Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 238: Concern.

Emperor Luthien made his way back to the Silverbird Kingdom even when Lammert was motioning him not to leave.

And unaware of many things, Ozul was down in the secret room somewhere under the Palace. The Empress had activated all the defenses again and also sent the royal family’s personal guards to stop him.

While all of that was happening in the Silverbird Kingdom, there was a different kind of excitement growing in the Neutral Lands.

. . .

In the headquarters of the Three-Eyed Strangers, Raven sat on the couch placed at the far corner of the room on the 7th floor. She was staring blankly on the floor, thinking about her battle with that middle stage Rank-8 Mage from the Church.

The result of that match, much to her dissatisfaction, didn’t happen as she wanted it to be. Raven wanted to defeat that brown-haired man, and she was finally making some progress at the end.

However, before she even came close to defeating him, the Mercenary Guild’s representative stopped the battle.

.....

She was furious as to why the match had to be stopped, but she found out the reason when she looked around herself.

It was because the other Rank-8 Mage from the Leonhard Dynasty had already cleared all the other participants. Since only three people remained standing on her platform including her, the battle royale was concluded with the three as winners.

At that time, she regretted not taking care of that guy from the Leonhard Dynasty who became the reason for not being able to defeat the brown-haired man from the Church.

It wasn’t even that man’s fault. While Raven was fighting the brown-haired man, the two didn’t look around them. They were destroying the whole stage with their spells!

And the participant from the Leonhard Dynasty had no other choice but to defeat everyone else to stop them from getting more violent. He was also standing on the same platform, and if they had decided to unleash their destructive Spells, he would have also been caught in them sooner or later.

Raven clenched her fist in frustration as she remembered how she couldn’t get a single hit on her opponent.

“Still thinking about that?” Suddenly came the amusing voice of Blaze as Raven looked up at him with a deadpan face.

“... I told you already, tomorrow are the individual matches. You didn’t have the time today, but the individual battles would last as long as one isn’t defeated,” Blaze tried to cheer her up. He couldn’t take the ever-growing gloomy aura from her.

Raven loosened her fist as what Blaze said did make sense. She wouldn’t rest easy until she defeated that man.

‘It will be hard for her...’ Blaze thought as he looked at her determined eyes. He had observed their whole fight and noticed that just like him, that man didn’t give her a single opportunity.

Even when Raven had improved a lot than before, that man somehow managed to evade or block in the last second. And unlike Blaze, that brown-haired man would half the time also go on the offensive.

Raven almost got hit twice as well. Maybe she had gotten used to only being on the offensive, but Blaze could see that the brown-haired man was more skilled than her.

It didn’t help the fact that he was almost 55 years old as Blaze learned from Irvin who had such information on all the participants. Being more than a decade older than them, he would certainly have more battle experience.

‘He was right, we haven’t had any experience in real life-threatening situations...’ Blaze admitted as he remembered Ozul’s words.

Ozul wanted to bring them to a fairly dangerous place and pit them against Rank-8 Beasts, but he didn’t find the time to do so.

. . .

In a hall with dim lighting and many seats neatly arranged, facing the front of the room, a man sat at a chair placed in front of all the other seats.

It was the prayer hall for the Church of Light and the man sitting on the chair was Archbishop Lammert.

Besides a couple of his most trusted Bishops, there wasn’t anyone in the hall right now.

“Why couldn’t he defeat her?” Lammert asked in a calm voice but the Bishops knew that the calmer his voice sounded, the more furious he was.

They quivered at his questions. No one had the courage to answer him.

“You gave him all of it, yes?” Lammert pointed towards a particular Bishop wearing glasses.

The man in question again shuddered, being put on the spot, and stuttered, “... I-it was decided t-that giving all of it to him might have side effects...” The more he spoke, the lower his voice got.

“And who decided that?” Lammert asked. This time, his eyes had gotten darker and the other Bishops took a few steps back.

“I-it was Bishop Sebun...” replied the man wearing glasses.

