Chapter 2642: Fighting the Void Hunter

"Prove... your worth!"

The Void Hunter responded to Yuan’s question before suddenly attacking again.

Yuan gritted his teeth and fought back.

"Fuck! You already claimed that I wasn’t worthy! How the hell am I supposed to prove myself?!"

Yuan cursed aloud as he fought with everything he could muster, even relying on his affinity—something he had been using from the very beginning.

However, for some reason, his affinity simply didn’t work on the Void Hunter.

’Whenever I attack with ordinary Eternal Essence, I can at least feel the impact. But whenever I use my affinity, it’s different... It’s like the attack never connects at all, as though the power simply vanishes the instant it makes contact. What the hell is going on? Is the Void Hunter immune to my affinity?’ Yuan pondered inwardly as he continued his futile struggle against the Void Hunter.

The way the Void Hunter nullified his affinity felt strangely familiar to Yuan, who had achieved true immunity to several elements himself.

’Since an element can also manifest as an affinity—like Shiva’s cold affinity—it would make sense for someone with a fire-based affinity to possess a natural resistance against hers,’ Yuan continued to ponder.

With an unknown number of affinities existing in the world, it wasn’t unreasonable for some to naturally counter or even fully nullify others, and Yuan began to suspect this was exactly what was happening.

Unfortunately, since he still didn’t know the true nature of his own affinity, that only made the situation more difficult to understand.

After all, if he couldn’t even identify the nature of his own affinity, what hope did he have of figuring out his opponent’s?

’There’s also a chance that...’

Yuan swallowed nervously after realizing another possibility.

’What if it has the same affinity as me?’

After all, the way it vaporized the soldiers earlier was similar—identical to when he used his affinity on the Ember City soldiers.

Time passed quickly, and Yuan’s battle with the Void Hunter continued for several days. Although Yuan was nowhere close to defeating it, one thing had become increasingly obvious.

The Void Hunter had no intention of killing him. Instead, it seemed content to continue playing with him, like a child messing with ants because they knew there was nothing the ants could do against them.

Their battle was so intense that every Void Specter in the vicinity had been annihilated by the ripples produced whenever their Eternal Essence clashed. The tremendous energy radiating from their fight had also long since alerted every city in the world to their presence.

"T-This energy! There’s no mistaking it! The Void Hunter has appeared!"

"Fucking damn it! Which fools summoned that monster?! Every time the Void Hunter appears, there’s a chance it could wipe out all of humanity!"

The emergence of the Void Hunter immediately sent every city in the world into a state of panic.

Yet not a single city dared to send soldiers to investigate, fearing that doing so might draw the Void Hunter toward them.

As a result, all they could do was remain hidden within their safe zones and pray that the monster would disappear as soon as possible.

"Wait... who the hell is fighting the Void Hunter? For the hunter to be releasing this much energy, its opponent must be incredibly powerful!"

As the battle continued to drag on and the Void Hunter’s energy showed no signs of diminishing, people across the cities quickly realized that whoever was fighting it was far from ordinary.

Unfortunately, none of these people had any information or record of this second energy, so they could only guess.

However, among the nine cities, there was one that had a fairly good idea of what—or rather, who—might have caused the Void Hunter to appear.

Of course, that would be Ember City, which had sent out nearly ten soldiers to investigate a newly discovered humanoid Void Specter.

Although the Void Hunter wouldn’t appear unless a group exceeded ten people, they suspected that their soldiers might have encountered another squad during the investigation and inadvertently crossed that threshold.

After all, similar incidents had happened more than once before.

With that said, the higher-ups at Ember City couldn’t fathom how they were lasting so long against the Void Hunter.

"What are the chances that the humanoid Void Specter is the one fighting the Void Hunter?"

"Extremely low... but if the alternative is that our soldiers are the ones fighting it, then it’s practically guaranteed."

"A Void Specter fighting the Void Hunter? That doesn’t make any sense at all."

"The existence of a humanoid Void Specter already makes no sense."

"If it really is the humanoid Void Specter... wouldn’t it be a catastrophe to have two monsters of such level exist at once? We still don’t know anything about it, either."

"..."

