'I feel like I've been seen through, but that's impossible.'
Damien only believed that he could solve everything in four days because he didn't have to travel the long distances anymore. Now that he'd been to the Eternal Sanctum and the Volcanic Spires, he had enough points across the map to be near any destination he might want to reach.
He was able to cancel distance from his place inside of the Dragon Lord's magma channels and return to the Prison Master's manor without any trouble at all. Unfortunately, he couldn't enter the Eternal Sanctum with the same method, but that was obvious. If people could freely enter and leave by canceling distance, then it wouldn't be much of a prison to begin with.
More than that, what concerned Damien was the strange feeling he got when he first stepped on the property.
The Void was concealing him, so there reasonably shouldn't have been any force capable of perceiving his existence. However, Damien could feel the eyes on him for a moment. He shook off the feeling, thinking of it as built-up stress.
'There are more important things to focus on right now.'
Even if he was truly perceived, nothing happened. Nothing happened, which meant the person who perceived his existence was not trying to interfere with what he was doing. In that case, it was better for him to leave it alone and focus on getting into the Eternal Sanctum.
'The ordinary methods won't work. They're set up so that they activate loudly. Even if the Prison Master doesn't see that I was the one who broke in, he'll know that someone did.'
Damien had to create a method to break into the impenetrable prison for the first time in history. Easy, right?
'Actually, it's not that hard either.'
Easy was an overstatement, but hard was the same. If Damien didn't know anything about the prison before he tried, then it would be nigh impossible. However, he got to see its inner workings with his own eyes, so the situation was different.
Damien's own Nonexistence and the Eternal Sanctum shared many common factors. Using those comparisons, he could create his own iteration of the prison. By reverse engineering his own design, he could find a way into the prison.
It sounded like a time-consuming effort for a Damien who'd been extremely busy for the past week, but was it the same for the other Damien who'd been cooped up in his room?
His clone did the difficult comprehension work, and since they were one being, those comprehensions were directly reflected in Damien's mind.
He already had the framework. The rest of the work didn't need to be mentioned.
'Basically, it's a prison that functions on a single core concept, and that's Nonexistence itself. Those within have their very ability to think inhibited and their power sealed behind a much stronger version of itself. That makes any attempt to escape impossible. The rest of the concepts just branch off of that to take care of loopholes.'
It was a web. It was made of steel wire and would shred anyone who attempted to bypass it, but it was a web nonetheless. The exterior concepts had far more space between them than those on the inside.
That amount of space was not enough for anyone to slip through, which was why the prison had never been compromised, but Damien was confident that he could do it.
'As long as I target it properly and aim to bypass instead of break, I think I can do it.'
He closed his eyes and concentrated his power, putting even more emphasis on the Void around him. He saw that web in his mind and carried out the careful plan he'd created.
Like a fly too small to be hindered by such a massive web, he maneuvered through the complex defense mechanism and granted his mind access to the Eternal Sanctum.
To allow his body to follow after that was simple. In only a matter of five or so minutes, Damien was already walking its long and narrow corridor.
He rushed through the prison, widening his senses so that every single cell was inside his range of perception. 'Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.'
He couldn't find a single trace of tampering. There wasn't a single missing prisoner, nor were there any who had been swapped for fakes.
The clue Damien had been searching for was somewhere else entirely.
He couldn't have come here for nothing. The answer was still certain. The person who cooked up the entire scheme plaguing the third island had to be a prisoner.
Damien scanned the rooms around him.
'Vile. Vile. Crazy. Crazy. There.'
He pierced their souls and observed the core of their existences, only stopping when he found someone who fit his criteria.
The man with shaggy brown hair and a beard that could practically be called a lion's mane was not like the prisoners in the cells around him. Rather than wishing for more chaos or revenge, rather than going insane due to the prison's influence, he maintained his mind and thoughts of atonement.
A person like that was worth speaking to. Unlike those around him, there was a chance that he'd actually be willing to provide good information.
Damien approached his cell, causing the man to look up at him.
"The one from before…"
Damien already removed his concealment, so it wasn't strange that the man recognized him from his previous visit.
"I'm glad you remembered me. I've returned with a few questions, if you don't mind answering."
The man's eyes widened.
His surprise was warranted. The prison made it impossible for prisoners to communicate with anyone, so this was the first time the man had been acknowledged as an individual in millions of years. "I can," Damien responded simply.
"However, I do not have enough time for a long conversation. For that, I apologize."
"No. No need," the man responded, shaking his head. His voice quivered slightly as he held his emotions back.
"Please ask your questions. To have a conversation at all, no matter its length or subject, is enough of a blessing for me."
Damien looked at the man without speaking for a moment.
A thought came to mind, but he left it for after everything was taken care of.
"Were there any other prisoners here? Maybe one that escaped or got moved to another place?"
The man shook his head again.
"There has never been a prisoner that escaped from this place. It is the same for those who were transferred. I have never seen anyone or anything leave this prison once entrapped."
'Is there really something I'm missing? Maybe there's a wanderer or faction that has a grudge against–'
Before he could finish his thoughts, the man spoke up again.
"Ah, but there was one man."
His hair covered his eyes, so Damien couldn't see the expression he was making, but he could feel it.
The fear emanating from that man's body was unmistakable. As he recalled memories of that person, his body shook.
"There was one person who was not confined in this prison. For him, they were forced to create a special containment unit elsewhere. He…was the most terrifying person of my generation."
Damien's eyes narrowed.
This was it. The identity of the person he was chasing was right in front of him.
The brown-haired man looked up, meeting Damien's eyes for the first time.