Oceanus activated a form of water magic to instantly trap Remuel in running water. Remuel looked around as he activated [Amalgam of Destiny] to analyze the running water. He then struck the core of the magic and dispelled it with ease. "Playing the same tricks on me twice is stupid." Just as he ended the sentence, he instantly moved behind Oceanus mid swing of his scythe. Oceanus had to dodge by dashing forward but Remuel stopped his swing midway to fire a slug bullet, effectively hitting him. "Ghh!" Oceanus turned around as he began to notice that he was healing quite rapidly. "Thetis huh... I thought the plan was to spread out for maximum damage possible." The young woman who flew behind Oceanus sighed as she quickly restored Oceanus to his original state. "It's true that we want to maximize the damage to the central continent. But to damage it means we have to do it through the archons." While the two were chatting, Remuel didn't waste a single moment as he surrounded both of them in a giant ball of fire. "[Evaporate]!" He shrunk the ball of fire and engulfed the two council members. After doing so, he flew up sky-high to hide himself for a quick moment. Since he cannot stay occupied against the two council members for far too long, he had to use extreme bombardment magic. He summoned a large boulder and engulfed it on fire completely. He then launched it towards the marching army of knights.
Just as the meteor was starting to fall, Remuel moved below the meteor to prevent it from getting destroyed. Water pillars started to come up to destroy the boulder but he was dispersing the magic in rapid succession while keeping up with the fall. "Pitiful!" Just as the boulder was almost to the ground, Remuel left the range of impact and attacked Oceanus and the lady next to him with his scythe. His attack was blocked by a barrier of water that added an extreme force of resistance like a water current. "Thanks Thetis! [Death Trap]!" In that split second, Oceanus materialized water all around the three of them, trapping Remuel within the sphere with them. But just as they thought of their victory, Remuel had other ideas revealed with a smile. "[Fog of Famine]" They were instantly surrounded by navy blue fog that Remuel had brought out. In that timing, Remuel's presence disappeared.
Oceanus and Thetis looked around as they had to stay on guard on Remuel's reappearance. The presence of an engulfing phoenix was too strong to be never noticed by anybody. Thus the two of them knew that he had to dispel that form and return to normal when he hid himself in the fog. Just a moment later, Remuel appeared beside Thetis with his scythe mid-swing. Oceanus swung his sword and slashed Remuel in half, but the slash didn't feel like he landed anything but air. It was then he noticed that what he slashed is nothing but an illusion. Despite living for thousands of years of understanding battles and tactics, the illusion that he faced was not only unnoticeable by presence, but looks perfectly genuine. This was because the after Remuel returned home with the [Book of Illusions], he talked about what possibilities he could make with Draxus and Harold, thus they created the perfect illusions that not even heroes could tell whether it is real or fake.
Remuel appeared in multiple positions this time which made Thetis and Oceanus attack all in quick succession. Each form of Remuel dispersed into the fog as they were slashed in half. But it wasn't enough for him to instill that much.
Remuel was actually manipulating the illusions from a short distance between them. He intends to make the two council members continuously attack illusions until they are unable to target everything at once. Since they're also experiencing hunger pangs and inability to use magic, they would be considerably overwhelmed in due time.
"Behind you Oceanus!" Thetis shouted as she noticed another illusion slashing through Oceanus, they weren't able to stop that one but they believed that they were fortunate enough to be attacked by nothing but an illusion. But since they couldn't tell whether the enemy was an illusion or not, they had to attack every single one. "Tch, this is going to be truly tough." Oceanus clicked his tongue as he continued to slash the illusions that are starting to make blocking moves to further confuse them. And just as three illusions were getting through at a time, Remuel took an opportunity and went beside Thetis to strike her down with his scythe. He barely managed to strike her back after sweeping her legs from the front. Without wasting time, he fired another slug bullet which struck through Oceanus.
