230 The Ring of Nothingness [1]

'This is...!'

Aoife's eyes were locked on the projection that was displayed for everyone to see. She could hardly describe the shock that she was feeling as she saw the cadet from the Aurora Empire walk within the world of white.

As he walked, she could vividly see his eyes starting to lose focus with each step that he took.

She wasn't the only one who noticed this.

Everyone else noticed the same change as the air around them started to grow tense.

'It's almost as if he's losing sight of himself. No, maybe...'

Aoife held her breath as she looked around.

More specifically, she looked towards the nuns and priests that were around them.

Seeing the lost and hollow looks in their eyes, she started to realize what was going on and covered her mouth.

<nulli>'This trial... rather than a trial, it's more like something that is used to erase the identity of those that go inside.'

Aoife blinked her eyes as she felt the beat of her heart speed up.

It wasn't so much that she was worried about what was going on, but rather, it was more because she felt like this situation was vaguely familiar to her.

'Where have I heard of this before...?'

Aoife started to rack her brain over the situation.

From the white world that rippled with each step, to the weird cases where everyone started to lose their sense of self...

"Ah."

Then it finally hit Aoife as her eyes widened.

Holding her breath, she felt her back straighten.

'This... it's no wonder it felt so familiar to me.'

Aoife bit her lips with enough force to cause them to bleed. But that was of no concern to her as her eyes darted towards the man who referred to himself as the 'Archbishop'. Aoife could tell at a glance that he wasn't strong.

He was weaker than her.

And yet, with everyone's mana sealed, they were helpless.

Not to mention that his 'servants' were all quite strong.

But that wasn't her focus. No, her attention was riveted on the silver ring on his hand, resting atop the cadet's head.

That was when it all clicked to Aoife who breathed coldly.

'The Ring of Nothingness.'

Within her family was a large library that all the members were granted access to. There had been a time when Aoife used to spend a lot of time in the library.

In particular, she paid particular attention to a certain book which was known as 'The Seven Artifacts of Evil.'

That book detailed the most infamous artifacts in the world. All of whom, had been used for the purpose of evil and had caused a large imbalance within the world's order.

Amongst them, the Ring of Nothingness was one such artifact.

As an artifact that used to belong to the Empire of Nothingness, an Empire that existed during the the Age of Umbral Dominion. In that period, the Emperor used the Ring of Nothingness to completely enslave and control all those beneath him.

His greed for power drove him to conquer the other existing empires, causing a great world war that lasted just a bit before the Era of Sovereign Ascendance which was when the Four Empires came to power.

The battle had been a brutal one, and in the end, the Empire of Nothingness was defeated.

The losses that came from such a large conflict were astronomical, and the Ring of Nothingness was eventually lost in the conflict.

But this...

'That's without a doubt the Ring of Nothingness.'

Aoife could recognize it from just a glance.

....And everything around her was also an affirmation of its authenticity.

'Not good.'

Aoife felt the beat of her heart beat loudly within her mind.

It was so loud that she could hardly pay any attention to what was happening ahead.

'What do I do...?'

Once someone was under the Ring of Nothingness, it was almost impossible for them to free themselves from its control.

All power was meaningless within that world.

The only thing one could do was walk.

....Walk until they lost sight of who they were.

Aoife did recall reading from the book that there had been someone in the past who had been able to free themselves from the grasp of the Ring of Nothingness, but there wasn't much information about how they had done it.

The only thing the book detailed was a simple quote from the person, 'To escape the Ring of Nothingness, you must know who you are.'

What did that mean?

Aoife tried to rack her brain over the words but found herself unable to.

"You have done well."

Aoife's thoughts were broken by the Archbishop's voice.

Turning her head, her gaze fell on the cadet who stood before him. He seemed lost, and his eyes appeared muddled.

His body swayed left and right as he struggled to keep himself straight.

Aoife stared at the scene with an approaching dread as she felt her hand starting to tingle with anxiety.

'This is not good.'

Drip.

Something wet streaked down her chin as she kept her gaze fixed on the ring on the Archbishop's hand.

'.....This is really not good.'

***

"....."

A rocky ceiling greeted my vision.

Massaging my face, I remained on the floor while staring at the rocky ceiling.

It felt familiar, but at the same time didn't.

But that wasn't the most important thing. Closing my eyes, I tried to recall the scenes from before.

<nulli>'I don't remember well.'

My mind was blank.

....I tried to think but found myself unable to.

It was as if my brain was refusing to cooperate with me.

".....!"

Startling my brain were a pair of red-eyes and I hastily sat up to see an owl and a cat looking at me from the distance.

They didn't say anything, but I understood something from the moment that I looked a them.

'They're not my enemies.'

Was it instincts, or something else?

"It looks like you haven't completely lost it."

The owl began to speak.

".....It was a peculiar situation. For some strange reason, we couldn't go out at all in that white world. It's as if something was blocking us."

White world?

I closed my eyes and thought back.

White world, white world, white world...

I could vaguely recall something, and I opened my mouth to speak when I was cut off by the owl.

"Let's fix your memory first."

