Remnants of Sorrow

After his anger simmered down, Damon continued to work.

He spent the final half of the day creating more knights and slowly studying them. This way, he could make more knights for less energy as his understanding deepened. Afterall, he would no longer have to use as much energy to fill in the gaps in his knowledge.

He first began to understand just what kind of being these knights were. They were completely made up of metal, which would normally slow them down. But whatever material they were made out of, was able to conduct universal energy so well that the knights could use this energy to cheaply and easily make themselves lighter. All without sacrificing any power or strength.

This initial discovery helped him streamline the creation of the knights. He had decided to add more meridian connections throughout the body of the knights. This would made it much cheaper and easier for them to lighten their own weight.

Spreading out the energy without proper connections had forced them to spend more energy or more time to make themselves lighter. Since these knights certainly didn't have time to pause during battle, they had been overloading their bodies with energy in order to stay fast. This had temporarily damaged their armor and severely depleted their reserves.

If that battle had lasted for just ten more minutes, the knights may have run out of energy.

As Damon wrapped up his work for the day, he heard someone approach from behind him.

Hero glanced briefly at the knights before turning to Damon.

"Looks like you've been quite busy recently. Between fixing up some of the more overt flaws of your knights to transforming artifacts into living beings. You've even begun laying the groundwork for the conquest of this planet."

Damon did indeed feel a little proud about all of his work so far. But he hadn't forgotten just how much farther he would need to go.

"This isn't much. I will need to do a lot better if I want to conquer this world, let alone freeing my friends." Damon said as his eyes flashed coldly.

Hero's smile waned. "Your goal is noble, but you are becoming too focused upon it. They are almost certainly fine right now. Every single Earthling was given an assistant like James and a supervisor would also soon arrive to observe and teach them. If your friends can't survive with all of that and their godly powers, you won't be able to save them anyway. They will already be dead."

"They may be fine for now, but what about in the future? I need to get stronger and meet up with them. Only then will we be able to get revenge for what the "Almighty One" did to us." Damon said resolutely.

Hero shook his head. "That's not the crux of what I'm saying. You need to focus more on the present and the people around you now. Only then will you be able to see the people of tomorrow."

"What do you mean?" Damon felt confused.

"You haven't been making plans or connecting with the people around you. You have barely experienced the true depth of this world. The Council and the people of the fortress cities will be your stalwart allies against the threats of this world. You haven't been spending time with them or tried to make them loyal to you. All you've done is appear and disappear, acting all mysterious."

Damon frowned as he began to consider Hero's words.

He had unconsciously been very distant with the Council. He only spoke about their goals and objectives with each encounter, never delving deeply into their pasts or desires.

'Is it because of what happened with Varian? Am I unconsciously distancing myself from people in order to avoid feeling that kind of pain again?' Damon contemplated.

"I'm just trying to help you out here. Nobody will be loyal to a leader who doesn't care about them. Nobody will praise or pray to a man who ignores them. I'll let you in on a bit of a secret. Faith will become the most important resource for any God as their cultivation slows. As your energy reserves grow, they take longer to refill. You will notice this more in the future, but it is the main reason why every God values our company so much. They can buy a world that exactly fits their parameters and then collect faith from that world's inhabitants." Hero revealed.

"I see. I've been trying to protect myself so much that I've blurred my own viewpoint on the world around me. I'll make sure to fix that when I meet the council again." Damon promised himself.

Hero smiled. "That's good. In the meantime, we need to work on your combat style. I'll be setting you up against different beasts. You need to develop a specialized way of fighting. That way you can learn more about that path and thus make it cheaper to use energy in that way. Whether that be by summoning beasts to fight for you, or by learning to fight with the sword."

Damon nodded. "I noticed that during my last fight with the Old Guard's Psykers. I switched from fighting style to fighting style. Although it worked since they were surprised and confused, creativity can only go so far against ultimate power. I won't be able to match someone stronger than me if I keep using so much energy with each attack."

"That is very true. Flexibility can help you a lot, especially in fast fights against unexperienced foes. But against someone who has enough energy to match you, or is more experienced, you would be drained dry or cut to pieces." Hero explained.

"I do have one last question before we begin my training though. How am I able to create so many powerful knights in such a short time? Isn't that a broken ability?" Damon asked curiously.

Hero laughed. "There's always limits, Damon. You haven't noticed it yet, but every artifact you create is connected to your soul. Even with your soul being raised to the level of a divine being, it can only handle so many connections. I'm not certain at the exact number, but eventually you will find it nearly impossible to create anymore knights. The final step of making them loyal to you and giving them some commands will be nigh impossible to complete without severely overburdening your soul."

Damon sighed at this news. Why did there always have to be so many limitations?

He sighed sorrowfully as he followed Hero towards his first hunt of the month.