Hesitation was a strange feeling for someone with Damien's self-confidence. When it came to the battlefield, Damien never regretted a decision that he made.
To kill someone was to save himself. If anyone who antagonized him was allowed to live, he would be the one to die instead.
It had been this way since the beginning.
Even the smallest creatures in the First Dungeon has the power to rip him to shreds back then.
The past molded Damien into someone who didn't care about the potential benefits keeping someone alive could bring if it meant keeping a loose end untied.
To feel it now was strange.
'Baek Woojin…'
Damien did his research on the man after talking to Tyler. Baek Woojin was a decorated member of Heaven's Army, a part of the Hunting Dogs, and a defender of justice to the bone. Objectively speaking, he was the most upstanding citizen in the universe.
His only flaw was his black-and-white sense of morality. In a sense, he thought similarly to Damien in how he dealt with threats first and consequences later.
'Did I feel sympathy for him?'
Damien scoffed at the thought. It was impossible for him to sympathize with someone who targeted Zara.
'Then, he'll be useful in the future.'
That was the only explanation for his hesitation. Damien's instinct had grown ever since he started acting intelligently. The previous sense he possessed was unrefined and feral, but as he grew, his sense became more rational as well.
To explore other possible futures, this was the ability Damien gained.
'I've only heard about how prestigious the Hunting Dogs are but I've never actually heard anything about them. This guy is a high-level 4th class, but he's weak. Likely, he's not a very high-ranking member.'
'He might've been dropped from the squad since he's an instructor at the academy now. Ah, will the Director be pissed if I kill him?'
Damien's thoughts spun. He began to realize the number of problems he'd bring upon himself by wantonly killing a member of Heaven's Army at the moment.
'I don't have any status in the universe, and since I've been inactive on the Dimensional Leaderboard for a while, my name has pretty much been forgotten by the masses. I can't wantonly kill without justification.'
It was the exact trouble he avoided countless times in the past by finding an influence to back him. Zenith Academy, Celestial Star Palace, White Dragon Grotto, and even Shadow Garden were prime examples of this.
Hidden Death Valley was extremely respected as an academy, but it was a neutral force. Damien couldn't simply use its name to get himself out of any situation.
'What should I do with him…?'
Regardless of the risks, Damien couldn't let Baek Woojin continue what he was doing, and he couldn't allow the rumors about his squad to continue propagating.
'So…brainwashing is the way to go?'
To completely alter Baek Woojin's memories and turn him into an ally…wasn't this an amazing plan?
'Or at least, it would be if I had the means to brainwash him.'
Damien's entire being was geared towards destruction. He didn't have the ability to manipulate like certain people he knew.
Yet, even those people merely had genius minds, not specialized skills.
'I guess it's time to experiment.'
Void Mana had some kind of connection to memories, considering its ability to devour them. Damien's best bet was to try and manipulate this power consciously, altering memories instead of completely devouring them.
'It should be fine…right?'
In the worst-case scenario, he could just use Nox Mana to corrupt Baek Woojin's body and leave it somewhere on Calypto. The Saint Emperor could take the blame for his death.
'Perfect. Good thing I thought of that Nox Mana strategy after I realized that I could use this guy. It would've been bad otherwise.'
While having a minor "teehee~" moment in his head, Damien walked up to the still-stunned figure of Baek Woojin and placed his finger on the man's forehead.
'Let's hope this goes well for both of our sakes.'
Damien willed his Void Mana forward. Thin wisps of pitch-black mana permeated the air, causing the ambient temperature to drop several degrees.
The mana darted and dashed, snaked and swirled, and acted as if it was a completely sentient being with immense curiosity. And under Damien's guidance, that curious force sunk into Baek Woojin's head.
Damien sunk a strand of his awareness into the mana as he moved it. The wisps flowed through his glabella and poked around, eventually finding a way to disappear from reality.
'Found you.'
Damien sent his awareness into the tiny area the Void Mana found, and a new world was opened to him.
It was painted in multiple different shades of blue. A small spiritual continent sat to the side, calmly existing alongside the rest of the scenery.
'I didn't know a spiritual world could look so calm.'
Damien had to marvel a bit. His own spiritual world was a manifestation of chaos. There were so many different materializations inside that even Damien lost count of them sometimes.
Nevertheless, adjusting to the clutter of his own spiritual world made it immeasurably easier to maneuver through the serenity of this one.
'His memories should be over…there.'
There was a space like a river. It flowed and painted countless pictures, illustrating the life of a man who constantly fought adversity and climbed to the top.
It showed his pain, and it showed his struggle. As if he was devouring the man, Damien was able to learn an incredible amount about him.
'So it's a revenge thing and a hero complex at the same time. No wonder he was so crazed about Zara.'
As it turned out, Baek Woojin lost his entire family to the Nox, save for a single little sister who was comatose and in need of intensive treatment. The reason he joined Heaven's Army at all was to gain contribution points to treat her, but along the way, he developed an extreme sense of justice.
He didn't want anyone else to suffer the same fate he suffered, and for that, the universe needed to be cleansed of its current scourge.
'Turns out I don't really need to alter much. As long as I can erase my squad's connection with the incident and make him think the Nox Seed was taken away by the Nox before he arrived, I'll be fine.'
On paper, it was a simple task. There were only a few key memories that needed to be altered for the rest to fall in place like dominos.
'But since I've never done this before, it'll probably be a taxing task nonetheless.'
Damien sighed and readied himself. He cleared his mind and focused on his Void Mana.
'As long as I've known it, the Void has only showcased properties of devouring, but that's not all there is to it. The Void is all-consuming, but it is also all things. Erase the current misconception and bloom into your full potential!'
He willed his Void Mana, he connected with the Void itself and berated its inaction.
To Damien, the Void was everything. It wasn't just the entity that gave him the opportunity to become strong, it was the entity that birthed everything he ever knew and loved.
He was well aware that devouring was only the most basic of its abilities.
Samsara helped him realize it.
To destroy reality was easy, to alter it was difficult, and to create it was nigh-impossible.
But the Void…
The Void was something that could do all three.
