Damien spent a few more days in the cell before anyone came to get him, but that wasn't bad for him at all.
Rather than a burden, it was a benefit.
It was impossible for Damien to marvel at the Heavenly World itself. The world was just too big for him to even begin to understand its beauties with such a small stay here.
However, its mana was both beautiful and ever-present.
Its perfection was incredibly beneficial for him to study, because it was a force closer to existence than anything he'd seen in the lower universe.
On top of that, his mana was a unique energy that could transmute into anything. Learning the ins and outs of other energy forms would strengthen him greatly, and the moment he fully understood them and gained the ability to combine or dissect them with a thought, he would reach an entirely new level of power that nobody could touch upon.
It was interesting.
Every once in a while, Damien released a few strings of Void Energy to test both its effects and the perception of those around him, and he came to a few conclusions.
Firstly, the hidden nature of the Void didn't change even here.
No matter how much energy he outputted, unless it got to the point where it affected the physical plane and altered it, nobody could sense it.
He couldn't speak on Gods, but at least Demigods didn't outshine his expectations by too much, which was good for him.
Secondly, the Void's influence was both restricted and freed depending on which aspects one looked at.
Damien had a lot of privileges in the Heavenly World that he didn't have in the lower universe, however, he also lacked some of the freedoms a more chaotic law structure granted him.
Such as his ability to "wish."
He could no longer let the Void do the work for him. Situations like when he helped Yong An escape the Saint Emperor through a "wish" rather than direct intervention weren't possible anymore.
Most likely, it was because if the Void exerted so much influence over a world like this one, it would genuinely disrupt the natural functions of the laws and degrade it to a lower world.
Perhaps an accumulation of such events was what created a universe out of a universe world to begin with.
There was a lot Damien could learn, but there was just as much inhibiting him.
Because, unfortunately enough, he was still a prisoner.
The gorilla man, whose name he still didn't know, and a few other members of the interrogation force would visit him every so often, and they would have relatively light-hearted conversations about themselves, but because of his status, he wasn't given much information.
It was annoying. He was here for transportation only, so he didn't think much of it, but it would've been nice if they at least told him more about the world.
However, they had a reason.
The captain gave them strict orders to restrict his knowledge for unknown reasons.
She was observing him to see what he did without any way to create a plan forward, to test both his psyche and power, and to see if he would do anything to reveal a hidden purpose.
But with no changes from him even after a week, she conceded and stopped testing him.
'This man is interesting.'
Damien literally did nothing to pique her interest, but that was even more interesting.
He knew she was watching him. She could tell that much.
When she'd encountered so many people who acted the complete opposite of him, trying their best to act a certain way to offset any suspicions towards them, and people who would act just like him, but fold after a while because it was a facade rather than their true appearance, the fact that he wasn't trying to do anything special or be anything he wasn't was more interesting than anything else.
So once the week passed, she finally gave her shadow the command and summoned him to her quarters.
He had his senses "isolated" again until he reached, and when he did, he finally laid his eyes on the presence he'd been sensing for the past week.
'So this is that person.'
The only person on this ship worthy of his attention, a being stronger than even the Saint Emperor, the strongest person he'd fought in his lifetime.
And she was just the captain of a starship, not even an important character with high status to be respected.
"You are Damien Grey?" She said, glancing over at him dismissively.
She had long silver hair and a cigar in her mouth, with seemingly no care towards anything. She was dressed roughly, like someone who spent more time on the battlefield than in social settings, but she had an aura of royalty around her that couldn't be denied.
"That I am," Damien responded with a small bow, smiling as he greeted her.
This person was interesting. Just as she'd been watching him, he'd been watching her.
And her senses were definitely spectacular.
The fact that he was called here was surprising in itself. She had noticed something off about him, even though he made no moves to confirm or even give reasoning to her suspicions.
She must've experienced a great deal of things to have vision like that, and Damien always enjoyed interacting with that kind of person.
"You said you only came to our ship to hitchhike, but is that really true?" She asked again.
Damien nodded.
"When I left the forest, all I saw was an empty land. I didn't know how long it would take to find a city without any knowledge of the surroundings, so when I saw a human artifact in the air, I chose to come here instead."
"I see…"
The captain smiled slightly.
"So you really weren't some mountain man."
Damien raised his brow.
"What makes you say that?"
He didn't try too hard to maintain the image since it didn't matter much in the first place, but he also didn't give any obvious hints that he was lying.
After all, he was careful enough to justify his relative intelligence and social ability as the product of a master who died before he left the forest.
But she was able to figure it out already? He was definitely curious about the method.
The woman leaned forward, as if to increase the mysteriousness surrounding her as she answered his question.
"I have observed you quite well over the past few days. While there were no obvious signs, you also did not try nearly hard enough to maintain your identity. What kind of mountain man has the patience to sit patiently for days on end without a problem, and what kind of master would leave his disciple without any clues on how to live in the world once he passed?"
They were small details that nobody else paid attention to, but because she was specifically trying to uncover Damien's secrets, she noticed them all.
"You aren't from some dark force or someone who holds hostility towards us, or else you would've done something already. You also don't look like you have a reason to hide your identity other than self-protection. When I put everything together, there's only one answer that comes to mind."
She looked into his eyes as if to peer into the depths of his soul.
She was certain of it.
"You…"
"...are an Ascender."
