Unsealing Emptiness

404 At What Cost?

“Haha... You must be confused, let me explain...” Sir Hamel came rubbing his hands with an unusual smile on his face.

‘Hurry up, be done with it,’ Ozul wanted to say but he held it in.

Fortunately for him, Sir Hamel also didn’t want to dally there any longer as he kept his explanation short and precise.

“So you see, this was merely a test to gauge your abilities...”

Just as he said this, the carriage door opened, confessing that it housed no one.

‘Gauging abilities, my ass. That was clearly a test of loyalty!’ Even Kumaou had a frown on his face for being deceived like this.

However, no one voiced their complaint. It was royalty they were dealing with; it couldn’t be helped. It also made sense that the king would go the extra mile to ensure the safety of his beloved daughter.

The man that Ozul had been fighting removed his mask, revealing a middle-aged face with a seemingly ‘relieved’ expression.

“He is the other knight who devoted his life to protecting the princess since she was young. Now that Sir has confirmed with his own eyes that you are capable, he will rest assured.”

.....

That man nodded his head and smiled amiably at Ozul before putting his hand on his shoulder. “Young man, you willingly put yourself in danger to protect the princess, that is admirable.”

The stench of sweat covering that man’s hand evaded Ozul’s senses as he took a step back. His shirt, however, already had soaked it in.

Without waiting for a second, he took off his shirt and threw it away on the ground. Acting as if nothing had happened, he replied ‘earnestly’, “That was my job.”

Everyone present looked at him weirdly but didn’t say anything. The fact that he was willing to put his life in line to protect the princess mattered more than his eccentric actions.

‘I achieved what I wanted to... but at what cost?’

Ozul sighed, standing there half-naked. Fortunately, clouds had begun covering up the sky.

. . .

Ozul and the group were brought back to the palace as the guards dispersed along with Sir Hamel and the other knights to report to the king.

As they entered the room, Kumaou was the first to bombard Ozul, “You knew she wasn’t there, didn’t you!”

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Ozul almost raised his eyes at his intuition before shrugging his shoulders, neither confirming nor denying anything.

However, Kumaou took it as a sign of affirmation, laughing loudly, “Haha! I know you knew! I admit, I underestimated you before, but you are definitely worthy to fight me!”

Meanwhile, the trio ignored the maniac in the room and focused on their cultivation.

They were all making rapid progress and now that Ozul had begun to compare Zier with the other two, he could see him surpassing both of them.

There was obviously something special about him, but he couldn’t conclude what.

If they kept up at this pace, then he could hope that they would at least break through to the next stage before their time in the royal palace came to an end.

What they didn’t know was that their rate of progress surpassed even those Dragon Hatchlings who had all the resources from the people who had summoned them.

Even those who had arrived with them here and had ample resources weren’t at the Soul Liberation stage yet.

If Ozul knew that, he would have been genuinely shocked. After all, it couldn’t be that the three people he picked randomly would have such talents. There was definitely something strange going on.

As he found his favorite spot in the room; the bed, he observed Raven and Blaze focusing on improving their cultivation while Zier focused on sharpening the ‘soul’ that he could now project out of his body.

Just like Ozul had once trained his control over Purity, Zier used a minute amount of soul before trying to bend it into various shapes.

Although the process and results were vastly different from his own. After all, the Purity couldn’t be compared with the ‘soul’ of a Soul Liberation stage cultivator.

Meanwhile, it was obvious that Blaze and Raven were focused on surpassing Zier right now.

“Get up,” he suddenly spoke, alarming the trio as they immediately stood up.

“I’m bored, let’s see how strong you three have become...”

There was essentially nothing to do until the princess wanted to wander out of the royal estate for her amusements.

That, and the fact that the previously sunny day had suddenly turned cloudy. And from his experience, the clouds were only getting darker. Even if it didn’t rain, it would get quite dark.

Raven and Blaze’s eyes lit up while Zier stood up nervously. The former two wanted nothing more than to go all out and see what they were capable of now, while the latter still wasn’t confident in his abilities.

“We’re going to spar!?” Kumaou’s ears twitched as he also sprung up from his cultivation.

Ozul gave him a deadpan look, “No. We are not.”

“Yes, we are!” 1

“No.”

Despite his firm rejections, Kumaou’s eyes didn’t dim.

...

Minutes later, they arrived in a small forest outside the city. They were allowed to leave the royal estate whenever they wanted, they merely had to inform the soldiers where they were going first.

Annoyingly enough, Kumaou followed them all the way through. In the end, even Rose joined them.

