Every major nation and city Damien had ever been to had had some unique or separate designs in infrastructure that had pedestalled them into the ranks of the tops.

Xeris, the capital city of Solaria, had been an essence territory majorly built out of minerals like gold and silver, producing massive skyscrapers that shone blindingly under the sunlight.

Now Damien knew that the city had been built decades before he was even born. Plus, he knew basically zero about infrastructures and whatnot, but he'd been able to scrounge up some information about what it had cost to raise Xeris. Well... He hoped never to be in a situation where he had to sponsor something like that.

Cirin, capital of Camlen, wasn't much different from Xeris in terms of population, except where Xeris needed to fend for a budding population then, a population which had peaked at an average number of ninety million, Cirin had only needed to consider a much lesser number.

The city hadn't been essence raised. No, an expense like that would have left the entire nation close to broke for months, which was a bad thing considering their position on the continent and their neighbors. A broke Camlen was a free meal for all, unlike Solaria which had simply scrounged up its expenses from the treasuries of the nations it had swallowed up.

Cirin had been like any other city, with stone-made infrastructures built with the hands of captured slaves and menial workers. Its common residential buildings had been a thing of massive proportions, most of them with floors as high as four hundred, which made Damien wonder, at first, how the buildings had been able to stand at all. Turns out, the earth's stability and perseverance aspects were no joke, which had helped a lot of buildings which normally should have collapsed, stand.

Gandor had been similar to Camlen, its capital city, a thing of huge blocky designs, with the more artistic and detailed ones made for the wealthier residents. Gandor, though not as rich as some of the other major nations in the world, had still not been that far behind that it was considered a second-rate nation.

Aetheris had been a much more richer and powerful nation, accumulating wealth over the millennials of its existence. The one time Damien had visited, before he'd began making international waves, had been a thing of marvel. Unlike Solaria, which only had one essence territory to its name, Aetheris had multiple, and they rivaled, if not surpassed, that of Solaria.

Their Capital city, Solus, hadn't gotten the moniker, the golden city, for nothing, seeing as a majority of its infrastructures were massive, cloud-reaching skyscrapers built entirely out of gold. And considering that elves were a longer-lived species than humans, it wasn't any surprising that a majority of them were able to afford the lavish skyscrapers towering over their cities.

All the other cities he'd visited in his many years of running, Damien had come across one form of unique infrastructure after another.

The Verrille world city, a megalopolis of staggering proportions, undoubtedly the largest city Damien had ever come across, with skyscrapers of onyx metals and crimson glasses reaching and crossing the cloud barrier, their reflections shimmering under the sunlight in a mesmerizing fashion.

Over the city skylines, Damien paid witness as countless beings flew past. Griffins of beautiful feathers glided past them, their riders either on the backs or on chariots attached to the beasts with tethers of light. They bowed to their group as they passed by, probably recognizing the people Damien was with.

Others rode past, too; some on rainbow-colored Pegasuses and others on wingless horses. Some rode on lions and tigers, eagles, and other living beasts. Damien smiled as he saw a little girl ride past on the back of a sapphire glittering fish. He returned the wave that she sent their way, smile widening as out of the corner of his eyes, Vanis joined in.

People on beasts weren't the only ones flying; there were many on artificial constructs just like the flying disk Vanis's mother had brought forth. Others even rode on crystals shaped in the forms of animals, while a lesser minority simply flew, powering their flight with their mental strength.

And what made Damien smile more was that the people he saw weren't all of the human race. On Ra, other races existed, sure, but they were not accepted everywhere. Some nations tolerated them, but others weren't that accepting, outright rejecting their presence.

As they flew by, Damien waved back to several species he'd come across and even some he'd never, like the glowing yellow man riding an equally yellow carpet.

Two young-looking people, each glowing a mix of sky blue and white, flew past, riding on the back of a unicorn, whose horn was somehow conjuring a path on the sky, made out of a dozen colors. Through his senses, he saw as Keilan smiled towards them, unleashing the brightness of his annoyingly perfect teeth.

The female, evidently caught off guard, glowed a lighter blue as she smiled back. Damien was beginning to pray the male riding behind her wasn't some sort of partner or spouse when he, too, smiled back, his white form taking on a deeper hue.

Huh... Damien shook his head. You don't see that every day.

The geography of the landmass was one of unique designs, evidently made with a conscious effort, unlike the ones he was used to. The continents were in the form of layered rings, massive ones, each smaller than the previous, and judging by what he could already make out, stretched around the flat-shaped world. And separating them were massive bodies of water. However, they weren't entirely isolated, judging by the massive bridge outlines running from one continent to the other.

Damien stared out in awe and wonder at the massive city sprawled out before him. He couldn't even begin to grasp how it had been made.

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"This is an essence territory, right?" He turned to Vanis. "It has to be."

"It is," the other man nodded, looking at Damien with a smile. "Yes."

"Then how—" Damien waved his hands over the entire view, too stumped to even find the words. "How was all this created? The sheer cost alone..." His voice died down.

"Essence Territories aren't too expensive when you have the assistance of The World Spirit," the young lord shook his head. "Grandmother provided the energy while the world created the materials. Other than those," he shrugged. "Like I said: nothing too expensive."

As they dived below the cloud barrier, emerging into an unclotted sky, something tingled Damien's mind.

"Uhh, Vanis?" He called. "Don't get me wrong, this world is amazing, more than I can imagine. But I have to ask: why aren't there any flying houses or fortresses in the sky? This is a city, a civilization practically, so it stands to reason that there must be a few wealthy elites who don't want to live among the masses, preferring a more... Higher view, if you know what I mean?"

