With Kieran leaping into battle after a couple minutes, the pseudo-war going on around Marcen's Cliffs swung into full swing.
At the Dynasty headquarters, Cyril swept through the battlefield like a demon without equal. Extending his bo staff, Cyril swept his arm outward, knocking a wave of mortals backward. Commanding from the front of the battlefield, he leapt around as Tessa did the more delicate commanding and support from the back.
Coming to a halt in front of the dome of water, Cyril sighed as he waved towards Tessa in the back.
Using his staff to clear a path, Cyril barked out a series of orders to the other deities. As a couple of them formed a guard unit, the rest flanked the pathway formed by Cyril's staff.
"Do you really need all this?" Cyril groaned as Tessa made her way to the water dome. "Most of the Dynasty's forces are focused on the attacking cult. You wouldn't even need this if we were in the middle of a normal battle anyway, you're stronger than me!"
"I don't want to waste energy fighting or take unnecessary risks." Tessa smoothed out her business suit while sweeping past Cyril. "And why not keep up the charade? There's no reason not to deceive those who aren't in the know or don't know their history."
Ignoring the rest of Cyril's blabbering, Tessa moved forward while pressing her hand onto the ground beside the swirling dome of water.
With her eyes glowing green, Tessa's hair flared up behind her as divinity came rushing forth.
As the ground began to rumble, rice, sugarcane, wheat, and other water-intensive harvest plants began sprouting forth.
No, sprouting forth was putting it too lightly. They shot out of the ground like military rockets.
The ground quaked as plants rushed forth without rest. Stretching up through the dome, the plants were torn away, shredded in moments, only to be replaced by an unending stream of backups.
Fighting through what felt like a never-ending vortex, Tessa clenched her teeth as the battle raged on around her.
Watching a small, covered path begin to carve its way through the dome, Tessa grinned as she felt Morgana's vortex begin to taper. As she opened her mouth to let everyone else begin to prepare their incursion, Tessa felt her breath hitch as a sudden outpour of divine energy came from the heart of the vortex.
Not a moment later, Tessa sighed as water came gushing forth from Morgana's central tower—this time, with ice chunks mixed within. As the speed and water pressure increased, Tessa grimaced as the temperature began to drop as well.
As her tunnel was eviscerated in a matter of milliseconds, Tessa punched both her hands underground as the green glow of her divinity enveloped her whole body. "Cyril, I'm going to need a bit more time."
Channeling as much divine energy into the ground below, Tessa felt blood begin to trickle down her chin as groans escaped her lips. As if to match her effort, the spectacle her divine energy created had begun to flourish.
Monstrous plants covered in thorns, poison, and what seemed like all-natural plate armor began sprouting their way into Morgana's blender dome.
With plants the size of small buildings growing—then dying—in a matter of seconds, the battle began to slow down as onlookers began to admire the battle between titans.
Ice shards transformed into long spears the size of small boats. These same spears began tearing up anything within the sphere. Before long, the outside was affected too as their speed began ejecting both plant chunks and ice shards into nearby battlefields.
Sneaking a pathway through the dome though, Tessa yanked her hands out while reinforcing her small pathway. "GO! NOW, CYRIL!"
"On it!" Cyril called out, sending his bo staff in through the pathway. Launching himself forward, Cyril led the way as a stream of attackers began running in through the pathway towards the headquarters of the Dynasty.
Falling to her knees, Tessa felt her eyes begin to droop as her energy drained into reinforcing the pathway. Slumping forward, Tessa encased herself in a cocoon before falling into a shallow slumber.
Elsewhere, the situation began to shift. Having finished their own business, both the Cult of Cancer and the Cult of Taurus began backing off from their respective attack sites. One by one at the Dynasty warzone, the Legs, the Claws, and finally, the Shell began disappearing like the wind.
At the Church, even with Aelius and Luna holding down the fort together, they were too occupied to notice as the Legs, Hooves, and Horns of the Taurus faded out of the battle as well.
Then, without anyone noticing, Marcen's Cliffs had devolved into a full-on war between the three major factions. The original aggressors had left and been forgotten while their intentions had remained a mystery until the end.
