Unsealing Emptiness

Those four guards of the girl would have noticed if he did so. Hence, Raven took it upon herself to make it so that even if he wasn’t entirely protecting the girl, he would at least be close enough that would make Kenzie at least grateful that he was there helping his daughter.

As he would occasionally glance in her direction, even Blaze was surprised at her control of the situation.

Due to the City Lord occasionally sending his soldiers to clear the number of Beasts in that area, there weren’t many Beasts in the tide, to begin with. While two guards always remained by the girl’s side, two were also killing the Beasts along with Kone.

The number of Beasts quickly declined under their combined onslaught.

‘... I think this is enough,’ Blaze thought as he was about to signal Raven to leave the situation on its own now.

*...thump*

.....

Just as he was going to retreat, his heart skipped a beat.

Just like him, Raven also suddenly paused.

Both of them quickly turned their head towards a single direction, from which they felt a sudden sense of threat.

They weren’t even able to retreat when a blurry figure appeared in their sight. Though the figure quickly became clear and before long, a tall man with shoulder-length brown hair was floating above them.

*Rumble!*

The clouds rumbled, lightning slithering around the clouds like a hungry snake.

The man’s eyes first located the innocent-looking girl in the crowd. He sighed in relief upon seeing that she was alright and being protected by the two guards and another unknown man from the Beasts.

Next, he stared down at the two Rank-8 Mages who were found in the middle of this commotion that threatened to harm his precious daughter.

Countless thoughts ran through his head. He quickly noticed that all the Beasts concentrated on this single location. It shortly became obvious that someone was manipulating these Beasts.

Considering that his daughter was also present on the scene, he reached the conclusion that these two masked Mages were targeting his daughter.

Having come to this conclusion in that split second, Kenzie roared,

“HOW DARE YOU HARM MY DAUGHTER?!”

His voice was enough to pressure all those present there. If it wasn’t for him controlling his Mana, even his daughter might have been harmed.

At this moment, everyone on the ground also realized their presence since there were almost no Beasts alive by now.

Unlike others, Kone wasn’t only shocked but also apprehensive. But his years of experience didn’t allow him to act stupid. He continued to pretend to be an innocent bystander and mimicked others’ expressions.

Raven and Blaze looked at each other and even with their masks, both could tell that the other had worried expressions.

Just as they were about to leave, the situation turned upside down with Kenzie’s presence. They didn’t care about how he caught the wind of this now.

Both gravely nodded at each other and stared back at Kenzie.

A battle was inevitable now.

Mana flared from their bodies as they slowly began retreating towards the forest, still facing Kenzie.

Thinking that they were trying their luck in running away, Kenzie snorted but slowly followed them nonetheless.

He didn’t want to battle them here since his daughter was still on the scene.

Both parties slowly moved away from the teahouse, unaware that another set of eyes were spectating everything...

. . .

-A few minutes earlier-

Ozul suddenly opened his eyes and looked outside the window only to see a horde of Beasts attacking the tall tower.

Just yesterday, he had found this city and rented a room in the first hotel he found. Before inquiring about his location, he decided to take a nap.

The nap lasted for the whole day and it might have gone on until another day if not for the surges of familiar Mana he felt outside.

His hotel wasn’t any far from the giant building; even a normal human could hear those screeches and howls of the Beasts, much less him.

His tired face released a sigh as he tiredly walked out of the hotel and noticed that it was indeed Raven and Blaze in the middle of the Beasts.

Yet another sigh escaped his lips as he internally cursed his luck, ‘Tch! Why did I just have to encounter them in the first city that I found?’

It would have been nice if he could just get another week or two of sleep.

But this dream would just be a dream... at least for now.

He wanted to go back to the hotel and pretend that he never noticed them, but the presence of Rank-9 Mage speeding towards them made him think otherwise.

Ozul had quickly realized that the duo was creating the trouble first, so he didn’t directly jump in to help them.

