Damien stood up and looked around.
The cave looked normal and the darkness was regular, not influenced by outside forces. He couldn't see where something could be influencing him, but since he felt it, he didn't doubt the sensation.
'Maybe that'll work.'
He poured mana into his eyes to activate the ability that had been with him since his younger years, one of the only ones he still actively used.
'All-Seeing Eyes.'
As the amethyst color in his irises swirled, the world was presented to him differently, as if he was gazing at reality from an outsider's perspective.
'There seems to be…multiple sources?'
He felt it from all around, from the walls of the cave themselves.
'That's strange. I clearly moved through these parts of the earth while I was searching, so I was certain there was nothing there except rock, but…'
It seemed he was wrong. Whatever it was, it disguised itself as rock and fooled even his senses.
'Then, the only way to find out is to break it apart.'
Damien's eyes were ablaze with energy, completely opposite his previous state.
To find a clue in the most unexpected place, he was more than just a little excited.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Thudding booms rang out as Damien attacked the walls.
They were surprisingly easy to break, especially when Rudimentary Existence Law was in play.
A strange phenomenon, that was the only description Damien could give it.
Even Immortal Blood Asura would need an incredible amount of energy to shatter this rock, but he was doing it so easily?
It was almost as if…
'Even if that's the case, I have to confront it anyway.'
Damien stopped asking questions and tore through the rock like a subterranean being who'd excavated tunnels his entire life.
He followed the energy he saw through the All-Seeing Eyes, but every time he got closer, it distanced itself like it was alive.
But that only made Damien more excited.
A chase with a clear goal was fun. It made him feel like he'd finally be rewarded for his efforts when he found it.
So he tunneled and tunneled.
He ended up almost a million kilometers away from the original cave within a day, but the aura he was following also stopped moving.
BANG!
Damien threw one last punch, and instead of falling to his feet, the crumbled rock fell into the abyss that existed on the other side.
'Here it is.'
Damien grinned.
He was finally here.
He jumped down, falling for almost a kilometer before he landed on flat ground again, and when he did…
"Ha…hahaha…"
He laughed defeatedly.
He'd definitely passed over this place when he was searching in his ethereal state, and he'd definitely found nothing, but here it was.
A room that had substance. A room that had objects inhabiting it.
There were only three, but the quantity didn't matter. If they were truly relics from the Heavenly World, they were bound to be good.
The first was a worn anvil that had clearly been used to forge countless powerful weapons.
It held the experiences of countless blacksmiths, which could be absorbed to boost one's understanding of the art of forging to the level of a master. All one needed to do was use it to receive its gifts.
It was an inanimate elder who would teach an aspiring blacksmith until they reached perfection.
Damien observed it for a bit, but since it wasn't something he could immediately put to use, he threw it in his subspace to check more carefully at a later time.
The second was a flame burning in a mellow fashion atop a pedestal designed specifically for it.
This was the source of the tiredness he felt earlier. Standing in front of it now, Damien found it almost impossible to keep himself awake.
No, it was more than that. His very soul was being incapacitated. If he didn't resist, he'd likely enter an extreme sleep state that he wouldn't be able to extricate himself.
No, that was exactly what would happen.
And that's exactly what kept him awake.
Damien knew what this flame was, and its identity made him too excited to pass out.
He circulated all his power to keep himself awake just so he could keep looking at it.
'6th on the Heavenly Flame Index: the Eternal Dream Flame.'
The Eternal Dream Flame's abilities were far more terrifying than Damien's reaction to their effect suggested.
It had the ability to put anyone struck by it into an eternal slumber. Their souls would be forced into a dream where they were tormented by flames for eternity as well.
'That's not even the best part. The owner of the flame can enter the dream and manipulate it as they please. They can even use the flame to control the enemy's soul and enslave them.'
Damien couldn't stop giggling like a little girl as he put his hand into it.
'Void Flame, you know what to do.'
The black and white flame that hadn't left his body in so long leapt at the opportunity. After flicking its tongues in indignation at Damien's negligence, it rapidly engulfed the Eternal Dream Flame and began its absorption.
'No wonder I haven't seen many other Heavenly Flames in the lower universe. Those near the top of the list must be in the Heavenly World, because the lower universe deemed them too dangerous to house.'
Damien was excited to add another force to his arsenal, but he found it more important to understand the identity of everything here.
Since the anvil from before wasn't complete without a hammer, it was ignored, but Damien already had several plans to use it.
He had to fix Mirage, after all.
The Void Flame was absorbing the Eternal Dream Flame, so Damien didn't have to pay it any attention until the process finished either.
So, he moved onto the third with anticipation.
Of the treasures, this one interested him the most. It was plain and unordinary in every sense, but it seemed to be controlling the Eternal Dream Flame somehow.
It was because of this treasure's influence that Damien was led here in the first place.
Otherwise, with the concealment of this area, he would've never even come close to finding it.
Damien observed it thoroughly, but it didn't look like anything more than a common slate, something that would usually be carried around in some more ancient civilizations for identification.
'Should I…?'
Weighing the consequences against his curiosity, his curiosity won out.
He was at least confident that escaping said consequences would be easier than escaping Immortal Blood Asura, as the slate didn't have any traces of Divine Energy on it.
Since the decision was made, Damien carefully prepared himself to teleport away and turn ethereal.
Once he was finished, he took several steps back and finally poured his mana into the slate.
Divine Energy burst out in surprising quantities, creating a massive whirlpool that filled the entire space with a wondrous display of force, before rapidly subduing itself.
The slate transformed into a uniform crystal that looked like the purest and bluest diamond to ever exist. The mana contained within swirled calmly as it acted on a predetermined will.
Damien's eyes widened.
A hologram made of whiteish-blue light materialized before him.
It was the figure of a man, just a bit taller than him, and though its features weren't completely defined, Damien recognized it instantly.
"Y-you…! What the hell are you doing here?!"
The holographic lifeform gazed at him with a warm smile.
"Since you have made it here, I trust the time has finally come…"
"...son."
