What did it mean to fight the Universal Law?

The strangeness of the concept had already been made so obvious. Regardless of its closeness, it still wasn't something that could be fully perceived.

When Damien entered his spiritual world and scanned it for any signs of foreign forces, he found nothing. He rushed to his memory stream and thoroughly checked it, but he still couldn't see anything.

Yet, he could feel the force. He could feel it trying to access his most recent memories and wipe them out of existence!

'Tch! How am I supposed to deal with this?'

He pushed Void Mana through the space and lined the sides of the starlit river-like stream of memories.

Against this invisible enemy, the only thing he could do was build an impenetrable defense!

Damien swiped his arms before him and summoned his mana, shaping it into a sphere made of connected hexagons that was then infused with Void Mana to become more ethereal.

It was a second, more contained form of Mind Prison.

The new structure flew into the memory stream and enveloped the portion representing the last several hours of comprehension, containing it closely.

Damien instantly felt a pang in his head as the memories became blurry, but luckily, this structure wasn't nearly as airtight as its main body, and he was able to maintain an understanding of his current goal.

'Cover it.'

The order he gave was received by the pitch-black mana wisps filling the air. They rushed around the miniature Mind Prison and wove themselves into a secondary layer of protection that was far more impenetrable than its predecessor.

'Is there anything else I can do?'

Whoosh!

Damien barely had time to wonder before he got his answer.

A strange wind blew past him and brushed against his defenses.

Instantly and unequivocally, a fourth of the barrier vanished.

'Completely disassembled?!'

Damien panicked and hurriedly recreated the defenses, but his mind was shaken.

He knew fighting this enemy would be nigh impossible, but the feeling was more palpable after that.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Light winds whipped from all directions, swirling from high to low and gathering into a small tornado.

VOOM!

It drilled down, piercing the Void Mana defense and directly crushing towards the hidden memories without an ounce of resistance!

"Dammit!'

Was it over already?

Was this all he could do?!

'No!'

He'd tasted too many defeats in recent days. He wouldn't accept another one at a time like this!

"Come out! NOW!"

He roared with every bit of his being.

Time froze in the spiritual world.

The tornado was only a few centimeters from reaching its target.

Even in this frozen time, it continued moving at a snail's pace, unwilling to give up on its target.

However, Damien was done being passive.

He reached out and gripped his fist in the air, grabbing something incorporeal.

Rumble!

The borders of his spiritual world shook. Hairline cracks spread in all directions from his fist, rapidly overtaking every boundary that existed.

"Mere incomplete laws like these cannot contain you! I order you to obey my will!"

VOOOOOM!

Void Mana conflagrated from his body, rolling through the space like a tsunami. The tremors in space became louder and louder. The cracks expanded until they couldn't be contained anymore, and–!

CRASH!

The boundaries of Damien's spiritual world shattered into mirror fragments.

It was like an apocalypse.

Like a protective wall breaking and revealing those within to the desolation they'd been blissfully unaware of, a deep blackness, a true Void seeped through the cracks.

"Void Breathing!"

Damien slammed his arm downward, exerting his will on the Void above and dragging it down.

The descending Calamity was reigned in. The blackness twisted around itself like a swirling mass of shadows and formed a drill point similar to the Universal Law's wind.

It all happened in less than a fraction of a second, an amount of time indescribable in words.

In that time, Damien broke through the sub-universe's laws.

"GO!"

He didn't spare an instant.

The Void tornado crashed down and impaled into the Universal Law tornado.

Bzzt!

Sparks flew through the air. The force so elusive to Damien was forced out of the shadows in order to clash with one of the very few things that could match it.

Damien's sight took in the rainbow-like yet totally colorless appearance of the force. Every time it clashed with the Void, two reactions took place as one.

The Universal Law weakened, unable to stand the strength of its originator, but at the same time, it became more complete, as if it was taking something from the Void.

Damien's previous assertions about Universal Law being a record of the Void were partially proven with this.

But the Void's support wasn't enough to confirm his victory.

Perhaps the entity itself could wipe this enemy with a single thought, but the portion Damien could access could at most hold it back!

'I need to think of something else. If I can get one more push, I'll be able to avoid this calamity.'

It was a fine thought, but the Void was his greatest weapon.

In a situation like this, where would he find another path?

***

A being's eyelids twitched.

Its eyes were like two moons, slowly unveiling themselves to the world.

Everything shook with their movement. It was almost like everything would be eradicated the second they fully opened.

Fortunately, the being's eyelids stopped moving halfway through their arc.

Huu…

A slight breath from its mouth created tornadoes that could raze mountains into valleys.

It gazed out, half-lidded, into the scenery below.

Something had caught its interest, an almost impossible scenario.

'Hmm…'

Its thoughts swirled to life just barely for the first time in eons.

'Do not…interfere in this place.'

Whoosh!

Its thoughts traveled through the endless skies, and "something" received its words.

A presence within the realm wobbled slightly, as if considering something, and then darkened.

'Good. You cannot…prevent this.'

A second thought spread, and the being's thoughts stilled again.

Its massive eyelids dropped, and it inhaled, drawing back the hazardous entities created by its exhale.

Its job was done.

***

That was the turning point.

The situation in Damien's spiritual world met a sudden shift.

The wisps of Universal Law darkened and faded, weakening severely.

Damien's eyes widened in shock when he saw it, but he had no time to ponder the reason. He rapidly controlled the Void tornado and spread it to every corner of his mental space, eradicating any part of the Universal Law that remained.

And while he was at it…

'Let's be a little bold.'

A tiny portion, no more than the size of a fingernail, of Universal Law vanished from space, "devoured" by the Void.

Damien was certain that he was only able to triumph this time because someone or something helped him. He took mental note to search for his benefactor and focused on the actions he'd just taken.

Regardless of what saved him, he was currently protected. He could feel that the Universal Law's will had retreated and all that was left were nondescript pieces of energy without direction.

This entire scenario was a blessing in disguise.

Because with the remaining energy uncontrolled…

…Damien was going to receive great benefits.

He grinned to himself and got started, uttering the very phrase that carried him to this point.

'Devour'