Chapter 1474: Calamity [1]

The fact that the mist brought Damien to this place meant that it had already accepted him.

When Damien looked at it in what could only be considered its eyes, it lost all resistance it had.

A strange scene played out for an audience of none.

As Damien sat there, the mist slowly crept towards him. It was shy and tentative, almost doubting every single movement it made, but it still inched closer and closer until it was right in front of Damien's face.

There was no difference between this mist and the mist that populated the entirety of Gehenna. However, it still felt different.

The wisps around Damien were active, as if they were trying to communicate with him.

And as Damien had been communicating with the mist for a while now, he basically understood its purpose.

This confused entity was used to being alive. It had obtained spirituality long enough ago for it to understand the mysteries beyond the universe's creation.

However, it had been detached from reality that entire time.

It never was able to properly interact with existence even though it was an existence of its own, and because of that, it developed a natural curiosity that seemed childish in the eyes of someone who didn't know how fortunate they were.

The mist was always trying to be heard.

It wanted to be seen.

But who could treat mist like a living being? Who could even recognize the mist's spirituality instead of writing it off as a mechanism of Gehenna?

Only Damien did.

And only Damien decided to converse instead of going through the motions and finishing all the trials.

That was why the mist brought him here.

The fact that he possessed those other qualities was only an added benefit.

Regardless, now that he was here, it knew what it wanted to do and was doing its best to convey its intent to him.

Damien watched it curiously.

He knew what it was saying. Interpreting its meaning became easy after conversing with it for so long.

It took him a bit to respond because he was curiously observing this strange entity like none he'd ever seen before.

But in the end, he still closed his eyes.

"Come."

He answered the mist's desires.

With express permission given, the mist danced happily.

Several wisps surrounded Damien's head, and the mist pushed forward into his spiritual world.

'You...'

Damien didn't have to speak anymore to convey his thoughts.

Neither did the mist have to try so hard to be understood.

It entered his mind and formed a connection with him.

To the mist, this was a happy moment beyond any happy moments, as it could finally experience existence as it was always meant to be experienced.

However, for Damien...

'...what...just happened...?'

He could only recognize the mist's identity once it started to merge with him.

'This mist...no, the concept of mist...'

...this was part of Existence itself.

Existence was a massive concept. It represented anything and everything, and due to its sheer grandiosity, it was hard to qualify it.

However, just as the universe could have consciousness, just as higher laws could choose their own wielders, Existence was also semi-conscious.

The concept of mist was a physical representation of the spirituality of Existence.

The mist that found itself trapped in Gehenna was only the main consciousness, but it experienced everything in Existence from the perspective of Existence itself, leading to its twisted sense of identity.

Gehenna was the place where the mist resided, overlooking all of Existence.

Gehenna existed because of the mist.

But to the mist, Gehenna was a prison of its own making.

It wanted to see existence from the perspective of those who resided within it, because from its position high above all things, it genuinely could only long for such experience.

Just as humans were envious of the universe. Just as humans stared into the night sky and dreamed about the day when they could explore the stars with their own two feet, Existence itself wished to walk on the earth and experience the mundane things that it never had access to.

It was hard for Damien to fathom that he'd just found a concept of Existence.

He didn't feel like he'd just found a concept of Existence.

It was because, among the concepts, the mist was unique.

It wasn't something to be comprehended in the first place.

'It wasn't even meant to be found.'

The mist found Damien. No matter what, it would've found Damien eventually because it existed in all things. If it wasn't in Gehenna, then there would likely be another place similar to this one where Damien would eventually run into the same scenario.

But it happened now.

'And that's probably because of my circumstances.'

Damien and the mist began to communicate once it entered his mind.

The mist wanted to bind itself to him. He didn't have to provoke it.

That allowed Damien the chance to answer the questions the mist presented him.

Why had it found him at this juncture?

It was because he found another truth of existence, the fact that there were multiple cosmos in reality.

As for what the mist did...

'You damn brat, just give me an answer.'

Damien clicked his tongue as he tried to find out, but the mist refused to tell him.

While the entity couldn't necessarily speak like a normal person, it could still make its intent clear.

At the moment, it was saying something along the lines of, "Take me to see the world, and you'll find out naturally."

Damien could only scratch his head in confusion.

'Why does it feel more like I've picked up a pet than a concept of existence?'

This was the third one he found. If the Unrecorded wasn't mistaken, then he only had three more left before he could truly control the concept.

However, Damien felt like it would be much more complicated than that.

The list began to clear from Gehenna.

It, of course, would still exist here, just as it existed everywhere else, but its main consciousness had now been transferred to Damien's soul.

It had merged with him.

And according to it, there was more to Gehenna than Damien or the Gehenna Tribe knew.

There was indeed a Crown here, but that crown's identity was far beyond what had been postulated by even Count Verex, whose obsession with it was the precise reason for his attacking the tribe.

"You want me to go find it?"

Damien raised his brow with intrigue.

He was getting a positive response from the mist.

"I'll get more powerful with the crown? Is that something you want?"

The mist shook its head as if it couldn't say any more.

"Is that an 'you should find out yourself' look or a 'I can't say anything more' look?"

The mist quirked its head in confusion.

Damien sighed.

"I forgot. You don't even have a head. I'm going to go crazy."

There he stood, talking to himself like a crazy person.

Damien absolutely felt insane with the way he could hardly interpret the mist's meaning through its implied expressions.

Still, the fact that the mist wanted him to find the crown remained true.

And Damien really did want to see it.

The reason a True God would lay his hands on an innocent village in the middle of nowhere...

...how great could it be to provoke his greed?