Zephyria

"Zephyrus, even someone of your strength is incapable of killing me, the Invincible Fist Immortal, without suffering injuries." Said a man of prominent height, wearing ancient armor.

The man's eyes were filled with surging battle intent, causing the winds of the realm to surge and trees to uproot. The air seems to have become tangible, seemingly like tar, making it hard for one to move.

The Invincible Fist Immortal was standing in the skies as he faced off against an older man, Zephyrus, in plain white clothes.

Zephyrus face was laced with indifference, which didn't place his opponent in his eyes.

Seemingly pondering, Zephyrus removed his hands behind his back and gestured with his hand, offering peace, "Invincible, you are one of the most outstanding immortals of this generation, I truly would hate to see such a genius extinguished. Stop this futile struggle; otherwise, even I cannot guarantee you a safe reincarnation."

"Genius you say? I don't think so. You have been at your current realm for millions of years and I have bridged this gap from a mortal and I can still continue to grow. This is not because of talent but seeking and claiming every opportunity to improve. Zephryus, you have become an Immortal Emperor for so long and have not improved, however, you have created a chance for me to surpass this realm and reach the summit. I only need you to hand me the Nine Ascending Divine Art, once I succeed, I promise to help you. I know I can't win against you in a fight, but this art I must have!" While he was powerful, Invincible didn't think he could escape Zephyrus nor fight him on equal footing.

Zephyrus, one of the few remaining ancient immortals, frowned, showing the first change in expression after millions of years, "You have a glib tongue, a fact I can't deny. You seem to be under some misunderstanding. You claim to be able to ascend to the summit but do you not understand the difficulties involved. Under the Immortal Emperor realm, all beings are ants, but we all know that's false. No matter what realm one is, if they do not reach the summit, you will eventually die when He wakes up. Right now, I am on the brink of ascending to becoming an Immortal Venerable, but even then, I am still just an ant. You believe that my Divine Art will help you but you are mistaken. This art was created in order to escape the status of an ant but it can only be used by me, because the energy I cultivate is different. Not only that, you are not proficient in the ways of the soul, is even more impossible to start."

Zephyrus's eyes turned profound as he looked at Invincible. 'I have been watching you for many eons, and seeing your growth has astonished me. Still, the most I can do is let you die with the knowledge of knowing why. Don't resent me, I gave you a choice.'

<Transcendent Annihilation>!

In Invincible eye's, Zephyrus's silence caused his hairs to stand on end, making him feel his impending doom, especially at the words <Transcendent Annihilation>.

Before he could even process what was happening, Invincible found himself inside a void of pitch black darkness, with his senses restricted to his soul. What he didn't know was his body was still within Zephyrus's domain, his soul just vanished.

Looking at the body still floating in the skies, Zephyrus muttered to himself, "The Divine Art is now yours, that attack was meant to destroy you completely but I held back at the last moment, perhaps I believe you can reach the summit, or maybe I have gotten old after so long. Still, making a puppet out of your body would seem like a decent trade." With a smile, he collected Invincible's body into his storage space.

————-

In a place of eternal darkness, Invincible opened his eyes, looking around in confusion, before his memories started to come back to him, making him realize that he died.

Having his memories, Invincible was even more confused. As an Immortal Emperor, a figure within the upper echelon of the immortal hierarchy, when one entered the Underworld [1], they should be summoned by the Yama Kings and get a chance of deciding their reincarnation. However, this place did not seem like the Underworld he was familiar with. This place did not have any warmth, just coldness. There was no sound, just indifference. This place seems like it exists outside the Grand Dao, untouch by all for eternity. However that can't be, nothing exists without the power of Grand Dao being behind it.

Although this location was foreign to him, he did not become scared. No matter what, he was still an Immortal Emperor, one with the dao title of Invincible. None was his equal within his realm, well, none except Zephyrus, that old goat.

From the days of being a mortal to his time as an immortal, Invincible has always held a high degree of passion for the immortal dao. He have come across many other daos but none reach the degree of profoundness of immortal dao.

As he read the Divine Art imprinted inside his mind, Invincible was startled and also a little disappointed. The Nine Ascending Divine Art allows one to embed their souls into nine realms and completely dominate them as the Heavenly Dao, but that does not mean one will ascend to the summit, one would just sit firmly in the Immortal Venerable realm.

If he cultivates this art, not only will he become a top Immortal Veneable, he will have numerous daos at his beck and call. To reach the summit, one must create their own dao that dominates the others, so Invincible could see Zephryus ambition.

'Dominate the daos as a Immortal Venerable, and forcibly ascend and dominate everything as an Immortal Supreme.'

The art is also different from what he thought. He thought the art would allow him to have a great number of avatars to spread through the many worlds, which essentially increase the speed in which he cultivates and create a false undying ability.

Invincible was looking forward to using the art, but as Zephyrus pointed out, since he was a body practitioner, and not a Qi Refiner, he would be hard pressed to practice the technique.

If he was to practice, it could take ages before he even saw results, because just the first stage requires him to split his soul but he doesn't dare do that, because he had no experience with the soul as he did the body.

Controlling his soul, he morphed his soul into a humanoid form, something easy for Immortal Emperors, no matter if they are Qi or body practitioners.

While his soul looks humanoid, its essence didn't change, as he wasn't adept at souls.

