Orion and Iris were surrounded by a light-hearted atmosphere, but Damien didn't experience the same with the Ancient Sovereign.
He hadn't said a word since they started walking.
Instead, he pulled Damien into a strange Spacetime without him even realizing it.
The two were moving at a normal pace, but they covered millions of kilometers with every step.
It wasn't high speed at all. Spacetime was squinching around them, changing the worth of their steps even though the steps themselves didn't change at all.
The Ancient Sovereign wasn't helping Damien either.
He was ambling as if he didn't even realize Damien was following him.
'Damn…this technique is something I learned a long time ago, but that doesn't make it easier to follow him.'
The concept of "distance" was something Damien paid a lot of attention to in the past when he was researching Horizon Break, so he understood how to compress space to change his movements.
However, adding time as a factor changed it entirely.
The compressing of Spacetime meant not only their position in space was changing, but they were truly walking through time.
As if the past, present, and future were nothing more than futile concepts that could not affect their existence.
Beads of sweat trailed down Damien's face, but his eyes were filled with excitement.
After tethering Spacetime, he didn't expect to find an opportunity to utilize its power so soon.
And he wasn't just utilizing the power, but increasing his understanding!
As he let go of the known concepts of time for the sake of copying the Ancient Sovereign's movements, he realized just how relative Spacetime truly was.
To him, nothing had changed.
But the second he allowed his perception to leave the bounds of this strange ethereal corridor the two of them were traversing, he noticed how insanity-inducing their journey was.
The seconds and minutes flew by like comets in one moment, and in the next, Damien would realize he was far beyond them, and those same seconds were leagues behind him.
They weren't moving forward or backward, nor were they stationary.
They were pacing back and forth through time as if it was nothing, and with their movement in space being completely linear, perceiving the world outside the corridor became a mind-breaking learning experience for Damien.
It was a beautiful phenomenon he never expected to experience by just following someone, but perhaps this was how the Ancient Sovereign always perceived existence.
Perhaps the time he'd lived was nothing more than the blink of an eye to him, or perhaps he was experiencing the full extent of that time every second of every day, as if every second held trillions of years in its mysteries.
"This One is thoroughly impressed. Mother's choice cannot be questioned, however, This One was still curious about what kind of human could bond with her in such a way."
The Ancient Sovereign finally spoke, halting in his tracks.
Damien stopped behind him, and in that moment, the full extent of their journey struck him.
It was like everything in existence slingshotted back to its proper position. The world curved and stretched, wobbling strangely before finally stabilizing.
Damien couldn't contain his wonder at all.
But he had to take this opportunity to converse with the man who rarely spoke.
"Do you see it as a bond?" He asked vaguely.
The Ancient Sovereign turned around to face him.
"This One cannot speak on Mother's actions. However, This One does feel something greater from you that also cannot be explained."
Damien nodded, somewhat understanding his thoughts.
"I guess I'm not there yet, but that is the end goal. In a sense, your Mother and I are one and the same."
Damien looked at the man, trying to gauge his response, but he didn't receive anything but silence.
"..."
"Thy most pressing questions do not have answers. This One can only aid you in areas you might find inconsequential."
"I don't care about that," Damien said, shaking his head.
"I want the answers you can give me. The rest, I will naturally find myself."
"Very well."
The Ancient Sovereign turned around, his attention once again focused on an unknown "something" that only he could see.
"Mother has always been lonely."
His start was…not something Damien expected.
"Mother was not always an entity, yet Mother has always existed. Existing before existence, the concept of existence was birthed from Mother, and to define her existence before existence, nonexistence was also born."
Immediately, he started speaking nonsensical words, but Damien didn't interrupt. Instead, as Orion said, he tried his best to understand the nuances within those words.
"Mother is existence, yet Mother is also nonexistence. Mother wishes to be existence, yet Mother cannot exist. When Mother influences Order, Chaos is born, and from Chaos, Order is born."
Damien frowned.
In terms of universal truth, he couldn't understand Orion's words at all.
But if he tried to apply those words to things he did know…
'Since we're in the Ancient Battlefield, let's start with the Nox.'
The history of the Nox was inconsequential to him now that he was in the Ancient Battlefield and had to slaughter them to extinction, but as the Ancient Sovereign said, perhaps the only information he'd learn was inconsequential things like this.
Still, knowing these facts that were useless in the present could help him in the future. Otherwise, the Ancient Sovereign, who didn't perceive these concepts, wouldn't be mentioning them.
'The Void wishes to interfere in existence, but its interference only creates chaos. Chaos creates Order, which is also another form of the Void's interference in existence.'
His own thoughts were making less sense, but because they belonged to him, he could define them clearly.
'The Nox are agents of Chaos. If the Void's interference in this case refers to the creation of the concepts that led to them, or maybe even the Abyss, then Order would be its direct influence.'
The Abyss was created through the destruction of existence, but it was still existence.
Yet, it was a piece of existence closest to the Void.
'Perhaps the Void is able to interfere in the Abyss because it is already fragmented away from the regular concept of existence. That interference spread through the Abyss and turned it into what it is today, and when the Nox were born from it by the design of their creators…'
…the Nox were naturally influenced by the Void.
"Mother cannot act willfully, yet Mother's every action is willful. Cause and effect are only created if Mother interferes, yet Mother's intentions cannot be perceived by us who were birthed from her thoughts."
Right, nobody could understand the Void's intentions.
Even when Damien first unlocked the potential of his physique in the First Dungeon, he only saw a single facet of its power.
'...the primal urge to consume.'
The Nox's nature was originally skewed towards evil, because that was their original purpose.
However, their original purpose was supposed to be beneficial to one party. Rather than the urge to consume, they were supposed to experience the urge to obey and destroy.
Yet, at some point, the Nox's mentality changed.
They did not act as their creators wished, and desired to devour everything for themselves instead.
This was the Void's influence.
But it wasn't the only thing the Void did.
After all, it was far more complex than just that.
'If it wasn't for the Void permeating through the Abyss, the Nox would have never gained the potential to evolve.'
The corrupted foreign material Damien saw in the Demon Abyss was meant to be a control center created by the currently termed Demon Race whose bloodline he possessed.
However, when it was fed the energy of the universe, it acted as a catalyst for their growth away from their original purpose.
It was never meant to do so.
That was also the Void's influence.
It was the Void that turned the Nox into a race that could be saved.
Yet…
It was also because of the Void that they were beyond saving.
'The Void's identity…'
Damien sighed.
His heart was filled with immense pity that he didn't know the origin of.
It was just…
'The more I think about the Void, the further I picture it as a sentient entity…the more I cannot fathom its existence, and the more I feel its existence is torturous.'
He felt immense sorrow.
And at the same time, he started to understand the terrifying loneliness that stood at the end of his path.
Unknown to him, his spiritual world and physical body were both experiencing strange changes that couldn't be explained, so subtle that they had no real effect on his existence.
But his conversation with the Ancient Sovereign was only just beginning.
It was truly unknown.
Whether or not Damien would still be the man he thought he was when this conversation ended…
He couldn't even begin to know.
