Void Evolution System

Arulion had been moving at an incredible speed. It was as if August's appearance in the kingdom provoked all the small things that had been hiding in the shadows to come to light. Especially with him spending ten years inside of a time dilation, it was hard to believe that only a few months had passed in real-time.

In fact, it had been less than half a year since August first hatched out of his egg and latched onto Damien.

Unbelievable, wasn't it?

It was even more so for the people in the Heavenly World. None of them really had information on what was happening in Arulion, but if any of them knew that Damien somehow managed to find a son and raise him in this short period of time, they'd be bewildered beyond belief.

After all, the Heavenly World experienced these few months quite slowly. When Damien returned from his meeting with the Dark God, all Dimensional Cracks existing in the world suddenly disappeared. The foreign territories left in those places served as a reminder of the connection between the two worlds, but it seemed as if the Sacred Abyss had completely given up on their siege.

That, of course, was a misdirection. Those of Void Palace knew better than anyone that this was only the prelude to a much greater battle.

Perhaps it would even be the battle to end them all.

Nevertheless, ever since Damien went to Arulion, his people had been properly taking care of matters in the world he left behind.

The remnants of both the Divine Order and the Straea Clan were completely eradicated. Of course, aside from Malevalon Straea, who was now an eternal piece on the Dark God's board.

The Northern and Southwestern Regions were alleged as necessary. The Kyushu Federation was given their share of the profits, and the rest was turned into bases for newly born branches of the palace.

In these few short months, Void Palace managed to rise far above its peers in every possible way, and Claire Ellowyn found herself responsible for all decisions concerning this world's populace.

Dante was awake, but, plagued by nightmares and the stain of the Dark God in his psyche, he kept himself hidden and focused on helping Claire manage her workload. For now, the only people who knew he was awake were Claire and Serena.

Right, Serena was there as well, but she didn't have any time to help Claire.

She had an extremely important role of her own.

Every single day in the time that had passed was spent setting up a massive array across the entirety of the Heavenly World. Tens of billions of people were employed and spread across the lands to lay small parts of the whole, which didn't connect and form a circuit until the very last moment.

Forming the array wasn't the only thing that needed finishing, after all.

For context, this array was something Serena had to come up with after Damien revealed his wager with the Dark God to her.

It was made to slow time throughout the Heavenly World. Damien said they needed as much time as possible and left Serena to figure out what the actual amount of time they could gain was.

It really depended on her own ability. Since she, a Supreme Goddess of Time, was someone that even Damien acknowledged as more skilled than him in the manipulation of the law.

Serena spent several months brainstorming and putting all of her comprehension into gaining more time. She started at only five extra years. When an array needed to be at a scale that covered the entirety of a Universe World, its power was too spread out to work the same way it did on a smaller scale.

That was only a week into her research phase. It was a miracle for Serena to gain even five years on her first draft of the array.

With months of planning following that moment, with repeated testing and experimentation, along with a great understanding of laws that couldn't be matched, Serena increased that duration manifold.

The actual final time limit was unknown to even her, because the array that gave her the most successful results was also the one she had the least control over.

The base concept was simple. In one fell swoop, it would harness the entirety of the world's mana and use it to alter the folds of reality. This was a plan that could only be understood theoretically. By the calculations that could be made, Serena estimated that they'd gain anywhere between fifty and five hundred years.

After all, who could truly calculate how much mana the world had? Who could calculate how much of that mana would actually be siphoned?

Mana was originally a force that acted on its own will at times, so there was too much variability for any stable result to be produced.

Regardless, any other system would gain fifty years at most, so, in the time that she had, this was the best thing that Serena could come up with.

At least it had a chance of giving them more time. That was what remained most important.

In the several months of the array's creation, preparations were made all around the world.

Firstly, they needed a way to affect both the base reality of the Heavenly World and all of the hidden worlds that existed inside of it.

Secondly, they needed to secure any area that would be affected by the mana siphoning.

Mainly, prisons, vaults, and other establishments that absolutely could not be allowed to lose power.

The process would have taken an incredibly long time if the palace's forces had to do it all on their own. When the entire world was under their command, however, things were different.

The amount of power that Void Palace held nowadays really couldn't be underestimated.

Two great clans had been torn to the ground because they'd made an enemy of the palace. Whether they had help or not was a nonissue. Just that fact alone was enough to put reverence into the hearts of most and pure fear into the hearts of the rest.

The people of the Heavenly World could no longer refuse their orders. If the palace said something, then it was law.

Everywhere around the world, special devices were installed into the most important facilities to exist.

In a sense, that was the moment when the palace gained complete control over this world.

But, that was never their goal. It was merely a necessary privilege to have if they wanted to turn this world's people into an army that could fight against the Sacred Abyss.

Putting everything else aside, unlike Arulion, the Heavenly World was fully equipped to survive the mana dispersion without baring themselves to chaos.

Unfortunately, their draconic brethren were so intent on staying isolated that it was impossible to send them a message about what was happening.

The array was to be activated as soon as possible. Was there another reason to put such a small amount of time between the introduction of the idea and its inception in reality?

On that day, everyone in the Heavenly World stayed in their homes, awaiting the great change.

For the first time in history, there wasn't a single sentient being outside. It was silent on a worldly scale, with only the sounds of nature inhabiting every inch of the countless billions of kilometers of the world.

And, under Serena's direct supervision, the members of the Krone Clan installed the final link in the array.

The entire clan came together and transferred the entirety of their combined mana into the array.

The strip of runic letters they surrounded glowed with a bright golden light that immediately shot out into the world.

There were three hundred and thirty-four great rings that encircled the world from different angles.

The golden light spread through the ring it first originated from until it reached both points where all of the rings connected simultaneously.

That was the moment everyone had been waiting for.

The light exponentially multiplied and instantly spread through every single ring, and in that moment, a mystical thing happened.

The silence in the world was amplified to an extreme degree.

Even the winds quieted down as the atmosphere of the world transformed.

Time slowed to a crawl. A wave spread through the air, dispersing any and all mana and sending it on a path towards the runic lines of the array.

In the Heavenly World, countless individual specks of light illuminated the places where alternative energy was used to temporarily sustain function.

And though hardly anyone could actually sense the change, aside from their bodies being somewhat sluggish for a moment, the activation of the barrier was the start of something monumental.

Both for the Heavenly World, where an army of quintillions was soon to be raised…

…and the Dragon Kingdom of Arulion, where only chaos was in store for the people.