Unsealing Emptiness

There were many encounters with wild Beasts during the journey, but fortunately, they weren’t a threat to the group.

Although Clive wanted the group to keep moving until they were finally out of danger, he also knew that it wouldn’t be worth the risk to move at night. The stealth abilities of the nocturnal Beasts made even the Rank-7 Mages to remain on their toes!

This time, they had found a small stream flowing through the jungle. The space around it was mostly devoid of the thick trees, so the group decided to camp here. It was a perfect place to rest after continuously walking all day.

Clive also did not want the group to make camps here since the stream was a dangerous place to rest. The Beasts in a jungle always knew where the freshwater source was. And this meant that they would have to deal with more Beasts than usual if they stayed here for the night.

But he couldn’t say no when Clara insisted on setting up the tents in this place.

The mercenaries all had varied reactions. Some did not care about where they rested and just wanted to drop on the ground, while some were anxious to stay the night near a running body of water.

.....

Meanwhile, the trio was as uncaring as ever. Raven and Blaze were all smiles all day because of their recent improvements. They were finally strong enough to be of some help to Ozul. Nothing better could happen at this time.

On the other hand, Ozul was fine with whatever. He could feel more presence than usual in the surroundings, but it was only because of the stream flowing through here.

With five pitch-black small spheres moving right before his eyes, he found a spot against a tree nearby and sat with his back against the trunk.

“Should I set up the tent?” Raven asked while Blaze looked around the spot to find anything unusual.

“Let it be,” Ozul said with a low voice while looking at the sky. After so many days, he could finally see the sky clearly. He wanted to enjoy it for a while.

Raven also looked at the sky, but she just couldn’t enjoy what Ozul did. The Moon reflected off of the almost-still stream, creating a captivating scene that would seduce just about any grandmaster painter on the continent.

However, she also knew that Ozul did not care about any of this scene. All he wanted to look at was the empty void behind the Moon and all those stars.

Though sometimes, even Raven had to admit that when she gazed at the vast nothingness for too long, something inside her pushed her towards it. What was it exactly? She wasn’t sure. She could only hold Ozul responsible for this to influence her subconscious.

When Blaze came back after checking the surroundings, he saw Ozul looking deeply at the sky while Raven at Ozul.

The four spheres of Ball of Purity kept going back and forth in different directions while Ozul wasn’t even focusing much on it. Slowly, he was making it a habit to move it subconsciously.

The more subconscious control he had on the Ball of Purity, the better it was for him. It would take too much time to protect himself against any hidden attacks if he first thought to create a shield. But if it were all instinctive, it would take even a hundredth part of the second before he would be wrapped in the black cocoon.

Slowly, the mercenaries set up the camps and secured the area around them. However, they had to kill some Beasts who were lurking around in the process.

Clara had opened the window of her wooden cabin as she sat on the chair, gazing at the big Moon in the sky while occasionally looking towards Ozul’s direction. After a while, she could only sigh in defeat and closed the window to rest for the day.

——-

Just like that, the night passed, and the day arrived.

As usual, the Beasts were always the first to wake up as the group could already hear the war cries.

“Pack up!” Clive’s shout made everyone jump to their feet. A few minutes later, the convoy was again ready to move out.

Their routine repeated every day, and time started to pass like the wind.

In the blink of an eye, two whole weeks passed!

During this time, the group did not have any exciting encounters that could be mentioned.

Raven and Blaze tried to familiarize themselves with their newfound abilities, while Ozul did his usual thing of not caring about anything.

There were many times where he wanted to take off on his own again, but he stopped only because he realized that it wasn’t certain that he would find something interesting.

These days, the group was quick on their feet since their whole month had passed continuously looking at the trees. They just wanted to get out of this jungle now and look at different scenery.

Fortunately for them, it would be their last day in these Old Whispering Woods. Clive had told the group that it wouldn’t be long that they would be out of this forest.

The group was overjoyed hearing this news. It was also their good luck that they did not encounter anything whispering in their time in this jungle.

There weren’t as many trees as there were before since, at some point in their journey, they had again started to move towards the boundary line of the forest instead. At this point, they walked unhindered and carefree since there was almost no Beast that even dared to step in their path.

The ones who crossed their path by mistake were slain without any mercy.

Ozul enjoyed the birds’ songs with his eyes closed. However, it was a wonder to Raven and Blaze as to how he could walk so freely without seeing anything.

Even the way he avoided the twigs or the bushes. They were also certain that he really did have his eyes closed.

“Finally!”

“Huuu... Are we really out?!”

. . .

Suddenly, Ozul opened his eyes when he heard the shouts from the group ahead.

He looked ahead and noticed that he could really see the number of trees starting to decline. Together with Raven and Blaze, he made his way forward and noticed how at one point, the trees just stopped!

It was as if the forest had stretched a border, and none of the trees were allowed to grow on the other side of it!

In front of them was a small rocky cliff that showed them the view all around them. Getting on top of the cliff, Ozul turned around and saw that the line of trees stretched far into the distance.

“It really is unusual...” Ozul muttered. He did not doubt anything about the Old Whispering Woods, but he kind of expected something more from it.

But he did not understand that he was just way too strong for this portion of the jungle! The strongest here were just Rank-7 Beasts! Only venturing even deeper might have gotten him to face some real dangers.

As he came down, the mercenaries gathered around Clive since he hadn’t told them anything about how they would proceed after this jungle.

“Everyone calm down, and as you can all see that we have already crossed through our most difficult route. It wouldn’t be long until we will be in the Neutral Lands!” Clive swept his eyes at the surrounding mercenaries and continued:

“Though I know that you people have lost your dear brothers, I promise that the rewards will be all worth it!” The mercenaries all had their eyes lit up at this sentence.

If it were anyone else, Clive wouldn’t have tried to use this card in fear that he would be insulted for compensating the lives with riches. However, he was also aware that he was dealing with mercenaries. Usually, they wouldn’t even care if their whole team died if they received some money as compensation.

And it was true for most mercenaries since even Barry had a smile on his face, completely forgetting about the grudge in his heart.

“So, what now?” Ozul asked. He knew that Clive would just spout some bullsh*t about the rewards and end it here if he let it be again.

Clive visibly cringed at this and turned around to face towards Ozul, “... what?”

“I asked, which route will we take from here on out?” Ozul explained his question when he noticed that Clive really wanted to avoid this.

“... O-oh that. Well... we will, of course, go through the Dividing Mountains,” Clive said with a little difficulty.

And just as he expected, all eyes fell on him the moment he mentioned the Diving Mountains.

“Oh? The last time I checked, I saw a city just to the left of here which also had the route linked to the Neutral Lands,” Raven added.

“Ah, that! Haha... Well, yes. We had originally planned to go along that route as well. However, I was informed at the last minute that there were some problems in Fer City. That is the name of that city,” Clive replied.

‘Huh. Who is he trying to fool?’ Ozul thought since he did not need to rely on his emotion-sensing ability to realize that Clive was lying.

“Yes, yes! I know what you may all be thinking. But we have already passed through the Old Whispering Woods. The Dividing Mountains are nothing compared to it!” Clive said, trying to pacify the situation...