Wap!
The starry sky warped strangely as a starship catapulted through its folds and arrived several hundred million kilometers away from its starting position.
The stars and planets that decorated space were beautiful, and though it would seem like a dreary and unchanging scenery, every celestial body had its own unique life signature, which, for those who could see them, painted the starry sky in a myriad of colors and visions.
The Divine Realm's outer space was far different from the Beast Domain. If there was one main factor that defined the two, it was the atmosphere.
The Divine Realm was still and calm, while the Beast Domain was far more belligerent.
It sounded like a qualitative effect, but it was actually directly related to the qualities of the sectors' mana itself. This mana was influenced by its users and influenced them in return, which established these qualities over a long period of time.
But, even without this mana, the Divine Realm stood out from the rest; solely due to the existence of Luxurion.
The Ancient God Clan's starship traveled without pause, and those on board were almost collapsing from the constant spatial travel, but by sacrificing themselves, they made it to the Divine Realm in an incredibly short period of time, leaving themselves an entire day before the Grand Assembly's official start.
Damien stood in the control center of the ship and stared out the windows, his eyes set on Luxurion's light, visible from every corner of the Divine Realm.
'I didn't really comprehend it back when I first arrived, but just how big is Luxurion? For its light to shine so fiercely for hundreds of millions of kilometers…'
He didn't continue the train of thought for long, as after a few more long-distance teleportations, the castle's figure became clear in his eyes.
Massive was an understatement.
Damien just came from the Golden Dragon Palace which was almost like a moon in size, but Luxurion?
Luxurion was larger than suns, an entire gigantic world in the shape of a shining white and gold castle, a color scheme expected of angels.
Hisss!
Damien deeply inhaled as he observed it. Compared to the castle, the starship looked like an ant.
No, with the thousands of starships making their way towards the location, the castle was like the ant hill to their colony.
It was a silly analogy, but it also served to illustrate the humbling feeling that standing in front of such a structure provoked.
The time and effort it took to build this castle and detail it so intricately, the power and finesse it took to fortify it and make it a true divine sanctuary that symbolized safety, everything that went into bringing this place into existence, and even its existence itself, made one understand just how far they were from the peak of everything.
It was exhilarating and grounding at the same time, especially for younger geniuses like Damien who were still filled with the motivation to grow and improve.
As Damien entertained his anticipation, Di took over control of the starship and maneuvered it into the line that had formed outside Luxurion.
In total, the number of those who arrived a day early was only in the few thousands, most of these being affiliated forces of larger influences who could only participate in the festivities but were barred from the actual conference.
Those not included in these were geniuses who wanted to scout the competition beforehand.
Some of these geniuses were people with high status in the universe who hid themselves and traveled separately from their backing for the sake of a more natural experience.
Among them, there were several familiar faces from Hidden Death Valley, including the one and only Atticus Flamesworth.
Atticus was one of the first in the wider universe to recognize Damien's talents, and though the man himself disappeared for almost a year, he didn't fade from Atticus' mind.
No, the scars of defeat he still held from their battle in the Celestial Realm were a daily reminder of that monstrous being who could only be viewed as a goal to surpass.
Atticus had worked extremely hard these past months and securely stepped foot into level 399, just barely missing the extreme peak.
As he went through the many verification procedures to enter Luxurion, his spirit burned brighter. He was confident that Damien would appear at the Grand Assembly, and he was confident that Damien, who was still in the mid-ranges of 4th class when they last met, wouldn't be able to match his progress.
And in a sense, he wasn't wrong. If Damien only had 9 months to train, he likely wouldn't have reached his current extreme power level.
However, Damien didn't have 9 months, but around 5 years and 9 months after the Void Corridor and Astoria's training.
If Atticus came to know this, just how would he feel?
It was almost certain he'd cough blood and kneel in seconds.
But…that was a story for a different time.
***
Damien and his group weren't too far behind Atticus in line. Around 20 minutes after he entered Luxurion, Damien's group arrived and began undergoing security procedures as well.
Atticus was definitely understating the security procedures because of his status as Fallen Star Holy Land's Young Master. It wasn't just strict and tedious, but absolutely airtight to prevent any sort of mishap.
Confirming identity was easy, but after identity confirmation came an extremely in-depth and almost uncomfortable search, which was followed by stations that recorded one's mana fluctuations, blood, power level, soul fluctuation, and much more.
Essentially, the procedures were less about confirming that those who entered wouldn't be a threat during the assembly, it was to ensure that they could be monitored and, if needed, controlled after the assembly ended.
Damien passed the procedures without a hitch, calmly obeying every command he was given, though…
'Kekekeke, let's see how you try to leash me with falsified information. You'll never be able to tell it's fake until it's too late because you'll never understand the Void! Kekekeke…'
…his inner thoughts were quite devious indeed.
It would be a lie to say the grandiosity of this event wasn't making him giddy. After operating so seriously for so long, this opportunity to take two months off while waiting for the main conference was welcomed with open arms.
Damien turned back and watched as Elena finished her own business and flew over to where he was waiting.
"Should we go now?" she asked, glancing at the Ancient God Clan members, who had to go through a much more thorough questioning since they were an influence rather than individuals.
'From the original explanation, I thought it would be more difficult to get in, but it seems like they're letting anyone in right now. I guess the invite-only part that everyone was worrying about was just the conference itself.'
"Let's just go. For now, I don't think Ran and Xinyue appreciate our presence in the slightest," he said out loud after thinking it over.
Elena nodded in agreement. "I don't know the full story, but it should be a matter of time. Don't you just have to show up and show out like always so they feel no doubts about the 'Lord' they follow?"
Damien smiled wryly and responded, "Don't say it like that. I really wanted to just relax this time."
"Hahaha!" Elena laughed brightly. "Since when was that an option?"
"I hate how accurate that is."
"And I love you too."
"We're doing this again?"
"It just felt appropriate."
"Fair enough."
The two laughed together as they truly entered Luxurion.
'Show up and show out, huh…'
Damien's face twitched as he tried to stop the wolf grin trying to form on his face.
'When you say it like that, how can I even refuse?'
