Unsealing Emptiness

“That... There are some political struggles, and we want to be as anonymous as possible. And there are some other things that I cannot explain.” Clive lied without batting an eye.

Whatever excuse he made, there was no way for the mercenaries to confirm his statement.

Clive was helpless himself. He had gotten his orders, and he couldn’t go against them. All he could do was to make lame excuses and somehow convince everyone that they really did not have any choice.

Ozul looked suspiciously at Clive and moved his eyes to the trees far in the distance from here he felt the anxious emotions from. He could only shake his head, ‘So they are expecting things to happen at the Dividing Mountains...’

Only when he put some thoughts into the matter did it start to make sense to him.

If they entered a famous City now, there would be almost no suitable place for an ambush. And even if it did, there would be too many eyes on the situation, and these people probably wanted to avoid anyone else getting a word about all of this.

.....

“And why do you ca-” Blaze was about to add something else, but he stopped in the middle of his sentence when Ozul motioned him from the side.

*Cough.*

Clive faked a cough before saying, “So, since everyone agrees, we shouldn’t waste any more time here.”

He urged the group to hurry up since debating anymore would only make things difficult for him. The mercenaries did not have much to say since they were told beforehand that Clive was their leader. They couldn’t disobey his direct orders.

The Dividing Mountains were at the Northwest from the convoy’s location, while they would be walking towards Fer City if they advanced straight towards North.

The mercenaries all had their guards up again since although the Dividing Mountains were not as dangerous as the Old Whispering Woods, it was a mostly unexplored area.

These Dividing Mountains were named as such because there was a huge desert on the other side of this mountain range!

On this side, there was all lush green, while the creatures on the other side longed to see greenery in the burning desert. That is why it was named The Dividing Mountains since they divided such contrasting locations.

People passed by these mountains when they wanted to enter the desert on the other side. There weren’t many people who had tried to explore this area. That is why it was dangerous to travel in. There could be very well tens of unknown places that could endanger their lives.

That is why the mercenaries did not like the idea of traveling through the Dividing Mountains when they had a safer route instead.

Ozul figured that they wanted to use this mountain range to lure the rats out since it was a perfect place for such things. Because of the tall cliffs, it got easier for people to ambush.

People might not even realize before tens of men suddenly drop from the sky, surrounding the whole group. And it seemed that this was exactly the reason for them to choose this location.

As the group walked towards the Dividing Mountains, they had the same formation as they did in the jungle with the trio again in the last of the group.

There weren’t any trees around them, but they had to climb off quite many cliffs to get down and follow the path to the mountain range.

Half a day passed before they actually got to the mountains. They could only see them at a little distance, but it seemed that unless they sped their pace, reaching the mountains before the day ended was impossible.

Fortunately, Clive was dealing with men with even the weakest ones as Rank-5 Mages! They could handle themselves by walking a little faster than before.

A few hours later, they could already feel their altitude increasing as their surroundings got more rocky and less green. But it did not mean that there were no trees at all. It was just that compared to before in the Old Whispering Woods, the number of trees seemed to be nonexistent.

One main route was not even mentioned, but people understood it since the track was visible to the naked eye. If anyone really passed by here, they would walk on this specific track.

So the group followed the track as well since Clive led them in that direction.

Before it got dark, the group found themselves in a place surrounded by high hills. It was like a canyon between two different hills. This was exactly the type of dangerous place to travel in since anyone could appear any minute without them expecting anything.

That is also why the mercenaries were all on their toes. They were alerted even when someone created a different sound while walking suddenly!

Luckily for the group, they had yet to encounter the Beasts. Heck, they hadn’t met any other living creature except for them in this location!

Although Ozul had a different opinion on this topic since he was the only one to have sensed all the eyes on their group.

And just as about anyone expected, they were all from above the group. But everyone else in the convoy was unaware since they were not strong enough to detect those presences.

Ozul shifted his focus to the cliff far back in the distance since that is the place where he felt Rufus and his men hide when they noticed the presence that he had felt.

‘With their numbers, do they still need planning?’ Ozul thought with a scoff, but he had to change his mind the next second when he felt someone just as strong as Rufus in the distance!

Their track slowly rose in altitude since the two hills on both of their sides seemed to be reduced in height as they proceeded further.

For now, both the teams hidden around did not make any move, and Ozul wasn’t sure of how much they were aware of each other.

From this distance, he noticed that they were about to reach a point where there wouldn’t be any hills on either side of them. Without informing others, Ozul casually followed the group.

He only motioned towards Raven and Blaze to stay alert when he sensed the tension in the air.

It looked like the new group wasn’t sure about showing themselves, but Ozul knew better with all the bloodthirsty intents thrown at the convoy.

Slowly, Raven and Blaze felt the tension as well. Following them, everyone started to up their guard, expecting some wild Beast to appear in their path. Although they were all alert, no one was ready to face an ambush against professional assassins!

Just as the group had reached the spot where the hills did not surround them from either side, a gentle wind blew and hit people’s faces, sending chills behind their backs.

A few of them shivered as they noticed how just a single step to their right would make them fall hundred of meters down! There were only trees down below them!

The mercenaries hurriedly stepped to their left and avoided that area.

This part of the mountain range was the most dangerous since they needed to be careful at almost all the time. Although there was enough space for tens of people to stand on the left, you never know what could cause you to run to the right in this unexplored mountain range.

*Swish*

Unfortunately for the convoy, they did not have any time to catch their breath before the wind blew again. But this time, it was sharper and brought along many unexpected people. The convoy found themselves surrounded by men, wearing black clothes from head to toes, leaving only the space for eyes.

However, if one looked at Ozul, Clive, Clara, Hanry, and Venessa, they would realize that all of this wasn’t unexpected either. Most of the people here seemed to be expecting this!

Only the mercenaries and the duo were shocked, getting surrounded by people in all black. The first thought in their minds was that they were some sort of bandits. But the notion of them being simple bandits quickly disappeared as they gauged their prowess.

All of them were Rank-7 Mages!

It had to be noted that the convoy only had three Rank-7 Mages in total. And all these men surrounding them were also rank-7 Mages! They could not imagine how this even made any sense!

They had yet to figure out their situation when another sharp wind blew, and as people blinked, there was another set of people appearing behind the people in all black. This new set of men also wore black, but they all had their heads exposed and not covered like the other ones.

The biggest difference between these men was that they targeted the men in black instead of them!

Each of them had their hands behind the people in all black, threatening not to make any move if they did not want to die.

*Swish*

The next second, everyone saw Rufus appearing near the group. He did not even look at the convoy and had his eyes set at the distant cliff.

“Have you enjoyed it enough from there?” Rufus spat with venom practically oozing out of his tone. Although Ozul had thought that there weren’t many things that could surprise him anymore, this change in Rufus’ way of speech was new to him.

“Of course not~ Watching from up here is not exactly fun you see~...”