Pov Loki:
Veronica and I entered this forest together, for me the distortion of space and the imbalance of energies was not a problem, my senses are still Divine level and therefore I can see everything much more clearly than the fool up there is able, the same can be said about Veronica.
"Should we fight, help those in trouble, or just watch?" (I)
"..." (Veronica)
"I have sandwiches..." (I)
"Loki..." (Veronica)
"I don't want to deal with these corrupted creatures, the energy around them is worse than this pathetic presence of this Evil God." (I)
"Let's help, Mister Zenos would want us to focus on helping those in distress." (Veronica)
"You look like you still don't understand him, he would probably ignore all of them except his acquaintances." (I)
"For Zenos, anyone who entered this forest on their own will have to be responsible for themselves, he wouldn't change his path to save someone who chose that path, but if it was close to his reach he wouldn't let the person die either." (I)
"That's a bit of an odd way to think about it." (Veronica)
"I even like it, better than defending everyone for the simple reason of being capable while putting yourself in extreme danger." (I)
"Let's not have this conversation again, certainly not here." (Veronica)
"Forget about the past." (Veronica)
"Then stop trying to save everyone." (I)
"..." (I)
"..." (Veronica)
"It's your fault." (Veronica)
"I'm sure you did, it took a long time to do something... hahaha hahaha..." (I)
As always Veronica cannot see people in danger, none of our senses or our Auras were restricted by this chaos in the surroundings.
This God's presence is just his attention in the general area, he is not using his Aura, this pressure is just his will as well as his power, but it cannot affect God level Souls.
While Veronica and I were discussing neither of us took a moment to pay attention to our surroundings, that's because we knew our presence would be felt, Two Souls with traits of Divinity is a very tempting delicacy for an Evil God still in the process of ascending into a True God.
It would be better for him to focus his attention on us and forget about the others, if we can lessen his attention on Zenos and his sisters that would be perfect.
I look around, and I can see many people struggling, many among them are in confusingly expanded spaces, and anyone who tries to go in a straight line will get lost, some are managing to do something about it, but it seems that more than half are fighting without using their instincts, they are like children in their first fight.
I look away from them to stand at the World Tree, it looks like the fighting there has already started but I can still feel the attention on us, it looks like he is extending his senses through the World Tree but that alone won't make us no harm.
But the 27 coming towards us is another story, unlike most strange monsters, these 27 have appearances of Elves, Humans, and Beastmen.
From this distance I can feel their Auras even with the interference of the environment, it seems that everyone has a strength equal to ours, with 4 with a strength even above us.
"Who starts?" (I)
"You, but be prepared for that." (Veronica)
"Are you sure you want to use this in this environment?" (I)
"Without that, we won't win." (Veronica)
"Fine, then let me get rid of the excess baggage." (I)
I wait a few more seconds, the strongest 4 have more speed than the others, so soon they were separated from the rest of the group, I couldn't help but smile at such simple thoughts.
"Let the show begin!!!" (I)
"< Dueling Trap >" (I)
"< Judge of the Games >" (I)
"< Shadow Release >" (Veronica)
I activate 11 traps in an area trapping 22 enemies in a space that contains a Cursed barrier that uses their energy while a Berserk Curse makes them violent causing them to attack each other, only after one of the two is defeated or with the destruction of the barrier both Curses end.
At the same time, I begin the Summoning of an Astral Avatar using my power, Aura, Holy Power, and the Authority of Zenos, this is a technique that people of our world used when combining an Astral Body with an Elemental Avatar using the Aura as a base, I just added Authority and Holy Power to increase the power of this technique while linking its energy consumption to Curses, their energy will feed my Astral Avatar and when they are able to get out they will be killed in a duel against the final boss.
Unfortunately, I had to let 1 of the 23 enemies go since I wouldn't have a partner for him, but soon that Elf-looking creature was hit from behind by a powerful blow coming from his own shadow, he managed to defend, but the blow still landed him away, which was Veronica's purpose from the beginning.
"I'll hold them off long enough when they come into range." (Veronica)
"I count on you." (I)
The 4 coming towards us were 3 Gray Elves and 1 Human, they are not able to use magic or abilities, which is to be expected from incompatible Souls with bodies that have been invaded, they are using the energy they carry the strength in their Dirty souls in these bodies like vessels.
The most they can do is use the bodies as tools, a kind of armor for their Tainted Souls, as well as any armor they can only use for melee.
"(Trying to fight an ancient Guardian Goddess who sacrificed herself to save what was left of the people of an entire world, what fools.)" (I)
"Now!!!" (Veronica)
"< Guardian God Field: Weight of Will >" (Veronica)
The shield on his right arm shatters but still retains the form of a shield when overloaded with power that has gone far beyond its limit.
Veronica has all her hair lighting up in a black energy full of sparkles inside, it looks like the star energy that Zenos sometimes reveals, Veronica's eyes glow red and her white skin has several golden lines that appear.
Veronica's Aura condenses into a circle that expands for a few hundred meters around her, this puts both me and the 4 enemies inside the circle that is soon flooded by Veronica's massive presence.
Her pressure doesn't affect me, but the 4 enemies have the ground around them becoming a crater bit by bit as the cracks around them spread out like the shape of a spider's web.
Inside this ring where we are, Veronica's will and presence gain physical weight over the body that is rejected by her Aura, this made the 4 of us unable to move immediately.
"< Territory >" (Me/Veronica)
"< Border of Two Kingdoms >" (Me/Veronica)
I approach Veronica and extend my hand for her to take as our Auras interact with each other until they become one Aura, to maintain this state of two as one, we both use the Holy Power and Authority of Zenos that we share making ours our own Much stronger dual territory.
With that, the space around us closes in and everything around us brightens with the presence of the Evil God being forced out for the most part.
But even then I saw the Territory around us crack, but luckily it didn't.
"Looks like it does." (I)
"I can't keep both of them..." (Veronica)
Without finishing his sentence the pressure field containing the enemies dissolves seconds after the Territory forms a border around us and the 4 enemies run towards us with a dark energy coming out of their bodies where all the veins turned neon black inside their bodies.
"< Weapon of Shadow and Corruption > ×4"
"< Combat Dance >" (I)
"< Blood Dragon's Blessing >" (Veronica)
"< Two as One >" (Me/Veronica)
The 4 enemies use their shadows as weapons, two of them drew Swords or should I say turned their shadows into Swords, while a third had his shadow turn into a large Ax disproportionate to his size.
The last among them was the strangest, he instead of creating a weapon with his shadow like the others had the precise control to wear his shadow like armor while his arms are covered by the shadows becoming giant scythes.
With the 4 coming towards us I pull Veronica towards me as our combat becomes a joint dance performance, I manage to move my body and Veronica's body in total unison.
The stomp Veronica uses causes the scales on both our bodies to ignite with power as his Blessing within us increases our power, all while our joint ability adds my stats to hers and vice versa causing our power to double.
We dance around dodging Weapon attacks while defending others with shields that form around us, but we don't just stay defensive as that wouldn't be fun.
We use Zenos's power to condense our Holy Power into our hands, then there is a staff in my hand and a large shield in Veronica's hand.
With that during the dance I created different blades of energy around my staff while dancing and slashing at our enemies, Veronica always interrupted attacks that she wouldn't be able to dodge.
Our battle was going on for much longer than I initially thought, her body movements were strange, if she knew how to use her power well it would have been more fun.