Unsealing Emptiness

In the end, he was brought to a gorge that looked like a giant crack on the surface of the planet.

Ozul looked from the edge but he just could not find the end to this seemingly never-ending crack. He had slowly followed behind Jinx for a couple of months already and arrived at this mysterious canyon.

It almost came as a surprise when he arrived here since this gorge was exactly a part of the four great canyons which separated the continent into four parts. These enormous fissures were a mystery on their own.

They were not any less or even more dangerous than the Old Whispering Woods since even the Rank-8 Mages would choose to fly above them instead of venturing through them.

No one wanted to take the risk of stepping into these canyons.

There was just this eerie feeling that seeped out from their depths and shook everyone’s hearts.

.....

Only Rank-9 Mages dared to enter the depths, but there were even rumors of a few Rank-9 Mages not making it out alive from these canyons in the past.

However, Ozul didn’t have any of that in his mind. All he wanted was to see the Druid once more and be done with it.

He had never been so bored in his life since he had to obediently walk behind Jinx for so many months continuously! The worst part was that Jinx chose to walk at her own pace! Sometimes she was slow, but other times she would run so fast that on the continent, maybe only he would have been able to match her speed. But only if he didn’t count Old Gu.

Now that he was here, Jinx stopped at the edge and didn’t have any intentions to continue on leading Ozul.

He directly jumped into the gorge without caring about what he would meet at the bottom.

It only took a split second for his eyes to adjust to the dark as he landed on the ground.

*Splash!*

“Hm?”

It turned out the bottom of the gorge was not as dry as he had assumed. There was actually a shallow stream of water in the middle that only came as high as a human’s lower thighs.

The gorge was surprisingly open at the bottom, so the land at the edges was still relatively dried out.

Ozul walked out of the stream and followed the gorge against the flow of the water. It was because the area visibly turned darker in that direction that he decided to move in the direction.

Turning around, he noticed that Jinx was still following behind.

“You better not disappear,” Ozul spoke softly and continued to walk in that direction.

He didn’t sense any powerful Beasts but that didn’t last long as he suddenly began to hear the crawlings of hundreds of them at the same time.

It was as if they were all resting and the sound of him landing on the ground from that height had woken up, the tide of Beasts came rushing in his direction from all sides.

Hundreds of Beasts were all screeching and madly rushing towards a single man.

Though Ozul only shook his head since even the strongest of them were only Rank-8 Beasts. And even those were very few.

. . .

A few hours later, a man could be seen slowly walking by a stream with many splashes of red stains on his clothes followed by a cat.

If one looked behind him, they would be utterly speechless at the gory scene that would meet them. Uncountable mutilated corpses of different types of Beasts lay there either writhing in pain or already dead because of the carnage they had to face just now.

All of these Beasts had attacked Ozul without a single thought and were crushed within split seconds.

They would only notice the massacre of many other Beasts like them after it was too late.

The Rank-8 Beasts were almost as smart as humans, but in fear of getting their prey snatched by others, they didn’t have the time to think twice about their actions. Now all of them lay beside the stream, dyeing the water red with their blood.

With a better grasp over the properties of the Ball of Purity, Ozul barely put an effort into performing this feat. If it was him before getting his arm back, maybe he would have at least expended a bit of his energy for shredding the Beasts into such tiny pieces.

Just at this moment, Ozul felt a familiar feeling pass through him.

He immediately dashed forward recognizing the chillness in the air with just the Druid’s presence.

“...S-so...”

He came to an abrupt halt as the stuttering, barely audible voice rang out in the depths of the gorge.

Unlike the last time though, he could immediately locate the Dark Druid despite the dark surroundings helping her. This feeling she gave off was completely different than the last time they had met.

Realizing that she was still speaking with big pauses, the Druid adjusted her voice a little and then began, “You... did you find the answers?”

She continued on, floating around Ozul, “... You... have a stronger presence...I feel more familiarity...”

For a second, Ozul didn’t say anything. Instead, he was trying to figure out the same thing that the Dark Druid was feeling. The previous encounter didn’t make him feel like that, but this time he did feel a lot of things being in her presence.

It was a superior feeling... as if he was above her in some way. But more than that, he didn’t find a single thing.

The Druid seemed more anxious than him to find the source of her stirred emotions around this human as she eagerly moved around him.

Snapping out of his daze, Ozul remembered something. He missed this fact before, but now he could completely see the Druid! Her form still appeared foggy, but he could make out her features this time around.

Her dark hair danced like shadows and her beady eyes didn’t let the light escape from them. She had the body figure of a middle-aged woman, but her facial features betrayed that feeling. The misty shadows surrounding her only made her appear more attractive and even more mysterious.

But only Ozul had ever been able to see her true form like this. To any other eyes, she was more like a bone-chilling dark spirit than a beautiful forest Druid.

Getting no answers even with his current state, he could only turn towards the black cat under his feet.

Although things were different with his current state, he was still not able to gather anything useful and from the Dark Druid’s behavior, it was apparent that she was just as much or even more confused than him.

“Stop it,” Ozul spoke to the Druid.

Although not wanting to, the Druid felt as if she had no choice in the matter after listening to his voice.

“... Tell me. Do you know something?... Tell me...”

“I don’t. But-” He paused and pointed his hand towards the black cat on the ground who was currently staring at the Druid with blank eyes, “... she might know something.”

The Druid moved her eyes in the direction of his finger and noticed a black cat with two distinct eyes with a piercing glare.

Not being able to find anything particular in the cat, the Druid came closer to Jinx and observed her from just a few feet away.

It was not known when, but suddenly a black shadow flashed past those heterochromatic eyes but Jinx remained still on the ground. The Dark Druid who was staring at her from upclose had a different reaction altogether!

“M-m-m-m... D-don’t kill me-e!”

She immediately fell onto the ground and her figure visibly shook as she again began speaking in a stuttering voice.

The sudden turn of the situation made even Ozul raise his eyebrows in surprise.

Although he was not able to find much from the Druid this time on his own, he was sure that he could easily defeat her now unlike before. However, he was sure that even in defeat the Dark Druid would not act in such a cowardly manner.

Maybe the air of superiority surrounding him due to her presence influenced him, but he held a distaste of the current state of her being, anxiously begging another life form to spare its life.

However, he shook his head out to throw off the feeling and carefully observed their interaction.

The Druid had only looked at Jinx for a few seconds before something snapped and the next moment she was on the ground, kneeling and begging Jinx to spare her life.

“Stop it.”

Unfortunately, the Druid didn’t seem to have heard his voice.

“... I said stop it!” Ozul raised his voice a little. Only then did the Druid stop her anxious pleading in front of Jinx.

“...But... didn’t you feel it?!” The Druid asked in hysteria.

Noticing that the situation could get out of hand like this, Ozul called Jinx towards him who obediently followed his instructions, dumbfounding the Dark Druid.

“B-b-but! I definitely felt it! The despair! The helplessness!” she shouted, but Ozul noticed that his simple move of calling over Jinx made her slowly regain composure.

“Stop panicking. She will not kill you, that I can assure you... Calm down and explain to me what you felt,” Ozul indifferent voice made the Druid slowly start to understand that the situation wasn’t as alarming as she had just assumed it to be.

‘...but that terrifying aura!’