The Sea of Nothingness was notorious for killing future Supremes.
It never approached them purposefully. Its only job was to separate the five islands so they couldn't be easily traversed by those who weren't worthy. However, it was still the main cause of True Death in this realm. Whenever an expert gave up on everything, regardless of which island they were on, the Sea of Nothingness was their escape.
As such, the connotation behind the large body of water was terrible. After all, its force was pure nothingness that could swallow anything. Who in their right mind would approach such an entity willingly?
Well, it was up for question whether he was in his right mind or not, but Damien approached it without fear.
He looked out into the waters for a moment, wondering how they were different from the lakes on the fourth island.
But, hesitation wasn't a very familiar concept to him. Even when standing in front of guaranteed death, he showed no fear.
It was a good thing that nobody was around. Damien hovered his foot over the sea like someone preparing to take their own life, but it would have been troublesome if someone tried to stop him.
His goal was not death, but exploration.
This grand sea had to hold some kind of secret. It couldn't exist just to separate islands, because as Damien learned through his experiences in this realm, Nonexistence never acted without reason.
Everything had some sort of meaning, even if it was difficult to find.
Damien dipped his toes in the water. He didn't immediately submerge himself, but just having a single inch of his body in the water was enough.
He touched what should not have been touched.
Damien fiercely resisted from the very first moment. He brandished his own form of Nonexistence, countering what the sea threw at him.
The aura of pure nothingness enveloped him. It, like a horde of wraiths, attacked his body and tried to take him down to the very bottom, a place where nobody and nothing would find him.
Damien fiercely resisted from the very first moment. He brandished his own form of Nonexistence, countering what the sea threw at him.
In terms of sheer power, he lost easily. However, the Sea of Nothingness was stagnant. Its laws and concepts were set from the beginning. It did not have thoughts and merely acted on its programming. Damien had the versatility of complex thought and a wide range of concepts at his disposal. With his level of purity and strength, the Sea of Nothingness was not an absolute power. He could use tricks to overwhelm it.
A silent battle began as the sea attacked Damien. He focused on defending, putting more and more of his body into its water.
When he was submerged to his hips, he was finally confident in reading and defending against the water body. 'Let's do this.'
Damien didn't act without thinking. Regardless, he wasn't able to explore deep into the sea or reach places far separated from land. He simply didn't have the energy to fight so fiercely for so long against an inviolable force.
Instead, since he was originally searching for a treasure on the fifth island, he used his abilities to scan the shore for several days before choosing a place to submerge.
He looked for hidden caves or cavities on the border between land and sea. He double-checked to see which ones were accessible from land and which ones were not. There were many cave systems that seemed to originally be disconnected from the underground routes but were connected by excavation teams searching for treasure in the past.
When it came to areas that had never been explored, there was only one. Damien could tell that someone tried. There was a tunnel that led straight to this large cave that halted just before connecting.
From a preliminary scan, Damien assumed that they originally did connect to the cavern, but were forced to immediately patch the connection for some reason.
'The path had only been traversed a few times before I went. It's likely that the original creators didn't tell anyone about their discovery when they returned to land.'
Either that or they died before they could spread the news of whatever was down there.
Damien didn't take the underground route because of that risk. He chose to approach through the natural entrance so that he would at least be prepared for whatever they encountered before seeing it himself.
With confidence in his defense, he plunged into the Sea of Nothingness, diving deeper and deeper as if it were just a normal ocean.
He didn't want to spend too much time completely submerged in the water, though. He rushed to reach the entrance, which was roughly a kilometer below the surface. Seeing the crack in the island's foundation, he swam through it and followed the path.
It was a narrow fit. Damien's robust body could hardly make it through the terrain he was trying to cross, but he forced his way through. Eventually, he reached something both positive and negative.
Damien smiled wryly as his body was suddenly engulfed in the current and flung off the edge of a cliff. Luckily, the waterfall meant he'd finally entered a cavern that wasn't submerged, so he rapidly gathered his senses and slowly lowered himself to the nearest piece of dry land he could find.
He treated it like it was no big deal, but fighting against pure Nonexistence was extremely difficult. His own force was practically apologizing to him the entire way since it couldn't interfere with the natural rules of this realm. Basically, he didn't have any help. He had to consciously combat every single concept of that sea for the roughly thirty minutes it took for him to swim here.
'I understand why it's considered a death trap.'
He didn't doubt that the strongest people in this realm could also fight against the sea if they wanted to. But, whether it was him or them, they would eventually be consumed by it if they didn't leave in time.
Damien took his thoughts off of the water and focused on the cavern in front of him.
He was a little skeptical at first, but that feeling was already gone. 'There is definitely something down here, even if it isn't the crown.'
It was like that treasure was calling out to him. It was making its presence known as if it never intended to hide in the first place.
A treasure with such a desire for human connection… usually all of such treasures were rapidly claimed and passed down through society.
However, if this one was still here despite its desperation, then it could only mean one thing.
'Something is preventing people from reaching it.'
There was originally a possibility that the first explorers who found this place were scared away by a natural phenomenon like the waterfall Damien had been transported by.
That possibility was naturally taken off the board. Damien approached closer and closer to the aura that called for his help. He took slow and methodical steps that made no sound to avoid alerting whatever waited for him inside.
Only, when he saw the being he was treating so cautiously for the first time…
…the only expression on his face was one of confusion.