Chapter 1435 Cooperation [4]

Chapter 1435 Cooperation [4]

Damien had been gone for almost 4 months now.

About a decade or so had passed since the day 100 years passed in the main palace.

During that time, not a single person skimped on their training.

Their reasons varied, but there was a surprising number of people who worked hard for Damien's validation.

Disregarding Hestia who looked up to Damien, Dominic and Yiren who respected him, and Darius who practically treated him like a god, the soldiers themselves had Damien in their minds as they trained for multiple reasons.

For those who were chosen during the recruitment, it was a sense of reverence.

Those like Hershel originally believed they were worth nothing. They didn't think they had a chance to join the army when they came, but the chance was presented to them regardless.

Taken into the main palace, they were immediately put under an environment of harsh training without extraneous thought,

It was difficult, but nobody complained.

The harsh training meant they mattered. If they were just going to become nameless members of the palace, they wouldn't have been forced to undergo it in the first place.

Hershel didn't know much about the world of practitioners, but he knew Damien was one of the best.

Because the talent he didn't have was given to him.

And because of that, the talents he did have were finally able to show themselves.

Hershel wasn't alone in this. There were over a thousand out of those who were chosen who originally had the worst talent imaginable.

They were all gifted the things they lacked because Damien saw in them a will and spirit that could trump many experienced practitioners, and as a result, he gained their absolute loyalty.

He gave them purpose, so they would live for him.

Of course, not everyone was the same.

There were those who were talented from the start along the 10,000, and among them, there were plenty who'd trained before arriving at the main palace.

What impressed them was Damien's mysterious power.

He seemed to be able to do anything.

When they saw him "giving out talent," they didn't know how to feel. Talent was something intangible, so it shouldn't be able to be created, right?

That was what they thought before they met Damien.

Before, they'd only been under the Void siblings. They were content with their position, thinking they were doing okay for their talent level and didn't have to compete against people born superior.

But they were being challenged by people who couldn't even be argued as superior to them, and they were being defeated.

They were ashamed and motivated at the same time, a similar feeling to what some of their seniors felt as well.

The only ones left out of the storm were the Void siblings because of their status.

Still, they didn't skimp on training.

It started because nobody wanted to challenge them. They were too important for any common person to stand up and say they wanted to fight.

But at some point, the siblings came themselves and began challenging people.

As time passed and they kept winning their challenges, people also started getting over their fears.

Perhaps Damien's siblings didn't have some sort of newfound motivation like the rest of the army, but their old dreams were more than enough.

Damien was the only one.

He was the only one among them who thought about bringing the palace back to its prime and actually acted on it.

The rest of them could never get past the mental barrier, let alone the heaps of physical hurdles.

Damien gave them an opportunity. With it in front of them, none of them could continue to suppress their desires.

They also wanted to see Void Palace grow.

They also wanted to see it thrive!

When Damien returned to the palace, he found this atmosphere waiting for him, along with an army far more stable and powerful than he ever expected before.

'This is great.'

Damien's eyes sparkled.

'Since it's a lot better than expected, it might be about time to start.'

For their first large move, for the move that defined the beginning of the palace's rise, they were going to secure their original borders.

But before that...

'...I learned quite a lot during my time in the Southwestern Region.'

...they were going to score a win the Divine Order could never see coming.