Damien could only smile wryly at Zara’s love for big entrances. Knowing they were returning to Damien’s home, she decided to go grand.
When the portal opened, the sheer size had startled Damien and he decided to be lowkey, but his idea was immediately rejected.
And so, the trio entered the portal with Zara in her true form. The sensation of a portal was vastly different from his usual warps. It was like they were traveling through a long dark passage that continued with no end. Zara simply flew forward with the current of mana until they reached the circular exit.
And exiting was different too. They were forced to wait for a few hours before the ethereal film covering the portal disappeared. It made sense though. The portal was created using Damien’s connection with earth as a medium, so it would naturally need time to form.
It turned out to be more like a gate than a normal portal, but Damien still hadn’t grasped exactly how gates functioned. And he couldn’t really be blamed for this since he hadn’t seen one in 4 years.
And so, after a few hours of wait, they descended.
The first thing that entered Damien’s vision was the vast array of skyscrapers that yearned to touch the sky, various cars moving in every direction seemingly running away from the gate, and a crowd of people underneath him with their weapons prepared.
Thinking about it, Damien realized that this was a normal response that they would have to a massive gate appearing, but he didn’t care. Now that he was back, there were a few things he needed to accomplish before he relaxed and learned how earth had changed in his absence.
And he saw one of those things at the very forefront of the crowd.
Zara slowly landed on the ground as she looked down on those heroes before her. Compared to Damien, they were utter trash, and she couldn’t understand how they were born from the same world that created him.
Meanwhile, Rose was feeling something entirely different. She had completely disregarded the crowd as her eyes darted around at the technological landscape around her in fascination.
She had heard of skyscrapers and cars from Damien, but seeing them in person was a different story. Just like any normal person, Rose had never left the world she was born in. She was experiencing a pretty severe case of culture shock.
The heroes stared at the three in trepidation. At first, they were terrified of the massive beast that had descended from the gate, but now their fear had multiplied.
They had finally noticed the two people standing atop such a beast and realized that they must be stronger than it to have the capability to tame it.
Damien then jumped off of Zara’s back, leaving Rose to admire the sights as he walked up to the heroes.
“You, come here.” He said as he pointed to a man in the front.
Although his appearance had matured since the last time they met and he was wearing some sort of stupid costume at the moment, the blonde-haired green-eyed man was someone Damien would never forget.
When Jin saw that he was being singled out from the crowd, he straightened his back haughtily. Even with his manhood gone, he still had his pride as a top expert of humanity.
“Hmph! You dare call me like that, fiend?!” Jin said, his words reeking a misplaced sense of justice.
But Damien wasn’t having it. “Shut up and come here obediently before I force you to do so.”
He wanted to humiliate Jin before killing him. This was the only reason he hadn’t struck yet.
Before anything else could happen, a suffocating pressure descended on the environment. “What are you doing, boy?”
Damien calmly turned his gaze up towards the old man who had just arrived on the scene. “I’m repaying old debts, old man. The better question is, why do you think you’re qualified to know?”
He was unfazed by the old man’s pressure. He was at most at the middle stages of 3rd class, but that meant nothing to Damien. Even if he couldn’t touch a 4th class, only those at the higher and peak stages of 3rd class were his match.
But the old man didn’t seem to like his attitude. “You dare speak to me like that?! Very well, let me educate you on how to respect your elders.”
The old man struck his hand out, creating a palm phantom that charged towards Damien. It was entirely made of mana but contained traces of fire element within it.
Damien sighed, but he figured the best way to showcase the difference in strength was to do nothing. The massive palm phantom arrived in front of him but was promptly reduced to nothingness by Damien’s vector field.
“W-who are you?” The old man said as he witnessed this scene. He never thought he’d meet someone stronger than him other than the ones he had come with.
“That shouldn’t matter to you. Either step aside or lose your life.”
The old man was stuck in a dilemma. He didn’t know if he could last against Damien, but the one he was aiming for was too talented to let go. The old man decided to gain Damien’s sympathy.
“Listen, boy. That young man you are targeting is one of the main hopes of the human race! Without him, plenty of chaos will ensue and innocents will die!
