The area was still absolutely silent.
After all, the people couldn't easily accept what they'd just seen.
No, did they see anything at all?
As they stood there, their enemies magically disappeared.
It wasn't the work of a Demigod, but a true act of god, a working of fate, something that could only be described as a miracle.
Even those like Iris who stood at the top of the universe had to marvel.
Power like that…was that even possible?
'No, for him, it is more than just possible.'
Unlike the rest, who were frozen in their confusion with blank expressions on their faces, Iris smiled.
She expected nothing less from Damien, and if she was correct, he had left to do something even crazier than this.
'I thought I was getting stronger, but that was just arrogance.'
She saw herself as the peak of the universe because everyone else said she was the peak of the universe.
When she thought of what Damien would achieve after Cosmic Rebirth, she knew he would be extremely powerful, but this was just on another level!
'It seems I must work harder.'
She wasn't disheartened, rather, her fighting spirit was ablaze.
That wasn't just any man, that was her man. Watching him achieve great heights, how could she feel anything but joy?
Though, she wasn't content with that joy.
She, like Rose, Ruyue, and Elena, desired to stand by his side.
And while Damien was never someone they'd logically be able to stand equal to, none of them cared.
Because eventually, they would stand there. Until they stood there, they'd be as close to him as possible, watching his back so he could focus on his path forward without distractions.
Iris moved, leaving behind the perplexed atmosphere the rest shared. Unlike them, she had no plans of returning to Grand Heavens Boundary and living the rest of her life in comfort.
She found her way to Tiamat, who was still mid-way through torturing the Karmic Emperor into a soulless husk.
When their eyes connected, they felt a connection formed through their determination.
Their ambition to grow stronger.
Their desire to not be surpassed so easily.
And they weren't the only ones.
Alucard, Tang Lingzi, and the rest felt their worlds shattering because of that event. They finally realized how low they'd fallen when they settled for their current power.
The motivation they developed through Damien was transmitted through the people close to them, and through those people to even more.
No longer.
No longer would they allow a situation like this to sprout.
No longer would they stand idle and let others lead their home into ruin.
Just like Damien, who stood up on his own and conquered the Ancient Battlefield as someone younger and previously weaker than them all, they would stand by their beliefs with all their hearts and take things into their own hands.
Maybe, just maybe, if an enemy like the Nox appeared again in the future, they wouldn't need the help of a monstrous genius like Damien to solve it.
They'd do it themselves, as the ones who should've been protecting and nurturing those of Damien's generation.
Slowly but surely, a change was taking place.
A change that would revolutionize the entire universe in the future!
***
Damien didn't immediately go after the Inhuman Emperor or Saint Emperor. He had some cleaning to do before he did.
He killed over 3000 Nox Lords when he exited his Cosmic Rebirth, but there were still a few thousand of those insects scurrying around the Ancient Battlefield.
The universe's Demigods definitely had the ability to take care of the remaining forces, but Damien didn't want to take any risks.
The cleanup after the war was equally important. They'd already lost thousands upon thousands of forces, and they couldn't lose any more.
The universe would heal with time. New Demigods would rise, and as Damien was hell-bent on eradicating the Nox in totality, it would not be forced to regress as it had been throughout its history.
Therefore, it needed people to lead it. Those who participated in this war and had hearts of righteousness or fear of his presence who could protect those budding Divinities until they reached their potential.
The universe would only grow from now on. That was his ideal.
And to make sure it could be carried out properly, he would eliminate everything in its way.
His perception range was something of legends now. The vastly shrunken Ancient Battlefield was completely within his vision.
The war should have moved to the central area by now if one followed conventional standards, but Damien's presence completely erased that original intention.
He crossed the entire plane in a matter of seconds. His gaze swept along its entire gait, and any Nox Demigod he saw would be erased by his word.
There was no need to focus on the act itself. It was a slaughter against Nox Lords who might as well have been powerless civilians before him. They could not fight back, and for the most part, they couldn't even sense his presence.
Instead of reveling in their vain deaths, Damien used them as fuel to gain a better understanding of his abilities in combat.
Most of them were self-explanatory. The growth of his Legend through Devour happened seamlessly and didn't cause negative side effects, and it seemed his soul protection was far sturdier than he originally expected, but that was all guaranteed when the Void Physique was taken into account.
The most curious thing was an ability he didn't expect to gain.
That ability to "perceive" people's inner selves.
It all started with the foundational laws, but Existence Law was far broader than just a sum of their parts.
When the four bundled foundational law aspects were connected in their current relay, they were able to form a mini-universe within him. Though it wasn't complete yet, it was still equivalent to what the Sanctuary currently was.
Existence.
Just what did that word mean?
It encompassed everything. Everything a human could possibly understand was under the veil of existence.
The concept of Nonexistence was absolutely incomprehensible to the human mind. It could only be inferred as the "absence" of existence, however, when all things existence were, as the word suggested, existing, how could one properly wrap one's mind around the meaning of the word?
Whether it be physical or ethereal, to a certain extent, Damien could control it.
And this didn't just include energies, but more elusive concepts like fate and emotion.
The ability to read people, the ability to understand them, came from this particular aspect of the law.
Because they were "existences," he could understand their components, both biological and mental.
It was an extremely strange ability. Even he couldn't fully understand the function of it. However, as he moved through the Ancient Battlefield and slaughtered all enemies he found, he learned just how useful it could be.
These Lords couldn't hold a candle to them, so of course it didn't apply, however, when he suppressed his strength and tried fighting on their level, he found something mystical.
Their attack patterns were engraved in his mind. Their emotional states were as clear as day. He could tell which wounds aggravated them the most and he could tell where the strengths they were confident in were.
With this kind of information, he had an absolute advantage in battle, especially against opponents who didn't have information on him.
It was amazing.
He only started realizing the true worth of the law he was comprehending after testing it with his own hands.
He was only now beginning to truly understand what it meant to walk the path of an Absolute.
And to cement this feeling, as well as to taste true battle for the first time since his exit, he made his way there.
To the Inhuman Emperor.
So he could truly make the most out of that practice dummy before he fought the Saint Emperor.
