Chapter 169 - 389- 401

Chapter 389 - Gaze Of Void

Seeing Arcued claws piercing Opak and blood flowing out like crazy, Kazia's group panicked and glared at Athan.

Athan clapped his hands and released two whips of Voidpulse towards Arcued and Opak, " Alright. The battle is over. You won, Arcued. "

​​" Siiiii.....It hurts...it frigging hurts..."

Arcued winced in pain from the three snake's attack as his back burned and red hot bubbles formed on his back.

The two whips of voidpulses grabbed both Arcued and Opak before bringing them in front of Athan.

Kazia and the group dashed in front of Athan before she asked with a frown, " What are you doing? "

" Relax. I am just healing them. "

After taking back the whips of voidpulse, Athan waved his right hand towards Arcued and released abyssal darkness.

With his newfound control and power after breaking out his cacoon, He manifested this abyssal darkness in the form of several small beastly mouths with many small teeth.

These small beastly mouths carefully started eating the chaotic power from the back of Arcued.

After that, Athan looked at Opak, who was severely injured since his internals were a mess due to Arcued claws and its ability, ' Oh...His heart got several slashes from those small swirling needles. '

Kazia also frowned after checking Opak's condition and was just going to take out a 3-star blood recovery pill.

But before she could do that, She received a voice transmitter from Dacon, " Don't. If Opak dies, then we'll slaughter them and take revenge for him. That pretty boy's attitude is very annoying. It's like he doesn't see us as his equal. "

Kazia glared at the red skin and horn man standing beside her and spoke, " What the hell are you saying? He is our teammate. "

Dacon didn't respond to her as his face remained cold and fixated on Athan. After arriving here, He saw Athan seeing everything, like their challenge, as a joke. That's what he felt. He felt that Athan was looking at them like a bunch of kids playing, and he didn't like it.

Kazia ignored him and took out the pill, but right then, she saw Athan release two wisps of voidpulses from his hand as they passed through Opak's chest and patched up his heart. He then also threw a Blood recovery pill that went into Opak's mouth.

Naturally, He first scanned Opak's body structure with his soul sense to do that. With his superior soul and even higher comprehension ability, He quickly broke down the structure of Opak's heart. His soul had the greatest change after coming out of his cacoon, and now he can do much more things.

The voidpulse he consumed was instantly restored in just a few seconds because his abyssal darkness was eating the chaotic power from the back of Arcued.

" Cough...cough cough. " Opak regained his consciousness since he had fainted and threw a fit of coughs with a surprised expression, ' My injuries? Wait...My heart seems to be in better shape than before. What's going on? '

Athan didn't know about that since he didn't look at Opak's new heart after sending in two wisps of voidpulse to patch it up.

" Hey, pretty boy, I want to challenge you. "

At this moment, Dacon couldn't hold himself back as he walked in front of Athan and stood just two steps away from him.

His height was taller than Athan at 7.2ft, so he was looking down at Athan...in both ways.

Athan's face formed a grin as he looked up, " Someone weaker than me looking down on me leaves a bad taste in my mouth. "

Dacon sneered and put both of his hands on Athan's shoulder, " You? Stronger than me? Good Joke. "

At this time, A gleam of black and white passed through Athan's eyes as they shone briefly, and he uttered one word, " Kneel. "

" Wh-"

*thud...*

' Huh? Wha-what happened? '

Dacon was confused as to what just happened. But at this time, When his eyes met Athan's eyes, He had an illusion as an immense pressure bore down on his existence.

He saw a terrifying beast hovering over him, ready to devour him anytime.

" Aaa...Aaaaaaa....W-wha..."

His entire body and soul trembled, and he couldn't even scream properly.

*thud...*

And then, He fainted.

' It surprisingly went better than I expected. I think I can improve this in many ways. As for its name...I should call this, Gaze of Void. ' Athan thought as he used his power in a new form by using a bit of his soul energy in his mystical eyes, which can now do a few extra things If he used his soul sense and soul energy in them.

He then looked at Kazia with a smile, " I won't be wasting my time with you lot. I want to learn many new interesting things like 5-star order techniques and also need to train. If you want to spar, then you can spar with Sen and Tealery for some practice. "

Pausing there, He narrowed his eyes before continuing, " Of course, Some injuries are unavoidable but don't attack with intent to kill, or death will be the least of your concern. "

After saying that, He turned around and returned to his place, which was apparently a rock, and sat down on it before closing his eyes.

Kazia and others remained dumbfounded and didn't know how everything happened from start to end.

They saw Dacon looking down on Athan, both literally and metaphorically. After that, He put his shoulder on Athan's hand and then...He kneeled after Athan told him to kneel. He then looked at Athan and...fainted after letting out a weird sound from his mouth.

What the fuck just happened?

A girl with the light brown feathered body from the group dashed forward and checked the situation of Dacon before sighing a relief. She looked back at the group and said, " He is fine. "

Sen and Tealery smiled at each other before looking at Kazia.

" Let's have a spar. I want to adapt better to my new strength, so sparring is an excellent opportunity for it. "

Hearing Tealery, Kazia hesitated for a moment before nodding her with resolve, " Alright. We came here intending to fight you, so it would be a joke if we refused to spar. "

Chapter 390 - This Is Crazy!

' Done. It took me only fifteen days to comprehend and grasp the final level order of Force of Glittering River. Faster than I expected. '

Athan stood up and moved towards the chaotic Geyser area where Tealery and Sen were training.

​​Those two had fought with Kazia and others and actually won and lost both.

Despite being High-stage master order Elite, Sen managed to defeat three Peak-stage master order elites from Kazia's group with her refined and powerful techniques. Of course, She did that one by one.

But she lost against Kazia, who had equally powerful and versatile techniques and was also stronger. In the end, Sen ran out of energy early after their fight went on for long and lost. But neither of them suffered any wounds because both countered each other's various abilities.

Tealery had recently broken through, so her order base was at Peak-stage Tier-3. Still, In the end, She lost against Kazia because she couldn't counter Kazia's witty strategy of using her order techniques.

After sparring for two days, Kazia and her group went to find another source of wild chaotic power to train.

Now fifteen days later, Athan had finally comprehended the final level order of Force of Glittering river and will be progressing towards Peak-stage Tier-3 order base.

But he was not satisfied with his speed of absorbing wild chaotic power and turning it into wild chaos force to feed his essence core.

He wanted to speed up this process that was already faster than ordinary people.

While thinking of an idea to speed up, He didn't pause his training and just stood in the middle of a geyser spot that more numbers of geyser spot around it.

' The limit is determined by the mouth size of my Chaos Grinder and its speed of purifying. Unlike the chaos essence, which is instantly purified into chaos force by the chaos grinder, It takes a few more seconds to purify wild chaotic power. Hmmm...'

While thinking of a solution, He suddenly stopped absorbing the wild chaotic power since he decided to make some changes to his Chaos Grinder.

' I'll have to make its mouth bigger and add more purifying blades. But I also heard that after the breakthrough to Orderic Catastrophe, A huge transformation occurs that changes everything. Should I really be making changes to my Chaos Grinder at this moment? '

After thinking for a while, He decided to make the changes, ' It's not certain that the changes I make right now will have adverse effects later, But if there will be, then I'll just solve them. '

Since he had decided, He used his Voidpulse and started modifying the Chaos Grinder.

' I will also have to adjust and re-arrange my two Umbrella storage after modifying Chaos Grinder. '

Several hours passed when Sen opened her eyes to take a break.

' Hmm? What is Athan doing? '

Sen saw Athan just standing there without absorbing the wild chaotic power and wondered what he was doing.

On the other hand, Athan had just finished modifying and arranging everything inside his void region.

His current Chaos Grinder looked bigger with even more purifying blades. It looked like a big hollow cylinder with countless sharp blades spinning inside it. This time, he made several sections of the cylinder such that they also turned circulatory with internal blades attached to them.

Naturally, These blades were not those blades made from some kind of metal. They were known as purifying blades. They had the shape of the blade but had a wispy light black structure.

Both sides of The chaos grinder ( cylinder ) were connected to umbrella storage.

The upper umbrella storage stored chaos essence while the bottom umbrella storage stored chaos force.

He changed the lids of umbrella storage from a solid lid with a big hole in the middle to making it a fully open-close structure. Now when he absorbs the wild chaotic power, He would completely open the lid to take in the vast amount of wild chaotic power inside his now bigger and better Chaos Grinder to get wild chaos force faster.

Sen saw Athan opening his eyes and asked, " What were you doing? "

" Well, I wanted to speed up my training speed, so...Anyway, Just watch. "

Athan smiled and punched the geyser spot with his full physical strength.

*BOOOOOOOOM...*

Surprisingly, This punch created a perfect hole with half a meter radius, and not even the surrounding ground was affected.

Usually, A powerful punch would crack the surrounding ground and even release some shockwaves. But nothing of that sort happened with this punch.

The reason for it was that he coated his fist with heavenly stream pressure, which made this blow even more powerful and limited its range to a half-meter radius.

He used the heavenly stream pressure that looked like a white gaseous aura to form a border of a half-meter radius around his fist.

When he punched, All of his strength was contained in this border, which made the blow of punch even more powerful, and he also extended the streaming pressure into the ground such that the surrounding ground was not affected from below too.

That was another way of using Heavenly stream pressure's body aura: He could concentrate the power of his punch with it. On top of that, coating the aura will also increase his physical attack by twofold and a bit more.

