Nameless King

Slap.

Wain and Felix slapped their foreheads with the palm of their hands.

"Damn... Reto, you never change. You're definitely addicted to wine... I guess nothing can ever fix that." Wain shook his head.

"Hahaha, is that a bad thing? You have no idea how glad I was able to find these seeds here! I didn't believe Felix could have them, but I tried to find them until the last minute!" Reto chuckled as he happily picked up the jar.

"I'm glad my Void turned out to be something useful to you." Felix said with a bitter smile, then he looked once more at his treasure chest.

Whoooooooooooosh.

Felix waved his hand, summoning several water currents that lifted him up. He hovered around his area for a while, looking down at the mountain of gold.

'Agh... Honestly, I was hoping Reto wouldn't take anything of value from me, and he did, but what was the bottom line? For some reason I'm not happy about it at all...' Felix pondered with a sad look.

"Hmm... What's he doing there?" Reto looked up puzzled, "Isn't it time for us to leave?"

Wain remained silent, he looked at Reto until he said, "Well... I think we should wait a bit. Apparently, Felix needs some time to make a decision. We can stay here for a while."

Reto turned to Wain, "Do you think the war is over yet?"

"Hah, of course not. Nicole may be nearing the end of her battle, but there's still a long way to go before the war is over. I mean, we haven't been here long at all. Our opponents aren't weak enough to lose in less than half an hour." Wain shrugged nonchalantly, seemingly completely confident of the outcome.

Reto nodded weakly with a meaningful look.

After making a few laps around his treasure trove, Felix returned to Wain and Reto. The water currents brought him down to the ground as he with a slow step headed toward them.

Wain and Reto were silent, they didn't want to say anything as Felix's face was unnaturally dark, as if something very bad had just happened.

Felix looked at Wain with narrowed eyes.

"Wain... Tell me... Is there a use for all these treasures in your Void?" Felix muttered in a sad tone.

Reto's eyes went wide since he couldn't believe what he was hearing, however, Wain was ready for it. He assumed Felix would come back with something like this.

"Sure. I won't hide it, there are so many treasures here that every one of them will be useful, from statues with special effects to simple gold coins or armor sets." Wain said confidently, he was aware of how valuable things Felix had.

Wain continued, "However... Are you sure about this? Look, you don't have to do this. In fact, I'd even be sorry to see you part with the collection you've collected for such a long time."

Felix was silent, he glanced once more at his mountain of treasures and muttered, "I clearly understand that, however... I just realized that I don't quite know what I was doing it for.

"You're right, I spent a lot of time getting it all, a hell of a lot, but what's the point? The vast majority of these treasures I will never need, with the exception of souls and some potions everything here is useless to me.

"Now I've found a way to use it all at once. I hope it all makes your Void stronger... As far as I'm concerned, that would be the best use for all these treasures that would otherwise just collect dust for years." Felix's voice grew quieter with each word until it resembled a whisper, but he finished.

Whooooooooosh.

Wain bowed low, which made Felix and Reto more surprised than ever, they could not believe that Wain had done this.

"I am grateful for your generosity. Each of these treasures is your time and effort that you took to get them, I actually appreciate it." Wain said seriously as he looked at Felix, "However, I think you are wrong about something, all these things will make stronger not my Void, but ours, for you are now part of our extended family too."

Felix's eyes shone brightly. He had previously been invited by Wain, but only now did he fully realize that Wain considered him one of his people.

"Although even that is not enough for me to thank you properly, so I want to give you something. Be careful, it's as valuable as it is dangerous." Wain said calmly as he stretched his open palm hand forward.

Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.

Space distorted, causing powerful streams of wind along with energy to head toward Wain's palm. Each stream was thin, no thicker than a finger, but incredibly dense, containing a huge amount of energy.

Slowly, Wain's face became emaciated and bags appeared under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days. Felix and Reto felt Wain's aura grow much weaker until he finally finished directing the energy to his palm.

"Here... this is my gift to you. Use it when you decide you're ready to reach the Demigod Stage... But only very slowly and with darkness from open space... otherwise such concentrated energy will do you irreparable damage..." Wain said with difficulty, handing to Felix the orb.

The orb of darkness was small, but the darkness in it was thick and all-consuming. The darkness slowly rotated inside as if it had a hole from which eyes with frightening red pupils sometimes peeked out.

Felix gulped, a little scared, but he accepted Wain's gift appreciatively.

"Is this your pure energy...?" Felix asked uncertainly looking into the orb as if mesmerized.

"Yeah... I didn't know what I could give you in return, but given your special abilities with darkness, this will actually help you. Just be careful." Wain said with a slight sigh.

Felix nodded and ran his hand over the sphere creating a water barrier around it to move it into the ring.