Damned Healer-Chapter 607: Fate And Choices

Darian took a deep breath when he met Zaowe's eyes. He made a confused expression; his fluctuations and everything else seemed normal. But… in his karma, there was something only Darian could notice.

It was a change Darian had seen only a few times. It happened when someone was determined to do something that would drastically alter their karma. It was as if his black karma was twisting in joyful anticipation, looking alive and demonic.

Darian snorted and waved his hand. A small rune formed from mental power appeared and floated toward Zaowe.

"Kid, I'm passing you the technique to create a slave mark on unintelligent Demon Beasts, the same one I used on the Red-Eyes Black Eagle. Since there are many powerful but dumb Demon Beasts on the enemy's side, with a bit of practice, you'll be able to use this and help your people a lot."

Zaowe was surprised to see Darian giving this to him instead of Ailik. But he quickly understood the situation, and his eyes changed. Darian was really giving him a chance to grow.

"I don't have much time. I'll be leaving..."

"Sir, I can help you!" Darian was immediately interrupted by Ailik, who had a pleading expression.

Seeing that, Zaowe changed completely once again.

Darian sighed lightly. "I won't be leaving this island anytime soon. First, I need to wake my wife. After that, if fate allows it, we might meet again."

She tried to say something, but Darian gestured for her to stop. Without delay, he turned to the prophet and the others, who nodded and led him outside.

Darian felt Zaowe's fluctuations and realized there was something very wrong with him. Even so, he did everything he could to make his intentions clear. That young man's fate would now depend on his own choices. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Ailik ran right after Darian. Once outside, he jumped alone onto the back of the Red-Eyes Black Eagle.

He didn't look back and left immediately.

The Nether Tree had directly told him many things, in addition to sending detailed information about everything that existed on that island. He couldn't waste time, since it would take two days to reach the city of the Nether Beasts.

***

It was early morning when Darian approached an immense beast city. He had a little over one day left before all the energy in his body was consumed. He needed to wake Niara at all costs.

Since the Red-Eyes Black Eagle was a slave of the Nether Beasts, he wasn't stopped along the way, only needing to hide his presence.

He landed a few thousand meters from the entrance, beside a valley. There was a river of crystal-clear, pure water nearby.

Without delay, he ordered the Red-Eyes Black Eagle to return. Darian altered the slave seal inside it; in three days, once that beast had returned to its original location, the seal would disappear, turning it into a free creature.

Darian moved forward calmly and took out that pulsing leaf. At its center, the power of the Void was condensed and sealed. All it took was releasing the seal, and whoever was holding the leaf would be immersed in that power. There was no need for great control; it worked like a single-use Supreme Artifact.

But...

Darian activated the power of the leaf at the same time as his spiritual root.

That power completely covered him and Niara. In just a few seconds, they perfectly merged with the environment. They vanished from sight, and there was no fluctuation of their presence at all.

'Hmm... this will be good training. I think I can keep this up for two days easily.'

The power of the Void was a variation of space-time at an extremely high level. Darian was learning to use his spiritual root, and manipulating the Void was excellent training.

As he walked, he reflected on everything. The power of the Void was present throughout this universe, as common as oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. There wasn't a single place where it didn't exist, and to prevent the Nether Spirit Race from being wiped out when they were still very weak, the Tree had created this resource.

Currently, the race had already stabilized and could survive in an eternal war against the Nether Beasts. As for that Tree, it told everyone it didn't have the power to create much more, providing this only to the tribal leaders.

That was a lie, because that entity didn't want the end of any race. If it had kept supplying it in large quantities, the Nether Spirit Race would have easily won this conflict.

Darian didn't find that attitude honorable or admirable in the slightest. The reason for that...

He slowly entered the city.

A sea breeze began to blow around him, bringing a strong smell of blood. That odor came from deep inside the beast city.

The city was two hundred kilometers wide, extremely ancient, and overtaken by nature. Large buildings were scattered every few hundred meters, as if a forest had grown up and swallowed an abandoned city.