With such power, He created two meters deep hole in the already five meters deep spot of the geyser.

Seeing that, Sen was confused, and Tealery also opened her eyes hearing the sound, " What are you two doing?"

Arcued was slightly deeper into training since he was comprehending and grasping the order.

" I don't know. But Athan is doing something. "

Just then, Athan jumped into the hole of geyser spot, which invoked a startled scream from Sen and Tealery.

Both of them came near the edge of the geyser spot and looked below.

Under the ground, Athan was swimming in a hot and bubbling lake of watery red chaotic power.

If any master order elite fell into this, They would die.

But Athan started to wildly absorb this power without caring for the injuries forming on his body. The rate of his absorption shocked Sen and Tealery as they were dumbfounded.

" Did he just upgrade his already abnormal training method? This is crazy! "

" Well...I have no words left to describe him anymore. Sigh...Let's go back to our training. "

Chapter 391 - Breakthrough. Finally...

[ If you have not yet joined the discord, then do it because I am going to hold an event related to Athan in it:- https://discord.gg/NyFe8aZtpd ]

' This is fast...but the pressure. It looks like I can only pay careful attention while this process is happening so that the core is not damaged by an overwhelming infusion of wild chaos force. '

​​Two months passed as Athan continued to absorb the wild chaotic power from the hot, bubbling lake of chaotic power.

Needless to say, His progress was tremendous with his new way of absorbing wild chaotic power. He had already filled his Peak-level essence core to halfway.

Though there was a slight disadvantage to this way of training, it was small compared to this tremendous advantage of faster training speed.

Comprehending and grasping the orders requires his primary consciousness, while his subconsciousness can do simple tasks such as absorbing wild chaotic powers and infusing wild chaos force into his cores.

But he could not let his subconsciousness handle this new way of absorbing the wild chaotic power because it was overwhelming to his body and core and requires his full attention.

If he could also let his subconsciousness handle this task, then he could now start comprehending the final level order of heavenly stream pressure.

' Nevermind. I am already moving too fast compared to other people. I might be able to do that once my mutated soul matures as existence. It's unique, but it's still small. '

It was like, His soul energy and soul sense were unique and powerful...but their quantity, size, etc were not already high. People who have unique soul physique also have special powers of their soul, but they still need to increase the rank of their soul to break through further.

Shiromi's soul was also unique and powerful, and she could do much more things with her soul powers because she has a unique soul physique. But she still needed to train in the soul order method to reach the rank requirement of her soul before breaking through to orderic catastrophe.

Though in her case, Her speed of training in the soul order method and strengthening her soul was very fast for obvious reasons.

Athan's soul was even more powerful and unique. But its rank of existence was still small and the same as other people here. He couldn't gauge it right now because there was no scale. But he would know it once he reached the peak stage of Tier-3 order base.

There was a certain requirement of Soul rank before one could even attempt to break through to orderic catastrophe. If his soul strength had reached that rank requirement, then it means that his soul level is the same as the people in orderic catastrophe, and he won't have to train in those simple soul order methods to strengthen his soul.

...

Just like that...Another two months passed before Athan finally managed to saturate his peak-essence core. The fourth petal of four clover leaf inside his order base also became fully vivid.

His overall reserve of Order force and its speed of recovery also increased.

There was no time to waste as the essence core shone and trembled before turning into shining motes of dreamy blue and metallic black. The motes gathered and turned into an order symbol of the Force of Glittering River.

Athan took some voidpulse to create a catalyst to house this order symbol with his order understanding of Force of Glittering River chaotic power.

After a while, He finished creating it. The catalyst crystal looked dreamy water blue with shining black sparks in it.

He controlled the symbol and guided it towards this crystal before it merged inside the crystal.

Afterward, He arranged this crystal into his chaos matrix system. His chaos matrix system had automatically upgraded. More specifically, The voidpulse strings and the voidpulse pyramid he created were upgraded after he came out of cacoon with a better understanding of his void powers.

The upgrade didn't bring groundbreaking changes but sped up the transformation process of his body and the speed of activating the chaos matrix.

He comes out from the underground lake while his body transformation was happening.

After an hour, the transformation was finished and his body turned into dreamy watery blue with black sparks in it.

After comprehending the final level order of Force of Glittering River, He found out all the effects of this chaotic power.

Force of Glittering river chaotic power has several properties, and this chaotic power can be used with offensive and defensive order techniques. But It's best used with wide-range, aura-like order techniques due to some of its effects.

First effect: Heaviness. It would make things heavier. If an attack becomes heavy, It increases its attack force, and if defense becomes heavy, it increases its defense. This heaviness also affects the target, and they feel heaviness in them and will make them lose their posture and affect their defense too.

Second Effect: Breakdown. The Force of the Glittering River can break down structures. So it is a natural defense breaker. But this defense breaker is different since it's like a melting-down process. So it works both ways: Using the force of the glittering river in a wide range or single point. Naturally, since it's another type of defense breaker, He doesn't need to focus on one point to break the defense like the norm. Even wide-range attacks can break down opposing things, power, shield, etc, and reduce defense just the same.

Third Effect: Stinging Intensity. The order techniques infused with the force of glittering river sting like hell. It feels as if one is tortured in a river of sharp spikes. With more condenses force of the glittering river, Its power and intensity increase.

Fourth Effect: Weariness. Enemies hit by this gets tired and feel weary. Their body accumulates fatigue faster. They need to expend more brainpower to stay focused which would make them mentally fatigued too.

All four of these effects are powerful and useful.

Athan can use the First stance of Destruction with Force of Glittering River nature, and its power will increase by so much.

Assault of Heaven is as its name suggests. A pure offensive assault from the sky. It's wide range and powerful, but when it gets the nature of the force of the glittering river, It becomes even more potent. With heaviness, Its pure power coming from top to down will increase. Defense breaking will make enemies vulnerable, and it will also hurt like stinging hell and make them fatigue. Along with the natural power contained in the Assult of Heaven itself, this will really trouble the enemies.

After Athan finished his transformation, He deactivated chaos-matrix as his chaotic body returned to physical body state.

' Let's see if my soul had already met the requirement to start attempt breakthrough to orderic catastrophe. '

Chapter 392 - [Bonus ] Spear Of Silent Death

He closed his eyes and felt the ever so slowly pulsing order base. After the fourth petal of four-leaf clover turned vivid, The whole order base was pulsing with a dreamy glow mixed of white, blue, and black.

This pulsing only occurs when they can start attempting to break through to the orderic catastrophe stage. This means that Athan's soul already met that required rank to breakthrough.

​​Of course, He just met the requirement. It's not like he can just breakthrough if he wants to.

" According to information, The breakthrough point to orderic catastrophe is different for everyone. When the point is revealed, They will have to face their first catastrophe, and if they pass it, They will break through to the Orderic catastrophe stage.

"

After muttering that, Athan looked at the pulsing order base inside his void region and thought, ' People usually try to grasp order ken of random wild chaotic powers to trigger their first catastrophe. But, someone can trigger it by training their order techniques or doing other things too. Hmmm...Since I need to learn order techniques, I'll just do that instead of trying to grasp the order ken of random wild chaotic powers. '

He looked at the two scrolls in his void region and took out a scroll that had white material and purple designs.

Body order technique scrolls: Four Stances of Destruction.

He had learned the first stance of destruction: Assult of Heaven, but he had never used it as its full power.

' But now is the time to try it. '

Athan took a deep breath and circulated the order force inside his body to execute the first stance.

But just after a second, He opened his eyes with a surprised expression, " No wonder It took a lot of time to prepare when I wanted to execute this technique...My previous body strength was really inadequate. "

He then resumed the process, and after three seconds, A purple aura appeared around his body. But on top of that, The purple aura was mixed into dreamy blue energy with black sparks.

That was because He consumed some chaos force to add the nature of Force of Glittering River into this technique.

He did an uppercut as the aura and energy around his body shot towards the sky before turning into a thirty-meter-wide cloud.

Just as he was going to execute the final move, He remembered Sen and Tealery were in the range and stopped.

Looking at the menacing purple cloud with blue energy and black sparks in the sky, He thought, ' Let's see If I can move it. '

Since it was his technique and had a connection with it, He thought about controlling it and indeed...The cloud started moving.

Of course, He couldn't move from his position or break up the stance. Still, He could control the cloud, and he moved it a hundred meters away on top of a small hill.

That was also his limit. After hundred meters, He felt his connection with the cloud weakening.

" Now, let's see its power. "

Athan chopped his fist down as the cloud glowed like lightning before shooting down.

*Swiiiiiiisssssss...BOOOOOOOOM....*

*krakrakrakra....*

The destructiveness turned the hill into dust, and the thirty-meter area where the cloud landed became a dangerous zone. That was also the work of a set of order force contained in Assult of Heaven. It would create a destructive forcefield in a thirty-meter radius that would damage anyone in it.

But now that he added force of glittering river as its nature in this technique, That destructive zone also had dreamy blue and black particles swimming in it.

With the properties like Breakdown, Stinging Intensity, etc., of the force of the glittering river, The enemy in the field would really become miserable unless they have a way to defend themselves.

' Hmmm...If I also added particles of abyssal darkness inside it, then...Hehehe. Hais...I want to fight some strong people. '

After thinking that, He wryly shook his head and focused on his current tasks.

