Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 277: Scent.

‘Hm. He has the least amount that I have ever seen,’ Ozul noticed that Raymond almost had no traces at all.

It was such a tiny amount that he was even about to miss it.

“Did you ever drink that healing potion that the Church created?” Ozul could guess the answer, but he still asked for confirmation.

“No. I would never drink something produced by those slippery bastards!” Raymond spoke with disgust visible on his face when he mentioned the Church of Light.

Ozul simply nodded his head. He could already figure out this much.

Since there was still a tiny trace of the essence in Raymond’s body despite the fact that he had never drunk the potion, it again proved his conclusion that the longer one stayed with him, the more traces of essence they would accumulate inside their bodies.

‘No... it can’t be called essence. It is more like a Scent that people get while staying close to me or ‘drinking’ it directly,’ Ozul concluded with a thoughtful face.

.....

Alver had already returned with a prisoner by that time and there were more or less just a few signs of beatings on his body, nothing too serious.

The prisoner was a Rank-4 Mage as well, but his eyes were cold and ruthless as if he hadn’t realized that the three men surrounding him were at least at Rank-9.

Sure enough, the man bellowed in a cranky tone, “What now?! I told you that I know nothing, why can’t you believe me!?”

It seemed that he still believed that the person who brought him out was actually a guard like the previous guy who had been interrogating him and not the head of the Ashin family himself.

The three people didn’t care about his shouting, but Alver exerted a little pressure on him so he would behave as Ozul wanted to perform the test on him.

He exerted just enough pressure to make the man shut his mouth. It took quite an effort for him to even open his mouth much less shout like before.

Ozul approached the man and placed a hand on his chest as he had done with Raymond.

Meanwhile, Raymond watched the process with interest unlike Alver, who could only look at him with a confused face.

A few moments later, Ozul frowned a little before he looked towards Alver and asked, “Do you people have a bottle of that healing potion that the Church creates?”

Hearing his words made Alver and the prisoner think that he was going to give it to the latter to heal his injuries, but Raymond had a thoughtful face.

Although he didn’t like the Church one bit, they still kept themselves up to date with everything they did. It included the miraculous potions created by them as well.

So even when Raymond never used one himself, the Ashin family still had a few bottles for them to try and figure out its origins.

He nodded towards Alver who understood his intentions and went out of the room to get the potion.

Ozul had noticed that there wasn’t even a minuscule amount of his ‘Scent’ inside that man’s body, so he could only let him use the potion and then carry out his test.

Alver came back with a bottle of purple potion in his hand and gave it directly to the man who was confused out of his wits.

But since these people were being so generous and giving him the healing potion, he didn’t reject it and proceeded to gulp it down in one go.

A moment passed and the bruises and small injuries on his body visibly started to heal and a few seconds later, no one could tell that he had received a beating just yesterday.

Behind Ozul, Raymond couldn’t help but sigh. No matter how much he detested the Church of Light, even he had to admit that this healing potion was truly an unusual and life-changing invention.

Ozul waited for a few moments so that the ‘Scent’ inside that man’s body settled down first before he again placed his hand on his chest and this time closed his eyes to concentrate.

Just as expected, Ozul saw the tiny strand of his ‘Scent’ revolving around that man’s heart, but there were no visible changes to his body.

‘Hm. Does it change nothing at all?’ Ozul doubted that his ‘Scent’ did nothing except for lingering inside other people’s bodies.

He extracted a small part of the Ball of Purity and changed it to gaseous form before shooting it inside that man’s body. He could only use the Ball of Purity to try and remove his Scent.

“Hm? What is he doing, brother?” Alver also noticed the small strand of a black thing entering that man’s body, and he couldn’t stop himself any longer from asking the question.

“How would I know?” Raymond replied before focusing back on whatever his nephew was doing. They were naturally curious about all of this since their usually so indifferent nephew was showing so much interest in whatever he was doing.

While the two brothers had no clue whatever was going on, Ozul had already spread the Ball of Purity around the heart and slowly wrapped it around his ‘Scent’.

It proved to be a little difficult since his Scent required him to increase the density of the Ball of Purity if he wanted to contain it inside and not let it go.

The man creased his eyebrows when he felt particularly heavy in his chest and in fear, he couldn’t help but stutter out in fright, “W-what is happening with me!?”

Seeing that the man was starting to panic, Ozul restrained his hands and feet with the Ball of Purity before putting a strap around his mouth so he won’t start shouting his lungs out.

MMmM!

The man could only let out some muffled sounds and squirm his body to the best of his abilities, but as a Rank-4 Mage, he couldn’t even budge the Ball of Purity from its place.

He desperately looked at the only other two men inside the room, but he was certainly not getting any help from them either.

When Ozul had finally managed to wrap only his Scent inside the Ball of Purity, he carefully started to take it out.

However, just as he did, the man started to shake his body with an even greater force. It was evident that he was in pain. How much could have only been known if there wasn’t a strap on the man’s mouth.

In any case, Ozul didn’t stop just because the man was feeling a little pain.

It at least confirmed to him that his Scent did more than just entering inside people’s bodies and revolving around their hearts.

Only he wasn’t strong enough to be able to see what exactly it did yet, so such an experiment was the only thing he could do.

Since the Ball of Purity was in a little more condensed form, Ozul had to make a small cut on the man’s chest for it to leave from. Otherwise, his ‘Scent’ wouldn’t have passed through the skin.

Raymond and Alver curiously eyed the small black bead that came out of the man’s chest, but Ozul had his focus on that man instead.

He was looking for any obvious changes that occurred inside his body after he had taken out his Scent.

Since he was in pain, there should have been some reason for it.

Alas, no matter how thoroughly he looked, he couldn’t find any apparent changes except for how the man looked a little worn out now.

He had also stopped shouting and thrashing his body, so Ozul slowly took off the strap from his face to ask the questions.

“Except for the cut on your chest, what did you feel before?” Ozul asked with a calm voice, but he forgot that the person who was being experimented on wouldn’t be so calm as well.

“What do you people want from me?! Urgh!” the man shouted before he felt another jolt of pain on his chest and noticed a small pitch-black blade poking the previous cut.

“I asked you a question, answer me,” Ozul didn’t have so much time to slowly coerce him into answering his questions.

“Why you!!! Bastards! I won’t say anything!” the man didn’t think that they would seriously start torturing him right then and there.

Unfortunately for him, Ozul only had to give it a single thought before the small blade pierced a few centimeters further into his skin.

“Arkh!! Stop it! I will answer! I will answer! Stop THIS!”

Only then did Ozul bring back the blade and gave the man a few seconds to catch his breath.

“Tell me now. I don’t have time,” Ozul again questioned impatiently. Raven and Blaze along with the Rogue Crew were still waiting in the middle of the forest, he had to return soon.

“I... felt as if needles were used to tear a part of my flesh,” the man took a moment to arrange his words since he couldn’t describe the exact feeling.

“Do you feel any different...?” Ozul asked, but when he noticed him moving his eyes towards the blood trailing out from the cut on his chest, he added, “... ignoring the pain.”

“I don’t...?” the man answered with an unsure face.

It seemed that he didn’t feel any visible change either, but Ozul couldn’t conclude that to be the case only because the changes were not easily noticeable.

‘Hm... I will need someone who has had it for far longer and a lot more than this guy,’ Ozul realized that he might have to find someone else for more obvious results.