The Tale of the Void Emperor

The whole atmosphere inside the tornado was filled with intense, profound vitality, but Athan sensed that there was something mystical at the center of this giant tornado.

While flying, Athan was also absorbing this vitality in his body and then refining his body with it to make it stronger.

After a while, Athan finally arrived at the tornado's center and saw a five-meter red-brown orb with shining green patterns on them.

He slowly approached the orb and saw that there was something inside it.

However, just as he reached one meter away from the orb, it intensely glowed before Athan felt overwhelming pressure on his body and soul.

His consciousness and soul clashed with something ethereal and powerful; it was trying to suck his origin soul power and his body's vitality.

'HAAAAAAAAAAAA!'

Athan's will clashed with this power as he fought back, not backing down against this pressure in the slightest!

'MY WILL! YOU CAN'T BREAK IT!'

...

Outside, Athan's body was standing still in front of the orb while there was a fist-sized crystal with a brown, red, and green pattern stuck to his chest.

That crystal came out from the orb and attacked Athan when he came near the orb. It was trying to absorb Athan's body and soul vitality power and kill him. First, it needed to break Athan's will and make him incapacitated so that Athan loses his will to resist.

However, Athan was fighting back intensely as he refused to back down. His soul and body were under such a pressure that he had never felt before, and for the first time after many years, he felt a sensation very clearly...

It was pain.

This pain coursed through his origin, his soul, his will! However, Athan continued to endure and didn't back down.

HIS WILL WILL NOT BREAK!

He would not allow that to happen!

In Athan's mind, his consciousness, he was facing off against a beast.

This beast looked like a doe with sky-reaching twelve horns. Nine spheres were floating around it, and it was so unbelievably big, simply unable to measure. It looked like a whole world!

Its majestic eyes bore down on Athan, who looked like a tiny ant in front of it.

Athan stood still against the pressure released by that world-size beast. Its eyes released such intent that it was trying to break his will completely.

However, Athan's bloodshot eye in this ethereal battle zone didn't back down in the slightest!

His arm's were crossed, and he straightly looked at those majestic eyes.

He was even smaller than the ant in front of this beast, but...that didn't matter to him!

His will was unbreakable!

Nobody can make him bow! He will not let that happen! HE WILL NOT BEND!

This battle truly brought the crisis to Athan since he would die if he failed to withstand this!

The Abyssal Void Of Fabrication can't participate in this fight of wills. This battle was versus Athan's will and that mysterious giant doe-like beast power.

An hour passed in this confrontation, and Athan's situation was worsening.

His situation was worsening, the pain was increasing, his body was losing its vitality power rapidly, and the abyssal darkness inside his body was now empty because it was spent trying to resist the external vitality sucking power of this crystal attached to his body.

The abyssal darkness would recover by a certain amount every second and would work to resist this siphoning power.

However, Athan was at a disadvantage because the amount of his abyssal darkness was truly too small compared to its enemy. So despite being of higher quality, it was losing, and Athan's body and soul vitality were consuming.

Basically, Athan was losing his lifespan due to his soul vitality getting sucked.

Athan was aware of this, but he ignored this situation. His goal was to beat this power that was trying to break his will. He felt that as long as he won in this confrontation, he would recover everything he lost and get even more.

Athan silently gazed at the giant doe, straight in its mysterious eyes without backing down.

No matter however much the pressure increased, he wouldn't bend his knees to it.

His head will not tilt down even the slightest, and his eyes will not blink even once.

'You...can't do anything to me. You can't!' Athan roared.

'YOU MUST BOW DOWN AGAINST ME!'

The eyes of the giant beast waved as it sensed the resolve and unbreakable will of Athan.

It gave one last push as overwhelming pressure bore down Athan even more than before.

However, Athan...didn't even budge.

His eyes remained the same, his stance remained the same, and his will...grew stronger! He went up to fight against this pressure!

Athan stretched his right hand towards the world-size beast before, for he made a capture motion with his hand and roared, 'BACK DOWN AND COME TO ME!'

'SERVE YOUR NEW MASTER!'

*HOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....*

The beast released a strange cry before.....

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM....*

The world-size beast turned into colorful smoke and disappeared. The pressure boring down on Athan also disappeared, and his consciousness returned from that ethereal battlefield.

The crystal on his chest dimmed down before it slowly merged into Athan's body. Naturally, Athan knew about it and allowed it to enter inside his body.

Right now, he was not feeling any malice from that crystal but instead, he was receiving boundless vitality from it.

His stick-sized body returned to normal in a few seconds while his soul also received back its soul vitality and hit the ceiling in it.

His soul energy became stronger due to this, and his soul was slowly nourishing.

His body had the same thing happening to it.

That crystal released countless threads from it that wrapped Athan's physical body's heart and enveloped it before the crystal went towards his soul and entered inside it before becoming his soul's new heart.

Athan received knowledge regarding it and finally knew what that crystal was.

"Unbound Vitality Spectrum Heart," Athan muttered as he took a deep breath and started training.

His body was receiving vitality, but to make his body stronger fundamentally and reach a new realm, he will have to use voidpulse to break his body's limit. Only after breaking limits can his body continue to get strong.

Same thing with his soul...

Inside the void region, those nine legendary powerhouse souls were suppressed to the extreme with grey chains, and they couldn't do anything.

They could sense each other's presence and talk as well but were in despair because of their situation.

They couldn't even activate their Legendary Nexus because Athan entirely destroyed their bodies. Well, nobody wanted to self-destruct in the first place, but after arriving in this strange place and their soul suppressed to the extreme, they were in despair.

They felt that their souls wouldn't pass on and reincarnate because this demon was surely going to do something to them since he trapped them here.

Suddenly, everyone started panicking because the total presence around them was reduced by one.

Which means that someone's soul just disappeared.

'W-what happened?'

'Please, Athan! Lord Athan, please, let us go.'

'Let us at least pass on so we can reincarnate.'

'I don't want to die a true death!'

At that moment, Athan(his soul) appeared in front of them.

Athan's soul was far bigger than them because Athan had suppressed these nine people's souls.

They saw a soul in Athan's hand and started begging to let them go.

"True death?" Athan looked at them with a smile, "do you know what true death is? It's a death where you truly die, and everyone forgets about you. Any trace and memory of your existence in reality are totally removed. That's called true death."

"I have experienced that, and I came back from that pit as well," Athan spoke with a devilish grin, "don't worry. You all will not die a true death except for two out of you. I will let go 1% of your soul's origin so you will once again reincarnate like a normal being after passing through whatever this Orchos Firmament's system is."

Hearing that, everyone became grateful but was also scared because two people would not be spared.

Actually, this was just self-salvation for them. After all, once they die, they will really die. Even if they were reborn, they wouldn't have any recollection of their previous life nor any connection with it.

But they just wanted to have that self-salvation, and Athan decided to give them since they were not his enemies. Naturally, two truly ruthless people who had crossed Athan's bottom line wouldn't be spared. He had seen everyone's memories and knew that none of them was a saint, but two of them were just...too much.

Anyway, letting go of 1% of their soul origin was nothing to Athan. He would just harvest more souls later and absorb 99% of their origin soul power to elevate his soul while letting 1% of it go as long as they didn't break Athan's bottom line.

As such, Athan took their souls one by one and let go 1% of their soul origin outside before putting their souls into the whirlpool to refine and absorb their powers.

He was doing another work at the same time, and it was about breaking his body's limit so that he could continue to refine and enhance his body through the vitality he was getting from Unbound Vitality Spectrum Heart.

Athan felt that there was some profound power in that heart, but he decided to comprehend it later.

For now, he would focus on getting both his body and soul stronger.

After putting seven souls in the whirlpool and letting their refining process slowly start, Athan looked at the last two souls.

"You, from Grand Poop Empire, right?" Athan said with a smile, "you will suffer some more pain."

"As for you, Blackhand, was it? You are truly a vile person. You both will suffer more since I got tons of void pulse to recover you after destroying you every time."

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

....