Unlike level of masteries like other order techniques, The Four stances of destruction order technique had no such things due to its uniqueness of using stances to execute the attacks. After mastering it, one can constantly practice it to try new ways to execute it and improve themselves.

' For now, I have mastered the First stance of destruction: Assult of Heaven. I need three seconds to execute it, but after practicing it, Two seconds should be the limit for now. That's not bad since I can just use my defensive moves before executive Assult of Heaven. '

After thinking about that, He looked at the second stance of destruction: Spear of Silent Death.

This stance of destruction was simpler than Assult of heaven, but its power was higher.

The set of order force conjured when executing Spear of Silent Death makes it a powerful single-target attack: Swift, Silent and Deadly.

Athan started comprehending the set of order force of this stance after using his soul sense on the scroll.

After an hour, He grasped and comprehended the technique and started practicing it.

The stance to executive it was very simple.

He will have to stand straight with both his legs joined together and put his hands at the middle of his chest while connecting both hands palms. ( In Indian Namaste style. )

In this stance, He will have to circulate order force inside his body to conjure the sets of order force to execute the Spear of Silent Death.

Athan started focusing as a purple aura appeared once again, but this time, It was in a darker shade instead of a light purple shade aura that appears when he executes the assault of heaven.

Naturally, He didn't use his chaos traits to give this technique any chaotic power's nature since he decided to execute this stance with pure order force on his first try.

The dark purple aura gathered around his whole body. He took six seconds to complete the preparation.

And now...he will strike.

Athan opened his eyes as he pushed his hands forward. From a namaste hand style that was vertical, He pushed forward into a horizontal position while keeping the palms close.

*Shuaaaaa...*

Instantly, The dark purple aura formed into a spear in front of him, with a sudden light blue border appearing around it. This was also the effect of one of its sets of order force.

Without any sound or even rustling of the wind, The spear shot forward as it ignored the wind resistance. It broke the speed of sound, but there was no sonic boom.

It just swiftly and silently shot forward before finally hitting a giant tree five hundred meters away.

The Spear of Silent Death pierced the tree before continuing on its path.

But...The tree started to change. It was perfectly fine for half a second before something started to happen.

The tree started to break down into small particles from the hole that was formed because of Spear of Silent Death. The tree's destruction began from within it, and after three seconds, The tree turned into dust.

Naturally, The tree had no resistance, but That was not the Spear of Silent Death's true power as well since it just pierced the tree and went on its way.

If there were a person, The spear wouldn't pierce through since it was not sharp. It was not meant to be sharp at all. Instead, The spear would try to invade the body before starting its destruction from within. Athan could also explode it with his thought.

But this explosion would not be wide. Instead, It would be condensed into a twenty-centimeter round point with pure destructiveness. If it hit the target's chest without resistance, It would blow up the target's heart before spreading its destructiveness inside.

That is the Spear of Silent Death. Without a ripple or sound, The spear would hit the target swiftly. Best used as an assassination technique.

' Lightning dust is best used as this destruction stance's chaotic nature to bring out its full potential. As for the time, Six seconds, huh?...Well, after practicing it for a while, I should be able to execute it within two seconds, just like Assult of Heaven. '

Thinking of that, He started training.

After training for an hour, He exhausted his order force and took a rest to let it recover.

Meanwhile, He took a look at the Third stance of destruction.

Assult of Hell.

Chapter 393 - Hell And Maw

*Tluuuuuuuu.....*

*Boooooommmm*

​​A twelve-meter-tall hill was blasted from the ground into the air before exploding.

The explosion produced two light purple shockwaves in thirty meters radius from air to ground as all pieces of the hill turned into dust.

That was the third stance of destruction, Assault of Hell.

If Assault of Heaven strikes from sky to the ground, then Assault of Hell strikes from the ground to the sky.

' Three seconds...I'll practice one more time and nail it in two seconds. '

Athan took the stance of Assult of Hell as he stood with his leg positioned wide and hands near his chest. His hands had distance between them while the palms faced the sky.

He hurriedly circulated the order force and conjured the sets of order force in two seconds before he changed; he turned his palm upside down as now they faced the ground before pushing his hands downward.

' This time...I'll aim at hundred meters north and blast that giant tree. '

Thinking of that, Athan made that giant tree his target. The distance between him and that tree appeared a hundred meters.

A light purple orb with a slight khaki border around it released beneath his hands and bore into the ground. Naturally, He didn't infuse any chaotic power and just purely used order force to execute it.

After two seconds, The tree a hundred meters away from him was blasted from the ground as it flew into the sky before an explosion occurred in a thirty-meter radius.

Assault of Hell was a long-range broad area attack. Unlike Assault of Heaven which appears on top of him at first, The Assault of Hell can be long-range from the start, and it's hits faster than Assault of Heaven.

At this time, Sen opened her eyes and spoke with a tired face, " So many blasts. Can you take a break, Athan? "

Athan wryly smiled before nodding, " I was going to take a break since I am out of order force. "

It takes four hours to recover all of his spent order force, which is pretty long. But he can shorten this by absorbing some chaos stones or turning voidpulse into order force.

But he didn't do anything like that since he wanted to start learning the fourth stance of destruction while his order force naturally recovers inside his order base.

The fourth and final stance of destruction, Maw of Destruction. Taking out the scroll, He started grasping and understanding the sets of order force in it.

After three hours, He decided to start practicing since he had recovered more than half of his order force.

He took the stance as he bent down from his waist while leaning forward with his right leg at the front and left leg back to support this leaning stance.

He positioned his hands at his heart in a ball-catching shape by joining them together with their palms open with his fingers were separated with equal distance, unlike connected when trying to catch a cricket ball.

He started circulating the chaos force, and it took him seven seconds of preparation before he was finally ready to execute Maw of Destruction.

His body was covered in a dark purple aura with a red hue. A bright concentration of this aura was in his hands that were near his chest.

While his body was still leaning forward, Athan stretched his hands forward with speed as if pushing something.

At this moment, All of the purple aurae gathered into a maw of a beast right in front of his hands.

After this, Athan stood correctly with the terrifying Maw still in front of him. The Maw had sharp purple teeth, but more importantly, a vortex of destruction inside the mouth would grind to dust anything that goes into this Maw of Destruction.

The Maw was 2 meters tall and 1.5 meters wide.

*Roarrrr....*

After observing the Maw, Athan finally released the beastly mouth as it shot forward with a legit roar coming out from it.

He shot it towards a small boulder as the Maw devoured it and turned it into dust before continuing forward.

This stance has the highest pure destructive force among the four stances of destruction. Its size and range are small, but its offensive power is remarkable. Its speed is also fast, and upon Athan's thought or hitting a resistance that it can't destroy, The Maw will turn into many smaller maws that would stick to target or defense before exploding with condensing destructive force.

' I need to shorten the process of executing it. It takes less energy than Assault of Heaven and Assault of Hell, but it's a bit more complicated to conjure its set of order force. '

Athan started practicing this stance to make it easier to execute in the future.

After half a day, He was finally done.

Now he had mastered all four stances of destruction. As for how to improve them further, That depends on his skills and comprehension ability.

[ The Four Stances of Destruction order technique ]

- First Stance of Destruction: Assault of Heaven.

- Second Stance of Destruction: Spear of Silent Death

- Third Stance of Destruction: Assault of Hell.

- Fourth Stance of Destruction: Maw of Destruction.

This 5-star body order technique of pure offensiveness will slowly change its shape and become more powerful in the hands of Athan in the future.

...

Time passed as Athan and others continued to train.

In the blink of an eye, Only a year was left before the deadline set by Chaos Monolith Hills neared.

After Athan mastered the Four stances of destruction, He also mastered his second 5-star order technique-Point Zero Bombardment.

This Point Zero Bombardment is an essence order technique, so it doesn't require his physical strength.

Athan didn't take long to master this essence order technique which was absolutely mystical and powerful. It didn't lose out to Four stances of destruction.

But since he still had time in the past one and a half year, He asked for some order techniques from Sen, Tealery, and Arcued and even contacted Ayurin for some scrolls.

In the past one and a half years, He mastered many order techniques, ranging from 3-star to 5-star. But stars didn't matter once they learned it because they can make it more powerful if they are able. More importantly, The stars in order techniques only described its complicatedness and its consumption to execute the techniques.

But even if a technique has a low-star labeled to it, It still has its uses.

Chapter 394 - Ambition And Goal

On the other hand, Tealery had already reached the peak-stage Tier-3 order base six months ago and was trying to break through to orderic catastrophe since her soul had also met requirements because he was regularly training in normal soul strengthening methods from the start.

Sen's soul had also reached the requirement even before she came here since Ayurin told her to prioritize that. Just a month ago, She also reached the very peak of a Tier-3 order base like Athan and Tealery. So currently, she was also trying to break through to orderic catastrophe with Tealery.

​​They both went on to find wild chaotic powers to find the breaking point to enter into the Orderic Catastrophe stage while Athan just silently stood there with his eyes close as if he was doing something.

As for Arcued...Well, his situation was not good. Honestly, He had worked his ass off and only took breaks when he absolutely needed one.

Just yesterday, He had comprehended the final level order of his essence order method and started his path of peak-stage Tier-3 order base.

But...There is only a year left before the deadline.

In this year, He will have to saturate his essence core. Arcued also doesn't know if his soul has met the requirement since one only can check it after being at the very peak of the Tier-3 order base.

Though he knew that, he would most likely need to strengthen his soul.

