Damien knew everything there was to know about them. Tevenlor had told him that they were husband and wife. He didn't mind seeing them kissing each other. Couples do that all the time.
Damien was happy to see that another member of his clan had found her mate.
He was equally happy for Roy, for he had become a married man and gained a gentle and loving wife.
"It's good to see you again." Tevenlor eyed the hybrid, carefully sizing him up with a gaze of scrutiny. "You have grown awfully stronger than I expected. But that doesn't make sense. How can someone reach that stage in less than a decade?"
Damien's power level was too high, so high that Tevenlor could barely see through him. Except for realizing what level he has reached, he didn't find out anything about himself. The teenager he saw several years ago was now more. Only a man covered in mystery and surrounded by a commanding air was left.
"Miracles happen every now and then." Damien lazily raised his head to look at the moon peeking out from behind the clouds. He admired it as he said, "This is what I like the most about this world."
"How long has it been since we last met?" Tevenlor asked.
"Seven," Damien replied.
After talking with each other about a lot of things, Tevenlor and Damien walked up to the lovebirds. They stood next to them, towering over them. Their shadows covered Roy and the Female Siren.
His eyes opened, and he looked at them in question.
Roy: "…" ???
"Have you been fighting with Voss?"
Tevenlor was certain about that. Roy had Voss's scent all over him. His scent was peculiar. It couldn't be mistaken for another's.
"I had an encounter with him." Roy sat up, leaving the warmth of his wife's lap. "He tried to kidnap me, but I ran away."
Tevenlor was taken aback by his words. Voss might just be the greatest narcissistic he had met in his life, but his strength was no joke. He proclaimed himself as an evil god because he was really strong. The possibility of someone like Roy escaping him was next to zero. Not to mention, the life-saving treasure wasn't with him but with his wife.
"You fought him off?" Tevenlor asked him in a voice full of disbelief.
Roy's eyes twitched as he remembered how helpless he was against Voss's avatar.
"No, I didn't. He subdued me by uttering two words. I was going to die fighting it when the spirit of my runic item stopped me and engaged Voss in a fight. Calling it a fight is too much. It was a one-sided beating. Voss's avatar was no match for him. He stalled him for me as I ran away. If not for him, I don't know how I would have survived."
Roy recounted what happened in the Ancestral Land after they had taken the portal.
"Such runic items are unique." Damien's eyes narrowed. A look at his face told Sandra that his interest was piqued. "For the spirit of your runic item to manifest by itself and fight off Voss's avatar, it could only mean his soul energy was of a very high grade."
Damien's eyelids lowered, and he looked at Roy with a pleasant smile. "Can I see it?"
"Yeah, why not?"
Damien had helped him a lot. He learned about Force from him. He wasn't asking for much. So Roy took it out from his subspace to let him see it.
Crack!
He had only held it when a crack appeared on it.
'Something bad has happened to him.'
The crack on it told Rot that the Righteous Knight had fought Voss to the bitter end.
His face turned pale. 'The worst has indeed happened.'
He began shaking from… anger. 'Voss, before the end of the next year, I will fucking kill you, burn you to ashes!'
The Female Siren saw him clenching his teeth and felt concerned about him.
"What's wrong?" she tried to soothe him.
"The man who saved me from Voss is… severely injured," Roy tried not to assume that the worst had happened to the righteous knight as he answered her.
Roy knew that a crack on the sword didn't mean that the Righteous Knight had died. But that's what he heard from him and not an established fact. Not to mention, he couldn't summon him or feel that he was in the sword.
Besides, he couldn't deny that it signified that Voss had severely injured him and that the Righteous knight was hanging between life and death, depending on him to save himself.
"And it's all because of me."
He was more angry at himself than he was at Voss and hated himself for not having the strength to contend against a self-proclaimed evil god and needing someone to protect him from Voss.
He hated that he was so weak the Righteous Knight had to sacrifice himself to protect him.
The Female Siren placed her hand on Roy's shoulder to comfort him, thinking he was blaming himself for the injuries of the spirit of the runic item he gained while fighting Viss.
"Don't waste time blaming yourself. That spirit sacrificed himself for you because he considered you were worth it. So live up to his expectations. Make sure his sacrifice doesn't go to waste."
With those words, Damien succeeded in cheering him up.
"I won't let it drag me down, and I won't let him down,"
Roy vowed that on his name and pride and stood up from the ground before helping his wife stand up to her two feet too.
Roy raised his head, looking at him with hope in his eyes. "Do you have a way to fix it?"
Damien scrutinized Shadow Piercer, which was in Roy's hand, before answering him, "I am afraid not. It is in quite bad condition. Not just me, but even Arnard wouldn't be able to fix it. Maybe the empire's best alchemist might have a way to fix it, but getting the chance to meet him is harder than climbing a mountain of swords. Not to mention, he lives in a place where no one below the aura master stage would enter if they don't want to die."
