The most prominent question at this moment was, why was Damien so powerful?
With the way every fight of his had gone so far, one would expect the collateral damage to have reached city level, or at least something far more destructive than it had.
However, the answer was simple. For starters, Damien needed an entire 10 minutes of charging his attack to reach the city level.
It was a widely known fact that the difference between 2nd and 3rd class could be considered the first true milestone in one’s cultivation journey.
Unlike the previous two classes, 3rd class was an evolution of one’s being. By the time one completed their leveling and forged the legends necessary to class change once more, they would gain more power over the natural law.
Damien didn’t understand much about this “natural law” that was mentioned every time someone talked to him about 4th class, but he was intrigued to figure it out.
At the moment, his powers were at their weakest point, at least in the grand scheme. His elements were just that, elements. They had no power to manipulate reality and perform truly grand feats.
Just thinking about how the spatial mages of Apeiron were able to turn an entire world into a secret realm for the sake of their future generations, Damien could feel the massive power gap between classes.
He had met a few 4th class beings before, and none of them really gave him the same feeling as those he heard tales about from Kurt’s remnant soul within the temple.
After much thought, he understood the reason for this. Why would a 4th class being be unable to conceal things from someone much weaker than them? It didn’t make sense. Even if his eyes were extremely powerful, they weren’t reality-breaking.
What he saw from Malcolm or James in Apeiron was simply what they wished to show him. And the power he felt during their altercations wasn’t even enough to be considered the tip of the iceberg.
The after-effects of many 4th class beings going to war on Apeiron was almost the total extinction of the world’s population. If that wasn’t enough to showcase how much power they could truly possess, nothing was.
His thoughts ran a little wild, considering that there might’ve been other continents on Apeiron that were totally destroyed and sunk during the war, but that was just his own fantasy.
Every time he had asked Malcolm about the reason for such a wide gap, he was told nothing. Even those elders from the Burning Sun Sect kept him in the dark about it.
But that didn’t curb his curiosity, instead making it burn with even brighter passion. Strength and power were things Damien loved, and learning about how they worked was something he had set his mind to. One way or another, he’d figure out how it all worked.
Other than that, he simply had no need to use such levels of power.
Back when he was fighting the leaders of Niflheim, he had the elders of the Burning Sun Sect with him to offset a majority of the pressure he might’ve faced, not to mention his companions. If he had to fight those dark imps alone, he would have been forced to go all out, maybe even getting killed in the process.
On Apeiron, he simply didn’t have any major conflict. The fight with the Nox in the ancient temple might’ve been much more destructive than any of his other fights, but he didn’t have a major part in that one.
With the sturdiness of the palace and Rose’s mitigation of damage through the use of her Illusory Throne, the collateral of that fight became underwhelming.
No matter how focused he was on his goal, or how strong his resolve to crush those in his path was, he needed true enemies for that to happen, and Damien had never been one to wantonly make enemies.
The funny part was, the one time he actively sought enemies, he met the laughing stock named Wang Ming. He didn’t know whether he should praise his luck or curse it.
His personality craved for battle, it craved for life or death situations, but he was left largely unfulfilled. If his two years in the dungeon were counted, he had more than enough life or death to last him many years, but it wasn’t.
The reason being that his time in the dungeon was what caused him to develop such a mentality. Since it developed that trait, it couldn’t be considered as fulfilling its desires.
However, he wasn’t insane. Damien didn’t just hop into situations that’d lead to his death due to his urge to feel that riveting sensation of walking the line. If he was that dumb, he would be finding some Nox-infested planet and charging in headfirst.
At the end of the day, what Damien wanted was more opportunities for destruction like this. He loved the feeling he got from causing it, and he loved the sight of it.
He actually felt like he comprehended something elusive just moments ago, but he couldn’t recall it no matter how hard he tried. All he knew was that destruction was something closely related to him, as the core of his being reveled in its sensation.
He felt like the question marks in his affinities section were slowly revealing themselves, with one set being glaringly obvious to him. He just didn’t know how to proceed with comprehending it enough to truly gain an affinity.
While he thought of these things, Zara flew him to an isolated area so he could recover. Truthfully, he had almost dropped out of the sky, unable to sustain himself due to the overuse of his mana.
And directly after everything had ended, he fell deep into his own thoughts. His behavior could be seen as stupid and self-destructive, but in another vein, it could be said that he had immense trust in Zara.
After finding an indiscreet cave, Zara quickly scared away the beasts living in it with her aura before taking Damien inside.
“Damien, how did you do that?” Zara asked, intrigue evident in her eyes. She had similarly never witnessed such a scene, and it made her faith in Damien almost turn to worship.
“What do you mean?” Damien chided. “If you try your hardest, you can probably do something like that as well. After all, my Zara will be the strongest beast to ever exist.”
“Mm!” Zara nodded, happily prancing around the cave. Inwardly, she was swearing to not neglect training, wanting to do the same as Damien one day.
Without much action, another 2 days passed. The sun rose over the horizon as the day of the duel dawned on those present. Everywhere within the general vicinity, large movements could be seen.
Crowds of surviving contestants all made their way over to the tree where the meeting spot was set. This was a duel involving a peak genius, so they had to witness it.
When they arrived, they saw a black-haired man floating in the air, his aura radiating serenity. It only took 10 minutes for his opponent to arrive, causing his eyes to snap open.
“Finally, let us see who is stronger.”