Bishop Sebun behind him instantly fell on the ground as he hit his face on the floor and asked for mercy while trembling, “A-archbishop, f-forgive me! I-”

Before he could even utter another sentence, a beam of light passed through both of his hands, creating two gaping holes!

“Arhckk!”

Bishop Sebun shouted in pain, while the other bishops had their backs drenched in sweat witnessing this scene.

“Don’t make decisions on your own from now on. Make preparations for tomorrow, give him all of it! I want to see how those runts can stand against him tomorrow!” Lammert said in a loud voice that shook the Bishops.

Instantly, the one wearing glasses helped Bishop Sebun walk out of the prayer hall while the others also followed.

‘The whole world should see that it was the Church’s overwhelming victory!’

Archbishop Lammert thought as he leaned back on his seat. He wouldn’t miss the opportunity to show the whole world that the most promising new talents were in the Church.

‘No one can stop the Church of Light from returning to its past glory,’ Archbishop Lammert squinted his eyes and suddenly remembered how Emperor Luthien had suddenly left his seat.

“Che! That damn bastard!” Lammert clicked his tongue as he cursed Emperor Luthien. He had even motioned him not to go anywhere, but the latter didn’t pay any attention to his words at all!

“People have forgotten the Church of Light’s true might. It’s time they experience it again,” he muttered with a smirk on his face.

. . .

_In the Ashin family’s estate_

Raymond sat in the room, with a cup of tea in his hand as Alver entered.

“So, did you inform the nephew’s organization?” Raymond asked without taking his attention off of the reports in his other hand.

“About the matches tomorrow? The Mercenary Guild would be doing that on their own,” Alver answered as he also took a seat.

Since the Ashin family was part of the tournament’s organizers, Alver would know of every important detail beforehand.

The information Raymond asked about was the details of how they would conduct the matches tomorrow for the remaining six individuals. This time, they were planning to change things a little because of the unusual number of Rank-8 participants with half of them even at the middle stage!

The Mercenary Guild had decided that the three Initial Stage Rank-8 Mages could avoid fighting the middle stage ones as long as all three of them agreed.

The Initial Stage Rank-8 Mages would then just fight among themselves for the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth position. Meanwhile, the Middle Stage Rank-8 would fight for the first, the second, and the third position respectively.

Of course, the reward would only be for the ultimate winner, but the matches would decide the rankings of every final participant.

Although they had said that it would only happen this way if all the Initial Stage Rank-8 Mages agree to this. Sometimes, a few hot-headed youths would still want to try their luck.

“Alright. What about nephew? Any news?” Raymond asked, setting aside the documents in his hand. Though he sometimes felt as if his nephew could even match him in terms of power, he could still not help but be worried.

“I asked Irvin, there was no news. Though considering his personality, he wouldn’t try to send any news anyway,” Alver replied with a soft chuckle at the end. Raymond also smiled while shaking his head.

If there was anyone else here to witness the two brothers smile so warmly like that, they wouldn’t believe that they were the same people. After all, the two would only laugh in the matters of family.

After a moment, Alver spoke again, “But I can tell that nephew has already started doing whatever he planned to...”

“Oh? How?” Raymond asked while squinting his eyes.

“During the matches, I had my attention on all the Luthien,” Alver answered.

“Luthien? Emperor Luthien?” Raymond asked in the middle.

Alver nodded his head and continued his explanation, “It had already started getting dark when something shone on his hand and he stood up to leave in a hurry. I sent my men to investigate, and it seems like he went back to the Silverbird Kingdom.”

Raymond nodded his head as he also understood what that could imply. They also had defensive formations set up and knew that there were mechanisms that would inform the people from long distances. They had such devices themselves after all.

He then slowly muttered, “Hm... I hope nephew didn’t get himself in trouble.”

Alver also nodded his head. Concern for their nephew was visible on both brother’s faces as they went back to their work, not aware of what was happening in the Royal Palace of the Silverbird Kingdom.