The shockwave ripped through the cavern, shattering the last of the ancient runes and splitting the stone floor like glass.

But right at this time, another attack landed on Damon. A strange purple beam, one that had golden symbols etched on it, slashed at him from behind.

A smile appeared on Aiden's face, but the next second, the Damon in front of him became a mess of shadows, and another Damon appeared right behind him.

"You are a strange guy with a strange power, aren't you? What exactly is your real class?" Damon calmly asked.

Aiden froze mid-smile. The shadows around him twisted like living smoke, and before he could even turn, a cold hand pressed against the back of his neck.

"How…?" Aiden rasped, half-turning. The purple energy sputtered in his hand like a dying flame. Blood tendrils covered him from top to bottom, not letting him make even a single move.

But right at this time, something unexpected happened. A rip appeared in front of Damon. A rip in the very reality. Purple cracks started forming, and golden symbols spread out from the cracks.

Damon's eyes widened. Something told him that this was not a simple illusion. He could feel power that was beyond his comprehension.

Stepping into C rank had changed everything. It was as if a bottleneck had been lifted in his body, and he was now able to amass an insane number of stats. But this… whatever this was… was something else entirely.

It made him feel incomplete and ignorant. It was as if he were a mere mortal staring at the unreachable sun shining brightly in the sky. The mere sight of the phenomenon made him feel hollow and worthless.

Damon's entire body trembled. An oppressive power emanated from that rip in reality, putting pressure on him. His mind, body, and soul felt like it was going to explode. How could he stand up against something like this? He was simply not worthy.

In a single moment, everything he had worked toward felt insufficient and insignificant. He stood there like the same useless person he once was, with nothing and nobody, with every path in his future cut off.

The tear was now big enough, and a purple beam shot forward, straight toward Damon.

Damon wanted to move. Every instinct in his body screamed for him to move, but he could not. However, before the beam could reach him, cracks started forming all around him. Reality itself started twisting, and the illusion started coming undone.

The purple beam attack was so strong that the illusion space couldn't hold on to its integrity anymore. Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Just as the purple beam swirling with the golden symbols reached Damon, the world around him crumbled.

For a moment, there was only darkness everywhere. In that darkness, something stirred. A pair of eyes flashed open and stared at Damon, stared right into him, even though he was pretty sure he did not even have any form at the moment.

He was one with the darkness, and yet that pair of eyes stared straight at him.

And then a familiar expression appeared in the eyes. Not one of killing intent. Not one of anger or rage. Not one of disdain. It was one of polite indifference. The same expression Aiden wore every single time in this lifetime.

Damon was sure of it. He did not know how. He did not know why, but he was sure of it.

It was Aiden. That pair of eyes belonged to Aiden.

Was this his true power? Was he a God? He froze in shock as if he was facing something insurmountable. The mere gaze was enough to make him tremble from the inside out. He felt as if his entire being was going to crack from the weight of the gaze.

Waves of pain spread all over his being. It was as if he were not permitted to exist in the same space as this being. He was deemed unworthy, and now the world was trying to erase him.

Damon screamed as he felt both squeezed and expanded. The sound, the pain, even the air around him warped under the sheer pressure. There was pain and nothing else. If he dared to look at those pair of eyes again, he had a feeling that he would simply cease to exist.

There was nothing he could do against a being like that. He was a mere spec in front of someone like that. The difference between them was as vast as an endless chasm.

However… despite everything, despite the monumental difference between the two of them, a stubbornness bloomed in Damon's heart.

He might be nothing and no one. His incomplete bloodline might even be insignificant in front of a being like him. But he was still not willing to simply fade away like this.

Not from a mere gaze. Not without giving a good fight and definitely not without taking him down along for the ride.

The stubbornness quickly bloomed into something else entirely.

Damon could feel the gaze peeling away his defenses, memory by memory, power by power, until he wasn't a warrior, a vampire, or even a soul. He was just… naked existence, trembling before something older and wiser. But it did not matter.

He was here, and he will somehow survive.

Purple and gold threads flickered in the eyes' reflection, expanding like veins of light across a night sky. Damon didn't have lungs anymore, but he felt like he was suffocating.

He clenched what should have been his fists. No. He refused to disappear here. He refused to be forgotten in some god's indifferent gaze. That single pulse of defiance expanded outward, rippling through the dark. The moment it did, something inside him solidified.

"Even if I'm nothing…" his voice echoed softly, calm yet defiant, "…I'll still tear the sky if it tries to crush me."

As his words rang out loudly, a look of surprise appeared in the corner of the eyes before the eyes, and the darkness disappeared altogether.

***

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