Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 331: The younger days...

With the confusion clearing up a little, most of the participants had already run far off from the Sovereign.

Many of them peeked from their hideouts, witnessing the unbelievable scene of the terrifying beast running towards another figure, who instead of running in the opposite direction, was speeding directly towards it!

For a second, many of them questioned their eyes.

‘A Madman!’ this simple thought flashed in everyone’s mind before they watched with hidden smirks on their faces. After all, the more people died early on, the more chances they had of surviving.

. . .

Outside the barrier, everyone had an easier time watching the trial. The barrier had shrunk a lot and now they didn’t have to blindly stare at large terrains.

The appearance of the Rank-10 Beast had caused everyone to panic even more than the participants.

.....

The two Rank-10 Mages had the worst reactions. Having fought her all those years ago, only they truly understood the extent of the Sovereign’s powers.

In their opinion, this trial wasn’t that of skills anymore. It was all about luck. The first 9 unlucky people who caught her eye would have their fates sealed. Resistance seemed out of option.

Everyone took heavy breaths, the situation was completely hopeless!

However, their shock had yet to wash away when they noticed something strange happening on the ground below.

“Hey, what is that?”

“The Beast is going for another victim, what else?” spat a man in anger. His nephew was nowhere to be seen; he was most likely dead.

“No, look there!” the man pointed at what appeared to be a black dot compared to the giant flaming fox.

At this time, not only them, but all the big shots present at the scene had their attention focused on this new development.

They hadn’t had the time to show their contempt at this man’s action when they found a rather dense body of Mana approaching them. All turned their heads only to come across a sight they never expected to see.

Half-torn clothes, blood oozing out of multiple wounds scattered all around the body, blood-shot eyes, and badly a mutilated arm which didn’t look so kind as to ever heal on its own. This was currently the state of the man who had appeared on the scene, outside the barrier.

The shocking thing wasn’t his depressing appearance, but rather his identity. Because he was the ancestor of the Ashin family and one of the only Rank-10 Mages, Kure Ashin!

“Che! Looks like someone wanted to save the world alone,” commented Ciro, the Rank-10 Mage from the Leonhard Dynasty.

“I didn’t want this, old hag!”

“Don’t tell me you disturbed that Beast’s peace?” asked Gladis with a certain glare in his eyes.

Faced with both of their glares, Kure didn’t back down. He knew they wouldn’t dare start a fight here.

“It’s that old witch’s fault. She wanted to experiment with the Beast,” he spoke with a straight face.

“Wait, where is she?” Gladis narrowed his eyes.

In response, Kure didn’t reply this time and only tilted his head upwards, looking at the blue sky.

“She realized death to be our next realm and ascended before us. Truly, she was always a genius, always a step ahead of us.”

Kure didn’t try to hide the smile creeping upon his face which looked comical considering his ragged appearance.

Though those who listened in on their conversation had to face another shock of the century. A Rank-10 Beast was fighting mere kids in the trial and now a badly beaten Rank-10 Mage was telling them about the death of another Rank-10 Mage against the same Beast!

“NO! NO! NO!”

The shouting of a certain man from the Church of Light jolted everyone’s senses but that of the Rank-9 and the three Rank-10 Mages. Still, it was quite the sight to see this shrewd man lose his composure in front of everyone.

He couldn’t be blamed because of all the pressure he had been in to not let this news out. Now, as he looked around him, all he saw were hungry eyes of beasts in human skin waiting to devour him whole.

Their shock didn’t last for long, though. Everyone’s attention was quickly pulled by the Sovereign inside the barrier again.

“Huh? Who is that stupid child?” Kure asked. Even the Rank-10 Mages couldn’t identify the person as they were too high up in the air.

Whoever it was, be it the participants or the spectators outside the barrier, they didn’t think for a second that someone could leave a scratch on the Sovereign.

Except for a certain old man somewhere outside the barrier.

