Chapter 1283: Cosmic Rebirth [4]
Clearing the trial of mind meant nothing to Damien. His mental state wasn't elevated and his league didn't change at all.
But that was a precursor to the true trial.
He had to do one more thing in his mind before he could truly move on.
He had to decide.
Damien followed many paths that all diverged into one, but that single path far outstripped the scope of reality.
So then, what was it?
'What is my Divinity?'
It was necessary to define Divinity here.
From the perspective of a lower existence, it was a new level, it was Godhood.
But that wasn't true at all.
True Godhood was a step that could not be achieved easily, nor seen in the lower universe.
Establishing Divinity was the halfway point. It was the first step into a new world that would be just as treacherous as the path taken to reach it.
Divinity could best be described as a reflection of oneself.
It was a sky-cleaving tower made of everything an individual represented.
Their values, the way they treated those around them and those further away.
Their morals, their definition of right and wrong, good and evil.
Their image, the way they presented themselves to the world and wished to be perceived.
Their mindset, the things that drove them and their determination to reach those things.
These were only some of the elements that would create a Divinity.
Anything and everything one infused into their Divinity would make it a level more secure, but the caveat was that these things would be cemented in stone.
It was impossible to take back the things one carved into their Divinity. It was impossible to change beyond their limits.
Someone like Immortal Blood Asura would always be cruel and merciless. There would never be a day when he turned over a new leaf and could be seen in a new light.
If he wished to make that transition from the bottom of his heart, the Divinity he spent so much time building would shatter, and he would be forced to piece it back together with new values strong enough to replace the missing pieces.
The so-called "tower" used to represent Divinity had a base made of law. This law would become one's everything after ascension, and all other paths would be closed off.
Therefore, choosing the law was important, but most didn't struggle as they only focused on one from the start.
'The person I am and the person I wish to become...'
That was what Divinity represented.
It was the acknowledgement of those beliefs by reality itself, and once it was created, reality itself would watch over the practitioner to see if they would truly live up to the expectations they placed on themself.
There was no way to half-ass the formation of a Divinity.
It also absolutely couldn't be rushed.
Damien had a more difficult time than most when he tried to choose what his Divinity would be.
The most basic instinct in his body told him there was no need to choose. He could just put everything into it and make it an adaptive mechanism that would reform to what he needed in the future.
This was the strategy he used when creating most long-term systems like the Ananta Matrix.
However, this was not an option for the current him.
He had to choose.
If he couldn't make the choice, he would not ascend.
'What do I want...?'
Damien had always been chasing the Void, but that wasn't an option here. How could reality acknowledge a Divinity based on something above it?
He had the option of choosing Existence itself as the base, but he was greedy.
He didn't want to leave out the space for the Nonexistence that he would eventually comprehend.
'My title...'
The titles given to people like Immortal Blood Asura or Tian Yang, the Void Old Immortal, were only partially determined by the public.
The concepts they placed in their Divinity were represented in their titles more than anything else.
When Immortal Blood Asura created his, he infused the concepts of "Immortal" and "Blood," signifying his desire to be eternal through the power of blood.
Tian Yang only chose the word "Void," not symbolizing the Void itself, but the void of space, the most powerful manifestation of the law.
Damien also needed to choose.
Existence, Nonexistence, Void, Reality...
He'd used so many terms throughout his life grander than anything a newly ascended Demigod should've been wishing for, but it wasn't enough for him.
He wanted to give himself a starting point worthy of the end he would eventually reach.
To find that-
"Khhh...!"
Damien's mind was snapped out of its trance.
'The Heavenly Order...!'
Its energy was sputtering out.
There were only a few seconds left before it dispersed completely.
'Dammit!'
Damien withdrew himself from his mind and forced the Universal Law in his body to react.
'My body's state is...this is not optimal at all.'
His body was halfway through its lightning baptism. Its current state was so strangely disproportionate that trying to use it at all would be suicide.
However, Damien had no choice.
If he didn't, his entire Cosmic Rebirth would be stunted!
'COME...ON!'
He forced his mana to move.
The fluctuations of Universal Law filled the space, flying up towards the dispersing white thunderclouds and filling them with energy.
'It's not enough!'
At most, Damien's power could maintain them in their current weakened state. To make them functional again was completely impossible.
'DAMN!'
He didn't have a choice.
He mobilized his Void Mana until it slammed into the surrounding barrier of law.
'Devour!'
He consumed it in tiny bits, just small enough that those outside wouldn't notice.
But those tiny bits held such highly compressed Heavenly Law power that they were more than enough to aid him.
Those devoured fragments were combined with his Universal Law to add energy to the Heavenly Order. The Heavenly Order then reused those fragments to fill the spaces in the barrier of law, creating an infinite cycle.
However, this cycle was being maintained with the Heavenly Order's energy and was only supported by Damien, so he didn't have to expend as much energy to keep it active.
'This is impossible.'
He knew it well before, but confronting it directly made the truth far more obvious.
There was no way for him to win this battle.
'Whoever you are...'
Damien gritted his teeth.
'...please come soon!'
Every millisecond felt like years.
Damien's body broke down in several places. Blood pooled in his mouth as it was forced up his esophagus from the destruction of his stomach.
His mana circuits were strained to the limit, and though the Ananta Matrix had improved significantly in recent days, it was almost destroyed with only three seconds of sustaining the Heavenly Order.
Damien was on his last breath.
If he was in his usual state, he might've been able to do more, but he was essentially crippled in this strange middle point of his ascension.
Help needed to arrive as soon as possible.
For the first time in several decades, Damien hoped for someone to save him.
And that someone...
VOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
...was already here.
The Heavenly Order suddenly swelled violently.
The clouds didn't just return to their previous state, they doubled in size and power equally.
The gears in the sky started to turn again.
Lightning once again rained down on Damien, practically destroying his body down to a single drop of blood and throwing his consciousness back into the mental space.
He only felt it for a single instant, but he was certain.
'This is...it's finally working properly!'
The Heavenly Order was no longer a gas-powered engine, but a solar-powered machine that would constantly refuel itself and operate until it was no longer needed!
Damien's eyes would have widened into saucers if he could still access his body.
'Haha, solar-powered, huh...?'
It was quite a funny analogy.
There was indeed a sun shining on this Heavenly Order, a sun not quite shaped like a sun.
And this sun...
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Two figures appeared in the outside world, spreading their aura across the battlefield and instantly freezing all beings in the vicinity with their pressure.
One shining bright as a sun, and the other like her polar opposite, a dark moon, they made a combination that could only be described as terror-inducing.
"Protect me?"
"No problem."
They exchanged words like nobody else mattered, and ignoring anything else, one of them flew up into the sky.
She spread her arms out and summoned it forth.
A storm of Universal Law that barraged the Heavenly Order with energy.
After almost 4 years away, she was back.
Eyrrisea Luminus had finally returned to the stage!