Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 247: Return.

As the Mercenary Guild had proposed, the three initial stage Rank-8 Mages had also agreed to have their battle separated from the middle stage ones.

The result for their battles was also already announced with the Ashin family winning the first position, Leonhard Dynasty placed at second, and Clara from the Church was placed at last among the initial stage Rank-8 Mages.

Needless to say, they were in the fourth, fifth, and sixth position respectively in the overall tournament.

For ranking the participants, the Mercenary Guild had set up a rather crude method.

Since there were only three left, the three of them were required to draw lots and whoever got a matching one would have to fight first. The winner of that battle would then fight the remaining participant.

And if the remaining participant won that battle, he would automatically be ranked as first even when he or she hadn’t fought with the loser of the previous battle.

As such, this method didn’t really guarantee whoever was first to be the strongest of all of the participants, but the Mercenary Guild had no choice because they had to end the tournament today.

.....

Many of the high ranked officials from the biggest factions were present here, and none of them wanted to waste so much time here in the tournament. All of them had many more important matters to deal with.

Since everyone had the same opinion, the Mercenary Guild could only set up this method to end the tournament in two battles between the three middle stage Rank-8 Mages.

It had been a while since the day started, so Raven, Blaze, and the brown-haired man from the Church of light named Mikol had already drawn the lots.

Much to Raven and Blaze’s dismay, the first match was between them!

Both of them instead wanted to fight with Mikol, and now their only chance to fight with him depended on who won among them.

A fire burned in both of their eyes as they stared at each other. Previously, they would aim to win for their own satisfaction, but now they wanted to win because both of them wanted to be the person who would battle Mikol.

It was precisely their battle that had gotten the atmosphere so heated even when there was Ice splattered everywhere.

Raven had come a long way from before and knew better than to hold herself back against Blaze now.

“You already fought with him before, give me a chance now!” Blaze shouted while surrounding Raven with giant ice walls.

Crack!

As if those huge ice walls were just some thin and fragile glass, Raven came out of them, scattering the pieces of ice everywhere.

There were visible signs of exhaustion on Raven’s body. She breathed roughly and there was even a few shallow cuts on her left arm, but she continued to attack Blaze.

“Ha... I didn’t have enough time!” she shouted and casted a Spell that caused dark smoke to start surrounding Blaze’s body.

When Blaze noticed the smoke covering him, he also felt a tiny bit of depletion in his Mana pool without him even moving a muscle!

“Why do you create such troublesome spells, Raven!” Blaze couldn’t help but express his annoyance.

Although he jumped away, the smoke dispelled from its original place and appeared from under his feet again!

Blaze couldn’t help but curse under his breath, but he didn’t lose composure and instead focused on Raven. Such an annoying spell was causing a huge drain in her Mana pool as well, and it became apparent when he noticed that she continued to chant silently.

He had just thought that he might be able to win if only he continued to stall for time and evade this Mana sucking black smoke, but his plans were short-lived because Raven started to rush towards him as well!

“Monster! How can you chant two spells at the same time!?” Blaze noticed that even when the black smoke continued to follow him, Raven also casted her spell that created blades and to make the matter worse, she herself decided to join in.

Raven smirked and looking at that smirk, Blaze couldn’t help but grind his teeth.

She had learned to cast two spells at the same time long ago, but hadn’t ever used it in battle because it took her all of her focus.

Now, she wasn’t going to hold back anymore.

Even when she fought with Mikol yesterday, she had made the mistake of not giving it her all from the very start that had later frustrated her to no end.

Learning from her mistake yesterday, Raven didn’t seem to be holding back now.

Floating blades attacked Blaze in the air, the black smoke would start to form whenever Blaze stopped at a place, and Raven herself closed in the distance. Blaze was pretty much screaming inside his mind.

However, he still had more Mana. And unlike Raven, he wasn’t exhausted.

