Damned Healer-Chapter 611: Beginning

The world around Darian, Niara, and Ailik was suddenly swallowed by absolute darkness. For a few seconds, time itself seemed to stretch inside that void, until reality exploded in a blinding flash. When their vision returned, the ground was gone; they were floating in an endless blue, hovering over the edge of an island of colossal proportions that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Ailik closed her eyes, succumbing to extreme exhaustion. Darian grabbed her, holding her firmly by the arm. The group fell. The impact against the sand was brutal, a dry boom that echoed across the deserted coast, kicking up a dense curtain of dust and salt.

Darian snorted. Without wasting time, he let his curse flow, expanding his perception. His senses crawled across a vast area around them. In that entire region, there wasn't a single pulse of life, only the oppressive silence of sand.

Darian's expression changed. Something was wrong.

With a sharp motion, Niara beat her wings, generating a gust of wind that swept the dust away and revealed the horizon. In silence, Darian settled Ailik's inert body onto his back.

At the center of this universe, which was the most powerful region, with the highest density of Void power, there existed three immense main islands. For comparison, each one was practically the size of Jupiter in total area.

Each island was ruled by a great power. According to the information Darian had obtained from the Nether Tree, the largest and most powerful of them was the island governed by the *Heaven-Devouring Sparrow Clan*.

They were a species of primitive Divine Beasts. In this universe, there had once been four terrifying primitive Beasts, created by the Primordial Beast Roc at the beginning of everything.

Unfortunately, the Roc died when the universe changed, and the three most powerful primitive beasts disappeared, leaving only the Heaven-Devouring Sparrows, who were much, much weaker.

The second and third islands stood on equal footing. One of them was ruled by the *Primordial Empire*, which claimed to possess the true inheritance of the god Roc.

There existed a royal family, countless races, power struggles, and constant conflicts. No matter the universe, these things always existed everywhere. And worse… many humans were involved, which always multiplied the chaos a thousandfold.

The last island had at its center the *City of the Heaven Seal*, cared for and protected by the human Celsiel Family. There was something in that city, a terrifying power called the Heaven Seal, which was said to have been left behind by the Roc.

The island closest to where Darian had arrived was precisely the one ruled by the Heaven-Devouring Sparrow Clan. That was excellent, since Darian didn't want to waste time and intended to go straight to the most powerful place. But…

The emptiness upon arrival, and the feeling that something was wrong completely overwhelmed him.

As he extended his senses farther and farther…

"Death Yin… a lot." Darian murmured, surprised.

Niara sighed and grabbed Darian's hand. Without delay, she shot through the skies at high speed.

Darian's Chaos Blink was now complete, but it was still a short-distance technique. For long-distance travel, Niara or Awel were still the best options. Or almost, since Ailik was developing rapidly and might one day become the fastest means of long-distance travel.

Niara flew swiftly, and surprisingly, they didn't encounter a single beast or person. There was only green nature, and with every kilometer they advanced, the death Yin grew denser.

Until a colossal city appeared before them.

Or rather, it's completely destroyed ruins.

They landed at the center, alert to everything around them. In the past, the scale of that metropolis had been terrifying, with towers that pierced the skies. Now, it was nothing more than a colossal graveyard of shattered ambitions.

Structures that once housed trillions lay broken like discarded toys, their twisted metal skeletons and pulverized stone stretching in all directions. The wounds of a cataclysmic war were still open; avenues wide enough to accommodate massive vessels were warped and buried under smoldering rubble.

The silence was absolute. The suffocating shroud of death Yin clung to the ruins, denser than dust. There was no movement at all, not even insects crawling; the very air carried a metallic taste of rust and massacre, a visceral blood-soaked aura that painted the shattered horizon in crimson red tones.

That destruction had clearly happened recently, maybe a few months ago, or at most one or two years ago. It was hard to measure precisely.

Niara snorted, clearly displeased. "Damn it, they got here before us and took everything…"

Darian took a deep breath. Then he closed his eyes.

The last time he met his master, she had made changes to his curse, creating the cores, but she had also given him guidance and taught him some extra things.

One of them was that Darian could now track, through the karma of a place, whatever was connected to it. For it to work, the starting point needed to be something recent and still filled with a lot of energy, like that city. Also, whatever was connected had to be within a maximum distance; it couldn't be, for example, in another universe.

Darian began searching quickly, spreading his senses across the entire island. He found nothing as expected… until…

'Master, Master! There's a small island to the west, I saw it when we were flying.'

Darian heard Awel's voice, who was always attentive to everything and knew his abilities well.

He opened his eyes quickly, remembering that island. It was a very small place, close to the main island, where there was nothing particularly valuable. The Clan only used it as a training area and for minor tasks.

