Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 176: Why are you so strong!?

Ozul came down to the 5th floor when he heard Raymond’s shout for Cyril and Mark.

He did not pay any attention to it and was about to walk towards the stairs to the floor below when he suddenly remembered something.

‘I have yet to do something about these Harmony leaves,’ Ozul thought as he touched the wooden box strapped to his side with the book.

“May I help you?”

Ozul looked up to see the woman behind the counter looking at him with a smile out of courtesy.

“Do you know any place where I can sell stuff?” Ozul did not hold back. He was new to the Neutral Lands, so he could only ask for help in this matter.

“Sell stuff?” The woman in the uniform looked at him confusedly.

.....

‘What type of stuff? Surely someone who met Boss and was leaving without any worries isn’t planning to sell some clothes,’ the woman thought before she replied,

“If it is something precious, I would recommend going to an auction house.”

“Auction house? Which and where?” Ozul asked.

“Uhum... It is your choice, but the generally considered best auction house is in the Neutral City. Once you are there, you can ask just about anyone of the directions for the Littlewood Auction House.”

Ozul nodded his head and walked away. He was going to the Neutral City anyways.

Watching him walk away without saying anything, the woman took out a filer and started to file her nails while muttering, “Quite rude that guy... not even a thank you.”

. . .

Ozul walked out of the giant building. He had just taken a few steps away from it when the building disappeared from behind him.

He turned around and realized that he wasn’t able to sense it again. Only when he put all of his focus in that place could he feel something different.

‘Formations... they are a threat to me even at my current level. I would have to be careful of them.’ Ozul thought before he turned around and walked away.

He walked normally on the streets but increased his speed after he was out of the town.

Only around twenty minutes had passed, and he had yet to arrive near the Neutral City when his instincts started to work up.

“!!!”

He did not see anything wrong and did not have enough time to put all his focus in front of him. So he immediately dodged to the side.

Under his squinted eyes, the ground from where he had dodged was suddenly covered in some runes before a giant pillar of fire rose from that circle. It torched everything in that area to ashes.

Such an intensity of the fire was enough to kill a group of Rank-8 Mages instantly if they were caught in it!

Ozul had yet to figure out the assailants when the ground below him started to glow with runes, and he was forced to dodge again.

Again, a giant pillar of fire rose from those runes, ravaging the area.

This time, Ozul immediately spread his senses to search for the person responsible for the attacks while also keeping an eye out for another one of those fire pillars.

It did not take long for him to notice the three people hiding a few meters away from this place.

Ozul expanded his hat into several needles and sent them towards their direction. Simultaneously, he dodged to the side because of another fire pillar.

The three people hiding came out from behind the trees after blocking the needles with shields of their respective elements.

Out of the three, one of them was a woman. Ozul did not know the woman and the middle-aged man behind, but he was very much aware of the person in the middle.

He was the same person Rufus had introduced him to at the Church; Garth.

“So impatient?” Ozul raised his brows, amused that the Church could not wait for even a day to pass.

“Hoho~ From your not so surprised reaction, it seems that I was correct; you do seem to be aware of your situation,” Garth said with his usual smile.

“Well, your stinking smile just gave you away,” Ozul said while shrugging.

Garth’s smile finally dropped as his face distorted in anger.

“If you know what is good for you, give up boy!” Garth threatened.

Ozul did not say anything. Looking at his poker face, Garth grounded his teeth.

“There are three of us here. Even if you somehow could take the three of us together, we have already covered this whole area with the formation. There is no getting out of it for you.”

Ozul tried to feel the formation, and he could indeed feel that he was already inside the formation.

‘Three of them together? Does he not know?’ Ozul thought.

But this was not the time to think about such things. His gaze hardened as he stared coldly at Garth, still not saying anything.

“... If that’s what you want, you can only blame your stupidity later.” Garth realized that talking anymore would be only wasting his time as he sped towards Ozul with his two companions.

Suddenly, Ozul looked down to see the ground heating below him. Having no other choice, he backed away.

The fire pillar blocked his vision of the three coming his way. But the next moment, a bright light shined from both of his sides, and he was forced to jump another meter back.

