Chapter 259: The Corruption War

Among the final preparations that needed to be made, were certain protocols that had to be followed.

The Artificer would help us find worlds suffering from Corruption and we would make our way to them in order to fight it. 

I was given clearance to use world siphon on worlds that couldn't be saved, or were sealed. Despite this, I planned to use it at my leisure.

Apparently, the Cursebreaker could pass the barriers around sealed worlds due to the nature of the power source it ran on.

I was given permission to destroy these sealed worlds as a means of boosting our power.

Not that I needed permission, that is...

Next, we had a series of codes for determining the severity of infection as well as our course of action.

The political state of affairs in these worlds were completely irrelevant to us. If they were perpetually at war, we would treat it the same as if it were at peace.

Code Green: Situation normal. The world is inhabitable and contains no Corruption. Course of action: Ignore it.

Code Yellow: slight danger. The world is inhabitable, but also marked by the presence of a Demon Royal or Noble. The world contains no Corruption. Course of action: Depending on the severity of the situation, the world may be siphoned.

Code Red: high danger. The world has been infected by the Corruption. Course of action: Immediate destruction of the False Source. In severe circumstances, the world will be siphoned.

Code Purple: Very high danger. The Corruption has somehow managed to infect a world to its very core. Course of action: siphon immediately.

Code Gray: Varying levels of danger. The world does not contain Corruption, but is completely uninhabitable due to some other circumstance. This applies to sealed worlds or worlds completely dominated by Demon Royals or Lords. Course of action: the world will be siphoned.

Code Black: Extreme danger. The world, regardless of its current state has been invaded by Difar, himself, along with Valtheim. This is the worst-case scenario. Course of action: the world will immediately be siphoned and departed from as soon as possible.

Since I was still lacking the necessary power to actually kill Difar, I knew that many innocents would have to be sacrificed for the greater good.

I had abandoned my humanity to accomplish this goal.

Lastly, I was also informed of the phenomenon of hero summoning. I was instructed not to tamper with their work if at all possible. 

But if killing a Demon Royal or saving the world for the hero was necessary, then doing so was recommended. 

Heroes were individuals summoned from 'Earth Realms'. Special worlds of no real significance that the Creator personally cherished and looked after. 

Once allowed, souls of the departed from those worlds or even the living in certain cases would be transferred over. They could either be born with their memories intact or simply dropped off. Usually a god would have to give them a run-down of their job before letting them loose, but they always received some kind of special power needed to defeat their foe or save the world some other way. They rarely succeeded.

I knew I was likely to have to kill a few heroes sometime in the future. Primarily because the Cursebreaker would be seen as both an invading force and an imminent threat to most.

We would fight with everything we had to save all of creation from this threat. To ensure that no one else would have to suffer as we did. 

And finally...

With everything settled and ready, we departed Excelsis to declare war upon the Corruption.

* * *

And so began The Corruption War. A war with a battlefield that would span the entirety of creation.

The goal was to destroy any unneeded or lost worlds with the intention of increasing our power. All of this was in order to kill Difar.

While at the same time, we would be denying him as many habitable worlds as possible.

The Artificer directed us to the first world where we would be stopping at. It was a world called Faldorvis.

We had come up with a system that would allow him to communicate with us and pass along information on infected worlds.

There were a lot of them, currently, so we needed to catch up.

Once the infected worlds were either saved or destroyed, we could focus on normal and sealed worlds.

Since non-magic worlds had incredibly low-density animus barriers, they were more of a liability. A successful infection could be performed in days or weeks, depending.

We would try to save them if possible, but I was prepared to destroy a lot of them.

The Cursebreaker passed effortlessly through the Animus barrier of Faldorvis as I contemplated the possibility of our failure.

Immediately, I could see a contamination zone.

"We have a code red. Faldorvis is infected. Let's get a reading on the integrity of this world's animus barrier and after that, we can find the Source," I said.

"You're so commanding, darling! We'll follow you everywhere!" Cassandra said.

It was just a simple order... How commanding was it...?

"I will stand at your front to ensure your protection, my love. We will do whatever means necessary to stop the Corruption," Isabella said.

"If that happens to include destroying this world, I'm game for it. I don't want to be here any longer than necessary."

"Of course, your Majesty! Now...how shall we deal with this contamination zone?" Cassandra said.

"You, me, and Isabella. We'll take care of it and I'll use my magic to locate the Source. Let's get started."

"Yes!" The two girls said in unison.

* * *

For a while, no one said a word about this world. But we all knew.

