Void Evolution System

The three who arrived first were the youngest of the Lords. This didn't imply that they were young, but that they were forced by people much older than them to go and test the waters.

They were all old men. Their beards were white and the hair on the top of their heads was nonexistent. Without mana or Existence, the mechanisms used by practitioners to alter their appearances were rendered useless. The appearance they maintained would be the same one they had when their bodies became immortal and their lifespans increased.

Damien was over a hundred. In Earth terms, he'd be an old man, but with a lifespan of infinity, he was extremely young. He also never attempted to alter his appearance. His current look was as natural as it got, so he wasn't affected.

Unfortunately for many of those who reached greater heights at older ages, the young appearances they gave themselves were taken away and they were forced to deal with the fact that this was their true age.

Damien would be meeting quite a few old men and women in the future, so he'd already resigned to being the only relatively young-looking person here.

Nevertheless, his attention was half focused on these three men. The other half focused on the design.

Damien didn't actually need to do anything. The beasts in Death's Hold had been tamed to an extent now that they knew what peace felt like, but that was only concerning Damien and the other creatures in the Black Forest.

Their attitude towards intruders never changed.

If those three people stepped into this place and tried to cause a scene, they would die.

Clearly, they knew that as well. They hesitated on the edge of the forest for a very long time, trying to sense the situation inside.

They were fated to learn that it was impossible. If they wanted to investigate, they had to go inside.

These three were in an unfortunate situation, really.

Behind them stood hundreds of other Lords who would definitely make their lives hard if they returned empty-handed. They wouldn't be able to peacefully live on the second island anymore. Hell, they wouldn't even be able to create their structures and move on to the third island because of their interference.

In front of them stood a land of death from which not a single man had returned alive.

Was death better than a hellish life?

It was a question they didn't want to answer, but in this case, they had no choice but to push forward. They'd signed a pact of nothingness when they joined the ranks of the Lords.

They would act for the good of the group. If they failed to do so, they would be exterminated by the laws of the realm.

This applies to all of the rest of them as well, but they didn't need to experience the downsides of the pact when they were the ones who controlled everything.

The three of them glanced at each other with wry expressions.

Despite their thoughts, they were already moving closer to the densely packed black trees that acted like a wall protecting the forest from outsiders.

Immediately upon making their choice, the three of them released their power.

It was mostly unperceivable, but there were still signs. For instance, the man on the left side had a subtle ring of black fire circling him. It was an indicator that he and the rest were surrounded by domains. Damien subtly sent his power outward, making contact with the borders of their domains.

He instantly felt changes in his body.

'I see.'

It was a matter of preparation indeed.

The most obvious use of the domain was to even the playing field.

Whether the opponent had an advantage or not, it would bring them to the same level as the caster of the skill in order to absolve any advantages that they could possess.

In Damien's case, his physical strength plummeted.

'I'm not suppressed insanely, but it's considerable. I guess this is the average physical strength of those three.'

He had only been brought down to their level, not below it.

'Is it the battle etiquette of this realm?'

It was reasonable. If they were to fight properly with their Nonexistence, then it was obvious for them to compete at the same level.

They didn't make any drastic moves after that. They approached the forest carefully and stayed within each other's sight. Their domains overlapped, creating a huge zone of suppression that would give them an advantage against any being they faced. They weren't facing ordinary beings this time.

They knew that, which was why they came even closer together when they took their first step into the forest.

When Damien entered, there was still a process to things. The beasts wouldn't attack anyone who entered. They'd only attack when certain conditions were met.

Technically, those conditions were already met by the group of three, but even then they would have been given at least a few seconds to put away their hostility before they were assaulted.

Damien's claim on this territory changed things.

The beasts now regarded him in the same light as Nonexistence. As such, anyone other than him had been banned from this forest.

The beasts did not need to use pack tactics to confront their enemies.

Each and every one of them had equal power—absolute power in this realm. One was enough to face the three of them, however, whether it was out of respect or mockery, three beasts stood up to the challenge, one for each Lord. And a silent battle began immediately.

As Damien's intention was never to kill them in a dominant fashion, the beasts went easier with their attacks. Otherwise, how was Damien supposed to learn about battle?

A battle between two different forms of Existence was incredibly loud. Damien had fought such a battle twice in his life, and both times, they were filled with extreme scenes of splendor as reality itself was toyed with.

In its regular fashion, Nonexistence remained invisible even when it was being used aggressively.

There was indeed a battle being fought, but to an unaware observer, it looked like the beasts and the Lords were just staring at each other with hostile expressions.

Damien saw a different scene.

To him, this was just as grand as a battle of Existence.

Hidden away from the world in a conceptual realm that even the greatest Gods couldn't perceive was a battle so beautiful that he didn't know how to describe it.

Concepts were eliminated and new concepts grew in their place. The realm was like a mirage of shifting colors and imageries that would constantly change as the concepts inhabiting the space were altered.

It was a real back-and-forth fight. If one person couldn't absolutely dominate, then they were forced to take turns and test each other's skills.

Like a competition with deadly stakes, the two opposing fighters would challenge each other to find their alterations and respond before they were set in stone.

Once one person made a change that the other could not detect, it acted as an anchor off of which countless other changes could be made and woven together into a fabric that the other side couldn't pierce.

'Is it like chess?'

Not exactly, but it was a strategy game of some sort.

The knowledge and experience necessary to fight this kind of battle against people who had been doing it for so long…

'...I don't have it.'

The situation was more serious than he expected. If Damien decided to go out there and fight personally, he probably would have been crushed.

'I guess I need to take my time before going to the third island.'

Something told him that the upcoming trials wouldn't be so peaceful.

If Damien wanted to rapidly reach the end of this land and return to his home, he needed to get a lot more familiar with Nonexistence.

And right now, he was in both the perfect environment and the perfect state to do exactly that.

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