Unsealing Emptiness

Even when the previous room had suffered that blast, this new one seemed completely unscathed.

What intrigued Ozul was the lines of methodically arranged desks. On top of those desks were lab equipment.

There were chemicals, different artifacts, and even the materials from the Magical Beasts lying around the room. From the looks of it, there had been people working here before.

Ozul tried to sense everything around him, but he didn’t feel anyone’s presence.

‘Have they also been experimenting on my arm?!’

No matter what, he could never stand the thought of his arms being pierced by needles and experimented with all kinds of substances.

.....

The fact that the Church of Light had already started using his arm for creating the healing potions had already angered him enough.

Ozul didn’t know if he would ever be able to find out about his existence or not, but he was sure of one thing; he would never forgive the bastards who did all those experiments on his arms!

Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he focused back on the task at hand. He would only be able to take his revenge if he was strong enough. After all, the Church of Light supposedly had a Rank-10 protecting them.

He didn’t notice anything of importance in the room and at once started to look around to find the entrance to the next door.

When he found the seemingly common wooden door, he was about to open it, but he felt something off about it. Not taking any risk, he retreated at a safe distance before extending the Ball of Purity to open the door.

It was unusual because he felt a coat of Mana covering the entire door. Even when he put more force, the door didn’t budge from its position. That could only mean that whatever was behind the door, it was precious enough that they even had to inscribe a formation on the door.

He knew that by now, people would already be coming for him, but he didn’t care as long as it was not anyone at Rank-9. And only Emperor Luthien was a Rank-9 Mage in the Silverbird Kingdom, so he didn’t need to worry about anyone interfering.

Still, Ozul made haste and the floating liquid Ball of Purity all of a sudden shrank to a solid sharp blade and slashed at the door.

He expected the door to have turned into half by now but to his surprise, there was only a small cut that appeared on the wooden door!

‘This might be it!’ Ozul thought eagerly. Although he wasn’t serious with that slash before, it was strong enough to cut any Rank-8 Mage!

And the door had received that attack like there was just a child playing with a kitchen knife! Such a sturdy door would definitely only be guarding the most precious thing the Royal Palace had.

He had already gone to the supposed treasury of the Palace, and that place did not have a safety measure that could even come close to this.

The excitement of at last getting one of his arms back took over and he released all of the Ball of Purity to create multiple sharp blades.

This time, he put all of his force in it, and all the floating blades simultaneously slashed at the wooden door.

When the dust settled, Ozul was again surprised to see that the door was still standing!

Although, the wooden door now had a deep hole in it as if a magical cannon was fired at it.

The door didn’t look like it from one side, but it was a little too thick for a normal wooden door.

This did not stop him from continuing to attack it though.

Just like that, he had to attack it two more times before the seemingly ‘normal’ door fell.

‘Hm?’

When Ozul peeked inside the next room, he noticed it wasn’t a room. It was more accurate to call it a giant hall instead.

Even the word hall didn’t do it any justice because it looked too big for a hall as well.

Since that was the case, giant white pillars had to support the ceiling. Otherwise, it would all fall down.

But except for the white pillars, all Ozul saw was the uneven walls around him and the raised platform made of white marble in the middle of the hall. He couldn’t see what was on the platform because of its height.

‘What is this place...?’ he wondered as he stepped inside and looked around.

Seeing that the raised platform was the only thing that stood out in the giant hall, Ozul approached it with steady steps.

As he got closer to the raised platform, a sudden heavy feeling took over his heart. Maybe it was just anticipation or excitement? Ozul didn’t care about that right now.

His pace increased as he neared the platform.

‘Finally...’

His nonexistent heart throbbed as various thoughts ran through his mind.

In his excitement, Ozul forgot to examine the platform.

Because just when he was a few meters away from it, an invisible weight descended on him all of a sudden.

‘What is this?!’ he instantly stopped at the spot and cautiously looked around him.

Ozul was still confused when a voice followed the pressure,

“Who are you boy?”

Ozul widened his eyes in alarm and jumped back to take a defensive stance. He didn’t expect another person to be in this giant hall because it was so empty and quiet. Moreover, the voice came from above the platform.

He didn’t have the time to think that the voice sounded croaky and almost ancient. Since the giant hall was empty, the voice echoed throughout.

“Ho? Didn’t you hear me? Hah, forget about it. It doesn’t matter who you are. Tell me what you are doing here, boy!”

The old voice changed his question, but Ozul remained on guard. Until the enemy was in sight, he didn’t dare to relax.

When he spread his senses above the platform, he only felt a single presence there. What made him take another few steps back was how strong that individual felt!

Because that person wasn’t using his Mana, he could not accurately determine that person’s rank, but one thing Ozul could confirm was the fact that the individual was above Rank-8.

Countless questions popped in his head like why there was another Rank-9 Mage inside the Royal Palace of the Silverbird Kingdom, but he put them aside for now.

Ozul didn’t know who the person was, but he slowly started to siphon away small parts of the Ball of Purity and spread them as far as he could from himself to prepare for the inevitable fight.

“... It seems like he won’t answer. Hmm... I wouldn’t have let him get away anyway,” the individual on the platform muttered to himself. But his murmurs were clear enough for Ozul to hear in the silent hall.

“I am looking for the arm,” Ozul eventually decided to speak up.

But he was surprised at the reaction of the other person at his words because that individual suddenly released an even greater pressure!

Following that, the figure of an old man with a long white beard appeared at the edge of the platform. The beard was so long that it almost reached his feet.

The old man wore white robes without any fancy symbols or embroidery.

What Ozul found odd in the old man was his reddened eyes. He could clearly see the blood-red veins popping on the eyeballs.

The otherwise gentle appearance of the old man was instantly destroyed because of those unusually red eyes and his overly wrinkled face.

Like a madman addicted to alcohol, the old man began to shout, “That arm is mine! Who are you to take it from me?!”

Ozul’s mind omitted the part of the old man acting insane, and instead focused on the fact that he did know about the arm!

“Where is my arm!?” Ozul asked, raising his own voice.

“... Your arm?” the half-insane old man paused at his words and looked at him with a tilted head. His eyes examined Ozul’s figure and noticed the two metallic prosthetics in place of real arms.

“They are yours? Hahaha! So you are that Devil’s Spawn!” Suddenly, the old man started to laugh and continued,

“That damn brat could not bring you to me earlier, and now you decided to come here yourself? Hahaha! Good! No one can stop me from becoming a real Rank-10 now!”

His words caused an uneasy feeling to wash over Ozul. He didn’t completely understand what the old man was saying, but the bits he understood made him a little apprehensive.

What cleared his doubts was the thing that happened next.

The old man released all of his Mana and the whole hall began to tremble. Pieces of small rocks started to float from the ground and concentrated at a single point.

‘This...’ Ozul was speechless at the sheer pressure from that Mana. But he had felt something similar like this before!

‘It is almost like that time...’ the time when the monster he had fought before was rapidly increasing its strength and advancing to Rank-10!

Ozul started to examine the old man’s strength, ‘...Rank-10? No... but he is above Rank-9. Did he... somehow get stuck in between?’

It turned out that the old man was half-step in Rank-10!

But what made Ozul hold his breath was the transparent box of glass that floated behind the old man...