?Time stopped.
The moment the silver light appeared in Damien's hands, time became inconsequential.
Damien was truly holding Existence.
Everything else became negligible under its luster.
Damien almost lost himself in it.
His body was already turning into ash and rebuilding itself every instant. If his mind collapsed as well, he'd kill himself before he even got the chance to use it.
But it was truly wondrous.
It made Damien forget his situation, forget his surroundings, and forget himself.
It was all those things.
It was everything.
To hold a mana that truly represented all things in his hand gave him a feeling that was impossible to understand or describe.
All he could think was, "This is my goal."
He repeated it over and over again.
Because this mana felt Absolute.
'Focus. Focus. Focus.'
He finally got a grip on his mind after several seconds of blankly staring at the light. As he focused, he was finally able to see the outside world again.
The blinding light let out by the homunculus became monochrome. The fearful expressions of the common people, the agonizing expressions of the Divinities, and the overall air of struggle were frozen in time, a perfect picture for Damien to view.
'What am I supposed to do with this?'
This was existence.
As he held it in his hands, he was given the freedom to do quite literally anything he wished.
'But the more complex my desire, the more severe the consequences.'
It wasn't something he could use as he pleased.
Still, he felt that simply killing the homunculus here was a waste of this power.
'What if I try to revive it?'
What would happen if he brought its ego back and subordinated the homunculus?
'It would definitely be useful, but is it worth more than devouring it?'
If he devoured it, he'd pretty much learn everything about the Divine Order that could be used to plot against them. It was far more efficient than information from someone else's mouth could ever be.
Yet, he didn't want to leave things as they were.
'There must be something…'
The area he could affect was only as large as his perceptive range. He couldn't do anything crazier than he already had.
But maybe he could–
'I got it.'
He suddenly had a genius idea.
Flash!
Damien disappeared from the sky and appeared directly next to the homunculus.
It was frozen in time. It couldn't realize his presence at all, nor could its mana affect him.
Damien was different. If he wanted to touch the frozen homunculus without awakening it, he absolutely could.
He put his hand on its forehead.
When he finally felt its skin like this, he realized how fake it felt. While it was a real living being, it felt more synthetic than anything else.
'Give it to me.'
He didn't know exactly what it was, but he wanted it.
'Give me your ability to enter the Heavenly God Plane.'
Damien was still at the lowest level of Divinity.
As he'd discovered in the Forbidden Secret Realm, ascending to Godhood wasn't something he could do any time soon.
At least, he wouldn't be able to do so until he gathered all six concepts of Existence.
Since the first was in a secret realm that opened every few millennia, the others wouldn't be easy to find either.
He refused to stay in his current predicament for that long.
The Heavenly God Plane was the battleground of Gods. It wasn't a place he logically should've been entering yet, since he didn't have the capabilities to fight Gods at all.
However, he had several ideas about the place, and more importantly, he wanted to know exactly what it was.
'If I can just enter the Heavenly God Plane, I'll be able to bring myself to a new level regardless of the pieces of existence. There's something there. I don't know what exactly it is, but there's something there that I need to find.'
He originally sensed it when he sensed the plane's existence. It held secrets beyond anything Damien had seen before.
If he wanted to unravel them and grow, he first needed to steal "something" from the homunculus.
As for what that was?
It was a power he wouldn't have received even if he decided to devour it.
Its Edict, its proof of Godhood.
VOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The silver light in Damien's hand brightened.
As his wish was confirmed, it immediately went to work.
It spread until it covered the homunculus, covered the Demigods beyond the mana barrier, and covered everything else in the Aeria Principality.
First and foremost, it intruded into the homunculus' soul. It stole the artificial being's Divinity and extracted its Edict.
But that wasn't all it did.
It healed the Demigods who stood up for the common people, it repaired all the damaged structures in the entire principality, it erased the bodies of the Divine Order soldiers who'd died previously, and even gathered the souls of the deceased innocents so they could be sent off properly.
Everything Damien wanted to happen happened.
Most of it was still secondary, because it took most of the Existence Mana Damien gathered to extract the Edict.
And more importantly, to place the Edict in his own soul without killing him.
A Demigod's soul wasn't strong enough to hold something so powerful. Hypothetically speaking, a procedure like this one would demolish a Demigod's soul, shattering it instantly.
However, Damien's soul was special. It took on the properties of the Void, which meant it could contain anything.
When the Edict entered his soul, he got a strange feeling like a stranger was sleeping in his bed. It was unnatural, and while he could feel the Edict's weight, it didn't feel real to him.
When his soul acclimated to its presence and started turning it into Damien's power, he started to understand it more, but it still felt half-baked.
'Edicts…'
He didn't know much about them, honestly, but he got the gist of it.
This homunculus' Edict was called [Darkest Light].
It was an ability disguised as light, but was truly an absolute darkness that consumed everything.
Honestly, it was relatively useful for Damien, considering the nature of his abilities, but he didn't quite understand why Edicts were so valuable.
'I guess I'll find out when I devour it.'
He glanced at the homunculus.
He thought the process of acquiring an Edict would be something grand. He thought the same about his first time killing a God.
But in this moment, it felt minuscule.
In front of the true weight of Existence, these events were nothing.
He was still in the frozen world. The effects of his skill didn't end yet, and likely wouldn't end until he devoured the homunculus, the last action in the command he gave.
'Maybe, the second this ends…'
Damien sighed.
'It's not like I have the option to prolong it either.'
He knew in his heart. This wasn't something he'd be able to replicate easily.
This might've been his last time using this ability until he truly unlocked it.
It wasn't odd for him to wish he could stay in this space for a long time and simply understand it, but with the amount of Existence Mana Damien was able to produce, he only had a few more seconds at the maximum.
'Huu…then, let's get it over with.'
Damien held his hand out again, and as he gave the command, a pitch-black mana flooded out of his body and cocooned the homunculus.
That was it.
Time resumed, all changes included in the true timeline.
And Damien…
