Unsealing Emptiness

But he also couldn’t be sure since the duo knew their bodies the best. So he asked them instead of making all the conclusions.

“Hm. We are fine... or at least I am,” Raven corrected herself since she, of course, couldn’t say everything the same about Blaze without actually confirming it.

“Hey! I am fine too!” Blaze hurriedly chipped in.

“As for the essence, I don’t know what happened. I thought I would need to force it to mix into the blood. Surprisingly, it seemed that the essence was even more in a hurry than me...” Raven explained briefly.

Despite the fact that it was her own body and the essence was entirely under her control until she had forced it to enter her bloodstream, Raven was not able to understand anything.

“So... what changed? Did something happen after absorbing it?” Ozul asked curiously since he could not sense any visible improvement from either Blaze or Raven.

.....

“Um... Nothing happened. It just dissolved in my blood, and I can’t seem to sense it again.” Raven replied in dismay. She thought she might have made a mistake to let that red energy get absorbed into her blood.

Ozul turned towards Blaze to see if something different had happened to him. However, Blaze also shook his head.

“Hm. We will talk about it later, rest for now. And please, clean yourselves. Both of you smell horrible right now,” said Ozul before jumping on the tree.

“Huh? We really do stink a lot.” Blaze said after inhaling deeply.

Only then did Raven also notice how bad she smelled. She instantly cast a Spell and cleaned herself before running away in embarrassment since Ozul had commented on her smell.

“Wait! Help me here too!” Blaze asked, but Raven did not turn around at all. In the end, he had to do it himself the hard way. Not like anyone saw him taking his clothes off because of the night and the thick fog.

On the other hand, Ozul looked at the starry sky that he could barely see due to the fog lost in his thoughts.

‘Strange. Is it really the dragons’ essence? It would only make sense if it really is,’ he contemplated in his mind.

“It was also this energy that let the Mages actually have the chance to absorb the Mana Core of the drakes,” Ozul concluded.

He had noticed that right after Raven and Blaze had separated that energy from the Mana, it had started to get out of control as any usual Mana would. It entirely lost the properties which let the Mages absorb it in the first place.

Everything pointed towards the red energy actually being the essence of dragons or at least something that was unknown to most of the Mages as of yet.

Though Ozul did not dwell too much on it for now since he was just curious, finding the reason for the fog was his priority.

“I can’t even venture off on my own...” Ozul muttered since he thought that the forest was too dangerous for him to leave others on their own.

They would most likely be dead if they encountered a beast that they could not handle. And Ozul was sure that there were indeed such beasts in this forest that could absolutely decimate even a Rank-8 Mage!

“Hm... whatever. Better just leave and check it out myself,” muttered Ozul before jumping down the tree. He had made a decision. In the end, he couldn’t help but to check the place out by himself.

He looked around to find the duo. Blaze was meditating, trying to check if he could find anything different in his body while Raven stood on the side, shaking her head once in a while as her hands hid her facial expressions.

It seemed that she was in her own fantasies. When the duo noticed Ozul’s presence, they hurriedly left whatever they were doing and stood before him like seasoned soldiers.

“I am leaving alone for a while, and it might or might not take me a few days to come back,” Ozul said before turning around to leave.

However, just as he was about to do so, both Raven and Blaze said, “Can’t we go with you?”

“Too much trouble,” replied Ozul without turning his back.

“Also, stick with the group. Otherwise, it will be hard for you to find me at all. As for the sphere of Mana inside of you, it won’t be affected in any way,” he explained before disappearing in the fog.

Blaze just sighed while Raven kept looking in Ozul’s direction. There weren’t many instances where she was separated from him. However, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to change his mind.

“Let’s go,” Blaze’s voice brought Raven out of her trance.

As for Ozul, he had entirely focused his attention on the surroundings. He even had the advantage of the night, so the fog’s deterrence was almost negligible to him.

He was quickly able to locate the group of Mages under Rufus in the distance. At this time, the Rank-7 mercenaries were spread all around the group of mercenaries. It seemed that Rufus had tightened the security measures due to the fog.

At this time, Rufus was having a discussion with one of his subordinates when suddenly he felt the wind hit him from behind. He turned around and noticed that there was nowhere behind him at all.

“Ah, come on! For a Rank-8 Mage, your senses are too dull.”

Rufus heard the voice from above. He instantly got into stance to cast spells and looked above him to see who had sneaked up to him suddenly in the middle of the forest.

Only when he recognized that it was Ozul standing in the middle of the air on some black matter did he relax his stance.

Although he wasn’t exactly comfortable in his presence, he relaxed because at least it was not an enemy’s sneak attack.

“Quite rude of you to not even say hello after so many days of following us,” Ozul said while landing near Rufus.

Just as he had landed, the few subordinates of Rufus instantly had their guards up. They were tense since Rufus had told them many times how to be always wary of this kid in front of them.

“Not like you said hello either, kid. Weren’t you able to sense us when we got in the forest?” Rufus replied with a scoff. He really hated the fact that no matter how secretive they were, even the servant of this kid before him was able to sense them!

“Oh, stop joking. I knew that you were following me from the start,” Ozul said as Rufus smiled wryly, the only thing he could do when having a one-sided conversation with him.

*Cough*

Rufus faked a cough before motioning his subordinates to get back to their positions and stop listening in to them.

Only when he was alone with Ozul did he ask, “So, what are you here for? Did something serious happen that you wanted to report to me?”

“Nothing like that. I just wanted to tell you that I am leaving alone. So you better step up your game and protect the group better. Just a friendly reminder,” said Ozul with a tone that was borderline taunting.