The Palace Master's expression shifted instantly. The room morphed and Sierra's figure vanished, leaving Damien and the Palace Master alone.
"Who are you?" She asked coldly. Slowly, trickling up from the ground below, powerful streams of World Force converged around her body and enhanced her aura.
The furniture in the room turned to dust under her aura's pressure. And all that pressure rushed towards Damien, attempting to force him into submission.
But instead, it brought a smile to his face. "So I was right…no wonder you smell so familiar. I didn't think I'd ever meet another Celestial in my lifetime."
"Another…?" The Palace Master repeated.
Damien's hand moved casually. World Force converged into his connection with his bound worlds and emerged at his fingertips. When his World Force came into contact with the Palace Master's, a strange scene took place.
The World Force popped in the air and almost manifested a physical presence. Damien could feel both attraction and repulsion between the two forces.
"You…you are also…!" The Palace Master gasped. Just like Damien, she was experiencing a great shock.
Classes weren't unique. It was actually extremely common for two people to share the same class even if they were born billions of kilometers apart. However, even within these classes, there were various branches one could explore. This was where individuality came into play.
For Celestials, or rather, for spatial experts, this commonality wasn't so common.
Spatial experts were already incredibly rare, and Celestials were especially rare amongst them. While both Damien and the Palace Master knew that there were other Celestial in the past and some existing in the present, neither expected their current meeting.
"How did you know?" The Palace Master finally managed to ask.
"How could I not? The scent coming off your body is overbearing!" He replied.
"…scent?" She questioned with a frown.
"Ah, not a bad scent. It's more like…the scent of starlight?" Damien said, unsure.
"But I can't sense or smell anything from you. Also, how can you use World Force if you aren't in your bound world? What kind of path are you walking?"
Hearing her question, enlightenment dawned on Damien. He began to understand why only he could sense the Palace Master's Celestial status:
While the Palace Master was more powerful than him as a practitioner, Damien was more powerful than her as a Celestial.
And since he was more powerful, he could naturally sense her aura just like how she could easily tell his level with a glance.
Even within classes, there were various branches. When it came to the Celestial class, these branches were limited.
Celestials were conquerors, but not all of them were the same.
First, there were those like Damien. To Damien, the worlds he bound were a part of his strength. In a hierarchal sense, he was the emperor and they were his subjects.
The activities on those worlds weren't things he tried to control. He let civilization develop as it naturally would and allowed the power struggles of the world to remain.
Because his relationship was with the world itself, not its inhabitants.
Of course, he'd always be partial to the Adelaire Empire or Celestial Star Palace above other forces, but he wouldn't needlessly aid them in petty worldly squabbles. That was their business, not his.
Damien's conquerer's nature was grand. He wanted the entirety of existence under his control from its very foundation.
The Seeking Lotus Palace Master was different.
Her relationship with the Azure Rain Star was more likely to be an equals contract of sorts.
Rather than the world being her power, she was the world's power; its chosen Apostle.
She ruled this world from the shadows and maintained its peace. She allowed order to flourish and civilization to progress without a hitch. In this way, she led Azure Rain Star to a higher boundary with every passing minute.
To the Palace Master, conquering the universe didn't mean anything. There were already billions and trillions of beings on the Azure Rain Star alone. Managing them all was taxing enough. How could she do the same with an entire universe?
Unlike Damien, she took a hands-on approach in ruling the world. If his guess was right, then the Azure Rain Star was the only world she'd ever bound.
It was natural for her to be weaker than him, who had thousands of stars under his command.
'Well, there goes my lucky chance. I can't go after a married woman if her husband is treating her right…I guess the only way to make this trip worthwhile is through the Challenge Gate.'
Damien put this thought aside as he conversed with the Palace Master, who ended up telling him to address her by her name, Leona.
As fellow Celestials, there was a broad range of topics for them to talk about. Especially since they were on diverging paths, their knowledge and experiences greatly differed.
For instance, Damien had a lot more knowledge about World Cores themselves. He'd interacted with thousands at this point and he'd even cleansed two of corrupting mana. When it came to their structure and purpose in the universe, Damien knew a great deal.
But Leona was far better at utilizing World Force than he was. She'd spent thousands of years as Azure Rain Star's guardian, and through that time she'd developed her own methods of utilizing and enhancing World Force to best suit her needs.
The two remained in conversation for three days and three nights, completely unaware of the passing of time. But eventually, their conversation had to come to an end.
"No matter how much I wish to continue learning from you, we don't have too much time. The Challenge Gate's trial takes a long time for some people, and there isn't much time left before it closes. Once you safely return from the Challenge Gate, we'll have plenty of time to talk."
Damien raised his brow questioningly.
"Ah…" Leona yelped after realizing the indication behind her words. As he watched her get flustered, he smiled mischievously. It was truly novel to see such an expression on her face.
But the words she spoke weren't wrong. Damien had to visit that Challenge Gate. If the rewards were even half as good as what he got from the Storm Heavens Mystic Realm…
Damien's smile widened into a grin. His awareness entered a small pocket dimension that only he could see.
This dimension wasn't part of the Sanctuary that he built. Rather, it was a compartment he found anchored to him after exiting the Storm Heavens Mystic Realm.
This was the dimension where any rewards given by the Dimensional Leaderboard would remain until Damien withdrew them. It, along with access to the Dimensional Leaderboard's system, was what he gained in the Mystic Realm.
And in that dimension was a certain item.
It was a small marble around the size of a quarter. Its surface was smooth like glass, but underneath that exterior were flashes of terrifying lightning. Silver, gold, black, and even variant lightning colors like purple and blue all flashed around the marble in unison as if raging at the fact that they were captive.
When Damien's gaze landed on it, a blue holographic panel appeared in his vision.
There, four words were clearly displayed:
[Storm Heavens Realm Seed]