mind and banish her back to her body.

As Doma saw that, she quickly processed that Arad didn’t just banish Asmodeus out; he decoupled her existence from this instance. The only reason he was able to do that inside the Head Priestess’s head was that she had now become an Archangel like Baal, able to process and carry his own power and will. What he just did wasn’t any different from a god banishing a monster that invaded the mind of one of their angels.

"Wait! I needed her! How am I supposed to get my info?" She cried, and Arad slowly turned around. "You mean this?" He conjured a small ball of compressed thoughts and sent it to Doma. "Wait, you can talk?"

"Of course. The Baron is done, and while I wasn’t able to harvest the information directly, as her mind is linked with billions of brains, I was able to find the location of the library where a few useful books might be." He scratched the back of his head. "But check after me, since I’m not sure if that info is true or if she was feeding me fake thoughts."

The moment Hell got the Baron taken care of, it retracted its will, and Arad’s thoughts cleared again, resulting in him regaining control of the Head Priestess’s body. "I’ll check. But since I’m talking with you, I’ll ask. How is your hibernation going?"

"Both great and wrong. I’m not evolving into a regular Mature Adult Void Dragon. I’m becoming an Abominable Mature Adult Void Dragon. I know it’s a mouthful, but that’s the simplest way of referring to it. My Pricolici blood is mixing with eldritch magic and turning into something that shouldn’t exist. I would expect to come out more similar to Nyar than anyone else in the universe."

His body was already fading into nothing. "I have to go now. She can’t handle me inside her any longer."

Hearing that, Doma giggled. "Not many can handle you inside them." And she disappeared as well, a second after him.

Back in Hell, the Head Priestess gasped for air as she woke up in the Temple of Treachery’s infirmary. Her entire body hurt, her mind was foggy, and all she could remember was Doma and Asmodeus fighting inside her mind. A second later, she remembered Arad and cried, sitting up with enough force to shake the entire temple and send a wave of divine magic pulsing over the entire layer.

"Calm down, you’re alive and fine." A voice spoke beside her, and when she turned, she could see Asmodeus sitting there, looking at her with a tired face. "Also, keep the divine magic in check, as it burns devils. I’m pretty sure a few imps got snuffed out from that pulse you just set off."

"Lady Asmodeus..." She gasped and rubbed her eyes. "What happened?"

"I’ve solved everything. You only need to rest now. You’ve been purified back into an angel." She pointed at her, and when she looked at her own body, she gasped. Her red skin had turned pale, and her hair had become white; she had even grown ten pale white wings.

"Hell used the Emperor of Nothing’s soul as a funnel to suck all of the cursed magic out of your body and fill it with divine magic. You should still be able to use cursed magic if you focus hard enough." The Head Priestess’s eyes slowly moved and glared right back at Asmodeus as her divine magic started spiking. "That’s OUR LORD. Hell might’ve used his power, but I still turned like this."

"Like all Archangels." Asmodeus smiled. "But before you go, give me back the Seal of the Temple so I can assign a new Head Priestess. Take care of Haru and Sara while you’re there."