Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 289: Contemptuous smile.

‘... Why is she so calm then?’ Ozul could not help but think in his heart.

Facing a Rank-10 Magical Beast, even a Rank-10 Mage would be discouraged if not at least a little worried, but Darcia faced the Sovereign as if she was confident to deal with her.

Just like how the Sovereign did, others would have thought that her calm expressions were only a facade to cover her panic-stricken inner turmoil, but Ozul knew better. He had no problem in reading her emotions which revealed how casual she was actually feeling about facing the Sovereign.

‘Does she have something up her sleeve?’ Ozul wondered while slowly increasing the distance between him and the Sovereign.

The Sovereign had all of its focus on Darcia and the latter’s attitude was only making it easier for Ozul to avoid catching the Sovereign’s eyes.

He had purposely made it so the Sovereign would have all of her attention on Darcia and he could find the opportunity to kill her during that time.

In the confusion, he could take her Spatial rings and hope that his hand was stored inside. But even if Darcia didn’t have it with her, he would have an easy time getting it from Lammert who would have no one to rely on after Darcia.

.....

At least that was the plan he had in mind.

He actually hoped that Darcia didn’t have the arm with her since he could easily lose those Spatial Rings in the chaos, but it was highly unlikely since his arm would be the safest beside a Rank-10 Mage.

While Ozul was still in his thoughts, he felt the sudden surge in the Mana from the surroundings.

The Sovereign was gathering Mana around it in a very casual manner, not caring to even hide it. She was confident to deal with a single Rank-10 Mage with no backup.

Everything was going according to what Ozul had thought it would, except for Darcia’s behavior which was almost the opposite of what he had predicted.

He readied himself for anything unexpected when she waved her hand and a fancy-looking cannon decorated with gold appeared floating in mid-air before her.

‘Cannon? Against a Rank-10 Magical Beast?... No...’ Ozul understood that if she had taken out a cannon while the Sovereign was gathering Mana, it could only mean that the cannon had some use.

Moreover, he noticed those engravings on the gold plating around the cannon which looked more or less like the ones etched on the artifacts.

‘Don’t tell me...’ Ozul had a bad feeling as he noticed the invisible container on its top connected to the gold plating.

Even though he didn’t understand what Darcia planned to do, he continued to slowly sneak behind her while her focus was still on the Sovereign.

While he was being extra cautious, the Sovereign on the other hand started laughing at the sight of that small cannon, “Gahaha! And I was thinking that you might have something up your sleeve after all. But if this is all you have, then old age has really been affecting you, bahaha!”

The Sovereign mocked, laughing like a real human which made Darcia quite pissed off as Ozul instantly caught on to her change of emotions. By now, he was sure that this old woman was quite sensitive about her age.

In her rage, she didn’t wait to charge the cannon and instead instantly cast a huge spinning disk which shone with a bright white light at the Sovereign who only sneered in response.

boom!

The disk hit the giant wolf covered in flames-like fur without any resistance.

Dust rose and quickly settled down, but the Sovereign was standing still in her position with no obvious injury from Darcia’s spell. Some might have even questioned the power behind that spell if not for the giant craters formed beside the Sovereign.

“Tsk! You don’t want to play, I presume,” the Sovereign growled as she bore her teeth at Darcia before a concentrated beam of fire was shot at Darcia without even giving them a chance to blink!

Although it wasn’t directed at Ozul, he was still a little closer to Darcia so getting affected by the beam of fire was unavoidable.

He had the leisure to create a thin layer of the Ball of Purity in front of him to protect against the burn of the heat, but Darcia wasn’t so lucky as him.

She barely dodged at the last second while protecting the cannon with her. The beam of fire would have melted the cannon if it was made from any weaker materials.

‘No! I cannot let this continue like this. I must finish this!’ she shouted in her mind as she realized how close the cannon was to being destroyed just now.

She immediately created a distance between her and the Sovereign as she noticed Ozul’s figure in the middle as well.

“Just you wait, you little cockroach!” she gnashed her teeth in annoyance at the sight of him still living. She was supposed to kill him in one move and then head back to study his body, but he had made it into this mess! She vowed in her heart to give him a torturous death after all of this was over.

After creating a safe distance between her and the Sovereign, Darcia decided not to waste any more time as she willed it and a box of glass suddenly appeared in mid-air floating just before her.

Although the Sovereign was clueless as she curiously stared at the box of glass containing a human’s arm, Ozul was all too familiar with it.

Eyes wide open, Ozul stared at his arm with a wavering gleam in his eyes.

This was it! The last piece he needed to become whole again! The end to his suffering was right before his eyes...

Despite Ozul’s inner turmoil at the sight of his arm, he tried his best not to show any of that on his face.

His mind immediately started racing as he realized that it was the worst situation possible right now. Everything was going according to his plan just a few moments ago, but Darcia taking out his arm before they even started fighting was out of his expectations.

He was hoping for Darcia to die or at least get heavily injured while fighting the Rank-10 Beast, but now he didn’t want her to get hit because she had his arm with her.

‘What is she trying to do with it?’ Ozul’s thoughts ran wild as his eyes, in the end, fell on the cannon.

He also couldn’t help but notice how the invisible container on top of the cannon was just big enough for his arm to fit in.

While he was in his thoughts, he failed to notice how the Sovereign had shifted her focus of attention to him, “Oh? This little guy isn’t as simple either~ Gahaha! It will be fun crushing you both one by one!”

Ozul didn’t have time to care about the Beast’s threats as he knew that he had to stop Darcia from doing whatever she was about to do.

He hurriedly sped towards her, but unfortunately for him, the Sovereign had already prepared her spell to test him out.

Woosh!

Another beam of fire was shot but it was at Ozul this time instead of Darcia.

“Damn it!” he couldn’t help but curse under his breath as he was forced to cover himself with a shield.

The pillar of fire hit the black shield sending Ozul several meters back in the air!

‘Urgh!’ Even when covered with the Ball of Purity, the force behind that pillar of fire was enough to make him hold his stomach in pain for a few moments.

The power of a Rank-10 Beast could not be any more obvious to Ozul at this moment as he tried to think of a way to snatch his arm from Darcia’s hands.

However, he had lost the opportunity as Darcia had already placed his arm in the cannon’s container as she aimed it towards the Sovereign with a toothy grin on her face.

“Kehehe. How dare a beast like you try to be so smug in front of me!” Darcia shouted, making not only Ozul but even the Sovereign a little surprised by her exclamation.

Had she lost her mind? The Rank-10 Beast didn’t believe that she had something that could make her, the Sovereign of all the Beasts, bow her head before anyone.

Unlike the Sovereign though, Ozul was surprised because he could guess what Darcia was about to do if she spoke so confidently.

There was no way he couldn’t figure it out as these people had been experimenting with his arm for decades now! They were bound to find some way to use it for some offensive means as well.

And looking at the cannon and his arm in the invisible container on top of it, he could pretty much make out the whole picture of what that fancy-looking cannon was used for.

‘A cannon powered solely by my arm? Is it really so powerful that it can deal with a Rank-10 Beast, possibly the strongest any being could get on this continent?’ Ozul contemplated as his eyes looked around to search for anything that could provide him an opportunity.

Alas, there was nothing in sight that proved to be even slightly helpful.

“Gahaha! Let me see what this little toy can do for you to be so arrogant, old witch!” the Sovereign again laughed as Darcia looked down at her with a contemptuous smile.

She suddenly started to imbue the cannon with her Mana under the worried gaze of Ozul.