There were massive walls surrounding everything. Even the city gates were covered in cracks, with ugly stains spread all over them.

Beasts were constantly going in and out through the enormous gates. Darian simply approached calmly and waited for the right moment to slip in alongside someone, hidden.

He got through with extreme ease, even though the Nether Beasts knew about the existence of that treasure.

They would never imagine someone crazy enough to invade the place. The reason was simple: they had secret locations underground throughout the entire city where they could deal with that treasure.

Buried randomly were extremely high-level natural treasures, all containing incredibly strong Void power. The Nether Beasts were quite intelligent and had created a clever mechanism. If someone using Void power to hide themselves invaded the city and got close to those areas, whatever was underground would produce a subtle ripple, revealing the intruder's presence.

It was impossible for anyone to know where those things were buried. In the past, some tribal leaders had actually tried to invade, but failed miserably. It quickly became clear that entering and getting anything useful without being caught was impossible.

Darian knew all this from the Nether Tree, but he didn't care and came anyway. As he entered, he focused on the underground… and clearly sensed some regions where powerful individuals were hidden.

For that mechanism to work, there always had to be someone nearby. Darian could easily sense their karma, so it became clear where he couldn't approach.

'They're pretty cautious. Every three hundred meters, in all directions, there's a lookout point.'

Darian moved calmly, right through the middle, without being detected.

Soon, when he reached the most central region of the city, where the most powerful Nether Beasts lived… he saw countless black steel grates on the ground. They had very narrow gaps and emitted a terrifying, blood-soaked power.

Below them was a pit hundreds of meters deep, where the Nether Beasts kept members of the Nether Spirit Race imprisoned.

The two races weren't mortal enemies for no reason. These beasts hunted and captured those Nether Spirits whenever possible, because they were treasures, just like the Heavenly Elemental Spirits.

Their true bodies were small runes filled with Void power and life. They could be slowly refined, making the beasts that absorbed them absurdly more powerful.

That was why Darian disliked the Nether Tree's attitude. That very entity that had told him all this still wanted to protect the Nether Beasts.

When Darian learned this, his first thought was to brutally exterminate all of them, but… he was an outsider and couldn't impose his worldview on others. Since he didn't have time and needed the Tree's help, he agreed to act while killing as few as possible.

He gave a brief glance at those imprisoned Nether Spirits. They were all bound and even prevented from dying. There were hundreds of prisons, each one packed with hundreds of thousands inside.

Darian stopped and snorted. He moved a little closer to the gaps, carefully looked around, then took out from his inventory an artifact that manipulated the earth.

It was a small crystal, just small enough to pass through. He dropped it inside.

Since he was already there, at least he gave those people a chance to live. It would fall near one of them, and if they were smart and learned how to use it, they might manage to escape.

Darian had three of those artifacts stored away for a long time, and they were useless to him. He threw them into three large prisons, making sure no Nether Beast noticed.

After that, he continued walking.

At the heart of the city, there was a mountain. Underground, that was where the Roc's power on this island was sealed.

Darian moved carefully, alert to everything.

There were countless powerful Nether Beasts in every direction. Thanks to the treasure hidden there, that mountain attracted and gathered Void power in the surrounding environment. As a result, all the strongest Nether Beasts cultivated and grew much stronger just by staying nearby.

After a few minutes, Darian stood at the base of the mountain's only entrance.

It was open, but guarded by a gigantic elephant-shaped Nether Beast.

Darian didn't care and moved along the edge of the entrance, where he could slip past.

He took light, silent steps without any trouble. He moved forward calmly; everything was dark and cold. Then, after thirty meters…

**BUZZ!**

The entire mountain suddenly hummed and shook.

Then…

A sea of colorful runes appeared on the ground and rose upward. Right after that, they moved, sealing everything off and forming a terrifying cage.

Darian's eyes widened.

Hundreds of red eyes appeared all around him, in every direction. And that runic prison…

…was obviously made for him.