The pale moonlight was glaring, reflecting Damien's frosty expression. The silence of the night was haunting.
Evil lurked under the white sky that seemingly blended with the snow-draped ground on the horizon. Countless white specks dotted the world, neither falling nor rising. They were signs that showed it was snowing not too long ago. Damien's arrival froze the countless snowflakes and snowballs in space and time.
He was like the coldest piece of ice the world has ever known. The chill seeping out of him in the form of gales and gusts was bone-chilling and froze everything in place.
He looked around and saw that the mightiest of evil warriors that once heralded doom and the vilest of mages that gave up their humanity for the sake of eternal life were now like tranquilized pigs on a chopping board, waiting to be butchered.
His gaze was sharper than a thousand knives, and in his line of sight were the pigs that he so wanted to cut.
'The most peaceful death is when one dies in their sleep.' He carefully inspected them. Seeing that the power of time he had copied from the Endless was working on them, he exposed a silly smile. A closer look at his face would help one realize that it was painted with intense murderous intent. 'Their current state is no different than a man who has fallen asleep. Killing them like this will be letting them off too easily.'
Because he did not want to let them off easily, he didn't grab a sword to butcher them.
Not to mention, now was not the time for that.
'With this strength, can I save them?'
Damien first went up to his dog. It was chopped into two by Marty. A pool of blood has formed beneath its carcass, coloring red its fur. The metallic scent in the air made him twitch his nose. His eyes watered up. Maybe it was because of the pain in his heart that arose from seeing how brutally his year-long companion had died that his heart hurt.
"It's well worth a try."
He crouched next to it and picked it up, willing for a miracle to happen. The power he had gained using his third innate ability was extraordinary. Till now, he had only used it to stop time in a limited amount of area. But he couldn't only stop it but also slow it down and accelerate it. Yet none of these could be compared to reversing it.
A gentle light glowed out of his hand and covered the dog, signaling the start of a miracle. The two pieces of its body merged into one. Drop by drop, the puddle of blood that had formed beneath it flowed back into its body, guided by Damien's power. The large gash on the dog's body closed up in the blink of an eye.
Thump!
And its heart started beating.
"It's working."
The young boy's eyes showed glee. He was happy to see what was happening. However, his expression soon fell as he noticed that light hadn't returned to its eyes. Its body had been healed, and it had only taken a minuscule amount of his divine energy to do so. But it still couldn't be said to be alive. Although its heart and brain were working and it was biologically alive, it still lacked something to be called alive.
"It's spiritually dead."
It didn't take a mastermind to realize that it was spiritually dead.
"It's an empty shell because it's missing a soul."
Damien's narrowed eyes dimmed. His long eyelashes cast a shadow on his lower eyelids. His expression couldn't be seen as his face was submerged in the darkness of the night, but it was quite clear how he was feeling.
He felt helpless at the sight of the corpse of his dog.
'Soul…'
'Where is his soul?'
Damien's dog's gender was male, and its expression was humanlike. So he had always treated it like one after they became friends.
'Where does one's soul go after they die?'
He didn't have an answer to such a question.
'Maybe there is really an afterlife where people go after death. Maybe, that's where his soul is.'
'If so, will I be able to recall it with this power?'
Damien looked up at the sky, and the clouds parted ways. The space trembled as a massive amount of divine energy erupted out of his little body like a volcano. It stretched upwards and thrust into the sky of the Far West Major World. A thick beam of light appeared between the Heavens and Earth. It was like the pillars of heaven, shouldering the weight of the universe, and it connected Damien with the unknown.
No!
It connected the realm of the living with the unknown.
…
In the unknown, a soul was aimlessly drifting in the darkness.
He was filled with regret.
He regretted that he was of no use to his master until his very end.
He desired to return.
He wanted to be with him again, and he wanted to protect him.
Suddenly, as if his wish had been heard, he saw a huge cluster of light in the distance.
It broke through the darkness and illuminated his surroundings.
He found it quite familiar.
That light had the scent of his master.
The soul floated towards it and was sucked inside it.
The best happened to him then.
He opened his eyes and saw his master. Damien's eyes widened to the size of saucers in surprise when he saw the dog opening his eyes and looking at him. His heart trembled out of joy, and an exclamation came out of his mouth
"It's possible!"
Using his innate power, the likes of which even Chaos desired, he could even revive animals.
"Bark!" The young dog barked at his master sweetly, his tail wagging. He was excited to see him again, although he didn't understand how he had returned from being dead or how he had escaped the darkness. The sensation of death was too real to be mistaken. He was but an animal, but even it could tell that it had been killed. But now that he was alive, he was certain that his master had someone raised his back from death.
"Sorry." Damien felt responsible for his death, so he apologized to him as he petted him and felt his soft furs.
"Master, you don't need to be."
The dog barked, but somehow Damien was able to understand it.
"To have died for you was an honor."
"You silly dog."
The dog ran into his hand and licked his face, and Damien hugged him back.
He felt happy seeing its eyes that were brimming with vitality and hearing its barks.
Suddenly, they heard a garish voice that was like a broken recorder.
"D-D-D-Damien?"
Damien put his dog down and turned toward the source of the unfamiliar voice that contained some traces of familiarity, and he saw a headless male corpse. His breastplate was covered in blood. Three blades were sticking out of his back. There were countless wounds on his body. One of his hands tightly held a hilt of a shattered sword. It looked like he had engaged in a dreadful battle before death.
The voice naturally didn't come out of it.
Rather, what stuttered out his name was the head it was holding.
Surprise and happiness flashed in Damien's eyes when he examined the headless figure.
"Teacher? Is that really you?"
The headless man nodded at his words, and the young man and his dog ran excitedly toward him. Even the dogs recognized him as the man that had helped his master to the very end. Damien had no reason to doubt his identity.
"What's going on? I am certain I have died. The last thing I remember is roaming around blindly in the dark when suddenly, a pillar of light fell on me, almost crushing me to death again. So how could I be here, and how am I alive in this state?" asked the man.
"I think I might have unintentionally caused this," Damien said, feeling embarrassed.
They exchanged information and summed it up.
In his attempt to revive his dog, Damien had unintentionally created a pathway between the living realm and the "unknown."
The unknown was a very dark place. That's all the man, and the dog could remember about it. It was most likely the place where the soul of the recently deceased went after their death.
By entering the light, the dog has found its way back home.
Meanwhile, the man was lucky enough to be in its path when it invaded the unknown.
"I am damn lucky." After realizing what had happened, Damien's teacher couldn't help but curse himself as a lucky dog and laugh out loud. Never in his wildest dream had he expected that something like this could happen.
"Indeed, you are."
Damien willed, and a sword floated toward his teacher, stopping in front of him.
"What's this for?" he asked.
"Feel free to take your revenge," Damien replied.
"You're quite sensible. Thank you for this opportunity."
The man grabbed the sword and rushed toward the bastards who had teamed up to kill him.
A sharp light flashed, and the heads of three crimson mages detached from their bodies and fell to the ground.
Hidden deep within their head was a crystal.
It was their life source.
Unless it were destroyed, no matter how badly their bodies were damaged, they wouldn't die.
They were crushed under the fierce stomps of the man.
Three crimson mages as powerful as peak-level aura master lost their lives.
No matter what place, such a loss was astronomical!
But this number was expected to grow! There were still hundreds of them that needed to be killed!
