Unsealing Emptiness

However, before he could turn around and run away, he saw a glimpse of something black moving towards him with a speed that he could not follow.

*Eeuk!*

Air escaped Garth’s lungs when a pitch-black rod pierced his stomach, pinning him to the ground in the process.

“Urghh! Wh- haa... What are you!?” Garth asked as he groaned in pain. A trail of blood escaped from his mouth. The rod was as wide as a person’s fist, so all of his internal organs were totally messed up.

“Certainly not someone you could handle...” Ozul muttered as he slowly made his way over to him.

“So, how did you know where I was?” Ozul asked, looking down at him.

.....

. . .

[A.N.: Lil torture ahead, skip if you are not in the mood to read something like that.]

Garth stared daggers at him but did not say a word. Ozul at once understood that he wouldn’t talk so easily.

He separated the Ball of Purity and created thin needles with it. Under Garth’s terror-stricken expressions, the needles pierced each of his limbs.

A few moments later, his whole body was drenched in his own blood. However, he had no intention to open his mouth. Something like this was not enough.

“Ughh! Kill me, you bastard! Either way, remember this; you would not be able to get out of this!” Garth endured the pain.

Ozul never liked to deal with fanatics because of their irrational ideals that they would rather die than renounce their beliefs.

‘It will get bloody... whatever...’ Ozul did not like to make a mess out of things. However, if this person would rather die than to give in, he could only make it worse than death for him.

“Very well...” Ozul muttered before he made it so tens of hooks suddenly came out from the needles.

This again caused Garth to groan in pain, but it was only the start when he mercilessly pulled out the needles, brutally smashing the flesh into pieces!

Although Garth was a Rank-8 Mage, he could not endure something like this. He almost went unconscious, but Ozul hadn’t stopped yet.

The needles again turned smooth and pierced Garth’s stomach this time. Ozul avoided damaging the major organs since.

This time, Garth did not even have the energy to move because of the pain. Again, Ozul created hooks and slowly took out each needle to increase his suffering.

‘If he does not relent after this... I will have to take him back to those people...’ Ozul decided to perform one last thing Oliver had taught him before he took Garth to Raymond.

Since they were already in a partnership, he would naturally use their services to the best of his ability.

Garth laid there, breathing heavily. If he weren’t a Rank-8 Mage, he would have already been dead because of the pain. His own abilities had become the cause of his sufferings now.

“If... if I ever get... get out of it... would kill you...” Ozul could still hear his incoherent mutterings.

With his command, the Ball of Purity held Garth on the ground from his limbs with cuffs. Ozul made a single needle press against the front of the forefinger’s nail.

“Will you say it or not?” Ozul asked coldly.

Garth did not reply to him and only looked at the needle threatening to pierce his nail with almost dead eyes.

“AHh!!!” His scream rang out in the forest, but there was no one to hear except for Ozul.

The needle had pierced his nail, all the way to the first joint of his finger! It sent a jolt of pain to his whole body, making tears fall out of his eyes unconsciously.

Without giving Garth a chance to recover, Ozul pressed a needle against his other finger. At once, Garth’s body jolted.

[ A/N: ;-; I await some(most) of you people’s curses.]

. . .

“STOP! Stop! Stop it! I will tell you everything! Jus- Stop it!” Garth began to shout his lungs out.

“Oh?” Ozul hadn’t expected that Oliver’s last trick would actually work. Anyway, he wasn’t complaining. Getting Garth back to the Order of Dusk would only be a bother now that he had come all the way here.

“Yes! Ask... me anything! I will... tell you!” Garth said while gasping for breath. Even after covering his wounds with the little Mana he had left, it only lessened the pain.

“How did you know my location?” Ozul asked.

“That...” Garth hesitated, but Ozul only had to push the needle a little further as he began to tell everything.

Meanwhile, Ozul remembered that the formation had not attacked him all this while. It turned out that Garth had the controller for its deactivation and activation. Before, he couldn’t turn it off in time, causing his companion’s death.

Ozul found it more convenient to use the fire pillar, so he told Garth to activate the formation again.

“I have told you everything, haven’t I? Can’t... you let me go...? I swear I won’t tell anyone about this!” Garth asked with a silly hope.

However, under Ozul’s cold gaze, he took out a crystal from his Spatial Rind and inserted Mana inside it. Tears dropped from his eyes as he closed them with a heavy heart.

Even till the end, he did not understand how Ozul was so strong. From all the information they had received on him, he was only a special case of a Rank-8; they should have been enough to deal with someone like him!

Ozul walked away as the runes formed on the ground at that place.

As he walked out of the circle, the giant fire pillar emerged from the runes. Instantly, as if something had broken, Ozul sensed that the formations had come undone.

It was probably because the fire pillar destroyed the crystal responsible for keeping them in check.

The fire disappeared, leaving the charred corpse of Garth similar to the two earlier.

Looking around, Ozul noticed that the area around him had become a total wasteland.

He did not waste another minute and left the scene. Since the formation had been broken, people would find out about this as soon as someone with good senses passed by.

. . .

As Ozul hopped from one tree to another, he thought about what Garth had told him.

‘I would tell Raymond later... He was probably unaware for a long time; a little more won’t hurt,’ Ozul shrugged.

It had surprised Ozul that the Church actually had a spy in the Order of the Dusk. Considering they had one of such in their ranks, he had to assume that there were more as well.

Now he just had to ask Raymond how much any normal member of his agency knew about the matters. Because if he had only told his trustworthy people, then the little spies did not matter much.

But if it weren’t the case, it would be quite an annoyance to deal with for Raymond.

This time, it was Garth’s fault that he had rushed to deal with him before asking around.

If he had waited for Clara to explain her side of the story to them, then the Church definitely wouldn’t have allowed him to do what he did today.

Although he had brought that giant formation with him, it was all useless against someone who was at the level of Rank-9 Mages.

‘As for the formation, it was again annoying to deal with. I should at least learn how they work...’ Ozul decided to ask someone to explain to him how they work.

If he knew how they worked, maybe he wouldn’t need to take so much time to understand his own situation next time someone used them against him.

. . .

Another fifteen minutes later, Ozul was back to Neutral City.

He momentarily put the other matter aside and looked for the auction house that the woman had told him about.

The sun had started to set, so it would start to get dark in a few minutes. He went to the first shop he saw to ask for the directions.

“Where is the...” Ozul wanted to ask, but he realized that he actually forgot the name!

“What is it? If you want to buy something, do it. Otherwise, go away!” The shopkeeper did not seem like a friendly guy; especially since he could not sense any Mana from Ozul.

“Where is the best auction house?” Since he could not remember the name, Ozul changed his question. As for the attitude of the shopkeeper, he did not care.

“Bah! If you are looking for the Littlewood Auction House, keep going straight. You will see it,” the shopkeeper showed him a stink eye and hurriedly shooed him away.

Hearing the name, Ozul remembered that it was the same place so he went in that direction, ignoring the hateful gaze of the shopkeeper.

Ozul did not want to dash in the middle of the city so he slowly made his way towards the center of the city.

By the time he was there, it had already gotten dark. Though he did not run, he had taken a carriage in the middle of his way as it would have taken him hours by feet.

It was not a random lawless town, but one of the most important cities on the entire Mainland of Egon. So simply walking wasn’t enough here.

The middle of the city was filled with everything best that the city had to offer. It was the most thriving part of Neutral City.

Even in dark, the lights and the crowd made it seem like it wasn’t any different from the day.

In the middle of the tall buildings, Ozul did not have any trouble in finding the auction house as it stood out the most because of the crowd near it.