What he needed to do now was find a balance. A halfway point where his versatility could still shine, but also be constrained in a format where he could master everything he already had control over.
It was inevitable that he’d continue gaining more sources of power since his main form of leveling and strengthening was devourment, but he didn’t plan to be burdened by that.
He was sure that awakening his Time affinity was only a matter of time at this point, especially since he was planning to spend a few months meditating on the temporal distortion in the Trial World after dealing with the demons.
Before that awakening took place, he needed to clean up shop.
But this was something that’d take time and effort to work. He needed to condense his various powers into a skillset that he could fluidly maneuver through without difficulty. For now, it wasn’t possible.
Damien played around with the golden-black flames for a while before a sudden thought came to mind.
‘These aren’t sunflames anymore, nor are they Nihility Flames. If so, what should I call them?’
It was an important matter. Such an imperious flame; especially one that’d develop consciousness at some point, required an even more imperious name.
‘The Emperor Flame! No no, that doesn’t work. Even if it became exponentially more powerful after my two flames combined, there’s no way it’d be more than 20th on the Heavenly Flame Index. It doesn’t deserve such a name yet.’
Damien thought long and hard. His naming sense had always been simple and minimalistic. He never aimed for anything flashy just for the sake of being flashy.
‘Well, Seven Stars Encircle The Moon exists…’
But even that one was simply named after the way it looked. It was literally seven stars encircling a bright moon that formed around his fist. Was there a more direct way to name it?
‘Nihility Sun Flames is a bit too straightforward…damn, and my dragon flames will also become incorporated into it once my bloodline improves and I awaken them. Hmm…’
His thoughts shifted in another direction.
‘What if I just follow the theme?’
It was a genius idea. He was Damien Void! He possessed the Void Physique! He had recently gained access to Void Essence! And so, why not just call them Void Flames?
‘Actually, it makes some sense now that I think about it…!’
The Void he had come into contact with was both nothingness and everything at the same time. While nothingness was easy to explain, the everything part was more complicated.
Every essence in existence, even the ones that had never been discovered before, were incorporated into the Void. Even though he couldn’t perceive their existence or even verify his conjecture, he was sure of it due to the intrinsic connection he had with the Void due to his physique.
It was similar to how when every color was mixed together, it’d form a brown color that was infinitely close to black.
As for how it related to the flame, wouldn’t his flame also grow to incorporate every flame that existed? Wouldn’t it become similar to the void in that sense?
As for the nothingness of the void, of course the devouring properties of the flame would serve to embody it. Void Essence itself had enhanced said properties, so it wasn’t wrong to interpret it as such.
‘Perfect! Even though it’s a golden flame right now which doesn’t really fit the color scheme of the void, its properties are more than enough to make it deserving of the name!’
Damien directed his awareness towards the budding consciousness of the flame as he attempted to convey his will to it.
‘From now until the end of time, you will be called the Void Flame. A flame that encompasses all others, and drives its enemies into nothingness! Your name is as imperious as the hopes I have for you. Do not disappoint me!’
The Void Flame Seed in his Mana Heart flickered excitedly as if it understood his words. With a smile, Damien finally took his attention off the flames.
There was a second thing he needed to pay attention to. It was the dark material.
Honestly, after the realization he just had, he was hoping that the dark material didn’t give him too much more freedom. He was especially hoping that he wouldn’t suddenly gain an affinity towards Death mana. Luckily, it seemed his worries were pointless.
The dark material didn’t turn into essence and enhance him in a similar way to the rest of the things he had devoured so far. However, it did have one similarity.
It had become a black substance that dispersed into his bloodstream, joining his bloodlines and taking a spot for itself among their ranks.
If he had to put it into context, his bloodline now contained roughly 30% dragon bloodline, 20% of whatever the dark material had turned into, and 10% of the various lesser bloodlines that he still needed to purify.
Suddenly, Damien felt his blood boil as the dark bloodline began to pulse. It was as if it had been waiting for him to acknowledge its presence.
Damien hesitantly poked at it with his awareness, and surprisingly enough, two words came to his mind as he did so.
“Demon Transformation.’
The pulsing in his blood became furious. As Damien stood silently, changes began to occur in his body.
His height grew drastically until he was close to 7 feet tall. Thick black runic patterns surfaced on his skin and curled around his body like winding snakes.
His skin itself had paled until he looked as if he had no blood left in him. His hair quickly changed from its original midnight black color into a pure white like snow. His sclera turned entirely black which enhanced how glaringly unique his eyes were.
His whole body felt like it was brimming with power. He felt that he could crush a mountain in a single punch. Along with this boost in physical strength, a thick black mist surrounded him that seemed to corrode anything that came too close.
‘Holy shit!’
Damien couldn’t help but exclaim inwardly when he saw his current appearance. He didn’t even look like himself anymore. The white hair he now had especially irked him.
‘Damn, thank god my height and physique became more robust. Otherwise, I’d just look like some random chuuni bastard on the side of the street. All I need now is an eyepatch and a metal arm and I’d be no different than that guy from that one anime.’
Damien sighed in remorse. The power and uses of his transformation definitely pleased him, but the changes in his appearance were a bit too much.
Thinking about changes in appearance, Damien had another genius idea.
‘What if I…’
“Dragon Transformation.”
Pain immediately racked his entire body. It was like millions of needles had pierced into him at once. His innards w started to contort and inflate, his body brimming with so much energy that it was on the verge of exploding.
Still, the transformation he intended happened.
He knew it would be like this. Two equally domineering bloodlines would naturally compete if they were given the opportunity. It was simply that the Void Essence had quelled them and turned them docile.
Now that such a sudden change had occurred, he was feeling what would’ve become of his body if he tried to do the same thing without the assistance of Void Essence.
But once the Void Essence was given enough time to do its job, the pain in his body naturally subsided and the rampaging energy calmed down.
Two pitch-black horns jutted out of Damien’s forehead and wrapped around his head like a crown. His scales were already close to black in color, but now, blood-red runic patterns were drawn along their surface.
Massive wings sprouted from his shoulder blades, and a draconic tail elongated from his lower spine. His teeth and nails became fangs and claws.
His sclera had been changed by his Demon Transformation, and now his pupils became vertical slits due to his Dragon Transformation.
‘This power…’
It was insane. Damien didn’t think his body could properly house the amount of power he was brimming with at the moment. With a single flap of his wings, he was able to move hundreds of kilometers.
“Argh…!”
But it didn’t last long. After a mere minute, his transformations slowly became undone, leaving a shirtless Damien collapsed on the floor gasping for breath.
The powers of his bloodlines were largely exempt from the consumption of mana due to their nature, but in return, they consumed vitality and stamina.
Or course, since his body was his own, he didn’t need to worry about being sucked dry like Polius. And due to his regeneration, vitality could be restored.
But that restoration took time. After only a mere thirty seconds, his Demonic Dragon Transformation had consumed all of his reserves, leaving him in a severely weakened state.
‘This form can obviously only be used as a final resort.’
But just because it wasn’t too practical didn’t mean Damien wasn’t happy with it.
After all, every second mattered in the midst of battle, let alone thirty of them. And when that minute was consumed by a form that’d even let him fight on par with some weaker 4th class existences head-on…
There was no reason for him not to be satisfied with it.