"Let's meet again, Azrael. Before that, take this with you." The older Azrael threw his pocket watch toward Azzy.
As the latter caught it in reflex, the older Azrael then said, "Press the top button if you ever wanted to see me. And when we meet again, I will adhere to one request of yours."
"Thanks." As Azzy looked at it curiously, the demigod added as an afterthought, "I'm sure that our meeting will happen, a lot sooner than you think. Then, I will take back my tempus."
"I'll be waiting, Lord Garcia." A voice escaped from the pocket watch in response to its master's words, startling Azzy for a moment. Azzy then saw a cartoonish face appear on the dial. Its eyes were blinking and its mouth was moving on its own. "Hey, kiddo. Nice to meet you, I'm tempus, the most awesome being in the entire universe."
As Azzy flinched at the sudden surprise, the older Azrael waved his hand, "you don't need to pay attention to that thing."
"Hey, I'm not that thing. I'm tempus. I have 142 billion years of time record of all the…" As the pocket watch appeared to be flared up by the older Azrael's comment, the latter snapped his finger, "shut up."
The cartoonish face disappeared from the dial and it appeared like a regular pocket watch from the analog era.
Soon, Azzy's surroundings changed to a familiar cliff and a floating island. The Reaper was still there, but instead of the black lotus, there was a little girl that have a near-human appearance except for her hair, which was formed by its black petals. She also doesn't have any pupils and her eyes her pitch-black.
"Pui Pui Pui…"
Upon seeing Azzy, she made her usual 'Pui' sounds, scurried forward, and hugged his legs. Azzy felt like his connection with Ruby became stronger than before. He picked her up and observed her for a moment. His eyes widened in surprise, "A celestial grade?"
"It looked like Ruby's familiarity with the Protos Energy had helped her to make the foreign energy, a part of her own." The Reaper commented, being happy with the situation. He then added, "However, we shouldn't forget that she is still a newborn and doesn't have the capability of holding back the Protos energy. From time to time, she will be influenced. Hence, there are possibilities of going out of control. You should be careful."
While cautioning his host of the side effects of this enormous power boost Ruby just received, the Reaper also accessed the memories of Azzy and found out what happened in the Time Stream.
Seeing that Azzy isn't blaming him in the near future, the Reaper refused to give any sort of explanation for locking those memories. Fortunately for him, Azzy wasn't also silent about his meeting with the future counterpart.
Azzy proceeded to tell everything to the Reaper, who patiently listened until the end despite already being aware of it.
Once Azzy was finished with the story, the Reaper finally said, "Well, now that you are at 7-star realm, isn't it the time to return?"
Azzy didn't respond to that. He stayed silent.
From the start, he was prepared for it but just didn't know that it will come this sooner. In fact, he expected to spend with his family, his friends, and Claire, maybe, a couple of years but the invasion from outer space pushed his soul power to high-rank-6 and the unexpected ambush from an unknown person now pushed his soul power straight to mid-rank-7. Even his Invincible Divine physique received a significant boost.
How could he just say goodbye to everyone, all of a sudden, knowing their memories of him will also be erased?
The Reaper understands Azzy's reluctance but he cannot let him do what he wants. Hence, he tried to convince him by reminding him of a few facts, "I know what you are thinking but you don't belong to this timeline. And did you forget your future self? Do you think he will show sympathy for you and let the timeline gets damaged? Moreover, your original intention was to save your parents, wasn't it? After spending with their past selves, did you forget them too? You are the heir to the Death Clan, Azrael. You shouldn't let your emotions affect your path."
Each statement or question from the Reaper struck him deeply. Azzy didn't have anything to defend. He was only thinking that he will miss them deeply, especially Claire. It hasn't even been a year since they became a couple.
It was at that moment the Reaper thought of something. He pulled out his trump card to convince this stubborn kid, "how about this? Didn't your older self give you that tempus? Contact him and ask him for help. I cannot remove the secondary seal placed on Agatha but he can.
Once the sword of Michael returns to her prime, she would be able to help out Claire in retaining her memories of yours. Additionally, you could meet her once in a while now that you can time travel freely. It won't affect this world's timeline."
Azzy's eyes lit up immediately as he found the solution to the biggest problem that is bugging him. "No wonder that guy said to me that we will meet again sooner than I expect. I guess this must be it."
He clicked on the top button on the pocket watch as he was instructed and the surroundings changed to the Time Corridor once again with hundreds of his versions roaming around. As the Demigod appeared before him, Azzy asked, "You knew that I was going to use this?"
"Of course, as the guardian of time, there's nothing that can't escape my eyes." The older Azrael nodded in response. He then added, "But then again, you can make a different choice. Your actions won't bring any significant changes to the timeline. Anyway, now that you are here, speak."
Azzy then took a deep breath and requested, "Please remove the last seal on Agatha."
"The request is accepted," replied the older Azrael and took back the pocket watch. "Once you return to your original timeline, I will do my job."
"Thank you, Azrael." Azzy thanked his older self before returning to his mindscape.
The older Azrael then stared at the watch and let out a sigh, "do you have to make the same choice as me? You should have used it to pry into the history and future of the timeline instead of asking me to help her. It's really a pity…"
"Tch, I'm back to you again." The cartoonish character returned to the dial and displayed its annoyance before adding a statement, "By the way, a new branch of time was created in 2798."
"2798? Is it Viridia, again?" asked the Demigod.
As tempus confirmed it, the older Azrael mumbled in displeasure, "That damn host of Time beast Znuvo is really causing a lot of trouble for us, lately. I wonder when that future version of mine will return to his post. This time stream cannot track the moments of Demigod and higher versions of me. It is not only a blessing but also a headache for me."
He then left the place to tackle the new problem.
Meanwhile, the spirit of Azzy sat in a lotus position and closed his eyes, trying to stabilize his realm. Due to the abrupt boost of soul power, his soul energy was running rampant in his soul orb, trying to escape his body.
An unknown amount of time passed away.
Azzy finally opened his eyes, returning to the material world. His surroundings were completely dark but he could feel the spongy mattress beneath him. He was sure that he was in the hotel, probably in the room he checked into.
Upon stretching his hand to the left, he touched the lamp. He switched it on, illuminating the room. "Okay, I was brought into my room, alright. Let's see how long I was out."
In his digital watch, the time was showing 2:48. The Arcana world might have been trapped in a different dimension but that dimensional creator made sure that time moves the same as on Gaia, down to the second. So, his digital watch is showing the accurate time.
"Everyone must have been sleeping by now. Let's rest." Azzy closed his eyes and slept for three more hours before freshening up and getting out of the room.
*knock* knock* knock*
He knocked on the door before it was opened by Claire who widened her eyes as soon as she saw her boyfriend standing outside the room. "Rael…" She immediately jumped into his arms. Stroking her silky blonde hair, Azzy said, "I'm back."
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