Vanis chuckled, a sound which caused a few raised eyebrows all around. "Oh, there are. Many, in fact. But since Grandmother doesn't want the skyway disrupted by flying fortresses and whatnot, there's nothing any of them can do."

"I'm starting to think your grandmother is a bit of a tyrant," Keilan joked, and then his eyes widened when he realized what he'd just said. Damien's brother looked behind nervously at the Ascendant woman piloting their craft, but if she'd heard anything, no indication was made.

Stepping purposefully on his brother's foot, Damien gave Vanis an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about my brother, his mouth runs a bit much sometimes."

Thankfully, Keilan didn't refute the statement. Instead, he simply nodded with a grimace on his face and a subtle look at Damien that spoke of untold consequences.

"It's okay," The young lord said, dismissing the issue with a physical gesture. "We're not that much of an authoritarian that every word said against us is taken to heart. Honestly, we don't really care anyway. Yes, Grandma is an authoritarian, but so are all the other rulers. She's just more forthcoming about such things."

Damien nodded, understanding. He wasn't going to take any high ground whatsoever on an issue like this, because he knew how true they were. When you had the power, your word became absolute, with any contrast being seen as a crime.

Fenore and Brunos, whom Damien had taken under his protection, were both dictators. Yes, he admitted it. They weren't the types who openly demanded that their every command be obeyed, but they weren't all that far aside either, more a sort of benevolent dictators.

Damien wouldn't even deny the fact that he was also one, too. It was one of the packages that came with holding power in a brutal world. You either found a way to make your word followed, or you failed at achieving what you want.

On the force of arms, Damien had at multiple times, forcefully imbued his will onto weaker opponents, even once a realm below him. He hated it, yes, but it couldn't be helped. Sometimes, people were just too stupid to see the reality before them; they needed a few reminders to jumpstart their brains.

Without picking up speed, their craft took them down into the center of the ring layers—a round continent at the center. It was kind of marveling that this small continent here was probably larger than Greensend, which was arguably the largest continent on Ra.

Right before they'd even landed, Damien had already seen the large procession waiting for them at what looked like a landing strip on one side of the continent.

The large gathering consisted of about fifty Spirit lords, all of whom radiated peak-tier powers. And unlike the ones that had been freed, these weren't dressed in any tight-fitting material. Instead, covering their bodies were simple black robes clinched at the waist with red linens. Emblazoned on their breast was the sigil of a crimson lightning.

Standing in front of the line of Spirit lords were ten Spirit Kings, wearing an inverted design from the ones worn by the Spirit lords. Their auras were contained, as was custom everywhere, but from their bearing alone, there was no doubt: These were powerful beings.

And leading those beings—at least that was what Damien thought was happening, given that they stood in front of them—were two other people.

One, a man of rotund proportions. He was bald with a spear-like beard falling from his large jowl. His eyes were large, probably the largest Damien had ever seen.

The man was putting on a robe, just like everyone else, but his was different, with more embroidery sown onto it and a button running down the middle, which looked like it was struggling to hold back the jutting stomach.

The funny thing was that the man radiated the aura of a Spirit King—more than that, he radiated power roughly similar to Xirou and the Aveanii Divine King.

This man was a Divine King. Wow.

The person who stood beside him, though, was the one who quickly hijacked Damien's attention.

The young man wasn't any different from some of the craziess Damien had come across: ruffled, puffed up hair that probably hadn't seen the touch of a comb in months. A surprisingly cleanshaven face, with black eyes tinged with tiny streaks of Crimson.

But it was the face that drew Damien's attention.

Vanis sighed at the questioning look Damien turned towards him, Keilan mirroring, just as their disk touched the ground. As soon as it did, every soldier in the back went straight on their knees, both the lords and Kings. All went on their knees, leaving silence in their wake.

The only ones not on their knees were the two people in the front, with the fat man simply bowing, which looked surprisingly easy for him.

"Welcome back, Lady Narkyra. And you too, Lord Vanis. Your sound return was never in question," the man smiled with a voice surprisingly soft and regal.

Now that's something Damien didn't expect to hear.

"Thank you, Governor Turen," Vanis responded with a calm nod. "It was more the work of Uncle Xirou that got us all out of the planet."

Subtly, Damien sneaked a look at Narkyra, expecting some kind of threatening comment on what she was going to do to Xirou when she laid hands on him, but instead the woman was nowhere to be found.

He looked around, thinking that she might have just changed location, but she wasn't. Narkyra was gone.

Oh well, it wasn't like her presence was any calming. Damien hadn't gotten used to the presence of Spirit Kings yet, having an Ascendant standing behind him made matters worse.

"Yeah, yeah!" the second person interrupted, barging through the calm greetings like a bull learning how to fly. "Hey, Vanis! Is it true that uncle Xi got into a domain brawl with an Aveanii?"

On his part, Vanis sighed, a long drawn out one, just like how Keilan used to do when tasked with washing the dirty dishes when they were kids.

"Hello to you too, Sol," Vanis said with a tired stare. "Yes, uncle Xi fought an Aveanii Divine King. And no, I am not going to narrate it to you at the moment, I'm tired."

That was when the young man realized both Damien and Keilan had been staring at both of them for the past minute.

Immediately, Vanis straightened up, his previous resigned bearing vanishing into thin air. He looked at Damien and Keilan both, one hand gesturing at the other man who looked almost just like him.

"This is Solis," he gestured. "My twin brother."

He then turned to the other man, Solis, and did the same. "Solis, this is Keilan and Damien, our saviors. If it hadn't been for them, uncle Xi would probably not have found us and we'd still be stewing in an Aveanii mind prison."