While Rose and Ruyue did their utmost to keep hold of their side's dwindling momentum, the war never stopped growing in scale.
It had to be remembered, while Wrath had turned the war into a fierce struggle to reach Damien, it didn't start that way. The reason the war began was merely a conflict of interests, just like any other war.
Niflheim and Asgard were originally enemies, Shadow Garden fought against both sides, and even the Cloud Plane forces did the same.
Therefore, not everyone was aiming for Damien's Baptism. The chaotic battlefield was in a state where only those from the same influence were allies, with everyone else being nothing more than targets.
Even now, with hundreds of thousands already dead, the war hadn't reached its climax. Almost every side still had hidden cards up their sleeves, only to be used at the critical moment.
But it was still true that more than just a few hours had passed. When translated to time in the World Energy Barrier, it had already been another year.
Two different streams of energy streaked through the air, opposing each other but coexisting without a problem. While one of these streams was noticeably stronger than the other, they somehow were able to maintain a delicate balance.
In the midst of these harmoniously conflicting energies was none other than Damien, but the past year had not been kind to his appearance.
His clothes were torn to shreds, portions of his hair were charred and flaking off, and his body had been destroyed and rebuilt so many times that he no longer registered the pain of it all. But his eyes still shone as bright as the stars.
While his main focus in the year that passed was indeed countering the time flow around him, the universe wasn't so kind as to let him easily do so. Even while the temporal cage remained active, he was forced to endure trials related to his other elements.
Spatial lightning was a form of lightning generated in the starry sky due to the intense concentration of spatial essence interacting with stray elemental particles that entered space due to the movement of celestial bodies. When it came to types of lighting, it was one of the rarest and most destructive.
When Damien's lighting trial began, he was already being forced to endure spatial lighting.
The rampaging energy that was like a fusion of two equally destructive energies destroyed his body outright. If it wasn't for Transcendent Regeneration leveling up due to how constantly he used it, he would've died in that instant.
But the spatial lighting was only the beginning. Afterwards, the lighting rapidly evolved until it surpassed even black demon lighting, becoming true heavenly lighting similar to what Damien absorbed when he went through his Partial Baptism.
However, the silver heavenly lightning from back then, the lighting that was still residing in his Mana Heart, actually acted as a catalyst for the new heavenly lighting that rained down on him. The impact force it had on his body was several times worse than it would've been if he hadn't possessed something so forbidden.
The benefits he gained from doing so were the only thought that kept him sane throughout the process until he eventually completed it.
Afterwards, he faced a flame tribulation that wasn't much different. The degree of flame he was forced to endure increased exponentially with time. The impurities on his body, both physical and ethereal, were rapidly reduced to ashes by these flames.
But the flame tribulation didn't cause nearly enough pain as its lighting counterpart. After all, Damien had a cheat code.
If anything, he had to thank the universe for the format in which it tested him. Starting from flames that could be found in nature and moving up to flames that were more elusive and powerful meant that his Void Flames were essentially provided a buffet!
Besides the flames needed to temper his body, Damien let the Void Flame eat everything. And looking at its progress, he was more than just satisfied.
Until this point, the Void Flames had been relatively useless in battle, only showing their worth against a large number of weaker enemies. With Damien's powerset, he didn't need another ability that did so.
However, the current Void Flames couldn't be compared with their pathetic past self. As they burned on Damien's body, even the Time Essence in the vicinity was burned away, giving Damien more leeway to establish his counterflow.
It was still unfortunate, though. While the Void Flames devoured a Nihility Flame Source to gain the ability to grow stronger by eating other flames, Damien's lighting didn't have such an ability. The best he could do was store heavenly lightning as a one-time-use treasure for later.
And when the lighting and flame tribulations finally passed, Damien finally managed to completely establish his counterflow. The strength he gained through those trials wasn't wasted in the slightest.
Time was like an indomitable river. Reversing its flow was impossible, but if one had enough capital, accelerating or decelerating that flow could be done easily. As for halting the flow entirely, that was far more difficult, even though it was still possible.
Damien was fighting against time that seemed halted, but in reality, it was merely slowed to the extreme. The solution to this problem was simply to counteract the slowed flow with an accelerated flow, but this was far easier than it sounded.
After all, time was being slowed by the universe itself. This wasn't a level Damien was able to match simply because he understood the concept or knew what to do. Even when his comprehension was sufficient, he still needed to proficiently wield World Force in order to affect phenomena on a level intrinsic enough to compete.
Now, it had been a year. Damien stood silently as he waited for the next trial to begin.
Spending two years in this space absorbed in training and forgetting everything else had a severe impact on his mentality. He found that although he still had the ability to joke about his situation, it was harder for him to maintain the personality he upheld before.
He didn't think he could act so immature as to annoy every Demigod he met just for the sake of it anymore, acting far above his station out of a false sense of rebellion.
Was it a bad thing for him to change? He didn't think so. He didn't think that this change would turn him into a stoic brick who didn't interact with anyone. It was more accurate to say that he understood his capital. He understood how much arrogance he could possess without it becoming harmful.
And more than that, his mind was calmer. His ability to react situationally had improved drastically. Even if Damien were to suddenly lose all his power, he wouldn't panic as he did 2 years ago.
Thus, when the time flow around him began to stabilize and all light slowly faded from within the World Energy Barrier, he silently put his guard up and waited.
Whatever the next trial would be, he'd pass it with flying colors. And after that, he'd truly be reborn.
