Unsealing Emptiness

From the dark, his eyes vigilantly stared at the composed man who had his hands stained with blood.

Only a single blue piece of cloth was wrapped around that man’s waist. The rest of his outfit was completely black, allowing him to blend in easily in dark environments. There were visible splashes of blood on his face as well.

Behind the blood-splattered man, the headless corpses of that Elder and the young man were sprawled on the ground.

“Hmm. I must commend your courage, odd one... How have you already-...? Ah... No wonder my liege is so interested in you.” While inspecting Ozul with a calculated glance, the man spoke nonchalantly as if he was talking to himself.

“You’re a quiet one, just as he said...” he muttered and carefully took off a silver ring from his hand.

“Throw away your spatial storage items, they are worthless in this Realm,” as he said so, the man threw that ring straight in Ozul’s face.

.....

The ring slammed into Ozul like thunder, but it abruptly stopped directly in front of him. The Ball of Purity condensed and intercepted the ring in mid-air. Ozul didn’t inspect it right away, instead holding it in mid-air without taking his gaze away from the man.

“Who sent you?” Ozul asked without expressing any emotions.

“...”

“...”

Ozul waited for a couple of seconds and didn’t hear any response from him. Doubting his own senses, he asked, “Did you not hear me?”

“Ah! My apologies... I was merely lost in thoughts,” the man arched his back only slightly with a smile on his face, ‘This... This kid is a genius! Such precise control over his emotions! Even I can’t feel whether he is angry, afraid, or just curious. What would be his next move? Is he really calm or just acting calm? Hai... if only Master hadn’t ordered me not to harm him, I would have kidnapped and forced him to train and become one of the best assassins in this Realm! No, maybe even THE Best!’

Unaware of the impossible fantasy hatching in the man’s head, Ozul kept staring at him as he noticed unusual expressions on the man’s face coming and going before he finally took control of his thoughts.

“Ahem! Regarding your question, the man who sent me is my liege, Master Gu. I believe you were already acquainted with him?”

As the familiar name reached Ozul’s ears, he took a second to pause as the image of that unhinged old man appeared in his mind. He couldn’t help but sigh tiredly.

‘huh? Master said that they were on friendly terms, but from his actions, it doesn’t seem like? Did I see wrong?’ the man opposite to Ozul muttered to himself.

“Why did you kill these men?”

“My liege couldn’t allow those pesky old men coming after you this early. This Elder couldn’t be allowed to report his higher-ups anything about you. As for this young man, well he was a casualty~” The man chuckled after saying the last part.

Hearing his response, Ozul thought for a moment and came to a decision that he had to be extra careful regarding anything relating to Old Gu.

Although this was good for him, Ozul had a feeling that Old Gu was a bigger headache. Killing that Elder and the young man not only for someone else’s sake and merely for preventing a simple suspicion on him, ‘Does he know something about me? Or is it purely for his enjoyment?’

Ozul had to be cautious. Even though he could never read Old Gu’s emotions, he had become familiar with his personality. There was only a remote possibility that the old man had malicious motives, but that was enough for him to be on guard.

As the man noticed that Ozul had stopped asking questions, he followed his sight and noticed that he was looking at the corpses, “Ah, quite the cautious one, aren’t you! Just as I would expect!”

‘huh? Now what?’ Confused, Ozul raised his head to look at the man.

“Haha! Do not worry. They won’t ever suspect you for their deaths. At best, they would think it was their enemies, and at worst some would start suspecting Master,” the man nonchalantly chuckled again.

This time Ozul raised a brow. Why wasn’t he afraid that the suspicion would fall upon them?

“And if I must add, it would be ‘worst’ for the people who start to suspect Master,” following this, the man showed a ruthless smile.

Ozul suddenly had an urge to drop this matter and simply return back to find a place to sleep. This subordinate of that old man was just as unhinged as him. Both of them simply had too much energy to talk.

“What is in the ring?”

“My liege asked me to at least get you the basic information. Some basic supplies are there in that Spatial Ring. You only have to pour in a trace amount of Spiritual Essence in it. Also, if I didn’t say it before, all of your other Spatial Artifacts are useless outside of your Broken World,” he answered.

“What does that old man want-”

He hadn’t been able to complete his sentence when a sharp wind met his face, forcing him to stop speaking.

Ozul wasn’t even given a chance to blink before the previously easy-going man had his dagger resting at his throat!

Meow!

A black cat had also landed on top of the dagger as everything had paused, which had previously gone unnoticed by both Ozul and that man!

With her back against Ozul’s face, Jinx stared motionlessly into the man’s eyes.

After a few seconds of looking into Jinx’s eyes, the man’s knife began to shake, and she hopped down and rubbed her side against Ozul’s foot before entirely disregarding everything and licking her paws.

Even without the ability to read emotions, Ozul could tell that those eyes contained nothing but pure fear!

On the other hand, that man took a few steps back and regained his balance.

He turned away from Ozul and gazed in terror at the cat at his feet!

Even without the ability to read emotions, Ozul knew that those eyes were filled with nothing but absolute fear!

“J-...” the man was about to speak but noticed that he could barely utter a word.

Ashamed at his loss of composure, he took a deep breath before trying to calm his thumping heart. His eyes never left the cat who was now completely ignoring his existence.

‘Was this the cat Master was talking about? But he... I will have to inform him as quickly as I can,’ was that man’s internal thoughts.

He turned his attention back to Ozul, this time there was no playfulness that his eyes hid previously.

“I apologize, but do understand that I do not make light of my liege’s disrespect.”

This time, Ozul replied no more. He merely stared at him quietly as if expecting him to attack again.

“Ha... I shall take my leave. Oh, and my name is Minho. We might meet more often than you would like to,” Minho spoke and suddenly before Ozul’s eyes, he disappeared into thin air.

Ozul’s eyes weren’t able to keep up with that man’s speed!

Only after confirming that he had really left did Ozul slump his shoulder tiredly.

First and foremost, he bent down and squatted on the floor, coming face to face with the most beautiful pair of eyes he had come across until now.

His hand subconsciously reached and patted the black feline on her head, making the latter purr in bliss. As he looked at the blissful Jinx, he unusually felt better as well.

And thus played out the weird scene of a man squatting on the ground with a tiny smile, playing with a black cat in the midst of an alley surrounded by two headless bodies and their separated heads.

...

As Ozul walked out of the alley, he absentmindedly walked towards the group of three eagerly waiting for him.

He took solace in knowing that they were at least obedient enough to follow his orders regardless of how strongly their own sentiments encouraged them to do differently.

“What happened in there? That unbearable pressure, just who attacked you?” Raven asked with a concerned face.

When Minho had attacked Ozul just now, he released his Spiritual pressure which covered a large area. Raven, Blaze, and Zier were just out of the alley, so they were also affected by it.

‘Hm. That man was strong... too strong,’ instead of answering, Ozul thoughtlessly tossed the silver ring towards Raven and began to walk.

“If you can control your Spiritual Essence, pour some in it. It should have some essential materials that we will need,” he told them with his mind still wandering about what had just happened in the alley.

Considering the fact that the Ball of Purity in gaseous form was surrounding him from all sides, he should have been able to quickly block and protect himself from any danger. Yet, Minho was just too quick!

Ozul gazed down at Jinx, who was strolling elegantly alongside him, and wondered just what that Minho guy had felt for him to be so afraid of her.

Behind him, Raven caught the ring and quickly wore it before catching up with him. Beside her, Blaze was also looking at Ozul’s back with some concern; being so familiar with his habits, they felt that something significant must have happened back in the alley.