The Tale of the Void Emperor

"This...it seems that we are supposed to go inside this strange whirlpool portal," Dreevindo said as he looked at a whirlpool portal that appeared in front of them when he finished breaking through from Everlasting Legendary.

Lily, Mimi, and Huarin also had the same whirlpool portals in front of them.

They were all at a barren place in 6th Lerento where a rust power that rusted everything was present everywhere.

This was one of the highly dangerous zones in 6th Lerento. They arrived here for the last step of their breakthrough and finished it here.

"But I didn't expect it would take us two months to finish this breakthrough. This resistance I am feeling on top of this overwhelming power in my body, hahaha, we are really mythical beings now," Dreevindo said with a laugh as he waved his hand and conjured a hundred kilometers big hammer with sparkling golden and blue patterns before attacking Huarin.

Huarin snorted as her eyes shined with a dreamy light purple glow and three palm-sized orbs appeared around her with the same patterns as the glow in her eyes.

One of the orbs disappeared, and Dreevindo suddenly lost control of his hammer and went into a daze for a second.

"Damn...this dream power is really tricky to deal with," Dreevindo said as he wiped his sweat.

The hammer didn't hit Huarin but at a large mountain range and entirely razed thousands of kilometers tall mountains into dust.

"Oh shit...," Dreevindo suddenly spoke, "I am feeling a powerful attraction...wait..,

He was forcefully pulled towards the portal and entered inside after a second.

The same thing happened with Huarin as she also entered the portal.

After both of them entered inside, their portals also disappeared.

"How will brother Athan enter the Outrious Expanse? There's no portal for him," Mimi said with confusion.

Lily smiled and spoke, "Athan can enter in his own way. When he became too powerful for Orchos Firmament, the will of Orchos Firmament already approached him and told him that it can open the gateway for him to go out of Orchos Firmament and enter the Outrious Expanse."

"Ohh...," Mimi was surprised before she smiled, "that's good. Anyway, when is brother Athan coming back? He went to finish off those rats that always trailed us whenever we went, but he should be finished by now."

*Swoooooosh...*

"Well, he is here," Lily said as she saw Athan flying towards them and arrived in two seconds.

"So? Did you find out why they were keeping our tracks all this time?" Lily asked.

"Yep," Athan said with a grin, "It seems that they have prepared a big gift for me in Ascendecy Area of Okulus Zone in Outrious Expanse. Apparently, your whirlpool portals and my gate will lead to that Ascendecy Area of Okulus Zone."

"Hmmm, I don't have Ark of Exordium anymore, so we won't be able to hide like before," Lily said with a wry smile.

"It's fine," Athan said carefreely with a smile, "you two go first and if someone wants to recruit you or something, then go along with them. The people targetting me are ONLY targetting me. They have my images so they can recognize me but not you all."

Lily and Mimi were worried, but before they could speak, Athan showed his palm to them and spoke with a grin, "don't worry. With our soul connections, I can easily find you and...I have a big surprise ready for them."

Suddenly, Athan frowned as he felt that he was being observed, but this was a very different feeling than when those rats observed him.

"You two, go fast!" Athan said, "Go!"

Lily and Mimi were already feeling the powerful pull, and since Athan told them in such a serious expression, they entered inside their portals hurridly.

"Orchos, what's going on?" Athan muttered.

Right when he finished speaking, a tiny white butterfly-like wisp appeared in front of him and spoke, "well, an Anarchy Lord is trying to observe you. That being will get clear feedback of you and will be able to see you as clear as day in three seconds."

Athan raised his eyebrows before he nodded and asked, "so that person didn't see Mimi and Lily, right?"

"Nope. That being can only see and can't hear anything."

"Well, conjure that gate for me; I am leaving as well. He can take a look at me before I go since...three seconds just passed," Athan said with a smile before he looked in the sky.

A square gate appeared in front of Athan with space ripples of silver-blue in it.

"Remember my request, Athan. If you reach the top, then absorb me into your realm. This whole Orchos Firmament will be your inner world."

"Hahaha, sure," Athan said with a laugh before he entered inside the gate.

...

Athan didn't resist the powerful and mystical space power enveloping him the moment he entered inside the gate, and after two seconds, he appeared in another place, with grassy plains. There were plants here and there but no thick jungle around him.

Athan spread his soul sense, but it couldn't go after three hundred and forty kilometers radius around him. Within this radius, he sensed a total of twenty-three presences.

*pot...pot...*

"Hmmm?...," Athan was surprised because he felt very strange here. A feeling that he had never felt before.

Tiny bubbles slowly started to conjure around him, but they picked up the speed as many bubbles started to conjure rapidly.

They also burst fast, making tiny pot-pot sounds.

"A mysterious force...what it is? It's like I am transparent in front of it," Athan muttered before he observed that after those bubbles burst, even tinier symbols started to hover around him.

Those symbols looked like winged tigers. There were a total of 195 winged tigers symbols with three eyes floating around him.

"What is this?" Athan muttered as he touched those symbols. The moment he touched tens of them with his palm since they were very tiny, they disappeared.

However, they materialized again.

Suddenly, Athan felt a gaze on him as if someone was observing him.

"Well, come on," Athan spoke with a grin as he also had a party for them.

He sat down crossed-legged and closed his eyes as black and white force started to ooze out of him. A grey whirlpool also formed on top of him before slowly, the forces covered him entirely.

The whirlpool also integrated over him as a cocoon was formed.

Yep, it was the usual cocoon in which he would establish his understanding of AVOF and come out stronger. Naturally, he wouldn't last that long like the previous, but only for twenty to thirty days at most. Because according to his instincts, he would at most reach a 60% of understanding of AVOF with everything he comprehended in the past years.

He had made progress of 3% in the past years, and he could feel that he just needed to comprehend a bit more to connect dots of everything he understood during those years to get an additional 2% of the increase in his progress.