Time passed in this manner as Damien conquered two more floors. Paying no mind to the blood-stricken walls around him, he continued forward to the next floor.
This floor, however, was different from the rest. Rather than the endless cavern he had seen up until this point, this floor was roughly the size of a city. Its walls were smooth and lit with what seemed to be primitive torches made by lighting bundles of wood on fire.
In front of him wasn’t dreary stone with the occasional flora, but a roughly built village. There were indents on the cave floor that seemed to indicate roads and small shacks and huts made of mud and rock placed along the road randomly.
Damien’s beastly instinct became vigilant. Although he would usually wantonly attack anything in sight, this abrupt change in environment had invoked the natural cautiousness he had inherited from the very first wolf he devoured.
As he scanned the place with his spatial awareness, he spotted many small green creatures, the tallest ones being just above 1 meter in height. At the same time, they spotted him.
When they did, they suddenly began screeching to each other, seemingly communicating.
Then, they all grabbed their weapons and congregated around the main stone hut in the middle of the village.
Thudding footsteps rang out and echoed through the city as the door to the hut opened. What stepped out was another green creature, however, this one was around 1.7 meters tall and had a round body. Its body was covered in armor made of beast bones and on its shoulder stood a large battle axe.
“KREEEE!”
It screeched as it looked at Damien while radiating an air of superiority. Meanwhile, Damien’s blood boiled.
On the past two floors, he hadn’t found more than two or three beasts that could help him evolve, and in his rage, he slaughtered the rest of the floor. However, he could see that the humanoid creature in front of him would help him immensely.
Sparing no time for thought, Damien charged. With his every movement, space distorted and mutilated the random goblins that were in his path, while Damien’s sole focus was on their king.
With a bestial roar, Damien stuck his claws forward, attempting to pierce the heart, however, he was immediately repelled. Confused, Damien tried once more, only to face the same problem.
“Kekekekeke”
The Goblin King let out a peal of strange laughter after seeing his confusion. Its skin had a natural property of absorbing and reflecting physical damage, and this is what had allowed him to reign over this floor to this day.
One of the king’s favorite things was watching its enemies try to breach his defenses, only to achieve nothing. So, the king stayed its hand without attacking, confident that it would get to see another amusing sight today. Unfortunately, its opponent was Damien.
Seeing that physical attacks were useless, Damien charged lightning in his palms before shooting it forward, trying parts of the goblin’s skin.
“KREEE!”
The Goblin King was enraged. Even if the attack didn’t hurt it, it was insulted that the enemy had injured its skin. Raising its great axe, it charged. The goblin swung its axe at Damien with immense strength as Damien quickly teleported out of its way.
Appearing behind the goblin, he grabbed its head and ran electricity through its skull. Though the attack didn’t do damage, it managed to paralyze the goblin for a second. Using the opening he created, Damien grabbed the goblins arm and distorted space, using the pressure to turn the arm into a sack of paste.
“KREEEEEEE!”
The goblin roared in pain. It had never felt this much pain, as the impact was usually negated when it hit its skin, and it lost the ability to think rationally. It turned to Damien and wildly began swinging its great axe, which Damien dodged with ease. The power has lessened greatly due to the goblin’s state of mind, so he felt no danger from the swings.
Ducking under the goblin’s swing, Damien used another spatial distortion to break the goblin’s leg, earning another screech of pain.
Although the goblin king could negate physical damage under a certain level, he could never compete if the environment was the one that deemed him to die. Space was an esoteric and extremely powerful concept, which was why spatial users were generally always feared.
Once the goblin lost its balance, Damien immediately grabbed its head and distorted it, leaving it twisted at a 180° angle. With its neck snapped, the goblin king immediately died.
When the surrounding goblins witnessed this, their eyes turned red with rage. Screeching at the top of their lungs, they charged at Damien.
However, they never stood a chance. Damien simply distorted the space around him and all those goblins died fruitlessly. His whole focus was on the corpse of the goblin king. With greed in his eyes, he began to devour.
After eating the goblin king, Damien’s body once again went through an intensive mutation like the first one. Although it wasn’t nearly as bad, the pain was still immense.
Up until this point, devouring beasts had only served to strengthen his body, not change its structure, but it seemed that unique traits that would help him improve would always result in these kinds of mutation.
While Damien fell to the floor, his muscles, tendons, and tissue were all being pulled and compressed continuously. When they were finished, they had also gained the property of absorption and reflection that the goblin king possessed.
And just like it did with the wolf, his Void Physique activated and turned the remains of the goblin king into essence to aid his mutation.
As his body evolved, Damien once again fought the goblin king in the blood world. This goblin king, being only a manifestation of his instinct, did not possess its unique trait. With its death, Damien finally fell to the floor.
‘I have no idea how much time has passed since I entered this mysterious space, but I can still feel a connection with my body.’
During the short moments of respite he had, Damien had begun thinking of his circumstances and had formulated a general idea of what happened.
‘I went berserk. I don’t know what exactly is going on but I’m sure that all the beasts I had to kill recently were already killed once by me. But it looks like the cycle has finally ended.’
‘Whatever the immense pain I can faintly feel from the connection to my body is, it’s my opportunity to regain control.’
The evolution process, being a complete change in the structure of his body, would naturally take time to complete. And during this time, Damien meditated to regain control. When he did, he felt the desire to kill that had formulated this blood world.
‘I see. So this whole time I was fighting my bestial instinct.’ Damien was drenched in a cold sweat. ‘If I had died here, my ego would’ve been erased. How scary. But that doesn’t matter anymore since I’ve already won.’
Damien’s eyes snapped open. I’ve already overpowered this instinct. Now all that’s left is to force it to submit to my rational mind. As Damien thought this. He released his entire aura and distorted the space around him.
“This is my mind! My body! I, Damien Void, will never become something akin to a mere beast! Break for me!”
Damien roared with all his breath as he punched the ground with immense force. Immediately, the blood world began to crack. ‘Hmph. I will be something even the heavens must look up to. How dare I be controlled by the instincts of a beast.’
As he had this thought, Damien’s view turned black and the immense pain of evolution overwhelmed him.