Chapter 203 - Surprise Me!

"What do you mean you just have to fight with it?" Inhee could not help but think that the Supreme Ruler of the Void's idea was incredibly preposterous. "The gap between that thing's existence level and your current existence level is akin to an ant facing against a black hole! You're a True Saint-level being, you know? Why aren't you acting like one? Are you seriously going to use your overwhelming advantage in stats and pummel the shit out of a measly Inanimate?"

"I know my limits, Inhee. I just didn't tell you what I had in mind," the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to Inhee's question, letting out a sigh not long after. As he continued to manipulate multiple strands of energy that connected with the orb in front of him, the Supreme Ruler of the Void decided to explain to Inhee what he meant by fighting with the Inanimate.

"At the start of the third stage, I'll set my combat power to a Rank 3 Animate since that seems to be the maximum power the Inanimate could muster while it attacked the pillars in the second stage," the Supreme Ruler of the Void said to her. He then added, "If the Inanimate reveals some tricks up its sleeve, allowing it to overwhelm me, then I'll adjust my combat power to be on an equal level against the Inanimate. I continue to do this until the Inanimate reaches the ultimate limit of its power, allowing me to gauge whether such an Inanimate can truly bring change to the world."

"Ah, finally done," the Supreme Ruler of the Void said not long after, a light smile was plastered on his face. While he retracted the strands of energy he connected to the orb, he looked at the standing Inhee and said, "I've done my preparations for the third stage. Tell the Inanimate that the third stage is about fighting an incarnation of myself."

"Okay." Inhee nodded at his words, sending a strand of energy towards the orb that connected her to it. Just as she was about to talk to the Inanimate in the orb, Inhee looked at the Supreme Ruler of the Void and asked, "Now that I think about it, what's the name of the third stage? I always tell the Inanimate the name of the stages before starting, so you better come up with a decent one."

"Hmm…" The Supreme Ruler of the Void soon pondered over a name that would fit what he was going to do, eventually coming up with a decent one as he told her, "The name of the third stage shall be…"

"A Heartfelt Fight."

"…" In response to his suggestion, Inhee was left at a loss for words since to her, the name of the third stage radiated a different feeling. Fortunately, she understood what the Supreme Ruler of the Void was referring to since she had an idea of the mechanics of the third stage. Then again, she could not help but tease him over his bad naming sense.

"What a shitty name. It sounds like the title of a shitty romance-action novel."

"It takes time to come up with a good name, okay? I don't know how you make good names so quickly, but it takes a long time for me to think up of one," the Supreme Ruler of the Void responded to her words in a tone that made it sound like he was being wronged. Not long after, he said with a sigh, "Just roll with it, okay?"

"Fine, fine. You paid me to do this anyway," Inhee responded to the Supreme Ruler of the Void's statement with a teasing laugh, eventually starting to talk with the Inanimate in the orb.

…

Within the large stone room.

"Your 10-minute break is now up, Aurus," Inhee's voice resounded throughout the room, startling Aurus all of a sudden. In response to Inhee's abrupt voice, Aurus looked up at the ceiling and said, "To be honest, it doesn't feel like 10 minutes have passed."

Hearing this, Inhee answered back with, "Your perception of time in this place has just dulled. On the outside, ten minutes have already passed. For you to tell me this, do you have some sort of clock inside you or something?"

"Fine, fine, fine. The ten minutes are up, I get it," Aurus said in response to Inhee's words while being inwardly surprised. The reason why he was inwardly surprised was that after Inhee told Aurus that he was going to get a ten-minute break, he went ahead and commanded Theresa to set a timer for ten minutes as he conditioned himself for the next stage…or rather, thought about what he was going to do next after clearing this impromptu trial. In actuality, only 7 minutes had passed since Aurus's break started, which was why he told Inhee that he did not get a 10-minute break.

Either way, he had already recuperated his losses from the second stage, which was a large amount of energy. Since he was back at his peak condition, and the Inheritance Ruler wanted him to go ahead with the next stage ahead of time, he decided to just go along with it. 

"So…what's the third stage about?" Aurus could not help but ask Inhee, to which Inhee promptly responded, "Well…let's just say that this stage is very unique when compared to the previous two."

Whoosh!

In an instant, the area of the stone room had expanded to what it was in the second stage, being 9 large stone rooms combined. But instead of having a million Pseudo-Animate pillars surrounding Aurus, what surrounded Aurus instead was a translucent dome that had a dark tint to it.