As he was being surrounded, he erected a pillar of ice under him that sent him flying in the air, and from there, he cast a spell that created strong chilly winds that kept the smoke from developing again.

The blizzard that would make people’s blood run cold only interrupted Raven’s attack.

But she quickly got used to the cold and continued to chase Blaze.

What she didn’t expect was that Blaze didn’t stay on the defensive like before. He created two ice walls and both of them closed in on Raven at a speed that threatened to crush her in between.

Raven realized that she had to move away, but her path was blocked by Blaze who attacked her with ice shards from all sides.

Thud!

The ice walls slammed together and it looked as if Raven was flattened between them!

Only when Blaze moved the walls away did everyone see Raven’s unconscious figure fall on the ground with the ice walls having a visible print of her.

‘ha... she will kill me later,’ Blaze took a deep breath, but also remembered that he would pay dearly for what he had done today, probably for the rest of his life.

He knew best that the walls wouldn’t really kill Raven because her physical strength even surpassed his.

“Urgh...” Raven’s body squirmed as she groaned in pain just a few meters away from Blaze.

When Blaze noticed this, he didn’t know where to hide himself. The battle would not end unless one was unconscious for more than just a few seconds or one admitted defeat.

He knew more than anyone how stubborn Raven’s personality was. She would probably continue to attack him and stretch this battle even longer.

Just then, the representative of the Mercenary Guild appeared in the air above them and asked, “Do you wish to continue?”

His question was only directed towards Raven since she was the one on losing end.

Not only Blaze, but many others also guessed that Raven wouldn’t give up.

Raven didn’t answer him right away and first stood up. Just when she was about to say something, another voice sounded from afar,

“She gives up. Blaze is the winner.”

A couple of people wanted to refute whoever spoke so brazenly, but Raven’s head immediately followed the direction from which the voice came from and noticed Ozul in the air, with an unknown old man floating behind him.

Not only her, but everyone’s eyes fell at his figure. All of them except for a few wondered his identity.

Only when Irvin came rushing towards him and bowing to him did they put the pieces together and made out his identity as the mysterious leader of the new organization named Three-Eyed Strangers!

Suddenly, all the Rank-9 Mages started probing him since it was their first time seeing the ‘new Rank-9 Mage’ with their own eyes.

Those who previously knew Ozul were even more astonished than others. Especially those who were close to him.

Raven seemed to instantly forget her defeat as a smile blossomed on her face when she noticed that he now had a real arm instead of that prosthetic one on his left.

Those who still hadn’t realized Ozul’s identity in the audience or just weren’t interested enough were now all looking at Raven instead.

Unknown to her, though she didn’t look like it, her smiling face would charm even the coldest of men.

Blaze also smiled proudly, charming the woman just as Raven had charmed the men. Though there were some who had opposite preferences, they were captivated nonetheless.

In other’s eyes, it was as if they smiled because it had been a long time since they met him, but only a few knew the reason.

In one of the special seats, Alver couldn’t help but show a small smile as well. He tried not to, but he couldn’t stop himself. Ozul was his nephew after all.

Everyone only got out of their stupor when Ozul, under Irvin’s lead, went back to his designated seat.

While everyone’s eyes followed his figure, they couldn’t help but wonder about the identity of the weird old man flying behind him because the old man hadn’t once stopped smiling.

Raven was also about to follow behind him, but before that, she turned around and looked at the representative of the Mercenary Guild and said, “I give up.”

She didn’t care about that right now. Losing another match from Blaze wasn’t as big of a deal as Ozul finally getting his arm back.

As she made her way towards Ozul, the representative of the Mercenary Guild announced, “The winner is Blaze, also from the Three-Eyed Strangers! The next match between Mikol and him will start after 2 hours!”

With his announcement, Blaze also made his way towards Ozul. These two hours were for him to recover his stamina and Mana.

While everyone was either delighted or curious with Ozul’s appearance, one Rank-9 Mage was boiling from inside...