Time flew, and a month passed in the blink of an eye. Isaac had not spent the entire month in the dungeon observing the God of Strife. He had also gone out once to cast spells on Mephisto and the Mother Goddess, bringing their somewhat rampant [divinity] under control.
The Mother Goddess was particularly bad. By the time Isaac saw her, she had almost been completely dominated by [divinity]. The erosion was progressing far faster than he had expected!
Fortunately, his experiments had gone extremely smoothly. With the God of Strife serving as an excellent test subject who kept swinging back and forth, his optimization of Divine Self had gone just as well. By now, the spell was practically perfect at suppressing [divinity].
Isaac's next research goal was to turn it into a divine spell. That would make it much easier for Mephisto and the others to learn, allowing them to retain control of themselves even after he left.
Still, perhaps it was his imagination, but Isaac kept feeling that the Mother Goddess seemed a little disappointed after her [divinity] was suppressed.
Inside the dungeon, Isaac watched the red-eyed God of Strife roam the desert, slaughtering monsters. He shook his head, cast aside his stray thoughts, and returned his attention to the God of Strife.
He had to admit that this fellow was an excellent test subject. Or rather, virtual deities really did make excellent test subjects.
Normally, anyone—or any intelligent life with self-awareness—would eventually collapse under such mental torment, becoming a mindless husk or falling into a vegetative state.
But the God of Strife had not. Although his consciousness had been tortured to the brink of madness, whenever [divinity] gained the upper hand, many of the impurities within his consciousness were purged, and his thoughts became singular in focus.