Unsealing Emptiness

It was his arm inside that box!

He could still see all the weird black runes moving around the skin as if they were alive. Even when separated from him, the arm had still grown proportional to his body as if they were still connected in some way.

Though Ozul only had a single thought inside his mind as he noticed the floating box of glass,

‘My arm...’

It had been decades and the sense of completeness he had once felt was almost forgotten by now. But seeing his arm again with those black runes made him remember why he was putting so much effort into all of this.

It was all because he wanted to feel complete again. He wanted to feel that sense of contentment when he was surrounded by nothingness.

.....

And since he was deprived of his comfort, he had to burn whatever came in his way to feel the warmth again.

The old man in front of him might be stronger than Rank-9, but he wanted his arm back right now!

“Give me my arm back...” he again spoke, but this time, his voice sounded so deep that it almost felt as if it was an entirely different person speaking.

However, the old man utterly ignored him and the hall continued to shake now with even bigger pieces of the earth starting to float.

By now, all those rubbles and rocks had formed a giant blanket in the air.

“Luthien had reported to me that you were strong... let me see how strong!” the old man muttered and motioned his hand towards Ozul.

All the rocks and rubbles that were previously floating still in the air suddenly shot towards Ozul with an unimaginable speed.

Ozul was ready for that attack, so when the endless barrage of hundreds of rocks came at him, he simply created a shield with the Ball of Purity before him.

The rubbles and pebbles all hit the shield as if they were a meteor!

However, the shield bore the attack like it was nothing.

The attack did not stop at that, because the giant rocks hit the shield next.

*Bam!*

Each rock shot at the shield with an even greater speed. After the collision, they broke down into smaller parts and scattered everywhere. Even these were not able to create a dent in the shield.

Just as Ozul had thought that the attack had ended, even the smaller pieces of the rocks that had scattered behind him suddenly shot towards him!

He immediately covered his back with the shield, but a couple of small rocks managed to get past it before the shield was deployed.

*Tink!*

Fortunately, these small stones only hit his metallic prosthetics.

‘He is tricky,’ Ozul thought out inside his mind as he contemplated his next course of action.

Previously, he was confident to deal with any Rank-9 Mage. However, he could have never thought that the Silverbird Kingdom would have someone above Rank-9 as well.

He wondered why no one knew about this old man. But it wasn’t the time to think about his identity or how the old man seemed to be referring to Emperor Luthien as if he was just a kid.

But no matter how hard Ozul tried to think, there was just nothing that came to his mind.

‘I will just have to fight and see then,’ he decided before removing the shield around him.

The old man was also now floating in the air with the box containing his arm behind him. He looked amused at the fact that Ozul was unscathed by his attack.

“Kahaha! You want your arm back?! I want the rest of your body parts!” the old man stated with an arrogant laugh.

Ozul decided to take the initiative, so he shot at the old man from the ground with just two chips of the Ball of Purity under his feet while the rest joined to form a giant spear that also shot at the old man.

The old man seemed surprised by his attack for some reason and immediately created a rock shield in front of him.

To his astonishment, the spear broke the shield and continued to shoot towards him.

“You brat!” the old man shouted and the crumbling rocks from the previous shield somehow got back together. This time, there was a layer of a glowing brown Mana covering the shield.

This time, when the spear collided, it only pushed the old man and the rocky shield back. The shield had a dent this time, but that was pointless.

Ozul noticed that the shield didn’t break, but he wasn’t disappointed. He already expected it because the old man was a half-step Rank-10 Mage.

A Rank-10 Mage was someone who stood at the summit of this world!

He knew that the old man hadn’t even started yet.

Just as he expected, the old man still had an arrogant smile on his face as he clicked his tongue at him.

“You think just that much can do anything to me? Think again brat!” the old man continued to taunt Ozul as if he was just playing with him.

*Hzhzhzz*

This time, the underground walls again shook as a spear similar to the one created by Ozul appeared from the ground. The only difference being that the spear was made up of rocks and way bigger than Ozul’s!

The old man didn’t give him a chance and the giant spear went towards him at a lightning speed.

Though Ozul had created the shield in front of him again, the force behind the spear was just too much to handle for him.

Just when the spear collided with the Ball of Purity, Ozul was sent flying backward and hit the wall.

‘Urgh!’ he shouted inside his mind from the searing pain.

“Kahaha! Here I thought you would be a little stronger,” the old man again laughed as he looked down on Ozul from above.

Ozul tried to stand up, but he stumbled at his first step and felt a little dizzy.

‘Damn it! He is strong...’ he shouted in his mind but kept his facial expressions as vacant as he could.

The old man again laughed at his appearance and continued, “You know, from the time Luthien had brought me this arm, I was wondering why it contained so much power. Maybe you would know?”

The old man raised his eyebrows at Ozul.

Ozul, however, didn’t answer his question. Instead, he was thinking about what the old man had just said, ‘Contained so much power? What have they been experimenting with?!’

Of course, he himself didn’t know why or how his body parts could contain so much power. He remembered that the potions that the Church was creating in bulk also had a tiny bit of his essence while the monster that he had fought with for his leg also became so strong after trying to absorb his leg.

Why was it like this when he himself was just a little stronger than Rank-9? In the face of all these questions, Ozul had no answers. In fact, he was searching for these answers himself.

Aside from that, he was even more furious at the old man now.

“Hm. Looks like you won’t be answering. Well, I expected that. It wouldn’t be too late when I have you chopped into pieces later. Kehaha!” the old man laughed again as he created another spear like the previous one.

However, this time, he didn’t stop at that and created a couple more!

The enormous rock spears floated in the air, all pointing at Ozul’s weak-looking figure.

“After this, you might be willing to speak brat!” the old man shouted as the spears shot at him from all the sides.

On the other hand, Ozul hadn’t given up yet. Noticing all the giant spears shooting at him, he made it so the Ball of Purity rotated around him while he jumped and flew towards the old man instead.

‘You will pay!’ he shouted in his mind as the giant spear passed right by him.

He nimbly dodged the spear and continued to fly towards the old man instead.

‘Is that brat insane?!’ the old man thought inside his mind as he noticed Ozul flying towards him even when all the spears were almost on his head.

However, he didn’t dare to joke around after noticing how fast Ozul flew towards him.

He executed another Spell so the spears increased in speed and parts of the rocks from the previous spear that Ozul had passed from also shot at him from behind. Being a half-step Rank-10 allowed him to do many things that others couldn’t.

At this point, the Ball of Purity was rotating around Ozul with a blinding speed. When the parts of rocks attacked him, they were instantly reduced to dust.

Meanwhile, Ozul jumped in mid-air using the chip from Ball of Purity under his feet to narrowly dodge another spear.

However, two more spears came at him from the sides and one from the front. Seeing he had no other choice, he made the Ball of Purity divide into two and slowed the spears approaching from the sides.

While for the one that came from the front, he again raised his body and this time landed on the spear!

Although the spear was giant, its speed was something else. Yet, Ozul started to run towards the old man on top of the spear!

“Insane brat!”