The ecosystem of the mountain was extremely calm and serene, leaving one wishing it was immortalized in a painting.
The verdant green grasses grew surprisingly well in the snow-covered ground, the various shrubbery swayed gently in the wind, and those crystal clear trees that looked as if they were a sculpted out of ice stood proudly amongst it all.
Within this serene atmosphere, brief flashes of light could occasionally be seen. They would appear in one place before reappearing almost 10 kilometers away, creating a mystical scene within the snow.
After hundreds of kilometers, these flashes finally paused and two figures were revealed in their midst. Naturally, they were Damien and Ruyue.
"Hmm, I think this should be far enough for now," Damien said, his gaze on the new surroundings they had arrived in.
"Yeah, they shouldn't be able to catch up any time soon."
"This mountain is seriously massive though. Even after hundreds of kilometers of teleporting, it only feels as if we've moved a few meters."
Indeed, the new scenery wasn't actually all that different from what they had seen before. In fact, there was almost no way of noticing they had actually moved if not for the fact that they themselves had been the ones teleporting.
It was a truly majestic mountain that Damien couldn't even begin to fathom. Even after so much traveling and seeing so many new things, the sheer magnitude of some of these locations still managed to surprise him.
He had seen plenty of massive mountains of scale he couldn't even imagine, take Godspark Mountain in Apeiron for example, but he never truly had the chance to understand their gait.
After all, he had a clear objective at that time. He had wasted no time actually exploring the mountain, using teleportation to directly climb to its peak and find the ancient temple.
But now, his teleportation was suppressed. Or rather, the suppression was from space itself. He hadn't understood it at first, and since he was busy narrowly escaping danger he didn't put much thought into it, but now that he had taken the time to observe, he had realized the truth.
It wasn't that his abilities were being actively suppressed, nor was there some sort of elaborate formation at play. Instead, space on this mountain was much thicker than it was outside.
If he had to compare, space elsewhere was like walking for him. It didn't take any effort and he felt no resistance during his movement. But space within the mountain was as if he was underwater. It was murky and viscous, forcing him to expend much more effort to accomplish the same feats.
But he didn't particularly mind. Actually, this kind of environment could be considered as a perfect training ground for him. Back on Apeiron, his rush to return to earth left him unable to properly make use of the sub spaces that the Spatial Grandmaster Kurt Galloway had left for his successors.
Hell, he didn't even end up using the spatial training ground at Zenith Academy even after receiving Malcolm's promise. There were probably plenty of ample training grounds for him on that peaceful planet, but he had wasted them all.
Perhaps he would get a chance to return there in the future and make use of them, but he doubted they would be of any help at that point. Besides, the peace on that planet really wasn't good for him. It didn't promote growth the way this kind of ruthless killing environment did.
So Damien was glad this mountain ended up suppressing his abilities.
It was a similar concept to wearing heavy weights constantly until one was able to go about day-to-day actions normally, and then taking them off to reap the benefits. One's speed and dexterity, as well as their strength, would naturally increase with this kind of intensive training.
He expected similar improvements to transfer to his spatial abilities if he managed to adapt to this new atmosphere. The prospect was frankly incredibly exciting.
"Ah!"
Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain on his waist that forced him to cry out. Looking down, he noticed Ruyue glaring at him while blushing furiously.
"When do you plan on letting go?"
It was only then that he realized that the hand he had placed on her waist during teleportation had yet to be removed. He had sunken into thought the moment they exited, so he ended up forgetting.
"Hm, what are you talking about?"
Though he still decided to act ignorant. He was a man, after all, and the soft sensation on his hand and chest was naturally something he enjoyed.
"You…!" Ruyue exclaimed, her glare intensifying. It was the first time she had ever been held by a man in such a manner, and the spot where his hand made contact with her body felt like it was burning. It was as if the layers of clothes separating them had disappeared.
Also, Ruyue seemed to have forgotten about the fact that she quite literally fell asleep in his arms while hugging him a few months back, but Damien thickened his skin and didn't bring it up.
"Let me go…" Although she spoke words of resistance, she made no move to actually leave his embrace.
Damien continued watching her in amusement. This was a side of her that would never get old. Thinking back to how they were completely at odds during their first meeting, he couldn't help but smile.
Wasn't the change in their relationship too drastic?
Sometimes even he wondered how such a cold and aloof woman ended up warming up to him so much in a short period of time. In fact, he suspected her change in attitude happened while he was gone on his mission with Long Chen.
In that case, how did it even come to be? Did she magically remove the prejudice and pride she had built up over the years?
It couldn't be true.
But he had never inquired about it too much. Occasionally, a complicated light would flash through her eyes when she thought nobody was looking. But he had always seen it. Perhaps, she would tell him when she was comfortable enough.
And that was enough for him. Even Rose still had some secrets she didn't tell him about, and he had some he kept from her, such as his Void Physique or his suspicions about his origins. These were things that would naturally be revealed with time, so there was no point getting too absorbed in them.
Soon enough, Ruyue managed to wriggle her body out of his embrace, but even then she continued to glare at him hatefully. This fellow truly knew how to take advantage of others.
Even her body…!
When she thought up to this point, the redness on her face increased to the point where it looked like she was on the verge of exploding. A trace of shyness flashed in her eyes.
Biting her lip gently, she sighed. "Anyway, now that we have escaped from that encirclement, what do you plan on doing?"
Damien had been enjoying the constantly changing expressions on Ruyue's face, but he ended up grinning at her question.
"Is there any need to think about it? We needed prey once we arrived on this mountain, and it happened to deliver itself right onto our doorstep!"
"You don't mean…" Ruyue muttered with widened eyes, but a grin ended up creeping up her face as well.
"They wanted to take us as slaves right? Well, let's make them understand that they can't bear the cost of such actions."
