Unsealing Emptiness

As he was about to stand up, the old man Kure suddenly held him down with a smiling face.

“Haha! I was messing with you, kid. Even if you don’t join under the family name, you still have the blood of the Ashins running through your veins. But I am curious about your reason for refusing to join?” Kure asked with a half-smiling face.

For anyone else, his attitude would have proved to be quite eccentric and not readable at all. At one instant, he was smiling joyously, while he would suddenly become serious the other moment.

Ozul would have had a hard time as well if not for his ability to sense emotions. Because right now, Kure didn’t seem to be angry or frustrated.

There was only a slight disappointment, and the delight after testing him still hadn’t vanished in Kure. It seemed like he himself wasn’t sure about how to deal with Ozul, so he was mixing everything up.

‘His behavior is completely out of context for a Rank-10 Mage,’ Ozul deduced from Kure’s attitude and his way of handling things. In the end, he could only think that it was because of what Old Gu had said to the four ancestors yesterday.

.....

But still, to get affected by Old Gu’s words meant that not only was Kure thoughtful, but Old Gu also held some reputation in his heart.

“I have my own things to do. The family isn’t my responsibility... Also, Ashfall sounds much better for a surname,” Ozul replied without a change in his facial expressions. He didn’t mention how he actually had no blood in his veins at all, much less that of the Ashins.

Though his last sentence caused the three Ashins to twitch their eyes in annoyance, it sounded as if he wasn’t joining just because he didn’t find the surname to his liking. It would have infuriated them if it was anyone else but him.

“Can you start telling me now?” Ozul asked while staring at Kure, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.

Alver and Raymond were still on edge because of how casual their nephew was with their grandfather. Ozul hadn’t told them about the boost in his power after getting his arm back, and they couldn’t have sensed ‘the increase in his Mana’ either.

“Alright, I have yet to tell these two as well,” Kure took a deep breath, and suddenly the garden was enveloped by electric sparks, creating a defensive dome all around it. Kure only cast this spell to prevent their conversation from getting out.

Alver and Raymond also readied themselves to hear about who that old man was. Much less them, even Rank-8 Mages had started to guess that the old man was stronger than the four ancestors.

However, they hadn’t read of any realm past Rank-10 except for some legends about people transcending to become gods. Were those legends true, and that old man was some deity? They had such questions, but they patiently listened to the explanation first.

“I am already more than nine hundred and thirty years old, huh...” Kure muttered to himself before he looked straight into Ozul’s eyes and spoke seriously, “It has almost been 900 years since the last time I saw that old man... he looked exactly like he did back then.”

Those words rang in Alver and Raymond’s heads, making them understand why they didn’t have any information on that old man. How could they have recognized the old man when they weren’t even born nine hundred years ago!?

Old Kure began to recall the past as he narrated, “I was a peak Rank-8 Mage back then, I remember very vividly...”

While Kure explained everything in minute detail, Ozul wasn’t so interested in that history compared to the two brothers who looked at Kure as if they were worshipping a god.

“Me being a peak Rank-8 at that age wasn’t anything special considering the uproar because of the ascension of Adens family’s ancestor.”

“Ascension? Adens family?” Raymond asked in confusion. He felt as if he had heard this name before but couldn’t recall where.

“It is that old witch’s family...” Kure answered with darkened eyes.

“... The Church of Light!?”

“Yes. Before, it was just the Adens family, like how we are the Ashin family. Their talented ancestor had supposedly broken past Rank-10 and had become a deity. That supposed god was also the person who that scheming witch based the church on to increase her influence,” Kure explained, shocking the two brothers who had no idea that the Church held such a history.

“Anyway, after that event, everyone was pumped to reach that stage as well. The competition got fiercer, and everyone began training as their lives depended on it, and I was no different. However, I was rather talented than my peers, so it could be said that I was included in the geniuses of that era,” Kure stated with a proud smirk on his face.

Just when Ozul had thought that it couldn’t get any worse, the two brothers exclaimed their surprise like some kids who had met their idol.

“Can we get back to the topic?” Ozul couldn’t take it. If he let them continue like this, old Kure would probably keep on boasting his past achievements, wasting his time.

“Oh! Kahum! Haha... I got carried away,” Old Kure coughed before he continued,

“Anyway, Hm... I think I was training in the forest when Old Gu had approached me, introducing himself with that annoying smile of his...”

Kure told them about his first encounter with Old Gu.

It wasn’t anything special because Old Gu had just told him that he was some sort of a candidate and disappeared afterward.

“The next time I saw him was when I had suddenly found myself in a giant tournament of... death and cruelty,” Kure’s voice turned solemn as he recalled the past.

Many like him were summoned inside that forest where Old Gu explained to them about their situation.

Out of more than a hundred ‘candidates’ like him, twenty was the limit of people who would get out of that forest alive.

Not only that, but Old Gu also informed them that unless anyone of those twenty survivors brought the hearts of at least ten more candidates that they defeated by themselves, they wouldn’t proceed to the ‘next stage’, and it would all be for nothing!

From the tone of his voice and how Kure had clenched his fists in anger, Ozul could guess that he probably couldn’t proceed to this next stage and only managed to survive in those twenty.

“Only two monsters were able to proceed to the next stage while as the old man had said, only a total of twenty were left alive out of those more than a hundred candidates after a month of grueling experience,” Kure took another deep breath as he could never forget that one month of his life.

For a moment, no one said a thing as they thought about how unnerving that experience might have been.

Kure then lifted his head back up and said, “The current only four Rank-10 Mages of the continent were all the previous candidates. The rest either died fighting each other later when we had become Rank-9 or perished in the hands of time.”

‘No wonder all of the four ancestors were so reserved in the old man’s presence,’ Ozul thought silently.

“What about those two who had passed the test?” Ozul asked after another round of silence.

Kure turned towards him and replied, “I don’t know. In fact, no one knows except for that old man. We never got to see those two ever again after that.”

Ozul began to think of a few possibilities, but he couldn’t draw any cogent conclusion based on just this much information alone.

“What about that old man? Is he really some sort of a deity?” Raymond asked doubtfully. He couldn’t believe that a person with that sort of character was some god.

“Only that old man can answer this question. Except for the fact that he had done this previously as well, we don’t know anything about that old man. What I can tell you is that even after being a Rank-10 Mage, the thought of attacking that old man still gave me goosebumps,” Kure answered with creased eyebrows.

Ozul didn’t add anything because he also agreed with Kure. Whenever he thought of attacking Old Gu, a gut feeling told him that he wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Is he even from this world?” Ozul muttered unconsciously, which caused Raymond and Alver to look at him weirdly.

“Haha... how could that be, ne-” Raymond was cut off by Kure,

“No... it is quite possible actually. I have almost roamed this whole continent many times already, and I can confidently say that there isn’t some cult of extremely skilled experts hidden anywhere.”

A thoughtful expression appeared on Ozul while the two brothers were shocked to hear about such an absurd possibility.

“Whatever it is, the old man is strong beyond imagination, that I am sure of. And only those who passed his test can tell us more about him... if we can ever meet them, that is,” Kure stated while shaking his head.

Even while standing at the peak of this world in terms of strength, he was still helpless about this situation involving that old man.

Kure then suddenly turned towards Ozul, and with a glint in his eyes, he spoke, “You... are you a candidate this time?...”