Just like every other true show of power, there was no magisterial effect accompanying the command.
With Damien's single word, the foreign material executed his command.
At that moment, if one could view Al'Katra's full form from the Abyss, they'd witness a horrifyingly beautiful sight.
Quintillions of existences.
They formed a mosaic along the surface that even the dark clouds in the atmosphere couldn't hide.
Yet, at this moment, that mosaic merged into a sea of blackness.
Every Lesser Nox on the surface of the planet, a majority of the Nox's power, dropped to the ground without resistance.
Their bodies turned into ink that flowed and filled the desolate earth of Al'Katra with oceans of blood, and despite the merging ability that made the denizens of the universe infinitely wary, these Nox did not reform after dying.
Just like that.
It happened fast, within a few seconds, and far before anyone could understand what was actually happening.
It was hard to picture how grand such a major event was when the time it took to occur was so short and the visual spectacle was practically nonexistent, however, it couldn't be helped.
Damien realized instantly that he didn't have time to marvel at it.
'I need to leave. Now. I can process the weight of my actions later.'
The Saint Emperor just left so he was definitely close enough to return to the Demon Abyss within the hour, while the rest of the Nox Emperors wouldn't be too far behind.
'I have to get out of here before they return, or I'll really find myself facing the entire Nox Race alone.'
He looked at the foreign material with a strained expression for a moment, but understood what he had to do.
'Disassemble.'
He gave the command, and without a consciousness of its own, the foreign material could only follow.
From the inside out, it took itself apart and dissipated into the atmosphere, becoming one with the area that was disappearing now that it was gone.
Damien rapidly exited the alternate reality using the same method he used to enter, and with his current understanding of the Nox, escaping the Demon Abyss wasn't nearly as stretched out of an ordeal as descending it.
He shot up like a fish swimming against the current. He couldn't see it, but starting at the very top, the Demon Abyss was disappearing.
It looked like a swimming pool being drained.
A sinkhole formed in its center due to the extreme speed at which the currents of the abyss swirled and vanished, creating a long corridor that touched the very bottom of the space within the minute.
Damien noticed it once it passed him. He didn't hesitate to change his path and fight the chaotic vortex to reach its eye, where he could directly fly through the environment.
Al'Katra's laws were flooding the space now that the disruption was gone, and he could use these to propel himself far faster than he could through the Demon Abyss itself.
And his mind was moving just as fast.
He needed to find an escape route.
'It's open air outside, so theoretically, I should be able to make it out easily. I don't have to hide my identity anymore, so I can use the full power of my laws to get out of here.'
It was fine.
He trusted himself to make it out before anything bad happened.
He didn't realize how far he'd descended until he had to return to the surface.
Using his true power, he was teleporting millions of kilometers every second, but he'd already teleported hundreds of times and couldn't see the open air yet.
The Demon Abyss itself was a separate entity from Al'Katra.
Its depths didn't reflect the size of Al'Katra, and despite the world itself being far larger than any other world in existence, the Demon Abyss was deeper than it could hold.
'I was billions of kilometers deep at the very least. I'm afraid of how much time it took to descend that, but I didn't feel it at all. Even using extraordinary means to increase my fall speed, it'd take years for the abyss to take me the abyss.'
Damien lost track of the significance of time when he came to the Abyss.
It had already been over a decade since he left the universe, but it felt shorter than the amount of time he spent in No Return Pass.
It was just too fast.
Too much happened in too little time, and Damien learned so much that his brain was full of information that clouded his perception.
He hadn't even digested it all yet.
'The information I learned from the foreign material, at least what I could understand immediately, expanded on things I already know. However, the stuff that's left will help me clear the doubts I formed while I was pondering earlier.'
The things he assumed about the Void's effects on the Nox naturally weren't presented in the foreign material because it had no relation to that, but the information it had would help him clear away incorrect assumptions to eventually triangulate the truth.
'The most important thing now is to get back to Grand Heavens Boundary and spread what I know, as well as the current state of the Nox. We have more than just a chance now. We have the absolute ability to win!'
The threat of an infinite Nox wave no longer existed. Not only were their forces now finite since they lacked the ability to reproduce rapidly, they also lost a majority of their foot soldiers, so the war situation would balance out instantly.
Everything was set up.
That single move, something that only needed a single thought from him to come to fruition, completely reversed the dire situation.
Everything was in his palms now.
He grinned to himself.
The entrance to the Demon Abyss was now visible. He'd be there in a few seconds.
He pushed and pushed and pushed.
His thoughts were focused on the future.
'Escape is easy. As soon as I get out of the Demon Abyss' distortion, I can enter the Sanctuary. With the connection the isolated universe had to my wives, I can go directly to them once I'm there.'
He didn't need to make a journey through the Abyss anymore.
He didn't need to worry about confronting the Nox Emperors.
He had an out.
An easy out that he created with his own hands.
His ego felt overly inflated. He deserved it, after all.
He'd just accomplished a miracle.
He knew he couldn't let it stay that way.
He hadn't changed from the man he once was just because he was able to accomplish something major.
Because, at the end of the day, his deed was done through external forces, not personal power.
But for now, it was okay.
He deserved a pat on the back.
But not yet.
He pushed and pushed and pushed.
The opening above him became bigger and bigger in his eyes, and with just a few more teleportations, he made it past the barrier.
'Now!'
He didn't know what the Nox were up to and he didn't care to know.
His mana immediately went into his connection with the Sanctuary to pull him out of Al–
SHIK!
Damien's eyes widened.
He looked down.
There was an arm jutting out of his chest.
"What…"
He felt a breath on his ear.
"Thank you, but this is the end."
He knew that voice.
