Lex was too used to simply smashing his enemies with his fists, or now that he was using swords, hammering them or cutting them with simple swipes. Randomly cleaving and swinging his sword was easier, but sword techniques were ultimately better and stronger.
He sighed, and then moved on. This time when he exited, Cassandra and Fenrir were waiting for him, just as last time, but the difference was that Lex detected the subtlest hint of an amused look on Cassandra's face.
No doubt she took notice of the fact that he took dozens of seconds more to pass this test than the last one.
Clearing his throat, Lex moved on, pretending as if he didn't notice.
Among the many things he experienced in the past few weeks, one of the most significant events was when he gave up his accumulating divinity.
There were two divinities focused on his person, though all the divine energy granted through belief was funneled away by his system and stored to power his 'Wish'. Nonetheless, while unaware of how the belief tainted divine energy was being channeled away from him, Cassandra informed him that separating those two divinities from himself was a beneficial thing for him.
After inquiring about what it would entail, and what he stood to gain or lose, he eventually agreed, and Cassandra helped him through the process.
First, they identified the two divinities he had on his person. The first, and the stronger one, was easily identified as the Butter Knife deity. As unusual as it was, countless religions across hundreds of galaxies had already formed around that one attack from the Butter Knife he had unleashed. In fact, if the system had not been funneling away the belief tainted divine energy, that particular divinity may have already matured!
Cassandra did not ask questions about the odd divinity, or how it came out to be. Instead, she helped him fashion a ceremonial item in the form of a butter knife and helped him transfer the divinity over to it.
The butter knife was incredibly weak, and would slowly grow stronger as it accumulated the power of belief. But in this case, it was not slow at all. With the divinity removed from himself, the system could no longer funnel it away, and the knife absorbed all of it. In a matter of days it had already reached a level that was comparable to the average weapon used by a Golden core cultivator. Given time, it would grow even stronger.
But there was a shortcut to strengthening it. Once he killed Ra, he could channel the divinity from his corpse into the knife, devouring his divinity to make his knife stronger. But Lex was not planning on doing that.
Instead, he planned on strengthening the item fashioned from the second divinity. He pulled out a devilish mask and looked at it.
This mask was the ceremonial item associated with his second divinity: The Invincible Tyrant. The number of believers in this were very few, but for some reason, their belief was strong enough to form a trace of divinity on him.
The mask looked a lot like the one he wore when he used Notorious Anonymity. Lex had a strong guess over who his believers were. The few devils who had run away from him after trying to hurt him for hours. The fact that this currently incredibly weak mask continued to accumulate power meant that some of them, at least, were still alive.
As he approached the next door, he put the mask on. These ceremonial items were linked to him, so others could not use them. Or, to be technical, they could not use them unless they killed Lex first.
Divinities could be stolen by deities who attacked and devoured other deities. Therefore, these ceremonial items which contained divinity and were linked to him could also have their ownership transferred, if he was killed first.
Or he could give up the ownership of his free will, but he had no interest in doing that. The butter knife was promising to become an extremely potent weapon in the future, and the mask was born of his own achievements.
Both were good reasons to keep them to himself. But the mask had a potential which he liked a lot. Notorious Anonymity was ultimately a low level technique. Eventually he would outgrow it.
By then he could just get a new technique to hide his identity, but if this mask of his grew strong enough, it could simply take over that role. Moreover, the mask had a few other benefits as well.
Since the divinity it was formed from was Invincible Tyrant, it augmented his Domination to a degree, and boosted his strength and defense. Theoretically, once it grew strong enough, these side benefits could overshadow the original purpose of the mask, which was to hide his identity.
That was why he had decided that when he killed Ra, he would strengthen his mask, not the knife.
Without a word, he stepped through the door of the sixth test, his aura changed to that of the Invincible Tyrant - or rather, the Invincible Baby Tyrant.
The suit of armor he faced this time looked different compared to the ones he saw before. It was sleek and nimble, while at the same time exuding a strong deterrence. He knew immediately that this one was finally strong enough to break through his defenses and hurt him.
Lex had no doubt of his own victory, but what he was focused on right now was a quick and efficient victory. He decided to go all out from the very beginning.
The moment he began the test, Lex blasted his Domination in full, and displayed the latest addition to his arsenal of techniques: Inferno Blade.
The sound of thunder accompanied his attack as his sword, now turned red from its usual silverish-gray due to heat, cut through the arena. Though the enemy was far away, it was still within reach of the attack. At the apogee of its swing, a red energy seemed to shoot out from the tip of the blade and cut through the armor before it could even react.
By the time Lex completed his sword-swing and looked over, the suit of armor was already melting.