Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 235: Heated battle.

Though things went better than he had expected, Ozul had one small problem.

‘How long will those things be up for...’ he thought as he looked at the Palace just a short distance away from him.

Jinx had disappeared and made it look as if she was the reason for the false alarm, and no one knew that he was inside the estate.

However, what kept him hiding in a tree was the fact that Mana had formed a thick layer of shield all around the Palace, and he also guessed that all of the defensive formations were active at the moment.

Though they didn’t know his presence, he would still have to wait here until the formations are put back to sleep again.

‘Hurry up!’ he muttered in his mind as he saw the guards run around all over the estate in search of the intruder.

The fact that they hadn’t found him already proved the fact that the formation could indeed only locate people with Mana.

.....

‘Heh... Everyone relies on Mana too much...’ Ozul muttered. Though he wasn’t complaining because the situation had also become favorable to him because of that.

After all, no one expected someone to get so strong and infiltrate their territory without a speck of Mana.

In the end, he decided to just wait and hope that whoever had the ‘controller’ of the formations quickly shut them down.

. . .

Another hour passed by, and Rufus had enough of it. He had all of the guards mobilized, and they had searched the whole estate more than twice!

And because of the formations near the Palace, the intruder had no chances to pass through. Even if they were somehow able to, it would create noises that would be hard to ignore for even normal people.

By now, he firmly believed that it was really just because of the black cat, and some sort of problem must have occurred in the formation this time for it to give a false alarm because of that small cat.

Since they didn’t find anyone, he entered the Palace to report this to the Empress.

‘The formations are up for a couple of hours now, they must have used quite a lot of resources already,’ Rufus thought as he walked inside the Palace. For some reason, none of the active formations attacked him.

“Only she can stop them...” he muttered as he made his way to the throne room.

In the absence of the Emperor, the man himself had declared that everyone, be it the Ministers or the Military Commanders, all of them had to listen to the orders of the Empress, who herself was a peak Rank-8 Mage.

Unlike other kings, Emperor Luthien had only married once and there were no concubines in the Royal Palace whatsoever.

When Rufus entered the throne room, the Empress sat at the very end of the room, on a seat just next to the Emperor’s throne.

It was a giant hall and Rufus walked halfway through before he knelt on one leg and uttered, “Your Majesty,”

“Raise,” the Empress calmly replied before Rufus stood up straight again. She then began to ask, “Where is the intruder, Sir Rufus?”

“Your Majesty...” Rufus began to explain the situation in detail and briefed the Empress with his speculation as well.

The Empress calmly listened to his every word and did not speak until he had finished.

“Continue your search, Sir Rufus. I don’t doubt your assumption, but the formations have never given a false alarm in decades. Protecting the Palace is our priority, and we have enough resources to burn a little without worrying.”

Emperor Luthien had strictly told them to not let any outsider get in the Royal Palace at all costs. And being the Royal family, they had enough resources to have the formations active for much longer than this.

‘Still, they need to quickly find the culprit. Even when I can allow wasting all these resources for now, it cannot go on for long or we might really run out when there is a real emergency,’ the Empress did not show all of these thoughts on her face.

Being the Empress of such a large kingdom, she not only had the authoritative aura but also the ability to keep up a poker face in desperate situations.

Rufus did not question her decision and only solemnly nodded his head before taking his leave. Being the Chief Leader of the Silver Knights, he was aware of many things and could guess that the Empress was worried as well.

*Sigh...*

‘Why now?!’ Rufus had been planning to spend this time training his granddaughter, and now he had to run all over the estate to find someone who might not even exist. The situation had truly managed to annoy him.

In the end, Ozul was again left hanging with the Royal Palace not deciding to take down the formations even after so much time.

——–

While all of that had happened in the Silverbird Kingdom, the people in the Neutral City all talked about the ongoing tournament.

Two separate platforms were set for the battles and since the other middle-stage Rank-8 was assigned to Raven’s ring, there were two initial stage Rank-8 in Blaze’s ring.

One of them was Clara from the Church of Light, while the other person was from the Ashin family. Leaving the rest of the people on the platform, Blaze didn’t even pay attention to these two.

Instead, he only looked on the other ring to observe the fight between Raven and the other middle-stage Rank-8 Mage.

Clara and the man from the Ashin family found his attitude irritating, but they knew that the difference between them could not be overcome by only anger.

Though they were of the same Rank, the difference in the small stages of high ranks was so overwhelming that they didn’t dare to come near Blaze at all.

Instead, both of them tacitly decided not to bother him. Not only that, they also avoided to fight each other as well and focused on finishing off the rest of the Mages on the platform.

The last three people standing in both rings would continue to the individual battles, so even if they did not defeat the other, they would still have a chance later.

Meanwhile, on the other platform, Raven solemnly stared at the brown-haired man in front of her.

The last initial stage man from the Leonhard Dynasty had been assigned to her stage, but just like Blaze, she also ignored him.

The man from the Leonhard Dynasty was sweating buckets before, but he bitterly smiled when he noticed both ‘monsters’ in his ring completely ignoring him.

Although the platform was massive, it was certainly not enough for two middle-stage Rank-8 Mages to let loose. Still, the brown-haired man and Raven planned to do just that.

Raven planned to defeat him as quickly as she could, and the man felt as if he wasn’t serious, it wouldn’t end well for him.

“Start!” They were still in a staring competition when the representative from the Mercenary Guild shouted.

His voice had yet to fade away when people started to fight each other on both platforms.

Raven immediately disappeared from her spot and slowly, particles of black smoke started appearing on the platform.

On one side, no one came near Blaze and on the other side, Raven’s fight with the brown-haired man even caused the participant from the Leonhard Dynasty to keep his distance.

No matter how much he tried to look into it, there seemed no way for him to take part in their battle. And he didn’t want to fight with all those Rank-7 Mages. So just like Blaze, he also became a spectator of their fight.

Blaze noticed how Raven immediately closed the distance between her and the brown-haired man. Meanwhile, the area all around her was gradually covered in black smoke.

“Light’s Blessing!”

A sudden shout came in from the area covered by the smoke, and a bright light started to shine from the middle of it.

Blaze looked surprised, but his surprise quickly turned into an excited smile. No matter how much time passed, his nature was still that of a battle maniac.

Though he could not see it, Raven had started to realize that it wouldn’t be so easy in the giant cloud of black smoke.

‘I underestimated the Light Element...’ she thought as she saw a small area around the brown-haired man was illuminated, making it hard for her to stealthily close in.

‘It seems I have no other choice,’ Raven thought before quickly closing in on the brown-haired man.

The dagger in her hand aimed for the man’s head, but some kind of invisible shield appeared and it created visible sparks when her dagger clashed with it.

*Clang!*

Although Raven was surprised, it did not stop her slashing the other dagger at the shield.

The first slash had already created small cracks on the shield, so the other dagger instantly shattered it.

Before Raven could again slash at the brown-haired man, the latter had readied his own spell and a bright beam of light was shot at Raven from that close distance.

With no other choice, Raven side-stepped, surprising the brown-haired man with her agility.

Just like that, both of them engaged in a heated battle with the brown-haired man not giving a single opportunity to Raven.

Currently, everyone in the arena had their focus on their cloud of black smoke except for only one individual.

Unlike others, Emperor Luthien only had that single individual on his mind who had forced him to attend the tournament.

‘According to Rufus, he had also obtained the Elemental Seeds. It is not a surprise that two of his men are middle stage Rank-8...’ Luthien thought. He hadn’t told Lammert about the seeds since he wanted them for himself.

He was still in contemplation when it started to get dark and suddenly, a ring on his hand shone, making him stand up in alarm.