The Unrestrained Death Tree had limited intelligence, but it could at least emote and carry memory similar to an adult human.
When it first sensed Damien's presence, the main reason it remained unmoving was because it remembered him. He and Zara were like those creatures who shared symbiotic relationships with it, creating chaos for it to feed while using its domain for protection.
The second reason was the fact that they still carried the scent of Aquazyl on their bodies. The Sea God's Realm was a place all creatures in the Emperor Bone Sea desired to go, even if it was at an instinctual level.
Now that Damien had brought the tree a gift so big, it was delighted, to say the least. It remembered his favor deeply in its proverbial heart.
The assassin group, however…
The memories the tree had of them were completely opposite of those it had of Damien.
Now that they were trapped together, it acted without mercy.
The Unrestrained Death Tree didn't have much attack capability, but if its prey was in an enclosed space and unable to escape, there was nothing for it to fear.
Its branches shot out and intertwined into massive arms that had reach covering the entirety of the enclosed space. Hundreds of these arms twisted through space and forcefully grabbed the assassins before they could react.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dozens of explosions rang out as the assassins destroyed the branches. The Unrestrained Death Tree didn't have much defense when put against these powerhouses, but that didn't matter at all.
It had already marked them.
From the areas the assassins were grabbed, small red flowers began to bloom. They burrowed into the assassins' skin and fed on their blood, intrinsically intertwining with their body composition.
The rest was history. Without even needing to work, the tree could suck the assassins dry of every bit of blood and essence in their bodies.
Even with its low defense, it didn't worry about being attacked while this process was ongoing. After all…
The Unrestrained Death Tree had a symbiotic relationship with many a beast.
Grrrr!
The growls of dozens of beasts congregated and created a cacophony of sound within the Dimensional Cage.
The assassins shivered. The assassin leader in particular was pale-faced.
He'd been blinded. Not just by greed and pride, but also by rationality.
From the beginning, he never expected Damien to sense him. Why would he? He was a level 356 existence, an individual who could barely be considered a high-level 4th class, though he was more often classified as a mid-level being.
Even his subordinates were in similar strength ranges to him. Whether it was the forces from the Bloodlock Clan or the Wellspring Family, none of them were amateurs.
If so, then how could Damien sense them?
A beginner who only recently entered 4th class had no chance to do so. Hell, even Reavus Bloodlock, the Bloodlock Prince who ordered this assassination, couldn't sense their presence if they decided to hide.
'Ah…young master, you've made a mistake…'
The assassin leader smiled wryly. He hasn't even seen a hint of Damien's power. The entire time they were trailing him, Damien had been running from various beasts, never fighting back.
Why was that?
Why would any prideful genius decide to lay low if they knew they could achieve better results if they fought?
The assassin leader's realization wasn't small. The fact that Damien wasn't just stronger than the Bloodlock Heir, but instead incredibly stronger was major news. If the prince decided to pursue his enmity with this new rising star, he was assured to die.
But…it was too late for him to transmit this information to anyone.
He fought desperately with his men, killing beast after beast, but it was all in vain. Their strength was being rapidly drained and in the first place, almost every beast that could freely traverse the Emperor Bone Sea was a 4th class. The ones who couldn't silently reach this level could only become prey to the rest.
The entire ordeal only took a few minutes, not even half an hour to finish. In the end, all twenty assassins became dried husks without life or mana remaining in them.
And finally, even those husks were eaten by beasts.
The Dimensional Cage and water wall came down as soon as the life signatures of those assassins disappeared. There was no warning nor any sort of clue as to why it was so accurate.
After all, Damien and Zara were already far far away, approaching the 1,000-kilometer mark in the Emperor Bone Sea.
***
"Well, that was quite a show," Damien said, pleased by what he'd just witnessed.
His new Void abilities were interesting to say the least. Not only could he affect reality at a material level, but he could also project his consciousness into anything he manipulated.
In essence, his mana no longer needed to be directly connected to his body to function.
Mana was esoteric and all-present, but the way sentient beings could utilize it was restricted. No matter what level one reached, controlling mana outside of one's body would always be subject to the same restrictions.
Mana acted like a puppet on a string. One needed to consciously control it if one wanted to maintain its shape. Otherwise, it would continue through the set action and then disperse into the atmosphere naturally.
An example of this would be Damien's lightning abilities. He could call down lightning from the heavens if he so desired, but he couldn't start a lightning storm and leave it active while he left to complete other tasks. If he wanted to do this, he needed to stay within a certain range of the mana so the "string" wouldn't disconnect, and he'd have to separate a portion of his mental strength to control that mana and keep his hold on it.
Even when Damien created Dimensional Cages, the same property applied. The only difference was that Dimensional Cage's activation range far exceeded most other abilities.
The Dimensional Cage beads Damien gave to his forces during the Tephit Clan raid functioned on a similar concept. Using the user's mana as the "string" and the array etched in the bead as the "base," the bead could activate the Dimensional Cage ability and sustain it.
This was one of the base concepts of Formation Arts. To house one's own abilities in a formation was the most basic art that a beginner needed to learn before they could grasp the creation of more powerful and esoteric formations.
What Damien's new ability did was partially remove that restriction. At least on Void abilities, Damien faced no such restriction of mana. Any mana he outputted with the Void's properties instilled in it would be controlled by him regardless of distance, without the need for his conscious control or any sort of string.
In essence, it was like everyone else was still using cords and Damien alone had access to Bluetooth.
He clenched his fists in glee as he realized this. The Void still restricted him greatly. It would take far more for his comprehension to reach a level where he could use these insanity-inducing abilities freely.
However, he was finally on his path to conquering the Void.
