When he thought about it, he did see something similar when his main body first viewed the painting of reality.
The actions of the Bloodlock Clan.
Immortal Blood Asura was gone by that point, but he'd corrupted and enslaved a majority of Blood Asura Holy Land before the forced summoning, so the plan was carried out without his presence.
The countless innocents that were sacrificed to form an artificial Nox army were eventually released, and while the universe was somewhat prepared for it due to the information they received from Elyssia Bloodlock, they severely underestimated its scale.
There were billions of them at the very least. If one took the unsuccessful transformations into account, hundreds of billions were sacrificed for their creation.
Those artificial Nox caused great problems, and they were only dealt with by the conjoined effort of several dozens of universal influences, as well as a great deal of time.
The process of their defeat was irrelevant, since Alexander would eventually interfere in the future to minimize the damage they caused, but the research itself…
Wouldn't it have begun with something like this?
First, they needed to thoroughly understand the anatomy, physical qualities, ethereal qualities, and traits of the Nox. The next step was to do countless experiments to transfer those qualities to humans, such as what was being done in the Human Domain and Eden, and once they found some success in their formula, they could take it out of the concept phase and use it like they did in Blood Asura Holy Land.
If this was the first step of that process, if the notes of this researcher and many others just happened to survive through the extermination that was currently being carried account and were found by others who wished to succeed their cause…
Wouldn't obliterating those findings now crush the plan before it even started?
That was Damien's thought as he watched Alexander travel with the Alucard group to find and kill the owner of the labyrinth.
It was quite the interesting journey, and Alexander played a decently large role in the subjugation, which awarded him more favor from those in the group, however…
'I can't do much.'
The consequences were too severe.
The butterfly effect of something like that wouldn't just slightly change the future, but completely alter its trajectory.
Even Damien's journey would be inhibited, and if he altered events that gave him his current strength, it would harm the big picture.
It was a strange feeling, an unsettling one.
He had to sacrifice countless trillions of lives or more for the sake of saving a greater number in the future.
It gave him an understanding of what the Saint Emperor went through.
Because no matter how righteous he felt at this moment, no matter how much he wanted to take just the slightest action and save all those lives in the process, he couldn't.
It wasn't just planning for an ideal future, it was a matter of responsibility.
Damien had an oath to uphold, an oath that he would bring an end to the suffering future generations would have to endure.
Until he could wholly guarantee that this goal wouldn't be jeopardized by his actions, he couldn't do anything that could affect it.
So despite knowing that their subjugation didn't eradicate the root of the problem, he didn't say anything.
He bid farewell to the group after taking their communication talismans as a show of respect and left to move towards the ending that surpassed any one person.
'Should I calm my interference?'
It was a good idea. Unless he saw an event that would totally alter the course of the future he was planning for, Damien wouldn't move.
At least, for the most part.
There was one more thing he wanted to do before that, though.
Secretly, in the veil of the shadows, he traveled the universe for one purpose.
And that…
Well, it was a selfish one.
'I thought I could overlook it, but as I thought, it's annoying.'
He was currently in an era where Iris was being suppressed by countless things and targeted by lustful demons in human skin.
He didn't really care if she knew what he was doing, since he didn't do it for recognition in the first place.
He just wanted to blow off some steam by beating up those bastards who didn't know their place.
Several years were spent on that task. Alexander targeted specifically those who were plotting against her to promote their lustful intentions and made sure they'd never speak a word about him or even have thoughts about Iris in the future.
The rest, the ones who thought they were above using lowly schemes to grab her attention, were all Demigods already, so he didn't have the capacity to go after them, which was both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time.
But it was fine. His steps felt light as he finished up his minor revenge on those unsuspecting victims, and without any sort of heavy heart whatsoever, he hid himself away from the universe, somewhere in a secluded corner of the Divine Realm on a Dead Star nobody cared about.
Alexander spent the next several thousand years like this.
He only occasionally left the confines of his star when the main body saw a reality-altering change in the timeline, and he helped those who needed to grow properly for the future's benefit.
He did accumulate something of a reputation due to his acts, but besides the time when he met Alucard and the rest, he never revealed his name, whether it be his true name or his alias.
Therefore, it was more the reputation of a "mysterious hidden expert" than the reputation of Alexander, Damien Void's Avatar.
Still, he had nearly 4000 years to himself after he stopped being active in the universe.
He had to find a way to spend this time, because even as Damien he'd never experienced thousands of years with his own body.
The experience of over a billion years of memories engraved in his soul, however, definitely helped.
His perception of time became blurred. Every few hundred years only felt like three or four years to him, and as he sunk into a period of constant training, his perception blurred even further.
He gained control over Fire Laws and engraved the affinity into his soul fragment, he practiced the Immortality Breaking Technique, as he called it, to perfection, and using his main body as support, studied his own convoluted Divinity until he found a way to shatter it.
It was an insane training method. What kind of sane person would ever think of experimenting on breaking their own Divinity?
But for Damien, it was the best course of action. His Divinity held a structure none could compete with. If he could break his own, didn't that mean nobody else could stand a chance?
That was the basis of his research, but he never actually found a way to shatter his own Divinity.
Or rather, he didn't have access to that method yet.
Perhaps once he truly controlled the Void, it would be possible, but at that point, would the concept of Divinity even matter?
Nevertheless, he grew and grew and grew. He reached a point where even Divinity was just a concept he had full understanding of, and subtly, while his Avatar grew in the past, his main body got closer to existence in the Void.
Alexander was now capable of exerting strength far above any Supreme despite not being a Demigod.
It was still unknown if an Avatar could pass that boundary without its own ego, but Damien still wanted to try.
Having two Divine bodies would be an absolute cheat code when he went to the Heavenly World.
But for now, it was rather inconvenient to make Alexander a Demigod, so he held off on trying.
Alexander's moment had come.
The war was in full swing, and the man known as "Damien Void" had finally entered existence.
His journey continued without any knowledge that there was a second version of himself hiding away in a distant world, and eventually, he had to go to No Return Pass, leaving the universe without its "fated hero" to make sure things didn't go horribly wrong.
The Judgement Order started their expedition in the Blood-Drenched Wilderness, and, as they activated the summoning circle in hopes of getting aid from a Demigod like Commander Huo…
"It's time."
…Alexander opened his eyes in a different world.
He harnessed the laws of space through the main body's abilities, and made his first appearance with a bang.
5000 years had passed.
It was now his turn to save the universe!
