What did Damien see?
As his eyes began to resemble true celestial entities, what did he experience?
The truth was, it couldn't be described in just a few words.
What Damien saw, in essence, was reality.
In the past, he once had the chance to gaze at existence through the lens of the Void. This time, he was able to see reality from the lens of Existence.
It didn't seem like there was much of a difference between these things, but it was actually quite significant.
After all, Existence was quite a few steps below the Void, even if it was directly under it in the cosmic hierarchy.
Damien also didn't have the ability to change anything this time. He wasn't able to maneuver himself and see specific events or change the way ordained events took place.
He could only watch as he was being shown.
It was a completely different kind of experience.
Damien wasn't the one in control this time, so the things he was being shown weren't what he wanted to see.
But they still had their own particular order.
Damien saw the birth of planets, the birth of stars, the birth of galaxies, and the birth of universes.
Just the same, he saw their deaths.
The life cycle of a cosmos was similar to the life cycle of a human in many ways, however, there was something special about the images Damien was being shown aside from that.
It wasn't a true material feeling, but something from the depths of his heart.
Damien had never seen these galaxies or universes before. None of them looked similar to the True Void Universe he was used to. Still, he felt a connection to each and every one of them.
The experience was similar to when he first became a Celestial, as if his existence had become bigger than itself.
But what did those images mean?
To begin with, the Emperor's Crown wasn't a treasure. It didn't have an ability, and it didn't necessarily empower Damien in any way.
When its wear and rust peeled off, revealing the beautiful pentacolor shine of the crown's true appearance, it didn't do anything special or cause any sort of scene outside of the change in Damien's eyes.
The crown had seven main jewel slots.
Six of them were lined up side by side, circling the entire crown, while the seventh sat above them.
Currently, only three of the jewel slots were filled.
The jewels themselves couldn't be easily identified, as they weren't jewels that existed in reality, but they shone beautifully, each in their own unique color, and truly made the crown whole.
However, the presence of the four missing jewels was definitely felt when one looked at it.
The Emperor's Crown was meant to be worn by the one who could possess all seven jewels.
And these jewel slots, at least according to what Damien could glean, were reserved for the concepts of Existence.
The three that he already had, Order, Harmony, and Mist, manifested in their own images, setting themselves in the crown the instant they recognized it.
When Damien found the other three concepts of Existence, the bottom row of the crown's jewels would surely be filled.
But what about the last one?
As Damien traveled through all of Existence under the crown's guidance, he had to wonder what that last jewel was.
He had to wonder what he didn't know yet.
At this point in life, Damien had become so incredibly powerful that it was rarer to find something he couldn't infer on his own than something he could.
Most of reality's truths had been revealed to him in the various encounters he'd had in the past, which inevitably caused his spirit of adventure to dim.
What more was there for him to do but grow into his power?
That was how he thought before he entered this place and found the Gehenna Tribe.
He'd been going through the motions, living with only his goals in mind. As a result, he'd neglected some more emotional aspects of life.
He wasn't unaware of this change in his behavior, but he allowed it to happen because he believed it was necessary.
He had to become powerful again, and he had to regain the status he held in the lower universe. Otherwise, how could he possibly focus on other things with peace of mind?
The threats he faced were simply too big, so big that even he had difficulty imagining them at first.
He didn't have time to enjoy himself.
He held himself to that belief until recently, but as he stared into the starry sky of the Sacred Abyss Universe, his thoughts began to change.
As he spent time with the Gehenna Tribe, learning their culture and fully immersing himself in their lives, he found that there were indeed things he still didn't know and things for him to enjoy.
They were just so small that he'd forgotten to look back at them when his power got so immense.
Existence didn't just encompass the larger things. It wasn't just a grand concept that had implications beyond what anyone could imagine.
Existence was the greatest of Gods, the peak of all peaks.
But it was just as much the life of a common farmer, and the techniques he used to make sure he could earn his family a happy life.
The crown helped Damien understand himself. It showed him the things he wanted to see.
Only, it didn't show him directly at all. Instead, it analyzed his subconscious, judging his worth.
The Crown of Realis. It was called the Emperor's Crown because only such an existence could bear its weight.
And as it accepted Damien as its owner, it allowed him to view those same images more clearly.
It showed him the deepest desires in his heart.
Visions of the future, visions of the present, and even recollections of the long-forgotten past flew by Damien's eyes in rapid bursts.
And among them…
A strange four-dimensional space, a tesseract.
It was a microcosm of existence, yet a reality of its own.
It was a place where the common laws of nature simply didn't exist, a place where the average man was never meant to go.
However, within this tesseract, there was indeed a man.
A man that Damien recognized very well.
His eyes widened.
His heartbeat sped up.
At that exact moment, the images he saw changed. Like a camera zooming out, Damien's sight was thrown out of the tesseract and into its vicinity.
His field of view continued to expand. What was once a nondescript scenery suddenly became a location Damien was able to recognize.
And as he put his everything into remembering the images he was seeing, he gained certainty on what exactly that place was.
It was something he'd been looking for. He didn't think he'd be able to find its location easily, and he definitely didn't expect it to appear in front of him like this.
It was the source of most of his worries, and the exact goal he was currently working towards.
There was no doubt about it.
That place…
That place was the Celestial Prison.
