Damien had never seen a planet in its entirety before, and seeing one now, even one as desert-filled as this, still didn't quench the awe that he felt.
He stood on what was probably a space ship, or dimensional ship as Gray called it. The entire construct, at least the part that he could see and sense, was made up of some kind of black alloy that was seamlessly conjoined with some kind of red crystal, forming the shape of a seafaring ship... From what he could tell.
The distance between the ship and the planet was so vast that Damien wouldn't have been able to see nor sense it had it not been so large as to dwarf his view. There was a great depression on the celestial body, so vast Damien reckoned the end was probably on the other side of the planet. That was probably where the planet's water body once lay, seeing as it was all now dried up and lifeless. Desert ridden.
The other three vast landmasses, which rose significantly over the dried bedrocks, were what he swiftly recognized as continents, seeing as that was where the two Divine Kings fought.
Over the planet, Damien watched as the Verrille Divine King called on his ascended technique, reality tearing below the domain as a jagged wound formed.
It took a moment for Damien to realize why he could see the tear. Previously, the domain had been so thick with crimson that he'd found it hard to see through it, like a thick wall of Crimson paint. Now, it seemed to have lost a bit of its shine, its thickness, becoming somewhat transparent.
Damien looked closer, his gaze slowly drawn in by the tear in reality, his vision stuttered as the opening seemed to widen, and as Damien stared into a realm of pure crimson, it stared back.
With a start, he felt himself getting sucked in, something within him drawn in like a boat to a whirlpool. And no matter how he tried to pull back, he couldn't seem to break free. Soon, his vision began darkening as he was slowly compressed, and just before his vision completely darkened, he felt the presence of Gray flared up within him, and darkness took him.
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The first thing Damien felt as he came to was the presence, the incomprehensible aura that made his entire being quiver. It was of such intensity and magnitude that Damien immediately felt himself choking, yet on reflex, when he tried to grab for his throat, he felt himself unable to do so.
His eyes—or at least whatever he had here that was helping him see—snapped wide open as he felt his being slowly being squeezed. He tried to fight back with his aura, but the feeling was like trying to push against the tide of a thousand-foot-tall wave with a plank. Eventually, he drowned. And as he felt himself slowly going under, his newfound vision dimming, something rose from within him.
Gray's presence flared up out of nowhere, flowing up to wrap around him, and instantly, Damien felt the aura's effect lessen. It wasn't completely gone, but he felt like he could keep it at bay for the moment until he figured out where he was and how to leave.
And for the second time—without being suffocated—he opened his eyes.
"What. Was. That?" Damien gulped, or tried to. His body seemed to not register the command.
[That was the passive presence of a Celestial,] Gray said, and for some reason, he sounded grim. [A Grand Celestial at that.]
Instantly, Daimen's interest was piqued, and he asked stupidly. "A Grand Celestial? And I survived its passive presence."
With a snort, the other being replied. [You're at the fringe section of its plane, which means its presence is somewhat diminished here, and for good reason too,] subtly, Gray nodged Damien's attention to focus on his environs. [Look around and tell me what you see.]
The first thing he noticed was the ocean of crimson lightning that he stood on. Its intensity and vastness were such that Damien quickly recognized that the Domain summoned by the Verrille Divine King was but a tiny dot compared to this. His metaphysical eyes widened as a thick bar of crimson lightning struck nearby, its thickness more vast than any planet Damien had ever seen. This thing could erase Ra with only a single strike.
His eyes narrowed as he noticed other lights within the ocean: tiny golden lights in an ocean of crimson. There were uncountable, like stars in a sky. What baffled him was that despite how tiny and dim they were compared to the crimson ocean, they weren't stifled or oppressed, like him. Instead, he felt the ocean part around them, like a rock situated in the middle of a raging river. And the presence... Damien felt shock as he intuitively knew what those lights represented.
"Those are..."
