Grankhul could ignore Shattering Darkness, since it only covered up to Truesight, and the God of Sense had Divine Sight, which Eden guessed was the step above Superior Truesight.
However, Skiggaret, the God of Fear, only possessed Truesight, and was thus blinded by Shattering Darkness. Since Eden had taken one of his ears with his last punch as well, Skiggaret only had one left.
Eden saw him attempt to weave a spell when the darkness encroached on him, but he was interrupted by Eden's owl spell. Psychic damage was damage to the mind, and was thus especially good at interrupting mages.
Truthfully, Skiggaret was unlucky to have met him, as he completely countered him. As the God of Fear and a caster, Skiggaret's spells were nearly all debuffs or ones that dealt Psychic damage. This was quite the powerful set of spells, since few had resistance to Psychic damage.
Unfortunately for him, Eden had Immunity to Psychic damage, as well as debuffs, meaning nearly all of his spells were presumably useless against him. His dagger of venom was not any better either.
Grankhul attempted to stop him by firing more arrows, but Eden was already upon the blinded Skiggaret, whose regeneration had also been stopped by Eden, and he slammed his palm at his neck.
Grankhul still had instincts apparently, as he shielded his throat by lowering his face, Eden's palm thus landing on his jaw. It had already been damaged from his earlier attack, and this time it was blasted wide open. Another rapid punch obliterated Grankhul's tongue, half of his face singed.
The terror of Eden's Avatar of Wrath could only be understood by those who experienced it. In this world, a Paladin could only raise their Divine Smite, an ability that added Radiant damage to their sword strikes, up to Level Four, which was 3rd Circle. And even with that limit, they were still feared.
Eden's Avatar of Wrath added 5th Circle Radiant damage to each of his strikes. In other words, each of Eden's strikes was like getting hit by a theoretical 9th Level Smite.
Adding to that the Cleave, which dealt 7th Rank damage, even a Demigod like Skiggaret found himself at death's door with only a few attacks.
More importantly, however, was that Eden had severed his tongue. As a mage, Skiggaret needed to chant the incantation of most spells, and without a tongue, he could no longer do that.
This was essentially the same as cutting off the arms of a warrior.
With Skiggaret silenced, he truly had no more way out of the Shattering Darkness, leaving him completely to Eden's mercy. Eden understood it, Skiggaret understood it, and Grankhul as well apparently as the God of the Hunt abandoned his tactic of firing from afar, and rushed straight into Eden's Shattering Darkness.
As he did, Eden felt the domain around him strengthen, but he once more disrupted space with one hand, and feigned to slam the second towards Skiggaret.
For the first time, Grankhul spoke, or rather roared in defiance, accelerating to interrupt Eden, only for the later to stop and strike at the approaching God.
Grankhul was much more powerful physically than Skiggaret was. He was primarily an archer, but he could also use his swords, and his Agility was his highest attribute, and his Strength was not shabby, making him a threat in close combat.
Despite his momentum working against him, Grankhul did manage to stop himself in time. But Eden did not use Cleave, but Dismantle instead.
Grankhul clearly saw the invisible slash, but it did not help as it caught him in the chest, drawing a long gash. It was smaller and not as deep as those inflicted with Cleave, but it was still deep. Moreover, this one was not cauterized, meaning there was also the bleeding to take into account.
On the side, Skiggaret, who had also been earthbound, his concentration on his Flying spell having been interrupted, tried to leave, but things had reached the point where Eden felt comfortable to use his trump card.
The God of Fear remained completely unaware because of the darkness, and to the God of the Hunt's horror, Eden's hands slammed together, mana and Cursed Energy erupting together. The space around them was already about to completely heal, meaning it was time to claim it for himself.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
A shrine made of countless corpses appeared on the ground in front of Eden, a giant pool of blood spreading out two hundred meters across, covering both deities.
However, it did not completely overpower them and their domains. They had two domains stacked on one another after all. Moreover, Skiggaret, being a mage, possessed a domain above his level, which was also why Eden had focused on him so far.
