Chapter 644 Hiding Within

Der and Roley had no desire to stay in this universe, especially not after almost eradicating one of its core powers, so their departure was a quick one. With the planet and armies safely stored within Roley's body, and the red crystal clasped within a fist of metal, the two headed for their destination, the interdimensional portal.

The voyage took several days, a time in which not a single word was spoken. After all this time, Der had gotten used to the feeling of longing, which he had used as fuel to keep going. In fact, it was only with the prospect of creating a safe universe for his daughter and possible descendants to live, that he had been able to bear the weight of command.

Roley, however, was different. In his once curious eyes Der could now see an everlasting sense of unease, deepened by emotions that seemed to grow heavier by the day. That, more than the daily changes he had noticed, had become evident when Roley had managed to merge with the essences of primordial light and darkness, for which he seemed to have traded his natural scholarly attitude in exchange for that of a willful sovereign.

To Der, at first, these changes had seemed normal-After all, the closer they got to rejoining with their friends, the more agitated he himself felt. However, the more he observed Roley's behavior, the more this thought left the back of his mind, and became a recurrent worry. Would finding a treasure of primordial time essence be a good thing for them? Would merging with it bring more of these changes to his old friend? And if it did, what type of entity would he become?

Amidst all these questions, Der was sure of one thing. He had no intention of letting Roley sacrifice his humanity.. Not after seeing what the gain of monstrous power had done to Daniel.

The silent voyage of the two came to an end when, after several days, the two came upon the interdimensional portal. There, Daniel had been waiting for them, chatting cordially with several entities whom both Der and Roley felt an intrinsic fear by simply staring at. It had taken a single glance at these individuals for their hearts to become heavy with the realization that those with whom Daniel was talking to were, in fact, aspects of existence.

Having obtained a gift of Destiny, Roley had grown wary of such creatures. He knew his sheer newly gained powers were the bane of their existence, and yet, despite them noticing his presence, they showed no particular hostility towards him. Instead, his appearance had caused the few of them to cut their conversation short, and bid Daniel farewell before leaving the universe.

"Took you long enough." Daniel said while casually approaching his two dumbfounded companions. "Did you get what you were looking for?" he then asked before coming to a stop, a few steps away from them.

Daniel's snarky comment seemed to pluck a chord in Roley's mind. The anxiousness of seeing a handful of aspects of existence was immediately turned into anger, as he barked out, "We did, not thanks to you. Wh-*CLANK*" The rant was quickly brought to an end by a faint nudge which, due to the clash of Der's gauntlet, and Roley's metal-infused arm, resounded far more loudly than the former had intended.

"You did fine on your own, and even if I did help, there was little I could have done." Daniel claimed with a matter-of-fact tone, ignoring the ridiculous behavior of the two.

His words, however, left Roley confused. "We fought an army dedicated to war and murder, and I am supposed to believe you would have had nothing to gain from their demise?" He asked with indignation. Daniel's words rang untrue to him, and an insult to his intelligence.

A clever smile appeared on Daniel's face, while his golden eyes scoured the surroundings with disinterest. "The people you have fought possessed a surprisingly low pool of karma.. Especially their leader. Today I have learned that bearing the role of the necessary villain is, somewhat, heroic."

The indignation which had marked Roley's facial features had turned into complete shock. "Heroic?!" He growled in response. "A person who has murdered uncountable people, and demanded for my army to be given out to be used as resources is.. Heroic, to you?" The question came from the depths of Roley's stomach. He did not understand the power Daniel controlled, nor was he ready to detach himself from the moral weight of a controversial topic, so that it could be argued with Daniel's pragmatic point of view..

However, the sheer idea that Daniel could have found the leader of the Golden Peak Mountain sect as someone deserving of anything but the most painful of deaths, made him sick to his stomach, causing in him an emotional outburst that even Der was surprised by.

Daniel, on the other hand, was not bothered by it in the least. As a matter of fact, Roley's attitude amused him, making him feel like a father, listening to the nonsensical babblings of his toddler son. "Do not worry yourself with the morality of karma, it has nothing to do with you."

"Now, since you have what you came looking for, let us be off. I have an inkling that you'll need my help soon enough." The smile disappeared from Daniel's face, replaced by the usual expression of indifference. His eyes had suddenly lost interest in the shared universe, and moved back onto the immense surface of the interdimensional portal, towards which he floated in complete silence, leaving behind an angered Roley, and a dismayed Der.

The latter, aware of lacking the skills to calm down the champion of Destiny, followed suit, and crossed the portal in silence.

