1218: Run

Run

Void Essence was a simple Essence that on its own did nothing. It was an amalgamation of Essences that remained in a harmonious state where it could turn to any other Essence it needed to.1

When it came into contact with anything that had any sort of Essence in it, it would turn itself to the exact opposite of that Essence, consuming it, making it vanish.

It was called a Void because everything that touched it disappeared, becoming a form of Essence that was simply pure.

Ning's Void skill created a domain around him that destroyed any and all Essence, including the skills that were used. As such, when he used it, Saburn could not use anything to protect himself.

Ning landed on the ground and next to him was the now-dead Saburn.

No one expected Saburn to die. Why would they? He was fighting against someone that was 2 realms below him, so there was no threat to him.

Sure the person he was fighting was strong and had many tricks up his sleeve, but even then, pure strength was hard to beat.

So, when the two halves of Saburn— cut diagonally through his chest— fell to the ground, no one could comprehend why that had even happened.

Why had he not saved himself? It didn't look like he was caught off guard.

And what was that Essence they just sensed?

The 6 men that watched Ning were more than curious to know what had happened to him. Even the Prince that had given up trying to break in was now curious as to what was happening.

As for Ning, he was panicking.

Using Void Essence wasn't easy for him. To destroy the Essence of someone as strong as Saburn, he had to use up a lot of Essence. Due to that, his body was now in terrible pain that he couldn't handle, and the Essence in his core was as low as just a tenth of the total.

He was lacking a lot of Essence, but that wasn't even the worst of it.

What was worse was that next to him, a green bird-like Essence soul was slowly appearing from Saburn's corpse, the part that had the core.

This was Ning's plan all along. He wanted to kill Saburn while he was angry and underestimating him. However, he did not expect to be so useless the moment he did so.

Using Void Essence left him unable to use Essence for a few moments, so he couldn't do anything right now. All he could do was jump up and run away from the location.

Ning showed no hesitation in doing so as he quickly found himself running toward the closest man he could find.

The black-clothed man that saw Ning coming toward him understood what was going on. Ning wanted him to fight the Essence Soul. 

He could easily run away and let Ning fight. However, there was a problem. He wasn't sure what the Emperor would do if he left the young man die before he came.

The man frowned for a moment before sighing to himself. He had no choice. 

Two giant pillars appeared out of the ground around him, slowly becoming fists. They were less solid earth and more a collection of small rocks. 

He punched the bird-like soul that flew next to Ning. The soul reacted in time, using a barrage of feathers to attack the man.

'Shit!' the man thought. His own Essence soul was not non-humanoid at all, so he was weaker than the Essence Soul in front of him.

He had quantity though, so he had to use it.

While the man fought the Essence Soul, Ning made his escape. He ran away from the place, running in a direction to leave the arena if he could.

However, another man in a black cloth arrived next to him and sent a burst of steam next ot him, stopping him from running away.

Ning stepped back and evaluated the situation again. He saw that 3 other people had run up to the other one to help him fight against the Essence soul while this one fought Ning.

Ning looked at the last man that seemed conflicted about who to help at first, but in the end, decided to help aid the man confronting Ning.

Just then, Damien flew into the arena and arrived in front of Ning. "Go, leave this place," he told Ning before turning toward the men. "You will not stop him."

"Your Highness, please," the man said, looking at the Crown Prince. "Don't make this hard for us. We're under his Majesty's orders."

"If you won't listen to me, then fight me," Damien said and instantly created multiple blades of Wind Essence that he used to attack the two men at once.

One of the black-clothed men created an explosion of steam to protect himself, while the other one created an ice barrier.

"Run," the Crown Prince said to Ning who was stunned that the prince was helping him.

"Thank you," Ning said and ran away.

The two men tried to catch upto him but the prince stopped them both. A tiger-like Essence soul came out from behind him as he got serious about the fight.

The two men got serious as well.

It was going to be impossible for them to fight the Crown prince without hurting him, and only remaining in defense wasn't going to help them at all.

At the same time, Ning was running away, so they needed to stop him as soon as they could.

However, before the fight between them even began, a loud voice spoke to them all.

"Pathetic!" the Emperor cried out as he arrived outside the crystal dome, Clara nowhere to be seen.

The Emperor dashed forward and arrived in the arena, sending a crystal spike that pinned Saburn's soul to the ground.

"He died, huh?" he asked. "Too weak. And he wanted to replace the Grazers? Hmph."

His eyes turned toward Ning who was doing his best to run away.

"No," the Emperor said. "You are staying behind."

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