Damien narrowed his sable-tinted gaze, displeased by the deranged remark of the demented pope. "That would imply I was loyal to them, to begin with. But I am not."

"I awakened as myself, unshackled by whatever hierarchy these abominations have made themselves."

"My title as a traitor doesn't bother me. However, the implication that I stood alongside them is troublesome," he asserted with indifference.

"It doesn't matter what you consider yourself to be. You will always be an Aberrant. Sooner or later, your false name will burn asunder. Am I wrong, Oberon?"

Hearing the words of the deranged pope, Damien held his unravelling emotions. The two of them have never met before. How?

That name was the one he had chosen after his awakening. It was the title granted to him, the name his monsters bestow their loyalty upon.

Unless... It had become his legitimate name as an Aberrant. A title concealed to most and recognized by some. The New World has always been brimming with mystery.

Especially the Monster Gacha System, whose origins remain unknown.

Damien's lips curved into a subtle smile as he walked forward into the hall of worship. The cultist looked at him with reverence.

It felt pleasing but dreadful.

After all, these people had become corrupted in their entirety. Black veils pulsed within their pale skin, their eyes bloodshot as crimson tears dripped across their cheeks.

The cost of sacrificing yourself to an Aberrant. Their aether was corrosive and corruptive to sapient species. Letting yourself be embraced by it was suicide.

Standing in the center of the hall of worship, Damien glanced at the deranged pope in the distance. The madman was different from the cultists.

He wasn't corrupted by the aetheric signature of the beating heart.

A perfect amalgamation of will, body, and mind.

It appears that the fallen Paragon was already gone.

"Who are you? Are you Colossus or just some random bastard who managed to sneak into a Paragon's body?" he questioned.

His eyebrows rose while he glared at the deranged pope. The situation was far more complex than he expected. There was a puppeteer behind the pope's actions.

The madman laughed and shook his head. "I am but a loyal preacher of the cause. I will lead these people to salvation where they will be one with our idol, the Abominable."

"I see... The Colossus and the Abominable are two separate entities." He furrowed his eyes and immediately summoned Eclipse. It was time.

"Your show ends here." The ground rumbled as the ceiling of the hall shook. The pillars cracked while dust and rumble descended to the worshipping crowd.

Damien looked at them and sighed. Once corrupted by the aether of an Aberrant, there was no going back. They became the damned.

If he didn't eliminate them, the will of the Abominable could remain. It wasn't a risk he wanted to take, so there was only one path forward.

"Don't worry... I'll make it as swift as possible." The hall of worship collapsed as the cries and screams of cultists echoed with the crumbling sect of the Abominable.

In the distance, Hecate and the captain of the Jaeger platoon fought with ferocity. Each of them was bloodied with injuries running across their bodies.

The earthquake halted their battle for a moment as they saw a distant ravine collapse into itself. The captain widened his eyes, understanding what it meant.

The sect of the Abominable was gone.

He glanced at the corpses of his subordinates and gritted his teeth. Anger welled deep within his heart, consuming whatever conscience was left behind his mind.

A gargantuan black hand erupted from the wreckage of the ravine, lifting the entirety of the crumbled hall of worship into its shaded palms.

Splattered corpses lay beneath the rubble of the hall, blood dripping into the black surface and creating a crimson pool.

Damien stood in the center of Eclipse's palm, staring at the deranged pope who remained unaffected by the collapsed hall. No injuries or blood touched their skin as they faced one another.

Behind the madman was the mangled heart of the deceased Aberrant, Colossus. It didn't beat anymore, lifeless as the corpses before it.

"What have you done, Traitorous Aberrant! You have stopped the heart of your relative. What kind of abomination are you!?" the deranged pope roared.

"I am the most human of my relatives."

"And I will kill you for humanity." Damien pointed at the madman and activated the chains of judgment.

Runic chains gushed out from the black palms of Eclipse and shackled the deranged pope. His robes fell apart as his actual form began to blur into existence.

