It was now the fourth day since the secret realm opened.
A fierce battle was taking place under the ancient stele where the Empyrean Dragon Sword was located. Dozens of practitioners were dying in their pursuit of treasure, while others were moving forward with vigor.
In another location, the remaining geniuses of the Xue Clan were being put through unearthly torture at the hands of their abandoned princess.
Overall, the entire secret realm was enveloped in an air of competition and battle. Even if there were no inherent dangers of the secret realm itself, the most dangerous factor in these kinds of situations would always be humans.
However, there was one secluded area of the secret realm, far closer to the central area than any others, where this competitive atmosphere didn't translate.
A man sat quietly with his back against a tree. With his hands behind his head, a weed in his mouth, and eyes closed, he was the picture of tranquility as he basked in the current atmosphere.
On his lap, a woman rested with an equally peaceful expression. Her legs extended into the grass, her toes curling and playing with the small follicles of grass between them.
"Shouldn't we be doing something right now?" Damien asked. They only had a week in this secret realm, yet they spent over half of it partaking in a…different kind of battle.
"Don't want to," Elena replied grumpily. She snuggled up closer to Damien, refusing to let him get up.
"We'll have to go at some point. You know I have things to do while we're here, and don't you have to go earn some treasures as well? It'd be no good if you left this place empty-handed."
"Whether or not I gain treasures doesn't matter to me. All the treasures I have right now were gifted to me by you, so I don't want to replace them."
"What?" Damien's eyes widened. "You're telling me those bastards at the Supreme Fairy Paradise didn't give you a new sword or any protective artifacts? It looks like I have another lesson to teach when we get out."
Elena smiled wryly. "It's not like they didn't try to give me new equipment, I just didn't accept. This sword was personally forged for me because of your thoughtfulness, so how could I let it go so easily?"
Damien looked down at the woman in his arms. He really didn't know what to do with her. To him, sentimental value wasn't as important. He had lost that kind of thinking when he was forced to discard everything back in the dungeon.
'Or maybe I didn't…' Damien smiled inwardly as he glanced into his subspace. There, he saw an old and rusty shortsword. It was so worn down that it looked as if a single gust of wind could destroy it entirely, but it was somehow holding on with all its might.
'Your sister sword was destroyed to protect me all the way back then, but you managed to stay in one piece through all the trials and tribulations we went through in the dungeon. Now that I think about it, it'd be less surprising if you had broken when I first created the Void Sword Art.'
He shook his head and cleared his mind. He was just thinking about how he had lost his sense of sentimentality, yet he had fallen into such a trance right afterward. It was a good thing he didn't say anything out loud, or he would've been too embarrassed to face anyone.
"If the reason you didn't change your sword is because it's a gift from me, then I just have to gift you a better one, right? Using equipment below your level is dangerous. I can't allow you to keep doing something like that."
"Mm, let's do that then." Elena smiled gently. How long had she been waiting for the day they could be like this? Finally achieving her wish, she wanted to jump with joy.
'I should thank big sister for this. If it wasn't for her constant pushing, I probably would've run away without saying anything.'
Suddenly, her heart sank. She remembered what she had to do, the ambition that was clashing with her desire to stay with Damien and Rose.
But she cleared her mind instantly. Now wasn't the time to think about depressing things. She should just enjoy the moment while she still could.
The couple stayed stationary for many hours. At one point, they even fell asleep and took a short nap under the shade of the tree. Their current atmosphere seemed to wash away all their fatigue.
However, being sedentary didn't suit them. Even if they wanted to enjoy the moment, it was better to do so after they had completed their individual tasks.
Damien sighed as he stood up, picking Elena up in the same motion. "Alright, I guess it's time for me to take care of urgent matters. And since I have to go to the most central point of the sect to do so, you should also be able to find some good stuff by coming with me."
Elena rolled her eyes. "Okay then, Prince Charming. Take me away to this magical land you speak of."
"As you wish," Damien replied with a grin. The two of them flashed away, reappearing in a new location.
'This teleport formation is really useful. Since I connected with it when we first entered the secret realm, I don't even have to expend my own mana to teleport. Plus, I can move much farther and more precisely with less concentration.'
The location they were at was the very center of the sect that Damien was speaking of just moments prior. Unexpectedly, they had reached their final destination in a single leap.
"Wow, this is too unfair." Elena gasped as she looked around.
It felt like they had just skipped over all the important stuff and reached the end goal with no hard work at all. It almost felt like they didn't even have the right to be in this central tower.
Damien shrugged. "It's within my ability to do this, so whoever designed this place should have no complaints. It's their fault they didn't anticipate a spatial practitioner to arrive here."
"No, I'm pretty sure other spatial practitioners wouldn't be able to arrive here so easily. I refuse to believe there were no countermeasures for such an obvious flaw."
"Maybe so, I guess I'm just a genius like that," Damien responded with a cheeky grin.
Elena rolled her eyes and continued examining the surroundings.
The room they were in was like a massive spiraling tower. The walls were ornate and lined with draconian patterns etched into an unknown material, shelves filled to the brim with countless books lined the undecorated areas of the walls, all the way to the top of the tower that seemed around ten stories high.
As for the central area of the tower, it was completely empty.
"I don't think I should waste any more time. I have no idea how difficult it'll be to connect and establish communication with the World Core, so I'll get started right away. In the meantime, why don't you look around at these records? Perhaps they'll prove useful to you."
Elena nodded in agreement. The records of an Ancient Sect were nothing to scoff at, no matter how much Damien looked down on them. Finding insight from such records wasn't impossible at all.
In fact, Elena was sure it'd work out that way. As Damien made his way to the center of the structure, Elena parted ways and dive headfirst into the books on the nearest bookshelf.
Seeing her excitement, he couldn't stop himself from smiling. 'Ah, it seems I've been smiling a whole lot in the past few days.'
But that thought only made his smile grow wider. Moments of happiness like this were the reason he was hellbent on driving the Nox away from their universe.
'Well then, shall we get started?'
He closed his eyes and sat down in a meditative posture. His figure was in the direct center of the ornate diagram that colored the floor of the central tower. His mind was cleared of all extraneous thoughts, and when he finally judged himself to be ready…
'Celestial Authority.'
