Ozul didn’t even realize that he had no physical body in this space.

He was simply there, alive, yet nonexistent.

The time it took for Ozul to regain consciousness in the deep abyss of the prison was more than just a century.

But after that, the speed at which he began to absorb the emptiness couldn’t be surpassed by anything. When he was ’asleep’, his absorption was passive, and so it didn’t make a difference to the prison.

After he woke up, however, each passing moment sent jolts of shockwave throughout the space.

It shook and crumbled in front of the insatiable devouring of Ozul.

He absorbed the power that he had accumulated over a century in a matter of a few seconds.

His power grew at an unprecedented rate.

Just as he was beginning to think that he could devour the whole of the space, something cracked.

Like firewood crackling, it started at one point and then surrounded everything.

And finally, with a snap, the Abyssos Prison broke apart!

One moment Ozul was trapped inside and the other moment he could see things; he was free after all that time.

He hadn’t realized that the prison only contained darkness, and he had made the concept of emptiness collapse on itself!

The force from that collapse pushed him out before he could absorb the whole of that space.

’Where is this place...’ He thought to himself, floating into space as he watched the distant stars blink at him annoyingly.

There were numerous things in his vision, but the ball of light floating nearest to him felt familiar.

Having absorbed so much of the Abyssos Prison, he didn’t even realize that he was so effortlessly roaming through the space.

Reaching out to the light, he realized it was too far away from him. But something in him tingled, telling him that he could reach it if he wished to.

Following his senses, he moved his hands and tried to grab hold of the space itself.

He effortlessly tore it apart and instantly understood the concept behind the spatial gates that he had seen the Empyreans and the Virtues use before.

The concept once foreign and mysterious came to him quite naturally now.

He could care less about his newfound powers and abilities, focusing instead on the light floating far from him. He stepped inside the spatial rift he had just created.

The distance which seemed like it could take years to travel was covered in a few seconds.

What seemed to him like a hazy ball of light was in fact a Broken World, fragments of a dead Realm, or simply a failure of Realm Ego.

The reason why it seemed familiar to him was because it was the Broken World where he was born; the world they had left behind for the Realm of Abezan.

He found himself floating above the continent of Egon, one he had dominated long ago.

Roaming around, he noticed the terrain that he remembered from the past was long gone. It had been more than just a short while since their departure from this Broken World.

With his speed, he was able to arrive at the manor of his uncles, Raymond and Alver.

There was no sign of them even though the manor stood tall and in pristine condition. Instead, he felt the presence of other people, likely the descendents.

’Too much time has passed...’

He remembered that the time flow in this Broken World and the Realm of Abezan was not the same. On top of that, he didn’t even know how much time he had spent trapped inside that empty space.

"I need to hurry..." he muttered as a sense of urgency filled him.

He tore through the space once again. If he could reach the Broken World, it should work similarly for other dimensions as well.

While trying to locate where the Realm of Abezan was, he couldn’t help but ’look’ inside himself.

The power surging within was beyond his current understanding. ’Something’ had cracks and he had yet to figure out what it was, much less experiment with his current strength.

Just as his consciousness was about to probe those cracks, however, a pang of pain assaulted his head, forcing him out of self-inspection.

’Something is stopping me from looking?’ He didn’t understand what it was but made a mental note to think about it later.

Probing around in the spatial rift, he found the nearest ball of light that shone many times brighter than this Broken World had been.

’This should be it...’

Stepping inside, he found himself precisely standing atop the Realm of Abezan.

"This is rather convenient..." He muttered, realizing that it wasn’t only useful for traveling between the Realms but also for shortening any distance.

Tearing apart the fabric of spacetime itself, he was able to create a wormhole, allowing him to effectively teleport anywhere.

If the Empyrean cultivators could hear his thoughts, they would curse him to death. After all, most of them still required artifacts to help their Spiritual Essence interact with the fabric of space.

His clothes were destroyed, so he was stark naked.

Covering himself with Purity, he began to roam around above the continent, taking in the new sight and understanding the unfamiliar terrain.

He realized that despite his increase in power and an improvement in his senses, there was no pain this time due to a surge of new emotions and voices he could hear now.

Initially, he thought the lands were barren and thus there wasn’t much life that would disturb him.

As he saw small villages and towns, it turned out he simply hadn’t lost control this time.

"Now where are they..."

It was time to find the trio and figure out how much time had really passed.

After all, the terrain in the Realm of Abezan had changed more than the Broken World he had just visited. Though the ongoing war had a major role to play in that.

From the few things he could recognize, he made his way to the center of the continent, toward Phoenix City.

Assuming the war was still ongoing, he thought Ember must have been putting up solid resistance. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

A few seconds was all it took for him to appear above what seemed to have been the old Phoenix City.

Things were different.

From the city protected by a big dome of shield, it now seemed like a fortress in the middle of scorched and lifeless land.

Countless deaths had marred the ground with a particular stench of blood.

Squinting his eyes, he couldn’t understand what was happening.

’3 Empyreans...’

Two of them were familiar, but the third one couldn’t jolt his memory.

What he didn’t understand was how Rai had become an Empyrean in such a short amount of time.

"Unless..." It finally set in.

He had initially thought maybe a decade or two had passed, but the reality of this situation was different.

With one look, he also confirmed there was no sign of the trio.

Thinking they had maybe gone out for a mission or something, he descended to the ground.

The shield that protected the entire city blocked his descent, but with a touch of his hand, it instantly shattered.

His ability to absorb the Spiritual Essence allowed him to disrupt the entire mechanism.

As thousands of soldiers scurried about to face the invisible enemy that had destroyed their shield, Ozul casually made his way toward Ember’s manor.

The guards standing there noticed him and blocked his entry.

More than a century had passed, and the guards who recognized him by face either died in the war or were promoted to better positions.

It didn’t help that his entire body was covered with the Purity, a substance that seemed alive and dead at the same time.

"Name yourself!" They shouted at him with agitation; the disappearance of the dome made them anxious.

Shaking his head, he didn’t feel like waiting here.

With a wave of his hand, patches of the Purity wrapped around their mouths and tied away their limbs.

As everyone scurried about in the estate, he calmly walked in the direction of Ember’s aura.

Even after all that time, she was using the same office.

"Who-" Ember was about to admonish, but her words were stuck in her mouth as she recognized his face.

"Ozul?" She asked, unable to believe her eyes.

Ignoring her stupid question, he asked, "How much time has it been?"

"..."

Ember took a few seconds to calm herself down. Despite all that time, he still talked the same. It felt unreal that he was standing before her now.

"Where have you been all that time!?"

"Tell me how much time has it been?"

Her eyes twitched in annoyance as she muttered to herself, "Okay... you are Ozul alright."

Not even the Heavenly Virtues were as dismissive as him!

"Did you break the dome?" She quickly put the two events together. He was the only being who could roam about so discreetly without being noticed.

This time, Ozul didn’t even reply. He stared at her quietly, awaiting an answer.

Sighing, Ember realized she would have to entertain him,

"...157 years."