The Ancient Battlefield was truly massive.
It had to be.
From a Demigod standpoint, millions of kilometers were negligible. To truly have an expansive battlefield that could bring out the full power of all those participating, it had to be massive.
But, it wasn't too large.
The goal was to fight until only one side remained. To prevent a situation where the numbers become so uneven that it becomes almost impossible to meet an enemy, the space would shrink depending on the number of remaining fighters, until it finally encompassed only the river in the center.
But for now, as battle had only just begun, it hadn't shrunk at all.
Damien began to move immediately once he got used to the power increase in his body.
He had to keep himself constantly concealed in several layers of protection to hide from any and everyone he passed, but he found it surprisingly easy.
This mana-guzzling action didn't put any burden on him at all.
There were two reasons.
Even Damien didn't understand how much he'd changed after his soul evolved.
Since mana was housed in the soul and used by the body, the synergy between the two was always important for a practitioner to truly be complete.
With his current soul, not only did the amount of mana he could store balloon, but the exchange rate between mana and output became far more advantageous.
Essentially, his soul allowed him to create a hundred times the power with only a fraction of the required mana.
This was the more esoteric of the two reasons. The full potential of the evolved soul didn't end here, but Damien still had to experience several battles and introspections to fully delve into it.
The second was far simpler. After all, he'd just devoured a Demigod!
The circumstances didn't let him pat himself on the back for this achievement, nor did he care to after what he experienced on Al'Katra, but the effects such an act had on his body were significant.
Not only was his physical body strengthened to a new degree that allowed him to cope with mild amounts of Divine Energy even without the Ananta Matrix, but his mana had reached a new state, as if it had been washed and purified by the energy of Demigods.
'The only unfortunate thing is that I still can't use Divine Energy. That won't be possible regardless of what I become before ascending to Divinity, because it's something only attained during Cosmic Rebirth, but…'
To transmute his mana into a comparable force wasn't a pipe dream.
'I need to change.'
Damien refused to stay the same as he used to be.
There was nothing wrong with his previous self. If there was, he wouldn't have achieved everything he did.
But, if he wanted to see the heights of his ambition, it wasn't enough.
'I have to throw away my doubts. I have to abandon my fears. Maybe it's not possible right this instant, but by the time I leave the Ancient Battlefield…'
He had to be a completely different monster.
This change was not just in terms of power or league, and not in terms that anyone else in the universe could understand.
To put it simply, it was time for him to start embodying the Void.
'But that can be saved for later. Right now…'
Damien glanced around.
It wasn't like there were Demigods everywhere, but there really were Demigods everywhere.
This number far outstripped anything he knew and understood during his time in the universe.
'According to that Nox Demigod's memories, the numbers on both sides are about even. But…from what I've seen from the Nox, there's at least a few thousand on their side.'
Did the universe have so many Demigods?
'Now that I think about it, Su Ren's master was unknown to me, but not to the experts of the universe. He was living in seclusion and taking an uninvolved stance in worldly affairs. When I met the Fallen Star Holy Master in the past, he also said their Demigod Ancestors were in seclusion and left the sect to him…'
As he continued to think about different powerful influences in the universe, he realized that only a few, such as Prismatic Sun Holy Land and Blood Asura Holy Land, were actually run by Demigods.
Most of them were controlled by Supremes with their Demigods acting as nothing more than backing.
'It turns out we had so many experts just relaxing in seclusion this whole time. If I count those who are unaffiliated like Su Ren's master, the number gets blown even further out of proportion.'
Damien sighed.
He was starting to realize why everyone looked at the Human Domain so scornfully.
In total, they didn't have more than a few tens of Demigods. Compared to the rest of the universe, weren't they truly pitiful?
'But that also goes to show just how many powerful people we lost during the last war.'
Damien shook his head and silenced his thoughts.
He was just using them to entertain himself, but the time for that had passed.
After all, he was currently searching for something.
He didn't know anything about the stages of Divinity, nor did the Demigods in the universe.
Perhaps something like a true representation of their power in levels was only available in the Heavenly World. The Demigods who'd cut off their paths to ascension could only grow without knowing their endpoint and get stronger until they couldn't grow any further.
Their only way to gauge their strength was to see the level of those around them.
Damien was the same.
As he flew past several tens of Demigods, he took the time to observe each and every one, and followed the estimate of his base instincts to make judgements.
He wasn't looking for anything specific.
He just wanted a sign.
A reading that looked favorable.
And he'd finally found it.
Just moments ago, as he was passing over a mountain, he noticed a Nox Demigod in meditation on its peak.
From the looks of it, he hadn't engaged in battle at all since coming to this plane, and instead focused on increasing his strength in secret.
'This is Nox territory after all. Unless the situation is dire, they won't target their own. He must've assumed he was safe.'
Damien grinned.
'What a stupid mistake to make on the battlefield.'
He was the first Demigod thus far.
The first one his instincts called weak.
Damien was hidden in a separated dimension several hundred meters in the sky above that Nox Demigod.
He raised his arm silently.
His concealment was perfect.
His position wouldn't be given away unless he wanted it to be.
'As long as I prepare carefully…'
He'd already been observing for several days.
This Demigod only moved once a day to secure the area before returning to his meditative state.
That time had already passed today.
He wouldn't be getting up any time soon.
Damien's mana entered reality without a single fluctuation.
It was far darker than usual. Its blackness was deeper than anything he could produce before, making it clear that the ratio between Void energy and mana in his veins was starting to change.
Elemental and Samsara.
These two laws had been tethered, and their energies could now interact despite not fully fusing.
Damien summoned a ball of mana on his palm and compressed it thinner and sharper until it formed a needle. He then injected this needle with the energies of the two laws.
It was both black and white and rainbow-colored at the same time. The sharp contrast between the two energies caused spiritual chaos that spread through the needle and almost shattered it, but Damien quickly used the Void to stabilize them, albeit for a short moment.
This was it.
The new power he'd gained, the new mana he'd gained, the new soul he'd gained, they all came together for one purpose.
With this…
'...I'll take your head!'
Damien descended in an instant and landed behind the Nox Demigod.
Before his fluctuations could leak in the slightest, he flicked the needle at high speeds, allowing it to directly pierce the enemy's neck.
He realized as he watched it fly.
He realized as he watched it expand and turn into something he never intended.
The power he just used…was far beyond his comprehension.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
