Void Evolution System

It was quiet around Damien. His situation had yet to erupt into something uncontrollable, mainly because he was controlling himself.

However, it wouldn't be long before it erupted, and when that happened…

Well, the consequences of offending Damien didn't need to be mentioned, did they?

Currently, Claire was the one in a more serious predicament.

As the battle progressed and Malefice revealed more of his power, she was forced to call out two more summons to both protect herself and attack.

Along with the Snake, the Horse and the Rat had also been summoned.

The snake's fighting power was a bit weaker than the rest. It mainly focused on containing enemies within a certain area and cornering them.

The horse was its perfect support. A beast that had mighty physical power, the horse's legs could produce power that could shatter stars with ease.

As for the rat, he was a king of his people. His power came from neither attack nor defense, but from numbers.

The rat's body was made up of trillions upon trillions of smaller rats. They could move as a swarm through any environment, able to survive in even the harshest conditions, and they would not stop until their goal had been achieved.

They didn't care if they died, nor did they care about their fellows. The only thing that mattered was Claire's order.

The rats had an extremely high reproduction rate, higher than almost any other animal. As such, no matter how many of them died, more would always be available to replace them.

The rats usually didn't come out, since Claire never had the need to destroy large populations or areas.

However, they were not being used to attack this time.

The massive horse, which was winged like a Pegasus yet not a Pegasus at all, clopped through the air confidently, rapidly approaching Malefice with the speed of lightning.

BANG!

It whipped its body to the side and kicked him fiercely.

Malefice blocked with his arms. He was sent flying back by the momentum, but he wasn't injured.

VOOM!

His power swirled to life.

He pushed his arm forward, setting up a defense against the horse that was already charging again.

XIU! XIU! XIU!

He narrowly avoided the snake's projectiles, and before they could turn around to aim at him again, he shot several waves of darkness out to destroy them.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

They exploded in the air, raining venom into the sea of darkness below.

Meanwhile, the horse arrived and slammed into the barrier he'd previously set up.

The mana shattered instantly, but the horse's momentum had also been completely destroyed.

WHOOOOSH!

Malefice stepped on the air and rushed past the horse. As he skimmed its massive body, he extended his finger to just barely touch it.

A line of darkness followed his movements, attaching itself to the horse that turned around to attack him.

Flying higher into the sky, Malefice charged up another dark star, throwing it downward without aiming at anything in particular.

BOOOOOOOOM!

The dark light produced by its eruption blinded the horse's vision for just a moment.

The darkness splattered outward and hit the snake.

At this point, only its eyes remained uncovered.

Malefice narrowed his eyes.

He flicked his hand forward, collecting his mana together.

A line of energy shot from his finger, flying past the snake and the horse. It headed for Claire directly, attacking the summoner rather than the summons.

With three of her main beasts out, Claire had a lot more room to observe the battlefield from the back line. She didn't miss the tiny sliver of energy shooting towards her, but she also didn't trust it in the slightest.

"Rat."

WHOOOOOOOSH!

It wasn't a sound of wind. More like waves crashing against each other.

They appeared from nowhere and multiplied instantaneously.

Like zombies in a world apocalypse, they crawled over each other and formed a massive wall around Claire.

XIUUUU!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The line of energy split into three and slammed into the rat wall.

The three points exploded into masses of blackness that warbled and fluctuated strangely.

Millions of rats were immediately trapped within the blackness, and as it registered targets within its grasp, it transformed into three black boxes that felt oddly similar to Damien's Dimensional Cage.

The concept was the same.

The Law of the Dark Star managed to combine darkness and space in such a way that it could create an improved version of the Dimensional Cage, which, in the techniques of the Straea Clan, was known as the Dark World.

It entrapped its subjects in eternal darkness as space compressed around them and squished them into a paste.

If it hit Claire…

Nevertheless, she sensed the danger before the attack was even close to her, and she acted accordingly.

'Horse and rat aren't enough.'

On top of that, the serpent was no longer responding to commands.

The instant Malefice's darkness covered its eyes, it became frozen in the sky like a statue. Claire could sense its life fluctuations, but its connection with the outside world had been completely cut off.

'Those three…it's not time yet.'

There were three summons among the three who absolutely could not be summoned.

Because the chaos that would be wrought onto the world with their mere presence was not something Claire could easily let loose.

As for the others…

The Rabbit simply wasn't suited for combat. It was a healer. The Ox and Goat wouldn't be of much use in this situation, while the rooster was also not a combat summon.

'In the end, there are only two.'

Claire's power was extremely limiting.

She'd made it that way on purpose, because the things she did when she didn't have a limit went against the Heavenly Order.

If she continued on that path, the world would be brought to ruin.

She may have been a user of Creation, but there was a reason Damien was born with an affinity for Destruction.

His father was a monster, and his mother…

She was a monster that only his father could stop.

The 12 summons who were now Zodiacs were her limiters.

Without them…

"Dog, Pig."

She called them out, and they naturally appeared.

One was a massive shadowhound that seemed to have come from the depths of hell. As for the other…

It was just a regular-looking pig.

"You know what to do."

Claire didn't need to give them orders. They were some of the more intelligent beasts in her collection.

AWOOOOOOOO!

The shadow hound let out a howl, a war cry, and instantly shot into battle alongside the horse.

As for the pig, it remained beside Claire, its expression unchanging.

"Do you think you'll have to use me?"

It spoke. Odd coming from a pig, but not so much considering Claire blessed it with sentience.

"I do not know. I am making preparations just in case."

The pig glanced at her.

It had been with Claire the longest. It was created before she even knew how to create biological matter through pure happenstance.

And despite how long it had traveled together with her…

…Claire had only ever used its power twice.

It didn't know why it had been called out at a time like this, especially when this battle didn't necessarily seem like one she would lose.

But since it was here…

'...she thinks she might die.'

It was true.

Claire wasn't assured of her survival.

Not necessarily because of Malefice Straea, though.

'She hasn't come.'

Serena Krone, her sister and the person who was supposed to be fighting this battle with her.

She was late.

And if she, who ruled over time itself, was late by even a second…

Then something had gone horribly wrong already.