Indeed

Damaskinos rapidly casted invisibility again, spooking the Ancient Ice Scorpion into hastily starting to beat his pincers like a prayer, confused on how the taunt seemed to have no effect on its diminutive prey. The Imp rapidly flew hugging the ceiling, before turning upside down above the arachnid, using his legs and wings to give it the necessary speed that height could not as it broke invisibility and jumped down, newly casted smite manifesting ominously at hand.

The scorpion noticed his appearance with uncanny precision, its stinger flying upwards to meet the falling Imp, who extended its fist instead of dodging, the deep darkness spreading as the needle of the stinger grazed its target and was annihilated by the impact. The Arachnid recoiled in pain and Damaskinos desperately retook control over his flight and flew away to cast regenerate from a safe distance, one of the main weapons of its enemy neutralized.

The scorpion clicked its pincers in fury, it had been decades since it was last injured in such a manner and it zealously tried to taunt the Imp into coming closer, not noticing its effect is being resisted every time. The Dark Champion finished restoring his arm before refreshing and arming his next spell, something he had not been given a chance to use much in the open to avoid being spotted from a distance. He closed the gap as the Scorpion eagerly approached with its pincers at ready.

"Fire lance"

The elemental spell assaulted the face of the scorpion, melting its ice imbued carapace and destroying its eyes, leaving it to squabble about blinding as Damaskinos flew up in the closed room, confusion quickly armed and cast as the blind and in pain Magical Beast became ever more erratic in its movements, and Damaskinos prepared the final touch as his fist once again darkened with Divine Energy, and the last dive was done as another arm was sacrificed to perform the coup de grace.

The Dark Champion stood atop the now dead scorpion, trembling in pain as regenerate repaired his broken body. He needed a stronger body or a weapon as soon as possible, this fighting style and the ever present Elemental ravishments were going to drive him mad soon enough. He could also feel the weird rank up options that Carnachias would tease him with multiplying with every destroyed arm. The regeneration finished for now, he used imbued his claws with fire magic and started digging into the scorpion for its core, the pain of having his body parts flooded with elemental energy now but a daily activity. Hugging the disproportional core of an Ancient-Rank magical beast, he called upon his Goddess.

"This Dark Divinity admires your dedication to performing that perverts side quest, but would advise that my champion varies its fighting style, it shall lead for more varied options when ranking up."

"I will devise another strategy before returning home today my Goddess. Send my good news to Mundus, the crystal is still here and should be repairable, and I wish I could be here to see when the murals those bastards tried to erase are restored. Carnachias has returned to the lab I presume?"

"Your diligence has left my sister with much to do, and the new Demonic lineages should be ready for deployment amongst the cannon fodder soon, which should buys us more time. This Dark Divinity fears that a civil war might be inevitable as far as it is foreseeable, even if it is the last thing we can possibly afford right now. The good news is that the Saintesses have left the frontlines."

The Arcane Imp felt a small stinge of fear.

"Do we know why?"

"Citrinas got tired of cleaning cannon fodder and retired to her experiments, while the Amazon Queen and the Archbishop have more pressing issues to deal with than cover for Citranas missing presence and also decided to retire to take care of their respective politics. That traitor Lizard has decided to search for a place to make her new lair somewhere in the Light Lands, and Tomoko has gone with her as she has crippling anxiety about being alone in the frontlines and like the hypocrite she is she rather thousands of Light soldiers and adventurers die rather than face her fears and help with the fighting. Mundus and I are considering lowering the pressure, no need to graciously bestow our enemies free EXP in the form of freshly spawned demons and monsters if we don't need to contain their weapons of mass destruction."

"Do you think it part of enemy strategy? To lower our guard?"

"Oh hardly, Citrinas behavior is exasperatedly well know among both the Dark and the Light. Before the Arch-Imago joined that unworthy hero, she had a habit of popping up in the borderlands to take whatever she wished for destroying all in her wake, only to disappear back into the Light Realms without letting any of the Light forces know a giant hole was created in our forces to collect herbs. Elmira and Alkadabuki problems are also well known to our spies, being away from their seats of power for too long attracts all kinds of flies, the Demon King is dead after all and serving as the heros party is hardly the political shield it used to be. Specially for Elmira, a dark elf archbishop is a novelty but the ambitious fool with a winning personality wants a cardinalship, not that this has ever stopped her before, the dirty wench. The other 2 are not schemers, and are probably going to plague the Light Lands for a long while before coming back. There is another problem brewing in the Light however, and is another reason why we are considering restricting monster production besides the risks.
A lot of Light miscreants have made considerable bank in monster and parts, and farmed up some pretty advanced classes. Halicarnassus is working hard into planting the idea amongst them that maybe, just maybe, they are strong enough to just return home and take what they want rather than carve up a new living in the border lands under constant monster attack. That the market has been flooded with monster and demon products makes the worthwhileness of staying in the front all the lesser, what glory is there in staying in a fight that has been already won?"

"I hardly believe the Light gods will fall for it my Goddess."

"They are as divided as ever, and old man Zeus probably does not like the prospects of keeping his seat without these Dark Sisters being an ever present threat. As long as we managed to carefully balance keeping our tender belly up, we might, just might, buy enough time for our forces to get their act in order."

"Should I delay the guerrilla plan then?"

"We just might have to. The last thing we need right now is reminding the Light this war isn't over. Keep yourself safe until then, you have no idea how much it pleases this deity to talk with someone who isn't constantly reporting problems."

"Bury the Light, Win the War."

"Bury the Light, Win the War my dearest servant."