Void Evolution System

"Ah, that…" Karlen smiled wryly.

"They are already gathered. I can take you to that location whenever you are ready."

Damien rolled his eyes.

'So it wasn't a choice in the first place.'

It seemed Karlan had been forced to grab him since he was being pressured by the fact that he was the only one missing the meeting.

He sighed once again, but he gave Karlen a hand motion to just get it over with.

With a grateful smile on his face, Karlen wrapped both of them in his aura and canceled distance.

Immediately, Damien found himself in a restaurant of sorts. It was only "of sorts" because it was too far removed from society for anyone to justify the existence of a restaurant. Everything outside was just green for as far as the eye could see.

There weren't other patrons either. It was Damien and Karlen at the entrance, and then another man and a woman who were already sitting at a table together.

Damien had been ignoring a very important point that the entire plan revolved around.

His own strength.

As things were, he had 2 weeks to surpass the two people in front of him and reach a level where he could even fight an Area Lord.

A great deal of his improvement would certainly take place during the tournament itself, but that was not enough.

Damien needed to take time to train on his own if he wanted to accomplish anything.

'I have too much to do. If only I had two bodies…'

Well, that was something to consider later as well. As of now, Damien just had to entertain his competitors and see what kind of things they wanted to talk about that required the three of them to come together.

As it turned out, those things were mainly about who was going to fight the Area Lord.

'They want to decide it now and have the other two throw the battle. This is so stupid.'

They wanted to secure their chances to be the person in that position. Assuming that all of them were roughly at the same level, fighting each other seriously during the tournament could perhaps negatively impact the person who ended up fighting the final battle.

Damien had already decided that he would be the one to do it, but he didn't plan on arguing with them to settle it now.

'Whatever they decide doesn't matter if I don't decide to follow. As long as I fight seriously during my matches, they'll be forced to play by my rhythm.'

Damien stayed since the food in this impractical restaurant was actually pretty good, but he was dismissive of the entire conversation. The other two took this as an invitation to decide things without him, so he was stuck listening to them squabble as he ate his meal.

"Regardless, I have more of an advantage over the Dragon Lord than you. I should be the one to do it."

"That may be so, but I am much better at evading and have experience in endurance battles. You are only effective for short periods of time."

'Is it okay for them to be revealing their weaknesses to me?'

The two's argument was futile and counterproductive. Damien spent the time waiting for the moment he could leave, but it wasn't going to come to him so easily.

"Like I said, you are weaker than–!"

WHOOSH!

Damien's eyes darted to the ceiling. Without hesitation, he threw his hand forward and attacked.

Yanui, the woman from the water temple, did not bother finishing her words.

As one, the three of them and Karlen immediately rushed back in every direction as the table where they sat was turned into nothingness.

Damien's eyes darted to the ceiling. Without hesitation, he threw his hand forward and attacked.

He didn't think he could hit the enemy in this circumstance, so it was a better choice to evaporate the entire restaurant and reveal them.

It was a shame to the owner, but that was exactly what Damien did.

In a single move, he broke down all non-living matter above ground level, exposing everyone inside the restaurant to the artificial sunlight.

The restaurant owner, the server, and two chefs immediately ran away without asking questions. Meanwhile, five masked men dropped from the air and faced their group of four.

Damien's eyes narrowed.

'An assassination attempt? Really?'

No words were exchanged as the battle began.

Karlen took two of them on his own as the strongest one present, while Damien, Quill, and Yanui each took one enemy for themselves.

Domains were established instantly, turning the area into a battlefield.

With that development, the would-be assassins lost their chance to hide and escape.

Four simultaneous fights started, though nobody particularly moved.

Damien's opponent particularly seemed to enjoy tormenting people. He was using similar strategies to Kura but for different reasons.

The assassin had a strangely specific understanding of human anatomy. He targeted the parts of Damien's body that would cause him the most suffering, inflicting him with lacerations, internal bleeding, disease, and even mana loss.

Damien's style was to fight with mind attacks, but that wouldn't work in this situation. Assassins who had been trained specifically to keep their minds steady wouldn't fall for his manipulation.

As such, he temporarily dealt with the assassin using physical attacks while he cooked up a method to create another surefire killshot.

All the while, he kept his eyes on the rest of the battlefield. Karlen's fight was going surprisingly well considering that he was facing two enemies. The other two were struggling, but not to the extent that they were considered under serious threat.

'They're too weak.'

Was it because they were used to fighting from the shadows…

'...or is it that they don't want to kill us?'

Damien's eyes were cold.

He left himself open for a moment, allowing one of his enemy's attacks to slip through his defense.

Though it was subtle, Damien saw the hint of panic in that man's eyes before he narrowly dispersed its momentum.

'There's something wrong with this situation.'

It was too suspicious.

'And the fighting style of those two particularly…'

The ones fighting against Quill and Yanui…

Damien was certain that he'd seen them before.

He returned his attention to the fight.

Regardless of what he thought, these people were fated to die since they'd come here.

There wasn't a chance to question them. It was only Damien's thought at first, but it became clear as the battles reached their end.

To stop the enemy from attacking, they had to kill. It was as if they were being specifically led to commit murder.

'Conspiracy.'

It was a concept the third island was rife with.

Slowly but surely, the battles ended. Yanui killed her opponent, Damien killed his, then Quill finished on his side. The other two instantly went to help Karlen and the last two were dealt with easily.

It was an attack with no provocation and an assault against all three temples simultaneously.

Someone, somewhere was targeting them.

Quill and Yanui returned to their home temples after a short farewell and a message that they'd be in contact with the Earth Temple's superiors soon.

Meanwhile, Karlen hurriedly escorted Damien back to their own temple.

Everything moved fast.

Far too fast for Damien's comfort.

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