Unsealing Emptiness

Under the effects of the poison, she could feel her legs losing strength already!

Considering the distance between her and Blaze, even if she mustered up all of her strength right now, she wouldn’t be able to save him in time.

Yet, though she was stunned for a moment, her worries washed away when she remembered that they were not alone.

‘Mm... Now I can sleep a little...’

The words faded in her mind as she slowly began to lose her focus.

The last thing she saw was the flying head of the person who was just about to crush Blaze’s head.

.....

Before she fell unconscious, she could vaguely make out the image of the man’s body gradually losing its balance and dropping on the ground.

*Thud*

If anyone were to see the current expressions on the severed head of the leader, they would notice that even in death, the man didn’t realize that he was killed.

The battle which raged on for around twenty minutes abruptly came to an end.

The forest regained its silence with both Raven and Blaze dropped unconscious on the ground and the enemy’s team all dead.

It was only then that the figure of a man appeared on the ground amidst the scattered remains of the battle.

The moonlight barely illuminated the area, but from Zier’s perspective, he knew that it was the strange quiet man who loved sleeping.

While the battle went on, Zier contemplated each second whether to abandon this area and run away or to stay here until the last. He now heaved a sigh of relief as he realized his current decision was the better choice.

‘It must be him who severed that man’s head. I was right, he is not normal by any means!’

Zier jumped down his tree and tiptoed his way towards Ozul.

Looking all around himself, he only saw darkness and trees everywhere. He didn’t want to be alone in this kind of situation.

As Ozul bent down to examine Blaze and Raven’s bodies, he realized that both had fallen unconscious for the same reason; the poison.

It was true that both had sustained injuries during the fight, but the main cause for them being knocked out right now was because the poison had seeped in too deep into their bodies.

Blaze had two extra wounds on him which further worsened his condition, but they were not the main concern right now.

As Ozul stood up, Zier had already come beside him, looking at the corpses with a slight sense of disgust on his face.

“Are they all dead?” he mustered up his courage to ask Ozul.

“No.”

“Oh... O-ok.”

That was all Zier could stutter before the monotonous reply. What made it more awkward was that Ozul kept staring at him with an unreadable face.

“What is it?”

Zier wouldn’t have talked with such confidence if he hadn’t felt that this almost doll-like man had no malicious intentions against him.

“...You tell me what it is,” Ozul replied without much emotion.

In response, Zier felt that something was wrong. Even if this man seemed so indifferent to everything around him, wouldn’t he at least care for the deaths of his own companions? However, from what he had noticed until now, Ozul behaved as if he had no qualms with their sacrifice!

After all, a normal person should have been running around looking for something to neutralize the poison.

Then again, he had a question to answer.

“What do you mean?” Zier asked, seemingly oblivious to what Ozul was getting at.

*sigh*

A light sigh full of tiredness resounded in the sinister silence of the woods.

“I mean, don’t you know what this poison is and how to remove it?”

Although it felt unpleasant to even restate his question, Ozul had to ask since he barely had any knowledge on poisons. Maybe he would be able to find some antidote in the Spatial Rings of these men, but even for that, he would need some basic experience in dealing with this type of substance.

From what he understood, this strangely weak fellow would be of help in this regard.

Zier’s pupil dilated, but he tried his best not to act unnaturally in any way.

“Uhm, I don’t understand what you are getting at. Moreover, shouldn’t you hurry up? They will die at this rate!”

He easily denied Ozul’s question and changed the topic quickly.

“These tricks won’t work on me. My question still stands...”

Ozul replied calmly but noticed only a slight flinch of hands from the opposite party. It was evident that this man would continue to pretend for a long time.

*sigh...*

Yet another sigh, “Okay. I will make it easier for you... and for me.”

With these continuous sighs, even Zier had dropped his guard against Ozul as he appeared to be a helpless fellow who, at the end of the day, could only sigh his problems off and go to sleep.

However, the next words from that same man caused his hair to stand up in unison.

“I can tell if you are lying; no doubts in that regard. So this is the last time I will ask calmly. If I sense lies or any half-truths? I will kill you. If you pretend to not know anything again? I will kill you... That simple. Do you understand?”

As Ozul spoke so calmly, if someone didn’t focus on what he was saying, they would almost mistake him for having a casual conversation with his colleague.

However, Zier fully understood every word.

Even when the tone that was used to say those words wasn’t threatening, he knew full well that this man was capable of killing him any second; if that decapitation from earlier was anything to go by.

Still, he didn’t reply instantly. He wanted to carefully weigh his options first.

‘Does he know everything?! Maybe he doesn’t... No, he is surely up to something as he is so sure. Oh shit! I am here all fine when even his companions who were as strong as monsters were affected by the poison! That must be why he is suspicious! But... grandfather said to never reveal...’

Zier struggled with his inner monologue for what seemed to be quite a long time. But in reality, only a few seconds had passed since Ozul had spoken.

Meanwhile, Ozul showed some patience as he understood that it would take at least a few moments for anyone to come to terms with their powerlessness.

After all, he was currently in control. He could guess how hopeless this purple-haired boy must be feeling right now, even without sensing those fluctuating waves of emotions.

‘...Wait!! How is ‘he’ without any harm!? This type of poison... even though I am not familiar with it, it’s potent enough to affect, albeit slightly, even someone at grandfather’s level! Is he... a Rank-9 Mage?!’

Even though Zier wasn’t sure about his conclusion, the mere possibility of such a case scared him. After all, he had lived with a Rank-9 Mage all his life; he understood the extent of their destructive capabilities.

‘I... won’t be able to leave here alive if I mess this up.’

Finally, Zier realized that he had no choice but to cooperate obediently. If what he had said was true, then he couldn’t take any chances of lying either.

“I am really not familiar with this poison...” as he said so, Ozul squinted his eyes at him, “D-don’t kill me! I really haven’t encountered this poison before, but I can still help!”

Ozul’s facial expressions relaxed again as Zier heaved a sigh of relief. His grandfather had taught him to never test the patience of any Rank-9 Mage.

Now that he thought about it again, Ozul not caring of all the commotion around him could be because he really is a Rank-9 Mage who didn’t have to worry about all those ‘small fries’.

*Cough!*

A few coughs diverted their attention to Blaze, who, upon closer inspection, still seemed to be unconscious.

“... There is not much time. Hurry up and explain,” Ozul kept an eye on both Raven and Blaze and realized their condition was worsening quickly.

“I... There is a plant that can neutralize many poisons used on Mages, but I doubt we can find it in time,” Zier muttered to himself in urgency before he made his way to the three corpses lying on the ground and collected their Spatial Rings.

Since their owners had died now, Zier could easily access them. He knew much about poisons, but right now, he didn’t have the necessary materials to neutralize an unknown poison. As for the herb he knew about, it was quite rare that even he had only seen it once or twice in his lifetime.

Therefore, he hoped that these three people had the antidote in their Spatial Rings.

As he checked the rings one by one, Zier quickly realized that although there were many herbs and he recognized some of them, most of these medicines and plants were completely foreign to him.

On his small island, he had only access to a limited type of herbs.

Maybe the ingredients for the antidote were really all there, but as it came to be, he didn’t know how to make the medicine to cure this specific poison. As for the medicines he knew, there weren’t enough herbs in these Spatial Rings.

‘Ugh...’

Zier really didn’t want to use his last resort.

“Are you done already?”

A voice came from behind. Ozul was now getting impatient.

“Uh, yes... uhm, can you...”

“Can I what?” Ozul urged.

“... promise to keep what I’m about to reveal a secret?”

.....

In response, Ozul stared at him as if he was staring at an idiot.