Once back in the Trigate, Der and Roley found themselves staring at Daniel's back, behind which an army of ridiculous proportion marched past the portal they had just crossed left, and towards another. The portal which this army, an incomprehensibly large ensemble of uncountable different armies, was heading towards, was almost completely abandoned, and only protected by a single monstrous cultivator.

With his several sets of long and pointy teeth, this lone cultivator chomped at his own nails anxiously. Their arrival was clearly something he was not happy about, and yet, the sight of the neat and frightening military attires the soldiers wore seemed to have given him an idea, as he immediately attempted to brush the dirt off of the iron armor that was fused into his rubbery skin.. Unfortunately, any and all attempts at grooming his armor were pointless, as the more he brushed it, the more oily and dirty it became.

Daniel and the others immediately recognized this lone monstrous cultivator as a member of Horror's domain, or at least, what was left of it.. While the army clearly belonged to the domain of War.

The army was enormous to say the least. So much so that their passing had shrouded the white space of the Trigate in darkness. Like a swarm of locusts they headed past the three before diving into the universe of Horror's former domain. The one monstrous cultivator, hoping to look military enough to be spared, disappeared in the darkness they brought, eliminated instantly.

"I thought the domain of War was subject to the domain of Horror.." Der pointed out.

Daniel chuckled in response. "The domain of Horror doesn't exist without the aspect of Horror. When their patron died, Horror's powerless champions were left with a lot of land, and very little rights to it. It is not a surprise that a lesser power would cannibalize it. If anything, I am surprised it took decades for it to happen."

What Daniel had said made sense. So much so, that Der felt stupid for not realizing this on his own. After all, that was a very common practice for mortals as well.. How many dead Emperors did not have hundreds of leeches biting chunks of their riches the moment of their death? He had seen this way too many times.

"How about you.. Don't you have champions of your own to protect?" Roley asked with a hint of hostility.

Daniel had already thought about this. His aspect of existence could be followed, and yet, he had never felt the need to create a domain of his own, or gain followers. "I don't believe my nature permits the existence of champions." He said with a matter-of-fact tone. "And those whose safety I had to at least ensure once.. Well, I am here, am I not?"

To Roley's ears this answer sounded sarcastic, and arrogant, but not to Der, whose head tilted to the side and eyes narrowed in curiosity. This was the first time the warrior had questioned the true motive behind Daniel's aid.. He had always thought that deep down, underneath the layers of aloofness and grandeur, something must have remained of his old friend. Yet, his words implied that helping them was not something he wanted to do, but that he was compelled to.

"Alright, enough questions. The sooner we finish this, the better." Daniel added before heading towards the portal to the oldest of the universes within Sacrifice's domain. Der and Roley followed right after.

-----

Only hours after their departure, Der and Roley found themselves back at the entrance of Sacrifice's oldest universe.

Inside, they had convinced themselves they would find the strongest army the aspect of Sacrifice could summon, and yet, as they stepped foot into it, they found nothing of the sort. The outskirts of the portal was empty, with spare materials and wrackages of ships the Armada's mechanics had abandoned during their stay.

No one was there to wait for them, nor it appeared that someone had passed by.. Yet, Roley felt a sense of unease. With a hint of worry he turned to look at Daniel, only to discover that he had disappeared once more.

"What is it?" Der asked.

Roley scouted his surroundings, leering into the workings of the very elements of which the void was made of. He looked through its infinite darkness, the light of stars, and even its invisible spatial form.. Failing to find anything out of place. "Nothing.." he muttered to himself before pulling the red crystal out of his pocket, which had been tugging at the fabric of his pants since the moment they had stepped foot into the universe.

The red crystal was a blood compass. A simple artifact that used the magnetism between the immortal essence and the cultivator's body to point a direction, and the drop of blood as a container for the former to survive in its owner's absence. The way the crystal was heading towards, was where they would have found Thoren.

Unsure of how far away the archives of Sacrifice's domain would be, Roley pinched the middle of his chest, from which a grain of sand emerged. The grain floated away, far from Roley's reach, until finally, it popped like a corn kernel to the size of an enormous and majestic garden planet. "I'll travel faster on my own.. Have your people reinstall the formation. I'll come back to get you once I spot the archives." he said before, with the crystal in one hand, and the treasure of primordial spatial essence in the other, Roley disappeared into the depths of space.

The moment he disappeared, Der gave the order, causing thousands of cultivators and spatial elementals to leave the planet, and get to work. Among the former, a woman in a loose white robes observed the busy cultivators with a pair of bright golden eyes. In her hand, a palm-sized temple.

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