The Tale of the Void Emperor

After the first round, the top 32 candidates who killed the giant monster fastest moved to the final round, which was simple.

The final round was also related to fighting against monsters, but it was a bit complicated this time.

"Since everyone understands the rules of the final round, let's start! Rank 1, you will go first!"

Athan walked towards the portal door and entered inside as he appeared at the edge of a cliff. Behind him was absolutely nothing. It was just plain blankness with a deep, unending abyss.

However, in front of him was a square box with a small hole in it. Even further in front of him was a vast land filled with giant trees and mountains. However, one mountain was tallest of all, but it was also the furthest. This tallest mountain peaked at a hundred kilometers high in the sky!

First came the large forest with kilometers tall trees. The tricky part about this forest was that the higher you fly in the forest, the more gravity you will feel. Sinish clearly spoke that it's impossible for anyone to fly over the forest, and if one tried, they would be smacked down with a greater force.

So everyone must go through the forest and reach the mountainous area before climbing the tallest mountain to take a flag at the top.

Naturally, the forest and mountains are filled with monsters, and the candidates will have to go through the forest and reach the tallest peak where a golden flag is fluttering.

After taking the flag, they will have to run back and return to their starting point before putting the flag in the hole on the box.

Athan didn't waste time after entering the trial domain because his void frame: Extremity Drifter was still activated as he had yet to consume all of its power.

There was still 64% of its capacity left since the skill, Point of Extremity, only consumed 36% of the power of Abyssal Blood Crystal fuel.

As such, Athan blazed through the forest with nothing blocking his path.

*ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM....*

No monster or tree could block him as he just continued flying towards the mountain with the wings that materialize when he activates the Void Frame: Extremity Drifter.

From the start of the forest to the foot of the mountain was one thousand kilometer distance, but Athan crossed it in five seconds. This was actually slower than he expected because the space of the Orchos Firmament was more powerful and its wind and atmosphere resistance was more sturdy.

As Athan cut through the forest, there was a wake of destruction as a large trail of the empty path was formed from start to finish.

After arriving at the foot of the mountain, Athan flew up and reached the mountain's peak in one and a half seconds.

Several monsters had put a blockage, but they died instantly as Athan just passed through their bodies, killing them instantly before he arrived at the top of the peak.

40% of the power was consumed by now, so he was left with only 24% of the power.

After grabbing the flag, Athan decided to fly from the peak and return at the starting point while flying, 'let's see if whatever force above the forest can stop my abyssal void of fabrication.'

Athan's Extremity Wings blinked as he disappeared and flew towards the forest as he activated his void field from the void cloak.

However, a strong pressure bore on him right after he did that, and the void field around him was rapidly depleting its power. The void field could negate anything coming at him into nothingness, but it naturally consumed abyssal darkness to do that.

The void field was broken in a second as a powerful pressure bore onto his body.

His entire body was hit with a powerful force that jumbled his body to its foundation as blood came out from his eyes, nose, ears, etc.

"HAAAAAAAAAH!" Athan shouted as he condensed his body structure and consumed another Abyssal Blood Crystal to activate a defensive skill that he created: Sanctuary of Void.

A structure of countless red and black threads appeared around him and turned into an orb that pulsed with a faint black glow every brief second as they released vibration waves containing the effect of abyssal darkness.

This skill was from the 4th Void Art: Unbound void Art and skills originating from this void art can be used in all void frames. Naturally, all skills in his four void arts can be used in all void frames, but their power would vary if they were used compatibly. For instance, the Point of Extremity would show its full power only when Athan was in his Extrmity Drifter void frame.

However, the skills from Unbound Void Art would show their full power any time he used it, even if he didn't activate any void frames.

The thing to note is that his void art and void skill both consume the unique energy of Abyssal Blood Crystals.

Once Athan consumes 2 Abyssal Blood Crystals to activate a void frame, he can use it for 30 minutes.

However, if he uses any skills from the void arts, then that duration would reduce. Naturally, Athan can consume Abyssal Blood Void Crystal to fuel himself once again.

Point of Extremity consumes 36% of the unique energy of a single Abyssal Blood Crystal minimum. However, the full-powered Point of Extremity consumes a total of 97% of the unique energy of a single Abyssal Blood Crystal.

97% is the limit of Athan, which is the power-up of 3 seconds, unlike the 1 second power-up he used against the three-headed monster in the first trial.

Even if he intends to consume more energy to power up the Point of Extremity to its 4th second, he can't do it as it would be too much to handle for his body, and the skill would be executed right away as he wouldn't be able to hold it any longer.

On the other hand, the Sanctuary of Void has a larger capacity as the full-powered version of this skill is achieved by consuming 2 Abyssal Blood Crystals.