At the very instant he was surrounded by this dark-tinted dome, the first thought that came in Aurus's mind was the idea that the Supreme Ruler of the Void was dissatisfied with his performance in the previous two stages, trapping him inside this dome in order to eradicate him. With that in mind, he could not help but look up at the ceiling of the stone room, asking Inhee with a slightly afraid tone, shouting, "Inhee, what the heck is this? Are you trapping me here so I can't leave? You do know I won't give up without putting up a fight, right?"

"As if I have any reason to do that," Inhee responded to Aurus's question, letting out a sigh not long after. After that, a few seconds of silence ensued, with Inhee pondering within whether it was going to tell Aurus the truth about the dome or not. Fortunately, the being beside Inhee told it that it was okay for it to tell the truth, letting Inhee breathe out an inward sigh of relief as it said, "Anyways, don't worry about the dome. You're not trapped here."

Listening to Inhee's comforting words, Aurus eventually let out a short sigh, although he was still a bit vigilant. Nonetheless, he still wanted to know the purpose of the dome, so he asked, "So…why conjure a dome around me?"

"The Supreme Ruler of the Void told me to conjure that dome around you," Inhee replied to Aurus's question, which only backfired as Aurus's vigilance towards Inhee had reached a level higher than before as he said with slight fear, "So I was right! The Supreme Ruler of the Void was indeed dissatisfied with my performance!"

"…" Inhee was left at a loss for words thanks to Aurus's statement, wondering why Aurus was thinking about this even though he had done an exemplary job in the first two stages. Wanting to know why Aurus was thinking about these things, Inhee went ahead and asked him, "Why are you thinking so pessimistically? You've done a great job in the first two stages. The Supreme Ruler of the Void just wanted to see your limits in this third stage, nothing more, nothing less."

After listening to Inhee's words, Aurus realized that he might have overreacted after the dome was conjured around him. Nonetheless, he was not going to admit to it so easily, telling Inhee, "Well, all of this could've been avoided if you told me the mechanics of the third stage at the instant you started to talking."

"Trying to blame me, eh? You're way too tender to do that," Inhee said in response to Aurus's statement before letting out a light chuckle. "Don't you dare pass the blame on me, Aurus. You're the one who overreacted and you know that."

Of course, hearing those words, Aurus went silent as he knew that that was the case, with Inhee ignoring Aurus's silence as it explained the mechanics of the third stage. "Anyways, the name of the third stage is A Heartfelt Fight. In this stage, you're going to fight against an incarnation of the Supreme Ruler of the Void. Now that I think about it, it's more of a spar than a fight."

"Either way, the Supreme Ruler of the Void will explain more about the mechanics of the third stage once it starts," Inhee added. "Also, since the Supreme Ruler of the Void is the one managing the third stage this time around, the rewards after this stage shall come from the Supreme Ruler of the Void, not from me."

"I see," Aurus said as he repeated Inhee's explanation a few times to get a better idea of the third stage. In response to his words, Inhee said, "And with that, I shall now leave you with the Supreme Ruler of the Void. To be honest, he has already changed his opinion of you. He just wants to see your maximum power right now."

Whoosh!

At the very instant Inhee was finished talking, the silhouette of a human figure appeared quite a distance away from Aurus, radiating an aura that he was the epitome of nothingness. Other than the fact that the clothes he was wearing, which consisted of a black t-shirt and black jeans, complemented the aura he was radiating, he had an incredibly handsome face that could easily mesmerize men and women alike. Even Aurus, who was an Inanimate, could not help but be mesmerized by the man's face after focusing his sense of vision towards the man.

"Ah, I'm sorry." Fortunately, the man noticed that Aurus was mesmerized thanks to him, suppressing his aura to a minimum, allowing Aurus to come back to his senses. Not long after that, Aurus was able to take a look at the man again, but this time, he focused on the man's aura of nothingness, prompting him to ask, "Are you…the Supreme Ruler of the Void?"

"Indeed, I am. Unfortunately, I am only an incarnation so I can only show a portion of my power in front of you," the man responded to Aurus's question, introducing himself as the incarnation of the Supreme Ruler of the Void. "Anyways, it seems Inhee has told you a very rough explanation of the third stage so I'll tell you what I had in mind while making this third stage."

