Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 287: The Sovereign?

Darcia had the cannon built for individuals that she couldn’t deal with herself.

It was unlikely that Old Gu would know what was happening in these far-off lands, so she thought that there won’t be any use for the cannon anytime soon.

However, it now seemed that using the cannon would be inevitable.

“Don’t blame me if you cross my way,” Darcia uttered before flying straight towards the mountain range.

Her Mana was unrestrained as if she didn’t fear provoking the entity which resided between this cage of mountains.

Darcia ignored the rows of Rank-8 Beasts all staying on the snow peaks, not daring to take a step further.

Just as she crossed the sky-high snow peaks, the temple appeared in front of her isolated in the middle of the plains.

.....

Looking around, she saw nothing except for the small figure at the base of the temple, sitting in a meditative position. Just as her eyes fell on that small figure, the latter also noticed her presence from hundreds of meters away.

She instantly sharpened her eyes, recognizing that small figure to be of Ozul’s.

Darcia smirked, “Khehe! There you are brat! How long were you planning to hide for!?”

Impatient, she was about to cast a spell at him but stopped at the last moment as she realized that she was missing something.

Her gaze shifted to the mountain-like temple behind Ozul and her eyes immediately widened.

“That... It is in a slumber?” she uttered in a questioning tone as her stare stayed glued to the huge mountain.

Realizing that the ‘it’ was actually in slumber while Ozul was all fine below her, she instantly restrained her Mana. Although she didn’t fear ‘it’ now that she had the cannon, she could also face unpredictable situations if a fight did break out between them.

Avoiding the fight was always a better option, so she controlled her Mana as to not appear hostile for now.

. . .

Sensing the sudden presence of Darcia, Ozul lifted his head to look straight into her eyes, ‘Finally...’

He wasn’t surprised to find that Darcia had alone come after him.

“I almost thought you were never going to come,” Ozul uttered with a low voice, but Darcia didn’t have any trouble understanding his words.

A frown appeared on her face as she realized that he was waiting for her all this time.

But in Darcia’s eyes, he was only a brat who hadn’t suffered enough to know how high the heavens were, “You sure have some confidence, boy.”

“Confidence? I don’t have that... but do I really need it?” Ozul replied with a straight face, not revealing any emotions to Darcia no matter how hard she squinted.

Darcia scoffed, “Talk big, brat. But this is the day you-”

“Oh Jinx!” Ozul suddenly exclaimed, cutting in the Rank-10 Mage’s words who was stunned at how fearless this boy was.

She could not help but think, ‘Where did he get his confidence from?’ She was sure that the boy knew that she was here to kill him, so why wasn’t he afraid? Had he set up some trap around the temple that she hadn’t noticed?

Her eyes scanned her surroundings, but she couldn’t spot any hidden traps or anything alike.

What did catch her eyes was the black cat which had appeared out of nowhere and was walking towards Ozul at this moment.

Although Darcia ignored the cat, if she had given it a little more attention, she would have realized that the cat was not normal.

“Where had you been to?” Ozul questioned as Jinx rubbed her head against him affectionately.

As he expected, he did not receive any answer from her, but it was already enough that she had returned.

Returning his attention back to the Rank-10 Mage, he noticed the ever-increasing crease in her brows.

“You were saying?” Ozul asked, acting like he didn’t know that the latter was seething in rage at his behavior. Even when she was here to kill him, his attitude was getting on her nerves.

However, Darcia controlled her anger and took a deep breath, “Follow me out of here, boy.”

“Why should I?” Ozul returned with a question, “Aren’t you just going to try and kill me if we get out of here?”

He purposefully eyed the mountain behind him which made Darcia understand that he was also aware of its existence.

“You also know about the self-proclaimed ‘Sovereign’, huh...” Darcia indifferently muttered before she replied, “Since you know about it, you should also know that it is better that you follow me away from here. I can at least guarantee you won’t die a painful death.”

“Sovereign? Anyway, I would rather not follow you,” Ozul replied with a nonchalant voice as if someone hadn’t just given him two options of death.

