The Tale of the Void Emperor

Tiana, Avelia, Qerin, and Mike were sitting around the round table while Athan was preparing to eat the Unima fruits.

He first selected the unima fruit that Tiana took a bite from and ate it.

It looked like a normal fruit when it entered his mouth, but after a few seconds, he started to feel dizzy, and a certain kind of power pressured his soul.

But it only lasted for 5 seconds before he stopped feeling anything.

At this time, Mimi spoke, " Guardian brother, Eat another. "

Athan nodded and ate the second unima fruit that was complete.

This time, He felt the same sensation but many times stronger as he felt unimaginable pressure on his soul.

All of the crystals inside his Energy Realm started to tremble while his soul started to weaken.

It started shrinking from 50 meters big as if his soul was being used to create something along with the trembling crystals.

45 meters.

40 meters.

35 meters.

...

His soul was shrinking gradually, and it finally stopped shrinking at 5 meters.

Athan's soul weakened a lot, but a new thing appeared inside his Energy Realm.

A perfectly round white crystal ball.

This crystal ball was in the middle of his energy realm, but it did nothing.

Athan didn't feel any new powers or felt stronger.

Looking at Mimi with confusion and doubt, He asked, " Mimi...can you tell me what benefits I get after eating unima fruits? "

Mimi giggled and said, " It will create unima core inside you. Unima core is essential for strong people. "

" Umm...But I don't see any benefits of this unima core. It's not doing anything, and my soul, which was 50 meters big, now became 5 meters. "

Athan spoke as he smiled wryly. 

Mimi appeared confused, and she said with a pout, " But without unima core, you can't cast powerful magic spells. "

Athan appeared surprised as he thought, ' Does this thing strengthen my spell power? ' He then said to Mimi with a smile, " It's okay. I will know sooner or later what are the benefits of unima core. "

Mimi repeatedly nodded with a smile and said," yep yep. There are benefits of unima core. I thought guardian brother was powerful enough with his soul, but I guess I gave it too early, hehe. Anyway, its effect will be fully shown when you get stronger. "

After that, Mimi giggled and ran back to play with Lucky.

Athan, Tiana, and others went behind the mountain range to check if unima core really strengthens his spell powers.

" Mimi said that you couldn't cast powerful spells without unima core, so it might be something that I won't be able to activate or use with my current stage.", Said Athan to others.

" I feel like it's definitely the thing that requires us to be more powerful since it shrank Athan's soul from 50 meters to 5 meters, and the limit of soul at Soul Altar Plane is 5 meters max. " Avelia spoke after thinking for a bit.

Athan nodded and said, " Anyway, Let's see if my spells are strengthened or not. "

He stretched his right hand forward and released an impact shot of Ice energy, but it wasn't strengthened by unima core.

But when he used ice energy, he felt something. 

' What was that? ' A frown appeared on his face because he felt some kind of connection to something powerful when he used ice energy.

He released a few more spells of different elements and kept feeling the same thing, but he couldn't do anything about it.

' It's like I am close to grasping something powerful but not yet ready for it. '

Tiana and others saw Athan frowning and deep in thought for a few seconds before he sighed and shook his head.

They wondered what he was thinking about, but Athan looked at them and said with a wry smile, " Let's go outside. I am not strong enough to activate this unima core and don't want to waste time thinking about it. Instead, Let's try out the new soul technique I created. "

" The name of this technique is called soul-linked threads. I will use it on you all, and if it succeeds, We can train and participate in the trial without much danger while also tempering ourselves better. Alright, open your soul realms and connect the threads I am about to give to your soul. "

Tiana and others nodded, and seeing this; Athan used the technique.

He used his soul energy and created threads with it before entering them inside their soul realm.

Afterward, Avelia and others connected the thread to their soul by consuming a bit of soul energy.

Feeling the connection, Athan said with a smile, " Now let's check the duration of this technique and its limit. "

Athan took everyone outside before he returned to the special space.

" Hmmm, I can feel the connection even if they are outside, so it will probably work. " muttering this, Athan snapped his finger, and Mike and others appeared in front of him.

They were suddenly surprised to appear inside the special space.

" Hahaha, bro. This is a good technique. If it can work inside the trial, you can transport us inside the special space if we are in danger. "

Mike laughed as he realized the usefulness of this technique.

  " Indeed, but we still don't know if it will work inside the trial and every trial is different. For now, Let's see how long the threads last. "

After that, They sat down around the round table and started filling up their genome tree's 2nd branch.

They didn't make any progress in this since they were nurturing their Altar Spirits past two months.

After two hours, The soul threads linked to their soul expired, which meant that this technique's duration is two hours. 

Athan fell into thought, ' I used 10% of my soul energy, which means that it will last longer if I consume more energy to create the threads. '

The recovery of soul energy is a natural process that can't be accelerated by pills or anything. 

If he consumes all of his soul energy, then it will take 5 days for him to recover all of that in his estimation. 

Previously, he didn't spend that much soul energy since he had abundant, but now he knew.

" Alright, everyone. Let's explore outside and see if we can encounter one more trial. "

Everyone nodded as they were eager to participate in trials since they would " adjust " themselves.

Athan used 50% of his soul energy to use the soul-linked threads this time and took everyone outside.

The area had weird plants, mostly red and orange, while a few of them were green.

The ground and terrain were all dark orange and light red-colored.

After moving for a short while, they actually came across a giant tree.

The tree was actually ten kilometers tall and four hundred meters wide.

Its trunk was fully red, while the leaves and branches were a mix of red, orange, and green.

There was a hole in the shape of the giant door on the trunk, which was probably the entrance of this trial.

Athan put Tiana and others inside the special space and entered the door.

[ Welcome to the Trial of Infernal Ascendency ]

[ This trial requires six participants to start. ]

As soon as Athan entered, He arrived in a round wooden hall. Green vines were sticking to the round hall's red and orange walls, and there was already someone in the hall before Athan arrived.

The being in front of Athan seemed to be a member of the Terred Race, One of the five great races just like that Lord Tiragian and Qinci. 

[ A/N: Terred race: three tentacles in place of hands and feet, red skin color, and white eyes with a red iris. ]

Athan was surprised that he was not attacked directly this time, but then he just realized that he couldn't sense his powers or anything like energy realm or genesis realm or soul realm, just like in the trial of pandingram.

' So that's why he didn't attack me. It looks like this trial was originally meant to seal everyone's powers. '

He then decided to bring out others since there were four participants needed to start the trial.

The terred race being was shocked to see four people arriving in front of Athan and revealed confusion.

[ The Trial of Infernal Ascendecy will start now. Please select your first team trait and individual talent. ]

At this time, The terred race member spoke while looking at Athan and the group, " My name is Roukin, and I have participated in a trial of similar nature, and the rewards of this trial will be very high depending on our performance, but this nature of trial is also the most dangerous. It will probably be something that we need to work together to overcome so I suggest we work together. "

Athan and others heard this and looked at the big screen in front of them.

[ Team trait ]

1) Attack up: Every floor cleared will grant 5% attack power to all members. ( level 1 )

2) Defence up: Every floor cleared will grant 5% defense power to all members. ( level 1 )

3) Suffer Together: The damage will be shared between all members. ( can prevent someone from dying directly. )

4) Chain attack: attacking one by one will increase each member's subsequent damage greatly, with the last member's successful attack being able to instantly kill the enemy. 

[ Highest voted trait will be selected ]

There was another smaller screen in front of everyone with four different talents and a vote section with numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 that corresponded to the four-team traits.

When they looked at the list of talents, They couldn't help but reveal a confused expression.