Unsealing Emptiness

He just noticed how that minuscule part of the black smoke in the potion immediately scattered inside her body before it somehow helped in regenerating the lost cells of the injured part of the body.

That process was complicated and he didn’t know how it could help in creating cells of another body, but what he found next was the main cause of his surprise.

After the potion did its work, it should have disappeared or something. However, he felt the small traces of his essence still lingering inside Raven’s body!

He hurriedly closed his eyes again and focused on that small trace of the essence and noticed how it slowly moved towards Raven’s heart.

He was in for another shock because when he deeply felt the area around her heart, there was even more of his essence surrounding it!

Ozul again opened his eyes and for a few seconds, he didn’t understand why it was so. The essence around her heart was many times more so than he would find in a single healing potion. And he had noticed it himself how the minuscule amount of essence would be mostly used up and an even smaller part would be left inside the body after the healing was done.

.....

It was concerning because there were almost multiple whiffs of that black smoke present inside of Raven’s body.

Seeing no other option, Ozul could only use Blaze as a comparison.

He found him still sitting next to them but for some reason, was looking at the sky.

Ozul moved towards him and said, “Straighten your body.”

Blaze was startled seeing him suddenly appear in his line of sight, but he instantly did what he was told.

After he had sat straight, Ozul placed a hand on his chest as well. Closing his eyes, he directly focused on Blaze’s heart.

A few seconds later, he opened his eyes and stood up. However, confusion was written all over his face.

Raven and Blaze were curious what had happened for Ozul to be so focused on it, but they didn’t disturb his line of thoughts.

Ozul was confused because he found that Blaze wasn’t very different from Raven. The only difference he could point out was the quantity of his essence.

Blaze had it slightly lesser than Raven. However, it didn’t seem to be doing anything at all.

He even observed it for a few minutes to see if anything would change, but the black essence stayed at its place without moving an inch. It was basically useless then.

As far as his abilities allowed him to examine, he only found his essence doing nothing.

But he couldn’t rule out the possibilities of his abilities still being too low for him to notice anything. In the past, there had been many times when he would examine their bodies, but he wasn’t able to find even these small traces of his essence before.

Ultimately, it could be that he was still weak for him to notice any difference being made by the tiny strands of black smoke circling around their hearts.

If someone else other than him saw it, they would certainly start calling him a Devil’s spawn again.

He was in a dilemma because he didn’t know what he should do with this residual essence inside their bodies.

What if this was exactly the cause for the abnormalities of Luthien’s father and that Mikol guy?

Though there were no signs of anything like that on Raven and Blaze. They didn’t have reddened eyes or would suddenly get an outburst of power out of nowhere.

How so much of this essence had entered their bodies in the first place was also a question that he didn’t have an answer to.

“How many times have you consumed these healing potions?” Ozul looked at them with a thoughtful face.

However, the duo thought that he was displeased, so they were suddenly on edge.

“Not many times...” Blaze managed to utter after a few seconds of consideration.

He remembered the time Ozul had told them not to take these healing potions at all. Maybe he had changed his mind again?

“Tell me the exact amount,” Ozul spoke with a clear voice that seemed harsher to the duo.

A little panicked, Raven quickly started counting in her head. Blaze tried the same, but his brain started hurting under the pressure.

A few seconds later, Raven hesitated a little before replying, “I am not exactly sure... but I have used around 10 bottles...”

Ozul didn’t wait for Blaze to answer. If Raven’s answer was somewhere near 10. Blaze’s would probably be somewhere close as well.

Even if he hadn’t gotten an accurate answer, it was at least enough to prove that the amount of essence inside their bodies was indeed more than there should have been using only the potions.

The amount inside their bodies might only be accumulated if they used it more than a hundred times. And that too when they didn’t have any injuries in the first place so the essence was not used for healing them.

There was not a doubt that such a thing was impossible, so there must be some other reason for this.

Sigh...

No matter how much he thought about it, Ozul couldn’t find any proper reason that could explain it.

“Let’s go...” he told the duo before slowly taking off in a certain direction while his thoughts still lingered on this topic.

By now, Raven and Blaze had recovered enough to follow behind him as they coated a few parts of their bodies that still hurt with Mana to ease the pain.

Instead of taking them back to the headquarters, Ozul led the duo to the closest city to them.

As for the question about if he should leave his essence be inside their body or take it out, Ozul chose the former.

There weren’t any side effects till now and he didn’t know how long it had been that the essence was inside their bodies.

If he had found anything wrong with it, then he would have immediately done something about it. However, he wouldn’t do so now since taking it out of their body might also cause some unexpected reaction.

It was better to take a safer approach and not touch the residual essence. Although he doubted anything would happen, he would rather test it on others first.

The one person he really wanted to examine right now was that Mikol, but he knew that it wasn’t possible for now as he would probably remain in the Church.

‘I will do it when the time comes...’ Ozul said to himself before slowly clearing his mind.

He wouldn’t gain anything by thinking too deeply about it. Once he examined Mikol and tested taking out the essence from someone else, he would naturally have a few of his answers if not all.

For now, they had a limited amount of time before the test of Old Gu started. He couldn’t waste it on testing things. It was better to take care of it when the time comes.

Sigh...

Another sigh escaped Ozul’s mouth as Raven made a worried face before quickly concealing it. She knew something was bothering him, but she couldn’t even ask.

Thinking so much was a rather tiring job for Ozul. He would rather just take a nap than think so much.

A little less than 20 minutes later, they arrived in a relatively richer city. He didn’t waste any time and found a hotel to stay in first.

Although it was not night, a day was even better for him to sleep because the sun was more annoying than the stars.

Meanwhile, even Blaze read the atmosphere and didn’t say anything lest he annoyed Ozul even more.

They quietly took a room each with Jinx sharing the room with Ozul.

As he fell onto the bed, he couldn’t help but think how good it would have been if he already had his other arm back and could just sleep forever in a room alone with no lights.

Unfortunately, he knew things would never be so simple.

Even if he gained his arm back, his curiosity over his own body would keep him running all around.

. . .

Ozul only got out of his room the next day and he didn’t need to knock on the duo’s doors since they also came out at the same time as if they were waiting for him all this time.

“Why didn’t we go back to the headquarters?” Blaze asked only after confirming that Ozul’s mood had returned to normal.

Although Ozul’s face would always remain unchanged, being with him for so long had taught them to read the atmosphere around him instead.

They didn’t know how, but if they focused enough, they could instinctually tell if he was displeased or not in the mood to tolerate nonsense.

“What do you want to do in the headquarters?” Instead of answering, Ozul responded with a question of his own.

Raven snickered at Blaze’s dumb expressions before following Ozul out of the hotel.

As they walked on the street, Ozul said, “That old man has given everyone five years. After these five years, you probably won’t be the strongest there, but I at least want you two to hold your own ground when the time comes.”

Raven and Blaze immediately nodded their heads. They were at least confident to take care of themselves in the test.

As for Blaze’s question, Ozul finally eased his confusion, “Till then, you will be training with Magical Beasts...”