Unsealing Emptiness

Not only Blaze but even the audience spectating from that large distance felt the waves of Mana radiating out of him.

Meanwhile, the Rank-9 Mages were all surprised.

Even Ozul didn’t understand what was happening, “This has already exceeded the power of a middle stage Rank-8...”

Hearing his conclusion, Raven was astounded, ‘Did he... somehow broke through the middle stage?!’

Many others also reached a conclusion similar to Raven, but the experienced ones could tell that such was not the case. Mikol hadn’t advanced, but they couldn’t understand what was happening with him either.

Ozul turned his head towards Old Gu with a questioning face, “What is happening with him?”

.....

Old Gu didn’t reply to his question directly and instead made an exaggerated mysterious face. After a moment passed, he said in a deep voice, “You should know it better than me, young man. After all, whatever is happening is probably because of you. Gahaha!”

‘Probably? Does that mean he isn’t sure either?’ Ozul pondered about it for a while before focusing back on the battle.

He knew that the situation was dangerous for Blaze, and he was ready to intervene at any given time to stop the battle if he deemed it necessary.

At that moment, Blaze didn’t know what was happening either, but he understood that the situation had suddenly taken a bad turn for him.

He looked at Mikol’s bloodshot eyes and felt as if he was in pain. However, he didn’t care about that right now, his thoughts raced to plan his next course of action.

‘No... I don’t have the luxury of time to think right now!’ Blaze shouted inside his mind.

He realized that if Mikol was in pain for whatever reason, it was better to attack since he might be distracted.

He instantly cast giant icicles at Mikol and rushed at him at the same time.

Although he realized that the energy Mikol released was way above his, the latter’s grisly appearance gave him a little confidence.

The giant icicles seemed to have directly hit Mikol, but it was the ice that shattered and Mikol barely took a few steps back. He had cast a light shield in front of him the moment those icicles threatened to hit him.

Blaze wasn’t fazed since those icicles were solely for distraction in the first place. The ice hadn’t fallen to the ground yet when he closed in and was just about to hit Mikol.

What he didn’t expect was a crazed look on Mikol’s face as he had already prepared a spell for him!

“!!!”

Boom!

Dirt rose all around the ground blurring everyone’s vision. All of them had seen what had just happened and almost everyone thought that Blaze was done for.

Although killing wasn’t allowed in the Tournament of Egon, the one who died wouldn’t be able to complain about the rules, would they?

The representative of the Mercenary Guild squinted his eyes. If Mikol really killed Blaze, then he would have to compensate the Three-Eyed Strangers by punishing Mikol. And that would prove to be really difficult since he was from the Church of Light.

Only when the dust started to settle did everyone notice that there were more than two silhouettes there. It meant that not only had Blaze survived, but someone had interrupted the battle! No one had seen anyone flying towards them, so it was a little surprising.

When things became clear enough, they noticed that it was actually the leader of the Three-Eyed Strangers, Ozul. The moment he had noticed that it was dangerous for Blaze, he hadn’t waited for a second before he intervened.

At this time, Blaze leaned on the hand made with the Ball of Purity since Ozul had pushed him to the side at the crucial time so the spell hit the ground instead.

And when Blaze looked at the giant crater at the place where the Spell had hit, his body involuntarily sucked in a cold breath, ‘There was no chance I could have survived that attack! Damn this crazy psychopath!’

He could help but feel angry that Mikol had used such a lethal attack. At the same time, he was thankful that Ozul had arrived at the crucial time to save him otherwise he would have been dead by now.

Although everyone in the audience was surprised by this sudden turn of events, the Rank-9 Mages were the most shocked.

They, as Rank-9 Mages, had thought that Ozul was also around their level, and maybe even a little weaker since he had recently advanced. However, just now, they weren’t even able to feel that he had moved from his seat and appeared a hundred meters away in just the blink of an eye!

Previously they had blamed the artifacts for them not being able to sense any Mana from him, but they now had some worrying thoughts running through their minds.

Could he actually be stronger than Rank-9?

All of them couldn’t help but reevaluate opinion on Ozul and the Three-Eyed Strangers.

When Ozul had suddenly disappeared, except for Old Gu who was continuously grinning from ear to ear, no one present here was able to see him because of his speed!

“Blaze forfeits the match,” Ozul spoke with a calm voice, but his words were heard clearly because of the deathly still surroundings.

Only hearing his soothing voice did everyone wake up from their stupor and the audience started to cheer loudly again. Though Ozul didn’t know who they were cheering for this time.

Right after that, the representative of the Mercenary Guild flew in the sky and acknowledged Blaze’s forfeit even when it was only Ozul who had said it.

“I, as one of the main organizers of this event, announce that the winner of this Tournament of Egon is Mikol from the Church of Light!”

He shouted in a loud voice that was amplified using some sort of artifact so everyone heard it even amidst those cheers.

Lammert’s chest rose as he threw a contemptuous smile towards every other Rank-9 Mage present there.

It wasn’t Mikol who had won, it was the Church of Light and he wouldn’t miss this chance to tell everyone who the strongest faction on this continent was!

However, his smile didn’t last long when Mikol who had been standing still just a while ago suddenly spurted a mouth full of blood!

Many of them had even yet to notice him when he also fell on the ground. Since Ozul was the closest to him, he realized that Mikol had suddenly fallen unconscious!

Following him falling, the cheers stopped and people started to murmur instead.

The representative of the Mercenary Guild also landed on the ground to check him from up close. However, he immediately stood up in shock when he noticed the state Mikol was in.

“Call for the physicians! Hurry up, he is half-dead already,” he shouted, and his subordinates immediately began to get to work.

The rest of the audience also heard his words and everyone realized how serious Mikol’s condition was.

Since Ozul was there as well, he inspected Mikol’s body without going near him and realized that he had tens of fatal internal injuries!

What surprised him was how almost every organ inside Mikol was bleeding!

His skin was so red that it almost felt like he was on fire as the sweat on his body continued to evaporate and generate steam.

‘Red skin-‘

Just then, Ozul remembered that Mikol also had bloodshot eyes. And those types of eyes with a crazed look in them were a little familiar.

‘No wonder... The Church probably gave him something created from the essence they obtained from my arm, just like how Luthien’s father directly absorbed it,’ Ozul put the pieces together and only realized it now why Old Gu had previously been saying that it was his fault and how he was special.

Ozul simply needed to look in Lammert’s direction to confirm his suspicions. The panicking expressions on the latter’s face and his emotions were all the proof that Ozul needed.

‘He already managed to create something that even someone at their level was able to handle...’ Ozul realized that he had to get his other arm as quickly as possible from the Church.

Although looking at Mikol’s condition, he wasn’t actually able to handle it perfectly, but that could also just be because of the previous hit Blaze had landed on him.

Anyway, the results of forcefully improving one’s prowess were in front of everyone. The audience didn’t know about it, but many now held suspicions since Mikol’s condition was a little peculiar.

Even when Mikol had fallen unconscious in a half-dead state, he was still the victor of the tournament that was held every fifty years only!

The representative of the Mercenary Guild again rose to the air and did a little complimentary speech for all the participants and then made a formal speech thanking all the prominent factions taking part in this event.

The audience began to leave one by one and Ozul was also about to do that. But before he could even take a single step, many of the Rank-9 Mages flew out from their seats and surrounded him.

It looked as if they were all ganging up on him, but all of them just had smiles on their faces as if they were professional merchants.

Ignoring all of them, Ozul picked up Blaze with the help of the Ball of Purity and flew away without saying a single word.

“Tch!”