Unsealing Emptiness

The next day arrived and passed in the blink of an eye while Ozul didn’t make a stop anywhere this time.

Only when it was around midnight did he notice the tall city structures from afar.

Ozul slowed down and before entering the city, he came down from the sky. Tomorrow would be the starting day of the battles, and if Emperor Luthien had to be there, he would have already left a couple of days ago.

Since it was night, though, he decided to have one good sleep before following along with his plan which he wasn’t even sure could be called one.

He had the choice of staying at the branch of his organization here in the Capital city, but he decided not to since it would be a little troublesome to explain that he was their actual leader.

‘Now that I think about it, there should be something that can prove the identity of the core members of the organization at the very least,’ Ozul thought as he entered a hotel and rented a room for the night.

.....

. . .

– In the Neutral Lands –

Some time ago, people in the Three-Eyed Strangers’ headquarters were either preparing or helping others in the preparation for the event tomorrow.

Raven and Blaze spent these two days training as well and they could safely say that they had improved to a new level with just the previous two months of training.

Anyway, they were not concerned about the tournament either. At least not until now.

The two entered the meeting hall where the core members of their organization, together with Haley, Irvin, and Oliver had taken a seat already.

“What happened?” Raven asked confusedly. Haley wouldn’t call them here only to discuss some random things.

“Although it isn’t official yet to others, here we got the list of all the participants in the finals...” Irvin took out a document and handed it over to Raven.

Blaze looked around and noticed that everyone had serious expressions.

He peeked from Raven’s shoulder to read the document. On the very top, it read the list’s name, and directly below were listed the name of every participant with a brief introduction.

Just at a glance, Blaze could tell that there would be more than 50 people in the finals. However, amongst them, only around 20 of them had made it here by fighting battles after battles.

The rest more than 30 participants had entered the way Raven and Blaze were going to. These people belonged to factions strong enough that the Mercenary Guild had given them some slots for the direct entry in the finals as well.

“There is nothing to worry about,” Raven handed the document back to Irvin without any change in her facial expressions.

Blaze hadn’t read the list completely, so he remained clueless as to whatever Raven was talking about. “What is it?” Finally, he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“There is another Rank-8 Mage at the middle-stage. And there are three additional Rank-8 Mages at the initial stage as well,” Haley replied to Blaze’s query before Raven could answer.

Blaze narrowed his eyes at Haley’s answer. Although they had been training, Raven and Blaze didn’t think that they would have competition in the finals of the tournament.

Haley and Oliver even guessed that the strongest participant excluding them might not even get to Rank-8. So these four people were completely out of their expectations.

However, just like Raven, Blaze did not worry about anything. He was confident in his own strength. Not only him, even Raven could take on multiple Rank-8 Mages in the middle stages.

He had huge amounts of raw Mana, while Raven’s Magical Spells wouldn’t let her get exhausted as long as she managed to get a couple of cuts on her enemies.

The duo’s confidence caused the other members to relax a little as well. But it was a different case for Oliver, Haley, and Irvin.

“You both will have to be careful. First of all, we never expected anyone to be able to match the strength of you two. Also, that Rank-8 of the middle stage is from the Church of Light... it could never be a good sign,” Haley advised with a worried tone.

She was worried because they practically knew nothing about this new black horse that had appeared out of nowhere. The only thing they could safely assume since that person was from the Church of Light was that he most probably had Light Element.

Raven, seeing that Haley was genuinely worried, reassured her, “Don’t worry. We are two Mages at Rank-8, even if one fails for some stupid reasons, the other would surely get the victory.”

Many core members nodded their heads with their faces full of smiles.

However, their cheery atmosphere again crumbled with a solemn, “No...”

Everyone turned their eyes towards Irvin who had a solemn expression on his face. Seeing that everyone had their attention on him, he continued, “The tournament is different every time. Sometimes they eliminate the participants with individual battles and other times, there is a battle royale.”

“Battle royale?” Blaze muttered with a tilted head. This was the first time he heard this term.

“A battle royale is when everyone has to enter the ring at the same time and the last surviving person is the winner. It is a quick way to determine the winner that tests not only an individual’s ability to fight in a crowd but also if they are strong enough to last till the end,” Oliver explained from the side.

“The problem is not which type of battle you are going to fight, but the fact that the participants sent by the Church of Light and factions that are just as prominent have artifacts boosting their strength. Which, if combined with the fact that they would join hands if a battle royale happened, would be the main obstacle,” Irvin explained in detail.

Since the Three-Eyed Strangers were relatively new, they lacked any artifacts that could help their people get a boost of strength somehow during an active battle.

Everyone thought that this might make the duo think twice and take the tournament seriously, but Blaze laughed and said, “If it is a battle royale, then it will be an even easier victory for us.”

He smirked while giving a side glance to Raven. He had the Spells destructive enough to destroy tens of people even at his own rank at the same time.

However, the one who would shine the most if a battle royale happened would be Raven.

Her only downside to the Spell that stole Mana from other people was that her opponent might get on the defensive and never let her have any hit on them.

If a battle royale happened, however, she would have tens of targets to cut and steal Mana from. This would literally make her an unstoppable monster in the ring.

Raven didn’t show the same smirk as Blaze, but she was just as much or even more confident than him.

Irvin didn’t know their reasons, but he decided to put his trust in them. They were his young master’s friends after all.

‘As a backup plan, I will still tell this to the Ashin family... they might help,’ Irvin thought inside his mind as he remembered that Ozul had told them they could ask for the Ashin family’s help anytime they thought that they could not fix the problem themselves.

. . .

Meanwhile, everyone, be it a prominent faction or some small organization with a participant talented enough, prepared for the Tournament of Egon.

While this tournament was a place for the strong factions to showcase the strength of their new generation and a place for the talented to find a powerful backing, there was also a reward for the winner of this tournament.

The four most prominent factions all around the world which included the Mercenary Guild, the Church of Light, the Leonhard Dynasty, and the Ashin family had put together a giant prize pool of hundreds of rare resources.

Of course, all of them hoped that their own participant would win the tournament, but they wouldn’t feel bad only because someone else won the prize that they had paid for.

For them, it was just a small amount. But for the winner, it would be enough for him to cultivate for years without worrying about anything.

This night, everyone except for Ozul anticipated the finals and who would turn out to be the most talented individual in these 50 years.

On the other hand, Ozul slept the night without a care in the world. He wasn’t so enthusiastic about the results of a tournament. To him, tomorrow would be the day when he would have the chance to get his arm back.

The night passed just as quickly as it had started, and the next day came. The sun rose, signaling the start of the Tournament of Egon...