Nobody responded, afraid of the implications.

Time continued to pass, though for everyone except Yuan, each day seemed to crawl by painfully slowly.

As the battle dragged on, the energy radiating from Yuan’s clashes with the Void Hunter continued to grow. This was because Yuan constantly absorbed the Eternal Essence left behind by the Void Specters that were inadvertently annihilated by the shockwaves of their battle.

But alas, no matter how much Yuan’s Eternal Essence continued to grow, the Void Hunter only grew stronger alongside him, gradually revealing more and more of its seemingly bottomless reserves of power.

’Damn it... are we seriously going to keep this up until I’m finally "worthy"?’ Yuan sighed inwardly as he coughed up another mouthful of blood.

By now, his entire body was drenched in crimson, and he had lost so much blood over the course of the battle that it could have filled a large pond.

Despite his seemingly hopeless situation, Yuan refused to give up. He was prepared to fight the Void Hunter for as long as necessary—whether that meant eventually defeating it or earning its recognition, whichever came first.

Yet, after nearly an entire month of nonstop fighting, the Void Hunter suddenly came to a halt.

"You are not worthy..."

Its voice seemed to carry a faint trace of disappointment, though Yuan couldn’t tell whether that was real or merely his imagination.

Then, without explanation, the Void Hunter turned around and started walking away.

"Come back, you—"

Yuan shouted at it, but it completely ignored him and vanished without a trace like a ghost a split second later.

"Son of a bitch... When was the last time I was toyed around like this?" Yuan gritted his teeth in frustration.

He continued to linger in the area even long after the Void Hunter was gone.

"Forget it. I’ll fight it again once I train some more."

He turned around and began traveling in the direction of Gaia’s Heaven, deciding that it was finally time to return to the city.

Although he could have remained in the Black Zone and continued training, he felt that his progress was too slow after facing the Void Hunter. At this point, it would be more efficient to return to the city and find a way to gain access to a level two Black Zone.

Of course, Yuan would have gone there immediately if he could. Unfortunately, he had no idea where one was located.

Once the nine cities were certain that the battle had ended, each dispatched only a single soldier to investigate.

They knew the other cities would likely do the same, and sending more than one person each would risk pushing the total number of investigators past ten and summoning the Void Hunter again.

On his way back to Gaia’s Heaven, Yuan suddenly sensed a familiar presence approaching from the opposite direction.

’This presence... the Ironwoman?’

Sure enough, it was indeed the Ironwoman. However, rather than stopping to speak with her, Yuan concealed his presence and quietly allowed her to pass by without noticing him.

’The direction she’s heading... she must be going to investigate my battle with the Void Hunter...’

Yuan easily guessed the purpose of her mission, which was precisely why he had chosen to avoid encountering her.

By the time Yuan returned to the city, the Ironwoman had just arrived at the scene, where some soldiers from the other cities had already gathered.

"W-What the hell happened here...?" the Ironwoman muttered, a dazed expression hidden beneath her mask as she surveyed the aftermath of the battle.

Thousands of massive craters stretched as far as the eye could see, some so deep that they resembled bottomless pits leading straight into hell.

The land in this world possessed a unique regenerative property, gradually repairing any damage until the terrain returned to its original state.

However, the destruction caused by this battle was so severe that even weeks after it had ended, the landscape remained utterly devastated.

Once the Ironwoman snapped out of her daze, she was startled by the powerful energies still lingering throughout the battlefield.

Although she had never fought the Void Hunter herself, she had experienced its presence firsthand before and immediately recognized its energy.

However, what truly shocked her was the second energy lingering alongside it, as she also found it familiar. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

’This energy...’

The face of a certain arrogant and handsome man suddenly appeared in her mind.

’No, it can’t be him...’

She quickly dismissed the thought, finding it far too ridiculous to even entertain.

"I figured they would’ve sent you out here, Ironwoman."

One of the soldiers there suddenly approached her and remarked.

The Ironwoman turned to face this soldier, who wore an azure-colored uniform, and responded, "I am the most capable, after all."

"Then you must have some information about what happened here... or more specifically, who was fighting the Void Hunter." The soldier said, staring at her with slightly narrowed eyes.