There was no beautiful and uncorrupted body. It was but an illusion of the pope's robe, a phantasm that didn't exist.

His burnt skin met the warm glow of the radiant sun, but it felt like prickling needles for the madman. He cried out as his eyes radiated anger and bloodlust.

"You will pay for what you have done!"

The fallen Paragon transformed into a humanoid abomination, three meters tall. His body bulged with blackened veins and twitching muscles.

It was a corrupted evolution of humanity.

Akin to the vampiric transformation from the dhampir to the noble heirarch.

The runic chains of judgment shattered as the monstrous pope blinked into existence beside Damien. It swung its arms at the black-suited young man.

But its attack passed through with ease as though hitting air.

"You're not even a human anymore. More like an aetheric beast." Damien shook his head, disappointed as the monstrous pope attacked him again.

"It's useless. No matter what you do. You won't be able to strike me," Damien nonchalantly remarked.

The monstrous pope chuckled, its bulging black veins filled with aether. "Your power has limits. Sooner or later, my fist will touch you. And you shall become my first sacrifice."

Damien furrowed his eyebrows, realizing what the humanoid abomination meant. "Where did this information come from?"

"My idol sees everything. The Abominable has wisdom and knowledge capable of bringing insanity to the ignorant." The monstrous pope kept laughing as it swung at Damien.

Observation... He never thought that someone or something would be watching his every move. To be unnoticed while doing so.

Even a Paragon was incapable of enacting such a feat, except for the strongest of humanity, Alastair Glass.

"Why aren't you fighting back?! Afraid?" The monstrous pope grinned as he continued attacking the untouchable body of Damien.

Deep cracks formed on the ground as the black-suited young man scrutinized the humanoid abomination in front of him.

There was a reason why he wasn't fighting back. It was the lack of information that prevented him. No matter how monstrous the deranged pope became.

He was a fallen Paragon with a powerful Brand capable of reinforcing his standing within humanity.

Damien wanted to see what this Brand was, and it worked. He could feel a sense of oppression overtaking his body. It wasn't like an aura.

It felt like gravity was becoming stronger by the moment.

"Gravity manipulation..." he mumbled to himself.

Carapace of Legends. As the monstrous pope attacked the black-suited man, a glowing shield materialized and blocked his arm.

The humanoid abomination grinned and carried on with his assault, uncaring about the growing injuries that his arms sustained.

After all, it recovered in seconds.

The gleaming shield flickered with each attack. Its integrity was waning, but it bought Damien enough time to construct a counter-strategy against the humanoid abomination.

When the Carapace of Legends shattered, Damien activated his Heavenly Charge and thrust forward. An electrifying aura emanated from him while he honed his fingers.

The monstrous pope smirked and clenched its fist, undeterred by Damien's attack. Alongside the Heavenly Charge, Majesty flared up from his body to protect him from the aftermath.

His fingers penetrated through the chest of the humanoid abomination as he utilized his three-star ability, Venoms of Eightfold Death.

It was injected directly into the heart of the monstrous pope.

But it wasn't without its cost.

Damien felt his chest harden as the abomination threw a heavy uppercut that his Majesty could barely shield himself against. In an instant, he was thrown into the skies, mouth coughing up blood.

Painful. It was hard to breathe, and he felt as though his heart was about to explode. For the first time, the black-suited young man was in extreme pain.

His Silhouette or Intangible Fracture couldn't protect him anymore.

The former would be too obvious for the Paragon; the latter needed to be deactivated for his venomous attack to land.

The monstrous pope watched as Damien descended from the skies and crashed onto the ground with a deafening thud. It grinned in manic satisfaction, but felt something was wrong.

It looked down and saw that its punctured chest was unable to heal.

From its blood vessels to its muscles and bones. Everything was breaking apart into pure amalgamated flesh.

The monstrous pope roared as its chest bloated and exploded into crimson mist. When the dust settled, the injured Damien saw the splattered blood where it formerly stood.

He sighed, somewhat relieved.

The fallen Paragon was defeated.

Or so he thought.

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