The royal guardian of Hildegard looked like his eyes popped out of his eye sockets. He was stunned by the disappearance of the divine chains.
As Azzy opened his eyes, they appeared to turn into black with no visible pupils and a thick layer of Protos energy was covering his body. It appeared to be similar to Barbara's but far denser. It was so dense that the chains didn't even last a few seconds. They were consumed quickly by his body.
If it was just that, the Supreme realm expert wouldn't be too shocked. However, he sensed the strength of a Demigod from Azzy.
Meanwhile, Azzy went into a deep subconscious state. His spirit was floating in the air and his childhood memories started to play like a dream. It was like he was looking at his 14 years of life from a third-person view.
He saw a handful of memories with an older version of Claire where the latter was there by his side when he was crawling on the floor; when he started to walk; when he started seeing the auras of death around him, and when he started to play the slide and other things at the park.
She disappeared when he was around 4 years old. He then started his school life. Then, it is the time of awakening, the meeting with Avia, going back to the death clan, time traveling to 1993, meeting Affea and Oakley, forming a friendship with Gideon, accepting Barton as master, meeting Barbara once again, accepting Claire's love, gaining a bunch of cosmic gems, and finally getting betrayed by Barbara.
Azzy didn't know how long he spent in the dreamland. Was it 14 years? Or was it just 1 minute? The concept of time didn't exist here just like our dreams. However, one thing that came out of this event is that a few things just became too clear for him to understand.
He realized what things he did good, and the situations where he was too na?ve in his approach. The law of neutrality automatically gets absorbed by his mind and Azzy now knew what he had to do with the both of them.
As he made up his mind and took control of his body, he saw that both of them were trapped in black chains already, possibly done by the Reaper.
"Chronos, I will take it from here." He said to the Reaper.
To which, the deity replied, "You came back more quickly than I thought. I guess it is because you have only lived 14 years. Anyway, you roughly have 26 seconds before you go back to normal. I'll leave their fate to your decision, although I recommend freeing their souls."
Maybe, it is because Azzy is temporarily in the demigod realm or maybe, it is because this power belongs to the future Azrael, who absorbed the power of Protos energy as well as the Reaper. Whatever the case, the Reaper cannot penetrate Azzy's mind at the moment and doesn't know what he is thinking either.
Hence, he urged Azzy to make his move whether it is killing them or running away before the power runs out.
At the same time, he was also curious about Azzy's next actions. Knowing that Azzy cannot possibly master the law of neutrality with so few life experiences, the Reaper was a little bit worried that his host would forgive the betrayer and her master.
However, he didn't expect that Azzy would surprise him through his actions directly.
As soon as he returned to reality, he calmly spoke to the old man, "I admit that I'm partly responsible for Vann's death and I don't blame you for trying to take revenge on me. Anyone in your position would do the same. However, everyone must face the consequences of their own actions. I don't need to remind you of that simple thing to a person like you who has probably lived for thousands of years.
Whether it is the Galarian King, the daughter of Fenrir, or a cardinal of the church, none of them escape the consequences of its actions.
And you devised a plan on trying to turn me into a time remnant and erasing my entire existence from this timeline. For that, you will face the consequences."
<strong>"Soul skill: Spear of Death"</strong>
As Azzy raised his hand and summoned a 2 m long spear bathing in death energy, the Supreme realm expert's eye widened, seeing an illusion of a Reaper behind Azzy. He gritted his teeth and tried his best to get free from the suppressing chains.
"I guess I have no choice."
When realized that it was of no use, the old man proceeded to use the energy eruption without caring about the life of Barbara, who might be killed by the technique.
A tremendous amount of energy erupted from the old man but all of it was immediately sucked by the Protos chains that enveloped him.
"No, it's impossible. Just how strong are you?" The old man was stunned by the scenario. He was prepared to even sacrifice his disciple to escape from death but didn't expect that it would turn into failure.
Usually, divine energy in his body would be able to fight against anti-divine energy (Protos energy). However, their relationship is like fire and water. If the fire is stronger than water, then, water will evaporate. And if water is stronger than fire, then, the fire will be put off.
Seeing too much of a difference in strength, the old man let out a bitter smile, "I underestimated your future self."
"Yes, you did. Now, go and reincarnate." Azzy thrust the spear and drove it into the old man's chest without even a little bit of hesitation.
As the old man turned into stone and collapsed into black powdered ash, fear crept over Barbara and she started shivering. Due to the heavy suppression, forget about fighting back, she couldn't even move her mouth to speak something.
After killing the 9-star Arcana Master without batting an eye, Azzy then focused on his cousin and apologized to her, "I brought you to this timeline and I gave you the Protos energy. Even if I didn't do it on purpose, it is true that I'm responsible for your situation. For that, even if you tried to take revenge on me, I would forgive you.
Unfortunately, I have only one way to bring you out of this misery and you are not going to like it. One day, in the future, I will surely find you in your next life and will make it up to you. I'm sorry and goodbye, my cousin."
With a heavy heart, Azzy raised his hand and stabbed her with a Protos spear, killing her instantly.
Leaving behind the ashes on the ground, he collected her dead body into his storage card to give her a proper burial in the original timeline and then summoned the hourglass once the power of the demigod faded away from his body.
<strong>"Hidden soul skill: Time Travel"</strong>
Azzy turned into specks of light and disappeared from the spot.
<strong>Eden city, Searvale;</strong>
At the hotel, Affea was walking back and forth in her room while Oakley and Avia had already gone to sleep.
"It's taking a while for the both of them to return. It's taking a while for Claire and… Hmm…"
Suddenly, she felt like she had forgotten something important, "Claire and who? Why can't I remember it?"
<strong>Meanwhile, somewhere in a random street of Eden city;</strong>
Claire was weeping hard while she was sitting on the bench. Quite coincidentally, there was a light rain pouring down from the sky. "Why should it turn like this? What sin did I commit that heaven is punishing me like this? Why is that... Hmm…"
All of a sudden, the raindrops stopped falling and just floated in the air. Claire raised her head to briefly take a glimpse at a hooded fellow with a skeleton face before a change happened in her body.
She was shrouded by her divine energy and she heard the laughter of Agatha in her head. It appears that the divine sword of Michael is screaming in happiness, "Yes, finally, I'm back, woohoo…"
The rainfall resumed once again, throwing her into momentary confusion.
<strong>Garcia Palace, Death clan village;</strong>
Qridus Garcia was lying on his bed. Just as he was about to sleep, he widened his eyes and sat on the bed, "timeline has cemented, all of a sudden. Did the kid return? Kid? Wait a second. Why can't I remember the name and face of my descendant?"
Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om