Currently, He was not training but lost in thoughts.

' One year...Sigh. I don't think I'll make it. '

His eyes already revealed the despair of not breaking through to the orderic catastrophe stage in time and missing his chance at trying to enter Chaos Monolith Hills.

" Arcued!! "

Hearing the intimidating shout, Arcued snapped out of his thoughts as he blankly looked at Athan's cold face.

Athan frowned and questioned, " What are you doing instead of training? You do know that your time is tight. "

Arcued formed a hollow smile and shook his head, " It's over for me. I can't..."

*smack....*

Athan punched Arcued in his stomach and sent him flying fifty meters away.

*Puuuuu...*

Arcued spewed a mouthful of blood before looking blankly at Athan, who already once again stood in front of him.

He was too confused and in despair to feel the pain. He himself knew that His clan, his parents, had put their hopes in him. If he didn't even try, He would truly become a loser.

But...no matter what he thought, He couldn't change his pessimistic view of his future that he won't be able to break through to the orderic catastrophe stage.

" Stand up. "

Arcued was on the verge of crying as he stood up and finally felt the pain of Athan's punch as some of his ribs were broken.

*Groan...*

Athan narrowed his eyes before speaking, " Don't shed a single tear in front of me. Your pain and what you are feeling are not even an ounce of the suffering I have gone through. "

Arcued was scared seeing Athan like this. He wanted to say that they were different people and each people have their own breaking point, but he didn't dare say anything.

He didn't say because he knew that Athan also had more than one breaking point where he already broke once or twice or more times, which caused his breaking point's range to increase each time, and he became what he is right now.

Athan looked into Arcued eyes and sighed before throwing a pill towards him.

He then sat down on the ground and looked at this colorful humid sky filled with water of this chaos phenom dimension.

" I was unambitious, not decisive, and...a loser too, I guess. I decided that after taking my revenge, I will live a happy life...with my family. There was also a promise to a little girl that I would save her parents...Hahaha. "

Athan laughed as he remembered Mimi. He knew that Mimi was innocent, and her parents deceived her....Anyway, everything about that didn't matter since nobody remembers him anymore.

Shaking his head, he continued, " But it seems that my luck was bad. One incident changed everything. My dreams were shattered, and I experienced something far worse than death. My everything was taken away from me—My own existence was erased. "

Arcued was dumbfounded, ' Far worse than death? Existence erase? What did he go through? '

He looked at Athan and asked, " What happened then? "

Athan grinned widely, " I didn't give up. Why would I take it lying down? Even in that hopeless situation, I truly didn't want to give up. I wanted to survive in any form or using any method. I was willing to do anything just to survive. That was my deepest instinct at that time. "

" And so...here you are? But wait, You said family? Do you...umm, still have your family?. "

Athan converged his grin as he looked in the sky before closing his eyes, " I have, and I am going get them back. "

" Get them back? "

Athan opened his eyes with his previous sadness gone and looked at Arcued.

Arcued instantly tensed up seeing those mystical but overbearing eyes. He saw Athan forming his usual grin once again and heard something unbelievable.

" I want to stand at such a peak with my close ones that no power in existence can do anything to them or me. Nothing should be able to take anything from me anymore. My first goal in this path is to rule the whole Chaosverse. "

" Rule the whole Chaosverse? "

Arcued repeated this absurd claim as he looked at Athan with a bewildered expression.

Athan laughed and nodded as he stood up. He looked at Arcued for a moment before shaking his head, " You are too weak. You...are a loser. You know, right? "

Arcued ducked his head down in shame because...when he also feels the same about him, then he can't become angry at others calling him that.

" Don't you have any fire inside you? Do you want to just live, rot and die? "

Hearing that, Arcued gritted his teeth because he obviously didn't want to do that. But...He knew his own limit.

" B-but...I am nothing special. I have no talent, not as hard-working as you, and...my abilities are lacking. My limit..."

" IDIOT! Everyone has their limits! BUT do you know why there are limits? "

Arcued looked at Athan, whose eyes were shining brightly with resolve, and heard, " Limits are there so you can break them. Break your limits! "

" Break my limits? " Arcued muttered.

" Just fucking do it! Even if you die in the process, you are not to regret not trying! Because when you reach the end of your life without trying, You will definitely think that....[ Only If I tried more at that time.] "

Hearing that, Arcued felt something hot in his chest, ' Try...'

" Hehehe....Do you want to conquer this whole Chaosverse with me? I definitely need some henchmen for that. Are you up for that job? "

Arcued looked at Athan with newfound light. To him, Athan was always crazy, but...he felt like going along this craziness for the first time, ' What's the fucking harm in that? I don't want to leave any regret that I didn't even try! '

But he just heard something that almost made him doubt his resolve.

" Ehh...But you are pretty weak, and if you proved to be useless, then I'll just dump you somewhere. So be prepared. "

Arcued speechlessly looked at Athan, who had already started walking back to his spot.

But the look in his eyes has changed, ' I'LL DO IT! '

Chapter 395 - Breakthrough-1

*Crackle.....*

*BoooooooM....*

​​*Shuaaa....*

At this time, Arcued, Sen, and Tealery had a speechless expressions as they watched Athan getting attacked by various kinds of techniques.

Athan was a hundred meters in front of them, and he was trapped into a fifty-meter radius black cloudy barrier. Strangely, He was lying on the ground with his eyes closed.

Various attacks with various chaotic powers would appear out of nowhere inside the barrier and attack Athan.

Tealery finally sighed and shook her head, " Sigh...I thought that I would be the first one to break through to the orderic catastrophe stage. But out of nowhere, Athan triggered his breakthrough first. "

Sen had a wry smile while Arcued remained speechless, ' Just yesterday, You told me so many things and motivated me. And here you are...easily trigging your breakthrough while practicing order techniques. Say, Athan...You did that to show me that I can also trigger my breakthrough as fast as you, right? RIGHT? '

" RIGHT???! "

Hearing the shout, Tealery and Sen looked at Arcued with confusion, " Now, what's gotten over you? "

Arcued took a deep breath and just shook his head, " Nothing. I am going back to training. "

While returning to the geyser area, he thought with resolve, ' No breaks or anything. Until I am close to dying, I will not rest and continue to absorb the wild chaotic power. '

Seeing Arcued returning, Sen questioned, " What happened to him? "

Tealery shrugged and focused her attention on Athan, " Must be feeling pressured. Judging from his current situation, He will most likely fail to advance into Orderic Catastrophe. "

Sen also looked at Athan and wondered out loud, " But it was surprising that Athan triggered his breakthrough while training in order techniques. That's rare. "

Tealery nodded, " It's rare but not too surprising. Athan's comprehension and order grasping ability are top-notch. He had perfectly understood the basics of the order force. That's why he could trigger his breakthrough even while training in order techniques. "

" Mhmm...We are also close. I think I will just need to observe one more wild chaotic force and its order to trigger my breakthrough. "

Tealery looked surprisingly at Sen after hearing her confident comment, " How can you know that? "

Sen chuckled as she twirled her fingers in the air, which produced a clear and peaceful sound out of nowhere, " Master told me that after I reach the very peak of Tier-3 order base, I need to observe thirty-three wild chaotic power and their order.

Once I observed the thirty-third wild chaotic power and its order, I will trigger my breakthrough. "

Hearing something like that, Tealery was dumbfounded, " Strange...How can your master tell for sure that you will trigger your breakthrough like that? "

" I don't know. But I trust my master. As long as I have carefully observed the thirty-three wild chaotic powers and their orders, I will trigger my breakthrough. " Sen simply shrugged.

She then fell into thought for a moment before guessing, " Well...Maybe there is a way to check something like that, and my master knows that way? "

Tealery looked at Sen with a bit of envy before speaking with a wry smile, " Your lucky that you have such a powerful master. "

" Hehehe...I sure am. Anyway, It looks like Athan has almost finished his breakthrough. Normally, one needs to endure the general catastrophe for an hour before entering their first orderic catastrophe phase. I think it's almost an hour since Athan triggered his breakthrough. " Sen stated as she looked at Athan just dozing off while standing: Not caring one bit about the various chaotic attacks hitting him.

" But did he really sleep? That faint black membrane is not letting any attack hurt him, but he shouldn't be sleeping, right? " Tealery expressed her doubt.

After five minutes of triggering his breakthrough, Athan had just closed his eyes, laid on the ground, and fell asleep.

If others found out why Athan decided to sleep at this moment, They would bang their heads on the wall.

The reason was simple: He had nothing to do while enduring the chaotic attacks, so he decided to sleep.

His abyssal darkness could easily block the chaotic attacks, and he also couldn't do anything while in the process of enduring chaotic attacks. Since that was the case, He decided to take a short nap.

Sen and Tealery saw the chaotic l black barrier disappearing as the chaotic attacks stopped appearing to hit Athan.

But they saw that Athan didn't wake up.

" Should we wake him up? "

" Hmm...Nah. He will wake up when he wants to. Let us not waste time and continue training. This time we'll go in that direction. We haven't explored areas on that side. "

" Alright. "

...

While Athan was sleeping, A huge transformation was occurring inside his void region.

Of course, Even though he was sleeping, He knew what was going on.

His order base intensely shone before the four-leaf clover inside it started to break down into motes of light blue and light black.

The order force contained inside his order base started to condense and combine with the motes.

The process of combination went on for a while before they turned into a vortex.

