Unsealing Emptiness

The Mercenary Guild had asked the Leonhard Dynasty this time to lend their battle arena to conduct the fights.

The people from the Leonhard Dynasty loved fighting, and so they had built a giant arena in their area just for the sake of battles.

The Leonhard Dynasty didn’t mind lending their arena since they were also a part of the organizers.

The battle arena was named ‘The Leo Colosseum’ with two stone statues of lions placed at the entrance. The arena was giant, enough to accommodate as many people that could make it there.

What overjoyed the general public was the fact that they didn’t need to purchase tickets at all; that was how giant the arena built by the Leonhard Dynasty was.

However, not everyone joined. Not because they could not make it, but because they were aware that they wouldn’t be able to bear the pressure released by all the big shots there.

.....

However, all the organizations were still present. Those, invited personally by the Mercenary Guild, had seats built especially for them. However, only those of Rank-9 would sit there.

The rest, no matter how important, had to stand beside them or take a seat with the rest of the crowd.

The cheery atmosphere at one side and the competitive air at the other foreshadowed the intense competition that was soon to follow.

Starting from the sunrise, people began to make their way to the arena. After some time, the factions began to join as well.

The special seats weren’t all placed together. They were grouped into five and placed in the four opposite corners of the arena. A total of 20 seats indicated that 20 Rank-9 Mages would come to watch the finals!

The first Rank-9 Mage to enter caused the entire colosseum to turn silent. The raw aura people felt caused a few to stand up and leave the stadium. They were the ones who weren’t smart enough to realize their human limits and joined without considering the fact that they weren’t even Rank-3 Mages or Fighters.

Although the seats for the Rank-9 were placed at a notable distance from the rest, the Rank-9 Mage who had entered did not hold down his aura, so all Mages or Fighters under Rank-3 were bound to feel suffocated.

Following that Rank-9’s entry, others started to join as well. Some of them were from the prominent kingdoms while the others were the Sect leaders.

The 20 seats had the name of each Rank-9 Mage written on its back. Just an hour later, 15 of those seats were occupied.

All of these 15 Rank-9 Mages eyed each other like vicious enemies. Though some of them were allies, no one would openly admit any alliance.

Their contest of stares caused the atmosphere to get heavier. To the point where most of the audience started to pray for the matches to start soon.

As if Gods had listened to their prayers and took pity on them, the representative from the Mercenary Guild entered the colosseum. Following his entry, Elsug the Emperor of the Leonhard Dynasty, Lammert the Archbishop of the Church of Light, and Alver the head of the Ashin family entered one by one.

Except for the other Rank-9 Mages, everyone in the arena had to hold their breath since these four didn’t bother to hold back their aura either.

These four were the organizers of the event and also the strongest factions in the whole continent.

One thing that could be taken into account was also that the Mercenary Guild wasn’t participating in the tournaments like previously.

Meanwhile, the other three big factions each had at least one Rank-8 Mage participating. But the Church had somehow gotten the lead with two Rank-8 Mages. One of them was also in the middle stage!

This fact caused Emperor Elsug and the Alver to direct their suspicious glares towards Archbishop Lammert, who purposely ignored their stares.

Previously, a single Rank-8 Mage participating was a big deal. Even this time around, the Leonhard Dynasty, the Ashin family, and the Church had thought such to be the case and thought that they would be the winners.

However, not only did the Church manage to get a Rank-8 Mage in the middle stage under the age limit, but the real cause of everyone’s shock wasn’t them.

Instead, the real dark horse of the tournament turned out to be the newly famous organization Three-Eyed Strangers with two of their participants in the middle stage of Rank-8!

Everyone moved their eyes towards the only seat remaining that hadn’t been occupied yet. The tournament was about to begin, but the leader of the Three-Eyed Strangers had yet to arrive.

It displeased many of the Rank-9 Mages, including Emperor Luthien and Archbishop Lammert who were enraged that Ozul hadn’t arrived yet.

However, the rest had all of their attention focused on the two people standing behind the seat together with Irvin, commonly known as the butler of the man leading the Three-Eyed Strangers.

