Destruction rang free.
Space itself was crushed under the pressure of his sword and collapsed in on itself, causing a massive black hole to manifest. It furiously rotated, creating a suction force that dragged in everything in the vicinity.
The black hole went beyond what Damien usually created through Spatial Collapse. His previous sword only amplified his attack power, but Mirage was on a whole different level. It was equivalent to a spatial practitioner on its own.
So when its spatial manipulation was paired with Damien and harmonized, it created a black hole of untold proportions and power.
Naturally, the icy remains of the golem, which had just started repairing itself, succumbed to the irresistible force.
Roar!
Mirage let out a joyful cry that sounded like a roar. It was extremely pleased with the destruction it was able to cause.
Damien smiled lightly and descended from the air. As he watched on, the black hole slowly shrunk into a small point and disappeared as space repaired itself.
Rumble!
But before he had time to catch his breath, the entire shrine began to tremble. The debris on the ground vibrated and jumped around as the ground itself roared in fury.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
"Fuck! What is it this time?!" Damien mumbled. The situation was extremely similar to the golden summoning, except the intense rumbling seemed to come from the shrine itself this time.
Cracks spread through the ground. And soon enough, the entire area of the shrine imploded, collapsing in on itself.
Damien fell into the abyss that was left in its wake.
"Has…not this again…"
He thought he was going to be falling endlessly like he did within the Ancient Temple, but luckily the situation was different this time.
It was only a short drop of a few hundred meters. Of course, he could've flown out, but he didn't think it was necessary.
For there to be such a large underground space beneath the shrine, there must've been something important there.
Damien cut away the debris around him and spread his awareness through the dark space. At first, he thought it was a vast empty area, but he felt a prickling sensation in his awareness whenever it spread through the darkness.
"Is this…?"
He waved his arm in front of him randomly, and found that the sensation he felt was true. The darkness was tangible. It wasn't merely caused by the lack of light in the area.
'This thing can control darkness too? Is it a dual element seed?'
He manifested his Void Flames to test the waters, letting them do as they pleased once they emerged in reality.
The Void Flames flickered curiously, seemingly looking around at the surrounding space. And then, they hopped away from Damien's body and began burning madly.
The darkness in his vicinity began to clear up. The Void Flames were actually devouring it.
'Devouring darkness? Or is it just devouring mana? If it's the latter, then things become much simpler.'
Damien tried using his own devour ability as well, since devouring mana was something he could do, but he found that it was ineffective.
'Hmm…I don't think the Void Flames are capable of devouring something conceptual like darkness. But it isn't just pure mana either. There must be something else that I'm missing.'
Without being able to understand the surrounding darkness, Damien didn't want to move recklessly and get himself in trouble. But at the same time, he felt like moving forward was the only way to solve the current problem.
'Fuck it. It doesn't look like my teleportation is being blocked, so in the worst case I can still warp out and be safe.'
Thinking such, he immediately began moving. As he ran through the darkness, the prickling sensation on his skin increased.
'What is it trying to do?'
Curious, he made a bold decision. Since the darkness was tangible, he wanted to see what effects it had on his body. And without thinking, he opened his mouth and swallowed a portion of it.
A corrosive aura immediately spread through his esophagus and tried to melt through his neck. He mobilized his Void Essence instantly to neutralize it.
'Phew…that was a stupid decision…but at least I know what's happening now.'
The prickling sensation on his skin must've been the corrosive force that he just felt. Only, it wasn't able to penetrate his body.
'Has my body become so strong? If so, why was the cold aura able to penetrate my defenses?'
Perhaps the elemental seed was more proficient in its ice element than its darkness. Or maybe the darkness wasn't even an ability of the elemental seed in the first place. Regardless, it was still reality that the darkness couldn't affect him.
The fact that he felt the same prickling sensation on his awareness, though, was his main concern.
'The frost aura also affected my mind. It was actually able to slow my thought process to the point where it took 400 steps for me to realize my body was being frozen. I can't make the same mistake this time and ignore this sensation.'
Even if it didn't feel dangerous, he wasn't planning to take the same risk again. When comparing his mind and body, the former was far weaker.
Even with the strengthening he got from refining the Primordial Undying Tree's essence, his mind still didn't match up to his body which had been refined over and over again over the course of many years.
He withdrew his awareness. With his eyes, he didn't need to use it to see. But his bodily senses weren't as prone to danger, so he upped his cautiousness to the max.
Like this, he continued walking through the darkness. Behind him, the Void Flame continued devouring it as he moved.
He suddenly got an idea. Instead of moving in a single direction, he altered his path and walked in a zig-zag pattern for a bit. All the while, he kept a part of his attention on the movement of the Void Flame.
And as he expected, when he turned once more, the Void Flame's excitement spiked.
'I see. So the source must be over there somewhere.'
If there was one thing the Void Flame would want to devour more than the darkness, it'd be the source of the darkness. This was the logic he used to determine his direction.
And once he figured it out, he increased his speed and bolted towards the source.
The corrosive effect of the darkness became fiercer as he moved. No, it was more like it was actively targeting him.
Waves upon waves of corrosive darkness fell onto his position like tsunamis. It got to the point where he had to erect his vector field and use a barrier of Void Essence to ward it off.
And as he drew closer to the source, a feral growling sound began permeating through the atmosphere.
But it was odd.
It was like two voices stacked on top of each other. One was bestial, while the other seemed extremely young.
'Something isn't right about this.'
Damien wreathed his body in lightning and shot forward with even faster speed, and not even ten minutes later, he reached the source of the growling sound.
His eyes widened in shock.
On the floor was a small child no older than ten years old. She was crouched in a fetal position with her hands covering her ears.
And behind her, a massive black mass with thousands of closed eyes that blanketed the darkness like an aura.
As if responding to the sound of Damien's approach, the girl raised her head. She opened her eyes and looked at him.
And in that same instant, the eyes in the darkness opened as well.