"Fix...?"

I looked at the owl in confusion.

To my shock, it was already standing next to my shoulder, and I felt something smack against the back of my head.

Smack!

"Ahh...!"

It hurt quite a bit.

The worst part was that nothing happened. Turning my head to glare at the owl, I suddenly paused after a second.

My entire body grew stiff and my expression froze.

'What did you do to me?'

I tried to speak, but couldn't.

"Stay still."

The owl's voice continued to sound in my ears, and shortly after, something hit me again at the back of my head.

Smack!

It was harder than it was before, but unlike the first time, something did happen.

My vision blurred for a split second and images soon started to appear within my vision.

"Ukgh...!"

My brain jolted with all sorts of images and memories, and I held onto my head as I fell to the ground.

Thump!

"Akh!"

It was hard to describe the pain that I was currently feeling.

I thought I was someone who could take pain, but what I currently felt was not something I could ignore.

"Akh!"

Thrashing on the ground, I felt spit flow out of my mouth.

"Ahhhhh!"

My screams echoed throughout as I held tightly onto my head.

"Haa... Haa..."

By the time all of it was over, my breath was heavy.

The pain still lingered in my mind, making me shiver at the thought, however,

"....I remember."

I could finally remember.

At least, up until I woke up in this strange environment and took over this body.

"Owl-Mighty, Pebble..."

"No!"

I was cut off by Pebble who glared at me.

"That's not my name!"

"Stupid cat."

"....Stupid owl, do you want to go at it again?"

I ignored the two and consolidated the memories in my mind. In the end, once I did, I looked towards Owl-Mighty.

"How?"

"How...? Are you asking for how I was able to restore your memories?"

"Yes."

I nodded slightly.

"....It wasn't that difficult."

Owl-Mighty went on to explain.

"Your memories were never removed to begin with."

"They weren't?"

I blinked my eyes, unsure of what it was trying to say.

I was... quite sure they had been removed.

"Your memories weren't removed. Your mind on the other hand was affected."

Raising its wing, a small blue orb the size of a golf ball appeared on top of its wing.

"This is what was in your mind."

"....!"

"It's a ball purely made out of mana, and its job is to prevent your neurons from sending signals to your brain essentially numbing your brain and stopping it from thinking properly. Your memory loss was a result of this process. At least, for what currently happened. Regarding your other situation, I am not sure how it happened."

"Ah."

A clear picture of the situation started to form in my mind.

"If that's the case..."

I stopped myself and thought back to the last words that the Archbishop said.

'We will start the real thing soon.'

I found myself covering my mouth. If this was merely just a trial, then...

"Haa... haa.."

My breath started to grow heavy.

"You were lucky."

Looking up, Owl-Mighty brought the orb to its mouth and swallowed it.

"Your mana is sealed, but the same can't be said for the two of us. Although all, as individual wills, we have our own mana pool that we can use. While we mainly rely on your mana, we can store a tiny bit within your bones. It's for that reason that you're lucky."

Listening to Owl-Mighty's words, I squinted my eyes and pretended to understand. In reality, I didn't understand at all what it was trying to say.

Thankfully, its next set of actions made a lot more sense to me.

"I didn't do it before since I was still observing you, but it looks like I have no choice but to do this."

Raising its wing, a strange glow manifested over Owl-Mighty's body.

Suddenly, the ground beneath me shook and I felt something crawl up on my foot.

"....!"

I was shocked to see a black root appearing from the ground and I almost removed it from my foot, when Owl-Mighty's voice stopped me.

"Don't do anything."

The root encircled my foot.

It wrapped around it tightly, and a strange current flowed into my body.

I didn't understand what was going on, but it felt strangely good. It continued for the next few minutes before finally stopping.

"....."

I stood in silence for a brief second, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did.

Or at least, in the first few minutes.

After a few more minutes passed, I hastily gripped my chest as I felt something grip my heart.

"Akh...!"

I was once again invaded by pain as I gripped my chest and hunched down.

"Akh..! Akh...!"

Weird gagging noises came out of my mouth as I hunched over, and grasped the hard rocky floor.

"Ukeh!"

My mind temporarily blanked from the pain.

"Pfttt!"

Only for clarity to return shortly after as blood spewed out of my mouth.

"....!"

In that brief moment, I felt a warm current enter my body as clarity resurfaced within my mind.

"Haaa... Haa..."

Still hunched over, I took several deep breaths to calm myself down before spotting something in front of me.

"This...? Haa..."

It was a purple centipede, and it squirmed under my grasp.

Covered in my own blood, I had a sudden realization and looked towards Owl-Mighty.

"That was the thing blocking your mana. Now that it's removed, you can freely use mana."

"Mana...?"

I was still foreign to the concept.

What was it, and how did I use it?

"You need to think fast. We don't have much time."

"For what?"

"For your escape." "

"Uh?"

I shifted my focus away from the centipede.

".....I won't be able to help you if you get caught again. If you want freedom, then do as I say."

Owl-Mighty turned to look at the cat.

"For the next few hours, we will be teaching you how to use your abilities."