Damien's low-level Void Essence leaked from his body and surrounded that of the man in front of him. He had acted quick, as his prior experience had already told him what'd happen if he failed to devour a Nox on time.
Even the devil worshippers would turn into inky liquid when they died. Damien had already formulated a theory on the reason for this.
It was due to the unnatural mana within their bodies.
The Nox were a strange species. Although Damien had already qualified the mana they used as Death mana, it wasn't pure death mana. Or rather, it was a breed of death mana that was unnatural.
But the Nox were born to handle such unnatural mana. As a trade-off, their intelligence was low like beasts and they lost the ability to use any other forms of mana.
It was the same concept of balance that the whole universe functioned on.
Damien guessed that this unnatural mana's incompatibility with the ambient mana of the world was the reason why Nox corpses couldn't be sustained. Though, he wasn't completely sure of this hypothesis.
This was the best he could do with the information he had.
But none of that mattered at the moment. Due to Damien's timely intervention, he was able to devour the corpse before the liquefaction process even began.
Although he was curious about how the Nox mana would affect his body if he devoured it in the conventional sense, now wasn't the time for it. Damien had different plans for the essence that he had just acquired.
Now that he had obtained a slight amount of control over the Void Essence, he had more maneuverability when it came to its uses. For one, he didn't necessarily have to allow the essence he devoured into his body.
He could instead use it as a sort of limited fuel supply, as he was doing now. A blob of inky black substance surfaced on Damien's hand. While a part of it went into the plaque, the rest made its way into his subspace.
Damien's original subspace had become his Sanctuary, but he had made sure to set aside a portion of said Sanctuary to act as a subspace like before. After all, he still wanted item storage capability and he didn't want his items to simply be littered across the ground of the Sanctuary.
The reason he didn't just make a second subspace with just the normal capabilities of one was simple. The connection to the Sanctuary, while on the surface much more complicated and ethereal, was actually a lot firmer than the connection he had with his previous subspace.
The amount of delay between him sending his thoughts through the connection and receiving a response was almost negligible.
The effects of this were simple. He could easily store and withdraw things without even a single second of delay. Even if he wanted to use his subspace in battle, he wouldn't need to worry about losing momentum.
When the inky black essence made its way into the silver plaque in Damien's hand, it began to shudder slightly before transforming. A light blue diagram formed on its surface, depicting the area around him in the center of the plaque.
Surrounding the center, there were 5 shining dots in various directions. Even an idiot would be able to tell what they signified.
"Well, I guess I have 5 more tries to get some valuable information. Let's just hope that they're more useful than the idiot that I just met."
With those words, Damien immediately left the cave and flashed towards the closest location on the map.
***
Flames raged through the surrounding atmosphere, a massive storm brewed in the skies and furious black lightning struck down at the ground below.
Within this chaotic atmosphere, 3 men stood facing each other in the air, while countless abominations stood on the ground.
But none of these abominations were given the opportunity to do anything. They were unable to even move before they were either burned or fried to ash by the thundering lightning or raging flames that surrounded them.
Of the three men in the air, two of them were already broken. Their arms were twisted in unnatural shapes and their legs were bleeding profusely. Their bodies were riddled with holes in various places, leaking endless amounts of black blood.
Their terrified eyes stared at the monster in front of them. They had heard of his deeds already. In fact, the reason they had teamed up was because they had heard of his deeds. And yet, even together they couldn't cause any lasting damage to him.
Just like the two of them, the man was riddled with injuries. There were deep gashes in his chest and back from their combined attack, and even one of his arms was dangling limply at his side. But they knew.
These same harrowing injuries had been much worse only minutes before. Even the man's arm was half torn to the point where it'd have to be regrown if he ever wanted to use it again.
But under their incredulous eyes, he had done just that. The space around him had twisted and distorted, making it so none of their attacks could reach him. And within that distorted space, the man leisurely regrew his arm before once again engaging in battle with them.
Looking at the two pitch-black-skinned men in front of him, the man smiled. "It's simple really. All I asked is which direction it is to Astoria City. How can you treat a humble traveler like myself with such hostility?"
The men got the urge to cough blood at his words. Humble traveler? You were the one who barged into our hideout and started raining hell!
But the words were stuck in their throats. Their abominations had already been wiped out and they were on death's door. They knew that the man didn't even need information from them, he was just toying with them before killing them.
This only made their rage bubble further. Without hesitation, they once again charged at the man.
The inky black mana that surrounded their bodies raged violently, being fueled by everything they had. Even their remaining life force was being transmitted into their final attack.
Their goal was simple. If they were going to die anyway, they'd at least take him with them.
Seeing their attempt, the man's smile deepened. "If you were going to act like that, why didn't you just say so?"
Putting his hand out, the man clenched the space in front of him as if it was tangible. Then, he tore it open.
Space collapsed, causing heaven and earth to become one. A pitch black essence much more terrifying than their own leaked out of the space and consumed them.
They could feel their very existence being torn to shreds. The life force they injected into their attacks was as flimsy as paper in front of this essence.
"If you thought that you actually had a chance because I let you injure me, well, never mind. What's the use of talking to dead people, right?"
It didn't take long for their lives to be reaped. The raging battlefield soon regained its calm.
Looking at the scene in front of him, Damien's eyes hardened. None of the sarcastic demeanor he showed to those two Nox beings was present any longer.
"4 generals. That's not something that can be handled by a mere barrier. I need to hurry over before things take a turn for the worse."
Muttering those incomprehensible words, his body flashed and disappeared as if it never existed in the space around him at all.