The vortex was made up of condensed order force and motes. It started spinning faster and more violently as each second passed.

The transparent round crystal that was his order base also glowed with intense black and blue before cracks started to appear on its surface.

After a minute, His order base was utterly destroyed before combining into the vortex.

The vortex spun even faster before it traveled to his chaos grinder as if attracted by it.

' Wait a second...seriously? '

Athan thought as he observed the vortex traveling to his chaos grinder. If his guess was right...

*griiiiii....crackkkk...*

' There goes my chaos grinder. Hmm...I should separate the umbrella storages lest they also get destroyed. '

The moment vortex hit his giant chaos grinder, destruction ensued. Fortunately, he separated his umbrella storage and moved them away.

*crack...Boom....*

Even though the size of the vortex was smaller than the chaos grinder, It still started destroying the chaos grinder and began to assimilate it.

Even though the vortex was absorbing the pieces of his chaos grinder that it destroyed, Its size remained the same as what it was at the start.

But the color of the vortex started to turn a shade darker.

Chapter 396 - Breakthrough-2

After the vortex destroyed his chaos grinder and absorbed it, Athan waited for it to turn into the Duality Codex.

The vortex constantly spun without doing anything for an hour before finally, something happened.

​​The vortex started to produce golden particles that surrounded itself. After five minutes, the whole vortex was covered into a spinning sphere of golden particles.

The golden sphere was slowly spinning, but the spin gradually slowed down before coming to a standstill.

Athan silently observed the shining golden sphere as after it stopped spinning, sparks of light blue and black started to appear on its surface.

After that, A single line appeared at the very center of this sphere. It was as if someone slashed the sphere in the middle with a sharp sword.

The sphere started to separate from the middle where the single line appeared and turned into two bowls. Naturally, The two bowls were still glued to each other side by side. So, they didn't separate completely.

The left side bowl had a golden whirlpool filled with sparks of light blue and faint black.

On the other hand, The right side bowl was completely different as it was almost empty except for a tiny pure white oval-shaped bean in the center. This bowl started to produce order force.

But this order force was more powerful than his previous order force. It was also more condensed such that he could finally see its color that appeared extremely light blue with whiteness.

' Hmmm...According to information, The bowl with a white bean in it should be called Orderic Codex. As for the bowl with a whirlpool, It should be called Catastrophe Codex. '

After remembering their names, Athan just waited because, according to information, more things should come after the Duality Codex is formed.

Suddenly, He felt a familiar life-threatening pressure and instantly opened his eyes.

Out of nowhere, A deadly chaotic force appeared around him.

' This is similar to when I broke through to Tier-2 order base. Hmmm...Is it here to finish the remaining work? Should I let it go inside my body? '

Previously, This thing already went inside his body without his permission and did something to his chaos grinder. When that happened, He felt a sense of acknowledgment from something extraordinary. But this time, It couldn't go in because he now had better power, control, and understanding of his Abyssal Void of Fabrication, and his body has upgraded.

After thinking for a while, He finally decided to let this strange force of chaos enter inside him.

' It's better to let it do its thing here. If somehow I made a half-assed breakthrough due to not allowing it to enter, I would need to waste my time finding other solutions. '

He then saw a strange force surrounding both bowls that are collectively called Duality Codex.

This strange force turned into three portions.

The first one went into the Orderic Codex and merged with it before disappearing. This caused the bean to shine a white glow.

The second portion went inside the Catastrophe Codex, which suddenly caused a palpitating sensation. The whirlpool turned chaotic from a calm state.

As for the third portion, It just gathered near the two bowls before slowly turning into something. Slowly but surely, A square box-like structure formed from the cloudly dark gray chaotic power.

The box was open from top and bottom. But inside the box, There was a membrane or like a screen of a sort in the middle.

' Phew...It looks like I don't need to make this Chaotic Curtain myself now, just like I created the Chaos Grinder. '

Chaotic Curtain works similar to his chaos grinder. However, it should work better than his chaos grinder.

But unlike other people, He can modify and add things into it by using voidpulse. Naturally, He needs to study its structure first.

' My first catastrophe should be coming soon since the first one appears after their breakthrough is finished.

Athan waited for a while before finally, his first catastrophe arrived.

The chaotic whirlpool of his catastrophe codex started spinning at a faster speed before something started to come out from it.

' Here it comes. '

Several thick streaks of red lightning shot out from the Catastrophe Codex before attacking the bean in the other bowl.

' Oh...It's an inner essence catastrophe. '

Athan knew that he needs to block this attack, and as such, He used a bit of order force to conjure a 4- star defensive order technique that he mastered during the time skip.

' 4-star order technique, Tri-Plate Coverage with Aegis Starwood nature. '

Instantly, Four emerald green triangles with a light blue hue of the order force appeared and completely blocked the path of red lightning as the four triangle plates combined to become a solid wall with a barrier around it. The barrier expanded and also covered others near him.

But the streaks of red lightning didn't give up and continued to hit his defense to break it.

' I have to subdue these four deadly and chaotic red lightning streaks. Hmmm...Should I try using voidpulse to contain and subdue it? Guess I'll do just that. '

Athan thought as he shot out a wave of Voidpulse. He expanded the voidpulses before turning them into a transparent but small cover.

Finding a perfect chance, Athan trapped the red lightning streaks with his voidpulse.

' Good! It looks like I can indeed do it. '

If someone saw how easily Athan did it, Their jaws would drop to the ground. unfortunately, They can't have something like voidpulse and will have to slowly and carefully contain the chaotic catastrophe.

Thinking of that, He brought that trapped red lightning streaks towards the Chaotic Curtain.

After moving it on top of the box, Athan put the red lightning streaks into the box as those lightning streaks hit a faint membrane/screen in the middle of the box.

The red lightning streaks passed through the screen, but they didn't come out from the other side. Instead, A strange red force was produced below the screen.

This red force traveled as it exited from the box's open bottom part before entering the Orderic Codex and infused into the small white bean.

The shining bean turned silent for a moment before it cracked, and a very small thing emerged from it. It looks like a vine of some sort, but it looked faint without any vividness. The only thing was that it appeared silent and peaceful light blue.

Right at this moment, Athan noticed the speed of order force production getting faster, ' It should be because the red force infused into the bean. This is just the start. I'll have to deal with catastrophes that would come into any shape or type. '

This time, it was his first catastrophe, so it wasn't strong at all. It was also an inner catastrophe.

He had finally entered the orderic catastrophe phase, and from now on, He will have to deal with many catastrophes releasing from catastrophe Codex in the future to advance.

Currently, He was in the first phase, Essence order Catastrophe.

The Catastrophe Codex acts as a catastrophe bringer. Sometimes, It will release catastrophe from it directly, while many times, he will be attacked internally and externally.

He will have to subdue these catastrophes that appear out of nowhere and advance.

Suddenly, Athan felt something and took out the contact card of Ayurin.

" We will leave when only three months are left before the deadline. Until then, Practice as hard you all can. Good luck. "

[A/N: There are more things to do while in Orderic Catastrophe. They are fun and interesting. :) ]

Chapter 397 - Using Black Card.

" Athan. Today is the time to leave, but...Arcued, he...."

" You two go outside and wait. I'll come with Arcued after knowing his situation. "

​​Sen and Tealery nodded as they flew towards the location of the exit portal. Both of them had reached Orderic Catastrophe shortly after Athan broke through.

On the other hand, Arcued was non-stop training and had finally saturated his peak-level essence core and reached the very peak of the tier-3 order base.

Unfortunately, His soul strength was lacking, so he started practicing in it.

Athan walked towards Arcued, who had his weary eyes closed while sitting in a crossed-legged position.

He extended his soul sense towards Arcued and checked his condition before smiling wryly, ' Not bad. But...He has reached his limit and is already overworking. '

Arcued's condition was terrible right now. His mind has exhausted, and a massive amount of fatigue has accumulated because of non-stop training.

But even so, He was still training in a soul strengthening method to make his soul reach the required rank so that he can start to attempt his breakthrough to the Orderic Catastrophe stage.

Athan observed Arcued for a few minutes before taking out Ayurin's contact card, " Master Ayurin, do you have any pill that removes all fatigue from a person and energizes them such that they can continue to train? "

" I have two such pills on me currently. But they are special 4-star pills whose prices are comparable to 5-star pills. After all, our minds and soul are delicate but also complicated places. Pills that can affect and benefit them are naturally expensive as their ingredients are hard to find and even harder to concoct. "

Athan didn't care about price and such things because it didn't matter to him, " I want to borrow one pill. "

" Borrow? That's not the word you use when asking for a pill. By saying borrow, do you mean that you will return me the exact pill in the future? "

Athan smiled as he heard Ayurin's way of asking things, " Indeed. I will simply borrow this pill and return it to you after some time. As for its purpose, I can't tell you about it. "

" Interesting. Alright. Sen is coming there with the pill. But judging from the current situation, you will not use your black card today, right? "

" Correct. As for the details, I will tell Sen about it, and she will relay it to you. "

" Fine. Then we'll be waiting for you at the testing grounds. Don't forget to keep track of time and use the black card. Only three months are left before the deadline. "

---

" Here's the pill, Athan. " Sen handed a small pill bottle to Athan with a single starry pill with white patterns inside it.

