The greatest achievement Damien had made on his own in the Severed World was his first meditation session.
Back then, when he was desperately trying to maintain his memory, he'd shattered a portion of the sub-universe's restriction, which made a certain force available to him again.
The Void showed itself when he used Devour.
The Breath of Nothingness that remained hidden until now came out in full force, consuming Damien's target with all its power.
What was that target?
Naturally, it was Sia's comprehension.
If he couldn't attain it himself, he could just steal it!
This was the split-second decision he came to upon realizing the limits of his strength.
To steal someone else's comprehension was usually impossible without injuring them. After all, it was essentially crippling their strength, ridding them of any memory of those comprehensions.
But it was different in the Severed World.
Here, the comprehension one had was, in simple terms, held in a backup.
The restriction was able to read one's past and revert their strength, which meant it needed to keep a memory of what to return to them when they left.
In that instance, one's original strength would be added back onto what they gained in the Severed World, and any "superfluous data" would naturally override itself.
Basically, the comprehensions one maintained from their original 2nd class state would be returned, while things they achieved within the realm would be maintained.
Damien didn't know anything about Sia, but he could guarantee that her comprehension didn't come from this realm.
If she only recently understood her laws, she wouldn't be able to use them with such precision and subtlety.
Truthfully, Damien had been testing Sia for a while.
She didn't act unless she needed to, but whenever he gave her a task, she was able to accomplish it perfectly.
For instance, when she placed a target on the Wind Spirit King's back.
That precise mana control was already impressive, but when her unique law was taken into account, all the facts showed that she was an expert in the outside world.
Even if Damien harmed her comprehension right now, nothing would happen to her in the long run.
'But at the end of the day, we're on good terms, so I'll have to make sure something like that doesn't happen.'
It was just a matter of control.
Damien was very careful in handling the Breath of Nothingness with his current strength, and though he couldn't sense where Sia was, he made sure not to send his mana past the bounds of the wisps she left for him.
'I can start with these to get a feel for it and then get bolder later. Since she released these into reality, they must be low-level comprehensions.'
Giving him high-level material from the start was foolish. He didn't believe Sia would make such a scammer-like move.
The Breath of Nothingness did its job perfectly when it was given the opportunity. The wisps of strange mana were swallowed one after another, and several thoughts filled Damien's mind, colliding and merging as if they had physical presence.
'This law…isn't quite Universal Law…?'
He didn't expect it to be so easy to grasp when it was presented like this.
He rapidly understood what the nature of Sia's law was.
'Just like the Severed World, she holds an incomplete Universal Law in her hands.'
Its rules were different and it had developed in a direction fit for an individual rather than a plane, but it was undoubtedly a partial universal law.
'Did she come here for the same purpose as me? To steal the Severed World's achievements for herself?'
If so, she was definitely impressive. Rather than doing the work herself, she came to this point utilizing the strength of others and using every waking moment to study the realm's laws!
The dedication was admirable.
'And it's my ticket to success!'
Damien was now in an amazing position.
Sia's incomplete law was entering his head piece by piece through the Breath of Nothingness, while the Severed World's incomplete law was displayed above for him to read whenever he desired!
The only problem was time.
'Khh…!'
Damien gritted his teeth as he felt something entering his body.
Tendrils of the Severed World's will entered his body through the Lunar River's water, gripping his heart and giving him a severe warning.
It was fine to learn what he wanted, but only within the bounds of what he was allowed.
This was the message it sent!
'It's fucking annoying. The damn universe started attacking me the moment I went under. Aren't your bounds a little too strict?'
Damien frowned, but he knew in his heart that he didn't have the power to refute,
'I have at most a minute in here. I have to take everything I can in the time I have.'
Damien once again stopped his idle thoughts and concentrated.
His mana spread past the tiny wisps of cosmic mana and towards where he assumed their source was.
He swirled his mana around the river, even devouring some of its waters, but he was never able to touch Sia's physical body.
Nevertheless, the fluctuations of cosmic mana became denser the further he traveled into its midst, and the comprehension he received wasn't slight at all.
The situation continued for precisely a minute.
Damien constantly compared the laws above him with those in his head, forming a more complete picture of how these two entities understood Universal Law.
But that wasn't enough for him.
The information he was currently receiving was extremely helpful, but he wanted to seek the truth!
He wanted to test the True Universal Law itself!
Splash!
"Fuwah!"
His head resurfaced from the deep blackness, the water dripping down his face illuminated by the pale white light from below.
'I guess that's all I can do for now.'
He had to be satisfied with what he had.
He climbed out of the river and used mana to dry his body, glancing around in the meantime.
"Huh…" he muttered awkwardly,
"…I guess I'm the first one out."
He didn't look down on the girls, but this was the first time such a situation occurred, not just with them, but in general.
"…"
Damien sat down, a look of confusion on his face.
"…what am I supposed to do now?"
For once, he was put in the waiting room, forced to entertain himself until the test finished.
But how did he do that here?
He could just relax, but he had enough of that in the Blessing Shrine's blank space.
His eyes turned to the other side of the riverbank.
'Should I go feel out the competition?'
It was a known fact that the beasts higher up would be incredibly powerful. Preparations to deal with their strength had already been made.
Their number was still a problem, though.
If there were too many of them, preparation became meaningless.
Damien stood up and stretched his body, flickering as he teleported across the river.
'It's already been a minute, but it's rare for normal practitioners to last even 30 seconds in there. I'm on a time crunch.'
Sure he was doing something important, but he had to be back before the girls emerged from the river.
After all, he knew it personally.
The feeling of seeing someone one cared about patiently waiting for them to finish was too heartwarming for him to deny his women that privilege!