[Souls,] Gray completed. [Souls of Spirit lords.]
Again, Damien felt it as his attention was slowly moved around, taking in some lights which were as flickering candles, and he looked deeper into the plane—or what Gray understood it to be—and then was greeted with the sights of some lights that burned with the equivalent brightness of suns. Deeper in left Damien stumped as he failed to conceptualize what he was looking at.
[These are the souls of every being with an affinity for Destruction.] His minder explained. [From the foundation realm to Ascended, and beyond. Every soul connected to Destruction could be found here. You're in the Spirit lord section, which is why you were able to last long enough for my rescue.]
Damien understood it then: what the other being left unsaid. Had he not been here, Damien would have eventually perished, his soul snuffed out.
"But why?" He asked. "I've never been affected by presences before, even those of higher realm beings. Why did it feel like I was dying? Especially to what, as you explained, was the Spirit lord's downsized version of the aura."
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Expecting an answer, Damien was was left with shock when Gray brushed past it, his voice quivering. [We need to leave.]
Shocked, but for a while, before anger came. "Don't avoid the question, Gray," Damien demanded. He was done with this: the warnings with minimal explanation of why. The subtle conversations going on about his welfare without requesting his input, like he was a child. He was fed up with being told he wasn't strong enough to know. He was done with being told what to do with zero explanation as to why. He was done.
[Damien, we can't stay he—] Gray said, this time with urgency. Damien wasn't having it.
"ANSWER ME!" he commanded, his voice thick with such vehemence that he felt it like a punch to the guts.
[BECAUSE DESTRUCTION IS NOT YOUR AFFINITY!] Gray roared back. [I don't know what was done to you nor am I allowed to know, but you aren't aligned with the essence of destruction. That's why you weren't accorded the protection of the realm.]
Damien felt his entire being freeze. Everything seemed to wobble as his vision stuttered. He looked at the plane, but he saw nothing. He'd been living a lie all this while.
[Now I'm really serious, Damien, but we've got to go.] Gray repeated, and Damien would have argued had he not felt something then, an activeness to the once inactive presence.
And with another vision stuttering, he was gone.
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Damien opened his eyes to find himself face down on the floor. His ears were ringing so much and he felt like his head was about to explode. It took a while for everything to finally settle, and that was when he realized he wasn't alone.
"... Damien! Can you hear me?!" He blinked at the voice, unable to comprehend it at first.
"Damien?!" The voice called again, this time with a calm shake on his shoulder. "Nod if you can hear me!" and this time Damien was coherent enough to nod.
"Oh, thank goodness," Keilan said with clear relief. The other man plumped down beside him on the floor.
"Don't do that again," he said. "What happened?"
Damien was too angry and dumbfounded to give out an extensive explanation, but he couldn't simply leave Keilan in the dark, so he shook his head with a murmur. "Later."
Thankfully sensing the gloomy mood, Keilan didn't push. Instead, he gently slapped Damien on the shoulder just as Damien rose to a sitting position.
Taking in the deck, or what seemed like it, he immediately registered the crowd of people moving around. And while most were paying him attention in different ways, Damien realized that he recognized only a few.
Vanis was standing nearby, looking down on Damien with an expression of both surprise and confusion. The man was still in his skin-tight suit, which looked tattered now with burnt patches and bloodied sections. His previously slicked-back ponytail was now loose and puffed up on the left side of his head. Damien would have smiled at the sight had his eyes not immediately locked onto those of Nalon.
The Verrille warder was glaring down at him like they'd both just had a physical altercation. The man stood just behind Vanis, looking also tattered in his torn-up dressing. There was a deep scar on the left side of his face, which made Damien wonder why it hadn't healed, especially as the man was a Spirit King. Another scar ran down his left arm—the visible one—dripping essence little by little which soon disappeared into the atmosphere. All this made the man look more intimidating, but considering what Damien had just seen and felt, the gaze of a Spirit King just felt... diminished.