‘Now this will be interesting. Both are closer to the ‘True Stage’ than anyone has ever been in this world. Ah, this reminds me of my younger days...’

. . .

Unconcerned of all the onlookers, Ozul decided to strike first.

As his image blurred, he released all of the Ball of Purity and formed a giant black spike before sending it towards the Sovereign with all his force.

The sudden appearance of a spike befitting the size of the beast not only surprised the spectators but even the Sovereign was taken aback.

She didn’t stop but quickly reinforced her body with an additional layer of Mana.

If her eyes could speak, they would surely speak with contempt and belittle the efforts of the little human who seemed to think that he could harm her.

Clearly, she didn’t think that the spike could even shake her Mana shield much less penetrate her skin.

That, however, turned out to be a mistake as the spike came into contact with the spike.

*Crkkh!*

The Mana shield she had thrown together without much thought crumbled like glass, and the massive spike slid through it as if it had never existed!

Her eyes widened with horror as the seriousness of the reality dawned upon her. She tried to quickly jump aside, but it was too late at that point.

The black spike ripped through her burning fur, resulting in a fountain of boiling hot blood that scorched the ground. Following this, a shrill whimper of pain was heard all over the Neutral City!

She lost her momentum as she was forced to jump back.

But before she even had the chance to glance at her wound, she realized that this human wouldn’t let her have any rest.

Ozul was already above her when he drew the massive spike, converted it into liquid, and smeared it all over. It was like dark clouds of judgment, blocking all the sunlight before transforming into thousands of sharp needles and raining down on the Sovereign mercilessly.

The Sovereign gritted her teeth and created another shield to block the attack, this time she went for the strongest shield she could muster before trying to get away from that area.

She could have ignored the needles and attacked the human because there was only so much small needles could do to her, but she chose not to be so careless. She had already paid for it.

The shield held out for much longer than Ozul expected before a few needles slipped past it and grazed the Sovereign’s skin, merely leaving unnoticeable scratches.

This time, the Sovereign managed to create some distance between them. Still, she didn’t make the mistake of ignoring the human this time. She set aside the pain from the earlier wound and kept her eyes straight at the human above the ground.

Floating in the middle of thousands of pitch-black needles all pointed at her, he looked like an envoy of death coming to slay her for all she had done in this world.

That, however, only encouraged the rage within the Sovereign. She growled at the human before she decided to speak for the first time she had appeared here, “You! Human! Why do you go against me!?”

The Sovereign seemed to have forgotten that she came at him first.

Puzzled, Ozul felt something was off, “When did I?”

“Don’t play tricks on me, Human! That despicable human told me it was because of you I almost died!”

It wasn’t much of a guess as Ozul realized how Old Gu had ‘convinced’ the Sovereign to ‘join’ this competition.

“Well, he was lying.”

“Don’t lie to me, Human! All of you are the same! Despicable worms!” barked the Sovereign.

Ozul shrugged his shoulders, he didn’t hope to convince her anyway. Not to mention, it was indirectly his fault as well.

With the earlier exchange, he had at least confirmed that he could fight her on equal grounds.

Unlike the first time when he had a feeling that it would be hard to even leave a scratch on her, he now felt confident to even have the chance to defeat her!

‘This won’t work,’ he eyed the needles surrounding him.

Even the wound his spike had left on her wasn’t deep enough to be fatal, much less the damage dealt by these needles. He had to attack her weaknesses.

Ozul eyed the wound which kept oozing out blood. At first glance, that was her only weakness.

Just when he was thinking about how to take advantage of that, he noticed that the wound had already begun to heal!

‘I have to hurry up!’

Multiple needles combined together with a single thought as he sent them straight at her as a distraction.

The Sovereign, on the other hand, was prepared this time. And, despite her rage, she knew what to do. She opened her mouth, and before Ozul knew what was going to happen, magma-hot flames shot out at him!

He was forced to switch the needles into a shield instead, barely avoiding the fate of getting scorched to death!