Instead, he waited to see how they would react to this situation where they had no chances of winning.

‘They really think they might be able to get away... sigh...’ Ozul internally sighed, noticing the flaring Mana from the duo.

Raven and Blaze had never experienced it before, but Ozul knew that the difference between a Rank-8 and Rank-9 was not to be compared with the difference between Rank-6 and Rank-7.

Unless some peak Rank-8 Mages were overly talented and had some powerful artifacts, they had no hopes of even competing with a Rank-9 Mage much less defeating them.

Ozul watched as both sides slowly retreated towards the forest.

He silently followed behind them but remained unnoticed.

Just when Kenzie realized that it was a safe distance from his daughter, his hand jerked, and two giant pillars of rocks were erected to block Raven and Blaze.

“I will ask you this only once, who sent you?!” Kenzie yelled. His expressions scrunched up in anger just at the thought of someone wanting to assassinate his daughter.

He even exerted his Mana on Raven and Blaze but all he received in the response was two masked Mages warily staring at him.

“I expected as much. No matter, I will get my answers once I am done with you...” Kenzie calmed his voice, but it only sounded more ominous. A vicious smile was plastered on his face.

A look at him was enough for Ozul to understand that he wasn’t going to give any chance to Raven and Blaze.

‘It’s surprising that this man can hold off on instantly killing them... Ha... If I wasn’t here, this might have been their end,’ Ozul shook his head at the duo’s foolishness.

He didn’t know why they had to provoke someone like this.

Ozul could tell at a glance that even among Rank-9 Mages, this man would be a top-grade expert.

‘They should have just used the opportunity earlier,’ thought Ozul.

In his opinion, they had already lost the only option to escape alive the moment they lured this man here in the forest from the teahouse.

Since he was sensitive to emotions, Ozul knew that Kenzie didn’t want to start a battle there. Holding anyone hostage from there should have worked.

What Ozul didn’t know was that his thoughts were spot on. Raven and Blaze could have easily taken Kenzie’s daughter hostage. Even if they weren’t able to react in time, threatening to unleash their spells right there should have made Kenzie retreat.

“Human morals huh...” he muttered slowly. No one understood Raven and Blaze more than him since he was constantly aware of their emotions as well.

For a moment, a smile pressed to form on his face but sadly it never happened.

He was only pleased that his involvement hadn’t completely changed their personality.

He wondered if he could have such humane values.

Although he had shown kindness many times before, Ozul knew that if he were ever in a perilous situation, he would always choose to protect himself first.

‘... I never understood myself,’ Ozul sighed for the fourth time today.

People of higher Ranks would usually just toy with their enemies, but the killing intent released from Kenzie’s body woke Ozul up from his thoughts. It was apparent that he was planning to kill one of the masked Mages.

‘I thought I wouldn’t have had to intervene for at least a couple of minutes,’ Ozul thought before he slowly floated above the ground with the help of the Ball of Purity.

Unfortunately, he didn’t expect his presence to be so low that even when he was floating at the same level as them, none of them noticed him.

Ice spikes slowly formed around the duo and black smoke rose all around the area.

On the other hand, an oppressive pressure descended because of Kenzie as he was just about to chant his Spell.

“That’s enough.”

None of the participants of the battle bothered to speak anything useless so the sudden voice of Ozul jolted them awake.

“Hm?”

“Eh!?”

“Uh...”

All three exclaimed with dumb expressions.

It was a little shocking that they failed to notice a man wearing a pointed hat, floating just a few meters away from them!

Kenize immediately went on high alert, but the duo couldn’t help but be pleasantly surprised. Their masks helped hide their dumbfounded faces.

.....

“Ozu-” Raven was about to speak but she realized that they weren’t supposed to reveal their identities and barely stopped herself midway.

“Who are you brat?!” Kenzie shouted in anger. Though only Ozul realized that he was a little anxious through his emotions.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. What matters is that you should go back, leave them alone now...”