Unsealing Emptiness

He looked around him, and everyone else seemed to be setting up their tents as well. The wooden cabin for Clara had already been set up by the Silver Knights, who stood on guard around it.

“Come inside, both of you,” Ozul said with a fairly low voice. But Raven and Blaze weren’t very far, so they hurriedly stood up and rushed to enter the tent after hearing him.

The two of them stood side by side in front of Ozul, nervous about whatever he would be saying to them. If he had called them, it must be something important.

“Sit down,” Ozul ordered, and the duo immediately sat down without asking any questions.

“You still have more than 50 percent of that essence to absorb, right?” Ozul asked, but it was more like reminding them. The duo immediately nodded their heads as they felt the sphere of Ball of Purity containing the essence inside their body.

“Well, you will be absorbing all of it today,” Ozul dropped the bomb on the duo who looked at him with the blank faces. It seemed that they had yet to process the meaning behind his words.

.....

“What!?” Both of them shouted at the same time after they were sure about what they had heard just now.

“Just doing even a fraction of that had previously completely exhausted us! All at once now meant certain suicide!” Raven complained.

The duo still remembered how the last time they would’ve exploded if Ozul hadn’t acted fast enough.

“Don’t worry. You will have these to help you,” Ozul said while taking out two of the Elemental Seeds from the black cube.

One of them had a black color while the other was light blue. The black Seed gave released a visible black smoke out of it while the light blue one had a frosty aura around it.

The intense heat that they gave out earlier was nowhere to be seen.

“They can help with that?” Blaze asked while curiously looking at the frosty bead in Ozul’s hand.

“Well, they should be able to. As far as I’ve read, these Seeds can be used in many ways. And using it for absorbing the essence is the best way that I can think of right now,” Ozul explained everything that he understood.

Although Raven and Blaze weren’t entirely convinced, his explanation did reassure them a little.

“Hold them in your hands. You don’t need to do anything, the Seeds will work on their own,” Ozul said while handing out the Seeds to Raven and Blaze.

“That’s it? We... don’t need to swallow it or absorb it while risking that our bodies might explode at any time?” Raven asked curiously. After the previous attempts of Ozul, she did not expect that this new one would be so... harmless?

“Yes. weird, right?” Ozul agreed with her, clueless that Raven was actually referring to his methods.

“Mhm... pretty weird,” both of them nodded with their lips twitching to form a smile.

“Okay. I don’t have much time. I have to sleep after that,” Ozul urged them as the duo closed their eyes and started to concentrate.

When Ozul confirmed that the duo had all their attention on the black sphere within them, he slowly produced a small opening from its outside.

Just as he did so, the Mana inside the sphere began to rush out.

At first, it was alright. Both Raven and Blaze were easily able to redirect the Mana to their Cores before they started to separate the essence.

However, as the seconds passed, troubled expressions began to appear on the duo’s faces since the amount of Mana kept increasing. Not only did they have to continually separate the essence from the Mana but also keep directing both of them to different areas.

It was slowly getting hectic for them. A few more seconds passed, and they were already at their wits’ end. Beads of sweat started to form on their foreheads as they gritted their teeth.

They even thought that the Seeds did not work for a second, and they would probably die.

However, their worries were unfounded as the Seeds suddenly started to glow with their respective color, and their expressions returned back to normal. Ozul noticed that they looked even comfortable now!

It was all because of the Seeds. Ozul had read that the Elemental Seeds were actually something like a booster. They mostly helped the person effortlessly move the Mana inside their bodies.

While trying to breakthrough, the only problem in the Mages’ path was to have complete control over the Mana. Too quickly, they would be exhausted while directing the Mana to do so many tasks at once.

However, the Seeds were like an extra brain. Just a single thought and the Seed would control the Mana of the respective Element to do whatever the person who held it wanted.

It meant that as long as one held the Elemental Seed of his respective Element, it was only a matter of time before he advanced to Rank-8. The person then only required enough Mana, and the Seed would automatically do all the work!

Black energy from Raven’s Seed and light blue energy from Blaze’s Seed began to direct the Mana around their Core while the duo themselves focused on separating the essence from it.

After a few moments, there was no Mana left in the spheres of Ball of Purity. However, it did not cause any problem since the Seeds were taking care of that by themselves.

Ozul retracted the Ball of Purity from inside of them and sat down at a distance, keenly observing the duo. Although he had noticed that the Seeds were doing their work, anything might go out of control since they were also dealing with the essence at the same time.

After a while, Ozul could finally rest easy since it seemed that the Seed had it so under control that the Mana wasn’t even showing any signs of exploding!

It meant that he could leave the duo on their own and finally get some sleep.

Meanwhile, Raven and Blaze directed the essence to their bloodstream, ensuring that nothing went wrong in the process. The process was rapid since they did not have to divide their focus on the Mana.

——-

Outside their tent, the people had already set up their own camps. Most of them were resting while some stood on guard that some Beasts might stumble upon here.

The mercenaries also had to clean up the mess created of the Rank-6 Beasts since it would have attracted other Beasts because of the smell of blood. They were more than happy to clean them since they get to keep the Cores.

At this time, Clive had gone to meet with Rufus to discuss their plan. He quickly activated his own Magical tool, which hid his aura while he stood on a random tree.

Before long, a couple of Rank-7 Mages landed near him, followed by Rufus.

“Leader!” Clive said in a firm voice before saluting, but Rufus waved it off.

“What did you come here for? Didn’t I tell you only to meet when absolutely necessary?” Rufus asked with a stern tone.

“Yes, Leader. You’ve seen the situation. I wanted to confirm if we would be continuing with the original route and if there are any changes.” Clive answered.

“No. Follow the original route that we had planned. There will be no changes. Was it just that? Didn’t I tell you that you would be informed if there really were changes?” Rufus asked again. He did not sound particularly amused by Clive meeting up just for this.

“Well, that and... about that man, Ozul. What should I do about him?” Clive asked hesitantly, a little afraid since he was aware of his Leader’s temper.

“...Leave that man be,” Rufus said with a low voice.

“But Leader-”

“No buts. You won’t be able to force him to do your bidding when even I can’t make him do anything against what he wishes to.” Rufus did not let Clive finish and explained.

“Is there no other way?” Clive asked while looking at the ground.

“You are only allowed to persuade him with words. Don’t use any other methods, and don’t annoy him. If he doesn’t agree on anything, don’t start a fight with him. If he kills you, I am not sure if I would even be able to take your revenge,” Rufus calmly explained everything to Clive.

After hearing the last part, a shiver ran through Clive’s spine. Rufus’s words indicated that even if Ozul were to kill Clive, nothing would happen to him!

It caused Clive to be even more cautious of Ozul since it seemed that even his Leader would abandon him if he went against that monster.

“Just let him do whatever he wants. He isn’t the type to cause trouble anyway,” Rufus assured Clive after noticing his terrified expressions.

Just as Clive was about to leave, Rufus stopped him and said, “Also, make sure that no one looked for trouble with his friends either.”

“Yes, Leader!” Clive bowed before disappearing from their view.

“Get back to your positions!” Rufus shouted as the Rank-7 Mages suddenly disappeared in thin air as well.

“Elemental Seeds, huh...” Rufus muttered with a weird smile on his face.

“I wonder what his Majesty would have to say when I tell him this...” he muttered before disappearing from that area as well.