"Are you okay?" Vanis asked, and Damien was about to reply when something seemed to pop, and a face appeared so close to his face that their lips almost touched.
"Huh... Seems like your friend here had a strong reaction to my technique," the man said just as Damien shoved himself backwards, Keilan doing the same beside him. The man cocked his head to the side, seemingly listening to something only he could hear. "Positive or negative, though? It's unclear."
Up close, the man's appearance seemed somewhat diminished, unlike the visage of a maniacal god that Damien witnessed. His face, which still took on that of a man in his mid years while still looking indeterminable, had a little tug on his lips as he scrutinized Damien. His eyes, which were previously twin burning orbs of crimson, were now dulled down into black pupils with a tinge of red. And despite the apocalyptic battle he'd obviously just finished, his clothes and hair looked almost impeccable, if with a little ruffling.
Over the man's shoulders, Damien saw Vanis sigh, palm on his face. "Uncle Xi, you're scaring them." The manner in which he said this clued Damien in that this wasn't their first conversation on this matter.
"Huh... They don't look scared to me," he shrugged, and then moved in closer to Damien, peering at him like he was some strange creature. "Are you scared?"
Doing his best not to retreat out of fear, Damien slowly shook his head, Keilan mirroring him.
"See?!" The man said again, this time sounding oddly ecstatic. "And they haven't fainted! Look, Vavan! They aren't fainting!"
Slowly, so as not to startle the apocalyptic creature right in front of him, Damien turned an inquisitive look toward Vanis.
Luckily, the other man quickly understood. "Usually, people—mostly Spirit lords — who come close to him tend to faint due to his passive aura. Which he doesn't like."
"YES!" The man in question shouted. "They're weak! To climb the top, the mere presence of a Divine King should never be a problem!"
Another sigh. "Uncle, have you perhaps thought, for a second, that most Spirit lord's souls aren't trained to handle the presence of higher beings, especially those a full realm above?"
"Bahh!" The man waved it off. "That shows incompetence on their part. A Spirit lord with supreme quality potential shouldn't have a problem with handling simple presences," he smiled widely. "Like your friends here."
"They aren't my friends," he said, and then with a quick "No offense" to Damien, to which he simply shrugged off. After all, the other man was speaking the truth.
With a frustrated growl, the Verille young lord, a spirit lord at the peak of the realm, glared down at a Divine King, a being who was a realm and several tiers above him.
"Aren't you supposed to be busy confirming the death of your opponent?" He said.
The Divine King waved his hands in an unconcerned gesture. "Mehh, he's not dead."
"What?!" This time, the young looking man seem to lose his composure. Damien couldn't blame him, he also felt the same. "Why are you here if it's not dead?!"
"Like I said: Mehh!"
"Uncle—" Vanis began, but was immediately cut off as the divine King turned to fully face him.
"Do you think a simple Ascended calling is enough to down a Divine King?" Despite having the man's back to him, Damien couldn't stop the imagination of the a raised eyebrows from creeping up in his mind. "Average as he might have been, Je'Ruh is still a Divine King, and it'll take far more than that to completely erase him." The man continued. "Far more time than I have to spare, and I'd definitely have suffered a few injuries if I'd pushed further, so let's just take the win and go."
"Where's it then?" The word came out before Damien knew he'd said them. And with such force that his head rang, his teeth snapped shut.
In response, the Divine King raised an eyebrow; and instead of the death that Damien expected to come from speaking out of turn, he instead smiled. "As we speak? He's probably several million kilometers away from here."
"Just like that?" Vanis said with clear skepticism. "How did it even get the strength to escape? I saw your technique— we all saw it. Nobody should be able to escape that."
"Oh, my dear Vavan," the older lord said, to the chagrin of the younger. "The injury I inflicted upon him was enough to see it suffer for several thousand years. Trust me, anything more than that, and he'd be a cloud of potential whisping back into reality."