Damien stared at the little girl on his leg with no idea what he was supposed to do.
How did she get here? And why did she come?
He wanted to get the answers to these questions, but he didn't know if it was actually possible.
"Um…do you know where you are?" He asked awkwardly.
Reva nodded with dull and clueless eyes.
"Do you know who I am?"
Reva nodded again, nothing changing about her expression or demeanor.
"Ehm…"
Damien scratched his face in genuine speechlessness.
'Am I supposed to consider her an enemy? I can't really bring myself to be cautious against her…'
The way she appeared and latched onto him while evading his perception was definitely concerning. If she truly was an enemy, she could've made an attempt on his life in that moment.
But her nonaggression wasn't the reason for his calmness. Rather, it was the strange connection he felt with her, almost like they were from the same source.
'However, she isn't a product of the Void. With my current abilities, I would've immediately known if that was the case.'
Back then, Niflheim's situation spiraled out of control extremely fast, and he eventually forgot about this fake daughter of his in the confusion and destruction.
Now that he'd seen her again and felt that bond, his curiosity was once again awakened.
"Do you know how to speak?" He asked.
Reva shook her head.
Damien sighed.
"Haa, I figured. Then, will you allow me to see inside your mind?"
Reva stared at him for a moment, quirking her head just slightly before nodding.
She closed her eyes and lifted her chin to face Damien, and in response, he gently placed his index finger on her forehead.
A wisp of Void Mana traveled into her head and infiltrated her spiritual world. At that moment, it immediately shifted into the Breath of Nothingness and swam towards her memories.
Damien received a view of the inside of Reva's mind…
…and genuinely, he could not make sense of the scene at all.
'What is this absolute chaos? Even the Breath of Nothingness is having trouble navigating it!'
Reva's spiritual world was made up of a collection of swirling vortexes, the force of each colliding with the rest and practically tearing apart anything between them.
'It's a miracle she's even alive.'
Damien was sure that any other person, regardless of strength or ability, would not be able to stand this kind of spiritual torment for years on end.
How old was Reva?
While she looked no more than ten, she looked the same years ago when Damien first met her.
And with the state of her spiritual world, it was clear that her age didn't match her appearance in the slightest.
'There.'
Damien eventually found a narrow gap between the vortexes, not in three-dimensional space, but in four.
'No, that's just the fourth dimension. If I'm sensing it properly, there are at least 16 dimensions making up the structure of this spiritual world.
Damien maneuvered the Breath of Nothingness through the fourth, fifth, sixth, and many other dimensions, each showing a state of decay that differed from the rest.
From the first three dimensions, which were a representation of total chaos, each proceeding dimension showed a more complete state.
By the tenth dimension, Damien could faintly make out physical structures, best compared to stray debris.
By the thirteenth, those structures solidified into small rocks and celestial bodies.
By the fifteenth, the size of the space had grown rapidly and it was beginning to look like a true universe.
And finally, in the 18th universe, Damien encountered the universe itself.
However, this universe—
'—is not Grand Heavens Boundary.' Damien thought solemnly.
With a turbulent sigh, he pulled the Breath of Nothingness out of Reva's spiritual world and returned his mind to reality.
He looked down at the little girl who was still staring at him with the same clueless expression.
He didn't need to see her memories.
No, he'd already seen them.
"I'm sorry," he said, slightly mournfully.
However, Reva only quirked her head in confusion.
Because she…
'She cannot remember what she originally was.'
The memories locked behind several layers of decay were nothing more than pieces of code that Reva didn't have access to.
And Reva herself was not a human.
'She is a remnant, a piece of that shattered universe that somehow survived and made its way to Grand Heavens Boundary.'
Damien's mind moved at lightning speed. With his understanding of the Void, Dimensional Magic, and Universal Flow, he could somewhat make out what occurred at that time.
'Somehow, that universe was destroyed. It was consumed by the Void, but either intentionally or unintentionally, the universe itself split a portion of its law and tried to save it. That piece of universal law collided with the Void, and somehow it gained a physical body…'
How she gained a physical body was unknown, which pointed to the fact that there was surely a third force involved in the event.
In addition to that, how she made it to Grand Heavens Boundary was also a concern.
'Yet, even if there were countless miracles involved in her meeting with me, the Heavens are still just.'
As consequence of that phenomenon, she almost wholly lost her ego, left as an empty shell that could only follow its instincts.
And that instinct connected it to Damien, who was practically the Void's apostle.
'She is not part of the Void, but the Void aided in her creation. Not only that, she is also a fragment of a universe, which falls under my Celestial Authority. No wonder the bond was so muddled and unreadable.'
Damien didn't know how common it was in the universe, but he was a double-class individual. With both elusive and rare classes drawing a connection between him and Reva, it was natural for him to be unable to understand it.
Though, now that he knew this information…what was he supposed to do with it?
'She isn't some avatar, she's a genuine piece of universal law, and a foreign universal law at that! If I can restore her memories, she can be invaluable in all three of my main comprehensive paths…'
As a Celestial, as a Voidbringer, and as a follower of Universal Flow, Reva's existence was extremely profound.
But if he wanted to interfere so deeply in her psyche without harming her already fragile mind…
'I need insurance.'
He looked back to Reva hesitantly before finally opening his mouth and asking:
"Do you know what you are?"
Reva shook her head in denial.
"Do you want to know?"
This time, she didn't give a proper answer, seemingly unknowing of what she wanted.
"I have a way to help you, but you'll have to become my subordinate first. Are you willing?"
Reva's eyes suddenly clouded over.
Flash!
Their clear and dull appearance shifted as they were filled with the light of shining galaxies.
And as the light emitted from them grew, it materialized into the form of a beautiful woman with long flowing white hair and a body made of stars.
[Please…protect her.]
"You are…"
The projection shook its head, and Damien's eyes turned solemn.
"I understand what you want. But you understand what it means for me to bind her, right?" He asked, his expression containing utmost seriousness.
[I…trust…you.]
The woman reached out, her ethereal hand brushing against Damien's face almost as if it was tangible.
And Damien's eyes briefly became covered in the light of stars as well.
When he came back to reality, he sighed lightly and nodded his head.
"Fine. If that's your wish, then it shall be so."
Damien pushed his hand out again, and sent a Celestial Mana Thread into Reva's forehead, imitating his previous action.
However, this time, the meaning behind it was far, far more complex.
