Saying that there were thousands or even tens of thousands of intertwining branches within the crown of the Primordial Undying Tree wasn't an exaggeration at all.
From the outside, it did indeed look like the canopy of a tree, with the only special thing about it being it's size and color, but when inside, one would no longer even believe they were on a tree anymore.
Tens of thousands of branches that tangled and snaked in unnatural directions, they formed a natural labyrinth that was hidden by the leaves and flowers that decorated the outside of the crown.
Swoosh!
As Damien rushed through this labyrinth, he was once again forced to realize the grandiosity of such a tree.
He would run in a straight line across a single branch, but would somehow find himself on a separate branch many meters away without even realizing how he got there.
And it wasn't even an illusion, it was just a miracle of sheer complexity.
'If it's like this, even reaching the purple fruit will be a problem, let alone stealing it from Hun Fang. Speaking of, where is that guy?'
He was sure the first ranked genius had chased him into the tree, but at some point, he could no longer sense the latter's presence.
'Did he stop chasing me? No, it's more likely that he was led somewhere else by this convoluted labyrinth…but our end goal is the same place.'
Even if the clash was delayed, it was inevitable. Until then, though, Damien had to find his way through the labyrinth.
There were no walls or ceilings, only branches in every direction. It was a four-dimensional labyrinth where he was always free to switch paths, but he would never know where he was going.
'But I should still be able to feel if I'm headed upward, right?'
With his awareness spread and his All-Seeing Eyes operating at full capacity, he took the path he felt was best. Now that he had reached this juncture, he could only rely on his own skill.
The calling he felt earlier had become useless.
'Damn old tree, always making things difficult for me.'
Suddenly, Damien's eyes picked up a presence standing in the path before him. But it wasn't anything humanoid, nor was it one of the geniuses who had entered the secret realm.
His eyes hardened. 'That beast…it's the most powerful being I've seen in this secret realm besides those two Demigods…'
And that was including the Demon Kings.
But he didn't stop moving. If there was such a beast blocking his path, it meant he was going in the right direction.
He soon arrived in front of it. It was a massive serpent whose body was curled around hundreds of branches. Its head was already twice Damien's height.
Its eyes were closed and its breathing was steady, indicating that it was asleep.
Damien came to a stop a few hundred meters away and hid his presence. He didn't know if such tactics would work against a beast so much more powerful than him, but it was the best he could do.
'Damn…going around doesn't seem possible, but there's no way I can defeat it.'
He crept up the branch he was standing on, trying to find a path forward, but he couldn't think of one.
'These hundreds of branches that the snake is curled around are all interconnected far deeper than the rest. It feels like they're reaching a point where they'll convene into a single branch soon.'
If that was the case, then he must be reaching the top layer of the tree. Unfortunately, he was too far away from the outer layer to confirm using the color of the leaves.
But what he did know was that this snake wasn't here by coincidence. Its position was perfectly in the way of his goal.
Snap!
He was too focused on the snake. He didn't watch his step properly because of the frightening pressure that he was feeling from it. And under such a situation, he made a stupid mistake.
A small twig under his foot snapped, creating an obnoxiously loud sound within the stillness of the current atmosphere.
The snake's massive eyes opened. Damien immediately merged with the space around him and hid himself.
But that snake's gaze was still focused on him.
'Fuck!'
Without hesitation, he ran. He teleported furiously, but instead of running away, he ran straight towards the snake.
'I have to get through!'
Even seeing his movements, the snake didn't move much. Its tail slowly uncurled from around the branches and became free.
Thwap!
That tail moved abruptly and with speed that surpassed Damien's imagination. He didn't even realize when it appeared behind him.
Boom!
"Kak!"
The impact stirred his internal organs, causing him to cough up blood, but he didn't stop moving.
The snake chased him with its tail, unwrapping it further with every movement he made. It was swift to the point where it was mind-boggling that a large portion of it was still tangled in the branches.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Damien desperately teleported away, but the tail always managed to find him.
"Agh!"
He barely avoided the last strike, but the sharp edge of the snake's skin swept across his shins and lacerated his tendons.
Without a choice, he surrounded himself in a cocoon of Void Essence to buy himself time to heal.
'This thing is far too great for me. With my current strength, and even my current Void Essence, it's impossible to kill it. If I can withdraw High-Level Void Essence from that space I saw before, I might be able to cut its tail off, but containing that level of essence will undoubtedly break my body.'
His thoughts raced. If it was just this battle alone, then the strategy of using power beyond his capabilities was fine, but the current situation wasn't like that.
He would need to fight Hun Fang for the purple fruit and also escape from this area so he could consume it. To do all that, he needed to be in peak shape.
'But coming out of this unhindered doesn't seem possible. That snake is definitely going easy on me, but I'm still injured to such an extent with only a few strikes.'
The gap between 3rd and 4th class was too wide, especially when it was past the entry-level. But still, he needed to try.
'Fine. No risk, no reward, right?'
Within a few seconds, his thoughts had wrapped up. His injuries hadn't healed completely, but it was enough.
The cocoon of Void Essence faded, and Damien instantly erected his vector field and teleported away.
As expected, the snake was hot on his trail.
Bang! Bang!
The tail whipped back and forth, smashing into the branches around him and causing splinters to rain onto his body, causing a great deal of minor injuries.
But those injuries healed in an instant. And with the snake suddenly targeting the surroundings instead of his actual body, he got what he wanted.
What Damien wanted was just a small amount of time. A few seconds was enough. In that few seconds when the shrapnel was raining down on him, his body went through a massive change.
Black scales covered him from his neck down to his toes, two horns grew on his forehead and wrapped around his head like a crown, wings jutted out from his shoulder blades.
Blood-red runes etched themselves into his scales, his sclera turned black while his irises matched the color of his runes.
'Demon Dragon Transformation!'
Once he was in his most powerful form, he formed a connection to the space he termed the Void Plane.
Within a second, he repeated the process he used when he was facing the Head Apostle in the Trial World.
Mid-Level Void Essence emerged from a crack in space and covered his body.
He had 27 seconds left in his transformation, but he had no plans to use up all that time again.
When the processes he needed to complete finished, he immediately charged at the snake's head.
