The Tale of the Void Emperor

*BOOOOM!...*

Inside the Youhan Tree...

"It's been eighteen hours...Third leader, can you contact master Ayurin?"

Yone and others were all silent in the hall when this one executive spoke.

Snapping out of his daze, Yone nodded as he took out the contact card.

But after a while, his face changed because Ayurin didn't accept the call.

"What happened, brother?" Zank asked with a frown.

"She...didn't accept the call. Either she has yet to escape, or her trouble increased." Yone spoke with a heavy voice.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaa, I can't take it anymore! Leader, let's suddenly open the barrier and escape in all directions."

"Yes, leader! Let's do it!"

Seeing the maddening expression filled with despair on their faces, Zank internally sighed, 'There's no escape. There are tons of forces all around the Youhan tree, and we are completely surrounded.'

They knew that there was no escape, but there was no choice. They were clinging to luck, chance, hope that some might be able to escape if everyone left at the same time. After all, there are currently more than one thousand people in Youhan Tree.

"Calm down! we still have time." Zank spoke loudly.

...

Drizzly, Tronel, Chunshi, Joza-Eile, Aakerin, Leib, and Samira were not in the hall anymore but in the hidden dragon troop's pocket space branch.

"Drizzly, Those people from the Urhs'in clan came here because of your bloodline, but from how they acted, they don't have any good intention towards you," Leib spoke in a grave tone; his usual lazy voice and behavior was nowhere to be seen.

Drizzly shook her head, "It doesn't matter what happens to me but...if they were not here, others wouldn't have gotten the courage to attack us. It's all my fault."

"Don't blame yourself, Drizzly. What we should do is to focus on the present. I'll continue trying to contact master Ayurin as boss suggested," Tronel spoke as he once again tried to contact Ayurin.

What an unfortunate situation. If even one of them tried to contact Athan, they would readily get through him because Athan was very close to the Vaiklaid continent. Still, to reach the Youhan Tree, the flying ship would take multiple days.

"Sigh...we couldn't even enjoy those rewards given to us by Chaos Monolith Hills fully. Only three leaders, Tronel, Chunsi, Joza-Eile, and Aakerin, broke through while the majority were still training," Samira spoke with a frustrated voice and helpless expression.

...

"Athan, we will give them a surprise, hehe. They will be shocked to see our tremendous progress and increase in strength." Shiromi spoke with a happy smile as she was excited to meet everyone again.

"But I will contact my master right now. Hehe, I can't wait," Sen spoke as she took out the contact card of Ayurin, but after a minute, she frowned, "Strange...Why is master not accepting the call?"

"Oh? That's strange. You are like her daughter, and after no contact for five years, there is no way that she wouldn't accept your call," Athan was surprised before he frowned and said.

"Nyaa, master! If something bad happened to them, you would get a slight premonition feeling about it due to my power, but since you didn't feel such a thing, then they are fine, I guess," Primo said as he floated around Athan.

Athan nodded as he experienced this when he suddenly felt good before meeting Tiana at Runic Master Lornell's palace.

"How many days until we reach Youhan Tree?" Athan asked Lady Fu, who was also here with them in the hall.

"We have entered the Vaiklaid continent, and our destination is the Dosflame region. With the speed of this flying ship, it would take us four days to reach there," Lady Fu said.

...

Four hours passed...which marked twenty-four hours since Jeargon started attacking the barrier.

"Second brother, how many hours until it breaks?" Zank asked.

"Three hours."

Zank nodded and said, "Go and use that item that we got from the reward. It should buy us some more time."

The second leader stood up as he left the hall.

"What item, first leader?"

"Yeah, how much time can it buy us?"

Zank shook his head, "I don't know how much time it will buy us, but we will know once the second brother comes back."

At this time, Yone stood up and bowed towards everyone, "Even though I don't feel that Athan has done anything wrong and I don't blame him, I can understand your feelings as well. I...am sorry."

"Yone...," Zank muttered with a sigh.

Yone looked at everyone said with determination, "Before he breaks the barrier, we will remove it and run in all directions," pausing there, Yone sighed and said, "If I could exchange my life for you all, then I would have done. But they are not here for you and me, so...I can only hope that some of you can survive."

After he finished speaking, He went towards the exit of the hall.

"Where are you going, Yone?" Zank stood up and asked in a grave tone.

Yone turned around with a smile and said, "I will leave first and attract as much attention as I can."

"Yon-"

"Don't stop me, brother. I have made my decision! Don't tell others from the hidden dragon troupe about this," Yone said before he turned to leave, but he remembered Athan and turned around again before speaking with a grin, "All of them will regret this decision once Athan knows about it. He will take revenge for me and all those who die."

Zank clenched his fist as lava was bubbling inside him. Right now, even he felt a bit of resentment towards Athan, 'Athan, You brought us to a new height but...my brother and many others will pay for that price with their life. Sigh...what am I complaining about? That is exactly how this world works.'

...

The second leader arrived outside and saw Jeargen attacking the barrier. 

After looking at him with resentment and anger, he took out a blue cube and activated it before it scattered into empowering energy and gave more life to the barrier so it could last longer.

Jeargen noticed the changes immediately and said indifferently to the second leader, "You can't stop inevitable. That cube just increased four more hours to this barrier. After six hours, I will destroy this barrier and take her away."

"You also can't stop inevitable."

Jeargen and the second leader saw Yone arriving and heard his words.

Yone looked at Jeargen and said coldly, "You will regret coming here and taking Drizzly away. Athan will not let you go. If you don't believe it, then you can ask those people outside."

"Humph, don't be fooled, elder Jeargen. The people here told us about that brat. Apparently, he just entered Orderic Catastrophe five years ago and slaughtered many people at the Orderic catastrophe stage in a test. On top of them, the people here were scared by his fancy-horror display."

"Yes, elder Jeargen. But we told them the reality and the power of our clan, hehe. Even if that single brat spent his lifetime, He can't match the strength of our mighty clan."

"True, these bunch of frogs in the well here were scared by a brat at Orderic Catastrophe, but we talked sense into them, so they are not living in that false illusion anymore."

The others from the Urhs'in clan spoke one by one as they sneered at Yone.

Jeargen also couldn't help but laugh, "Hahaha, what a joke. Still, it's impressive that a brat at the orderic catastrophe managed to scare everyone. What's his name?"

Yone looked at Jeargen and spoke with gritted teeth, "His name is Athan! carve this name because he will become your nightmare sooner or later."

"YOU ALL TOO! NONE OF YOU WILL SURVIVE!"