The Tale of the Void Emperor

"Hey, If you obediently give us the treasure you got, then we will let you leave from here alive."

"You have five seconds to choose."

Athan cracked his neck and stretched his arms before saying plainly, "You don't even have five seconds of your life left."

After saying that, Athan consumed one Abyssal Blood Crystal and executed the defensive technique of his 4th Void Art known as Fetterless Void Art.

Sanctuary of Void.

He then consumed one more Abyssal Blood Crystal and executed another technique of Fetterless Void Art known as Void Predatory. This was another technique he had created alongside Sanctuary of Void in Fetterless Void Art, and these two techniques were meant to be used together.

Inside the Sanctuary of Void, several small crystals appeared with one giant black crystal with grey and red patterns on them. They floated around Athan inside the Sanctuary of Void as Athan flew towards the twelve people.

Seeing Athan coming towards them, those people looked at each other and discussed whether they should attack him or not.

However, seeing the strangeness of Athan, they decided to attack when Athan was just twenty meters away from them.

But this time, the results were different.

As soon as those attacks hit the Sanctuary of Void, they disappeared. Naturally, they were nulled by the barrier.

However, the crystals inside the barrier glowed as they released snake-like lasers that zig-zagged and hit all ten people at a fast speed.

They saw, and some even managed to conjure defense around them. The most powerful among them even created a giant shield out of caution to cover everyone, but those snake-like black lasers with red and grey sparks easily pierced through all the barriers and hit their heads.

*BOOM*

Twelve heads blasted into pieces before they simply disappeared because of this overpowering abyssal darkness at 55% understanding of AVOF.

"I knew this ability would work since it was full proof with all the practice I did, but it's good seeing it succeed its active-defensive offense function in real combat," Athan nodded with satisfaction.

The Sanctuary of Void and Void Predatory could be used together for automatic defense and counter-attack. Once someone's attack hit the sanctuary barrier, the big crystal would sense the attacker's intent and directly counter-attack through small crystals by following those intents.

Athan flew towards the blooming flower but didn't do anything because the vitality coming out from it was increasing every second, indicating that it was still in the processing of blooming.

As such, Athan waited for the flower to complete its blooming process, and then he would just eat it raw.

After ten minutes, the petals of the flower were fully opened, and the vitality coming out from it was decreasing slowly, which means that it was very close to completing its blooming process.

However, suddenly, Athan sensed a powerful aura heading here as he looked in the sky.

*Swooooooooooosh...*

A woman wearing a white and light blue long dress entered the island and arrived at the sight quickly. She had two curvy devilish horns, and her skin was pale white with deep blue marks.

Seeing that there was only one person there while the union members were gone, she frowned and spoke as she looked at Athan, "where are the other people who were here?"

"Dead," Athan plainly answered while sitting on a stone beside the giant flower.

Athan saw that the aura of that woman was drastically way more powerful than the auras of cosmic-Disaster powerhouses he felt before.

'So...she should be a legendary powerhouse. However, since I am not feeling threatened, then she should be of no threat to me,' Athan thought as he trusted his soul's instinct.

"What stage of legendary powerhouse are you?" Athan asked without caring for the woman's expression, which had turned dark and the anger in her eyes.

The woman was silent, and she wanted to make a move but didn't do anything out of caution. She tried to sense and gauge Athan's power but failed as his soul sense could go past that barrier around him.

The sanctuary of void and void predatory were still activated. The sanctuary of void still had 64% of the energy of one abyssal crystal left, while the void predatory had 67% of energy left.

"Who are you? Were you the one who killed people here?"

"Yep," Athan nodded with a smile, "don't worry. They will properly be reborn somewhere because I didn't eat their souls."

If Athan devoured any soul to strengthen his soul more to increase its capacity, then his body wouldn't be able to handle that at all.

"You...," the woman became furious but didn't attack because she was not sure if she could beat Athan, 'I can't even call for support from Legendary senior associates right now since they are way deeper into this zone. What should I do?'

"You didn't answer. What stage of legendary powerhouse are you?" Athan asked with curiosity.

The woman hesitated and decided to answer, "I just entered into the Legendary path recently," pausing here, the woman adopted a somber expression, "however, since you have killed members of Kronel Deadsea Union, then you will pay the price."

"Then I should kill you too, right?" Athan said with a smile while thinking internally, 'more food, yes.'

The woman exploded with power and was ready to....escape at a moment's notice because Athan was strange in her eyes and she couldn't measure him. To her, this meant that he was more powerful than her.

"Why do you want that puny flower that is only useful for Epic powerhouses?" the woman questioned.

"To make my body stronger," Athan said with a grin.

"But you...didn't you kill those cosmic-Disaster members?" the woman became confused.

"Yep," Athan nodded.

The woman wanted to pull her hair out because of this confusion, 'If he was strong enough to kill them, then why would he need that flower? What the damn hell?'

Shaking her head, she eyed Athan before thinking, 'he is definitely more powerful than me. I...I don't want to risk my life and die when I just finally become a Legendary plane of existence.'

At this moment, Athan moved and jumped down from the stone as he saw that the flower was not giving out any vitality and had completely bloomed.

*Swoooooooooosh..*

Athan was startled, so he turned to look at the woman, but she was not there anymore. Raising his eyebrows, he speculated, 'don't tell me she was scared and ran away? She was indeed gathering energy from the aura around her, but I thought she was going to attack.'

Athan couldn't help but smile as he shook his head, 'well, let's hope she brings more people with her later so I can strengthen my soul once I make my body stronger.'

As Athan moved towards the flower, he came out from the sanctuary of the void.

Athan changed his body structure by consuming some voidpulse and became a hundred-meter tall giant so that he could eat that whole flower in one bite.

After eating the flower, he became smaller and sat down crossed-legged inside the sanctuary of void.

'Nice...,' Athan thought as he sensed the powerful vitality of the flower he consumed and started refining his body with that vitality energy to make his body stronger.

...

After ten minutes, he stood up and stretched his leg and hands before saying, "now this feels better. But it's not enough. I need to make this body even stronger."

Athan flew out of the island before going deeper into this zone.

However, he would stop by when he sensed a powerful vitality coming from a particular island on the way and take that source of vitality for himself. Those who blocked his path were killed without mercy because in this place, either they kill you for resources or you kill them.

Ten days passed by, and currently, Athan was inside an island where four legendary powerhouses were fighting each other for a single fruit on a vine that came out from a pond.

Entering into the Legendary stage requires to make embryo of their unique power, which requires a lot of comprehension and energy, and once it's done, they need to pour a lot of orchos energy in it and develop it into the first patch. This patch is a time period as they make their mark in this Orchos Firmament to become a Legendary existence. That's why when a legendary powerhouse dies; a phenomenon extends to the whole Orchos Firmament according to the strength of that legendary powerhouse.

Once this is done, they break through and get a powerful boost that makes them hundreds of times more powerful than before. Their body and soul elevate to a new height as they enter the legendary plane of existence, starting their legendary path.

Those four legendary were in the first legendary stage called the First Patch Legendary stage, where they developed the first patch of a unique power that belongs to them and integrated it into their genealogy. Now they have to mend this patch and make it stronger in this first stage.

These four powerhouses were fighting ruthlessly with dangerous attacks. They suffered injuries as they piled up on their body. They used panacea to recover as well, and all in all, the fight lasted for five days.

Athan silently observed the entire fight since he hadn't seen legendary powerhouses fighting in the tower.

After the fight was over, nobody died, but they reached an agreement as three of them retreated and let the fourth one, who was best out of them, take the fruit.

"Cough...nice work for five days, but that fruit is mine."