BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion directly incinerated half of the mountain before slowly tearing away the rest of its body.
The Nox Demigod whom it originally targeted vanished completely in its light. One could only imagine what he was going through in the very center of those rampaging laws.
In fact, his life fluctuations vanished within the first few seconds, indicating his death far before the force could even reach its peak.
Damien truly didn't understand what he'd achieved when he tethered Elemental and Samsara.
Because the process came so easily to him, he couldn't grasp how amazing his accomplishment was.
As mentioned before, the tethering of these two represented Damien gaining control over the "material" aspect of the concept of existence.
This sentence was both simple and extremely intuitive at the same time.
The concept of existence, it was far grander than anything else Damien even considered understanding in the past.
Universal Law, the fundamental laws, Divinity; "everything" that could be manifested in reality was under the umbrella of existence.
Elemental and Samsara were perhaps only a single part of the many factors involved in the gargantuan concept, but they held far more value than any others.
This was because they created the backbone of all things. Without these concepts, nothing would be able to exist to grow and define the rest of those material concepts.
Therefore, when they were combined, Damien's power became something immeasurable.
As long as it existed in the physical plane, Damien could exert influence over it.
The only thing holding him back from sovereignty was his own power and league.
And going by his current standing…
Well, maybe they were the weakest of their kind, but even some Demigods couldn't withstand his force with their bodies.
Of course, the problem was that if they had a single opportunity, they could also kill him in a flash.
This was why Damien made thorough preparations and stayed as concealed as possible when he attacked this time.
And as he watched the explosion, he gradually rationalized his new state of existence.
'If what I'm thinking is true…'
Then even though he killed that Demigod just now, he hadn't truly killed him.
Damien frowned.
He looked at the explosive cloud that was still growing by the second and pushed his hand out.
'Devour.'
He didn't know what he was aiming for, but if "anything" still existed in that cloud, he would devour it.
Energy flowed into his body.
It came from the mana in the atmosphere and the earth that made up the Ancient Battlefield, but nothing more.
At least, not at first.
In just a few seconds, Damien noticed a change.
A strange energy he couldn't perceive properly flowed into his body through Devour, and in his mind, agonizing screams resounded and bounced around.
He felt something inside him growing.
He wasn't directly conscious of it, but after his experience in nonexistence, he could at least somewhat understand its existence.
His "soul" was growing.
'As I thought, I can't completely eliminate them with just force.'
Demigods were entities above the logic he knew.
Not only did their vessels have a new level of power, they had direct access to their souls and the ability to consciously affect their growth.
This meant they could remain living without a true physical body.
Their souls held far more of their identity than their vessels.
It wasn't a definite thing, of course.
The soul would remain an esoteric concept unless one spent an extensive amount of time studying it. Just because they could perceive it didn't mean every Demigod had the ability to control it properly.
But, there were definitely Demigods who could survive as soul bodies for a period of time.
There were several problems with such a state as well, and it wasn't as easy as possessing a body to revive, but that was a conversation for another time.
After all, Damien wasn't aware of any of this yet!
All he knew was that his power was great.
Great enough for him to survive in the Ancient Battlefield.
'If I keep killing like this, if I keep growing stronger through combat of this level…'
The barrier that separated him from Divinity would become flimsy extremely quickly.
'First of all, let's get out of here.'
Damien confirmed the death of his target when he succeeded in devouring his soul, so there was no reason for him to stay here.
'The enemy will congregate here soon to find out what happened. In the worst-case scenario, I'll get ambushed again.'
Frankly, Damien wasn't completely okay.
His experience in death gave him real trauma.
It wasn't like when he was still growing, where his mentality would be completely ruined by it, but he had become quite paranoid and untrusting of his own strength.
Because of this, he immediately fled.
He traveled several dozens of millions of kilometers until he was so far away from the explosion that he couldn't see or sense it in the background, and then he continued moving.
'I have a goal. Instead of focusing on other things, I should move towards it as fast as possible.'
He calmed the excitement brewing in his heart. He kept a cool mind and rationally viewed the situation, disallowing himself from falling prey to overwhelming emotion.
He had two things to do now.
First and foremost, he needed to kill until he wasn't endangered by any and everything.
And second, he had to find allies.
'Aside from Albeus, I haven't seen anyone else from our side. I can't even tell if I'm moving deeper into enemy territory since it's impossible to differentiate when the terrain is so uniform.'
The only thing he could do was keep moving forward. He would meet them eventually as long as he did so.
And with that thought in mind, he moved.
Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Before he knew it, Damien had been in the Ancient Battlefield for over a year.
That wasn't any time at all in the grand scheme of things.
This battle would go on for decades at the very least.
The battlefield hadn't shrunk even once yet, which meant there were a considerable number of Demigods still alive on both sides.
However, for Damien personally…
'Heh…'
He grinned to himself as he gripped his fist.
He just killed another one.
This was his tenth assassination in the past year.
The number wasn't very big, but when the subject was Divinities, even ten amounted to an uncountable number of lower existences that might have even exceeded Damien's current kill count.
He was slowly getting used to the atmosphere here.
He was slowly getting rid of his paranoia, and as his power grew, the need to be secretive also lessened to an extent.
'Just a few more and I can start targeting stronger enemies.'
Damien was satisfied with his progress.
But…
He still hadn't met an ally.
It wasn't that he saw nobody from Grand Heavens Boundary, but he hadn't met a single person he could actually reveal his existence to.
At least, that's how it was for the past year.
As he teleported around to find his next target, he noticed a flash of color on the horizon.
A rainbow mana that he'd only seen from one person before.
A bright smile formed on his face.
'Finally…'
Finally, he saw traces of someone he could trust.
