Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 338: Human?!

Since she had no choice, the Sovereign didn’t try to resist anymore.

If all she needed to do was change her form, it wasn’t a problem at all. If, however, that man asked her to do anything disgraceful, she wouldn’t take it lying down!

With that resolve in her mind, she felt the pressure on her decreasing to the point where she could stand up. Though it didn’t completely vanish, it loomed over her like a hanging sword, ready to fall on her if she did anything amusing.

She stood still, and her colossal body, which stood meters tall, began to shrink at an alarming rate!

“Beasts can do that as well?!” from the crowd, someone yelled enthusiastically.

No one paid any heed to that man who was probably obsessed with Beasts and stared at the Sovereign in surprise. They had never seen a Beast so large be able to do that, even when there were all kinds of Beasts.

And before everything settled down, the show ended with a sight that left everyone dumbstruck except for Senior Kun and Ozul. The justification for the latter’s lack of reaction wasn’t required as he was simply being himself.

.....

“Are you sure this isn’t a dream?” Someone in the crowd grumbled loudly. If there had been a large crowd present, this would have caused quite a stir.

After all, where the enormous Beast had once stood, a mature woman with long red hair the color of rubies now stood in front of their very eyes!

No one present here was stupid enough to not realize that this woman was none other than The Sovereign, a Rank-10 Beast!

Before anyone could even look at her naked body, Senior Kun flicked his fingers and a dress materialized on her. The men sighed in displeasure at being robbed of the heavenly sight they were about to witness, but Senior Kun paid them no heed.

Looking at the wonder of nature, everyone felt a little envious. The Beasts on this continent already had a natural affinity towards the Mana. At the same Ranks, Beasts were always superior to humans.

Many hearts bled at the unfairness of the heavens. After all, the only advantages humans had over the Beasts were their human body and their intelligence. Together with those two, they were able to create the artifacts to rival the Beasts. However, the fact that a Beast transformed into a human right in front of them made them doubt reality.

If given an artifact or an armor to boost their strength, wouldn’t the Beast completely crush humans?!

Humans already didn’t like the fact that those Beasts could slowly gain intelligence comparable to them. This on top was sure to raise red flags.

Unfortunately, people outside the barrier couldn’t see nor hear anything inside. If all the humans on the continent of Egon knew about this, they would surely start expeditions to kill all the Beasts on the entire Mainland!

The Sovereign, now the beautiful woman, stood there in a strange posture. One could tell at a glance that she wasn’t used to this body. In fact, she was barely able to keep her balance. It wasn’t easy getting used to a transformation this big.

Ozul noticed her troubles and guessed that either she doesn’t transform into this form much, or it might even be her first time.

In fact, it indeed was her first time changing into human form!

“Thwfs-”

The Sovereign opened her mouth but her very first word didn’t sound humane at all. She was clearly struggling.

After a few more tries, she was able to use her new mouth to speak clearly. She already knew how to speak human language, so all she needed to do was to get used to her facial muscles.

“...This better be worth it, human.”

“So much effort only to say this? Can’t say I’m not disappointed for all the time you have wasted until now. And no matter how much you hate it, this is the only way for you to get stronger,” Senior Kun spoke with a strict tone, but answered nonetheless.

Others were perplexed by what they were saying.

What they actually didn’t know was that this transformation was irreversible!

...

“Alright. Since that is settled, it’s time to leave,” Senior Kun said as he began to turn around.

“Leave where?” Blaze asked.

Behind him, others also had the same question, but most of them were just too afraid to ask.

“Hm? Leave to the real world, ice boy.” Senior Kun spat behind heading inside the spatial crack, “Whoever doesn’t follow me is welcome to die.”

“Ice boy... pfft!”

The one who laughed was none other than Raven. She didn’t really find it that funny, but she couldn’t resist adding fuel to the fire after noticing Blaze’s annoyed expressions at that nickname.

Meanwhile, since they had no choice, everyone started following Senior Kun’s lead. As he disappeared into the portal, some started to hesitate. Paying no attention to the rest, Ozul stepped inside as well. He wasn’t afraid and unlike the rest, he had an inkling on what Kun meant by ‘real world’.

After him, The Sovereign harrumphed and also stepped inside. Raven, Blaze, and Zier were next.

With those five gone, others also felt a little confident and one by one, everyone entered; some with excitement, while others were still grieving at the loss of their loved ones.

As all 14 people entered the spatial crack, it instantly closed again as if the space hadn’t just been torn apart at all.

Following which, a humming sound was produced which got louder and louder by the second.

It didn’t take long for it to change into an earthquake so intense that even the hill where everyone previously stood began to shake!

The earthquake didn’t end there. Soon, the hill crumbled like bread soaked in water. The earth began to split apart and fresh soil rose from the ground.

All the corpses littered on the ground were consumed by the earth. Some were buried under huge rocks while others were crushed to the point of no recognition. The ground behaved as if it was a sea with endless depths and consumed everything above it!

This continued on for about another five minutes before this unnatural phenomenon settled. Those Mages waiting outside weren’t even spared a glance at what had just transpired.

As everything calmed down inside the barrier, the terrain looked as if a thousand farmers had worked day and night for months to plow the land. All the evidence of there being a death tournament was nowhere to be seen. The traces left by the fight of The Sovereign and Ozul were also erased.

It was only then that the barrier which blocked all the Mages suddenly started dissipating.

As the barrier disappeared, the new land became visible to everyone.

“Is it over?” muttered a Rank-8 Mage.

The sight which greeted them after the barrier disappeared was something no one expected. Why was the whole land turned into these endless fields of fresh soil? More importantly, where did everyone disappear to?

“There are no traces of Mana either,” Raymond spoke as he even used an artifact but had no results.

The earthquake which had transformed the whole terrain evidently wasn’t so ordinary. It even cleaned the air of any remnant of Mana particles.

As a result, aside from the three Rank-10 Mages present, no one could predict what happened after the tournament ended because it was the last thing they saw before Old Gu rendered the barrier opaque.

“Just... what happened here? Can Mana even perform such a feat?!” another old Mage asked while clutching his hands.

There were now hundreds of Mages around the Neutral City discovering the newfound land which had no traces of the people inside. It was as if they had simply vanished into thin air!

Since even the teleportation runes left markings on the ground and Mana in the atmosphere.

“We will never see them again, will we?” Alver looked towards Kure who sighed continuously.

“The children, yes. I’m not sure about that old man though. He might not leave this Mainland alone in peace.”

“You know something! Tell me where they took my grandson!” When an old guy overheard Alver and Kure’s talk from a distance, he dashed towards them.

He was Zier’s grandfather. His entire face was covered with worry at the moment. He wasn’t even notified when they took his grandson, and now this Rank-10 Mage was suggesting he’d never see him again?!

“I don’t know. And show some respect!” Kure spoke with an authoritative voice worthy of a Rank-10 Mage.

To be safe, all Mages in the area drenched themselves completely in Mana. After all, no one knew the temper of one of the three strongest people on the Mainland.

Under the pressure of Kure’s gaze, the old man couldn’t resist and had to avert his eyes immediately. As he did so, Kure raised his head and flew away from the Neutral City.

Not only him, but Ciro from the Leonhard Dynasty and Gladis from the Mercenary Guild also went back. Staying here any longer was a waste of time, they wouldn’t find anything interesting here. All the clues were most likely erased by powers way beyond their comprehension.

The humans on the Continent of Egon had no idea where the participants had vanished to.

Some even posted requests in the Mercenary Guilds, prompting search parties to be dispatched all across the continent in search of those individuals, though this would only be in the future.

While on the other side of the spatial crack...