Athan took it with a faint smile before saying, " I will return this exact pill later. Also, You and Tealery can use your black card to go there first. Tell Master Ayurin and others to be on their way since, unlike us, They will have to travel to reach the testing grounds set by Chaos Monolith Hills. "

Sen slowly nodded as her face showed an expression of hesitation. Glancing at Arcued, She spoke slowly, " Are you going to give this pill to Arcued? Only three months are left, so...Umm, you know that he will likely not reach the orderic catastrophe before the deadline. "

" Hahaha. You are right. I am just going to try something which requires little to no effort on my part. But If It succeeds, then Arcued can breakthrough. Anyway, I did boast in front of him, so...If there is a way to help him, then what's the harm in trying? "

After saying that, Athan took out the pill from the bottle and sent it inside his void region.

Seeing this, Sen was shocked, " Do you have a 4-star storage ring? "

Athan was confused at first but then remembered that people at Tier-3 order base couldn't store things like 4-star pills or weapons inside their chaos region.

Proceeding to smile, He spoke, " I don't have a 4-star storage ring, but I can store things inside my internal body space due to my unique physique. "

" Oh...That's awesome! Anyway, since you have decided what to do, then I'll simply wish you good luck. Hehe, Don't miss the chance and use the black card before the deadline. " Sen was surprised at first, but she remembered about Athan's physique and how it just recently upgraded.

After wishing good luck, She flew towards the exit and left the chaos phenom dimension.

After Sen left, Athan looked at Arcued with a thoughtful expression, ' Now let's see if the plan I thought works or not. '

...

Outside...

" So Athan wants to try something to help Arcued breakthrough? It's not impossible to assist someone to increase their chances and speed of breakthrough to the Orderic Catastrophe stage. But...someone at Athan's level of strength can't possibly do it. "

Ayurin spoke after hearing everything from Sen, But after a moment, she shook her head with a wry smile, " Anyway, I also can't be sure when it comes to Athan. The powers he commands are unique, so maybe...he might have a way to help Arcued. "

Tealery took out the black card with an impatient expression and said, " Whether he succeeds or not, we will know it before three months are up. For now, Let's use the black card and meet up with Shiromi. "

Tealery's uncle and aunt looked at her with a helpless smile and also wished her good luck. Her uncle spoke with a kind smile, " Your father and mother are already at the site. We won't be going there since we will manage the clan in the absence of your father. We hope that you can get into Chaos Monolith Hills and make our clan proud. "

Tealery smiled sweetly and nodded, " Thank you. I'll definitely pass whatever tests they have arranged for us and enter the Chaos Monolith Hills. "

Tealery infused her order force in the black card before It released some strange energy. This peculiar black energy with a silver hue started to envelop Tealery. Once she was completely enveloped, She disappeared without any sound.

Ayurin also wished good luck to Sen and told her that they would watch them take tests if Chaos Monolith Hills allowed it.

" Hehe, Master...I'll also definitely pass and enter the Chaos Monolith Hills. After all, I am your most talented student. "

Sen smiled and hugged Ayurin before taking out the black card.

" See you there. Ahh...By the way, Master. Can you remind Athan with your super distance contact card to use his black card two days before the deadline? Umm...It would really suck if he got absorb in doing his own thing and missed the deadline. "

Ayurin chuckled and patted Sen's head, " Oh, sweetie. Go ahead with ease. I will remind Athan to use his black card. "

Sen nodded with a sweet smile as she also infused order force into the black card and disappeared after the peculiar energy enveloped her.

Meanwhile, The elder who came here as Arcued's guardian had a worrisome expression on his face. Upon thinking about Arcued, He couldn't help but sigh.

' Sigh...Arcued. Everyone in the clan hopes that you pass the tests and join Chaos Monolith Hills. But...you are at the juncture where you might not even qualify to take the entrance exam, let alone pass it. '

Shaking his head, He only hopes that Arcued can break through to Orderic Catastrophe in three months and at least take the tests because, according to him, That would also be an impressive thing.

...

Two months and twenty-seven days later...

Arcued and Athan stood side by side with black cards in their hands.

" Let's go. "

" Yes, Emperor. "

" As I said, Don't call me that. "

" Yes, Emperor. "

" Sigh. Nevermind. Just use the black card. "

Arcued's gaze was on borderline worshipping when he looked at Athan. After all, Athan made something impossible into possible for him.

Chapter 398 - Athan's Method.

Three months ago...

After Athan sent the pill into his void region, He started to study it using his soul sense. He understood and printed the structure and order patterns of the pill in his mind.

​​' Wonderful. This 4-star pill is completely different and more mystical than the three-star blood recovery pill. '

Athan was lost in the process of understanding the pill and didn't realize that a chaotic cloud started to form on top of him. Naturally, He didn't notice because the cloud didn't exude any kind of threat to him.

It took him twenty days to thoroughly understand the pill's order structures despite his enhanced comprehension order grasping ability.

As he finally opened his eyes, He instantly senses the cloud on top of him, ' What is this cloud? '

His interest was piqued as he carefully looked at the mysterious cloud. It appeared chaotic from the outside, but Athan sensed a mysterious power of order inside it.

The cloud appeared light black from outside, but it had dreamy golden sparks swirling inside it.

He saw the cloud rotating like a whirlpool before slowly shrinking. The cloud that spanned a two-meter radius shrank to five hundred centimeters. It turned into a swirling egg-like structure before slowly descending on him.

Athan felt a connection with it and also felt that this thing wanted to enter inside him.

' What could it be? I don't sense any threat from it. Instead, It feels like I have a very close connection with it...'

Athan deactivated his protection field of void on his body that doesn't let anything invade his body and let this strange thing enter inside it.

The swirling egg-like structure settled near the Duality Codex.

' Whatever it is, I'll look into it later. For now, Let's see if my plan works. '

Thinking of that, Athan ignored this strange thing and, first of all, produced a copy of this pill known as the Starmind Spirit pill.

After creating a Starmind Spirit pill with his voidpulse, He interrupted Arcued's training.

Arcued looked at Athan with weary eyes and a tiny hint of despair that lingered in his heart. But he had suppressed this emotion and decided to try his best until the end.

" W-what's the matter, Athan? "

" How much time will you need to finish strengthening your soul? "

" Sigh...With my current exhausted state, I will need one and a half months. But after that...Only twenty-something days will be left for me to make my breakthrough attempts at Orderic Catastrophe. "

Athan threw a pill at him and spoke with a faint smile, " Eat this pill and finish your soul strengthening training. It should remove your fatigue and speed up your training. "

Arcued caught the pill and instantly felt mysterious soul power and order force with the aura of calmness from it that relaxed his soul and rejuvenated his mind.

" This...this...this pill appears very expensive. I.."

" Just shut up and eat it. " Athan shook his head and thought, ' If Mike was here, He would just laugh and take the pill after saying [ Hehe, That's my good brother. ].'

Arcued looked gratefully at Athan before he ate the pill with determination and closed his eyes, ' I will not give up! '

Athan nodded seeing that, and then sat down crossed-legged, ' Now let's see...From my experience, The condition to trigger the breakthrough to Orderic Catastrophe is to have a perfect understanding of the current order and order force we possess.

A moment where you grasp absolute control over the power you possess will trigger the breakthrough. After all, One can only gain perfect control over any power after perfectly understanding it. '

' For this, People observe various kinds of order within wild chaotic powers and understand them. People who have higher comprehension and order grasping ability can understand and perfectly understand their current order power early. In contrast, others take time to reach that level of understanding. '

' Frankly speaking, Each people have different experience and level of understanding of their order and power. That's why it's hard to help them break through to Orderic Catastrophe. Ultimately, They have to rely on their own ability to trigger the breakthrough by reaching a perfect balanced point with their own order power and have perfect control over it. '

' Without reaching that point, They won't be able to control and wield the higher level of order force that is produced after entering the Orderic Catastrophe stage. It's like this Chaosverse requires them to have perfect control over this transparent and weak order force and perfect control over their own power. Otherwise, A breakthrough will not trigger. '

He speculated this because the current order force produces within his Orderic Codex is condensed and more potent in a mysterious way. It's like he can do much more with it other than simply using order techniques with it. Naturally, He still needs to find what else he can do with it.

' If I create an amalgamation of my understanding of order force using Nesency Voidpulse and inject it inside his soul, He might be able to reach his point of breakthrough rapidly. But I don't know how this will affect him and if he can even do it. '

Athan fell into thought, and after a few moments, He decided to first follow along with the plan, ' The final decision will lay on him. '

...

After twenty-five days, Arcued opens his eyes as his face formed an excited smile, " The effects of the pill are awesome. "

He looked at Athan spoke with a hopeful expression, " I am done. My soul reached the required rank. Now I can start attempting to breakthrough. "

Athan shook his head before his face turned severe. He stretched his right hand forward as a bright, dreamy orb with a flame-like white aura around it appeared on his palm.

" This orb can help you breakthrough to orderic catastrophe. But there are certain risks involved. This is the first time I am trying this out, as I have never created something like this orb before. "

Pausing for a bit, Athan looked at Arcued with utmost seriousness, " The plan is to inject this orb into your soul. As for the result, That depends on you and your willpower. "

Arcued was already sweating seeing Athan's expression and was stunned when he heard the last part, " Inject this inside my soul? "

Chapter 399 - Absolute Dominance. Voidlings.