“The villains are getting brasher and brasher by the day, and we need every bit of manpower we can get. I cannot allow you to harm one of our most talented heroes!”
The terms hero and villain were new to Damien, but he wasn’t too surprised by the direction the world was taking. He had just come from a true fantasy world, so seeing the superhero society of earth didn’t affect him much.
Seeing that Damien was unfazed, the old man tried once more to persuade him. “There are major threats incoming that only a few people know about. Your actions could cause the deaths of millions of people if you don’t act carefully! Choose righteousness and don’t succumb to vile emotions!”
Damien finally got ticked off. “Old man, don’t bullshit me with your talks of righteousness. Do you think I can’t see your true ambitions? Those people are not my concern. You should be happy that I’m sparing an outsider like you in the first place.”
Both the heroes in the vicinity and the general public watching through the news feed were shocked by his words. Millions of deaths were mentioned but he didn’t care? They immediately labeled him a villain.
And while they didn’t pay much attention to the word “outsider”, it was what shocked the old man the most. He knew precisely what Damien was talking about.
Probably the most shocked of them all was Elena, who was still watching from a distance. The previous Damien wouldn’t throw away countless lives like that.
‘He’s changed.’
But she felt it was inevitable. She couldn’t imagine what he had to go through after he was betrayed, and she felt he was completely justified in seeking revenge. Plus, the loss of Jin wouldn’t even mean that much as long as someone took his place, and she could fulfill that role if she wished.
Suddenly, the wind whooshed by her face and a beautiful girl appeared next to her. “It’s good that your opinion of him hasn’t changed. I’d be disappointed if it was that easy to sway you.”
Elena looked at the girl with shock. The girl had shoulder-length pink hair and goldish ruby eyes, even matching her in beauty.
“Who are you?” She said with vigilance, but all she got in return was a mischievous giggle.
“I’m that guy’s woman.”
While the first meeting between two of the people Damien cared for most in this life was taking place, the drama continued on his side.
He proceeded to ignore the old man’s ramblings as he looked back at Jin. “Did you become a dumb bitch in the 4 years it’s been since we’ve seen each other? Or was becoming dickless what pushed you over the edge.”
This infuriated Jin, but he had seen how Damien dealt with the old man’s attacks. He didn’t dare move irrationally. “Who are you?”
“Well, that question seems to be pretty popular today. How sad that you don’t remember me. After all, you pushed me into the dungeon with your own two hands. Did you sentence so many people to death that you forgot their faces?”
These words shook Jin to his core. Although it was true that he had abandoned a relatively large number of people in dungeons, only one came to mind when he looked into those indifferent eyes.
“Y-you! You are that trash?!”
Damien shook his head with a sarcastic pained expression on his face. “Trash? Sigh, it looks like I’ll have to remind you of my name. I’m done with this farce.”
“Remember me in your next life. My name is Damien Void.”
This announcement caused waves of shock to ripple through the crowd, who had already retreated after the old man released his palm shadow. Many of them were part of the group of classmates he had gone to high school with, after all. And they were just talking trash about how it was good that he died.
Suddenly, Damien’s voice resounded through the area.
[Starfall]
At first, there was no reaction. It was eerily silent as if the calm before the storm. But slowly, the temperature in the area began rising.
Sensing danger, even the old man retreated to the crowd, protecting them with a barrier. Only Jin was left in place, bound by Damien and unable to move.
The temperature became unbearable as Damien spoke his last words to Jin. “It’s your misfortune to have messed with me.”
A shadow blotted out the sky. It wasn’t a beast or anything similar, but a massive rock that was hurling towards their position.
As the meteor passed through the atmosphere, it caught fire due to its sheer speed. Jin could only watch the scene with horror evident in his eyes.
The heat penetrated his body. His skin began to melt, followed by his muscles and organs, but the superior regeneration he possessed forced him to stay alive. He couldn’t even scream in pain due to the restrictions placed on him, but he truly wished he could. It was agonizing
And then, under the horrified eyes of the millions of people who watched through their tv screens and the crowd that had gathered under the gate, the flaming meteor landed on Jin’s position.
BOOOM!