"Athea of the Lord of Emptiness Lineage vs. Aion of the Human Lineage."
The difference between their bloodlines could not be greater, but it was the young man with the supposedly weak Lineage, the one with a smile.
Athea communed with the world around her, attempting to feel anything from the young man, yet she came up with nothing. It was clear to her that unveiling Aion's secret would not be easy.
Aion stared at the young woman, and while his smile remained, he did not look down on her, taking a deep breath before adopting a battle stance before the fight even started.
"Fight!"
The instant that word appeared, a blast echoed across the arena along with a pillar of black-white lightning. Athea did not hesitate before making her energy pool explode, and the Suns of Origin unleashed all of their energy, bathing her figure in golden flaming light.
Athea channeled an outrageous amount of World Strength into her body, making it grow more and more powerful until she could not contain anymore inside. After achieving the limit that she could control inside her body, she channeled that energy around her right fist, generating a tornado of black-white lightning.
"BOOM!" A shock wave cracked the ground beneath Athea's feet as she dashed toward Aion, ready to unleash a blow capable of pulverizing a Low World.
She had seen how Aion dodged all of Zaphirox's punches, and she was not much faster than the Eldar, but her tornado punch carried a massive range, which she expected would be enough to reach the young man.
Noah, Beelzebub, and Sirik focused on the fight since if there was anyone that could force Aion to reveal his secret skills, that would be Athea. The trio could not help but frown when they saw that Aion did not move a muscle and remained in that martial stance.
The geniuses had concluded that Aion's battle skills had reached such a pure level that they came back to the basics, but even then, Athea's punch had such a massive range that it would be impossible to dodge it. His only path would be to block or counter it with an even more potent physical attack.
No one in the trio expected Aion to simply block it, but the idea he could unleash a stronger physical attack than Athea was preposterous. Nevertheless, the young man had performed such amazing feats that nothing seemed impossible for him.
Shock appeared in the eyes of Noah, Beelzebub, and Sirik when they saw how Aion extended his right arm and opened his palm. The idea that he wanted to catch Athea's punch like that was unthinkable.
Athea's eyes were full of confusion as she did not understand Aion's plan. Still, silver flames erased any hesitation from her heart as she pushed that right fist forward with all her power.
The moment Athea's punch touched Aion's palm, something amazing happened.
"¡BOOM!"
A shock wave echoed across the arena as the black-white lightning tornado around Athea's right arm, which she formed using World Strength, scattered when it touched Aion's palm.
Athea could not believe what had just happened. As a bearer of the Lord of Emptiness Lineage, her domain over World Strength was second to none in the same Rank, but there was no way to deny that Aion dispersed everything she had gathered around her right arm.
Aion acted as if what he had done was insignificant, and he moved to the side while still grabbing Athea's arm before making her rotate over and blasting her body against the ground.
"¡BOOM!"
The clash woke Athea out of shock, but before she could get up from the ground, Aion raised his right fist and drew the dispersed World Strength around them.
Everybody saw a tornado of black-white lightning form around Aion's fist before he used it to punch Athea's stomach with all his strength.
"BOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!"
Athea clenched her teeth as a metallic taste appeared in her mouth. Despite the damage she had just endured, she was able to send a ferocious kick toward Aion, forcing this one to jump back.
She immediately rose to the sky and gathered World Strength around her leg before flashing toward Aion and sending an immensely powerful downward kick.
Aion sent his right palm forward, scattering the World Strength around the leg before grabbing it and making Athea's body crash into the ground again. He channeled the dispersed energy into his feet and kicked the woman in the chest, sending her flying away while puking blood.
Athea regained control of her body immediately but did not dash toward Aion. She cleaned the blood out of her mouth as she attempted to understand what was happening.
'Somehow, he can disperse the World Strength I used to cover her limbs and take control of it. However, it seems he can not control the one I have inside my body, empowering me.'
Athea clenched her fists in frustration. It seemed that her stance against Aion was even worse than that of Zaphirox and Lith since World Strength was her greatest trump card, yet the young man could disperse any she did not have inside her body.
Luckily, her willpower again helped her calm down and find the answer to her predicament.
Athea's body trembled before splitting into three perfect copies. As a Lord of Emptiness, each of her cells had the power to form a copy of her since they contained her energy, body, and soul.
Diving her body into three seemed a mistake since while she could simultaneously attack from three directions, they only had one-third of her full power. However, everything made sense once she summoned World Strength and filled each body.
Each of Athea's avatars could contain the same amount of World Strength as the original. Since she could not channel it externally, she would focus solely on the inside.
The aura of each avatar reached 70% of the original's battle strength, more than enough to present a threat.
Aion's smile grew as he saw the fighting intent in Athea's avatars and raised his hand, signaling for them to come at him.