---
Out of all the factions though, one, more low-key one had been keeping track of the entire situation. Sitting in the corner of a certain tea shop, Solomon and Joanna were on the phone with the Library of Truth headquarters.
"Figure out anything?" Solomon murmured while taking a sip of tea.
"No, sir," a voice replied on the phone as the sound of typing made its way across the call. "We've managed to narrow down the headquarters of both cults down to a couple places each, but after a certain bit our trackers are always thrown off."
"I'm not surprised..." Solomon sighed before muting his phone and turning back to Joanna. "We're still so understaffed. We have more than enough top-end powerhouses, maybe too many, but not enough people on the ground like these factions do."
"So we can't keep up hmm?" Joanna tapped her finger while looking at Astrid and Valencia chatting away at the counter. "Well, it's fine, let them live their lives. We'll always step in if there's true danger to the city as a whole. Why not ask about Eugene? He's promising, isn't he? Was he sent out today?"
Unmuting and asking, Solomon nodded along before connecting himself directly to Eugene. "Good afternoon, Eugene. Solomon here. Why don't you update me on your situation? What have you seen so far today?"
Unbeknownst to Solomon, Eugene, who had been lying on his stomach to watch a battle from a rooftop, bolted upward while almost soiling himself the moment the call came in.
Checking his pants and clearing his voice, Eugene laid back down onto the rooftop. "Not much. I've just been observing the Church battlefield. What would you like to know about?"
"Just update me on anything you think is important." Solomon chuckled, unaware that his lack of direction was just layering the pressure onto Eugene.
Putting the binoculars back up to his eyes, Eugene thought back to his day.
What an absolute catastrophe it had been! Not much observation had been done for sure...
In fact, most of his day had been spent relocating!
First, a stray golden bolt from Aelius had decimated the building he was on. Eugene was only one unlucky fart away from catching on fire after the bolt exploded into a column of flame.
Then, after relocating and finding a new spot, Eugene hadn't even had time to pull out his notepad before a stray spear from WHO KNOWS WHERE, came flying in and punched a hole clean through the building.
And... well, turning buildings into modern art pieces didn't do so great for their structural stability.
After escaping the rubble, Eugene had relocated once more. Back then it was only 10 A.M....
The chaos had continued without rest and it was now mid-afternoon!
The work he had done! The sacrifices he had made! The danger he had been in!
Shuddering to think about the monetary costs of such destruction, Eugene just hoped his taxes wouldn't increase.
Flipping through his notepad as Solomon prompted him once more, Eugene made a quick, random excuse about his pause. "Sorry, I was just reflecting on the day's events, cataloging them in my brain, and synthesizing what I feel would be the best information to give to you in this report."
Grinning and patting himself on the back for that ingenious excuse, Eugene pulled out his notepad. "Aelius and Luna still seem to be in top form. As we know though they're both a half-step behind Casimir and Morgana, but together, their synergy really brings them to rival, or even surpass the other two. They debuted a new technique today in which Luna blacked out the sky and obscured people's senses while Aelius sent down a rain of bolts that, from my distant vantage point, would then explode into columns of fire."
"Would you mind creating an entry in the database later today?" Solomon asked as an interested tone seeped its way into his voice.
"Of course!" Eugene affirmed while flipping through his notepad. "Their technique confirms their continual training. On the battlefield I also noticed a huge leap in Adelyn's combat ability, she seems to be growing as well. Ignatius seems to have either not shown his face at all or been sent to the Federation battlefield. Beyond that there was not too much of interest. I shall type up a more complete report when I get back to base."
"Splendid work," Solomon reassured, "I'm always looking forward to your work, Eugene. Don't be surprised if I begin checking in on you more like this in the future."
With Solomon hanging up after those praises, Eugene lowered his phone with a shaky hand.
... Why was he so good?! He BS'd a little too hard and now Solomon thought he was good?!
Rolling over on the rooftop to face the sky, Eugene laid there spread eagle while reflecting on his life. Sure, he was competent, but... why couldn't the world just let him be lazy!?