Unsealing Emptiness

Back on the floor below, when Ozul walked past them, everyone quietly watched him without daring to stop him.

“Did something happen?” Haley asked, feeling something odd about Ozul’s behavior.

Oliver and Irvin, unsurprisingly, were unconcerned. It was his regular manner of doing things to them.

Raven and Blaze were both a little apprehensive. If Haley had a feeling something wasn’t quite right because of her women’s intuition, they were the ones who knew Ozul the best. They could tell something was bothering him from the time he had told them to halt their mission.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, but he isn’t happy...” muttered Raven. She was the most concerned about what was troubling him.

Beside her, Blaze and Haley nodded their heads.

.....

“Summarize the details over the past months. He might want to make a big move again,” Raven informed before she moved towards the meeting hall.

Except for Blaze, everyone started moving instinctively. Haley suddenly paused and grinned after she had moved out. Just now, she had received the impression that it was instead Ozul who had given the order as everyone followed them without question.

The time granted by Old Gu was coming to an end, and it was only a matter of time until the serenity that had existed for so long would be shattered in utter turmoil.

No doubt Ozul had his own plans about the future events. Whatever it was, Raven was ready to support him in whatever way she could.

. . .

The next day, every member of the Three-Eyed Strangers was running around in a hurry.

Suddenly everyone had received days worth of work to do in a couple of hours. Still, no one uttered a word of complaint since everyone thought that the matter directly concerned the leader who had returned yesterday.

What they didn’t know was that the amount of work they had right now was only a fraction of what they would have to handle in the near future.

The sheets on the large bed on the topmost floor of the tower, in a darkened room with no light, shifted abruptly.

The room’s door opened and closed a few seconds later, and two streaks of shadows walked out.

On the floor below, everyone was too busy to notice their presence.

Only when one of the seats on the meeting table was abruptly occupied did a round of gasps followed before everyone paused.

Just when people had started getting accustomed to Ozul’s quiet demeanor, it had suddenly began to resemble the strange black cat that had been seen around him. If his presence could be noticed with just a bit of attentiveness, it was impossible to expect the arrival of Jinx.

For these reasons and the fact that she was only seen following behind Ozul, Jinx had become quite popular among the members of the Three-Eyed Strangers.

Haley’s eyes sharpened, following which everyone dispersed and acted as if they didn’t notice his presence.

Except for Raven and Blaze, everyone at the table sat back down and paused their previous activity. The two members were forced to switch seats from beside Ozul as the duo approached him.

Everyone was now waiting for him to make a statement.

Ozul was planning to just sit there and listen to their discussion for now, but seeing that everyone was waiting for him, he sighed and spoke, “Bring me something to write.”

“Write-?” Oliver muttered in surprise. But just when he was about to ask further, several cold glares were thrown his way, forcing him to shut his mouth with awkward expressions.

He had forgotten for a moment that questioning casual orders from Ozul was practically a taboo.

In the blink of an eye, there was a pen and papers placed in front of him.

Even though Ozul was never taught to write, he picked up the pen as if he had been writing for decades.

As he put the needle on the paper and moved the pen, no ink came out of it.

“Hm?” Ozul tried again but not a speck of mark was left on the paper. It was only then that he looked towards his right, staring at Raven with a blank face. Only she could see the hints of questioning in his eyes.

It was always her who dispelled his doubts about trivial matters like this.

Meanwhile, everyone patiently waited. No one dared to make any bold assumptions.

“Uhm...”

She looked unsure about what to say before she stood up from her seat and moved closer to Ozul. Leaning towards him, she whispered, “This pen works only with Mana.”

While this act of hers made everyone present grin with ‘knowing’ stares, they were merely unaware why she had to whisper it to him.

She didn’t want anyone to get any ‘ideas’ on why Ozul wouldn’t use this pen.

She could only do so much right now because, despite having hundreds of items stored in her Spatial Ring for Ozul, she hadn’t considered getting a regular pen. She also didn’t think they would find a normal pen in the tower full of Mages.

Nonetheless, she returned to her seat calmly, unconcerned about Ozul’s predicament because he would always find a way.

Just as she thought, Ozul put aside the pen with a sigh instead released a streak of the Ball of Purity from his hand.

The liquid form of Ball of Purity moved onto the paper and began to form strange patterns.

Within the blink of an eye, the patterns began to resemble those that had been etched on his skin since birth!

He remembered all of those patterns as if they were sewn on his soul instead.

Just when that part of the pattern was completed, he suddenly felt uneasy. It was as if something didn’t want him to complete the pattern.

His curiosity piqued and he almost had an urge to draw all of those patterns in the air, but he stopped considering where he was right now. Putting this idea into the back of his mind, he decided to test it later. For now, the task at hand was more important.

Following his thoughts, the paper floated in the air, the pattern now visible to everyone who up until now couldn’t see what he was doing on the paper.

To his right and left were Raven and Blaze, and each seat was placed at a considerable distance between them. One would need to deliberately lean to read anything placed in front of someone two chairs apart.

“Copy this pattern. I don’t want to see a speck of difference between this one and the copied versions.”

“Versions? How many do you want?” Haley asked to confirm.

“As many branches we have. I want at least a single copy of this in each branch.”

Everyone became a little concerned about the situation as he spoke. The fact that a specific pattern was to be distributed to each branch indicated that the matter was not simple at all.

“Inform every member of the organization with the secrecy oath. I want them to find anything, and I mean anything that could be related to this pattern.”

“But Young Master-” Irvin’s concerned voice was cut in between as Ozul again spoke, “Cease all other activities of the organization if you need to. I want this done before the tournament.”

All seated at the table began to murmur as the importance of the matter finally started to settle in their minds. This task which seemed so simple required the whole organization to completely shift their focus on this.

The Three-Eyed Strangers which had grown to become one of the top organizations over the years had hundreds of thousands of members. The continent was huge and now a ton of resources were spent each day to run everything. And although at the end of the day, they would cover their expenses easily, halting these services would mean that they would only be burning resources and gaining nothing in return.

Just when a few courageous members were also about to voice out their concerns, Ozul raised his voice a little.

“The treasury has enough resources. Use them. I don’t care.”

He stood up and exited the meeting room, unconcerned about their reaction. In the end, he had created an entire organization for this seemingly simple but massive task. He didn’t care how much the organization would suffer as long as it served its true purpose.

As of now, the organization had numerous peak Rank-8 Mages, but Raven and Blaze were still considered to be the strongest amongst them. With them, Haley, and Irvin backing Ozul’s decision, no one had a say once he had made it.

Ozul left the tower and flew in the direction of the Neutral City; he was informed that the Ashin family had yet to move out. Even when the Three-Eyed Strangers were spread all over the continent, he still wanted to ask for their help considering their centuries long history.

It was finally time to search the whole continent to find any clues regarding his identity.

This time, he was even ready to meet any dead ends. If his decades of work bore no fruit in the end, then so be it. He didn’t seem to be dying anytime soon anyway.

Despite the low odds of him finding anything, no one could stop him from checking every corner of this world now.

His eyes gazed at the vast sky, a shimmer of indifference flashed past in those emotionless eyes.

“It doesn’t matter... I just need to not die before I learn everything,” Ozul muttered to himself, oblivious to how ridiculous these words would sound to him once he actually discovered the truth.