Void Evolution System

This event actually meant something to everyone except Damien, so it was beneficial to view it from their point of view as they raced and desperately chased treasures.

Unfortunately, since Damien was present, this event was going to be a short and uneventful one.

What was the Heavenly God Plane supposed to look like?

In its ethereal state, it more or less replicated the environment of the outside world. People who entered in different places could meet, but since it was harder to travel the further one got from one's soul, even Gods were limited to a specific area.

It was usually assumed that the world was generated depending on how large it needed to be. Unless one attempted to move away from one's physical body in that plane, it would remain a dark nothingness.

When the Divinities of the world found themselves in that place, they thought they would encounter an empty version of the Heavenly World, a sort of shadow of their home.

However, they were led wrong from the start. After all, the Heavenly God Plane was its own realm. It only mimicked the environment so Gods could battle in the place they decided as their battleground.

The Heavenly God Plane's appearance was important as it was a one-in-a-million chance to see this realm in its true form.

And it lived up to every possible expectation.

It was a land where the air itself was a color of gold. It shined in a way that made everyone believe that it was truly Heavenly, and its scenery helped to further support that belief.

Huge, lush mountains floated in the sky, connected by bridges of vines and trees, a ground made of pure white clouds populated by creatures just as pure. There was an ocean as well, somehow. It flowed through the sky, twisting in the air as it separated into thousands of sky rivers that flowed into a waterfall that crashed off of the edge of the plane and into the great beyond.

It was a large area where even the great number of summoned Divinities didn't meet each other immediately. And, aside from its beautiful nature, there stood many remnants of a society that clearly didn't exist anymore.

Perhaps through the traces they left in this realm, something about their story would be revealed.

Or, if that was too hard, just using Existence and scanning the place was enough.

'Wow, so someone really connected this place to the True Void Universe randomly.'

Damien raised a brow as he looked around.

He appeared at the top of the highest mountain, floating in the sky above everything else.

As it turned out, this place was its own cosmos at some point. It met a natural end long ago, and some passing individual decided that it should be connected to this world.

'That should be a more surprising revelation.'

Though, Damien didn't feel that it was too crazy. After seeing someone like the Dark God who could use his cosmos as a vessel to invade others, he didn't think much about it.

Obviously, that man's intentions were curious, but if this had been a system for so long and nothing had happened, then did he have intentions at all?

Damien was more than familiar with the whims of an Unrecorded. He himself had spared and saved the 4 Evils who once served Straea because of the same kind of whim.

As such, he didn't remain curious about it for very long.

In the end, his actions benefited the cosmos, so it didn't matter why he chose to act.

The society that lived here was an extremely magical one. It developed without studying the scientific aspects of the world and instead fully indulged in producing the same effects through magic alone.

They thrived for a very long time and fell as they were eventually fated to. If it wasn't for the individual that connected this realm with the True Void Universe, it would have experienced the same fate as Grand Heavens Boundary.

Eventually, all things would return to the Void. There was no question about that.

Damien appreciated their lives for a moment as he looked to see where everyone else had spawned.

Unfortunately, his wives weren't here, but he was planning to go see them soon anyway so he put that aside as well.

The Foreign Races and Heavenly World denizens were relatively separated at first. They appeared on two different sides of the realm as they were teleported from different places.

They would definitely clash. It was impossible for them to keep to themselves and focus on getting stronger, especially since the Foreign Races were literally mass-produced and didn't need to work to get stronger.

'I'll focus on myself first and let them use those guys as target practice. I just have to make sure they don't die, right?'

Damien could create new life, but reviving someone wasn't a possibility with his current abilities. In order to keep the Heavenly World's Divinities alive while he finished his ascension, he needed to do something a little more involved.

Damien created a clone of himself that separated from his body. It contained a portion of his consciousness and power and operated separately from his main body.

As he sat down and closed his eyes, the clone did the same. Only, while he was focusing on himself, the clone was splitting its attention and providing hidden shields for every single allied Divinity in the realm.

It wouldn't protect them from damage, nor would it protect them from injury. However, if a situation arose where they found themselves on the border of death, it would be assured that they would not die.

Such provisions allowed Damien to act freely.

He sunk into his own mind, claiming this mountaintop as his sanctuary, and began the process of ascension.

What was that process, by the way?

It had never been explicitly mentioned.

Ascending to Godhood was different from any other "rank up" that a practitioner experienced on their journey to power.

It only partially had to do with level, but after a certain point, it could be done at any time as long as one had the qualifications.

The first necessary factor was the complete control over one's element and the realization of one's Divinity.

Damien easily gained this qualification even though he had many more elements than anyone else. When he was acknowledged by Existence, all of the abilities on his status screen reached 100%.

His Divinity was that of a Hegemon God, so obviously he reached it at the same moment.

That left him with two more qualifications to fulfill.

The first was his Legend.

The ranks themselves were never clearly identified. The specific words used were determined by the individual. It was said that after five changes, one would be ready for Godhood, but Damien's Legend changed ten times before he felt that he'd attained what he needed.

His Legend was now called "Rising Sun," likely a reference to his status as a budding Emperor.

He was not far at all from becoming an Emperor above all.

The final qualification was something more vague.

It was a question.

"Are you worthy?"

Beneath its weight, no practitioner could lie or bloat their ego. They would be forced to answer honestly, not from their own standpoint, but from that of the universe itself.

This was the question that most could never answer. They could never look at the world from that perspective above the clouds and honestly say that they were worthy of more in their current state.

Eventually, they would devolve and devolve until ascension became impossible. That was the end of many people's journeys.

Damien, on the other hand, was not even questioned.

The cosmos snickered at the thought of posing that question to someone who had almost ascended it. The only reason Damien didn't have Godhood was because he never tried to get it.

Now that he was making an effort in that direction…

It came to him without question.

Within minutes of his arrival in the Heavenly God Plane, the golden energy around him started to swirl in a vortex around his body.

Really, was ascension supposed to be this easy?