The two lights collided and created a small explosion that would have definitely stung a little if it had hit him.

Ozul hadn’t seen any attack like this before. It was his first time fighting someone with Light Element. Not to mention, all three of these were Rank-8 Mages.

The Light Element was excellent in healing, but even the Darkness Element could be used for healing, so it was not surprising to see the Light Element being used for attacks.

The explosion did not lose much compared to the one caused by Fire Elements either. Not to mention, the attack was almost a little faster than the Spells of Lightning Element!

In the end, it stood true that it mostly depended on the user and not the Element itself, which decided its use.

He did not have time to contemplate when another bright light shined, causing him to dodge to the side. Ozul had yet to catch his breath when the ground under him started to heat up again.

‘So serious from the start... sigh...’ Ozul could not help but sigh as he kept dodging.

The three continued their assault together with the formation that periodically hindered Ozul’s movements. He had yet to understand why it only attacked him as well.

A minute passed with the three continuously bombarding Ozul with Light Spears and other spells that leveled the ground all around them.

‘How is this bastard still keeping up!?’ Garth thought while gritting his teeth.

The formation had already locked onto Ozul and would frequently attack him with the fire pillars. Together with that, the three were not joking with their efforts either.

Garth had thought that this kind of set up for only a single person was already an overkill before coming here. However, now he could not help but regret not adding more to it.

Due to their battle, the forest was quickly turning into a wasteland; it was as if some wave of savage beasts had been rampaging on the ground.

Noticing that Ozul still had his apathetic face as he dodged their attacks, Garth still hoped to tire him out sooner or later.

Fortunately for him, he had closed the area with a formation just in case so their Mana waves would not reach anyone who would want to pry in their matter.

The three were keeping Ozul in the formation, or at least that is what they thought.

Ozul was analyzing everything as he dodged their joint assault. Although he could easily evade their attacks, he had to admit that this was very quickly getting annoying.

He noticed that although the formation was only attacking him, it did not mean that the three knew when it would do so.

A couple of times, even they had to evade at particular instances.

He also noticed that none of the wandering eyes stumbled upon this area even after all this commotion. It was either the work of the formation as well, or others kept watch not to let such people in this way.

But he already had enough of this play. He thought that there might be something more to it. But except for the three’s struggle getting more desperate, nothing changed.

The woman and the man rushed in his direction just at this moment-both from each of his sides.

However, their eyes opened wide when they noticed that Ozul did not move from his position. Instead, he calmly stood there in the air looking at Garth in the distance.

According to the battle flow, those two had thought that Ozul would again avoid their attack, and then the formation would erect another fire pillar.

However, not only did it happen differently this time, they could not even stop in time!

The ground started to heat under Ozul, who did not move away even at this moment. If he had moved away before, the fire pillar would have been erected at a different place.

This caused the two attacking Ozul to run into the fire themselves. It was too late to turn around at that point.

Under their terrified eyes, the duo was surrounded by the fire; meanwhile, Garth could only look at this with his eyeballs threatening to fall out, and his mouth hung open.

Even at the last second, he noticed that Ozul did not try to run away.

‘That suicidal bastard!’ Garth thought that Ozul might have given up and decided to take them with him if he were dying anyway.

Unlike what he thought, Ozul had concluded that he could easily endure the fire only using his Ball of Purity.

In the very last moment, before the fire pillar was erected, the Ball of Purity covered him from head to toe.

The fire was only enough to kill a Rank-8 Mage. Meanwhile, Ozul was strong enough to even contend against the Rank-9 Mages. So it was no wonder that he could easily deal with such an attack.

Garth stood petrified when the fire pillar disappeared. He saw the two charred corpses of his companion while Ozul stood there completely unscathed!

“Ho-... How is that possible!? You were only a Rank-8! Why are you so strong?!” The sudden change in their situation caused Garth to act out of character.

.....

Ozul slowly walked towards him as Garth took steps back; he realized that the person they were here to capture was far stronger than anything that he could handle.

‘Yes.. yes... I should retreat for now...’