The Tale of the Void Emperor

The gemstone on Athan's forehead shined before countless tendrils appeared on his body as if channeling the intense energy of Abyssal Blood Crystal into every fiber and cell of his body for a brief second.

His body slightly changed as he became taller; his hands and legs became finer with stylist protruding patterns that looked like small black pipes with white and red patterns.

This was his third void frame: Arcane Lord.

Athan pointed his finger at Yokan as a small orb released from his index finger. That orb went on top of Yokan before covering him with a whirling barrier of darkness and whiteness.

"It looks like you were the one who destroyed that mountain," the middle-aged man spoke as he narrowed his eyes and exploded with even more power and summoned two gates of hell behind him as two large great demonic swords came out from them.

The man held those swords before the hell gates released ten hellish beasts of different types.

"Hellcraft Devil Clan!" Yokan exclaimed as he knew about the clan who utilized the same power used by the middle-aged man.

"B-brother Athan...this barrier will hold against his attacks, right?" Yokan fearfully spoke as he looked at Athan, who looked more mysterious.

However, right after he finished asking that, the left arm of Athan burst and exploded.

Yokan became blank as he looked in the sky and muttered, "sorry, father and mother. I might not come home today."

"Don't worry," Athan said while shaking his head wryly, "that baldy is not making my soul feel even a bit of threat, which means that...he is at food-level for me."

"What?" Yokan was confused. However, he saw that Athan's arm recovered extremely fast, with tiny white and red threads connecting everything back in a second.

"Who are you?!" the middle-aged man questioned with caution in his eyes. He had summoned his most powerful weapons, those two giant swords and also his best hellcrafts beasts, and also used his buffing abilities to make his body stronger and tougher.

However, he didn't attack right away because of how strange Athan felt to him. He just couldn't make heads or tails about Athan.

'If destroyed that mountain, then he is obviously at the same level of power as me or...above. It all depends on our accumulation, techniques, and abilities,' the middle-aged man thought as he looked at Athan and waited for Athan's answer.

"I am Athan," Athan said with a smile, "so you want the person responsible for destroying that mountain? Was there anything valuable on that mountain?"

"There was," the middle-aged man nodded grimly, "two lords of my clan were cultivating plants and flowers there using the energy of that disastrous mountain. If you can pay for the things we lost, we will not find trouble with you."

"I can't pay because I am poor," Athan said as he shook his head.

*Burst!*

Athan's right leg burst into a bloody mesh, but it recovered perfectly after a second, the same way as his arm.

Both Yokan and the middle-aged man looked weirdly at Athan for this strange situation.

"Why are you not attacking me?" Athan asked as he narrowed his eyes, "because you are not sure of defeating me, right?"

"Indeed," the middle-aged man nodded indifferently, "however, don't take that stance as me fearing you."

"You should fear, though," Athan muttered.

"Huh, how arrogant," The middle-aged huffed as he intensified his aura, ready to attack a moment's notice.

"It's a fact," Athan said with a grin, "if I don't feel a threat from you, then you should feel it instead, but you can't feel it because you are not capable of feeling that."

"Anyway, I can imagine what would have happened to me if I was weaker than you, so....off you go in your new life since I am not devouring your soul," Athan said as he pointed his hand at the middle-aged man.

"Humph,!" the middle-aged man roared as he pointed both of his demonic swords at Athan, releasing two different types of thick energy laser attacks with destructive aura, and the ten hellish beasts also opened their mouths and released different types of attacks.

"Good decision to your full power, but it's useless," Athan muttered as he opened his hand's palm before those attacks could reach ten meters in front of him and released his most powerful directly offensive attack of a large area from his third void art, related to third Void Frame.

Third Void Art, Second Ability: Mayhem of Arcane.

Athan's body glowed as those eccentric patterns on his body pulsed with intense energy before an orb with countless linear grey lights with red patterns going crazy everywhere inside the orb released from his palm.

Right after that orb was released from Athan's palm, it expanded enough to cover all incoming attacks and...

*Zooooooooooooooooooooom....Chichihcichichcihcihcihcihc...*

"Wha-"

The middle-aged man saw all of his attacks getting destroyed by those countless blinking linear lights from the orb after the orb exploded and shot towards him.

He had no way to dodge such a large attack with not a single point of centimeter unchecked in that range.

He conjured his most powerful defending techniques and barriers he could, but...

The first linear blinking grey light hit his barrier, directly passed through it, and pierced his body.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....t-this...soul p-power as well? ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...."

Those countless linear lights shredded that middle-aged man into pieces in two seconds before not even a shred of his lingering aura was left.

"Let's continue," Athan said as he looked at Yokan and turned around.

The barrier around Yokan disappeared, but he had a dumbfounded expression on his face and pointed at the place where the middle-aged man died, "W-what about that?"

The place where the middle-aged man died at those grey linear blinking lights stationed into absolute stillness. They were at least millions of those lights, but they were still and just blinking.

"That? On, I used all of my energy in that attack, so there's still so much of it left," Athan said with a wry smile.

"B-but...but what will happen if someone comes near them? People can't even measure this attack since it gives off a very strange aura," Yokan said.

"Well, if someone came into one-meter range of those lights, then...mayhem will happen," Athan said with a grin before he turned around, "now let's go.. I need to strengthen my body fast. Didn't you see how it was unable to hold my power?"