Unsealing Emptiness

However, Ozul just had a feeling that Blaze had a talent unlike any other. The blue crystal crown on his forehead still felt lifeless to him no matter how hard he looked into it.

What had surprised him was the fact that he couldn’t find any similar cases in the history of this continent!

Just like his own condition, Blaze’s was one of a kind as well.

What had brought Ozul to have his current evaluation of Blaze was the fact that he hadn’t seen him stuck at a rank, not even once throughout all these years!

He was continuously progressing. The speed at which he improved might have varied, but never once did it completely halt. It let Ozul believe that he was nowhere near his limits.

If Blaze didn’t face any difficulties even in Rank-8, one could only imagine what his upper limit would be. Although Ozul was just guessing right now, he could confirm his thoughts when Blaze broke through to Rank-9. Only at that time would he be sure of it.

.....

Unlike others, Ozul had no doubt that Blaze would be able to breakthrough to Rank-9 as long as he didn’t die.

Taking his eyes off of him, Ozul looked at Raven and also noticed how her Mana had started to become restless. It was a little more jumpy than usual.

He was sure that Raven could feel it too as she looked eager to sit down in a peaceful place to cultivate. She was close to her breakthrough to the End Stage of Rank-8 as well!

However, it looked like she was struggling to find any time for her to cultivate.

“Blaze... deal with everything,” Ozul called Blaze and told him that it was now up to him to deal with everything and then turned towards Raven before he said, “You can cultivate.”

Raven didn’t need as much combat experience as Blaze did, so it wasn’t a problem for her to focus on the cultivation instead.

Blaze grumbled under his breath, but he didn’t voice out his complaint. He wanted to sit down and cultivate as well. Fighting these Magical Beasts was already starting to bore him to death.

Raven happily tiptoed over to Ozul’s side and sat down just a couple of feet beside him before she closed her eyes and immediately started to cultivate. There wasn’t a single place in the world where she felt safer than when she was around him, so it wasn’t a problem for her to focus on cultivating.

Ozul also kept an eye around so nothing disturbed her. She was at a critical point and interrupting her in the middle might have severe consequences, so he made sure nothing approached her.

The members of the Rogue crew eyed Raven with a strange look in their eyes, they knew how hard it was to concentrate on cultivating out in the open, much less when they were at such a dangerous place.

‘This is what they call a heaven-defying genius huh...’ the old members sighed as they noticed Mana started to slowly circulate around Raven which meant that she had really started cultivating in the middle of these unpredictable lands.

They could have never achieved the same feat if it was them in the same situation.

Little by little, Raven’s aura started to become even more restless, but she was still not there yet.

——-

– In the Church of Light –

While Ozul had been leading the group deeper into those lands according to the map, Lammert was working all those physicians to the bones.

They weren’t allowed to rest more than 3 hours per day, and when they were tired and couldn’t even lift up a finger, he would give them the healing potions just so they could recover their stamina!

Such extravagant spending would have made just about anyone cry tears of blood as most of them couldn’t even afford those high quality potions for their loved ones who were on their deathbed.

But Lammert didn’t care about any of that now that they needed to hurry up.

Physicians weren’t the only people he had brought in to help. Blacksmiths were actually the ones who were forced to do the most labor.

They were working day and night. Even the Bishops weren’t allowed inside their workplace, so hardly anyone knew what they had been creating there for the past few months.

At this moment, Lammert entered the hall which was occupied by Darcia without even knocking first.

Though he didn’t realize it in his hurry, Darcia didn’t seem to mind his manner much either.

“What happened?” Darcia asked, noticing the visible excitement on Lammert’s face.

“It is done! They finished it!” Lammert exclaimed, making a toothy smirk appear on Darcia’s face as well.

She stood up, her robes fluttering as she made her way out of the hall, “Bring me there.”

Lammert nodded his head before hurriedly leading her to the room where they had successfully finished that.

. . .

As Darcia entered the room, she felt a whiff of pungent smell invading her nose to which she just waved her hand and a layer of Mana washed away any smell that came near here.

Just like Lammert, she was too excited due to the completion of the ‘that’ to care about the smell.

The Blacksmiths together with the physicians bowed their heads towards Darcia as they noticed that even Lammert was respectfully walking behind her. It wasn’t hard to guess her identity.

Ignoring everything, Darcia made her way towards the table that had a large white canvas placed on some object.

“Is this it?” Darcia muttered to herself before simply waving her hand which caused the giant piece of cloth to fly off.

What revealed itself under the white canvas made Darcia take a few steps forward, “Is this it?”

She again repeated her words but this time they were directed towards Lammert.

What was before them was what one might think to be a cannon, or even a Mana powered cannon from how fancy it looked. However, there was of course something extraordinary about it for even the Rank-10 Mage to take so much interest in it.

The fancy looking cannon only had its barrel where they would usually put the cannon ball in. Instead of the usual dull grey color, this cannon was half white and half golden which made it really stand out.

There was also a small transparent chamber fit on top of the cannon.

If one didn’t know any better, they would have thought that anyone with a little bit of money could have such a cannon built for decoration purposes.

However, the hundreds of occasionally gleaming runes etched on the gold plating was the proof that this cannon was not just made for decorations.

No one would dare to underestimate this cannon if they knew that even the best Blacksmiths brought in by the Church of Light needed months to create this single cannon!

“It is. According to them, this should work...” Lammert motioned towards the row of physicians who now started to sweat under Darcia’s scrutinizing gaze.

“I will take their word for it then. Have you tested it yet?” Darcia spoke, impatient to test the cannon personally.

“I haven’t,” Lammert replied before he added, “But there is hardly anyone in the forest. We can test it there-”

“I... if I may... your grace?” an old man interrupted Lammert with his head constantly bowed down as if he was afraid to look directly in Lammert’s eyes.

Lammert frowned since he was interrupted. Though he was still aware that Darcia was beside him, so he spoke in a cold voice, “What is it?”

“I... we... According to our estimation... testing the ‘Devil’s arm’ anywhere around here would cause a huge commotion...” the old physician finished his sentence as he continuously stole glances at Lammert, fearing that he might have angered him.

But he sighed a breath of relief when he noticed that Lammert didn’t say anything. Instead, he just looked at the old lady standing behind him for a reply.

“Very well, so be it then. Still, let me see if it works or not,” Darcia showed her understanding.

‘It is better that those annoying dogs don’t find out about this before I have achieved a breakthrough,’ she thought in her head without a change in her facial expressions.

If it would really cause a great commotion if they tested it, then the remaining Rank-10 Mages would surely look into it. And if they find out what she had been doing here, Darcia knew that they would all want to snatch the arm and that cannon from her.

She wanted to keep this a secret for as long she didn’t achieve a breakthrough to the next rank.

“O-o-of course! We can do that. Yes! We can!” the old physician enthusiastically looked at others who were also relieved that they wouldn’t be losing this old comrade of theirs.

“What will we test it with, if not the ‘Devil’s arm’ then?” Lammert asked, staring at the old man. This cannon was supposed to use Ozul’s severed arm. How would they even know if it would work or not if they hadn’t yet tried it out?

“I... understand your... worries my lord. Ho-however, have faith in us. We have really thought everything through tens of times already... It... should work,” the old man replied while stuttering.

One couldn’t tell if he was too tired or too afraid to speak properly.

He then continued, “We... can simply test it with the normal crystals that contain Mana... just like a normal cannon powered by Mana...”