" You heard correctly. This orb has all of my understanding of order force. Theoretically, As long as you absorb the content inside the orb and make them yours by understanding them. You will trigger the breakthrough. "

After saying that, He took out two more Starmind Spirit pills, " During this process, Your soul and mind will be placed on a heavy burden. You might even turn mentally ill.

But these pills will help you alleviate that burden, so there will be fewer chances of it. Also, As long as you don't give in to the burden, You will be fine with the effects of these pills. '

Pausing here, Athan spoke in a deep voice, " Even so...Nothing is guaranteed here, and I don't know what will happen. You might even lose...your life. Now the final decision is yours. Do you want to take this risk? "

Arcued's breathing turned heavy from nervousness as many thoughts raced inside his mind.

He closed his eyes and slowly calmed himself down while thinking.

Athan didn't say anything and just waited for Arcued decision, ' If he can put his life on the line for this risk by trusting me. Then...He should be worth my help. Even I am not sure about the final result since this is the first time thing. But If he gives his faith to me and takes in this orb inside his soul...then hehehe...'

Arcued has put his life at risk many times when they were in the tournament's CPD. But at that time, He had already seen Athan's ability and power. He trusted Athan's ability and his power. He knew that Athan would definitely kill the target with his mysterious power that breaks any defense.

But this time was different. This time, Athan himself was telling him that there are no guarantees of survival in this risk. Despite all of that, If Arcued still decided to trust Athan and took this risk, he would become a true friend in Athan's eyes.

Arcued opened his eyes with newfound determination, ' Athan...You are a strange guy. I don't know what will happen to me if I follow you and your madness. But so far...I only experienced benefits after meeting you. I know about myself the best. In a month, I can't trigger the breakthrough to the orderic catastrophe stage. If so, Instead of regretting not to take this risk later, I would rather trust you as I have until now. '

Taking a deep breath, He looked at the mysterious orb hovering on Athan's hand and spoke with resolve, " Do whatever you want. My life is in your hands. "

Athan grinned and waved his right hand as the orb shot towards Arcued before entering inside him.

But just two seconds later, Arcued's eyes turned red as he started screaming while grabbing his head.

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....."

Athan frowned as he waved his hand and threw both pills into Arcued's mouth.

The two pills displayed their effects as Arcued closed his eyes and stopped screaming.

*thud...*

And then...he fainted.

Athan extended his soul sense towards him before entering inside his chaos region.

' His soul is merging with the orb. But it looks like the power of the orb turned out to be overwhelming for his soul. He is losing his soul source while trying to take in the understanding contained within the orb. Hmmm...If this continued, then he will die. '

Athan thought for a moment before stretched his hand to his right side.

*Shuaa..*

A python materialized in front of his hand.

But this python had a white gemstone on its forehead and also had faint white stripes on its body.

" Go and start eating the wild chaotic power below that geyser area. "

*shirr shirr..*

The python slithered towards the geyser area and dived into a hole.

After a few seconds, Athan felt voidpulses producing inside his white orb.

With the voidpulse, He started creating pure soul power. He then sent this soul power inside Arcued's chaos region and fed it to his soul.

But at this time, He didn't know that he was creating his most loyal general.

This pure soul power he created was based on his own soul power. Naturally, It didn't have the power of his void of fabrication since it was just pure soul power, but it still has the aura of Athan's mysterious power.

When Arcued received this soul power, His speed of absorbing the understanding from the orb increased, and he started having illusions as his soul started to recover.

He saw and felt a mysterious, dominating, grand, infinite, and unfathomable power enveloping him. He saw the silhouette of Athan in his most majestic and awe-inspiring form.

He felt Absolute dominance from this Silhouette of Athan...Just like a grand emperor exuding his dominance. It's like he was seeing a god that could do anything.

Naturally, All of those were illusions birthed because of experiencing an influx of new pure soul power in his soul.

His weak soul receiving this pure and mighty soul power caused him to see these illusions.

Athan was also not aware of this happening since even he can't peek inside someone's mind and soul and see what they were thinking and experiencing.

He just saw that he had given sufficient soul power to Arcued and his soul started to absorb the orb stably.

" Done. Now there shouldn't be any problem. "

Muttering that, Athan removed his soul sense from Arcued and snapped his finger.

With that snap, The python that was absorbing wild chaotic power from the underground lake disappeared.

He could do much more things with his powers after he came out of cacoon, and creating that creature was just the tip of the iceberg. Since he now got a 5% understanding of this power, He could adequately use this power which is by combing abyssal darkness and voidpulse.

As for the python that he created, He called such creatures as Voidlings. They are under his absolute control.

Voidlings have a body of Abyssal darkness, but they also have sentience due to the power of voidpulse. He can also provide abyssal darkness to the Voidlings to let them maintain their form and increase their powers.

Naturally, He felt that the uses of Voidlings are much greater than what he just displayed. With Voidpulse, that can turn into anything he wants as long as he had sufficient understanding of that thing...Hehehe.

The Voidlings have so much potential and room to become something incredible!

Chapter 400 - Colorful Clowns Of Nimpere Clan. [ Comedy ]

" Let's go, Emperor. It's time to display your dominance and splendor to the fools of this world. " Arcued excitedly spoke as he took out the black card.

Athan was speechless, but he just ignored him because he was tired of correcting him.

Both of them had just used the black card as they arrived at a vast ground filled with people of various mixed races.

Athan and Arcued saw people doing various things.

Some people just sat crossed-legged with their eyes closed while many people formed groups and talked. Some seem to be training physically, while some enjoyed the scenery.

Athan swept his glance across this place filled with vibrant, full of life grassland and mystical trees that calms one's mind.

A nearby lake exuded a faint aura of order and chaos while the sky was filled with mysterious clouds that showered people with an invisible mystical atmosphere.

" What a place. If I trained here, then my speed would increase by almost fifty percent. " Arcued muttered with envy, ' But this is just a temporary ground of Chaos Monolith Hills. If this place is already this good, then the place where Chaos Monolith Hills is situated should be something far better than this. '

On the other hand, Athan found Shiromi, Sen, and Tealery after sweeping his eyes across this land and spoke, " There they are. Let's go. "

" Huh? Oh...Yes. But who are those other people with them? "

Arcued snapped out of his reverie hearing Athan's voice and followed him. He also found Sen and others standing far away under a giant tree. But he saw that there were additional four people with them.

Athan didn't know the answer, so he didn't say anything and just walked towards them.

After they arrived near them, Tealery noticed Athan and Arcued when she looked in their direction. She rubbed her eyes to see if she was not having hallucinations, ' Arcued? How did he reach Orderic Catastrophe in three months? '

She elbowed Sen, who had an annoyed expression as she was dealing with the four people who were buzzing around them like flies.

" Hey, Sen, Shiromi! Athan and Arcued are here. "

" Hmm? did you say Athan and Arcued? Or just Athan? "

Sen followed Tealery gaze and indeed saw Athan and Arcued walking towards them.

Shiromi, who was also dealing with the four buzzing flies along with Sen, noticed them too and was surprised to see that Arcued also managed to get here.

The four men saw the three beauties suddenly looked in a certain direction with a happy expression and became irritated. They have been trying to impress the girls for almost three months now, but all they showed them were annoying and boring expressions.

All four of them had good looks and were completely human without any additional body traits.

The four of them considered themselves not bad-looking, but they were envious of seeing Athan and his mysterious and stylish outfit.

Athan didn't wear his mask right now, so his handsome face and mystical eyes were for all to see.

Watching Athan and Arcued arriving, One of four men noticed that Sen was going to speak something. Seeing that, Before Sen could utter any words, He spoke while looking at Athan and Arcued with a kind smile, " It looks like you two worked very hard and finally managed to arrive here when there are only three days left before the deadline. Not bad, Not bad. "

He had dark long dark green hair and a sharp face with dashing eyebrows. He made his demeanor seem like he was the elder brother of the sort here as he nodded at Athan and Arcued.

But...

"Pfff...Hahaha. " Tealery laughed hearing him and looked at him as if she was looking at a fool.

Arcued grunted coldly and looked at the man with green hair sharply. A feat that he never once displayed before in his life, ' Athan is far more powerful than the likes of you. Humph, Frogs in the well. '

On the other hand, Athan just shook his head with a smile. He didn't need to take the words of ants seriously.

Sen suddenly formed a mischievous smile as if she thought of some evil plan and said to the four men, " Y'all not good-looking enough. Compared to Athan, You all seem like some chaos beast dung one would encounter when adventuring the wilds. "

She moved closer to Athan and locked his right arm. Seeing this, Tealery and Shiromi's eyes twitched slightly, but they maintained their smile.

But Sen's words had a greater impact on the four young men as they were shocked. Though their minds practically shook when Shiromi and Tealery also followed with a taunt.

Shiromi nodded with a coy smile, " Indeed. You four looks like ugly ducklings compared to him. "

Tealery also mischievously spoke as she taunted the four men, " Yep. Now go away. Shoo, shoo. Our Athan has finally arrived here, and we want to spend the remaining three days talking with him about our private matters. "

They simultaneously looked at Athan, who now had a helpless smile on his face, and thought, ' The only thing good about him is his face, outfit, and eyes. He doesn't seem powerful or valiant—just some pretty boy who barely managed to reach the orderic catastrophe near the deadline and arrive here. '

They started to communicate with each other rapidly with some sort of technique as they were blood-related siblings from a prominent clan called Nimpere Clan.

