The Tale of the Void Emperor

" Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." Tealery's scream resounded as Athan was healing her. 

Arcued was also seriously injured and had fainted.

' Did I overdo it? But I had to do that to remove their reliance on me completely.'

Athan thought as he healed the internal mess of Tealery. Her face was full of tears and red eyes, and she would occasionally scream because of the injuries inside her body due to a crimson chaotic power with blue sparks.

Athan had released Voidlings-nano beasts inside her body that were eating away at the chaotic power while he was healing her injuries by properly spreading the power of blood recovery pills that Athan fed her.

Several meters away from them were corpses of the long emerald-horned woman and her two companions.

Athan had forced Arcued and Tealery into a fight with the long-horned woman and her group and " ran " away so they can fight to their fullest.

Naturally, He just hid nearby by using his camouflaged abilities and observed the desperate battle of Arcued and Tealery.

Both of them used their quota of immortal aegis runic ward during the fight to escape death.

He knew that Arcued and Tealery would lose and die if he didn't help them, but he really didn't help them until the crucial moment.

He also didn't help them directly and just interfered in their battle by weakening and confusing enemies slightly. After all, He wanted to test the will and desperation of Arcued and Tealery when they are at death's door.

" I...Haaaah....It hurts...." Tealery gritted her teeth and bore with pain. After all, the pain brought upon by chaotic power is really too much to their body structure.

" W-why did you do that, Athan? " Tealery asked with tears flowing from her eyes.

Athan patted her spoke with a wry smile, " To test both of you. Well, you did good proving to me that you are worth my help. "

Tealery's lips slightly trembled as she didn't know what Athan was talking about. But...she really thought that Athan abandoned them when her life was hanging by a thread that might sever any second.

' Athan...what kind of person are you? ' Tealery thought as she looked at Athan, who was healing her injuries with a helpless and confused expression. She could never predict Athan's actions and always felt a sense of madness from him. He had also changed from when she first saw him and became more overbearing in his ways. But she still wanted to stay with him. She felt that Athan would really go to great heights, and she would be able to see the scenery that even her ancestor didn't see.

' I hope that I passed in whatever way you were testing me because I want to follow you, but it seems that it will be tough for me to pass this test. '

*Crack....Dhruuuuunnnnn....*

Suddenly, The castle started to tremble, and the scepter that was in the left hand of Arcued shined.

At this moment, The cloud hovering above the castle formed giant letters [ Arcued ].

This means that Arcued became the owner of this castle.

Athan looked in the sky and grinned, ' So the clouds stay in the sky even after the castle is conquered? Nice. '

He looked at Tealery after healing her, " You are completely healed but still rest for some time until I heal Arcued.  "

After saying that, He walked towards sleeping Arcued. He had already released his nano voidlings inside Arcued's body to cleanse his internals of chaotic power.

After sitting near Arcued, Athan started to patch him up using his voidpulse before feeding him some blood recovery pills.

After half an hour, Arcued was fully healed as he slowly opened his eyes.

Looking at Athan, He grinned, " Did we do good, Emperor? "

Athan wryly smiled and nodded speechlessly before standing up.

Arcued and Tealery also stood up as they knew that Athan was likely going to announce something.

" Now listen, you two. Hold onto this castle until some people come here. Don't try to keep the castle and give the scepter to whoever comes here. Tell them that you will stay here and protect the castle with them and gather points through the castle defending event. " Athan spoke with a faint smile on his face.

Arcued and Tealery were confused as Tealery asked, " Why? Can we earn enough points by completing the castle defending event every day? "

" I don't know, but they should net to a considerable amount since there's an event like this. " Athan spoke as he adopted a thoughtful expression, " There are twenty castles, and I'm sure two groups will join hands to defend their castle against people and monsters from the castle defending event since one group is not enough. " 

Pausing there for a second, He continued as he looked at Arcued and Tealery, " Their partnership could be based on rotating the ownership of the castle among them. But you two don't need to do such things. Just give up your ownership and focus on surviving. The only thing you two have to do is to survive this test. "

" Survive? " Tealery asked in confusion.

On the other hand, Arcued trembled slightly with his head facing the ground, and his eyes shined brightly as he thought of something. The trembling on his body was not due to fear but excitement.

Athan grinned as he looked at confused Tealery and nodded, " Yep. Surviving is the key to win in this test. "

" But--"

" Alright, I am going now since I don't want to waste time. Remember, Survival is the key, Hahaha. "

Athan flew away with his loud laughter echoing in the castle.

But Arcued heard that as the laughter of the Demon King.

...

At this moment, Theo was trying his best to survive with the scepter in his hand at a castle.

' Just three more minutes...just tree. ' Theo thought as he flew with lightning cracking all over his body while leaving the trail of lightning whenever he passed. 

Speed was his specialty, so he had done his best after finally getting his hands on the scepter in this chaotic battle at the castle.

' Sigh...I could easily become the owner if the holder of the scepter were allowed to run outside. ' Theo thought as he carefully ran around in the castle.

People ran after Theo as they released their order techniques. Some people realized the graveness of the situation and thought of a plan to set up traps in the castle. After all, One can only conquer the castle if they hold the scepter in their hands for twenty minutes while staying inside the castle. 

But nobody knew that a deathly storm was approaching here.