Damien glanced around at his surroundings.
The first thing he saw was Celeste, who was just a few feet away. Unlike him, she'd been affected by the spatial transmission and was currently regaining her composure.
After that, it was the environment itself.
They were in a large jungle, or maybe it was more apt to call it a rainforest?
It was filled with verdant greenery lush enough to be considered overgrown. The color green that spread in every direction was almost too vibrant to be real, and the sky was blotted out by the densely packed vegetation.
The roars, chirps, and buzzing of beasts came from all over the place, courtesy of the flourishing ecosystem within this place.
And from the auras that came from those sounds…
"...everything around here has reached Divinity."
It wasn't Damien who spoke, but Celeste. She also sensed everything around her after regaining her senses, and she immediately went on alert.
"It's not quite Divinity," Damien responded.
"It's similar, but they didn't reach the Divine level normally. It's more like they're mortals with the strength of a Divinity."
Divinity was something special. Regardless of whether it was something grand like Damien's Hegemon God or something basic like a single element Divinity, it wasn't something that could be achieved easily.
That wasn't to say none of the beasts in this secret realm had the capacity to reach that point, but an entire ecosystem of Divinities who slaughtered and ate each other just wasn't possible.
But for them to reach a power level similar to what a Demigod had without actually gaining Divinity, while it seemed more improbable, was actually far easier.
Damien knew how beasts worked more than anyone else, since he was basically one of them for a while. He understood how easy it was to kill, eat, and evolve until one reached an unimaginable level.
'I wonder what the intelligence standard is.'
If they all had high intelligence, things could be far more dangerous than he was expecting.
'But it's not my job to figure all this out.'
After the first tidbit of information he gave, he didn't say anything else.
This was Celeste's time to shine. If he played too large of a role here, it would stunt her growth rather than aid it.
So he quietly watched as she slowly gathered information about her surroundings and set out to explore the secret realm.
For now, Damien's job was easy. He already knew how this went.
Celeste fought against beasts, struggled, almost died, and grew. She never got injured or endangered to the extent that would require Damien to intervene, so as the days passed, he quietly faded into the background and watched her grow.
Of course, not helping her didn't mean he wasn't making his own observations about the secret realm and Celeste herself over this period.
'Surprisingly enough, we're pretty close to the boundary steles. I was expecting everyone to arrive far away, since there haven't been many real attempts to break past the steles, but I guess there was something more to it.'
The aura he had been sensing since he first got here was coming from beyond the steles, so his attention kept going in that direction.
'It's unfortunate, but I won't be able to get there in the near future.'
The time they had in this place wasn't actually guaranteed. The Forbidden Secret Realm opened when it pleased and closed when it pleased. When the time came for it to disappear from the world again, it would simply eject every foreign entity back into the Heavenly World as if they were flies in front of its power.
'It might be as little as six months, and it might be so long that the situation outside has become something unimaginable.'
Damien shook his head.
'There's no point dawdling on it. Worst case scenario, I force my way out. More importantly, that woman…'
Celeste was a Demigod in her own right. From what Damien could sense from her soul, her Divinity was also something related to stars, as if her destiny always led to the celestial.
'The power she uses mimics the natural elements, but isn't actually a part of their order. She's an anomaly amongst anomalies.'
Normal people definitely couldn't sense it, but he was different.
There wasn't anyone with a greater connection to the celestial than he did.
After all, he was the owner of an entire universe.
'From what I can gather, it isn't like the power of my Celestial class, or anything like Ruyue's old moon affinity. Rather than drawing power from the stars, it's like her entire body has become chaos from which the stars can be born.'
He didn't know how to properly explain it, but it was definitely interesting.
Her growth was incredibly linear, as if the cosmos itself wanted her to grow fast. The stronger she got, the more chaotic her soul became, yet the more ordered her power was.
'This woman is special.'
She was still a "young genius." She was around 100 years old, and she'd been sheltered in the Veritas Clan for the majority of her life.
'The treatment she receives outside might be because of her unique physique. I don't know if they can read it as well as I can, but there's no way the Gods of the Veritas Clan didn't notice the oddity of her existence.'
Whatever the case was, the Celeste he was seeing now wasn't like the sides she showed in the outside world.
He was sure she'd already forgotten about his presence.
Because she truly looked in her element.
She wasn't hiding anything or putting up a front. She wasn't being reserved or overly outgoing. She was just being herself, absolutely enjoying the feeling of strength filling her every bone.
'In a way, she's similar to me.'
Damien smiled.
Months passed without him having to intervene in her adventures.
Celeste found a variety of treasures, some of which she discarded and some of which she consumed directly. She even found a beast companion, a small black snake that didn't seem like anything special but had a unique aura about it.
She was doing well, and Damien was having fun watching her growth.
However, good times could never last.
'Hostile presences.'
They were surrounded by them constantly, but these were different.
These were human.
Celeste's eyes turned in that direction with a ferocious glint.
'There's no way another group would approach with good intentions.'
Those individualistic and prideful geniuses moving as a group?
Laughable!
Without a question, Celeste raised her guard and jumped into a nearby tree. She withdrew a bow from her spatial ring and got in position to fire.
The group slowly arrived in the vicinity, and Celeste hid her presence to an extreme degree that impressed even Damien.
The two of them watched as the group below split up and searched the area. When they realized Celeste was nowhere to be found, they reconvened in the clearing.
"The target isn't here," the leader among them said.
"Should we leave?" Another asked him.
"No."
The leader's response was instant without an ounce of hesitation.
"Remember our orders. If we can't accomplish our mission, we'll be killed or brutally tortured. This is the only chance for us."
His eyes hardened and his teeth gritted. The expressions of his men became equally solemn as they reflected on their position.
There was only one hope for their survival.
And the leader knew it well.
"The future of Veritas must fall today."
