"I see, so it isn't negotiable." MF pouted, although deep inside she was actually really nervous. MF never would've thought that she was going to match with someone from underworlder.
Tuli was an exception, because of how easy she was to manipulate. MF also managed to capture Damascus' mana level.
And it was ten thousand times denser than the battle puppets back then.
"It would be more demeriting for you to follow us to the underworld, especially not without a capable lawyer backing up upon this matter." Damascus summoned a giant battle puppet three times the size of her magnificent throne. "Killing Tuli will not do either."
The battle puppets have wide shoulders with bigger arms compared to a normal humanoid anatomy. It only had an upper torso as the end of its spine dangled. The exterior was more robotic than the earlier two battle puppets. Not to mention, this gigant had four mana cores that were four times stronger than the former.
As enormous as it was, the new battle puppet was blocking the sunlight from above. Damascus had the higher ground.
"Do you really want to take this approach?" MF said. "It is true that I don't have enough wealth to pay for her debt… But being a mule doesn't mean that you need to be a rock head to throw spit at a higher predator."
"Lord Ouroboros, I'm not a mule. My will and determination are akin to a whole army! I might be a rock head, but it would be a coal to fuel my intention to fight if you are about to choose violence over yielding to the other side."
MF definitely didn't want to be brought to the Underworld. Surely, only a being of a higher hierarchy in power could go back and forth from Neamh to that wretched place, MF hasn't reached that yet.
She didn't want her painstaking effort of conquering the Gaia Citadel to go to waste; surrendering was not an option.
"Is that it? To resist a divine intervention!?" MF spreaded the blood on her wings to shoot a straight line in a random direction except the above, connecting to the mountains in a half second. The blast of the speeding blood strings at the size of a finger was enough to create a minic sonic boom.
Tuli managed to avoid these, sadly.
When the catastrophic blood-lines reached the core of the mountains, it sprawled to envelop that whole mountain.
Slowly, MF mildly crushed every mountain in the vicinity like a strengthening grip on a grape. The rumble was so loud that every life forms were soaring in fear or running away without knowing the cause. Calamities or non Calamities, all of them were grasping their thread of life with unfathomable fear.
Intimidation.
When there was no path for negotiation to reach a preferable outcome, convincing a stubborn person from the other side with striking glare and menacing air was the superior way. Only the one with the most vibrant flare would win without a physical clash—when fighting fair was impossible, it was better to bluff her way to the winner's rightful heir.
Damascus flinched, closing her eyes to reassure herself again before grinning like a psychopath, opening her arms dastardly to welcome her challenger in this imminent fate.
"THEN WHAT IF I CAN'T!? I WON'T GO BACK WITHOUT A GRAND FEAST!"
"YOU DARE!? AN UNDERWORLDER LIKE YOU!?"
"WILL IT BE DEITIES OR COSMIC OVERSEER, I WON'T DECLINE ANY KIND OF INVITATION TO A GRAND DEATH!"
'So intimidation won't do, huh."
MF's brain cells were meticulously trying to figure out the next move. For the sake of convenience, please imagine a council table of numerous chibis versions of MF arguing with each other.
'Who is recommending the use of intimidation again?'
'I told you that intimidation won't work!'
'Fool! Buffoon! Idiot! Moron!'
'Let's kill Tuli.'
'I miss Foel!'
'Wait! We can use this psychological advantage! The underworlder's nature in terms of psychology might be the same with mortals from Neamh! We could use her extreme bloodlust to—'
'Let's blame Elon for this.'
'No, let's blame Fortune for this.'
'The fight will start soon!'
'Hell yeah! It's time to fight! Turn on the body's adrenaline!'
'We need an emergency plan for an emergency plan! Why don't we just nuke this place?'
'Estimately, we would lose. According to all comparisons of intellect and fighting prowess by analyzing Lady Damascus' behavioral trait and choice of words, I suggest we should kill ourselves because of the difference in power!'
'I wanna die!'
'And I'm horny!'
'All of you are useless, kill all of these unhelpful morons and bring in the new generation of council, do it again and again until we find the best possible course of action.'
For the sake of the illustration, imagine all of those chibis getting sprayed by machine guns as the new set of council casually replacing the dead chibis' seats.
Outside of the illustrative scene of MF's train of thought, she calmed down and began to reply to the warm welcome from Damascus with another grin of excitement, not showing any hint of hesitation and weaknesses.
'Shit!' Tuli thought. 'Those two are psychos!'
MF had 20 months worth of energy from stalling, which might not be enough. This fight will probably cost more than one or two limbs.
She then glanced at Tuli who was pissing herself. "If you don't support me well, I'll eat you."
"HUEEEKHHH!!?"
Of course, MF won't take a risk without an onion-layers of plans to back up her chances of victory. Unquestionably, It took more effort than usual, which means it wasn't impossible.
All the talking, it was enough for MF to develop the 'Incendiary Fog Emitter'. Courtesy from Abe, MF immediately charred her whole skin with toxic chemicals that converted her bodily cells into a flammable smoke-like substance. It was rising like it was coming out of a broken chimney.
Abe used this ability to disrupt his own location from other perceptions, using thunder to ignite it. But the Ouroboros won't be doing something as simply using the explosion or toxicity only. Thanks to the current MF's arsenal of genes, she could use it for offensive and exerting dominance.
MF already had an igniter that came from the 'Petroleum Glands'. Without further ado, MF implemented all of her blood with the 'Flammable Anti-Heat Layer', the geometric pattern on her branching trident-blaster of wings was set ablaze. Like a raging fuse, the fire rapidly engulfed the threads she weaved into numerous mountains in the vicinity.
The scenery of hellfire. They were meant as torches, the mountain was lit and it was certainly a critical dead threat to the lady of the throne.
This reminded Damascus and Tuli of Phlegethos, the fourth layer of the underworld
MF already made sure to coat her hair and skin with anti-flame proteins. Right now, the Ouroboros looked like a real devil straight from hell.
The best outcome of a fight is always based on deception.
Unbeknownst to the Ouroboros, she had brought the feeling of the Underworld to the Underworlders.