Void Evolution System

The more he thought about it, the less he could stand it.

The Saint Emperor looked like he had plenty left to say, but Damien didn't want to hear it.

As the man opened his mouth to speak again, his eyes gleaming with an unknown emotion, Damien punched out.

Partial Existence Law covered his fist and empowered his attack, directly targeting the Saint Emperor's "existence" rather than his physical traits.

BANG!

"Hahaha, what happened?" The Saint Emperor asked, casually dodging the impact.

"Shut up."

Damien didn't entertain him.

He entered combat mode, blocking everything out but his desire to kill.

His single fist turned into a barrage. His arms moved so fast they looked like they weren't moving at all, but countless impacts crushed heaven and earth in a way that made them impossible to ignore.

The Saint Emperor took a few light steps backward for every punch. He didn't try to attack back, but merely dodged and parried everything Damien threw at him.

"Are you angry? Why? Did I offend you in some way?"

His words were filled with sarcasm. Damien's eyes were hard and not showing much emotion, but the Saint Emperor read him like an open book.

It was clear he was finding enjoyment in Damien's current mental state.

However, Damien didn't want to entertain him actively. He used his fists because he wanted to feel the impact as he struck that man, but no matter how many times he swung or how much technique he used to try and bait his opponent, the Saint Emperor didn't get hit even once.

"Did you think you could kill me with something like this? Have you forgotten who I am? Or are you merely denying reality?"

Someone who'd lived for almost a billion years had experienced more combat than Damien could ever imagine. Technique and skill meant nothing to him, because even if he didn't actively try, the experience accumulated over such a vast timespan made him untouchable.

"Tch."

Damien clicked his tongue and stepped back, retreating a few dozen meters.

He transmuted his mana into that of Spacetime and tried to manipulate the environment to his advantage, but once again, the Saint Emperor took a stance of parrying.

Space twisted in Damien's image, but in the next second, it was twisted back by the Saint Emperor's manipulation.

"Haven't I already told you? I have worked for eons to make that power mine. Perhaps I never reached it, but you have not either!"

Unlike Damien, the Saint Emperor had no connection to the Void. He used his own grit and his long lifetime to break down its components and slowly understand them all.

Those concepts like Nonexistence were inaccessible to him, but of the laws existing in reality, which one had he not comprehended?

Space and time were merely two from a pool of thousands. If it was just about manipulating them, he had skill that might've even usurped Damien!

He kept trying nonetheless.

Damien wasn't planning to give the Saint Emperor a chance to counterattack even if he had no plans of doing so.

If his most confident law didn't work, he just had to use others.

He started with Elemental, the first law he ever saw the Saint Emperor utilize.

He threw down cold ice and quickly heated it up with flames, creating a massive pressure explosion. He used the wind to exacerbate that impact, and caused earthquakes that supported the terrifying shockwave.

He used metal and lightning together, forcing the Saint Emperor to endure lightning strikes empowered by conductors. He used light and darkness to manipulate the environment and shoot a monstrous number of projectiles.

Yet, once again, he was outdone.

'Dammit!'

His rage grew with everything the Saint Emperor did. Every time he countered easily, every time he used an element better than him, every time he smiled as if he knew everything, the suffocating feeling in Damien's chest grew worse.

"You must have realized it," the Saint Emperor said giddily.

"You must have understood!"

Flash!

He was directly before Damien in the same instant his words fell.

"You and I…" he began, spreading his arms wide.

"...are perfectly the same!"

"'That' force was my original reason for finding you, that is true! However, it is you! You who embodies my will so perfectly, you who can understand me, you are the one I became so obsessed with! You, Damien Void, are the most perfect character in this universe, the one who gives me hope!"

"Shut up!"

BOOOOOM!

Damien's Divine Energy gushed out like a river through a broken dam. The entire environment was reshaped, the entire world was rebuilt with laws of his choosing.

He didn't need to be told.

He knew it well himself.

But it didn't matter.

'Why?!'

He understood the truth, but–

'–why does it have to be someone like him?!'

He had met so many people in his life, some bad and some good. He had seen many things and found many seniors and comrades he could relate to.

So why did the one he could understand most perfectly have to be this man?!

Even if it was just for a second, why could he see himself taking the same path as the Saint Emperor given the same circumstances?!

Even he was like that at the beginning.

When he first escaped the First Dungeon, he lived his life in search of entertainment to quell his insanity.

Everything he did until he met Alaric Alfheim and truly started to grow was just a means to make his life just a little bit more entertaining, to make existence less bland after leaving that hellish environment he grew up in.

What if he never met the seniors who guided him along his path?

What if he never had Rose, Elena, and Ruyue who allowed him to find himself?

What if he was alone in the darkness of the Abyss and enlightened to the ugly truth of his life, forced to find a way forward on his own?

How could he say he wouldn't do the exact same thing as the Saint Emperor?!

"DAMMIT!"

He hated it.

He hated it so much.

His hatred wanted him to kill this man and erase his presence from his life entirely.

But…

"Tell me, Damien Void. Why are you smiling?"

The Saint Emperor's words…

Damien put his hand up to his mouth.

There was a grin, a mad and wild grin he hadn't grinned in so long.

That grin was plastered across his face, those flames of battle were alit in his eyes.

He couldn't control it at all.

He couldn't deny reality.

"FUCK!"

…it was fun.

Fighting the Saint Emperor was so entertaining he couldn't stop himself from enjoying it.

This man was the only one in the entire universe who'd been able to properly match him. He wasn't lacking in any way, and Damien was able to fight to his full potential like he'd never done before.

This was a man who would've been his closest confidant if they were on the same side.

Yet, they were standing here as irreconcilable enemies, and that wasn't something that would ever change no matter how much time passed or how much Damien changed.

This twisted feeling, this twisted enjoyment, Damien couldn't stand it.

But at the same time, he loved it.

"Damien Void, do not deny it any longer. Just as much as I am obsessed with you…"

The Saint Emperor moved again, closing the distance between them in an instant with the same mad and wild grin.

"...you are obsessed with me too."