Chapter 1535 New Paths [1]
'Fuck.'
The older Damien got, the less he cursed, but he couldn't help himself in this moment.
His mood was soured.
He watched everything that happened to Envy through the perspective of her existence.
He felt her emotions, and he thought her thoughts. He experienced her pain and suffering, and frankly, even he found his mind swayed.
Damien had to take a minute to regain control.
'The 4 Evils…'
They didn't have much of an impact on his life, but the first time they appeared they were his enemies.
To come back like this…
Was it fate?
Was the world telling him to accept that people could change?
Damien had seen a lot of traitors in his life, and he'd seen a lot of people change for the better.
But none of them really deviated from their core characteristics.
They were always that kind of person, they'd just suppressed their kindness to adapt to this cruel world.
The 4 Evils, on the other hand, were born into cruelty and grew into people who embodied it.
However, if this traumatic experience truly changed them. Whether it would be for the better or for the worse was unknown. Whether it would be permanent was unknown.
Still, for some reason, Damien wanted to see what would happen if he took this chance on them.
'It's a path I've never explored.'
There weren't many things in this world that he hadn't done. Yes, experiences differed and environments differed, but at their core, all of these adventures were the same.
The paths Damien hadn't taken, they didn't exist in the world of adventure or the world of law.
They existed in the world of emotion, of human interaction.
'Interesting…'
Damien was bored with the trials of this mountain. He'd thought them unimportant and inconsequential.
But it turned out that even he could learn a thing or two from them after all.
His eyes flickered over to the cave in the distance.
'I'm sure that tree is loving this.'
He could practically feel the beaming smile it had on its proverbial face. The feeling that enveloped him right now was completely different from the one he'd felt during the entire rest of his journey.
'It's not that far from here…'
He could do the last stretch in one go.
And perhaps…he could take this chance to see what happened if he explored a few more of those unexplored paths.
***
Damien did indeed manage to learn something from the mountain.
Life still had more for him.
It had more to show him, more for him to experience. No matter how dull it seemed to get, no matter how much he felt like he'd experienced all there was to experience and seen all there was to see, there was always something more.
He just had to be open to it.
Damien's mentality was unshakeable. This was one of his greatest advantages, but at the same time, it was also the very thing making his life seem bland.
He always had the same thoughts, so he always took the same actions.
Basically, Damien was stubborn beyond belief because his belief in himself was so strong.
When he got outside of his box, when he tried things he wouldn't have tried because he felt like he knew what would happen if he did, he experienced new things that he never could have expected.
Because his expectations were still within the box.
Nevertheless, Damien ended up a little thankful to the tree for making him climb the mountain, but that didn't mean he would allow it to be annoying.
He arrived at the cave again within 6 months of his first visit, walking in confidently to the shocked expression of the beast guardian.
"What, why are you making that expression?"
"You…are you really not a dragon?"
"Do you think a dragon could do the things I can?"
"Not in the slightest."
"Then there's your answer."
Damien smiled. He felt a lot more relaxed today than he did back then.
"So, how did I do? Can I finally take what I came for?"
His gaze moved over to the tree, which shook its leaves strangely upon receiving his gaze.
"What's with that expression?"
"That…"
The beast made a strange expression.
"Putting that aside, it seems she has approved of you. You may take the fruit."
"Nice."
Damien walked up to the tree, which was now a journey he could make since the beast guardian moved out of the way, and reached up, grabbing hold of the Harmony Fruit.
It was cold and beating with a rhythm that made it feel like a living heart.
This fruit was something anyone would covet. Even Malevalon Straea would leap at it if he knew it was real.
"By the way," he said as he plucked the fruit from the branch where it hung.
"Why me? I don't think I particularly have the character you wanted to see in the person who earns the fruit."
Damien addressed the tree directly, rather than speaking to its guardian beast, causing it to ruffle its leaves in surprise.
The tree was indeed a sentient entity, but nobody ever considered it one.
After all, there was no way for them to communicate.
Or so it thought.
"Having trouble? I guess you're younger than I thought."
Someone who'd been alive as long as Alaric could talk even in his free form.
This tree had Divine power, but it didn't even know how to use its Divine Voice. It was a little funny that it acted all high and mighty when it was still just a child.
Nevertheless, Damien put his hand on its trunk and inserted a bit of his mana, transferring some of the memories he received from Alaric.
These would almost never be useful, but to a tree entity that was still in its growth phase, the experience of one who had lived for ages was more important than anything.
[Ah…ah…]
Slowly but surely, the tree was able to find its voice.
[You…are kind.]
It spoke as if it knew language, but that was because it truly did.
Alaric's memories contained more than just knowledge on how to project a voice, after all.
The tree may have been young, but it was born with a powerful status, so it was able to absorb that information rapidly and show improvements with the same speed.
And the first words it spoke when it found its voice…were words directed towards Damien.
"Kind…?"
He didn't think there were many people in the world who would be able to say the same, but he appreciated the sentiment.
[You think it is a lie.]
The tree read his emotions like a book.
[It is not a lie.]
It insisted, a tinge of emotion filling its words.
[You have a jaded soul...]
[...but you are a hero.]
Damien frowned.
It wasn't because he was angry, but rather…
Well, he understood what the tree was trying to say.
He didn't know how it gathered all of that though.
Damien hated heroes.
He grew up watching them and reading about them. In Earth's media, he saw them everywhere, even before the World Awakening when heroes began to rise from the population.
To him, heroes were pitiful. To do so much for nothing, to risk oneself for people who repaid them with hatred…whenever Damien saw heroes, he wondered how they kept themselves from just killing everyone and giving up.
But that was the thing, wasn't it?
Hadn't he done the same?
Hadn't he risked his everything to save Grand Heavens Boundary, even saving all of its people when it collapsed?
Hadn't he been risking his life to save the people of Void Palace, and even the people of the Southwestern Region that he'd saved from the Divine Order?
Hell, he'd even given specific orders to save the children abused by Straea and offer them better lives.
Damien hated heroes.
But when it came down to the wire, he couldn't stop himself from trying to be one:
Because nobody else could do it. He was the only one.
His personal reasoning for his heroism didn't matter, nor did his feelings about heroism.
To the people of all worlds, he was a hero.
And that was exactly what the tree saw when it looked at him.
[The reason you were chosen…is because you did not come for yourself. Even now, you are being a hero. That is why you deserve my fruit.]
It seemed the tree wanted him to realize something, but he didn't know what.
Still, he accepted its sentiments with a troubled expression and turned away.
Putting aside the thoughts that made his brain melt, there was still another thing he had to hear from those in this cave.
From the guardian beast, to be exact.
During his first visit, it told him about a connection he'd never expected he had.
It was time for him to figure out just what kind of gift the Azure Dragon had left him.
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