Damned Healer-Chapter 479: Enemy Plans

After bringing that creature back, Darian focused and carefully analyzed its insides. Within minutes, he noticed something inside its mind-sea — he was sure of it, a faint trace of Celestial Corruption.

His thoughts deepened as he studied it, starting to understand the surface of the enemy's plans. That kind of power could only be used by Risen Lords or by the Celestial Shadow itself. But such a tiny amount… it could only have come from the direct domain of the Celestial Shadow.

'This Array blocks the Risen from invading. So their plan must've been different… they probably used the Academy's traitors, who entered here carrying a tiny, hidden trace of corruption. Then, they used that on these creatures. It must be controlling them mentally. But… what exactly are they planning…'

Darian thought seriously. If Lucy were here, they could read all the memories and uncover the full truth.

Seeing his focused, slightly distant expression, Niara spoke softly. "Dan, I can try reading a bit of his soul memories. I can only see up to one day of his past, but there might be something useful."

Darian looked at her, surprised. Reading soul memories required extremely fine control over spiritual power. One day wasn't much, but still — with luck, it could reveal something important.

Niara closed her eyes and fully concentrated. She touched the creature's forehead and began the process, putting in great effort.

Minutes dragged by, and sweat covered her face as she maintained absolute focus. After almost two hours, her eyes opened again, showing a noticeable change.

"Dan, I saw it. He was in a strange place — not here… it looked like a city… no, maybe it was a sect or some hidden organization."

Darian frowned. According to the array's rules, those Black Blood creatures were supposed to be confined within the Root World, unable to leave. So her seeing him somewhere else, that clearly, was very strange.

Niara continued, "There, everyone was like him. This guy was forced to come to this world because he failed an internal test. He was furious, muttering about losing his chance to join the elite, failing the preliminaries."

"Did you see anything about those preliminaries? Or the test itself?" Darian asked, thoughtful.

She shook her head. "I didn't see the test itself, but he mentioned that the preliminaries would last two days, and after that, the real test would begin for everyone. He was lucky not to die and managed to retreat, so his superiors sent him here."

Darian's eyes lit up. Niara noticed and smiled, understanding what he was thinking.

"Good. You know exactly where the entrance is, right?"

Niara nodded. Even if it was hidden inside the space, as long as Darian knew the precise location, he could force the space to open and reveal the doorway — just like he'd done before.

*BUZZ*

Suddenly, the border of the area opened, and the environment changed completely. It was the beginning of the enemy invasion.

Darian turned to the army behind him. Everyone was already ready.

"Let's end this quickly."

***

This time, in just fifteen hours, they all reached the end of the territory.

The enemy's level was the same as before, and after the previous experience, everyone had improved enough to win easily.

When the real enemies appeared, there were only three hundred with five circles — and no powerful leader among them. Darian sensed them from afar and, together with Niara, rushed forward to wipe them out alone.

When it was over, though, they didn't cross to the third line yet. Niara led them to a far-left area, close to the edge of the territory. There, a dark abyss waited.

Darian felt the space exactly where she pointed, at one specific spot on the cliff. He confirmed it — it led to a small, isolated spatial world.

Those creatures wouldn't normally have the power to create something like that. Everything pointed to a long-term plan, probably from within the thousand years the Sacred Tree of Enfield had remained open in the universe.

Little by little, the Academy's traitors had entered and left fragments of Corruption within the creatures of this world. The creatures themselves ended up being controlled by the Celestial Shadow to carry out certain tasks.

Now, Darian needed to go in and investigate. But if he caused any disturbance too early, he'd put himself in danger — alerting the Celestial Shadow and forcing it to attack the Academy prematurely.

He turned to the army.

"All of you, return to the Life Line ahead and rest for one day. If we don't return before the next battle, fall back to the second line instead of advancing. The stronger ones from below shouldn't face you head-on."

The three leaders took a deep breath and nodded. Soon after, they commanded everyone forward, leaving only the couple behind.

Darian then turned to Niara. He looked her in the eyes and held her hand — the one with the ring.

"This ring… I got it as the highest reward in a challenge back in that other world. I never told anyone... but I had to fight against you in my mind," he said calmly.

"I couldn't attack you, even though it was just an illusion. Then, your copy started saying things I already knew you thought… it was painful, but I knew it was true. That made me realize how much of an idiot I'd been with you. In the end, this ring holds deep meaning for both of us — that's why I chose to give it to you."

Niara nodded with an intense look and a wide smile.

"Well, as you can probably guess, this ring should be considered an incredible Supreme Artifact. From the description I got, it can turn something physical into an ethereal form for a short time. But that's just the basic effect. If the user has perfect control over soul power, many benefits and opportunities can show up."

Darian went on, and her eyes lit up in understanding. It almost felt like fate — after all, she had spent most of her training time in Vadise studying soul power, since that was her biggest weakness.

"So, what are we gonna do?" she asked, excited.

Darian nodded and opened his inventory. Then, the ethereal body of a small dragon appeared. It was something both of them knew well — the body he used in this universe before.

"We'll sneak in quietly as one of them," he said calmly, also taking out some of the bloodline essence from the creatures that had just died in battle.

Niara took a deep breath, focusing on the beautiful ring of blue celestial crystals on her finger. She channeled her soul power into it, and the ring began to glow brightly.

Darian watched her quietly, feeling that energy surrounding her.

Light wrapped around Niara, and then her body began to turn magically ethereal. Darian took a deep breath — what surrounded her was pure soul energy, mixed with another, unknown, and frightening energy.

That ring was indeed something far beyond a normal Supreme Artifact, created by an Immortal. Its material had unique properties and had been left in that world's challenge by Remira's father, meant for her.

But that woman never cared to claim the good things from that place, thinking herself above it all. Lucky for him, he did the exact opposite — ended up taking the ring, completing the Trial in the process.

"Dan... this doesn't burn my energy, but I feel like in a few minutes it's gonna get unstable and fade away. I can't hold it," Niara said, a little uneasy.

Darian replied calmly, "That was expected. Just don't leave my side. When it starts getting unstable, I'll force it to stay steady."

Darian had full control over soul power, so stabilizing it would be simple. The unknown energy, though, he'd have to force to stay in place with effort.

Without delay, Darian moved to a nearby cave. There, he completely hid his body using the Divine Seal, making it emit not even the slightest trace of life.

Then, his soul entered his old body, and he activated his shapeshifting ability, feeling a wave of nostalgia.

Soon, his appearance looked similar to his real one — but still ethereal.

When he turned to Niara, he used chaos power on both of them, recreating that perfect disguise of energy and aura. By adding the bloodline essence of those creatures, the disguise became even more flawless and harder to detect. He even created eight circles in both their eyes.

"Let's go."

He murmured, and the two moved toward the abyss, where Darian opened a rift in space. They stepped through without hesitation.

---

The world was covered in fog, like an endless sea stretching in every direction.

A hand grabbed his tightly, unsure of what lay ahead. Darian and Niara walked through the mist as his perception stretched to the limit — he didn't dare to be careless.

The deeper they went, the denser the fog became. Even after walking for an hour, everything remained calm. There was nothing but that eerily silent mist. The couple kept moving forward slowly.

Until Darian finally stopped, sensing more carefully and analyzing.

After confirming something, he said mentally, 'There's someone up ahead. Let's take a look.'