Chapter 810: Chapter 811: Time Lazarak winced slightly at the sight; his face remained frozen in a grimace, shoulders tightening as if bracing against a chill. What Damon had done looked unnerving even to a god who had lived for a very long time. Perhaps it was equivalent to someone looking at their perfectly good eyeball, casually deciding they didn’t like it, then reaching out their fingers and pulling it out and discarding it on the ground. The implications were not lost on him, but at the same time Damon felt something different: his physical body pulsed with explosive power, every muscle coiled with an overwhelming sense of energy. His magic circuits felt clear, mana passively flowing with a refined current. This was the boon of his partial demonization. But Damon felt like he lost something too, though he didn’t know what... His fingers flexed once, testing the emptiness inside himself. Was that why he had discarded his guilt...? No. Damon shook his head, brushing it off. He was just fine carrying so much baggage in his heart. Lazarak sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Why... did you do that to yourself? Why would you mutilate your own body...?" Damon raised an eyebrow, a small twitch of irritation crossing his face. Why, that was a ridiculous question. "My sister hates demons. Do I need any other reason...?" That was true. Damon was well aware how much Luna hated demons. She’d hated them for years. He could tell her their parents didn’t get killed by demons, but honestly it would make little difference. She was a child raised in Valtheron; everyone hated demons there. It was as natural as breathing. Though oddities like Damon existed who, well... Damon hated everyone. Though after meeting Lilith, his mild distaste for demons shifted into a cold indifference. Still, becoming a demon was the last thing he wanted. Lazarak frowned, his fist slowly curling as if restraining something. "Is that a good enough reason...?" Damon shook his head slowly, his gaze drifting away and back. "It’s not for you... but I come from a world and time where being a demon is considered the greatest of atrocities among the goddess races." Lazarak frowned again, but he wasn’t wearing the confused expression Damon expected. "From the looks of things you already know what demons are..." Damon glared at Lazarak coolly, his eyes narrowing just a fraction. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 Lazarak crossed his arms, shifting his weight. "I’m a god. I’ve heard some things." Damon’s expression remained unchanged, a stone mask. "Then you also know that when we talk about returning to Aetherus, I’m not referring to the same one as you." Lazarak didn’t flinch. "I figured as much..." He walked toward the cocoon in the dark chamber, trailing his fingers lightly along the wall before glancing at Damon. "Your magic is too advanced and refined for a single-attribute mana. That’s not something a few thousand years can fix." He smiled at Damon calmly. "I knew from the very beginning. There was never a doubt in my mind that you didn’t belong to this era." Damon slowly moved to the end of the altar where he had been standing. He sat down with a muted thud, giving Lazarak a cool expression, a lukewarm reaction to everything. "If you couldn’t figure all that out after so many clues, then you would have lived your thousands of years in vain..." Lazarak glanced at Damon with a small smile, tapping a finger lightly on his arm. "So now what... everything is out in the open, friend..." Damon glanced back, then smiled faintly. "Nothing. I just think you’re a manipulative, maniacal madman who convinces himself he’s actually a good guy just because he has a no-murder policy... but the truth is you’re selfish, just like me, and that’s why I knew we would work together." Lazarak chuckled lightly, covering his mouth with two fingers as if holding back something harsher. "You are a very paranoid person, my friend..." Damon chuckled as well, his shoulders relaxing slightly. "I’d be crazy to believe a minor god created by the goddess of doom would be simple... that said, we still have goals to accomplish..." Lazarak smiled, shaking his head. "I already threw my lot in with the devil, didn’t I...?" Damon closed one eye, half-grinning. "Right back at ya..." Lazarak sighed, reaching out to touch the cocoon in front of him, his hand hovering first as if gauging its temperature. "Since we are leaving, we might as well take our little friend here with us." Damon looked at the odd cocoon in the corner, leaning slightly to get a better angle. "We really don’t know what that thing is capable of..." Lazarak smiled at Damon. "Relax. I’m a god, I got this. Trust me, nothing’s gonna happen." He reached out and began trying to remove the cocoon from the corner of the chamber, muscles tensing subtly beneath his dark robe. Damon frowned slightly at Lazarak’s confidence. "If you already know... don’t you want to ask me what happens in the future? I am the key to tomorrow’s events." Lazarak paused mid-motion. Damon watched him closely; any other man would at least be tempted. "I’d tell you—" "No." Lazarak raised a hand, stopping him. "It doesn’t matter what tomorrow holds. I have today to accomplish my goals." Damon blinked once, confused. Was Lazarak worried about creating a paradox... or— "I’m not worried about that... because we wouldn’t be creating one anyway." He turned to Damon with a calm expression. "You don’t know this because you’re just mortal, but... time is linear, flowing in a single line. The past, present, and future are all occurring at the same time. An event from the future shapes the past as much as the past shapes the future." He smiled at Damon, placing a hand briefly on the cocoon as if to anchor his point. "Everywhere is fertile, so it matters not where we plant the seed. We but need to nurture it." Damon was quiet for a moment, taken by Lazarak’s words. His fingers tapped once against his knee. "Then doesn’t that mean everything we do is pointless, and we can never change our fates because our actions have already created the outcome...?" he answered back. He muttered under his breath, thinking. ’If that was the case, then the Unknown God was right when he said time was the greatest destroyer.’ Damon felt as if he finally realized how the formless chains of time hold everyone, though unseen, undefeated because no one recognizes them. He finally understood what Waton of Valtheron meant in the final moments of his life when he said. "Stop time." He was trying to defy time.