“You dare, brat!?” Darcia had enough of his nonsense. As a Rank-10 Mage, she had her own pride.

“Come with me right now, or they will suffer the same horrendous fate as you!” She pointed towards her left where Raven and Blaze were spectating from.

At this point, she was already just a few meters away from Ozul and couldn’t help but get even more furious when she noticed no change in his expressions.

“YOU!!!” she did not dare to flare her aura in fear that the one in slumber would wake up, but it was a different case with the group stationed far away. She wondered if he would give in once he witnessed their deaths with his own eyes.

“Wait a minute,” Ozul suddenly spoke, making Darcia stop in her tracks. She was just about to fly towards the group.

Before her confused eyes, Ozul unstrapped a golden pouch from his waist and untied the red lace in an unhurried manner.

Darcia became vigilant, expecting him to bring an artifact out of the gold bag which she at once had realized was the Spatial Pouch.

“Don’t try anything funny if you don’t want to die a grueso-...” she stopped in the middle of her words when she caught the sight of a crystal-like ball in Ozul’s prosthetic hand.

“Huh? How did you get that?” She asked as she could easily discern that the Mana Core in his hand belonged to someone past Rank-9.

Having as much time as he wanted, Ozul stopped to answer her question, “Luthien’s father was half step in Rank-10.”

“Oh... wait what!?” Darcia thought she had heard wrong. As far as she could remember, there was nothing like half step in Rank-10, so how could Luthien’s father achieve that!?

But the Mana Core in Ozul’s hand indeed radiated Mana that was purer than any Rank-9 Mage’s but still not at the level of a Rank-10 Mage. She wondered if she had been in seclusion for too long and the path of cultivation had deviated a little since then.

She was broken out of her thoughts when she noticed a black liquid or gas seeping out of his body.

Under her curious gaze, she observed how the black liquid or gas covered the Mana Core which was supposedly obtained from a half step Rank-10 Mage.

Ozul had obviously ignored her surprise as he crushed the Mana Core with the Ball of Purity.

Crack!

The sound of a glass getting crushed could be heard in the still surroundings as Darcia put up her guard again. She realized that just now, she had dropped her guard in her shock.

After the crystal-glass outer layer of the Mana Core dropped on the ground in pieces, Ozul moved the black sphere containing all that Mana towards his body, until it was absorbed back under Darcia’s intrigued eyes.

She had only realized it now how she couldn’t feel any Mana from him while he was performing this strange Spell of his. Since she was too occupied in observing that black matter, she had missed this point.

‘Once I get my hands on his body, I will uncover all of his secrets!’ Darcia spoke in her mind. She had already dropped the thought that he was going to try something funny because of how casual he was being.

‘What else can he even do?’ she mused to herself. What she didn’t expect was what would happen next.

Zhh! boom!

It was as if there had been an explosion, Mana blasted out of Ozul’s body in all directions with a loud sound!

Even with all of Darcia’s caution, she didn’t expect something like this to happen. After all, the Mana that was released in the air was leagues above a Rank-9 Mage!

She had yet to make head and tails of the situation when suddenly the ground started shaking. It was like an earthquake so intense that Ozul almost stumbled.

“What did you do brat!?” Darcia shouted feeling the sudden surge of Mana that rose from the ground.

Meanwhile, Ozul completely ignored Darcia’s shouts, instead, he focused on the little boost in power that he gained from absorbing that Mana Core.

As he had no Mana, it would have been a difficult task to wake the ‘Sovereign’ that had been slumbering deep under the temple behind him.

However, he remembered that absorbing a Mana Core would always blast the excessive impure energy out in the air.

Other than to start wreaking havoc everywhere which would have most likely attracted that entity’s attention to him, he knew that it was his only way to wake it up.

He himself had no Mana to make his presence known and Darcia had already restrained hers.

“You won’t get out of this unscathed, brat! I will make sure of it!” Darcia suddenly shouted while Mana started to gather around her.