Existence.
Damien still couldn't fathom how to properly use it.
But in a moment like this, it seemed to fight alongside him, executing the imagination he couldn't access.
The mist knew those things that Damien couldn't fathom.
Now that he had it, he had gained the creativity necessary to utilize Existence as a law.
It was a benefit he never expected when he first allowed the semi-sentient entity into his body.
Nevertheless, it was great.
Really.
BOOOOOOOOM!
Another explosion rang out, but the force didn't come from mana.
It came from Count Verex's body surpassing the speed of light as his body flew out of the crater.
He was a God in his own right. He refused to be an easy target for anyone, especially not some random person like Damien.
His body disappeared beyond the capability of the human eye. In most cases, this would make him invisible to all perception.
Damien wasn't "most cases."
Damien could easily sense him moving through the folds of reality. Even if he couldn't, he could use the All-Seeing Eyes to enhance his visual perception until he could see him.
Regardless, there was quite literally no way for the Count to escape his sight.
BANG!
The sound was fast.
The Count arrived instantly and cut forth with his arm. Malakh flared into the atmosphere and created a massive sword filled with an aura of blood and wrath.
This blade was one of the Count's main killing techniques, God-Killing Blade. For most opponents, this alone was enough to slaughter them.
After all, the laws within were no joke. At their height, the moment they came in contact with an opposing aura, they'd infiltrate and corrupt, giving the Count full control over his enemy's body.
However, the previous sound didn't come from this.
With the God-Killing Blade in his arms, the Count slashed at Damien's head.
Damien hadn't reacted yet, almost as if he couldn't see the Count's movements, however…
BANG!
That was when the sound happened.
The Count didn't even see Damien move. He didn't even realize something had happened until he found himself flying high into the sky.
The pain came later. Far later. So far later, in fact, that it didn't come until after Damien had already struck him again.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Damien used physical strength alone. With Existence supporting him, every impact was amplified a thousandfold, slamming into Count Verex with the weight of an entire galaxy.
The Count was shot further and further into the sky, his body spinning like a rag doll as he lost complete control.
The God-Killing Blade was unsummoned because the Count's mana was thrown into chaos by the strikes. He was left unarmed, and while he was trying and trying to regain control…
BOOM!
Damien slammed into him one more time.
As his body entered what looked like the stratosphere of this world, he encountered a wall he'd never felt before.
Damien grinned.
'As expected.'
The invisible walls that separated this territory from everything else.
If everything was as normal, these walls would have only restricted him, allowing the Count to move freely since he was a denizen of this world.
However, again, the mist allowed Damien to use Existence to his advantage.
The Count was subjected to the same walls, and as his body went too far into the territory's borders, he slammed into the ceiling with the insane speed he'd gathered from Damien's continuous strikes.
His body flattened like a pancake.
Blood splattered across the invisible ceiling before raining down to drench the clouds below.
Count Verex's body was ruined. Black smoke appeared from his internals and covered him, evidently some kind of healing ability, but it wasn't able to do much.
Practically all the blood in his body had been forced out of his pores. His bones were a powder, and his muscles had become no more than a pile of mush that sludged together with his organs to occupy the deflated frame that his skin had become.
But the Count wasn't dead yet.
Damien could sense his life signs very clearly.
That putrid breath that signified the existence of a tainted soul.
Damien's eyes narrowed.
"Come here."
He held his arm out, and that thing was forced out of its body.
"Did you think you could hide?"
A soul so tainted in evil that it had turned crimson, the soul of Count Verex.
It was hidden inside a parasite that inhabited the Count's body. It was a safety mechanism that would allow him to escape even in the worst-case scenarios.
However, Damien would not let him leave so easily.
"Hmm…"
He looked at the soul struggling in his hands. It had the Count's image, which made its screaming and squealing a lot of fun to watch.
"Gehenna is trying to take you."
Gehenna only took the worst of the worst. Just what kind of crimes did he commit for such a place to want him?
"This man…was a God."
At one point, the Count was someone who ruled over several trillions of beings.
He was a being who stood near the peak of existence, the final level of power.
However, here he was.
He only had the chance to attack once, and even then, he wasn't even close to landing it.
'Is this what I've become…?'
Damien almost couldn't recognize himself anymore.
He thought back to what Thalia had asked back then.
And he remembered his answer.
He didn't become a monster for power.
He became a monster so that he could protect and avenge those he cared for. Power was just a medium.
'My path…'
Damien took a deep breath.
He didn't know why he was doubting himself. Maybe it was because of what the Crown of Realis showed him, or maybe it was the things he saw in the memories of those evil spirits he'd devoured in Gehenna.
Regardless, it was useless.
Other people wouldn't become peaceful because he wanted them to.
When the other side was willing to commit enough evil to dye his soul in blood, Damien needed to be willing to do the same.
Because if he wasn't, he would never be able to defeat them.
'As long as I keep my line and don't cross it, it doesn't matter how much of a monster I am.'
He'd learned this same lesson multiple times, but every single time he internalized it and kept it in his heart.
This time, he looked at the soul of a murderer, the soul of someone who'd taken away people he cared about and people his friends cared about.
And for his own benefit…
'Devour'
That soul entered his body, becoming a part of him.
The sins of that murderer became his own, and he accepted them willingly.
Damien glanced down at the world below.
It was massive. Far bigger than he expected it to be.
And as the Count's soul became part of his existence…
Something else entered Damien's body as well.
'A qualification.'
No, a deed.
It was a mark of ownership that gave him control over the Count's territory.
'I can…conquer this cosmos?'
No, he could dominate existence.
Damien's eyes shined.
'Domination.'
Another concept of Existence.
It had just now come to greet him.
