The Tale of the Void Emperor

" Hey human, You didn't tell us your name yet. It would be weird to call you just human. "

Athan glanced at Hemakel before saying plainly, " Athan. "

" Why don't you touch the statue, Athan? " 

Hearing Ferexa, Athan's eyes twitched, " No, I'm good.  You two do the touch thingy. "

" I'll go first. " Saying this, Ferexa observed the statues. All statues were grey stoned.

After a minute, she touched a statue that looked like a bull with four horns and a third eye. Its size wasn't the biggest but was on a smaller scale among the statues.

*Roarrrrrrrrrr...*

The bull's statue cracked before its real body appeared, but The bull didn't even wait for half a second as right after the cracking from the statue, Its horns released a green cannon beam towards them.

Its pitch-black body and shining green four horns looked deadly, and its three blood-red eyes indicated that it was out for blood. 

Ferexa hurridly arrived in front of the cannon beam and used a kind of technique that turned her hands into a hexagonal crystal shield. 

Hemakel was also ready as he used two barrier spells to cover them.

The cannon beam broke the barriers after two seconds of struggling and hit the hexagonal shield of Ferexa, where she finally defended it.

But another beast was also ready to attack them as the roar came was heard before was from another beast and not the bull.

Athan didn't waste any time and targetted the demon bull. Using 5% of his genome power, He punched out.

*Shuaaa...Chreeeeeeee.....*

But the second beast that looked like an armored sabertooth tiger with two horns arrived right behind them and roared one more time as it released a powerful sound attack imbued with wind, space, and other offensive attributes.

Hemakel was preparing for it in the first place, and that's why he didn't put more powerful barriers to block the demon bull's attack.

Four additional barriers of different defensive nature and a shield appeared that covered them from behind right after Ferexa blocked the laser cannon attack of the bull.

He waited after the demon bull's attack was over so that he could conjure more powerful barriers against the Sabertooth tiger.

While he blocked the Sabertooth doom beast's attacks, Athan's fists already bore two holes in the demon bull's body. After that, Ferexa finished off the demon bull.

Athan didn't want to waste time, so after boring two holes in the bull's body, He turned around and released a Chasm Severing which severed the sabertooth doom beast into two.

" Holy mother of Terred! What the hell is that power? " Hemakel was shell shocked seeing Athan killing the beast with just one attack.

Ferexa had also just turned around and was preparing to fight but was shocked upon seeing that Athan had dealt with it.

" No need to gawk like that. Touch a statue and prepare for another fight. "

Hemakel blankly nodded and touched a statue.

Athan was already prepared with a Chasm Severing, " If every doom beasts release those instantaneous attacks after animating into a living beast, then you both have to block the initial attack, and I will do the rest. "

After they blocked the attacks, He can finish off the beast with his geno skill. He could also separate from the two and stand in another direction to attack the beast but knowing his luck; He was sure that the beast would target him with its instantaneous attack.

With this strategy, They defeat two more beasts.

Surprisingly, The beasts touched upon by Hemakel dropped two things after Athan killed it.

The two things were a cube and a key.

The cube was light brown and was giving off a dark brown glow. The key looked nothing special, no glow—just a plain grey metal key.

" I am taking this cube. You two have no problem with it, right? "

Hemakel grunted and said, " No problem, but we will be taking the next two. Also, You touch the next statue. Who knows, the statue you picked might drop a key and reward. "

' I doubt that will happen...' Athan thought, but he still decided to try.

" Alright." After saying this, Athan observed statues and touched the smallest beast statue, This statue looked like a griffin, but instead of an eagle's head, it had a weird round mouth that had teeth all around it. It also had two tails instead of one.

They also killed the two beasts with the same strategy, but none of them dropped anything.

" Since there is no time limit to find the three keys, We'll stop for now. "

Hearing what Athan said, Hemakel and Ferexa appeared confused and asked why, but he didn't tell them the reason and instead just said, "  No reason. If you touch the beast now, I will not help, and for your information, I can leave this place if I want to. "

Right after saying this, Athan entered inside the special space with a thought. 

" W-what the hell is going on? Where did he go? " Hemakel panicked. They can't clear these chambers of dooms with just two of them, and they would definitely die.

Ferexa anxiously looked around, " I can't sense any energy related to space or anything. He disappeared just like that..."

At this time, Athan left the special space and arrived outside, " As you can see, I can come and go as I please. So...." pausing here, He spoke sharply, " Don't touch the statue without my permission if you don't want to get stuck here forever and die.  "

" Got it? "

Hemakel and Ferexa frowned and had dissatisfied expressions, but they could only agree.

Afterward, Athan started to regain his geno energy. Although he still has some geno energy, He nevertheless decided to fill it up for obvious reasons.

After ten days, Athan opened his eyes, " Alright, time to continue. "

Hemakel and Ferexa were bored to death since they can't even train here.

Of course, They also need to rest to regain their spent powers, but they can do it quickly.

Ferexa had long decided which statue to choose, so she didn't waste time and touched it.

Same as always, They defeated the two beasts and, most surprisingly, the beast she touched dropped a cube and a key after Athan killed it.

She picked the cube and gave the key to Athan.

Afterward, Hemakel touched a beast statue, and they once again defeated the two beasts. This time though, none of them dropped anything.

Next, Athan touched a beast statue, and they once again defeated the two beasts, no surprise here as none of them dropped anything.

After that, Athan decided to regain his geno energy once again. He still had 40%, so this time, it took him nine days.

But something shocking happened after Ferexa touched a beast statue.

[ Instead of an extra one, ten additional beasts will be animated into living. Good luck. ]

Right after this voice reverberated in the hall, ten statues started to crack.

Hemakel was flabbergasted and shouted, " WHAT THE FUCK? "

Ferexa had an ugly face as she cursed under her breath.

A total of eleven doom beasts of different powers and shapes dashed toward...Athan.

' Good luck, my ass. ║ * ರ Ĺ̯ ರ * ║ '

With a dark face, Athan ordered, " Run around, dodge their attacks or block them and in the end gather them together. I can kill them all at once but need to group them up. "

He knew that this shit likely happened because of him. Since he was killing beasts easily, the difficulty went up a few notches. Technically, he was cheating by using another kind of power besides the soul power which he was allowed to, but he had no other choices. 

' But even if there are consequences, isn't this difficulty spike a bit too much? ' Thought Athan while running.