The Bloomberg Principality was somewhere near the center of the Southern Region, near one of the extreme poles of the Heavenly World.
It was a cold region without much civilization, but there were still several tribes that lived in the area for generations and had their own unique cultures.
The Bloomberg Principity was one of those so far disconnected from society that the people were hardly followers of Void Palace, however, even they had connections with the outside world.
This was because of the danger of Dimensional Cracks.
Dimensional Cracks weren't actually a rare occurrence.
Just like the gates and dungeons of the lower universe, Dimensional Cracks would appear anywhere and everywhere with no rhyme or reason.
However, unlike gates, Dimensional Cracks were created artificially, not as a product of the natural order.
Damien had information on all the Dimensional Cracks that he could find, but not all of them were tracked. There were just too many.
For the most part, they weren't too unbelievably dangerous, so they were taken care of by local practitioners and kept in their books, never to reach the ears of those in a much higher position than them.
Also, for the most part, Dimensional Cracks didn't rupture.
That was when they truly became dangerous.
At the end of the day, the Foreign Races were just that, foreign.
The Heavenly Order didn't hold any bias, but when its space was being controlled by foreign entities, its natural protections would be put into play regardless.
When a Dimensional Crack first spawned, it would remain in a closed state.
Nothing could enter the cosmos through it, however, entities from within the cosmos could enter it just fine.
With this mechanism as protection, practitioners could enter the cracks and kill everything inside before they could invade the world, just like how gates worked.
Dimensional Ruptures were avoided in most cases. That was because the cosmos had already realized how dangerous it would be if they were allowed to turn into ruptures.
This awareness of danger just didn't go further than that, which was a shame.
Nevertheless, Dimensional Ruptures happened when the Heavenly Order's protection was whittled down until it was broken.
At that point, the Foreign Races would charge through and invade, turning more and more land into their own territory until all of them were killed and the crack was dispersed.
Converted territories couldn't be regained, as found through past experiences had by the citizens of this world.
And, no matter how many Foreign Races died, they wouldn't stop pouring through the gate until it was destroyed.
Spatial practitioners were an absolute necessity to rid society of these cracks, which was why Void Palace was able to grow so rapidly.
The crack Damien was headed towards was on the verge of rupturing.
Several teams of practitioners had been sent in, but none of them had returned. It got to the point where no local influence could handle it, and Void Palace was notified of the situation.
When Damien got the news, he immediately knew he had to go.
Dimensional Cracks were the Foreign Races' method of invading this cosmos.
They hadn't been trying as hard as they could, so despite their number, the actual impact they'd had wasn't as big as it could've been.
The troops they sent to invade or fight against invaders weren't the strongest they had, nor were the Dimensional Cracks too serious.
They didn't really have to try yet.
The people here hadn't realized the threat they posed.
Just as had happened in the lower universe, they would slowly gnaw on the Heavenly World, converting small patches into their land until they had more ground than the denizens.
And they'd do it before anyone took them seriously.
Damien understood their strategies as someone who'd fought them before.
This Dimensional Crack was special.
The people who were sent to clear it weren't weak. As weaker teams were defeated and the problem made its way up the power hierarchy, even Demigods had eventually been sent.
Damien used his information network to find out a lot about all the cracks he could find, and through it, he realized that this kind of situation wasn't as common as one would expect it to be.
And every time it had taken place, it ended in a portion of land being transformed into a Foreign Territory.
This could only mean one thing.
'There is something inside the crack that's far more powerful than what the cosmos has seen thus far.'
This crack wasn't like the rest.
Damien was going to send a team to the crack regardless to deal with the rupture, but the reason he came himself was because he wanted to see what made this crack special.
Why were there Demigod-level enemies within?
What secrets were they hiding?
Demigods were definitely common in the Heavenly World, but that was still just because of the size.
In reality, Demigods still weren't forces that could be used easily, outside of war of course.
Damien's ability to create them in a mere hundred years was monstrous, and for the same reason that made that true, Dimensional Cracks that could kill Demigods were extremely worrying.
'We still don't know anything about the Foreign Races.'
Even the influences who had direct contact with them were still largely unaware of the true nature of the Foreign Races apart from the most basic information.
What would happen if their forces were just as plentiful or more plentiful than those the Heavenly World had?
All these questions stacked up in Damien's mind as he approached the Bloomberg Principality.
He wasn't alone this time. He'd brought two squads from his newly created army with them, both to give them experience and to have help dealing with the rupture.
These squads consisted of only Demigods. The first was led by Tiamat and consisted of Divinities from the Sanctuary.
As for the second, it contained both Dominic and Darius Void, along with a few talented Demigods from the Void Palace army.
They had come with their identities hidden for multiple reasons. Damien made sure to disguise his siblings' purple eyes as well as his own.
As for the rest, other than a few who had some reputation in the outside world, everyone was a new face being introduced to society as of this moment.
They weren't the only ones here either.
Several Demigods from nearby influences, and even some who came from a distance for this event, were also headed to the Dimensional Crack.
And, of course, not all of them were friendly.
'I purposefully created an opportunity for them, so it's only natural they take it.'
Right now, Damien had the image of someone arrogant, an image he created by autographing his actions in the Southwestern Region and announcing himself as Young Lord immediately afterward.
Leaving the palace now maintained that image, which gave those who despised him an opportunity to aim for his throat.
But his arrogance was a lie.
And everything they knew was a trap laid out for those individuals.
Damien had done so much planning.
At this point, it was hard to find a variable outside his control.
So he approached with confidence that nothing would go wrong.
And he laid his eyes on his very first Dimensional Crack.
