He thought a goddess like her wouldn't care about mortal things, but only now he realized that he had yet to understand her thought process. She may not care about mortals like mortals do, but she does care about her own creations, especially this world, and seeing it in a dying state must be no different than how a parent would feel seeing their child dying. And since the reason for this world's poor state might be related to her sworn enemy, it only added more fuel to the fire.
He was actually surprised she didn't seem to hold any personal grudges towards him for inheriting the legacy of her sworn enemy. Considering the mentality of the cultivation world, where people would annihilate every ancestor, descendants, and even the chicken of their sworn enemy, Luna seemed to be on the far better end of the spectrum.
"Alright, you guys. That's enough. No point in arguing over the past and blaming each other. We should just focus on the present and the future," Damien said with a sigh as both Luna and Kalypso turned away their heads with a scoff.
Damien looked at the aged metal walls hidden behind the rocks and covered my mold as he asked, "You think this place was always a cave?"
Mira didn't even look at what he was pointing at as she said, "How should I know, and why do you care?"
Damien sighed with a head shake, "You really know how to make conversation. Anyways, my aunt should have already come here since I shattered the stone she gave me. It's weird that she's not here yet."
Mira suddenly stopped as she asked with a surprised look, "She gave you a black stone?"
"Yeah?" Mira finally looked at him with a look of astonishment but then looked away.
"What?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Nothing, but if you did shatter that stone, it is strange she isn't here yet. Something must be wrong. We have to find her right away!" Mira said with an anxious look.
"Easy. You might have unsealed your cultivation, but you are badly hurt inside. Besides, won't she be alright on her own around here?" Damien asked as he also felt concerned if his aunt got caught up in something.
"You don't get it. Humans are despicable, and since they know they can't overpower us most of the time, they use traps and strange artifacts to try and kill us, just like how they captured me," Mira said as she cracked her knuckles.
Damien remembered the strange cube-like artifact he had plucked from the roof of the cave, which suppressed all ethereal aura. Could it be that there were other strange artifacts like that with different functions? The Old World of the past must have been truly advanced for these artifacts to even last this long unless some expert knows how to make them.
"You people have never tried to use their artifacts against them?" Damien asked since that was something he would have done in their place.
Mira coldly snorted as she said, "We don't need any artifacts those weaklings made, nor can we use them. Our strength is enough to crush them all. But we just didn't since they are a necessary evil after all."
"Fair enough," Damien shrugged though he felt that other than their prideful nature, ghouls may not be able to figure out ethereal formations that power such artifacts. And surely, the humans must be protecting their formation experts so that they won't get exploited by ghouls.
*RUMBLE!*
"What was that?!" Damien asked as his eyes widened upon hearing a loud rumble of lightning booming up in the skies and even shook the earth underneath him.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"Master!" Mira's figure disappeared as she rushed out as Damien called out from behind, "Wait!"
Damien's figure turned into a jet-black streak as he came out of the cave, only to stop right behind Mira.
"Damien…Mira…Are you two alright? I am sorry, Damien, for being late," A ghoul woman with dark glowing purple eyes asked in a breathless yet relieved voice as she wiped away the blood on her smooth cheeks.
"We are fine. But…what happened to you?" Damien was relieved to see his aunt but seeing how she was sweating and exhausted, Damien wondered what forced her to exhaust herself this much. Fortunately, she didn't seem injured at all.
Mira was relieved as well to see her Master, but the moment her Master spoke to Damien, it left her stunned, especially when she saw her Master's gaze soften when looking at Damien and even apologizing to him for being late.
She had never seen her usually indifferent and ruthless Master being so soft to someone, not even to her.
Could she be dreaming this, or did this half-human, half-ghoul freak really was important to her? If so, how come she never mentioned her precious nephew in the past?
Akira shook her head as she placed her hand on Damien's shoulder and said with a subtle smile, "Don't worry about me. It was just some loathsome humans who tried to surround me and have me killed as usual. But as always, they miserably failed."
"But why would they try to lure you into a trap like this? It seems like this isn't the first time something like this happened," Damien asked since he found it odd that the humans were targeting her.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Mira scoffed as she said with a resentful look, "Obviously, it is because Master is the strongest around here. The humans want to suppress my Master so that they can finally claim dominance over this region, especially since the Daemon Horn continent has a weaker reach around these parts. Tsk, these despicable humans, they are taking advantage just because Master hasn't really gone after them like in the past. Master, if you give me permission, I can actively hunt and destroy those so-called human stations and make sure they remember who are the slaves and the masters."
Damien sucked in a cold breath as he felt that his aunt's disciple clearly had something against humans. He surely shouldn't mention his human wives to her.
