Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 462: Regrets.

A wave of Spiritual Essence just phased past the entire Realm of Abezan.

It wasn’t Ozul alone who felt the burst.

But only he could recognize to whom it belonged.

"Ember?" He muttered, turning around to look in the direction of Phoenix City.

Raven, Blaze, and Zier too turned to look in the direction. The wave of Spiritual Essence was sudden and short-lived, yet the oppressiveness that it carried could even choke people.

Ozul, having abnormally heightened senses, could make a vague guess which affirmed his previous observations.

"Ember is trying to break through to the next Realm..." He informed the trio, transforming their wariness into shock.

"Breakthrough?" Blaze muttered, feeling a sense of weakness.

Zier couldn’t hold it in, "Isn’t she a Sage? Didn’t she just recover her powers?"

"Does it matter?" Raven replied with a calm face. However, she too didn’t expect such a development.

"This is so unfair though! She sits behind paperwork all day, when did she even cultivate?" Zier complained.

Ozul fortunately had the answer to his question, "She was also close before losing her cultivation."

He wasn’t as surprised since the day he had seen Ember fight the City Lord and Alliance Leader at the same time. There was something fundamentally superior in her when compared to the other two.

’That should make things easier for us...’ he considered before his focus shifted back to finding a Transcendent beast in this forest.

There was a war coming.

A war of such a grand scale wouldn’t have mercy on even someone at the level of a Transcendent.

At the end of the day, he needed personal strength above all else.

Even the Celestial Phoenix couldn’t protect Ember when it truly mattered. It was a testament to the unpredictable nature of this world.

"Let’s go," he spoke, reeling their attention back to the matter at hand.

Though Zier looked appalled by the fact that they were still going further in the forest when Ember was literally breaking through to the next Realm, he kept his mouth shut under Raven’s glares.

. . .

In other corners of the Realm of Abezan, people were alarmed.

Many of the Transcendents did not know, but all the Sages were aware of what this phenomenon indicated.

Someone was trying to enter the Empyrean Realm!

Since there were so few Sages, all of them could guess who it was from the direction of the Spiritual Wave.

In Phoenix City, there were only two Sages and the City Lord was evidently not the first guess of people.

It came as a shock to everyone since some people had yet to believe that Ember had regained her powers much less she was now advancing through to the Empyrean Realm.

The two powers who were the most concerned with this news were without a doubt The Immortal Sect and The Wilderness.

...

Ashen mountains surrounded the Immortal Sect from all directions.

Even on the warmest days, the winds around the Sect blew cold and mercilessly sharp.

After the Spiritual Wave, the atmosphere had gotten even more chilly.

The 9 Grand Elders rushed to the residence peak of the Sect Leader. They were all in the Sage Realm, the true force of the Immortal Sect.

But what the Sect boasted was not how many Sages it housed, but the power of its leader; a man who reigned supreme in the Realm of Abezan as an Empyrean.

He seldom left the mountain peaks surrounding the Sect and most of the disciples hadn’t even had the opportunity to so much as take a glimpse of him.

Known to scarcely let the Grand Elders disturb his peace, the Sect Leader showed a rare understanding and unsealed the barrier on his mountain as soon as the Grand Elders reached it.

"Sect Leader!"

Cried the oldest of them, a woman with an elderly appearance. Even as a Sage, she had gotten old, which spoke volumes of how old she really was.

"You must do something about this," she continued, followed by the other Grand Elders.

Just a few seconds before, they were at the base of the mountain, and now they stood before the wooden hut, complaining while facing the closed door.

The speed of a Sage was not something normal people could even comprehend.

"It was the first Wave. There will be two others, we need to do something about this or..." A bearded man with scars all over his face spoke, but he was interrupted by a voice from inside the hut.

"Or what?"

The Grand Elders were stumped.

But the old-looking woman mustered up some courage, "If Ember becomes an Empyrean as well, then it would spell disaster for The Immortal Sect!"

It was common knowledge that the Immortal Sect was a major reason Ember’s cultivation was destroyed all those years ago.

If Ember still held all that spite in her after becoming an Empyrean, then even the Sect Leader would find it difficult to protect the Sect.

