Unsealing Emptiness

Raven’s surprise wasn’t any less than his. Everyone knew that a Rank-10 Mage was the peak existence on the Mainland and there were only four such beings alive. Seeing one of those ‘monsters’ lying on the ground and soaking in blood wasn’t a sight that anyone would expect to stumble upon.

Shaking his head from side to side, Blaze remembered their priority and began to look for Ozul, ignoring Darcia who they could not feel any signs of life from.

Meanwhile, unperturbed by the fact that one of the only four Rank-10 Mages of the Mainland was lying dead in her own blood, Raven had already stepped past Darcia as she searched for Ozul. The fact that Ozul didn’t have any Mana from which they could find him didn’t help them in the situation.

The ground was all uneven after the explosion and the impact of that enormous light pillar. The whole terrain was flipped upside down.

The whistling of passing winds became a cause of much distraction since they were trying to feel any movement nearby.

Having enough of searching around, Raven began to rise up in the air until a vast area of the ground became visible to her view.

.....

It was only then that her eyes fell on a seemingly naked figure standing beside a black cat who continued to lick her paws, uncaring of her surroundings.

“!!!”

Her heart almost skipped a beat as she immediately made her way towards him followed by Blaze when he realized what her expressions meant.

As the duo landed near him, both of them paused as they felt winds revolving around Ozul in a bizarre manner. Not only that, but they also found it weird that Ozul was standing still with his eyes closed.

At any other time, Raven might have been flustered by Ozul’s current naked appearance, but in this situation, her eyes were only attracted to his arms, both of which were his own!

“Ozu-...”

Unconsciously, she tried to take a step forward, but Blaze stopped her as they both felt a weird sense of dread enveloping the area around Ozul.

The feeling of dread only grew denser by the second until the duo couldn’t even afford to breathe properly in its presence!

They wanted to call out to him to ask what was happening, but it was too late now that even moving a single muscle proved to be almost an impossible task.

What creeped them out was the fact that the reason they couldn’t move was not that some invisible pressure had descended on them or something. No... It was pure fear!

They understood it was Ozul standing before them and he wouldn’t cause them any harm, but their bodies innately held the fear and just wouldn’t budge a single muscle no matter how hard they tried!

Raven’s face contorted with worry as she feared something was wrong with Ozul.

The duo helplessly eyed Ozul, unable to utter a single sentence, they wondered why he had his eyes closed.

Unknown to them, Ozul was currently facing a massive shift in his thinking capability.

It was a feeling he couldn’t describe. One moment, he could think everything at once and would manage to uncover all the answers he wanted and just the next moment, he would feel as lost as someone who had lost their memory.

Caught up in this massive shift of his own internal body structure and thinking capacity, he didn’t have any time to focus on the weird phenomenon in the surrounding areas because of him.

Just a while ago, before the cannon was about to explode, he had barely managed to sneak his arm out of the chamber. At the very last moment, Darcia had even noticed the missing arm, but it was already too late to do anything at that time.

The cannon exploded, and the blast covered such a huge radius that it was visible from hundreds of meters away.

Just like Darcia, he also couldn’t afford to escape the range of the explosion at that instant. Fire engulfed his body, but all he cared about at that moment was his arm.

At point blank range, an explosion that left even a Rank-10 Mage in that condition, was endured by Ozul as he prioritized attaching the arm back to his body!

His brain had gone blank at that moment. He somehow didn’t care if he would even survive that explosion from so up close.

Fortunately for him though, attaching the arm back to his body was a moment of luck. Blinded by the flames, he was still able to notice how the moment his arm was reattached, those weird life-like symbols had again appeared on his body!

The flames which could melt even the most durable of the materials on the Mainland would disappear the moment they came in contact with his body.

Unfortunately, his clothes bore a different fate. Not even ashes remained of them

Moments after the explosion, he was forced into that abnormal state where he wasn’t even aware of his own surroundings.

Before the duo found him, the life-like dark symbols were one by one all absorbed back into his body. Each time they did though, his inner state would be altered to the point of no recognition.

It was a horrifying experience, but through all of this, Ozul didn’t feel any danger at all.

Maybe if it was a normal person going through this maddening shift of changes, they would have long lost their sanity.

Not to mention, in response to this madness, Ozul didn’t even feel like interfering.

All in all, if the duo was suffering, then his state of being wasn’t so peaceful as it looked from the outside either.

The calm and serene appearance from the outside was like a giant glass wall that held a body of water with myriads of waves behind it.

Things gradually calmed down as the duo begin to feel at peace as well. Nothing bad had happened for a few minutes, and they began to get the idea that it might be because of Ozul’s ‘peculiarity’.

Nonetheless, they still had their worries.

Fortunately for them, the feeling of dread they felt merely for being in the presence of Ozul also slowly lifted away.

The slow winds circling around Ozul’s body calmed down as well, leaving nothing but a land of tranquility.

In a moment, it felt as if the whole world had come to a standstill. Maybe even the time had stopped, but the duo couldn’t tell a difference.

What felt like an eternity ended with just a single second when Ozul’s eyes moved. His shoulders relaxed as if they were previously being held by some external force.

Raven and Blaze were forced to hold their breaths when Ozul slowly opened his eyes with an indifferent face.

“...”

“...”

Their hearts couldn’t help but beat faster when they saw the completely black bead-like eyes staring at them as if their bodies were just a transparent glass and even their soul was laid bare before those eyes.

‘Hmm?! Did I see wrong?’ Blaze wondered as just the next moment, Ozul blinked and the pure black sclera that seemingly swallowed stars in it turned to white again!

Just in that split second, maybe he had seen wrong... is what Blaze thought. However, he would have been shocked if he had asked Raven about it. Because at this moment, she had the same thoughts as him!

Even she was wondering if her eyes had played an illusion just now.

But pushing these thoughts to the back of their mind, Raven and Blaze instantly rushed towards Ozul who was now surveying his surroundings with interest.

While all of this was happening here, the rest of the Mainland barely felt any changes.

Maybe nothing had changed in this realm... but something did happen in a place far away from here.

———

Deep inside an enormous structure that passersby stared at with revering eyes, a man sat at the highest throne placed in an empty and dark hall.

Around him were two more chairs, but they were empty at this moment as well.

Though observing from the dust that had settled on those chairs and the rest of the hall, one could only imagine how long it had been that someone had cleaned this place.

Despite the dark hallway, one thing that was visible even from the far most corners were the lush golden hair of the man.

He had long golden hair which, at this moment, drooped over his face. His back lazily rested against the back of the rusty old throne, one couldn’t tell the age of this man.

But, those who could have recognized this man would have surely been shocked to notice his current appearance.

Those hair that continuously glowed with a golden light only belonged to a single person in all of the realms.

This peculiar trait would have made this man stand out just about anywhere in the crowd and have his identity recognized, but there were only a few people who knew about the existence of this hall.

Because of how the man with golden hair wasn’t even moving, one could have guessed that he was dead.

However, it was at this moment when the man suddenly leaned forward, his hair floated before uncovering his god-like face and the serene golden eyes brightened the hall.

The red thin lips pursed before loosening again as a heartfelt sigh escaped the man’s heavy throat.

“What am I even thinking... it was inevitable...”