Raven and Blaze weren’t pressured with all the stares. Instead, they stood proud that they were here representing Ozul. This allowed them to gain unusual confidence even when the Rank-9 Mages were constantly staring at them.

Everyone had previously been wondering how the Church was able to cultivate one of their members to the middle stage of Rank-8, but now they were baffled at the fact that the Three-Eyed Strangers had two of such people!

Emperor Elsug squinted his eyes at the seat which was reserved for the leader of the Three-Eyed Strangers while Alver was about to laugh out aloud seeing everyone’s reaction but promptly stopped himself from making a blunder.

Meanwhile, Archbishop Lammert clenched his fist. His thoughts differed from others, ‘I am sure it is because of that Devil Child! If I could do so much with just a hand, cultivating two of them shouldn’t have been a big deal... I should have made a move sooner...’

Lammert moved his eyes from Raven and Blaze to the middle staged Rank-8 Mage who represented the Church of Light.

When he looked towards Emperor Luthien, he was met with the questioning gaze of the latter, asking him why he was forced to attend when Ozul hadn’t bothered to.

He could only shake his head since he didn’t know anything either.

Fortunately for them, the representative from the Mercenary Guild also noticed the absence of the Three-Eyed Strangers’ leader and sent his man to question Irvin.

At this point, the representative of the Mercenary Guild wanted to announce the start of the tournament, but he thought of asking about Ozul first. No matter how much he didn’t like his guts, the latter was still a Rank-9 Mage.

When Irvin noticed an old man at the peak of Rank-8 approaching him, he wasn’t confused. He knew that in such a big arena and only 20 seats for the Rank-9 Mages, the absence of Ozul would be questioned.

‘Thank god, I discussed it with the family head earlier...’ Irvin thought inside his mind as he motioned Raven and Blaze not to speak.

Irvin had only realized that this situation would occur after Ozul had left for the Silverbird Kingdom. So the only person whom he could ask questions to was the Ashin family.

He also needed to discuss the matter of the Church being able to use Artifacts to boost its participants’ strength. So, he immediately made his way to their estate and informed Alver of everything.

Alver had told him to not worry about Ozul’s absence because they wouldn’t say anything to him. At most, the Mercenary Guild would only question the reason.

What had delighted him the most was that Alver had also given two artifacts for Raven and Blaze!

Both of them helped the two to keep up their stamina. Also, he informed that the Church would have only a similar artifact for its participants. They looked only like simple pendants.

The artifact allowed their Spells to be cast without needing as much Mana as they originally required by providing its own Mana. It helped Mages a great deal because they could use the additional Mana to protect themselves or create more Spells.

The only drawback of this artifact was that they couldn’t use too much Mana from it. If the Mages didn’t keep their own Mana output to at least 90% in their Spells, the Spells would break down.

But even this 10% made the Mages using this artifact get an edge in the fight. Especially if their Spells consumed a great deal of Mana.

The only thing that had caused Irvin’s mood to drop was the fact that Raven and Blaze refused to use the artifact. Both of them wanted to prove themselves to Ozul with their own strength.

‘They can prove themselves later... can’t they just use it once for the tournament?!’ Irvin thought. Since the use of such artifacts were allowed, not using them was foolish in his opinion.

Shaking these thoughts from his mind, Irvin focused on the old man who came to ask him about Ozul.

“May I ask you why the Three-Eyed Strangers’ leader is absent?” the old man asked with a polite tone and no expressions on his face whatsoever.

“Haha... you see, he got busy with an important matter. He might be late,” Irvin said while scratching the back of his head.

The old man nodded his head and without saying another word, went back to the representative of the Mercenary Guild, whispering to him Irvin’s answer.

Irvin released a sigh of relief that they didn’t press him for an answer. Following which, the representative of the Mercenary Guild stood up and began to announce the start of the Tournament of Egon.

——-

– Silverbird Kingdom –

Sometime earlier, in an unremarkable hotel, a man wearing a white shirt and a black cat got out of the bed. The cat stretched its body and the man yawned before muttering,

“It’s time to get my arm back...”