Hero of Darkness

A feeling of resignation crept up in Kahn's mind as he chose to accept his current circumstances and decided to follow Romulus without making any more effort or retaliation. 

Why did Kahn accept being under someone else's control contrary to how he always preferred to be his own man and didn't submit to others? 

Because of 3 main reasons. 

First being the so-called Powerhouse who not only knew about Kahn's identity, where he had been or what personas he used till now but also was aware of all of his Divine Abilities, Blessings and pact with Rathnaar as well. 

And if he was aware of Kahn's pact with Rathnaar, means there was a possibility that he also knew about him possessing the Peak Saint's core as well as the Tablet of Arcana. 

These were the type of secrets even the most prominent empires in the world of Vantrea would wage a war for. 

The second reason being that this said Powerhouse had actually blackmailed Romulus Lykaios, a Peak 7th stage Saint who was also titled as a Heavenly King of the Nadur empire. 

Kahn wasn't an idiot to presume that you could just blackmail and powerful being like Romulus only because you had some key information about their past or hidden secrets. 

You needed to have absolutely overwhelming might and a cunning mind to force someone like Romulus to do your bidding. 

On top of it… If this mysterious being could find Kahn's identity and track him easily… So could the people coming after him.

Hence, he was more afraid of this 'Well-wisher' who had been hiding his identity from the rest of the world. 

Besides, based on their interactions, Romulus and this powerhouse were associated with the 8th Hero of Darkness in one way or another even if they didn't agree with each other. 

He too wanted answers about the past and needed to know whom he could rely on and whom he should consider an enemy. 

And the 3rd reason was the most crucial factor which changed his mind. 

Today, Kahn learned again the hard way that all of his strength, skills and abilities were just good on the surface. 

And what frightened him more was his own inability to fight back against someone like the heavenly king in front of him. 

The truly strong people such as Romulus were on a completely different level. 

The only advantage Kahn had against such people was he could run away to save his life if the Space around him wasn't sealed. 

But if it was… Then he was no different than a fish on a chopping board. 

Like a bucket of icy water thrown in his face, Kahn was slapped in the face with this harsh reality today. 

Something that he needed to remember again, something crucial he had forgotten during all his time carefully hiding so far. 

That his true enemies were not some cliche novel story type of villains who were just one or two ranks higher than him and he could always beat them by coincidence or some sort of plot armor. 

Those who were after his life were at least 3 to 4 stages above him, had unfathomable abilities as well as incomparable experience. 

Besides, this was just Romulus giving Kahn a testing experience. 

Romulus was so overpowered that he didn't even attack Kahn physically. All he did was flick his fingers and used invisible forces to nearly beat him to death. 

He didn't even use his basic attack skills or personally wielded any weapon to break Kahn's bones. 

In simple words… Romulus did not even consider Kahn as someone worthy to use his opponent or use his full strength. 

If this was just the case for one 7th stage saint… Then what about other saints who had different types of domains, classes, and combat skills? 

Kahn was very lucky that Romulus was a friend and not someone who wanted to kill him. 

Otherwise, this would've been his last day in Vantrea. 

Because even with his blessings from Kravel, Kahn never had a real teacher and powerful skills other than the Dragon Strike skill he created by himself. 

The majority of his skills came from Divine abilities and the ones created by the System. 

Being an ignorant and oblivious fool about the matter of Gods, other chosen Heroes and the past itself was no longer an option for Kahn. 

All in all… 

Unless Kahn himself closed that gap between skills and strength… he couldn't even amount to much more than a frog in a well. 

If he didn't become overwhelmingly strong, then he was as good as dead. 

Thus, Kahn wanted to learn real skills and raise his own strength instead of relying on his luck and coincidences. 

Moreover… 

Why did Kahn choose the Water/Ice Element for his new identity as Atreus Bellator? 

It also had sound and logical reasons. 

One being his complete immunity against fire. 

Obviously, Kahn couldn't expose his perfect immunity against the Darkness element to the world. And if he chose Water and Ice element as his main element of reality his body had an affinity with… 

His enemies would use Fire element to suppress him in their attacks and abilities. But since he was perfectly immune to now, he could always use it as one of his trump cards to overturn the situation or even catch his enemies off-guard in a life-and-death battle. 

And thanks to Cthulhu… He currently had 2nd most affinity with Water/Ice Elemental skills, making him one of the strongest people in that element among his peers of the same rank. 

Kahn had thought about everything very carefully while thinking about his future in the Beast Empire. 

----------------

3 DAYS LATER. 

Romulus brought Atreus to his main base which was 28 thousand kilometers away, on the Northern Forest range of the Nadur Empire.

This was the region of the Nadur empire under Romulus' rule called the Elysium. 

Throughout their journey, Vildred hid himself perfectly and traveled beside the two wolfkins while being completely invisible to the outside world. 

In the meantime, Atreus had seen never-ending forests, civilization perfectly merged with these terrains while widespread cities made of stones and woods while some cities were literally part of enormous mountains that were a few kilometers in radius alone. 

Finally, they stopped in the central region which was where Romulus reigned as the supreme lord. 

This city was also settled on a mountain, had dozens of floating hills in the air around it where people had built their houses and settlements. This was a 3 kilometers wide fortress-like city, surrounded by a calm seashores on two sides while the lower region of the mountain was occupied by common citizens. 

This unique city created using inconceivable architecture and planning was going to be Kahn aka Atreus' new home called as… 

Aurelius.