Chapter 326: Refining [2]

Strangely enough, the resistance he expected from the flower never came. When his hand wrapped around it, it turned into a gentle stream of energy that flowed into his avatar.

Damien closed his eyes and began meditating. Greenish white streams of essence continuously nourished his avatar, causing it to slowly become more and more corporeal.

Damien felt strange. It was like he was cultivating in his physical body, but he didn't have a mana circuit or any of the normal pathways he'd normally use for circulation.

He was relying solely on instinct to guide the energy where it needed to go. And in reality, that place wasn't his avatar at all.

A spiritual avatar was just that. Although it might've technically been an embodiment of Damien's spiritual world, it wasn't his mind itself. It was only a vessel for him to traverse his mind space more easily.

But the main benefit of an avatar was its connection to the main body. And that was also the reason why Damien was circulating the energy of the flower through his avatar before sending it into his mindspace.

Damien couldn't feel the connection to his main body at all, but he knew it was present. Using this, he went through the normal processes he used to call upon his Void Essence, hoping that his conjecture was true.

And in fact, he soon found that it was. A wisp of pitch black essence soon broke through the void and circled around his avatar. The essence then shot into his spiritual body and enveloped the greenish-white essence that was filling it up.

A refreshing feeling followed soon after. Regardless of how mysterious the greenish-white light was, how could it compare to Void Essence?

For the energy of the flower to safely reside in his body, it had to be at a level that a 3rd class like him could bear. When that Demigod lent him its energy, he had to consider this fact.

After all, the True Essence of a Demigod would cause the body of a mortal to explode in an instant. What that Demigod had given to Damien was an extremely diluted portion of this essence. But due to its origins, even this diluted portion was enough to help him recover.

Perhaps, if it was that Demigod's undiluted essence, Damien's current comprehension of Void Essence wouldn't have been enough to control or refine it. But since it wasn't, he was able to do exactly that.

The Void Essence encompassed the gentle energy of the flower and began doing its work. Under its coercion, the already refined energy became even purer.

After going through the Void Essence's refinement, the energy flowed out of Damien's spiritual avatar and began to nourish his mindspace. Slowly but surely, the once empty void was filled with color once more.

***

Currently, Damien wasn't able to completely focus on the refinement process. Instead, he was being forced to witness a set of strange images.

There was once a world among the endless cosmos where nature triumphed all. The lush greenery seemed to cover the entirety of the world, filling it with life force unlike any other.

The inhabitants of this world were peaceful races. Being influenced by the nature of the world itself, they put down trivial things like racial barriers and infighting and lived a utopian lifestyle.

Trade flourished, empires and kingdoms bloomed, and technological advancement was in full force. It seemed like every era these races went through was a golden era.

Damien looked at these flashing images in awe. Was it possible for such a place to exist? Especially in the environment that was created under the system's influence.

The past few years had been filled with blood and adventure. Seeing such a world made Damien feel as if it was simply impossible.

But he couldn't deny its existence.

The scene changed. The world Damien had just seen was nowhere in sight. Instead, it was replaced by ruins.

The world he currently saw was barren, to say the least. The lands were dyed in blood and darkness. Life force was corroded whenever it tried to appear, making it impossible for any greenery to grow.

Even living beings were affected. This world had a death rate that surpassed the rate at which the living beings within gave birth, causing the population to continuously decline.

The cities were ravaged. Due to the fact that the atmosphere was slowly becoming uninhabitable, food shortage became a major problem. Children born into this world were more often than not malnourished, dying before they could reach adulthood.

The scent of death lingered in the air. Damien wasn't even physically present in the world, but even he could feel the withering atmosphere that encompassed it.

Compared to the previous world, this one was a hellscape. Damien couldn't help but wonder what the relationship between those two worlds was, since they were shown to him in quick succession.

But before he could question it further, the scene changed once more.

Damien didn't know which world he was watching anymore. The current world looked like both of the previous ones, but at the same time resembled neither. The main difference was, it was embroiled in war.

The denizens of the world had joined together and taken up arms against an invading race that Damien was all too familiar with.

Their appearances varied, with some looking like grotesque monsters and raging beasts while others were far more humanoid. But they all shared the same inky black mana and sinister countenance.

What Damien was looking at seemed to be the final stages of the war. The allied forces of the indigenous races were close to being totally wiped out. But none of them had lost the flames of hope in their eyes. Regardless of the situation, they continued to fight.

When the scene changed next, Damien found himself inside a dilapidated city. The inhabitants of the city were having hushed conversations as they directed their attention towards a raised platform in the middle.

There, a man was giving a speech with a solemn look. Unfortunately, Damien couldn't hear what he was saying. But by reading his lips, he was able to get a minor grasp of the main topic.

Fleeing.

Abandoning the world and fleeing, finding a new world to inhabit and grow stronger. Enduring until they were one day strong enough to get revenge.

Damien unintentionally realized that this was a familiar situation to him. The Demon King Lucius had told him a similar story not long ago.

But instead of fleeing to a secret realm like the demons, these people risked feeling into space. Damien wasn't sure which one was actually the safer option.

From the looks on the inhabitants' faces, Damien could easily tell they were unwilling. But somehow, the man on the platform eventually managed to convince them.

The inhabitants of the city boarded a starship along with many others from other cities. While those on the frontlines died in battle to protect their homeland, they left like cowards.

The next thing Damien saw was the ruins of a starship strewn across the starry sky. There were no signs of life in the vicinity, but traces of battle were present everywhere.

When Damien looked off into the distance, he spotted a familiar scene. It looked like the starship had almost arrived at another world before it faced destruction. Damien had seen this world from the starry sky once before, but it looked a little different in the visions now.

It was the Cloud Plane.

And soon after Damien came to this realization, the visions faded, leaving him back within his own mind space once again.