Unsealing Emptiness

Though she didn’t fear the Beast that had been slumbering underground, it enraged her that she was tricked by him. Not to mention, she would still have to use her cannon which she was reluctant to.

“Doesn’t matter! I was planning to test it on something anyway!” Darcia muttered while she continued to gather Mana around her.

Ozul realized that he didn’t have time to examine his improvements as a massive giant beam of light was shoved at his face.

Covering himself with the Ball of Purity at the same time, he jumped to the side with enough force to launch him high up in the air before the beam of light even hit him.

Boom!

The beam of light hit the ground as debris flew everywhere.

.....

With the small explosion, the earthquake suddenly stopped as well and in place of where Ozul was standing before, a huge blurry figure could be seen behind the smokescreen.

Ignoring the ruckus below him, Ozul momentarily looked at the group that was spectating from far away in the distance. Right now, his eyes fell on the figure of Raven who was being persuaded by Blaze to leave with him.

Although they were hundreds of meters away, his eyesight was improved to the point where it wasn’t difficult for him to observe even small details like Raven’s face full of worries.

Noticing her reluctant expressions, he realized that she was also looking at him. His serious expressions turned a little softer before he nodded at her and shifted his focus back to the mess at hand.

He didn’t worry much that Raven wouldn’t leave the scene with Blaze because he knew her the most. She might be a little emotional because of her love, but he was confident that she would be able to decide what was best for them in the end.

He had made it clear to her that their presence would only hinder him before, and Raven was smart enough to realize that despite her emotions.

What he failed to notice was the tears in her eyes as she turned around to leave with Blaze and the Rogue Crew. After all, together with everything else, she could also discern that the situation was anything but under his complete control.

Back to the battle, Ozul noticed that Darcia had stopped attacking him and was instead staring at the blurry shadow behind the smokescreen.

He tried to take advantage of the moment and sneak attacked her from behind with hair-thin needles, but it seemed that she hadn’t completely dropped her guard.

The needles he had sent at her stopped just before piercing her skin as the light shield became visible to the eyes.

Darcia turned to glare at Ozul with a deadpan face, but her main focus of attention was still the towering figure which hadn’t made its move yet.

Although his attack failed, Ozul was again about to attack her but he was also forced to stop when intense heat waves suddenly washed over everything in the vicinity of that entity.

‘What is this!?’ he shouted in his mind as he felt difficulty in even breathing!

Looking at Darcia, he noticed that even she had to cover herself with a layer of Mana to be able to breathe and protect against the torrid heat waves.

The debris and the smokescreen slowly died down revealing the massive figure of what appeared to be a wolf(?).

However, it was too enormous to be called a wolf. Not to mention, its tail and both of its ears were actually made of fire!

Covered in red, the massive beast had strands of its fur flowing in the air as if they were all flames instead. One could also observe occasional strands of flames appearing around its paws before disappearing just the next moment.

“RRRROOOAAAARRRR!!!!!”

The massive beast suddenly roared while looking at the sky. Its roar alone was enough to shake the ground!

Following his cry of rage as if it was furious at being woken up from its sleep, all the Rank-8 and Rank-9 Beasts on the snow peaks in the vicinity also joined in!

ROAR!!... KREE!!!... HOWL!!!

Zzzz...!

The ground started shaking with even more intensity as all kinds of screeches from all those Beasts on the mountains!

It was as if the giant wolf which was covered with flames like fur was the general and the rest of the beasts its army, from the way they roared together.

Although the rest of the Beasts were only following the example of the giant wolf, Ozul could tell that the latter was actually furious about something.

His question was answered just the next minute when the wolf stopped howling at the sky and looked around to observe its surroundings.

Even when the wolf stopped, the rest of the Beasts didn’t and the three Rank-9 Beasts even flew to the sky as if awaiting the wolf’s orders to start wreaking havoc everywhere.

The wolf on the other hand moved its eyes from the surroundings to Ozul. His gaze didn’t linger on him for too long before moving on to Darcia.

Noticing that the wolf had conveniently ignored him, Ozul smirked in his mind, ‘It worked...’

Since he had no Mana, the wolf would obviously pay him no heed for now even when he was floating in the air. Not to mention, the previous attack Darcia had thrown at Ozul had actually hit the wolf instead, so it would unmistakably think that Darcia was the one who disturbed its slumber.

The Beast again opened its mouth, but it wasn’t for another round of roaring. Instead of the beast howl, a very humane voice came from its mouth, “Y-... You...”

Ozul could tell that the Beast was female from its tone even when it had only spoken a single word.

The wolf had stuttered a little as if it hadn’t said a word for decades and had almost forgotten the human speech.

After adjusting her voice, the wolf again sharpened her eyes, “Human scum! You dared to interrupt mine, the Sovereign of all the Beasts’, sleep?!”

Hearing her words, Ozul remembered Darcia had also mentioned the ‘self-proclaimed Sovereign’. However, he thought it was well deserved because a Rank-10 Beast having that title wouldn’t be a lie even if it was self-given.

And if anyone would want to refute that, they would certainly change their mind after experiencing those intense heat waves which the wolf had discharged without even trying!

In face of her question, Darcia didn’t say a word and instead readied herself for the battle.

The Sovereign bore her teeth at her attitude before she finally remembered where she had seen this human before.

“You! You are one of those human insects that fought me all those years ago! It seems that humans only live for so long,” she made a face that one could easily discern was a mocking smirk.

‘Hmm? So they did have a history previously... The other Rank-10 Mages were probably also involved. Maybe I should have waited for Kure first before coming here...’ Ozul guessed that the ancestor of the Ashin family should have known about this.

He would have probably been able to tell him the reason these lands remained uncharted for all this time was because of this Beast.

Even the book he had gained from the Whispering Woods containing knowledge on numerous Beasts and herbs had no mention about a wolf that ruled an entire fourth part of the continent.

But Ozul had to admit that this was the most humane Magical Beast he had ever encountered after that mysterious dark druid.

‘Thinking about her, she gave off strange feelings... It is different with this Sovereign,’ Ozul had previously assumed that the dark druid was also a Rank-10 Beast, but now thinking about it again, she gave off feelings more similar to Old Gu than this Sovereign.

“You vermins must have all gotten old by now... Maybe the new generation needs to know who the real ruler of this world is again? Hahah!” the Sovereign mused to herself with a burst of wicked laughter at the end.

The more Ozul observed her, the more he felt as if it was actually a human trapped inside an enormous Beast’s body instead.

This was the only Magical Beast he had encountered that had a motive different from the rest to destroy the human civilizations.

If it was any other Rank-10 Mage who had heard the Beasts’ words, they would have been enraged. However, Darcia was different. She didn’t care if this Beast had the plans to start its rampage on the continent again like centuries ago.

She didn’t care what happened to the continent as long as she could break through her shackles before that!

The Sovereign’s words just now also pricked her ego, reminding her that she had gotten old and there was not much time left for her to live unless she achieved another breakthrough.

“Look at you! Hahaha! It seems that you don’t care about stopping me this time... Bah! I am still going to crush you insect for forcing me to remain here for all this time!!” the Sovereign shouted before the flames around it suddenly soared in height.

Just from a single look, Ozul could tell the difference between a Rank-10 Beast and a Rank-10 Mage. The Sovereign was on a whole another level!

He only had a single question, ‘... Why is she so calm then?’