Chapter 923: Chapter 924: Breaking The Equilibrium. Damon didn’t know what Iris and Luna were doing. He did not know a ghost of his past was waking. Truth was a steel horse, and no matter how long you tried to keep a shield of lies raised, the truth would gallop forward with its steel hooves and break those lies apart. Except today wasn’t that day, and the secrets he had buried would remain buried. For now. No one would know. Because all those who would tell were dead. Damon’s hand decayed. His left eye was gone. He only had one hand. The other he covered in shadows where a bloody stump should have been. The night was dark and full of horrors. This one was a bringer of light. Where there was light, it could be seen. And all who saw it were taken by it. Damon did the only reasonable thing. He wrapped the glowing tree line in darkness and shadows. Darkness was similar to shadow, so he used its power. He invoked Darkness Dominate along with his shadow control to smother the tree line and the vague form of the horror within it. And when he did— They launched their attacks. The forest was pitch black, but no one dared to illuminate it. No one wanted to see what was hiding in that darkness. The entity in the canopy responded. It reacted instantly. It raised whatever appendages it had and ripped open the darkness and shadows. The shadows resisted. They struggled. They held. But wherever the light touched— There was death. "Don’t look into the canopy when its bright.." Kael screamed as his hands created a mass of darkness to swallow the incoming radiance. Seras waved her hand, slicing through the air with her tachi, cutting apart invisible threats as sparks scattered from her blade. Damon was sent flying. A thin hand that looked like that of an emaciated old woman reached toward him through the torn veil of shadows. He twisted midair, barely missing its grasp. Even then, his arm was turned into blood mist. The fog of his own blood rushed into his nose and mouth, making him choke as metallic vapor replaced the air in his lungs. The trees rustled and shook violently. This was the hardest part for him. Because Damon could see in the darkness. He could see through the shadows. The vague form of something cloaked in fractured light and shadow hopped from one tree to another, moving unnaturally fast, trying to reach him. Seras stood between it and him. Damon’s knights locked shields together and formed a defensive perimeter around him while the mages cast spells blindly, blasting the tree line in violent arcs of mana. The creature in the canopy acted again. The shadows were ripped apart like fabric under claws. Light shone down. Radiant. Holy. A knight screamed to his mage comrade. "Hition move away... look away.." It was too late. Hition turned around. His eyes slowly turned white. Then he mouthed— "Sorry.." His skin was stripped bare from his flesh and thrown toward his comrade, slapping wetly against his chest. His muscles were peeled from bone. What remained standing was a thin, meaty skeleton with organs still fresh and beating, as if the body had not yet realized it was dead. Damon gritted his teeth as memories flooded back. He ignored the agony of his missing eye. As the raid battle continued deeper into the night, he staggered to the side as a body was thrown toward him. Damon reached out and caught the man instinctively. The vile stench of blood filled the air. The man’s eyes were frozen in horror as the light faded from them. Damon looked down. His organs were slipping from his corpse. Or half of what should have been his corpse. Blood soaked Damon’s boots, reaching all the way to his knees. It was horrible. This was horrible. These were people’s lives. The shadows above him were torn open again as his mana and shadow energy were forcibly absorbed by the entity. Damon could feel the two energies in his heart straining. They pushed against the wall of shadow energy separating them. They had grown stronger. If they touched— He would explode and die in a massive detonation of demonic and divine energy. He gritted his teeth as he rolled beside the injured and mangled body of a knight who had fallen protecting him. His shield was shattered beside him. He was whispering something. When Damon lowered himself, his ears caught the broken words. He was repeatedly whispering— Run my lord we will hold the line. Damon paused. His jaw clenched. He was the one who insisted they fight this thing instead of enduring. He was arrogant. This was the Evil Forest. There were many monsters like it. If they fought every one they encountered— They would all die before reaching the sea. Their mission was not to conquer. It was to endure. To survive. To reach the Demon Continent without alerting the Demon Kings. "I... I.." Damon placed his remaining hand on his chest. "..I will stop this..." They had already begun the battle. Running was no longer an option. There was only one path forward. Damon had to make a sacrifice. In this moment, he could not help but remember the system description for the skill Sacrifice, which allowed him to permanently trade his stats for shadow energy. "The Children of Aetherus gave all they possessed and even what they could not to enigmatic Visitors from beyond their world. They sought knowledge, power, and truths hidden from their mortal grasp. Yet, no matter how much they surrendered, it was never enough. Their once-thriving world was left barren and broken, their sacrifices devoured, leaving them with nothing but despair and unfulfilled longing. This cursed legacy lingers still, feeding on the ambitions of those desperate enough to give everything for a fleeting taste of the unattainable." The unattainable. That was what Damon was going to use against this thing. He had achieved the unattainable in his own heart. He possessed both demonic energy and divine energy. Damon had these powers. He just did not dare use them. If he broke the equilibrium in his heart, he would be in grave danger. If his divine energy weakened, his transformation into a demon would continue. If it grew too strong, his heart would be destroyed by his own divine spark. You could either be a god or a demon. Not both. Except— If you were the Unknown God. Damon reached inward and touched his divine spark. ’I can’t pray to those true gods... but I will call on you Lazarak if you are here help me..’ He channeled his divine energy together with his mana and shadow energy. The shadows he used to cover the canopy suddenly changed. They flared violently. An overwhelming divine aura flooded the Evil Forest. The world of darkness bowed. To the presence of a god.