"I've already accepted the fact that you're worthy of your title. You have enough power to hold such a title," the Supreme Ruler of the Void added. "I just wanted to see what your limits are as of now. Are you going to show me a power that far exceeds the power you've shown in the previous stage?"

"Power that exceeds what I've shown in the previous stage…" Aurus muttered in response to the Supreme Ruler of the Void's words, only to recall the overwhelming power flowing inside his body as he attacked those pillars in the second stage. Of course, alongside that feeling, he remembered that he could only amplify his stats to a maximum of 100 times before his body would not be able to handle it, prompting him to let out a sigh, which was not left unnoticed by the Supreme Ruler of the Void.

"What's wrong?" the Supreme Ruler of the Void asked him. In response to his question, Aurus replied, "I could show you a power that exceeds what I've shown in the previous stage, but unfortunately, I am limited by the limit of how much strength my body could hold at maximum. In the previous stage, I was already near that maximum."

"So Inhee was actually telling me the truth," the Supreme Ruler of the Void muttered to himself after listening to Aurus's words, pondering over ways to resolve the problem. Eventually, a spark of inspiration flashed in his mind, with him smiling as he told Aurus, "It's a matter of your body limiting you from using your full strength, huh. I'll give you a temporary buff that removes that limit for now."

Snap.

Ding!

And so, with a snap of his fingers, the Supreme Ruler of the Void went ahead and sent a bit of the aura surrounding him towards Aurus as a notification sound resounded in his mind. Not long after, Theresa went ahead and told Aurus of the content of this notification, saying, "Master, you've obtained a temporary buff called [Vessel of the Void]! The effect of the buff allows you to go past the multiplier limit of 100 times!"

"Eh?" As Aurus listened to Theresa's words, Aurus was left in a state of confusion, wondering why the Supreme Ruler of the Void would do such a thing. Surprisingly, the Supreme Ruler of the Void chuckled, as if he was reading Aurus's thoughts, and said, "As I've said before, I just want to see your maximum power. This is just the curiosity and awe of a Ruler taking over me."

"The question is…will you allow me to see it?"

"Well…" Aurus pondered over it, eventually letting out a chuckle as he replied, "Since you've given me such a buff, I'm also quite curious as to how high of a combat power I could show alone. Now let this Inanimate entertain you, Supreme Ruler of the Void."

"[Supreme Deification]."

"[Sole Entity]."

"[Soul Transcendence]."

Whoosh!

In an instant, the aura radiated by Aurus had amplified by a great degree, giving the Supreme Ruler of the Void a feeling that the aura radiated by the Inanimate in front of him exceeded the aura he was currently radiating. He closed his eyes and focused all of his remaining eyes towards the current aura being radiated, with him muttering not long after, "Rank 4 Animate level…"

Whoosh!

Not long after saying that, the aura emanating from the Supreme Ruler of the Void had increased by a notch, radiating a power that did not lose to the power Aurus was radiating. In response to this, Aurus let out a chuckle before saying, "I'm just getting started."

"[Dark Universal Blade]."

Whoosh!

After activating a single skill, the aura radiated by Aurus had amplified by a great degree one more time, with the Supreme Ruler of the Void's eyes widening from surprise. This time though, it only took a while for him to get an idea of how strong Aurus currently was, muttering to himself with slight doubt, "Rank 7…Animate…?"

Whoosh!

And just like that, the aura radiating from the Supreme Ruler of the Void was on an equal level yet again, with him looking at the Inanimate in front of him with slight shock. He could not help but mutter to himself, "Although it's at the level of a Rank 7 Animate, only a small distance remains before the Inanimate reaches the strength of a Rank 8 Animate!"

At this point, the Supreme Ruler of the Void was in utter disbelief. Never did he think that the limit of the Inanimate in front of him far exceeded the power it showed in the previous stage, where he thought it was already unimaginable for such a small Inanimate to wield such power. Of course, the Inanimate wouldn't be so monstrous to exceed this level…right?

"Is that all you've got, Inanimate?" the Supreme Ruler of the Void asked Aurus this question. In response to this, a hint of doubt was in Aurus's tone as he responded, "I have another skill in my arsenal I can use to increase my power even further…but I'm not sure if it even boosts my power."

"Hoh?" In response to Aurus's words, the Supreme Ruler of the Void raised his eyebrow before saying, "Well, go ahead and use it. I hope it surprises me."

"Alright then," Aurus replied before taking in a deep breath.

Whoosh!

"[Pseudo-Animate Ascension]."