The time element was extremely strange. This was Damien's takeaway as he spend ages comprehending it within the World Energy Barrier.
The time flow for him had already been altered before he was trapped in the dimensional cage, and now that it had been slowed to the point of solidifying, every second in the outside world took ages for him.
He only had his body clock to make estimations, but he inferred that it had taken at least half a year to escape the dimensional cage. Adding on the time he spent stuck in stasis, it'd been over a year since his Universe Baptism started.
But in the outside world, it had only been a few hours.
Sadly, Damien wasn't able to sense the outside world through the barrier. If he was able to compare the two separate time flows to each other, his comprehension would have come far easier.
Regardless, with half a year stuck in this halted time, Damien made significant gains. Not only did his time affinity become more pronounced, even his spatial abilities saw improvement.
Slowly but surely, a mystical aura began to radiate from his body. When this aura encountered the Time Essence around Damien, it began to alter it, albeit not enough for it to actually matter.
But progress was progress. Now that he was able to affect the atmosphere around him and even think at normal speeds again, he was able to establish a counter flow that would act as his escape route from this time lock.
'This process is too grueling.' Damien thought to himself with a sigh. 'Even with my pace increasing exponentially as I understand the surrounding concepts, it'll still take at least another half a year to whittle away at this static space.'
When he originally began his Universe Baptism, although he fretted over the location, he didn't panic too much. He believed that with his abilities, it wouldn't take too long to pass.
Now that he was in a situation where his Baptism could potentially take many years to complete, he didn't know how to feel.
Nonetheless, the time he spent within the World Energy Barrier would solely be spent improving. Even if it took a decade for him to finish, he at least wouldn't suffer a loss.
Clearing his mind of unnecessary thoughts, Damien put his entire focus back into the counterflow he was creating. He entered an ironical state where his sense of time was lost but his comprehension of the concept itself was rapidly increasing.
And in this state, he diligently worked. It was the only thing he could do.
***
While a few hours within the World Energy Barrier could be considered negligible, the situation in the outside world was one where every second counted.
Now that several hours had passed, the ongoing battle had reached an extremely heated state.
"On your left! Watch out!" Rose's voice rang out amongst the chaotic clashes of battle.
Ruyue rapidly spun her body upon hearing them, barely dodging a mana-coated javelin that had been hurling toward her.
Ruyue gave Rose a grateful look and turned to the javelin's owner. He was a middle-aged man with a massive build like a professional bodybuilder. As he looked at Ruyue, he didn't even attempt to conceal the lust in his eyes.
After all, why should he? He was an exalted 4th class existence! A mere 3rd class like Ruyue should be honored to earn his lust.
Only, it was a shame that they were enemies on this battlefield. If he wanted to bed this woman, he'd have to first turn her into a corpse.
But this idea didn't hinder his lust. It even enhanced it somewhat.
Ruyue's eyes were cold as she looked at this man. According to her senses, he was only at the early stages of 4th class, though his high and mighty demeanor seemed to suggest he was extremely powerful.
Ruyue shook her head in derision. With her looks, encountering people like this man was normal. But normal didn't mean she enjoyed it.
'A mere early 4th class, huh. Damien could probably kill this man with a slap, so wouldn't it be too embarrassing if I couldn't even compete with him?'
Fighting spirit burned in her eyes. When she first met Damien, Ruyue was actually stronger than him by a small margin. But as they traveled and adventured, his speed of growth far outstripped hers.
She was also at the peak of 3rd class by this point. The only reason she hadn't initiated her Baptism was due to her lacking comprehension of her elements.
But this wasn't her fault at all. Her yin affinity turned her element into a far more conceptual existence. Not to mention her moon affinity which was even vaguer. The qualifications Ruyue needed to initiate her Baptism surpassed even Damien's.
However, Ruyue didn't use this as an excuse. In her mind, even if Damien was a talent surpassing all others, as his wife, it was her duty to keep up with him.
It was lonely at the top. Ruyue didn't want to see Damien turn into an existence that nobody could match, an existence with no equals and only those who looked at him in reverence. She knew Damien's personality, and she knew how much of an impact such status would have on him.
She simply didn't want to see him hurt by his own talent.
And if she wanted to stand by his side and support some of the weight on his shoulders when he reached that point, she needed to put in hundreds or even thousands of times the effort that he did.
The start of that commitment was matching his achievements. Killing an early 4th class when she was at the peak of 3rd class? This was only the base standard.
Ruyue flourished her spear, drawing an arc of blood across the battlefield. Blue flames lit up under her feet, propelling her at the burly man.
Seeing her incoming figure, he licked his lips perversely. A second javelin appeared from thin air and entered his grasp.
Bang!
The force of his movements broke the sound barrier, the hurled javelin flying so fast it could hardly be traced by the naked eye.
But Ruyue remained entirely calm. The Blood Moon decorating the sky shot a thick beam of energy to her left, clashing against the invisible javelin with the sound of scraping metal.
This beam alone was enough to divert its trajectory far away from Ruyue, leaving her charge unhindered.
She traversed the battlefield in seconds, arriving before the man with her spear primed to strike. Her spear thrust forward with the indomitable momentum of a dragon, straight for the man's solar plexus!
The burly man smirked when he saw the spear. This was an attack from someone who hadn't even passed their Baptism, why should he take it seriously? But before his condescending thought could even finish, a harrowing current of mana enveloped his body.
"Die," Ruyue muttered indifferently. Black mana revolves around her spear tip like a cyclone, exponentially increasing its force and destructive power.
The burly man could only watch helplessly as the spear flew towards him. He hastily projected his mana to defend himself, but how could this half-hearted shield block Ruyue's full-powered strike?
BOOM!
The impact force shattered the mana barrier in an instant, but Ruyue's momentum didn't halt at all. Her spear continued to fly towards the burly man until it struck true in the center of his chest.
"Ahhh!"
The burly man let out a scream of agony as his body was thrown backward. Without giving him time to retaliate, Ruyue chased him, her spear raised for another attack.
"I learned this one from another pretentious 4th class who thought she was better than me. Why don't you have a taste of it as well?"
The tip of Ruyue's spear seemed to bloom like a flower, forming an icy lotus that directly froze the surrounding atmosphere. With a sweep of her spear, the ice lotus rotated madly as it blasted towards the burly man!
The Xue Clan 12th Elder's Ice Lotus lived on even after her death, but its form was far more profound than anything she could've hoped to compete with.
'Yin Lotus: Bloom'
The frightening chilling power of yin transformed the ice lotus on a fundamental level. Even though its appearance didn't change, the aura it radiated caused the burly man to feel death approaching.
"I won't lose to a mere woman!" He shouted. A burst of blood shot out from his body, transforming into a javelin filled with bloodlust.
When Ruyue's Yin Lotus finally reached his body, the blood javelin blocked its path. The collision of the two forces wasn't anything to scoff at.
In the first place, this burly man wasn't a false 4th class like the 12th Elder. Even if he'd only done it recently, he'd still used his own power to cross his Baptism.
With the power he held, he was able to successfully fend off the terrifying ice lotus, though, he had to sacrifice a piece of his lifespan to do so.
It was true that her opponent this time was far stronger than the 12th Elder of the past, but the current Ruyue had been constantly tempered by war.
The Cloud Plane's purge, Apeiron's purge, the war against the Nox, and now this battle, they had turned her combat efficiency into something the Ruyue of the past couldn't hope to compare with. In reality, it had only taken her two or three full-powered attacks to reduce the burly man to his current state.
So even though the burly man was able to block her ice lotus, she had confidence he wouldn't be able to last for much longer.