The three domains entered a clash, each vying for dominance over the surrounding space. Eden's domain was the strongest of the bunch, both by its nature and Eden's mastery over it. The Bugbear deities had two stacked on one another though, offering quite the challenge.
They would not get to see that challenge for very long, however.
Although Eden's domain did not dominate their own domains, thus not granting Eden the usual boosts or the sure hit attacks, it also suppressed the Bugbear deities' domains, thus suppressing any boost from their own domains.
And without any boosts to his attributes, Skiggaret was left with nothing.
Eden appeared in front of him like a specter, the God of Fear somehow knowing he was there the moment he appeared. Eden suspected the two gods to be communicating, but that did not change anything.
He felt Skiggaret try to teleport, since space was no longer restricted, but Eden moved too fast. He drove his hand into Skiggaret's slashed open mouth, ruthlessly prying his mouth open, an explosion of fire-radiant energy blasting what remained of it, and his hand reached into his throat, where he used Cleave.
Skiggaret was powerful, being a Tier III being and a Demigod, but a Cleave from inside his throat?
[Side Mission (Slay Skiggaret) Completed!]
[Main Reward: One Epic Boon of the Player's Choice]
Several things happened at once.
One, a pair of swords targeted Eden's back, but they were intercepted by a pair of Shields. They still got through, but much of their power had dispersed.
Second, Skiggaret's head flew up, severed from his neck, marking Eden's first kill of a Tier III in a fair fight.
Third, Skiggaret's domain fell alongside its owner, and without it, Eden's Malevolent Shrine completely overpowered Grankhul's domain.
So, even as Grankhul's swords reached Eden's back, they only cut half-way through his rib-cage before being stopped, his defence bolstered by his domain.
Even if Grankhul wanted to follow up on that strike, he found himself assaulted by Cleaves and Dismantles from all directions, his entire body turning bloody in an instant, while Eden teleported away.
He took out a large red vial, a health potion he had created with the blood of beings in the Abyss, and drank it in one shot, the injuries on his back healing by themselves.
Grankhul was stronger than Skiggaret, but he was a hunter who specialized in surprise attacks, taking his opponents' lives in one attack. Now that he was inside Eden's domain, with his mere 80 Physique, and lackluster Regeneration, the injuries quickly stacked on top of each other.
Grankhul tried to flee, but Eden got in his way, casting Avatar of Wrath a second time, this time the Necrotic version, and slammed into him. Unlike before, Eden did not bother with defence, allowing some of Grankhul's attacks to hit to get some hits of his own.
Outside his domain, exchanging injuries, even with the necrotic version of Avatar of Wrath, would inevitably end in his defeat and death, but inside his domain, with the different boosts to his attributes and spells, along with the constant attacks from the domain itself, it was only a matter of time before Grankhul fell.
[Side Mission (Slay Grankhul) Completed!]
[Main Reward: Perk 'Godslayer II', One Divine Boon of the Player's choice]
Eden looked down at the mangled corpse of Grankhul, the God of the Hunt no more. Raising his hand, he brought over all five of the weapons the two of them had used.
Skiggaret had used the Dagger of Supreme Venom as well as a wand. As for Grankhul, he had used his bow and two longswords. Taking them with him, he disappeared into one of his demiplanes while his domain was still active, ensuring no one ambushed him as he closed the way behind him.
Once inside his demiplane, where he was truly safe, Eden let out a breath, before chuckling. A chuckle that turned into full blown laughter rapidly.
Gods. He had killed Gods. And not through strategy, scheming and planning, but in a straight up fight. Granted, they were not the strongest, but still, those were gods.
This also confirmed what he thought about the Dead Three. They would certainly be able to pose a threat to him if put together, but on their own?
Eden might have countered rather strongly the two Bugbear deities, but they remained gods.
Shaking his head, Eden forced himself to stop laughing, and turned his attention to the loot first. He had already seen the dagger, so he turned to the wand.
