A thousand years of suffering.
That was Damien's punishment.
He had to spend a timespan that was almost ten times as long as the life he'd lived in a state of torture.
He was locked away in a natural realm made specifically for his punishment. The time in that place was nonexistent, so there was no way for him to measure how long he'd been inside once he was there.
He just had to sit there and suffer.
Physical punishment, mental punishment, torture of the soul…
Damien had a thousand years to experience it all.
But nobody would ever know.
He would return to reality not long after he left, and nobody would ever understand the kind of pain he went through.
Still, a thousand years was quite a long time, and with it, Damien was able to somewhat improve on the things he had.
Of course, it was difficult to do so while he was in extreme pain, but in the instances of respite he found over that millennium, he relentlessly meditated and practiced.
The jewel representing the concept of domination appeared in the Emperor's Crown.
It, originally, was meant to dominate the concept of Existence. However, it did have a relationship with the true definition of its name.
With domination and mist, Damien gained most of what he'd been wanting for a while now.
Damien could now control Existence to an alarming degree.
The only thing left was to find the last two concepts and truly complete his law.
But there were things to be done before he could do that.
Honestly, a thousand years of silence was something Damien needed.
He didn't need to stress about his thoughts because he knew that he would be stuck in the darkness for a long while more.
Damien now knew the location of the Celestial Prison. He knew how to get there from the Straea Clan's territory.
And, it was quite coincidental, but as he was shown the Celestial Prison, the Emperor's Crown accidentally showed him information about the Straea Clan's forces as well.
It was hard to find time to think, but the time eventually did come, and Damien used it to the best of his abilities to create a roadmap for both his and Void Palace's future path.
The pain was torturous. No matter how much agony Damien had experienced in the past, the cosmos could always find a way to make him suffer more.
In the Sacred Abyss Universe's perception, this was his first offense, so its standards were somewhat skewed. That was why Damien could find time to think and practica.
There was no second chance, though. Not here, and not in the True Void Universe.
If there was a next time, Damien was going to experience something unreal as punishment.
Nevertheless, a thousand years passed in an instant.
And about six months later, Damien returned to reality.
The light in his eyes had dulled a little, but that was it.
He had a plan, and he had the power to execute it.
He couldn't wait to go back now.
Because soon, it would really begin.
War.
A true war against the True Void Universe's greatest traitors.
***
It took a long time for life to return to normalcy in Count Verex's, or rather, Damien's territory.
For those who didn't know the context of what had happened and experienced what could only be called a glitch in reality, it was somewhat easier.
The people wrote it off as some sort of worldwide illusion and continued their lives normally.
They had no way to prove those events were real, and they had no basis to believe any one person had actually caused those events.
As for the Gehenna Tribe…
Damien's actions honestly didn't matter much to them.
No, it was more that they couldn't really find it in their hearts to react positively.
There were so many dead.
Damien couldn't save them.
They had died before he came to this place. Their souls had already entered the Wheel of Samsara.
If he wanted to save them, he needed to do more than just twist reality.
So, while the rest of the world regained their families, the Gehenna Tribe was forced to cope with loss.
The first three months were spent in mourning.
The bodies of those who'd passed were gathered and pieced back together before being burned in a massive fire pit.
It was the usual method of cremation the Gehenna Tribe used. Through ceremonies like this, they hoped their dead could join their ancestors in Gehenna, living out eternity in peace.
There were still a lot of people left in the tribe.
They were the women and children, along with those like blacksmiths and elders who had other roles in the village.
At the end of the day while almost half of their people died, they still existed. They could still live on.
And they had to. If not for their own sakes, then for the sake of those who died to give them that chance.
Thalia had spent the past six months learning to lead the tribe from the elders. For three, she led every funeral ceremony personally, sending every single one of her deceased brothers and sisters away personally.
Darius and Tiamat were helping the entire way.
They helped the tribe rebuild their homes and gave them the resources to survive in a situation where they didn't have any remaining hunters or battle-ready people in their group.
And, according to Damien's plan, they'd been trying to convince Thalia to take on a position bigger than herself.
When Damien came into possession of the territory, he knew he couldn't be the one to lead it.
His home was the True Void Universe, not the Sacred Abyss Universe.
He needed someone to take the reins here in his place.
And who was better for that task than Thalia?
To protect the Gehenna Tribe and to make sure they wouldn't be challenged in the future, to assure that someone trustworthy was ruling the territory in his place, and to honor the Saintess, who'd protected him in her own way, Damien wanted Thalia to take control of this territory.
But Thalia herself seemed…hesitant.
As long as Darius and Tiamat had been trying to convince her, she'd been shutting out their words.
For the most part, she didn't allow them to try.
She was busy with her duties, so it couldn't be helped that she felt swamped. The problem was more that she didn't seem receptive for other reasons.
Was she running from an opportunity?
Did she have some sort of problem?
The two of them had no way to find out, because she would not open up to them.
Her eyes had dulled ever since that day.
No matter how much time passed, the light in her eyes never returned to the way it was before.
As of now, there was only one way to find out what was holding Thalia back.
There was only one way to see what was going on in his mind.
Damien needed to return.
Now that his punishment had ended and it was time for him to come back…
Maybe, just maybe, the darkness that had been growing in Thalia's heart could be cleared.
