Damien stood in front of the girl with only a few inches separating them. From here, he could clearly see the sheer contradiction that existed within her.
Everything about her contradicted. Whether it be her aura, her actions and feelings, or her appearance, from the start it was a strange thing.
But with the abruptness of the following battle, Damien didn't take too much time to think about it. He couldn't just say that something was wrong because of appearance alone.
But now, he had looked deeply into her with his All-Seeing Eyes at a distance where any slight movement of hers would be caught in his sight. And now, he could confidently say that something was wrong.
The girl's mouth suddenly opened unnaturally wide, spitting out a torrent of acid. Damien hurriedly retreated back to a distance where her chains wouldn't let her reach.
He needed a second to think and figure out what was going on.
The first thing he thought of was body possession, but the girl's spiritual intent was still fully intact when he checked it. Even if she had been possessed, it wouldn't lead to this kind of incomplete look.
As for the second thought…he really didn't know. All he knew was that the girl wanted his help with something. And that something seemed to be dealing with the force that was attacking him at the moment.
If he considered that this girl was truly the owner of the elemental domain that eclipsed the entire ruin, he could make some guesses.
In the first place, for him to find this shrine instead of Lunaria was strange. She was the one with a close affinity towards ice and the one who would likely be chosen as the master of the elemental seed if it met her.
But instead, it led him here instead.
If the ruins were truly under this girl's control, there was no other explanation for how he found the area that only had the shrine and nothing else, while Lunaria was sent somewhere else.
If so, then why? Why would it be him instead of the one more deserving? What set him apart?
There were a few things. The first that came to mind was his spatial affinity, but that thought was immediately crossed out. Anything he had that needed external mana to function wouldn't be the deciding factor.
It so, there was really only one option left. And it was the most special thing about him.
Void Essence.
The trace of Void Essence he had left when touching the frozen coffins was sensed by this girl, and due to that, he was chosen.
'I see. It was never a matter of inheriting her power or becoming her new master. It was never because of my talent or charisma that I was chosen over Lunaria. It was simply because only I possess the means to fight this thing.'
This girl wanted to be saved. Saved from whatever had consumed the left side of her body and produced the aura that stayed behind her.
And she had judged that only his Void Essence would be able to do so.
'If it really is how I'm thinking of it to be, then my approach is all wrong. From the start, I shouldn't have been fighting like this.'
He had an idea of what he had to do, but it was just a concept based on his understanding of Void Essence. He didn't even know if it was possible in reality or not.
'But it can't hurt to try it, right?'
If he continued fighting, those chains that restrained her would eventually break and lead to an even fiercer battle. He needed to end this quickly and efficiently.
'Let's go then. In the worst case, she dies. In the best case, I get an elemental spirit. The odds are pretty good, aren't they?'
Even as he inwardly joked, he was shooting back towards the girl's body. The thousand eyes behind her stared at him furiously, emitting strange fluctuations.
'This is…!'
He hurriedly mobilized his spiritual intent to create another barrier. One as thick as he could make.
Crrrack!
A wave of spiritual pressure impacted his barrier in the next second, causing it to make unnatural crunching sounds. He wasn't nearly powerful enough to completely block the spiritual pressure of those eyes.
But he gritted his teeth and kept moving. He had to preserve his Void Essence now so that he could use it when he reached the girl, so he poured copious amounts of spiritual energy into his barrier just to barely sustain it without collapsing.
"Urgh…'
The strain on his mind caused blood to leak from his seven orifices, but the damage wasn't as bad as it looked on the outside.
Especially since he had reached the girl by the time he took enough damage for it to matter.
"Listen here. I don't know if you can hear or understand me, but don't resist what I'm going to do next or else you'll just hurt yourself. No matter what happens, fight that thing and make sure I don't get distracted. If you can do that, I can save you."
Damien thought he saw the girl's eyes widen as he spoke, but he had no time to focus on that. He closed his eyes and grabbed the top of the girl's head, injecting his Void Essence into her body without reservation.
"KYAAA!"
A horrific screech rang out. Accompanying it, though, was a barrier of frost energy that coated his body and protected him.
Damien smiled to himself. 'I see. So it was really like that.'
Damien's attention refocused inside the girl's body. As his Void Essence spread, he could clearly feel two differentiating elements and auras constantly clashing at every juncture.
'It's not just that her aura is contradicting. It's like there are two people inside her body fighting for dominance. But…her spiritual intent is whole, so how is that possible?'
He didn't have time to ponder too much. As the girl actively resisted the reddish-black death mana and the thousand eyes, her body was being forced into a terrible condition.
Each clash would rupture her organs, break her bones, and cause untold pain that a child should never be forced to endure. But she endured it without a word as she waited for him to save her.
'How can you have so much trust in someone you only just met, you foolish girl?' Damien berated inwardly. 'But then again, I have no intention of betraying that trust.'
Damien separated his Void Essence into multiple strands. Some went into her internal body and helped her fend off against the rampaging mana, while the other cracked a hole in her mind space and entered inside.
When that happened, Damien was able to manifest in her mind space as a spiritual avatar.
'Holy shit. This is so much worse than I imagined.'
The girl had a completed spiritual continent that was even greater in size than his own, but it was split into two parts.
A blizzard-filled tundra occupied around 20% of the space, while the other 80% had been usurped by a scene that looked like hell incarnate.
And on both sides stood a different version of the girl. One was a demon, while the other was pure and untainted.
Damien watched from the side as the battle between these two continued.
"Why?! Why can't we just live how we used to?! We are one person!" The girl in white cried. She begged the other version of herself to cease this madness.
"Kakakaka! Why would I want to share a body with someone as vile as you?! The heavens gave us one body and two spirits, so obviously they wanted us to fight!"
Two different outlooks that matched their appearances and auras. Damien slowly got an understanding of what was happening as he listened to more of their conversation.
'Two spirits but one body. This wasn't due to outside interference, she was just born this way. And as those two spirits headed in different paths, their personalities began to differ and clash as well. Only, why is it so bad?'
They were one body but two minds. Even if they clashed harshly, the power they drew on came from the same source.
'Unless…'
Unless they were like Ruyue.
Yin was a vast law. It embodied gentleness and cold, while also embodying darkness and evil.
Ruyue only had a single spirit, so a situation like this never occurred. As long as she could comprehend the connected concept, she could control the attribute of yin that she desired.
But this girl was different. In the separation and differentiation between these two spirits, her yin element got affected too.
The gentleness, coldness, and flexibility of yin were embodied in the pure version of the girl. And the vile, evil, darkness of yin was embodied in the demon.
Due to the fact that both of them were only half of a whole spirit, they were influenced by their elements far more than the average person.
And the situation became like this.
A pure, gentle girl who wanted to return to peace and a vile demon who wanted to destroy and subjugate fighting each other endlessly while sealed under the shrine.
