Void Evolution System

Elena stopped pursuing her Valkyrie heritage in the sense of power when she put her whole heart into Transcended Death. At that time, the armies of Valhalla that she'd raised also became useless.

But she didn't want to completely throw them away. After all, they were incredibly useful and loyal to only her.

The main reason Elena hadn't used them in a long time was simply because her fighting style changed.

When she was young, she was a close combatant. As she grew, she slowly became someone who fought from the backlines. And as her Divinity formed, shaping her power to be truest to her, she gained the ability to do both without losing anything.

Her potential was maximized, and suddenly, she realized how to connect her Valkyrie heritage with the Transcended Death that she now prioritized.

This way, it could still become a piece of her power without inhibiting her.

It was difficult for the majority of her Valkyrie-related skills, but the Souls of Valhalla were completely different.

They accepted her power without any issues, as if they'd been born to control death from the start.

And they evolved.

Their pure white appearances were shifted into a mixture between darkness and light. Their empty souls now contained true vitality, and in a certain sense, they had been reborn.

They still used their signature weapons, but they weren't all close combatants anymore. They'd gained a variety of classes that could work together to achieve stupendous results.

Elena had never been able to actually test them. She'd enhanced them to the best of her current abilities, but they had never used those powers against enemies.

After all, the Souls of Valhalla were not living humans, so they did not respond well to simulations and other similar training methods.

This was truly their first time in this world, and facing ten high-rank Demigods in their first battle, their fighting spirits soared.

OOOOOOOOOOH!

It was a roar filled with spirit, completely different from that of the monstrosity Elena created before.

It was the combined chant of over ten thousand troops who'd appeared in this place. Ten thousand immortal soldiers who were more than ready to die endlessly for their Empress.

They charged without hesitation, understanding their orders without being told.

Suddenly, Elena found herself an observer in the battle she was supposed to be fighting.

'I expected them to have fun, but I didn't expect them to be like this.'

These were soldiers she'd created a personal connection with over time.

When they originally found her, they were wandering souls without names or egos. That wasn't the case anymore.

Each of them remembered the name they held in the past. They regained their egos, and they consciously made the choice to serve Elena, acknowledging their current form.

These troops weren't puppets anymore. They were actual warriors of Valhalla who wanted nothing more than to see blood again after being reborn.

And the display they put on made that painfully obvious.

They outnumbered the enemy 1000 to 1. They were fragile, sure, but there was no way they'd actually disappear unless Elena decided they needed to cease existing.

And until she ran out of mana, they wouldn't stop attacking.

With ten thousand warriors flooding the area, the ten high-rank Demigods were rapidly separated from each other.

Each and every one of them was surrounded by a swarm of warriors who cut with their weapons, threw magical attacks filled with the power of Transcended Death, and did anything possible to draw their blood.

What made it worse was that nothing they did was able to stop the swarm.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Fire, water, ice, earth, lightning, blood, wind…

It didn't matter what law they used; the impact they could actually make was negligible.

When the Souls of Valhalla died, their corpses would become a ghostly fog that held its enemy's legs and trapped them in place.

The other souls would then crowd the area and use the opportunity to attack.

That was it, right?

Wrong.

The more one killed, the more stuck one would become.

And as more souls died and became fog, those who originally formed the fog would revive and return to battle.

It was unending. The situation was absolutely unsalvageable.

Two of the high-rank Gods gave up and died after ten minutes of this constant torment.

As for the other eight…

'At least a few of them should be feeling it by now.'

Their bodies became heavier, sluggish. Even without the ghostly fog, they felt like they were moving through molasses.

Their eyelids especially. It was hard to keep them up, and a sudden wave of exhaustion made five of the eight drop to their knees and succumb to the swarm around them.

They couldn't see it, but they were much skinnier now than they were when the battle first started.

Their ribs were poking through their chests, and their eyes were sunken in like zombies.

They'd never realized it because Elena never gave them a second to rest, but the reason she attacked so constantly was also for that exact reason.

The faster they expended energy, the faster they were drained.

And now that so much time had passed…

Wasn't it about now that the combined effects of Yggdrasil and the deathly mist should've started working their magic?

The life-siphoning effect may have been the most basic aspect of Life Laws, but its potential was extremely high.

Even at the highest levels of existence, people had vitality. Vitality actually became more important in Divinity and Godhood.

The ability to siphon it meant that not only could one slowly whittle away at and defeat their enemy, but one could weaken their Divinity by draining their vitality.

These high-rank Demigods were effectively middle-rank, while those deceased middle-rank Demigods had been suppressed to low-rank.

And since they'd never made moves to eliminate the siphoning effect from their bodies…

They were now feeling the effects of having no vitality to support them.

Those five who fell to their knees died immediately. They didn't have enough strength to survive against Elena when they weren't fighting back.

As for the last three, two of them managed to stay on their feet with sheer will, while the last was inching closer to death with every passing second.

'These three…'

The fact that they were still alive was genuinely impressive.

Even if it was Elena herself, if her vitality was being siphoned at an unrestricted rate, she'd be exhausted within an hour at most.

Her vitality was monstrous due to her Laws and Divinity. For people who were more normal in these aspects…even five minutes was too long to hope for.

'Damn.'

There was no hope for any of them. If she even tapped them, they'd die on their own.

'I shouldn't have brought out the army. It just ended everything too fast.'

She scratched her head awkwardly as she watched those three slowly drown in a sea of souls, turning into bloody splotches on the ground.

'I guess I have to find some more of them to practice on.'

If anyone thought she was done here, they were severely underestimating the amount of time she had to hypothesize countless techniques.

'But it's fun.'

Being out in the outside world was great.

And as long as she continued on like this…

'...I don't think catching up to him will always just be a dream.'