Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 67: The Last Opportunity.

-A little while ago-

Podas had planned everything to the point that he had to invest about half of the Eclipse’s Order’s savings just to complete the ultimate piece!

Naturally, Podas knew that the hardest part in his plan was to assimilate all that End Stage of Rank-10 with himself. He had set-up one of the most expensive materials in their treasury just to create a mechanism that would not destroy his body while absorbing the Monster.

Everything was working fine until the point when Podas accidentally touched the pitch-black eerie symbols on Ozul’s leg inside the Monster.

The process was working perfectly fine up to that point. Podas had calculated everything in his plan-The plan that he had created decades ago! And with trial and error, he had been improving bits and pieces of it.

Most of his time had been spent on collecting all the resources. Podas had joined this cult as just a simple member. He not only climbed his way up the ladder of supremacy but also wholly took control of the Eclipse’s Order!

All that decades of search and he had finally found something that could be put together as the last piece, the strange leg. Podas had received the information of not only this leg, but also about two arms. Unfortunately, those arms were out of his reach.

.....

However, he knew that this leg contained enough energy to power the ritual as the other two arms were able to mass-produce those health potions. He did not understand how the Church of Light could produce such elixirs, but he knew that the limbs must have enough energy to do so.

Hence, the only one that Podas could target was Duke Edwin, who, for some reason, was sure that people wouldn’t dare to sneak into his estate!

Obtaining this last piece, he had been ecstatic that he overlooked the fact that the life-like symbols on Ozul’s leg could contain more mysteries than he could ever imagine. How could he understand them, when even Immortals would be left puzzled when investigating those eerie patterns.

Just because of this ‘insignificant’ mistake of his, Podas suffered the worst backlash ever in his entire lifetime.

He had been laughing a while ago while enjoying the best time in his life. But the moment his body came into contact with the leg, something that he had never imagined occurred.

Suddenly, the runes which were protecting his body from self-destruction after absorbing such a vast amount of Mana had cracks forming on them!

Podas stopped laughing at this point when he realized that something had gone wrong. But what was it? He had planned everything. He did not miss a single detail, what could have gone wrong!? No matter how much he racked his brain, Podas could not find an explanation for it.

Cracks started spreading to all the runes, which restrained the rampage of the dense energy of a Rank-10 Monster inside Podas.

In just a few seconds, like an explosive chain, all the runes shattered under the sheer pressure from the leg’s life-like symbols.

Since the mechanisms protecting his body had been destroyed, Podas did not know what to do now. Before he could think of a way out, the dense force that accumulated inside the Monster’s body began its assault on Podas.

———-

-Back to the present-

Ozul heard the screams of Podas whose body was being crushed into bits and pieces. Unknown to him, this event did not occur because Podas was an idiot or something, but because of his leg.

Even if he did know, Ozul wouldn’t care about it. As long as he could get his leg back, he was satisfied no matter what price others had to pay for it. Call him selfish, but why would he think about other’s feelings?

The exceptions to this would only have been a few people such as his late mother, grandma Coral, and maybe, just maybe Raven. But even their opinions wouldn’t stop him from getting his ‘parts’ back.

Anyways, little by little, the Monster grew back to its original 8 meters size. Podas who had been inside the ‘Anomaly’ were not screaming anymore. It seemed as though the cat got his tongue because Ozul did not hear any sound that resembled his.

‘Is he dead?...’

Ozul could not help but wonder if Podas had just died inside the Monster’s body. A moment later, he received his answer when a grisly half-intact and half-withered body was expelled out of that abomination!

The withered parts of his body looked as it had aged to the point where just blowing air from the mouth would scatter it away. Ozul did not need to think twice to figure out whose body was it.

When Podas was dealt with, the Monster did not even consider Ozul’s presence and again began to increase its energy. The ‘Anomaly’ was weakened to the point where it only radiated the power of a Mage around an End-Stage Rank-9!

The ‘Anomaly’ was increasing its power without stabilizing its foundation, so degrading of its Rank was not something unexpected.

Ozul’s eyes shone when he noticed the sharp decrease in the Monster’s power. Earlier, when Leader Podas was screaming inside the Monster’s body, he was not just sitting around while enjoying his misery.

His screams amused Ozul for sure, but he had more important things to do before him. He had been searching for any weakness that he could find in the Monster. Moreover, the ‘Anomaly’ did not even have sensitive organs such as eyes that Ozul could exploit.

The material all around its body was too thick and gooey for Ozul’s Ball of Purity to cut apart and retrieve his leg back. He realized one Ball of Purity’s shortcomings.

It was sharp enough to cut away many, but what about facing something that was not supposed to be cut, but destroyed entirely in one go to kill?

The only weakness left in the Monster for Ozul to exploit was its mouth! But even that needed him to get close to the Monster. And he had witnessed the might of a Rank-10 at first hand.

He knew that no matter how much he tried, getting so close to the Monster was an impossible task considering the latter’s strength.

But now, Ozul had a chance! The Monster’s power had degraded to Rank-9. If he could exploit this opportunity, he would surely obtain his leg back!

He did not waste any time before advancing straight towards the Monster in fear that it would again grow to a Rank-10.

The Monster did not mind Ozul’s presence until the latter was only a few meters away from it. Ozul took this chance to send blades made up of Ball of Purity towards it.

Those blades were not even close to harming the Monster, but it did distract it a little bit. Though this attack only gave him only a bit more time, this was enough for Ozul.

He closed in on the ‘Anomaly’ when he noticed its hand moving towards him to swat him away again. But this time, Ozul was prepared; however, he still did not change his direction!

Raven and Blaze had recovered enough of their energy to be able to sit up again. So, they were also watching this confrontation between Ozul and the Monster.

They were stunned to notice that when Ozul could have backed away to dodge the incoming attack, he did the opposite and even increased his pace!

Both Raven and Blaze had the same thought in their minds, ‘Is he again planning to sacrifice a part of his body just to achieve the task!?’

However, contrary to their thoughts, Ozul did not plan to keep using his body as a meat shield. Just as the hand was about to hit him, he seemingly stepped on thin air and pushed himself in the air.

‘How did he do it! How was he able to step on thin-air!?’ Raven and Blaze both looked gawking at this sight.

At the moment when Ozul jumped in the air, without him noticing, another hand struck towards him! Only when he was about to hit did Ozul realize the danger that he was in, so he quickly covered himself with Ball of Purity.

Despite his quick reaction, he was not fast enough, and his legs were left uncovered. Ozul quickly realized the danger. If he did not do something then his legs would be crushed due to the force behind the attack.

He opted to sacrifice his prosthetic leg, as this was always an option! Just when the hand was about to collide with him, he kicked his prosthetic leg towards the incoming attack.

Out of nowhere, the leg detached from Ozul and flew right in the direction of the Monster. Surprisingly, when both the Monster’s hand and the leg collided, the prosthetic leg exploded!

The explosion created a smokescreen around the Monster so Raven and Blaze could not see anything that happened inside...