Void Evolution System

There were twelve beasts under Claire's control.

Over her several millions of years of life, she'd only ever made twelve who'd become permanent companions. All others were only ever meant to live for a single battle.

The twelve of them had their own names, ancient and in a tongue that was no longer spoken, however, after experiencing life on Earth, Claire had changed their names to coincide with the twelve zodiacs.

It was something of a memento of her time as a human.

The beast she summoned this time was the snake.

It was once an earthly beast, but as she grew, it evolved as well until it was like a manifestation of Apophis.

It was a true world serpent, able to fly in the sky and maneuver like a dragon, yet keeping its main form as a snake.

Its true form could wrap around the entire Heavenly World, but it was quite inconvenient to move around like that, so it kept its smallest possible form.

Yet, even that was hundreds of kilometers long.

Malefice saw it spawn from thin air.

He continued to attack as he had been, but subtly made distance to observe the creature.

"Go see what he can do, but don't push too hard yet."

Claire ordered the serpent forward, but also held it back.

Serena still hadn't arrived yet. She didn't want to do anything drastic until she was absolutely assured of her advantage.

Claire was no longer young. She wasn't someone who acted wildly no matter what the situation was, and she had far too much to lose.

For her to even return to the battlefield at all was already an extraneous circumstance, but for the sake of her husband, her son, and her people, she did so without hesitation.

Under her watchful gaze, the serpent slithered through the sky and approached Malefice.

Its movements seemed slow, but it didn't take more than a second for it to both arrive and start attacking.

The snake swung its tail. Despite the massive size of its body, it moved at an impossible rate.

The air exploded under its force, but as the tail continued to move unobstructed, the air's destruction became an additive force to its destructive power.

BOOOOOOOM!

It swept by Malefice's position with extreme power. Space trembled as countless cracks were formed in this film. Reality itself trembled as the Heavenly God Plane absorbed the latent power and disallowed it from going out of control.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

His darkness formed spikes that shot through the sky and stabbed into the snake's scales.

Unfortunately for him, the serpent wasn't so weak as to be pierced by such a light attack.

Malefice was small in comparison to the serpent, which was his advantage.

His maneuverability combined with his power meant that beasts of this size would actually suffer against him.

It wasn't his first time fighting an enormous beast. He already had the strategy to defeat them.

Malefice flew up above the serpent and charged his mana.

A star formed above his head, burning with a halo of white around its dark core.

It rapidly expanded to the size of a sun, and as if he didn't need to put any effort in to create such a mass, he swung his arm and casually threw it at the serpent.

BOOOOOOOOM!

It exploded into a rain of light, letting loose the laws contained within.

Darkness was a law that most people used in the same way, to corrode and corrupt.

It was the easiest use of the law, after all, and it could be taken to the highest level without a problem.

However, it wasn't the only way darkness could be used.

Malefice's darkness could be most accurately described as a law with the ability to "suppress" and "swallow."

He used it as an aggressive force as well, but that wasn't where its strengths were.

As the darkness struck the sky serpent, it didn't gain any visible wounds.

It didn't seem to be affected at all, however, the darkness latched onto its body and refused to let go, coating it like an armor.

ROOOAAAAAAAR!

The snake roared as it sensed its enemy's hostility.

Its mouth opened, and its massive fangs dripped what was, to a human, an ocean of venom.

VOOOOOOOM!

A darkness different from Malefice's appeared in the snake's maw and coated that venom, forming into needles filled with it.

As if it was shooting a breath attack, the snake aimed at Malefice and fired.

XIU! XIU! XIU! XIU!

They cut through the sky and cut the sky itself.

Malefice flew rapidly and dodged them, however, they were not as simple as mere projectiles.

They turned on a point and followed him like there were no laws they had to obey.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Malefice let his darkness loose, throwing several blasts at the needles.

The two forms of darkness fought each other, but in the end, the serpent's darkness did not submit.

The needles continued to chase, forcing Malefice to take a defensive stance.

'Hmm…'

Watching from the rear, Claire narrowed her eyes.

It looked like the serpent had the advantage, but she didn't think the same.

'He's stalling.'

Malefice was not fighting at his best. He could definitely do better than this, since the serpent wasn't one of Claire's strongest summons.

The problem was that Claire didn't know why.

'The Law of the Dark Star…no matter how much we try to research it, we can never find much.'

It was one of Straea's most guarded secrets. The palace had tried many times to discover the truth behind it, but they'd never once succeeded.

Still, Claire's instincts told her that there was something wrong with this fight. It was a feeling that provoked her to attack with her fullest power immediately to end the battle as soon as possible, which, in normal cases, went against her best judgement.

'Hmm…'

To wait or to fight…

She chose to wait.

"Push harder."

The serpent immediately registered her order.

Its slow attack style completely changed, and in response, Malefice was forced to change as well.

The sky was immediately lit up by the extremely high-speed clash.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Malefice continued to dodge for the most part. Every once in a while when he saw an opportunity, he threw some darkness at the serpent to add to the armor that was beginning to encase its entire body.

'Is it time…?'

He wanted to end this fight as much as the next person, but he was currently working with other people.

His fight with Claire wasn't just a way for him to vent the anger in his heart.

Currently, Grand Duke Famas was confronting Damien Void, the main target of the Foreign Nobility.

Malefice wasn't like his brother. He didn't necessarily have a contract or loyalty to the Foreign Races.

However, if he wanted to survive past this ordeal and keep Straea alive as well, he needed to benefit from them.

The Foreign Nobility was the only long-term ally Straea had.

And since they wanted Damien, since he had a feud with Damien's parents and family…

He was willing to hold back and prolong this battle.

When he got the signal he was waiting for, the darkness he spread could finally serve its purpose.

And Claire Ellowyn…

…could be "swallowed."