This was a test. A way of telling if we could actually fight back and win.

At first, the people of Faldorvis were confused as to how our ship operated. They didn't want to listen to us, but once I showed them my power, they changed their tune. I killed thousands.

They thought we were gods who had come to rescue them.

That was fine. They were free to believe that if they wanted and this would be a benefit to our operation.

Some still tried to resist, but we dealt swiftly with them.

We quickly located Cain and slew him just as we did on Delvandal. But this time, the battle went much more smoothly.

And as soon as Valtheim appeared to take his crystal...

"Valtheim," I said.

She turned to me.

"Tell Difar that we're declaring war on the Corruption."

"..."

She simply took the crystal and disappeared.

After that, we repaired the animus barrier and went on our way.

This would be the first of many battles to come.

* * *

During the month we spent in that world, all of the Conquerors managed to unlock their Aspects with the aid of Masina's divine energy experiments. 

She had also received permanent full and unrestricted access to her supreme form.

As far as I was concerned, the Conquerors far outclassed both of the Overlords and Enforcers.

Even if some of them had similar Aspects to the Overlords, I didn't mind. They were far stronger as an entire unit.

In the spirit of Iris, I couldn't resist giving them code names.

They were as followed...

Conqueror Seat 1: Stella Iratus.

Squad 1 Commander, wielder of Faith.

Advanced Aspect: Gravity

Ultra Aspect: The Seraph

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Gravity Seraph

Conqueror Seat 2: Sato Iratus.

Squad 2 Commander.

Advanced Aspect: Particle Acceleration

Ultra Aspect: The Ranger

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Blast Ranger

Conqueror Seat 3: Mikoto Iratus

Squad 1, Position 9.

Elemental Aspect: Darkness

Ultra Aspect: The Dryad

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Shadow Dryad

Conqueror Seat 4: Nemari Iratus

Squad 1, Position 7.

Elemental Aspect: Earth

Advanced Aspect: Psychokinesis

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Stonecrusher

Conqueror Seat 5: Gin Iratus

Squad 2, Position 8.

Elemental Aspect: Ice

Advanced Aspect: Barriers

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Frost Aegis

Conqueror Seat 6: Takeru Iratus

Squad 2, Position 6.

Elemental Aspect: Light

Advanced Aspect: Teleportation

Ultra Aspect: The Ascendant

Code Name: Ascendant Brilliant Flash

I was more than satisfied with their Aspects.

These Conquerors would serve as a counter to the Corrupted Generals.

I planned to give them any Deus Arms we found to further increase their strength. It went without saying that I still needed to find them.

Next, the Attendants had also awakened. They possessed one normal Aspect as well as The Ascendant.

The heart soldier Attendants possessed a wide array of very potent Aspects. Some of them had terrifying power and some even resembled the Enforcers and Overlords.

This led me to believe that there were only so many powers that could be possessed in total. The number of actual abilities wasn't infinite, it seems.

Still, their Aspect potency wasn't lacking even if they were Attendants. This was because of their naturally high compatibility as well as all of them possessing The Ascendant.

I chose not to modify their troop positions on the reasoning that it was irrelevant. Their positions were in place not because of any hierarchy, but because it was the order in which they were enlisted. 

The exceptions to this rule were the first positions. Stella and Sato. They were the leaders of their respective squads. Everyone else possessed a position inferior to those two, but on the same level as their peers.

Because of this, I made no attempts to move anyone around.

The Attendants were as followed...

Squad 1

P2: Nagisa, Attendant, Advanced: Plasma

P3: Soire, Attendant, Elemental: Water

P4: Edel, Attendant, Elemental: Electricity

P5: Mina, Attendant, Advanced: Body Hardening

P6: Astarte, Attendant, Elemental: Wind

P8: Olivia, Attendant, Advanced: Gravity

P10: Claire, Attendant, Advanced: Sunlight

Squad 2

P2: Brian, Attendant, Elemental: Fire

P3: Logan, Attendant, Advanced: Kinetic Energy

P5: Risaad, Attendant, Advanced: Decay

P6: Joshua, Attendant, Elemental: Poison

P7: Sung Lo, Attendant, Elemental: Darkness

P9: Vald, Attendant, Advanced: Explosions

P10: Daniel, Attendant, Advanced: Radiation

Logan, in particular possessed the same Aspect that made Jallah so lethal in battle. I was overjoyed to see it.

He assured me that it would be easy to limit collateral damage with training from Jallah. I wholeheartedly agreed.

And with that...we began to wage war across creation.