Unsealing Emptiness

Although the Beasts could not see anything in the black smoke either, they could rush at Ozul together because of their instincts. Sensing the blood lust directed towards them was a common thing for them every day.

Moreover, Ozul did not really hide his intent. More like he wanted the Beasts to sense him so that they would instead attack him.

The tactic seemed to work as the Beasts had all gathered around him. They totally ignored how threatening this presence felt to them. It was almost like they had abandoned their instinct of danger.

“Working under Beasts stronger than you have made you all a little too dull...” Ozul commented before spreading his Ball of Purity, which blended in with the black color of smoke. Listening to commands all day and not making their own decisions had slowed down their growth.

After saying that, Ozul paused for a moment as if he had realized something before he shook his head and focused on the current situation.

Although Raven could see when she was inside the black smoke, the seeing wasn’t like how people saw things in daylight with a clear view.

.....

Her vision only showed the things which moved. For some reason, she couldn’t see Ozul’s Ball of Purity inside her Spell either!

It did not even cross her mind that he had generated the Ball of Purity until she saw the first slash on the Beast, causing a splash of blood to spill out.

The Ball of Purity perfectly blended in with the black smoke as if they were one. And no one was enjoying it more than Ozul himself. To him, it felt like he could create and vanish the Ball of Purity from whatever distance he desired while he was inside the Night’s Shade.

His own distance to be able to control the Ball of Purity was 9 meters while the Night’s Shade was spread over 10 meters of area. To him, it felt like he owned this domain, and no one could even touch him in here.

Not to mention, the Beasts were only Rank-6. They were just more in numbers, so he had to deal with each one before the situation forced Rufus to reveal himself. Which, in turn, would cause him not to be able to enjoy the show.

Even when Ozul was still unaware of the Emperor’s real intentions, he was not afraid of it one bit. Instead, he looked forward to whatever he was going to face next.

Dealing with these insects wasn’t any big of a deal if it meant that he would be able to enjoy the show later.

He side-stepped to avoid the venom of the Snake Beast before both the Snake and the giant Ape rushing at him were beheaded. No one, even Raven, couldn’t see the blade made of Ball of Purity.

Just as he had killed those two, Ozul strolled towards the other Beasts who were already cowering in fear. First of all, they couldn’t see anything around them. And even their senses were dulled, but the thick killing intent seemed to weigh down on them with each passing second.

After a moment, all of them seemed to come to a decision and decided to attack whichever direction they thought their target to be since it felt like leaving was impossible.

As the Beasts grew in Ranks, their emotional intelligence resembled more and more to that of a human. The state of mind, at this stage, was more harmful than beneficial to them.

Giving up your life to show your loyalty to your superior was fine and all. Ozul even appreciated such people. But this thing in front of him, blind loyalty towards the two Rank-7 Snakes which only watched them die, was straight up stupidity!

More than half of the Beasts leaped at him while others chose to attack from a distance. Ozul took one step behind and another towards his right to dodge before the Ball of Purity moved and cut away the Beasts in mid-air.

Raven could visibly notice how the blood had dropped right in the place where Ozul had stood before. It became apparent that he did not even dodge the Beasts, but instead the blood which would splash on him instead!

In her eyes, Ozul seemed to be bullying little insects in his turf! But for her, it had its own charm.

Nothing that Ozul did would ever make Raven not like it except for the times when she couldn’t be together with him.

Anyways, it hadn’t been a few seconds, and the Beasts fell one by one without even understanding why or how they were killed.

For the mercenaries, these few seconds seemed like hours. They spent each second vexed that the Beasts would attack them.

The only reassuring thing was that as the time had passed, the sound of Beast roars had also started to diminish. It gave them hope that someone was dealing with them.

After a little like ten to twenty seconds, Ozul was finished with everything as he motioned towards Raven. The latter immediately understood and removed the Spell.

Visible to the eyes, the black smoke started to disappear into thin air as if it wasn’t there to begin with. For the onlookers, it all seemed like an illusion.

However, if one looked at Raven right now, they would notice that her breathing was rough. She looked exhausted from the way she took deep breaths.

It couldn’t be helped since casting the Night’s Shade devoured Mana. Each second to maintain the black smoke all over the 10 meters would cost Raven to use a big chunk of Mana from her reserves.

The other people, however, did not look at her at this moment because they were all busy focusing on the scene in front of them.

They saw Ozul slowly walking towards Raven. But the astonishing thing was not him, but the corpses of the headless Beasts behind him!

Of course, there was no bloodstain on him whatsoever. However, the ground was dyed in red color. Beheading made the Beasts drain all of their blood on the floor, which had started to form a puddle!

Rufus was the only person who did not seem to be too shocked. Although he was surprised a little since even for him, it would be challenging to deal with the Beasts without letting anyone get in the way in such a small space.

With a smile on his face, he ordered others to retreat to a safe distance again.

“But Sir! There are still two Rank-7 Beasts. Fighting with them would not cause any less chaos.” One of his men reported with a grave tone.

“He will deal with it. You don’t need to worry about that. And now that he has indicated not to do so, we shouldn’t show ourselves...” Rufus had connected all the dots and understood that it must have been Ozul who had created the black smoke.

And there was no other reason for him to create the smokescreen other than to inform him and his men not to interfere.

The group of men retreated back to a safe distance while following behind Rufus.

Back on the scene, Ozul patted Raven’s head, who hid her delighted smile and tried to appear as exhausted as possible. On the other hand, Blaze had already retracted the ice pillars around him when he realized that it was clear now.

In contrast, everyone in the group was stunned. It was apparent that Ozul had dealt with all the Rank-6 Beasts in that short amount of time when lights went out.

They did not have time to say anything when they were forced to shift their attention towards the two Rank-7 Snake Beasts on top of the rock.

*Hisssssssss*

Both of the Snake Beasts hissed at Ozul while threatening him with their fangs.

“How dare you human!”

Everyone heard the high pitched voice. Some of the mercenaries were confused and shocked to the core as to why the Snake beast could actually speak in human language!

However, members of the Silver Knights and some other well-informed ones weren’t as surprised as others. However, the low-Rank ones were still fascinated by the concept of a Beast being able to speak human language.

Raven had read about it, but Blaze also did not know that Magical Beasts can start to learn the human language once they have reached Rank-7!

Ozul looked uninterested at the Beasts. They both appeared to be a pair as well. However, Ozul did not sense even a bit of similarity between these two and the pair of Drakes,

Although he did not have any interest in the Rank-7 Snakes, Ozul did want to ask some questions about this place since they would probably know it better than anyone here.

“How dare you ignore us, Human!?” The black Snake shouted in anger. It did not like when Ozul was just staring at them for a while without replying.

The Snake thought that Ozul was disrespecting or taunting him.

“You don’t know how to ignore others?” Ozul looked at the black Snake as if he looked at some forest monkeys, who were not able to peel off their banana.

Obviously, he did not care about the ever so slightly hurt self-esteem of the Snakes.

“Don’t make fun of us!” The black Snake finally had enough of it as it sprang forward towards Ozul.

The force with which it had jumped from the boulder created a crack on the rock. Only the Rank-7 and above Mages were able to notice his movements.