' He is indeed better-looking than us, but...One needs strength to survive and not good looks. '

' Indeed. Father has told us to find our life partners, and It is better if we can find them in this final test to have good company after entering Chaos Monolith Hills. '

' Although there are only three ladies, so only three of us will succeed, but we haven't made much progress in the past three months. Now that we know why they didn't seem interested in us, We can make our move. We have to make them realize that one needs strength to survive and not good looks. '

' Yes! They must have fallen for that pretty boy by his good looks and seducing techniques. Let's free them from his curse. '

As such, The four siblings exchanged glances before one of them formed a confident smile on his face and spoke as he adjusted his dark blond hair, " Ladies. You need powerful strength to survive in this world. What can he do when a great danger befalls you? I bet he would be the first one to run away. We four have reached the orderic catastrophe stage three years ago and survived many catastrophes since then. "

Another one also showed a kind smile and stepped forward. He had dark red hair and red eyes and was equally good-looking as his siblings, " We four have the strength and are not bad-looking. Everyone gathered here are top geniuses who got the chance to enter Chaos Monolith Hills, and strong should bond with other strong people to support each other for future hardships that are to come. "

The last one of the siblings also stepped forward. He had dark blue hair and light blue eyes. With a valiant expression on his face, He farted, " Indeed! I have the power to protect you and also a clan that fully supports us. You will not regret choosing me. "

His gaze was mainly aimed at Tealery.

Due to these four siblings speaking in a rather loud voice, The surrounding people noticed this and started muttering. But the content of the talk made Athan and others speechless.

" Hahaha. It looks like the Four colorful clowns of the Nimpere clan are still at their antics. "

" Yeah. Those three beauties arrived just three months ago, and by that time, these clowns had already tried to woo every girl here. That's why they don't know about these four clowns. "

" Pfff...Do you think any of those three will fall for them? "

" Who knows. But judging from their expressions and uh...that cool-looking dude beside them, I doubt they would choose any of the four clowns. "

" But it's getting interesting. I wonder how that pretty boy must be feeling after they demean him to raise their status in those girls' eyes. "

But the response of Sen and Tealery turned the crowd speechless while the colorful clowns were dumbfounded.

" Hehe...It doesn't matter if Athan is powerful or not. When the time comes, We will protect him. He doesn't need to protect us. "

" Yep. We can just protect him when a great danger befalls us. "

Sen and Tealery glanced at each other after saying that and chuckled. Shiromi was speechless, but she also found this funny.

The eldest brother, who had dark green hair, pointed his trembling finger at Athan as his lips twitched, " H-he... you...Anyway..." He paused and looked at Sen, " I will take care of you and protect you. Isn't this better? "

He was looking at Sen with confusion since he couldn't understand their reasoning.

Sen just grinned and replied cheekily, " Hehe...If you all say things like protecting us, support us, and such things. Then why do we can't do the same? "

" Yeah. Do you think we are weaker than you?."

" Hehehe, just like you say that you will protect us. We also say that we will protect him and support him in times of need. "

The four colorful siblings felt their heads spinning.

With sad expression filling their face, their heads dropped with immense disappointment as they walked away to a far corner and sat down with depression looming over them.

The crowd was dumbfounded as they looked at Athan with admiration, ' What a phenomenal seduction ability. He made these girls fall for him that much? Terrific. '

The men in the crowd muttered one word with respect while looking at Athan.

" F... "."

" F... ".

" F... ".

" F... ".

" F... ".

" F... ".

" F... ".

" F... ", " F... ", " F... "," F... ", " F... "," F... ", " F... "," F... ", " F... "," F... ", " F... ", F... ".

Chapter 401 - Rules And Start-1

Sen removed herself from Athan before aiming a surprised glance at Arcued, " So what's the deal, huh? How did you manage to reach Orderic Catastrophe? "

Arcued grinned as admiration oozed from his eyes. Though before he could speak, Athan elbowed and glared at him.

Seeing this, Arcued sweated a bit before he cleared his throat, " Ahem...It's a pretty long story, so I'll just say one thing. The reason I managed to break through is thanks to Athan. "

Sen, Tealery, and Shiromi somewhat guessed that it should be Athan who helped him. But they were still surprised to see Arcued here because it was virtually impossible to help others breakthrough when even someone at the level of Ayurin can only slightly assist them and can't guarantee a breakthrough.

...

They settled the place and started to talk about some things since they had nothing to do.

" Master told me that your physique should be from out of this world. More specifically, she speculated that you must have received innate power from the upper Chaosverse. "

Tealery and Shiromi were surprised.

" Well, If that's the case, then it should explain why his physique is more potent than general unique, innate physiques here. " Tealery spoke after nodding as she looked at Athan.

Athan stayed silent as he just smiled and changed the subject.

" What's with this people gathering? It seems like they are bored. I don't see any conflicts or fights. Which means that it's not allowed here, right? "

Athan asked some questions as he looked at the surroundings.

" Yeah. Fighting is not allowed here. This place appears vast, but there's a barrier. You see those people standing far away at the edge. That's the limit. You can't go past that. " Shiromi spoke while pointing in the north direction.

The barrier is approximately two kilometers radius big. All people are within this two kilometers meters radius area.

Arcued asked curiously, " I don't feel restricted and can access my powers. So how exactly is fighting not allowed? "

" Well, some people must have fought, and their fight showed the consequences. What was that? The consequences that can quiet everyone down and cease conflict must be a most likely disqualification. They would be kicked out if they fight, right? " Athan guessed.

" Correct. We also didn't see it, but those four clowns spoke so much to us in the past three months, so we know some things despite arriving late. " Sen answered with a chuckle.

...

Athan and others spent three days without doing much.

But finally today, a giant portal opened in the middle of this grassland, and twelve people arrived from it. All twelve of them had worn the same type of clothes with minor differences in design.

One could see a symbol on their garment at the position above the elbow and below the shoulder on their right arm. This symbol appeared alive as it displayed six hills in 3D painting form with clouds and birds moving on top of them.

Among the twelve, Only three people looked like ordinary humans without any additional body features. Two of them were ladies with beautiful and elegant appearances, while the third human was a tall, buffy, and bald man with blue eyes.

The other nine were humanoid but of various mixed races. Among them, three were women and five men.

Athan recognized a person from that group floating in the sky. That person was the envoy who arrived at the tournament where he participated.

The beautiful human lady who floated in the middle of the group of ten came forward as she swept her glance at the people below.

" Warriors of Chaos who gathered here from the three continents. This testing ground is established at the intersection of these three continents, but it's within a unique dimension. But before we begin the test, I will inform you of some rules and facts. "

" We held a total of twelve regional tournaments in these three continents and gave out six-hundred black cards. And well..." Pausing here, The lady swept her eyes on the ground before speaking, " Only four hundred-sixty one arrived here. "

The lady then smiled as she waved her right hand...

*Swoooooosh...*

A monolith appeared with fifty golden brackets carved on it. It pulsed with energy and mysteriousness.

" Some of you might have guessed what it this. But I'll tell you in simplest form. These fifty golden brackets are for fifty people. Which means...Among you all, only fifty people will come with us to the Chaos Monolith Hills. "

*Rumble!!...*

Her words caused a major commotion at two places. The first place was here where all participants were shocked, nervous, angry, etc., since only fifty of them will pass.

The second place was right outside of this unique dimension. It was a vast barren land, but currently, It was filled with people.

There was a giant leaderboard floating in the sky with four-hundred sixty-one names. There was also a huge twenty square meters screen of cloud, and there were a hundred sections on the screen.

But currently, these sections seem connected as they displayed the twelve envoys and the lady speaking about rules as a whole.

" Ahem..."

The lady fake coughed that rumbled across the grassland as everyone quieted down.

" Only fifty people will win among you and join the Chaos Monolith Hills, but that's not the final count. If your performance is exceptional, then we may select more people. We are flexible. As such, Hardworking people with a formidable will are appreciated more when they are already talented. "

Hearing that, Everyone cheered, and they became even more motivated.

Previously, Those who were away of their own ability were affected internally since only fifty people were going to be selected. But hearing what the beautiful lady just said, A newfound resolve was ignited within them.

The lady clapped with an otherworldly smile and attracted everyone's attention, " If you want this big sister company after joining Chaos Monolith HIlls, then you better work extra hard. If your performance is extra exceptional, then I'll let you join my Roseblade Hill faction. "

A mystical aura released from her body that made her look even more gorgeous.

All men's eyes revealed heart as they looked at the " big " parts of the big sister. She had natural light blue wavy hairs with beautiful eyes and face, so most men were smitten.

The four colorful clowns looked at each other with fire in their eyes, ' Brothers. Forget about the girls here. We will woo the beautiful big sisters after joining Chaos Monolith Hills! '

' Yeah!! We won't give up. Let's aim higher. Who knows how many girls here will be selected? So it's better if we work on this thing after entering Chaos Monolith Hills. '

' First and Third, you two are right. Let's do it! '

' Three idiots, We need to win before that, so let's focus on winning. We don't even know the format of the test. '

...

Tealery, Sen, and Shiromi looked at Arcued, who was slightly affected.

After that, they looked at Athan but saw that he had an indifferent expression on his face.

' Athan is different indeed. '

The other eleven envoys had a weak smile on their faces. The other human lady who had crimson hair and looked like a cold beauty shook her head, ' Although she motivated the competitors but...sigh. '

Moving a bit forward, She spoke in a loud voice, " Now listen carefully as I'll explain the rules of the test. "