Damned Healer-Chapter 546: Conspiracy

Darian opened his eyes, finding himself in the emptiness of space, with almost no points of light around. He focused, clearly feeling the direction where Niara was in that universe.

He moved quickly, ending up in the middle of the first recovered galaxy near the Academy's planet. As he approached, he spotted a huge, colorful nebula region, making him stop to admire it. It was the power of that treasure which had finally accumulated enough.

Darian moved toward the center of the nebula. In the middle of it, he saw that small item shining radiantly. He stored it, then moved as far away as possible.

Then he closed his eyes, focusing as much as he could. Inside his soul, the chaos core — now completely altered by Meru — was activated. His domain, coming from the curse, also surfaced.

He stayed like that for almost an entire day, testing and trying as much as possible, using his Earth knowledge about star formation.

Until… the great nebula started twisting, a dense portion of that molecular cloud began collapsing under its own gravity. The central region started heating up enormously.

Darian smiled. He had done it, forcing a process that would naturally take millions of years to happen in just a few hours.

Thankfully, his curse gave him an almost divine raw control over energies. That cloud was basically made of that, a mix of elements, energies, and pure physical materials. He didn't need to perfectly master any of it; he just had to direct it correctly.

By now, Niara was already there, watching everything. From afar, she stared at his back intently, her eyes shining with excitement. It was still hard to believe that this whole doomed universe was being revived directly by his hands.

It took two more days. Until…

**Woooooos!**

A protostar appeared with a subtle glow in the center.

Then, energy jets flowed from its two poles, throwing the rest of the surrounding cloud far away. Right after that, a powerful stellar wind of radiation burst in every direction.

Then, spacetime began to tremble. Darian snorted, then quickly turned around. In that instant, he saw Niara right behind him; he grabbed her hand and shot away as fast as he could.

A good distance away, there was a small rocky planet, completely empty and without an atmosphere, like Earth's Moon. They landed on its surface and stared intently at the distant spot.

**BUZZZ**

There was no sound, but a cosmic hum could be felt directly through their bodies. Then, an intense fluorescent ignition happened before their eyes.

It was a bright, furious, powerful light… but incredibly beautiful. The birth of a star and its first shine appeared right in front of the two.

Darian smiled excitedly. When he turned, he froze. Niara had tears in her eyes, squeezing his hand tightly.

He was stunned; he had never seen her that emotional before. She had always been a strong woman, and that wasn't part of her nature. But… he felt that emotion came from deep within her soul.

Niara didn't understand the reason; she just felt an uncontrollable emotion. Darian sighed; he knew why. Instinctively, she felt happy because the guilt for that universe being in such a state was, in large part, hers.

If the Divine Dragon hadn't been so arrogant and tried to absorb the Immortal Chaos Essence before the right time, she wouldn't have been gravely injured, and the Celestial Shadow wouldn't have been able to rise.

She turned to him and hugged him tightly. And so, the two stayed there, still and alone, appreciating that new light that had just been born, and each other's company.

After an unknown amount of time, they sat side by side, watching that new star. It was a beautiful view, and a warm atmosphere flowed between the two.

Darian turned to her, then told her everything that had happened.

In the end, she also told him what had happened on Earth. It was simple: the Wube family gathered and attacked the continent, since Darian wasn't present and Camille had already used the defensive power of the World Tree. That was the perfect moment for them to attack.

But Darian and Camille weren't idiots and knew that possibility. That's why they had planned many things. One of them was Veyle planting even more herbs in the area, removing the ones that had already grown in the other universe, to energize the World Tree quickly.

Darian still hoped Vanh wouldn't do anything extreme. But the furious orders of the three Spiritual Sovereigns, added to his desire for revenge over his mother's death, drove him to act.

In the end, Camille was forced to use her escape mechanism. The little power of the World Tree was activated to create a barrier for a few hours, then Niara opened the channel to the other universe, taking everyone.

The World Tree was also manipulated to create a reproduction seed, while everything else died there, leaving nothing behind.

There wasn't a big battle, as Aurix had stated; that was possibly false information spread by the Wube family, after all, Caliris could only gather information on other planets.

Darian let out a painful sigh. No one had died, and everything was fine, but Camille was probably really depressed.

Niara gave a slight smile. "No need to worry, she's already accepted that we're her family, and that's what matters. Little Alear and everyone else gave her a new drive to live. She knows this is just temporary, and we'll get everything back; even this almost-dead universe is coming back to life, so what's a small continent?"

Darian nodded, a bit thoughtful. Then he spoke softly, looking into her eyes.

"In a year, it'll probably be the moment Vanh goes all out. We'll settle everything. After that, things on Earth should stabilize. After that, we go to Vadise and finish everything."

He saw Niara's eyes light up, her breath turn uneven, and her face gain a subtly reddish color from excitement.

Darian also felt a strong excitement, but he took a deep breath and murmured, "That's why we have to make the most of this time. We have to win this battle... after that, the three enemies will go into full alert against me, and everything will get really dangerous. Not to mention that now, they've definitely figured out that you absorbed this universe's Immortal Chaos Essence; that's the only explanation for everyone disappearing."

Niara nodded, clenching her fists, with limitless motivation burning in her chest.

Darian then touched her forehead, sending her the knowledge of the Eightfold Heavenly Path. When it touched her soul, it immediately dissolved, flooding her mind.

In that instant, Niara's eyes widened.

She turned to Darian, clearly stunned, leaving him confused.

"Something wrong?"

She saw he didn't understand, so she smiled and shook her head.

"No, this is perfect." She answered softly, and Darian felt her body heat up in a strange way, like her mind was imagining something it really shouldn't be thinking about right now.

A weird feeling crept over Darian. Meru didn't want to say anything about this, and now Niara also seemed to not want to say anything. Was this a conspiracy against him or what?