The blue surface that suddenly appeared was just like the surface of the pond above. But unlike the surface of the pond, Aganju couldn't stop this one from rippling.
It didn't surprise him, but it didn't make him give up on stealth yet. He still took things slowly and carefully.
His body sank into the blue surface a little by little. The displacement of space in the barriers of the two spatial dimensions can have some nasty spatial pressure on his body.
This spatial pressure could kill a mortal, but it would struggle against a demigod, so it was completely useless against his current vessel.
He pushed through and appeared in a large blue world. This world was spherical and mostly empty.
It was as if he was inside a blue ball. Both the earth and sky were joined at their edges, and they were blue.
The world was also large, with at least a diameter of 20,000 kilometers. It was about the same size as the Lignum world, except it was empty.
The only anomaly in this blue empty world was the green being at the center of it. This green being was a giant. She was at least a kilometer tall.
She was baked and green vines extended all over the body of this being into the boundaries of the blue sphere. They crawled along the blue barrier and penetrated it in several places to interact with the world outside the blue sphere.
Aganju could see that these vines were the source of trees on the surface of the Lignum world. So the green giant elf was the entire forest of the Lignum world, and the trees were much bigger than what could be seen on the surface.
Aganju could see more than this. He could see the obvious, which was the small ball of green fire within the chest of the elf, which was constantly bursting out with energy like the solar flares of a real star.
He could also see the not-so-obvious, which was the progress that this glade god had made in their evolution. But everything that he saw was disappointing.
He grumbled inwardly, "It seems I have overestimated you. Maybe I shouldn't have asked them to cut down the trees."
He had been cautious of this false god and had taken certain precautions against her because even though she will be a new true god, even if she had succeeded, she would be the first natural true god of this world, which would automatically make her the god king.
A false god is nothing for him to worry about. A true god might be something for him to worry about. But a god king is a matter of grave and utmost importance that requires the bulk of his attention and ability.
He couldn't be careless with dealing with this god king, or in the worse case scenario, he might actually lose his life. But he also wanted to subdue a god king, as that would provide more rewards. It is why he had delayed until now to enter the core of the world.
He was being greedy, so he gave her more time to have her breakthrough. Despite that, he was also being cautious, so he had ordered the army to weaken her by cutting off parts of her body.
However, it seems that the act of cutting down trees had weakened her far more than he expected because it didn't look like she would be able to complete her transformation if given a hundred years of time.
He could wait that long, but he couldn't delay the expedition that long. Her performance made him disappointed. But he couldn't delay anymore. He could only complain inwardly as he mobilized his power.
He said to himself, "I should at least beat you up for making me waste my time."
As he stopped hiding what he was, his eyes began to shine, and mysterious white runes appeared all over his body. His domain manifested behind him as the phantom of a large simmering volcano.
The volcano was as large as a mountain. Fire was burning on top of it with smoke rising into the air and lava pouring down its side. It dwarfed his vessel and made him look like a stain at the bottom of the volcano.
At first the volcano was a phantom. But it began to solidify over time. As it did so, smoke appeared in the blue world, and the temperature increased rapidly.
It was no illusion. The smoke could be perceived through smell, and the sound of lava rumbling within the volcano could be heard around the blue world.
It truly looked as if a volcano had appeared in the blue world. It would have made anyone anxious and afraid to be close to Aganju. It certainly made the sleeping god anxious enough to wake up.
She had become aware of his existence when his domain first appeared. Her eyes were already fluttering when the volcano was a phantom. It solidifying only made her sense of danger more intense.
This sense of danger didn't leave even when Aganju took back his domain. The goddess refused to go back to sleep after knowing for sure that there was a dangerous enemy around her.
The green fire in her chest grew in size and power. It expanded and became brighter. When she finally opened her eyes, it was as if an outlet had finally been created in the box containing the ball of fire, so light flooded out of them.
Her large body shrank, but the vines connecting her to the surface didn't detach. They only shrank with her but remained connected to the trees above.
She gazed sternly at Aganju. Just by looking at him, she already knew who he was. He was the god of volcanoes and violence.
That much was clear. But she didn't know why such a god would appear in the Lignum at all. However, she didn't ask what he was doing in her world.
She decided to find out herself. Her powerful consciousness swept through the Lignum world in an instant.
What she saw in the world above made the green fire in her chest flicker intensely. Her face remained the same emotionless plate it was, but she was shocked to the bone.
Her shock only intensified the more of the decimated population and ecosystem she saw. It became worse when she saw the satellites in the sky and the base of soldiers.
Her mind swept through the space and mind of the inhabitants of the world for information. Soon the situation became very clear to her.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was that she didn't sense any elven king. It made her cry in anguish.
She roared, "Murderer! Difiler!!!"
Then she rushed at Aganju.
Her body grew bigger as she manifested her domain. She began to shine intensely to create light that manifested different plants and creatures.
The manifested creatures were phantoms at first, but they solidified into real creatures that joined the goddess of life in her attack against the evil god of volcanoes and violence.
These creatures were a million in number initially, but in less than a second, they had become ten million. They were still rising in number, and each of them possessed the power of a god.
So she had become an army of gods and was fighting one god with that army. The god in question didn't panic.
Aganju's dissipated domain materialized for a brief instant as he punched forward. The volcano disappeared, but fire and lava erupted in front of his fist in a violent red spray.
The speed, power, and range of the eruption increased as his fist moved forward. Fire and lava smashed against the goddess of life and her army of true gods in a cataclysmic collision that caused the blue world to shake.
Maybe it was because life is inherently weak against fire or that Aganju was older than the goddess of life, but for whatever reason it was, the eruption of fire and lava had the upper hand.
Fire burned the creatures and turned them to ashes while lava submerged them and choked them to death. It didn't matter that there were many or that they outnumbered Aganju 100 million to one; all that mattered was that he possessed raw power, which gave quality an advantage over quantity.
He even had the leisure to talk. He said as he punched out again, "You're weak."
Her green body was scorched black. In some places cracks had appeared. These cracks were red like molten fire. They were also spreading along her body like fire tends to do.
She didn't listen to him. Instead, she roared in anger and rushed at him again.
He too was angry. It showed in his tone as he said, "You had such a good opportunity, but you wasted it."
He punched out again as he said, "You are talented but also lucky. Unfortunately, you lacked the will to do what must be done to make full use of what you were given."