[Wand of Supreme Fear]
[Rank: Epic]
[Magical Attack: +100%]
[Intelligence: +8]
[Wisdom: +10]
[Cone of Fright: Emit a five meters cone that causes fear in all entities. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
[Pillar of Fear: Any spell causing fear cast with this wand is 50% more effective.]
[Aura of Fear: Creates a ten meter wide aura that causes any entities inside to feel fear towards the user.]
Eden could not care less about the skills attached to the wand, but the boost to magical attack was nice. Any attacking spell, like Starburst, would have its damage doubled. This would finally allow Eden to properly use his attacking spells and have them do something.
A magical focus was essential to any mage, and so far, Eden had only had the Necronomicon Copy, which was a Tier I artefact that only boosted damage by 30%. Taking it out in his serious fights would only get it broken.
The Dagger of Supreme Venom was also nice, though Eden doubted he would use it. He had grown to like hand to hand combat.
Next, the pair of longswords were identical to one another, and were somewhat disappointing, being only Unique weapons. They had a Paralyzing skill, which Grankhul had certainly used against Eden but the skill had failed since it was magical in nature. It was not very powerful anyway, so he just stashed them, to sell them later.
The bow was more interesting, being the first Divine Artefact Eden ever laid his eyes on.
[Bow of Darkness]
[Rank: Legendary]
[Attack: 430]
[Agility: +23]
[Invisible Weapon: The bow and all arrows fired from it are invisible.]
[Shadow Arrows: Drawing on the string can conjure shadow arrows, which deal Magical Piercing damage.]
[Armor Piercer: Ignore up to 100 defence with all attacks.]
[Soul Piercer: Conjure a supreme arrow capable of ignoring all Resistances and Immunity up to Tier III, dealing an additional 200 Psychic damage. Cooldown: 24 hours.]
Eden immediately took it for himself. He had learned how to use a bow, among many other weapons, in his time in the Abyss, and this was a weapon he could make great use of. Being innately capable of flight, anything that was unable to fly would get easily killed.
Legendary rarity was the threshold for Tier III. Common and Uncommon for Tier 0, Rare and Super Rare for Tier I, Unique and Epic for Tier II, and Legendary and Mythic for Tier III.
Archers would kill for this bow, even Tier III ones Eden would bet, as it was the perfect weapon for an assassin.
Eden had reached a point where seeing the invisible was essentially a basic skill owned by everyone, but that was only in the current universe. It was the same with domains, it was not a type of skill every Tier III across existence possessed.
Eden did not doubt that there would be some Tier III or even Tier IV incapable of seeing the invisible. Moreover, this bow's invisibility was quite powerful, since even Eden was barely able to see it with his Superior Truesight, which was peak Tier II level of sight.
Had it not been for his danger sense, the first arrow would have undoubtedly killed him.
And now, the bow was his. The Shadow Arrows feature was nice as well, since it meant Eden did not have to carry arrows with him everywhere. He could hardly wait to use it on someone.
The equipment had not been Eden's only reward though. He had earned an improved perk, another Epic Boon and a Divine Boon, which he guessed was the next level of reward. He did slay a full-blown God, after all.
[Godslayer II: The attacks of the Player are considered as two Tiers above the Player's when facing opponents from a higher Tier.]
The Perk had been improved in a predictable fashion, but it did not make it any worse. From now on, his attacks would not be weakened even against Tier III enemies. That meant fights against deities would become even easier.
For his Epic Boon, Eden held on his choice, checking out the Divine Boons first.
As expected, Eden once more had to choose from a selection, one that also had twelve choices. All of them read like enhanced versions of the Epic Boons.
[Boon of Godly Combat: Make an attack unavoidable. Cooldown: 1 second.]
[Boon of Teleportation: Teleport anywhere within 100 meters. Cooldown: 1 second.]
[Damage Immunity: Gain Immunity of the Tier equal to yours for one of the following damage types: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Necrotic, Poison, Psychic, Radiant and Thunder.]
