Taking heavy breaths, Barton asked the others in hurry as soon as he teleported to the top of the carpet, "how far are we from the city?"
Even including Aria, everyone stared at Barton in surprise as they didn't expect to teleport to them while they were still on the move. They wondered whether there's a variant of Teleportation Skill card, where one can teleport to a specific someone like with the message cards.
At the same time, Azzy was also shocked to see Barton's aged quite a bit. Before he used to be a healthy-looking old man and the only defect is that he wears spectacles because of his bad vision like Gideon.
However, now, along with the broken glasses, his face has a lot of wrinkles and his body looks a lot thinner. It made him remember the head of the Death Clan. The only difference is that Barton is thousands of years old younger.
While there's a brief silence from others who were in shock, Sahara asked in a worried tone, "Dear, you made the wish?"
"Hah! Hah!..." Barton nodded slowly, "I had no choice. I almost died. Never mind that. Tell me, how long does it take for us to reach the place?"
The head of the country's Special Forces, Oliver patted his shoulder and replied calmly, "relax. We are far away from the city. Tell us, what's the battle status?"
As his wife healing him with an advanced healing skill card, Barton replied with a grim expression, "not good. In the battle, the Cardinal and the Royal Ancestor switched their places and got us good. I had to make a wish to Djinn to escape and also join you guys at the same time.
Now, Lord Aegis is locked in a battle with the Cardinal and the Royal Ancestor will be on his way. We need to be ready."
Uphiar who was controlling the carpet, said, "Principal Barton, we are at least a hundred kilometers away from the place. I wonder if we can make it before the Royal Ancestor catches up to us. Isn't it better if we go to Arcana world and leave student Azrael there for the time being?"
"No" "No" "No" Barton, Affea, and Sahara refused his suggestion at the same time in a serious tone.
"Eh?" Azzy was taken aback a bit as he thought it is a good idea.
Barton then explained that their strength will be limited in that other world according to the level of the regions but at the same time, a rank-9 could resist the suppression a bit and could exercise the strength of higher-realms. Moreover, only their strength will be suppressed, neither their mastery nor the skills. They all will be dead without being able to resist.
"Well, then, let's hope we reach the place before he finds us." Uphiar suddenly increased the speed to the maximum, consuming his soul energy at a rapid pace.
Although he was focused on driving the carpet, one of his eyes was also eyeing the magical mirror in Barton's hands. When he heard that the Principal had made a wish to escape a nine-star realm expert, he became intrigued about the mirror and the Djinn inside of it.
After recovering from the injuries as well as the soul energy, he then grabbed Azzy's shoulder, "you don't need to worry. We will protect you at all costs."
A look of sorrow appeared on Azzy and he looked down, "I'm sorry for putting you with all this."
Barton was taken aback a little bit as he was not used to seeing the expression on Azzy even though he heard of it, a while ago. When he takes a look at him, now, his disciple truly looked like a normal kid.
Unknowingly, a peal of laughter escaped on him as he was genuinely happy even though the crisis is going to fall upon them. Ruffling Azzy's hair with affection, Barton replied, "everyone knows that you did nothing wrong, kid. It was all because of jealousy of an old man who couldn't digest the fact that there's a talented child born with an enormous potential out there. He was just trying to use Leonard's death to kill you, that's all."
Azzy stayed silent. He knows that he isn't wrong but at the same time, he also felt guilt for putting everyone's lives in danger. There's a stranger out there fighting for him.
There are acquaintances out here who don't intend to abandon him even though a powerful enemy they can't beat coming for their lives. Azzy was also thankful for their actions.
He decided to make sure to reverse the time even if one of them becomes a casualty in the process of saving him. Azzy put aside all this karma or whatever thing aside from his thoughts and prepared to summon the hourglass at any time.
Meanwhile, Oliver exchanged messages with his superior and informed everyone about how a few unmanned combat aerial vehicles were deployed to buy them some time.
Azzy had no idea what it is but according to the name, he thought they must be another version of a jet fighter that can be controlled just like a remote car he used to play with when he was a child.
They have flown for at least another hour. There wasn't any sight of the chasing rank-9 expert.
Soon, a ghostly town appeared in their sight with ruined buildings. Only then did everyone sigh in relief. Uphiar controlled the carpet and slowly lowered the altitude while flying into the town. Meanwhile, Affea and Azzy wondered why they were landing in a place like this.
"Everyone, follow me." With some sort of device in his hands, this director of Northern Qudour's Special Forces took the lead and continued to walk. Since there has been no sight of the enemy in a ten-kilometer radius, they were walking at a normal pace.
After a ten-minute walk, he stopped and turned around. "Princess Snieca and Azrael, what you are about to see must be not be revealed to anyone. It must remain confidential."
Seeing how serious he was right now and how the surroundings being too ordinary, he had an inkling of what it's going to be.
Then, as the military man takes out a translucent card from his storage card, Azzy realized what they will witness. It was something he witnessed before when he was only eight years old.
As Oliver thrust the card into an open space and then, turned counter-clockwise, all of a sudden, a massive door appeared out of nowhere, engraved with similar ancient runes and symbols that Azzy saw back then when he first entered the Death Clan village.
However, unlike his clan village, the opened door didn't reveal a whole new world but rather a facility similar to that of the underground secret facility where he trained for a day before the finals.
Affea was taken aback as she saw this new place in a different dimension with dozens of robots moving here and there.
"Welcome to the Headquarters of NQSF (Northern Qudour's Special Forces." He announced with a big smile on his face.
Soon, they entered the pocket world and the door was shut. The place once again looked the same as before.
<strong>Meanwhile, in the middle of nowhere;</strong>
The mighty Royal Ancestor froze in the air just like WAMO's Vice President. The only differences between them are that his mouth and eyes could move freely and a hooded figure was floating before him, not in skeleton form but as a normal human form.
"Who the hell are you?" The Royal Ancestor was growling in rage but he could neither move a bit nor could he contact his Arcana. Even his soul energy was suppressed completely.
He doesn't know who this guy is or why he was stopped. From the moment he was born, he never felt as helpless as now.
The hooded figure slowly lowered his hood, revealing his face.
Aethon's eyes were widened in shock. "You… No, it can't be possible."
It was Azrael, however, a few inches taller and a few years older-looking person.
The teenager looked at him calmly as he raised his hand above. All of a sudden, the dark clouds loomed over the sky, blocking the sunlight. There was a constant rumbling in the clouds. It looked as if a heavy thunderstorm was about to occur.
"Don't misunderstand, Aethon Light. It's nothing personal. I'm only trying to maintain the timeline intact as it has happened in the past."
The Royal Ancestor shivered in fear as he saw a glimpse of a Reaper behind the boy.
As he motioned his arm down, a bolt of black lightning descended from the clouds and hit on top of Aethon's head, turning him into ash.
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