"Ghh!" Oceanus had a hole coming from the left side going through his right. He clutched his entire stomach as he kneeled down. But seeing that Remuel was in range, he activated something important. "[Abyssal Depths]..." Remuel pulled back while kicking Thetis, ripping off a large part of her body so that he could distance himself. Just as he distanced his position, he immediately found himself underwater. He instantly held his breath with a little short of air. Remuel was surprised by the sudden use of magic despite being stuck in [Fog of Famine]. However, since it was still in effect, he believed that his targets couldn't see in the fog. "First, I need more air." With that thought in mind, Remuel quickly swam up to check how deep he was plunged in water. But in that single moment of attempting to escape, he was close to being slashed in half. With the water being resistant to force normally, Remuel had to use almost every bit of his strength to block the sudden attack. "!!!" He couldn't let out his voice out as a single mistake in underwater could cause him to drown. He simply grit his teeth as he stopped himself from breathing in water. He slowly deflected the liquid trident away with his scythe and activated an instant recall.
"R-Remuel!" Bethany shouted as she immediately noticed Remuel gasping for breath as he fell to the floor of the castle wall. She quickly started using heat magic to dry Remuel while using healing magic. "Damnit... Hahh... Fighting against a different element is troublesome by itself... Haah..." Remuel slowly stood up as he was soaked completely with his hair and clothes being wet to the point of being heavy. "I need to rethink my plans, I escaped for now, but I still gotta deal with them. What's the situation Bethany?" Bethany quickly explained the situation as the knights were slowly losing in numbers after Remuel's meteor strike. "Some of your members have also come to clean up the knights around here. You should rest for a while." Remuel shook his head as he stood up and stretched. "The battle hasn't ended yet. I have to stall them for a bit more." Remuel's expression turned completely serious as he brought out a piece of technology he received from Draxus. "That's the portal gun... If I remember correctly..." Remuel smiled as he gave another kiss to Bethany's forehead before returning to the submerged area.
"To think that you'd willingly come back to this space... I wonder what is your play here." Oceanus spoke lightly as Thetis who was sitting on his lap looked completely healed up. In Remuel's mind, he was already complaining as his sure-kill attack was simply healed off like it's another injury by the end of the day.
"Well, whatever it is, killing the [God of Equivalence] should be more than enough to break your friends." Oceanus disappeared from his position and appeared in front of Remuel, thrusting his trident. Remuel blocked the trident with his scythe and began twisting it. Trying to break through the grip, but it wasn't enough as Oceanus simply pulled back the trident and thrusted once again. "Just as I showed you earlier! Your fire will not ignite, and you will be slower here, you're just a mortal in my oceanic world!" With Remuel having limited air, inability to use fire magic, and speed slowed down, he was easily getting injuries without resistance from Oceanus. With a more precise thrust, Oceanus managed to get through Remuel's defenses and pierced him in the chest. However, not a single drop of blood tainted the waters. The moment Oceanus pulled out the trident to check for blood, Remuel created two portals in nearby to start circulating movement of the water. This allowed bubbles to be formed which gave Remuel some air to breathe. With one of the problems out of the way, he needs to try to find another one. He went through the portal to avoid another attack from Oceanus, and used that opportunity to use the flowing water to make a counterattack. Remuel's attack connected and injured Oceanus. But that allowed Thetis to make her move by slashing Remuel from behind. With injuries becoming visible on both sides, Remuel had to change up his plans. He then closed his eyes and focused as he tried to make some distance while dodging the two. After making considerable distance, he created a portal, went through it, and closed it before the other two could get through the portal.
And just as Oceanus and Thetis managed to reach Remuel's position after his escape... "[Temperature Set]... [Fifteen Million Degrees Celcius]... [Deal with the Devil], [Artificial Sun]!" Blood immediately scattered in the ocean for a split second, but within seconds of Remuel's activation of [Deal with the Devil], he instantly evaporated every drop of water within the vicinity of Oceanus's [Abyssal Depths].
In that aftermath, a giant crater was formed as a small lake of lava was created on the earth's surface. It was something that Remuel couldn't reverse, but he simply drifted above the lava lake with the little bit of mana remaining in him. At the very least, he annihilated every single metallic knight that's still far away from the castle walls, lessening the burden on the defenders. "Damn... I guess I have to clean this shit up later..." Remuel had a face of regret as he drifted towards the castle wall.