Damien had become too used to darkness.
This was another case where everything in his surroundings was dark, but unlike every other time, he wasn't in an empty expanse.
This darkness came from the extreme density of material in the surroundings instead of emptiness.
He was currently plunging into the depths of the earth. He'd turned his body ethereal through a variation of One With Dimension and used that illusive property to make this move, but he could clearly feel the consequences that would strike him the second he materialized.
It reminded him of that time with Elitra.
If he misstepped even once, his body would either fuse with the matter around him or explode because it couldn't exist in the same space.
'I have to find shelter.'
It was widely known that there was nothing under the surface of the Ancient Battlefield. After being used for so long, its basic mechanisms weren't stranger to those who fought on it.
However, Damien thought differently.
It wasn't strange for a world to have no subterranean environment. Especially a place like this one without life of its own, it would be stranger if there were pathways under the earth.
But no matter how densely packed the earth was, there had to be pockets.
Damien didn't believe he couldn't find a single underground cave formation anywhere. He also didn't believe the Ancient Battlefield was completely devoid of anything.
'They say this place used to be a piece of the Heavenly World, which means it wasn't naturally formed by the universe to be a stage for Demigod battles.'
Therefore, there had to be something.
Whether it was mineral veins or natural caves, there had to be something.
After all, the Heavenly World was still a world. For a piece of it to rip off, there had to be a cause.
If that cause was a regular dispute over land, something like the Ancient Battlefield wouldn't exist.
If it was a warzone, on the other hand, a warzone where people of untold power fought, not only did the story of this land's formation become more plausible, there were likely to be countless buried treasures from those who died here before and after its separation.
'And those treasures, if they aren't on the surface, have to be in the ground.'
Damien wasn't looking for them out of greed. No, if those treasure deposits existed, they'd be his lifeline.
'The problem is, if this place wasn't compacted by Universal Law and was originally formed like this, it's impossible for anyone other than a spatial practitioner to get down here.'
Either that, or a being with power far greater than a Demigod.
'True Gods…'
Damien wanted to entertain the thought more, but he wasn't in a situation where he could.
'Since I don't feel anything from above, Immortal Blood Asura probably chose not to pursue, but that's not any better for me.'
It only meant the man wasn't actively chasing him. The fact that his position was being recorded didn't change.
'It's worse because I can't stop it. Since the ability comes from his own body, unless I can…'
Damien suddenly had a great idea.
'Good. As long as I find shelter, I'll be able to avoid him.'
The problem was actually doing that.
Luckily, Damien didn't use his own mana for Collapsing Heavens, so he still had a sufficient amount of time to remain in his ethereal state.
With that time, he searched.
He moved down to the deepest layers of the earth and went from there, traveling in every direction in search of even a single pocket.
Since the Ancient Battlefield had shrunken considerably, the amount of space he had to look through was narrowed down, but without being able to teleport, hundreds of millions of kilometers was still a great distance for him.
He didn't have much of a choice but to aimlessly drift from place to place.
The mana stored in the dense earth was enough to revitalize him so he didn't suddenly materialize, but it wasn't enough to completely support him.
His awareness couldn't spread more than a few kilometers while he was maintaining his ethereal state.
At some point, he lost track of his original position and where he was in relation to the surface, but it didn't really matter. Regardless of where he went, the enemy would always be above him.
'This is…more difficult than expected.'
The Ancient Battlefield wasn't like a regular world. It didn't have a system like tectonic plates that altered the terrain. It was built to be the exact same at all times, and even when it healed after the war ended, it would only revert to its previous form through the power of Universal Law.
This was both good and bad. It was good that everything would remain in its place, since it'd be a shame if the treasures were destroyed by tectonic movement, but it was bad that Damien had nothing to work off of while he looked for what he wanted!
He started to lose hope after a while. He started to think there was nothing for him but the death waiting on the surface.
But, while it took an unholy amount of time and happened right as his hope diminished to nothing, he did find it.
A tiny pocket, barely enough to be called a pocket.
'This isn't what I'm looking for, but it's hope.'
It was roughly the size of a rabbit hole in radius, but that didn't matter. Since it existed, others would exist as well!
Damien gained a newfound fervor from that point on.
He stopped caring about time and sustained himself using the surrounding mana, uncaring of the distance he had to cover.
He went in every direction. He went both up and down without missing a single area of space that could've been a possibility.
Until, eventually…
'There it is.'
He was facing it, but it was roughly a kilometer below him.
There, an empty area existed. There didn't seem to be anything inside, but Damien didn't care.
It was a pocket large enough for him to inhabit.
He rushed towards it, bursting into the area like a fish jumping out of water.
It was completely secluded, without any access to oxygen or anything of the sort, but that was fine. Damien was far past the level where such reactions were necessary for him to live.
'Hmm, this is…bigger than I thought?'
Unexpectedly, rather than a small space for him to rest, this place was a large area of its own, more than enough for someone to reside for years on end if they could cope with the isolation.
He leaned against a wall and slid down to a sitting position, taking a few breaths just to feel the sensation of his physical body.
'It may not be the end goal, but I'll rest here for a while.'
Damien closed his eyes.
Sleep wasn't necessary, but right now, it felt like the right thing to do.
He was mentally exhausted. A few moments of rest were the least he deserved.
But, before he could fall unconscious, his eyes shot open.
'What the hell am I doing?'
Rest? Recuperation? Now wasn't the time for that.
Rather, he wasn't even tired. He was ethereal for the past who knows how long, so he didn't feel much fatigue either.
When it came to his mental state, someone like Immortal Blood Asura wasn't enough to inhibit him. After facing the Saint Emperor, Damien's sense of danger had its standards heightened like a woman who'd finally found a good man.
So–
'–why the hell am I tired?'
Either he was wrong and his body really did need oxygen to exist, or…
'...there's something influencing my state.'
It couldn't be the former. If so, Damien would've died 83 billion times in the vacuum of space.
Therefore, only one answer remained.
A grin lit up his face.
'This…this might just be what I've been looking for…?'