He closed his eyes and focused there…

"!"

Then he felt someone in that place, living underground. Even better, there was a clear connection between the karma of that location and that person.

Darian didn't waste time and pointed at Niara. The two of them shot into the skies.

The distance across the sea was short, and anyone who could fly would be able to cross it.

It was a place only a few kilometers wide, mountainous, and almost without vegetation. To ordinary senses, there was nothing there. It was completely hidden, not emitting any vitality or fluctuations at all, but Darian could clearly feel the karma of a person.

They landed at the foot of a small mountain, somewhere off to the side. Darian took a deep breath and then murmured:

"Kid, I know you can hear me. I'm a foreigner, and I have nothing to do with why you're hiding, but I want to ask you a few questions. It won't take long. After that, I'll leave, and I won't tell anyone you're here."

Silence.

Darian snorted, turning toward a spot on the mountain and staring at the ground.

"I won't say this again. Do you want me to tear everything apart?"

*Buzz*

At that moment, the ground trembled, and then a passage that hadn't existed before appeared there.

Darian felt a dense power of the Void that immediately caught his attention. It wasn't like the natural flow in the environment; it was as if something had accumulated and concentrated an immense amount all at once.

Suddenly, a small bird, about the size of a fist, emerged from the ground.

It was mostly white and gave off a sense of nobility. Its tail had extremely beautiful multicolored feathers, but no pressure spread from them, nor was there any aura that others could perceive.

"Cute!" Niara murmured with a smile. It reminded her a bit of a certain multicolored slug she had found incredible in the past.

That creature was a primitive Beast, created by a Primordial Beast, known as a Heaven-Devouring Sparrow.

Suddenly, its figure shone. Metamorphosis activated, and the form of a young humanoid boy with a very simple, ordinary appearance appeared. He stared at Darian seriously, clenching his fists tightly.

"You… I can feel a Sacred Treasure… how is that possible?"

Darian heard that, somewhat confused. "Sacred Treasure?"

Suddenly, he remembered something. He waved his hand and took out a crystal the size of a fist, shining intensely like a precious gem. He had obtained it when he visited the Nether Tree, but received no additional information, other than that the Roc had left it for the missionary.

The young man's eyes widened, and his face went pale.

"That's a Sacred Treasure?" Darian asked calmly.

The young man didn't react, completely catatonic.

"Hey! Wake up. What the hell is this?"

The boy jumped. "Th-That… yes… b-but… is this really… the Pearl of Time?!"

Darian sighed. "I got this randomly. I don't know anything about these treasures. Anyway, can you tell me what happened to your clan?"

The young man focused back on Darian, still dazed. "You… can you use it?"

"Hm, this thing? I got it not long ago and haven't really tried much. I felt that it needs the Void power of this universe, but I'm a foreigner, so it seems very hard for me to use it right now," Darian replied without emotion.

The young man swallowed hard. Then he murmured, "N-No, the Sacred Treasure absorbs the Void on its own. You need to activate it and connect to it first, using your soul. With a bit of your energy inside, if you're the legitimate owner, you'll be able to use it."

"Legitimate owner? Well, whatever. Let's see." Darian waved his hand and did as he said, moving a bit of his soul energy.

It seeped in gently. Then, the pearl suddenly began to pulse.

"Oh?! So that's really how it works."

Immediately, Darian felt a connection form with it. He wasn't told how to use the treasure, so he made his own judgment, incorrectly.

He turned to the boy and noticed that his eyes had changed, becoming much lighter.

"Can you tell me what this Sacred Treasure does? And also answer my previous question?" 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

The young man trembled. "The Pearl of Time… is a Sacred Treasure lost forever, whose whereabouts no one ever knew. According to the few existing records, which are ancient and very unreliable… its ability is to perfectly see the past of an individual. More specifically, someone's memories. Everything a person lived through in this life can be seen in great detail very easily, just by the owner's will."

Darian stopped breathing. "Memories?"

At that moment, he clenched his fist and tried to use the connection he had with the pearl to activate it.

He focused it on himself, and then…

…inside his memories, that vast and terrifying collection of recollections opened up, spanning millions of years from this universe's past. He saw all of it in just a few seconds, from when he grabbed the Roc's corpse.

Seeing was a weak word. It was like everything had been brutally shoved into his brain.

But now…

Darian took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Clenching his fists, the pearl felt like a command panel; with just a single thought, he felt he could search for and see exactly whatever he wanted.

It was as if the flow of time and its memories were resting in the palm of his hand.

Darian's heart started pounding. Without hesitation, he thought:

'For the beginning of everything. When the chaos in the universe began!'