The Elf Princess Azera.
Before today, Damien didn't think there were any survivors of the Elven Domain tragedy, but her existence proved him wrong.
The mystery as to how she ended up in the Abyss wasn't too hard to figure out.
She was in the middle of a space corridor when Aurora was obliterated, and the mana forced its way into the corridor and shattered it.
Her only end was to be randomly spit out somewhere, with fatal injuries almost instantly killing her.
So she could be considered lucky to land in the Abyss.
This place with its corrupted time and space kept her alive longer than she should have been.
Afterward, the old man found her and kept her in his shack. The fact that her body had no visible injuries could only be credited to his interference.
'This further proves that the old man isn't simple, but that isn't new information.'
Damien frowned.
He didn't really have an interest in the Elven Domain's destruction, and finding a survivor didn't mean much to him.
So why did the old man call her a "gift?"
'Her memories are blank since the moment she left, so it's clear she's been comatose since then…if the answer isn't in her mind, then it must be in her body.'
Damien pulled himself out of her spiritual world and sent his mana through her physical body to observe it.
And indeed, it was a nearly incomprehensible sight.
'Her systems are all pretty much destroyed. There's hardly anything remaining that logically supports the amount of vitality emanating from her, but…'
Everything was different.
Damien hadn't devoured any elves, so he didn't know the specifics of their physiology, but he had several close to him.
Through inference, he could understand that they weren't much different than humans in their internal structure. Their organs and bodily systems were essentially mirrored.
But this woman, Azera, did not hold any of those similarities.
'There's a faint presence. It can barely be felt, but it's supporting her life force.'
It wasn't a positive presence in the slightest.
No, it was the mana of the Abyss.
'I need to dig deeper.'
Damien sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes, focusing all his senses on the current task.
The further he explored her body, the more he felt the urge to stand up and exclaim in shock.
But he held it in.
'She's being transformed.'
That was the main conclusion he made.
In the time she spent floating in the Abyss, and even now, its mana was corroding her systems in an odd way that transformed her into a being that could only be called an elf in appearance.
Her internal structure…
'...is far more like a Nox.'
"Huu…"
Damien had made many conclusions about their species in the time he spent devouring them, but many were just assumptions without proof.
Her existence practically gave him the proof he needed to justify 90% of those assumptions.
'I always wondered why the Nox were so hell-bent on creating chimeras out of universe denizens in their likeness, but maybe they were just chasing their roots.'
'Even if I had no other information, this transformation alone proves it. The Nox…are an artificially created species.'
They did not come into existence naturally. They were an invasive species in its territory, a virus that shouldn't have existed.
The entity or entities who birthed them were still unknown, but…
'...not only were they created instead of born, they were corrupted away from what their creators intended.'
He felt it clearly in her body.
The presence of the Void, that is.
'I didn't expect to find this at all.'
He had his speculations, but with this it was certain. The Abyss was truly a reflection of the Void, a diluted version of its existence.
From his understanding, the Abyss was formed from the destroyed remnants of several universes, but it couldn't have always been like that.
There was certainly a time when the universe hadn't yet faced destruction and the Abyss had no means to be created.
Yet, even in that time, it existed.
He couldn't explain that primordial form of this space. He didn't know anything about it, nor could he envision it.
But in its current form, the explanation was simple.
When reality was destroyed, it would create a Dead Zone absent of any laws.
The Abyss was a larger version of this.
The destruction of the universe created a massive Dead Zone, but because the forces present in their ruination were too plentiful, they weren't wiped out, but instead clashed against each other and further ruined the Dead Zones they resided in.
When all else was gone, what could fill that space?
Naturally, it was the Void, the entity that birthed existence itself.
The Void's energy seeped through the cracks formed by the cataclysms and allowed for the stable fusion of those rampaging elements. In the end, this reaction continued for eons upon eons until finally solidifying into what was now called the Abyss.
'Phew…'
A universal truth.
This single interaction allowed him to witness it.
And this truth, combined with everything else he'd learned from Azera's body, gave him a level of perception impossible to others.
'If the Void is the "glue" that formed the Abyss, and the Nox were formed in the Abyss itself, there's no way they'd remain unaffected.'
It was no wonder they were unable to form conscious thought until they received Universe Baptisms and were introduced to the presence of order.
It was no wonder they needed something like bloodline memories to guide them and give them purpose.
And it was no wonder their personalities skewed further and further towards disorder as they gained power.
After all, power was freedom.
And for those who knew nothing but chaos and were influenced by the Void's qualities to consume all things, it was only natural to develop such dispositions.
'...I'm starting to pity them a little.'
Damien smiled wryly to himself as he stood up.
'This can't be everything. If I can learn so much from just examining her body, actually hearing it from her will surely provide unexpected boons. I guess…I should probably save her.'
He had a population of elves in the Sanctuary as well, though the difference in hair color clearly illustrated the separation of their ancestries.
Nevertheless, Elvira was the perfect person to ask if he wanted to heal this woman, and putting her in the company of elves would help stabilize her psyche much faster than doing it himself.
'Alright. Let's take some precautions first.'
He placed his hand on her head and slowly injected Void Mana into her systems.
This mana would both assure that she wouldn't die instantly from the rapid change in environment when she was introduced to the Sanctuary, and restrict her in case she turned feral when she regained consciousness.
Without another thought, he swept his arm through the air and picked her up with his mana, sending her directly to the Sanctuary.
His mood was lighter now than it was before he came here.
'This is fun. It's a lonely journey to Al'Katra, but it's like just being here is unraveling secret after secret that's plagued me for so long.'
He felt refreshed. The Nox didn't seem as fearsome when he thought about them. People like the Saint Emperor were of course not included, since his personality was ludicrous, but the Soul Emperor and Inhuman Emperor lost a majority of their credibility here.
'If the Inhuman Emperor is a representation of what happens when the Nox are too far separated from their origins and descend into the influence of the Abyss…'
Damien's eyes hardened.
'...the Soul Emperor is a representation of a Nox utterly loyal to their original cause.'
He didn't like that at all.
Because that man was the one behind a majority of the plots that ruined the universe completely.
And he was the one plundering World Cores for reasons unknown.
Those motives that had been hidden behind a veil of mystery until now…
…they were starting to become much clearer.