It was the Saint Emperor.
He wasn't supposed to be here.
Damien made sure the Saint Emperor left Al'Katra before he entered the Demon Abyss.
And…
He was a Demigod.
This…was not supposed to happen.
"Are you curious?"
The Saint Emperor asked casually, but his words flowed so fast they only took up a fraction of a spark of a millisecond to end.
"Look around you."
Damien obeyed.
He wasn't in his right mind.
The second the Saint Emperor pierced his body, his connection with the Sanctuary was cut off.
He couldn't even teleport or access his mana.
As his eyes focused on the atmosphere, he realized.
He was surrounded by Demigods.
There were over 100 Nox Lords in the area around him, and there were 100 more maintaining a barrier of Divine Energy that disallowed the usage of any lesser mana.
"I prepared this for you."
Divine Energy flowed into Damien's body.
This was the force.
It was because of this mana that everything he tried didn't work.
Even the Void didn't answer his call.
"You have fulfilled your role," the Saint Emperor continued.
"You have no more use in the plot, so…"
"I will be taking the Dark God's Seed. Thank you for growing it so well for me."
"Keuk…!"
Damien sprayed blood.
Divine Energy filled his systems and turned him into a cripple instantly.
The pocket dimensions protecting his vital organs were shattered, and his systems fell victim to the Divine Energy's erosion.
His vision was blurring.
He never expected this.
He had no way of predicting it.
The restriction on Demigods was absolute. Even at this moment as time slowed almost to a stop, the Demigods in the surroundings, including the Saint Emperor, were slowly fading.
Their bodies were turning into blue light particles as they were transported to the Ancient Battlefield.
But it hadn't happened yet.
Damien didn't understand.
The Nox would suffer more than anyone else if they lost their Demigods.
Their command structure was heavily reliant on Lords, and their armies would fall into chaos the second they were gone.
That was why the Nox made sure to stop the universe's Demigods from forcing them into the Ancient Battlefield.
So…
"...why…?"
Damien squeezed out a single word.
"Why?" The Saint Emperor echoed with a smile.
"Because I wanted to see your expression. Why else?"
An extremely Saint Emperor-like answer.
He did it because he wanted to.
He didn't care about the Nox.
It was an oversight on Damien's part.
This man was never someone who acted predictably. Damien never should've assumed he could understand how the Saint Emperor would move.
But that couldn't be it.
He couldn't accept it.
"Tell…me…"
He couldn't see it.
But the Saint Emperor grinned widely.
"You are that curious?" He said mockingly.
"Unfortunately, you will not get an answer."
VOOM!
The Divine Energy rampaging through Damien's body increased to a new level.
Everything was destroyed.
He couldn't fight Divine Energy.
It was several leagues above his existence.
He could barely perceive it. If it wasn't crushing him piece by piece, he wouldn't have perceived it at all.
Without the Void, he couldn't do anything about it.
But the Void was silent.
His brain was starting to melt.
"After all, you are already dead."
Dead?
Him?
Damien Void?
Dead?
He couldn't accept it.
He wasn't someone who could die.
Not here.
Not now.
He spent too much time and effort to get where he was. He sacrificed too much to become the man he was.
This wasn't his time.
He had too much he still wanted to do to die here.
"I…refuse…"
His words were weak. They couldn't accurately represent the flame in his heart.
No matter what he wanted, no matter what his mind and heart said, he couldn't overcome Divine Energy.
And the Void…
The Void was still silent.
It was his mistake.
It was all his fault.
He got too confident.
He let his ego tell him everything was okay.
But…
Was there a way out?
There wasn't.
He didn't have the power to escape before the Saint Emperor got to him.
Even with his inflated ego, he was acting with absolute speed.
But he dropped his wariness because of it.
That was his fault.
He didn't know if he could've escaped, but it was too late for him to think about it.
Because his brain was no more than a puddle of fluids leaking into his systems.
He was too late.
He had no chance.
Rose, Ruyue, Elena…
His mother, Xue'er, his father…
Iris…
Tian Yang, Elvira, Malcolm, Bai Yuxuan, Feng Yuxiang, Bianca Snow, Su Ren, Long Chen, Aishia, Director Alucard, Feng Qing'er, Lunaria Snow, Qing Tan, Hugo Fang, Atticus Flamesworth, Yong An, Luciel, Lucifer, Commander Huo, Lynn Carter, Xue Fang, Bai Xieren, Shangguan Yu, Tang Lingzi, Drunken Old Immortal, Jiao Mei, Sierra Lock, Leona, Pricilla Adelaire, Ria, Maximus, Elitra…
They all flashed through his mind.
One by one.
The connections he built through his life, the people he loved, and those who loved him.
The First Dungeon, Apeiron, the Cloud Plane, 3000 Beast Mountain Range, Primordial Undying Realm, Earth, the Unnamed World, Atlas World, Azure Rain Star, Death Emperor Star, Hidden Death Valley, Calypto, Luxurion, Holy Light Star, Beast Emperor Star, Eien, the Wild Continent, the Severed World, No Return Pass, the Abyss…
The places he'd been, the sights he'd seen, flowed like a stream after that.
His memories flashed one after another, showing him the Legend he'd built thus far, showing him the events that created him, showing him the struggles he went through, showing him what he wished to protect…
As the Demigods around him turned completely into blue particles and disappeared from the universe, a single sentence entered his ears.
"Rest well. I will take good care of your universe. That much, I can promise."
And then…
One second finally elapsed.
Everyone in the Demon Abyss disappeared from the lower universe.
In this place, far separated from everything he knew and loved, a place he came to protect those things…
A life withered away.
Damien Void had died.