Inside the void, Invincible felt energy that came before dawn of all things. It was more powerful than time essence, space essence and other essence.

Sitting cross legged, he began to absorb wisps of energy, making his soul become heavy, and cold at the same time.

A dark cloud surrounded his soul like Death was next door waiting to claim his soul.

Alarmed, Invincible frowned and stopped absorbing the energy of the void, dealing with the wisps he had already incorporated into himself.

When he absorbed the wisps of energy, his soul became illusionary as if it was about to disappear, but his sense could tell his soul had become powerful, which made him confused if he should absorb more.

The feeling he was getting from the energy was at least a few notches higher than anything he felt before. Even his Invincible energy that made his attacks heavy and dominating, paled before it.

Thinking for a moment, he decides to absorb more. Who knows when he will ever have this opportunity again, so it would be a pity to waste it.

Floating in the void of nothingness, Invincible absorbs more than a hundred wisps of the energy he decided to call 'Void Energy'.

The more energy he absorbed, the more illusionary his soul became until it disappeared entirely from view, but his consciousness escaped his soul and spread far and wide, proving he still existed and became more powerful.

Now, even if someone of Immortal Venerable realm spread their divine sense out, they would be incapable of sensing him. His soul has become one with the surrounding void.

As he disappeared from view, he continued to absorb energy, and soon felt that he reached the limit his soul could take, anymore and he will put himself in danger.

In this place, time seems to have no meaning. It might have been a few days or maybe a few centuries before light appeared in front of him.

He had tried many things to escape but it seemed nothing inside could shake this place. So to see this light was a surprise for him and a chance to leave. From the light, he senses the aura of life and death.

However, since he was already dead, Invincible had no reason not to try, who knows he might be lucky.

—---------

'Great One, I have reached my limit, I can't advance past the white flames, it's too mighty for me. I will have to return to the Underworld, I use too much energy then this world will allow me to, forgive me Great One.' The Death Emperor sighed and disappeared in fog that appeared from nothingness and vanished as soon as it appeared.

Seeing this scene, Ainz sighed and decided to do it himself. He unsummoned the <Legion of Death> and flew into the mountain, arriving in the territory of the white flames. Because he achieved a new height of strength in this world, he could easily withstand 8th tier spells and level 80 warriors without effort.

Ainz cast strengthening spells to increase his defense and resistance to fire damage. With his current equipment, his resistance to fire was already high but it didn't hurt to increase it further, especially when undead were weak against it.

Walking into the white flames territory, Ainz defensive spells and fire resistance started to crack and break down almost instantly, forcing him to pull out a talisman out of his inventory.

The talisman was created by the battle maid, Entoma using her special skills.

The talisman acted the same way as a scroll but unlike the one-time scrolls, the amulet could be used multiple times before it needed to be recharged.

The spell in said talisman is a rare defense area that surrounded the user and protected them from harm.

Arriving at the edge of the white flames and the black flames, the talisman broke, making Ainz use a few other talismans to protect himself with.

As he looked at the black flames, Ainz felt an intense sensation of danger that he had never felt before.

As an undead, Ainz should not be able to experience fear or dread but he felt it, and it was not being suppressed!

Frowning and casting a spell, <Great Destruction Wave>, a spell that took a long time to charge but is able to launch a powerful attack in one direction with the might rivaling a super tier spell.

As the spell finishes charging, a tidal wave of destruction surges into the black flames, disappearing into nothingness, not affecting it at all.

It was like a giant beast opening its mouth to devour a mouthful of water.

Seeing his spell not working, Ainz just steps into the black flames and equip the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, making the fire seem weak and harmless as the red crystal in the mouth of one of the crowning snakes became crimson red, like magma, as it appears to be resisting the flames fiercely.

Ainz walked calmly ahead in flames, soon reaching the end of the mountain as he saw a small tree burning with nine different colors, looking divine and alluring as different flames shoot out of its nine colorful leaves, and return, creating a cycle.

Seeing the small tree, Ainz became disappointed and wanted to destroy it in a fit of rage because what is he supposed to do with the tree? Even if it was powerful, he doesn't need it. Even if he took it, where is he supposed to put it? Not in his inventory as the tree seems to be a living creature. Even if he brought it back home, where is he supposed to put it? The only floor would be the seventh floor but if he did that, none of the demons on that floor would be able to live, including Demiurge, the flames are too powerful. And that's even when they have resistance to fire.

Thinking for a while, he decided to leave as he doesn't need the plant, and he doesn't wish to waste any more effort on it.

Just as Ainz turned around to leave, the crimson crystal on the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown dimmed and stop obstructing the black flames, making him stood there in shock as his staff should be able to withstand these types of fire for at least 30 minutes, instead of the couple of minutes he got.

Because he trusts in the staff that he and his friends made, he didn't prepare for this situation, so in a split second, he was engulfed in the black flames, burning his body into ash, leaving behind only his World Item, Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown and two drops of blood to float in midair and just like that, the Supreme One was no more.

—-------

The instance that Ainz brought out the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown, the entire tomb rock, and trembled a little, so little in fact that none of its residents realized what had happened.

Following soon after, when the staff started to resist the black flames, the tomb trembled, making everyone wonder what was going on, but soon the entire tomb became pitch black and grim as the tomb shut itself down... because its master was no more.

—-------

[1] This is a different Underworld than Yggdrasil