Unsealing Emptiness

“...” Ozul stared at the duo for a while, completely ignoring the sound of battles behind them. Spells flew, and people died, but the trio was unconcerned by all of this.

After a few seconds of staring at the duo who did not know what to say, Ozul sigh and muttered, “Maybe you both need a little time without me.”

He had just uttered those words when Raven and Blaze both looked up at him as if they were children and Ozul as the father was abandoning them on the streets.

“But-”

“No buts. That is final,” Ozul did not let them speak and ended the conversation. He had already wanted to travel alone for some time, and now he was convinced that he should leave them for some period since that would be better for them.

Raven and Blaze almost looked like some lost children who did not know what they would eat later at night since there was no money. However, Ozul completely ignored their pleadings and focused back on the situation.

.....

The battle continued to rage on as Rufus and the old man in white robes had moved far away from here. Their confrontations were getting stronger than before. Each strike produced a shockwave greater than the previous one. That is why Rufus was forced to shift their battle away from the other Mages.

‘It can’t go on like this!’ Rufus thought when he noticed that the cliff that everyone stood on started to have small little cracks under it. If the cracks deepened, it could make the entire cliff fall off the slope!

The only people who would be safe would be him, and the man in white since both of them were literally floating in the air. They did not need a ground to stand on at this point.

If the whole cliff fell, there wouldn’t be many who would be able to survive the fall at all.

‘Oh, right! Where is he?!’ Rufus thought, trying to find where Ozul was in all of that chaos. He was the only person who could overturn the stalemate in this situation.

However, he had yet to locate Ozul before a long thin thread of water shot from behind him. More of such strings shot from the front as well. In a battle with someone who wasn’t any weaker than him, Rufus could not afford to divert his attention for too long.

Meanwhile, Ozul was thinking of giving a hand to Rufus since if something did happen to Clara, things might change. For all he knew, Emperor Luthien could even hold his plan for him and focus on other matters at hand!

If that happened, he would have to find trouble with the Emperor by himself. If he had to do it anyway in the future, then why not give a helping hand right now keep the way things are?

When Ozul was contemplating on what to do, Rufus was still struggling to find a way to stop all of this as early as possible.

“So your old bones still have some energy left in them after all!” Rufus said while getting out the way of a water bullet so fast that it created a small explosion after hitting the ground.

“Don’t worry about my bones. They won’t decay until my hands crush yours!” The old man replied while trying to slow down the giant boulder using a water bubble.

The boulder turned into sharp-pointed rocks right after getting into contact with the water and continued shooting towards the old man. The old man disintegrated those rocks by the thin thread of water. Those strings attached with his fingers were really dangerous because of the speed the water moved with.

“Maybe there is no other way...” the old man muttered. Rufus suddenly got a bad feeling as he heard those words.

It was proved true in the next second when the old man in white robes suddenly turned around and fired hundreds of water bullets towards the cliff where the Rank-7 Mages were fighting!

Rufus had his eyes wide open as he wanted to stop that spell from hitting, but the long string of water attacked him just as he was about to help.

“You old bastard!” Rufus cursed. If that spell really hit the cliff, everyone would fall hundreds of meters down the hill! And he was sure that anyone who was not at least Rank-7 would be either dead or have life threatening injuries!

He hurriedly created a small rock shield to protect himself from the laser-like water string and then immediately cast a spell to summon a giant pillar around the cliff to protect against the water bullets.

Everything happened in the blink of an eye, and even with all of Rufus’s efforts, the giant pillar was a little too late. Most of the water bullets were blocked by it, but a few shots went and hit the cracks of the cliff.

Rufus sighed in relief because he had blocked almost all of the water bullets and the portion which hit the cliff was not enough to make it all explode.

He smiled before saying, “Heh, since when did you start relying on these cheap methods? And don’t you treasure your own subordinates?!”

“Well, you should know that there is no room for failure in my job. And please~ don’t be so smug this early~” The man in white robes replied as Rufus immediately looked towards the cliff to see if he had missed something.

Rufus had his heart thumping loudly when he saw the crack on the cliff slowly growing!

If not stopped that crack would make more than half of the cliff fall! He wouldn’t have worried so much about this if he didn’t see that Clara was standing on that side of the hill as well!

The people on the cliff did not know that the ground under them was about to fall as they continued with their fighting.

Before Rufus could inform them or do something about the situation, he was blocked by the man in white robes.

“Now now. Why are you so anxious? You know, some of my men would probably die as well,” the man said in a tone that genuinely sounded sad. It appeared that unlike his ruthless actions, he did care for his subordinates.

“Then why did you even do it, you twisted old bastard!” Rufus said before rushing at him. He hoped that he still had the time to save the situation.

“Oh don’t act all righteous Rufus. We both know that you wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice all of your subordinates either if the situation called for it,” the old man replied while not letting Rufus pass through.

Rufus gritted his teeth but did not reply since he did not have any words against that statement since it was true. This was a world ruled by the strong. If those men were really capable, then they would survive. And if they died, they would be considered as not competent enough to have been groomed later. It was just that simple.

On the cliff, only Ozul realized the growing crack under them. He looked at Clara standing at the distance being protected by Venessa and other Mages and then turned to look at the duo standing beside him.

“I guess we will meet in the Neutral Lands. Until then, stick together with Rufus,” Ozul said with a low voice.

When Raven and Blaze heard his words, they were confused as to what he meant. However, their eyes widened in realization when they remembered his earlier remarks. And to top it off, Ozul started to run towards the edge of the cliff in the next second!

They had yet to make sense of the situation when they saw a huge crack starting to form on the ground. It started from the right of the cliff and moved towards the left, separating the front half of the peak.

Only then everything clicked in their minds as they looked at Ozul’s back with shocked faces.

Meanwhile, Ozul was making his way towards Clara since the cliff was falling, and there was no one to protect her. He had already decided everything the moment he realized that there was no saving Clara from falling down because of the distance that she stood in.

When the Mages realized that half of the cliff that was closer to the edge was falling off, all of them instantly tried to jump to the other side.

However, there were more than a hundred people fighting on the cliff. In between the chaos, many of the Mages failed to reach the other side while others were pushed down by the people who were fighting with them.

Even while trying to protect Clara, Venessa and Hanry were not close enough to reach her because of the sudden commotion.

Everything happened in a matter of seconds, so most of the Mages had yet to find a stable foothold before that side of the cliff broke down and slid down!

Ozul was also on that part of the cliff since he was running towards Clara. He saw her trying her best to jump on the rocks and somehow get to the safe area, but it was too late.

Just as the boulder on which they stood broke down in pieces, he jumped towards her and covered her in the Ball of Purity before falling.

During the fall, he looked above to see Raven trying to free herself from Blaze’s hands and jump off. But Blaze had a firm grip on her as he shielded against a Mage by creating a pillar of ice...