The door to the hut opened with a long creak.

The Sect Leader appeared, with his long black robes unblemished by the dusty hut he was staying in.

He was a man of tall stature and looked as young as someone in their late 20s, but in reality, even the eldest of the Grand Elders was younger than him.

"Who thought it was a good idea to let her live in the first place?" There were no emotions to be felt from his facial expressions or tone.

With a straightened back, the old-looking woman replied, "We had tried. Even with her cultivation crippled, she always slipped away!" There was obvious venom in her voice.

"It was all because of those animals from the Wilderness. Their leader obviously helped her," another Grand Elder chipped in her opinion. She appeared to be the youngest among the Grand Elders.

The Sect Leader gave her a passing glance, "She is soon to be an Empyrean, most of you still underestimate her?"

"What do you mean ’soon to be Empyrean’, Sect Leader?" The old-looking woman impatiently questioned.

It was obviously a hasty decision as the Sect Leader narrowed his eyes at her, a pressure suddenly descending upon her.

The other Grand Elders took a step back, pity radiating from their eyes.

Even the rocks under the old-looking women were splintered because of a mere gaze from an Empyrean.

"I... s-spoke too soon. F-Forgive me..." She managed to mutter out an apology. Only then did the pressure lift and she was able to stand again.

The Sect Leader’s displeasure disappeared as soon as it had erupted. He continued to calmly address the Grand Elders,

"Ember will become the 3rd Empyrean of the Realm of Abezan. It is set in stone.

The Celestial Phoenix protects her, I nor anyone else can interfere in her awakening now. I wish it hadn’t come to this, but when you have lived as long as I, regrets become as dull as breathing."

Even now, the only one who dared to speak was the eldest of the Grand Elders, "What shall we do then?"

The Sect Leader looked at all the Grand Elders one by one before speaking, "Prepare for the worst."

He turned around and entered his hut again, the door closed by itself.

"Ember will not be the worst of your worries in coming years. Stop everything, war is coming. Prepare."

With that, the Grand Elders were forced to descend the mountain which was quickly shut off for everyone with a barrier so strong that only a collective effort of Sages could take it down.

The last words of the Sect Leader further worried the Grand Elders who thought that maybe the cause of the upcoming war would be Ember. They would only realize later that the Sect Leader hadn’t stressed enough how prepared they should be.

. . .

In a different corner of the Realm, where Beastkin lived free from the scrutiny of Humans, there hid the organization named The Wilderness.

Just like The Immortal Sect, the 6 Elders from the Wilderness were also in a meeting with their Leader.

The Wilderness could be considered an organization comparable to the Immortal Sect solely because of the presence of their Leader, the only other Empyrean in the Realm of Abezan.

In a room lit up with dim lamps sat all the Beastkin Elders around the long, wooden table.

At the head of the table sat the Leader of the Wilderness, a middle-aged man with slitted eyes. Behind him stood an old man, a trusted and close aide of his.

Before they entered the room, all the Elders were in a heated discussion.

"Why was this meeting called?" asked the old man standing behind the Leader.

"What do you mean ’why’? Ember is going to become an Empyrean!" shouted one of those seated individuals.

"So?" The Leader spoke up, silencing the crowd completely.

"Leader, it was you who brought her up when she had nowhere to go! She should at least pay you back and return to The Wilderness," another one of the Beastkin spoke up.

Among everyone present in the room, only a man with yellow-orange hair akin to a thunderbird remained quiet. He used to be a good friend of Ember and helped her even after her fall.

The hypocrisy of his fellow Elders annoyed him to no end, but he also knew that the Leader himself was in support of Ember, so he didn’t need to do anything.

And just as he expected, the Leader spoke up, "Ember has paid me and The Wilderness more than I or any of you deserve. If someone wants to persuade her, do that at your own expense."

"But Leader-"

"Silence!" The Leader’s voice thundered throughout the forest, instilling a primitive fear in the hearts of all Beastkin.

"Do not think, even for a moment, that I was not aware of what all of you did behind my back when Ember lost her cultivation!"

No one spoke after that, their heads hung in shame. They hadn’t ever regretted a decision with such intensity before.