‘Guess she wants to gauge my strength?’

Inspecting Rose trying not to act suspicious around them, Ozul wondered how the people behind her were dealing with the sudden disappearance of one of their messengers.

He hadn’t even bothered to clean up the body, leaving it cold in that dark alley.

Whatever conclusion they came upon, he didn’t care. Rose was still here, she could still be blamed; nothing else mattered.

Coming back to the matter at hand, he stood in front of the trio who were prepared with all their weapons.

At once, they poured out their soul, pinpointing it at Ozul. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t do anything to him. Unless it was the soul pressure from someone at the peak of Origin Realm like that of the king, it was useless against him.

It started with Zier throwing his silver needles straight at Ozul’s face before Blaze and Raven quickly closed in the distance.

After decades of being around Ozul, they knew that his body itself wasn’t strong. He might be invincible at a distance, but in close combat, it was difficult for him to keep up.

After all, he hadn’t learned any Spiritual Arts nor ever tried physical exercises. If there was any weakness to him, it was close combat.

Blaze brought down his ice-covered fist at Ozul who had just deflected the silver needle of Zier when Raven came behind him, bringing her pair of daggers from both sides, essentially locking him in place.

The synergy between Blaze and Raven wasn’t anything to scoff at.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that they might even take out someone at the peak of Nascent Soul Realm like Rose.

Sadly for them, Ozul wasn’t as weak to close combat as they think. After all, he could always produce Purity from his body, making it impossible to find him without any tool to protect himself.

With his hand coated with that black material, he caught the ice-cold fist of Blaze while Raven’s daggers were blocked with the Purity as well.

She instantly jumped back to dodge the blades that counter-attacked her, but Blaze didn’t have such a luxury, he was hit right in the gut with Ozul’s left fist which was also coated with the Purity.

Gasping for air, Blaze dropped to the ground when two more needles pierced the air as they were aimed at Ozul’s eyes. But he had already sensed those needles, holding them both in his hand.

Zier could essentially control the needles on his whims as well, so Ozul didn’t just stop their motion but also held them in place.

Unlike with Purity, those needles couldn’t change form or shape either, so he couldn’t get it out of his grasp.

He then glanced in Zier’s direction, making the latter’s heart palpitate faster in trepidation. Not giving him a chance to think, he shot the two silver needles at Raven.

She managed to deflect one of them, but the other approached her neck. Zier, on the other hand, tried with all his will to stop the needle.

His efforts bore fruit as the needle stopped just before touching Raven’s neck, which only she noticed now was protected by a thin sheet of Purity.

Of course, Ozul wasn’t going to bet on Zier’s ability to stop his silver needle in time.

Though it was pleasant to know that he reacted quickly enough.

Their casual spar which didn’t look so casual in the eyes of the two spectators continued as Blaze recovered and jumped at him again.

Rose looked at this spectacle with her mouth agape, realizing that if she wasn’t allowed to ‘materialize’ her soul, she wouldn’t even stand a chance against the three of them!

And that was shocking considering that it hadn’t been long since they had stepped into the Soul Liberation stage.

It was then that a suffocating aura flared right beside her.

Kumaou was seething in anticipation and was ready to jump at Ozul anytime now.

Just when Ozul parried the trio’s attacks and counter-attacked, Kumaou couldn’t hold himself in and seemingly teleported right between them.

Displeased, Ozul narrowed his eyes at him, “What are you doing.” He knew what he was doing.

“You and me! This fight has been pending for a long time, boy!”

Ozul nodded his head at the trio who were already beaten and tired and got ready to face this bear of a guy.

Since the weather was nice, he also wanted to test his strength against Kumaou.

“Don’t hold back. I wanna go and take a nap afterward, so hurry up,” he spoke in a nonchalant tone as if he didn’t put him in his eyes.

Truth was, he wanted to test himself against this ‘soul materialization’ that the cultivators gained in the last stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

He remembered Kumaou’s body morphed into being more animal-like and a projection of a wild bear seemed to reflect behind him.

He wanted to fight that. Could his Purity cut through that state of his?

.....

“Alright, boy. I won’t bore you!” Kumaou shouted as his teeth and claws grew, his body hairs also grew thicker and once again, a mirage of a giant bear seemed to reflect behind him.

It wasn’t a solid projection, but other people could instinctively feel what it was.

The surroundings drowned in a noise of blur as Ozul pulled the Purity with full force to collide with Kumao.

The battle which could level the whole forest had begun...