Chapter 303: Changing Times. (1/2)

He didn't know when it was, but Jinx had again disappeared for a while now.

'Where are you...? I want you with me this time...' he spoke in his mind.

He remembered that Jinx had also disappeared during the time he had met her. Was it on purpose? Ozul didn't know. But because of the weird connection that they shared, he believed that if he were to just call her in his mind, she would surely appear sooner or later.

And just as he expected, she did. But not until he had reached the forest.

———————

With his new speed, it didn't take long for him to arrive above the Old Whispering Woods on the same day.

He wasn't sure if he would really find that druid again in this forest, but he had nowhere else to start.

And just as he had expected, Jinx appeared around him sometime later when he landed on the ground and decided to travel by foot. The trees around this part of the forest were quite tall and it was inconvenient to look for her from above as the tall and dense canopies hindered his vision.

From the journal containing the information on exotic animals, he had learned that the Dark Druid was one of a kind, and stumbling upon it was completely up to luck.

”Let's hope we find her soon...” Ozul muttered. He wasn't confident in finding her so easily, ”Well we have a little less than a year to find her...”

Previously when he had encountered her, he wasn't able to sense the Druid at all until she was so close to him. Even then, she didn't give him any particular feeling except for how he didn't find her as unpleasant as he found many other beings and objects.

For now, he expanded his area of focus to maximum and started to travel deeper inside the forest at a speed practically invisible to any Mage below Rank-9.

.. .

Just like that, Ozul's search for the Druid began while the world itself awaited and prepared to watch what would happen at the end of the year.

Except for a few individuals, the rest of the world was completely clueless about why even the strongest pillars of the continent were forced to move out from the Neutral Lands.

While Ozul searched, Raven and Blaze worked endlessly to expand the influence of the Three-Eyed Strangers, albeit discreetly.

Their first aim remained all the small organizations all around the world. They didn't try to integrate their spies into those millions of unnamed groups since that was a task that required tens of years and they didn't have so much time.

Raven also didn't think that Ozul would find whatever information he wanted from those unnamed groups.

Unless an organization was famous enough to at least control a fraction of resources, it wouldn't hold anything valuable.

Their strategy was simple and ruthless: they chose a small region and began to cause chaos anonymously, creating situations in which all organizations would run out of manpower and be forced to recruit more people under them.

For a few organizations, they didn't have any other choice but to kill a few as well.

Neither of them had any sense of justice or the heart of buddha. They did what had to be done in order to achieve what they wanted to achieve.

Just like that, small regions from all over the world faced sudden situations where they would be forced to hire more people under them. What no one noticed was that after they were finished with new recruitments, the troubling situations would just as suddenly disappear as well.

From smaller regions to bigger counties and then kingdoms, it felt as if this year was just unlucky for everyone.

A few of the organizations did notice that something was off, but Raven and Blaze both didn't go overboard. They were careful with every step since Ozul had warned them that he wouldn't come to help.

.. .

While the world was plunged into unlucky times for the unfortunate organizations of relatively smaller scales, the Church of Light didn't have room to breathe either.

All the loyal allies of the Church all felt its plight as they were called to search for the ancestor.

After a few weeks, the Leonhard Dynasty and the Mercenary Guild were starting to have some suspicions as well.

What caught Lammert off guard was when the Ashin Family suddenly started to usurp the Church's territories outside of the Neutral Lands!

The Church was thrown into another fit of anxiety and desperation with this unfortunate news.

At this moment, Lammert sat on the main seat of the chapel with scrunched-up expressions. His hands were itching to pull out his own hairs in front of all the Bishops kneeling and trembling before him.

”How! How!? They must know something! But HOW?!” Lammert shouted hysterically.

It had been weeks but he didn't receive any news of Darcia. She had suddenly disappeared from the face of the continent. No matter how or where he searched, there were no traces left of her!

At this point, even if he didn't want to believe it, the possibilities of her death became evident. Though he didn't stop the search, he did start thinking of ways to contain this information.

He even secretly executed a few of the Bishops who knew that Darcia had left after Ozul just so no one would come to the same conclusion as him.

The Church had just as many enemies as it had friends. But those allies only remained since it had the backing of a Rank-10 Mage. Once the news reached their ears, no one would be loyal enough to willingly be taken down together with the Church.

'Just How Did They Know!?' Lammert didn't think that the Ashin family suddenly taking advantage of their situation was coincidental.

Their sudden intrusion into the Church's territories at these times was such a shock for Lammert that he almost declared war against them in a fit of madness.

He couldn't think of a single way to save the Church's downfall if things continued to go like this, hence his frustration which he took out on the Bishops.

Meanwhile, in the confusion, Lammert also overlooked the disappearance of one of their priests during the search.