[Boon of Greater Fate: Further improves the user's luck, affecting causality to tilt events in their favor.]
[Boon of Godly Fortitude: Increase HP by 1000, and all sources of HP recovery are 50% more effective.]
[Boon of Godly Offense: Physical and Magical Physical damage ignores Resistance of the Tier above yours and deals 30% more damage.]
[Phoenix Soul: When brought to 0 HP, resist death and regain 100% of your HP. Cooldown: 1 hour. Increase passive HP regeneration by ten times.]
[Godly Magic: Increase MP by 1000, and passive MP regeneration increased by ten times.]
[Boon of Godly Speed: Become nearly impossible to catch, and increases movement speed by 100%.]
[One with Magic: Spells of the 5th Circle and under have 33% chance of being cast for free.]
[Boon of the Night God: Merge with shadows to become invisible at will, and gain Resistance of your Tier for all damage sources while using this form of invisibility. Invisibility dispelled upon attacking.]
[Boon of Divine Sight: Gain passive Divine Sight.]
For the Epic Boons, Eden had felt that some of them had been quite useless compared to the others, but this time, he saw real value in all of them. Even One with Magic, which was the worst in his opinion, had real value since there was 1/3 chance to cast a Tier II spell for free.
The same went for the Boon of Godly Speed, which he saw as useless before, and now looked attractive. Doubling movement speed was quite something to someone who had wings like Eden.
Honestly, the only one Eden did not want to take was Phoenix Soul, because of the name. If there was a danger of it changing his soul, he would rather stay away from it. Besides, the odds were that his soul would simply resist to the change, and his reward would be wasted.
However, even though all twelve were shown to him, Eden could feel he did not have access to them all. Instead, he could only choose between Damage Immunity, Godly Fortitude and Godly Magic.
The reason behind it was rather easy to guess. They corresponded to the enhanced versions of the three Epic Boons Eden had gotten already, so that meant Eden could only get a Divine Boon if he had already gotten the corresponding Epic Boon as well.
Eden also guessed that if he chose a Divine Boon, the Epic Boon would be replaced by it. Maybe with the exception of Damage Immunity.
That was fine to him, since Eden found three of the Divine Boons to be above the others in his eyes: Damage Immunity, Godly Offense and Godly Magic.
Damage Immunity would straight up give him Immunity to a type of damage, and even though it was of his own Tier, Immunity did not work like Resistance.
Resistance to a particular type of damage could be overcome through special elements or overwhelming damage of said element. Immunity could only be overcome through special elements though, so even a Tier I Immunity could protect from Tier V normal damage.
Godly Magic was also quite good. The sheer amount of MP it added already made it exceptional for a mage, but the true value was in the ten times regeneration rate.
A normal mage regenerated 100% MP in 8 hours in a neutral environment. When Eden used meditation, that time was split in ten, so only 48 minutes. This boon would give Eden that speed in a neutral environment, and passively.
Adding meditation onto that? 4.8 minutes, or 4 minutes and 48 seconds.
The true worth of it was inside his domain however, as mana was especially concentrated in there, and with ten times the regeneration rate, Eden would have essentially infinite mana inside his Domain Expansion.
Those two he could already choose, and were quite convenient. The third one, Godly Offense, would require Eden to use both his Epic Boon and Divine Boon to get.
But it might be worth it. The Epic version, Irresistible Offense, did not interest him because it only affected normal Physical damage, but the Divine version included Magical Physical damage. That meant it should encompass his Innate Technique.
In other words, not only would Cleave and Dismantle be able to ignore Magical Slashing Resistance up to a Tier above his own, but they would also be boosted by 30% in power.
Still, as tempting as it seemed, that would be investing both an Epic Boon and a Divine Boon for a single Perk, which was fine for the long term, but he needed short term results. After all, if he wanted to get more Divine Boons, he needed to kill more Gods.
So, Eden used his Epic Boon to get the Boon of Speed, and his Divine Boon for Godly Magic.