Somewhere in Northern Qudour;
Roughly a couple of hours later, Azzy was found to be traveling in a helicopter alongside Mia with her security closely guarding the vehicle in a couple of more helicopters.
Since Aria had only informed him to visit Dr. Mac but didn't give the proper access or tell him a way to directly contact them, he was forced to take Mia's help.
Being the President of a nation, she could call in a favor with Aegis Light, the supreme commander of the special forces of the country.
He thought of using Aegis to contact Dr. Mac but didn't expect his friend to have direct contact with that scientist from another planet.
Once he revealed the fact that Uphiar is behind the death of Barton and his wife, Mia contacted the scientist, who then deployed Aria on a mission.
Within just half an hour, not only Uphiar was captured by Aria but he was also brought back to the secret facility as a prisoner and was interrogated.
By the time Azzy reached the location, Dr. Mac already extracted the confession from Uphiar, confirming Azzy's earlier accusation.
Being a former student of Barton, Mia also decided to tag along with Azzy while canceling all the appointments for the rest of the day.
Azzy and Mia were personally welcomed by the pale-skinned woman, surprising Mia as it never happened to her before.
She couldn't help but glance at her high school friend from the corner of her eyes, wondering whether they know each other quite well. Maybe, it is why Dr. Mac helped in catching Uphiar and not because of her.
And the fact that Azzy addressed her as Miss Kim instead of Dr. Mac explains that they were acquainted.
Dr. Mac didn't speak of anything personal and went to business right away after shaking her hands with Azzy.
"Didn't expect that you will be here so quickly. I thought you would take more time to visit us. Anyways, follow me. Let's take care of your matter first before talking about other things…"
Kim Yuri aka Dr. Mac took them to a chamber where Uphiar was being imprisoned in a cell. Plasma energy chains were holding him down and not letting him move a bit. However, he could talk though.
Uphiar's eyes fell on Mia. It was someone who he recognized, "Mia?"
Seeing his former student surprised him a little bit and a ray of hope appeared on his face. "Mia… Please show mercy on me. Tell the lady to not kill me, okay? Please hand over me to the authorities."
Being in a legendary realm, he could live for 5,000 years. Having a couple of hundred years of prison sentence is better than dying, thought the sorcerer.
Unfortunately for him, Mia didn't have any plans on forgiving him. She pointed to the teenage kid beside her and asked, "Do you remember him?"
Naturally, Uphiar couldn't remember him and looked at Azzy in confusion. All of a sudden, he recognized the clothes Azzy was wearing. "That physique, and clothes…"
He remembered it as it only happened a few hours ago. "It's you? The assassin who wanted to hunt me down?"
Azzy didn't answer that question and said, "I'm the disciple of Barton Everglade, the name's Azrael. I think you remembered my name."
"Azrael? That Azrael?" Uphiar felt the shock of his life. It was as if some nuclear bomb blew up in his chest. How could this guy still be a teenager? No, that's not it. How did he grow so powerful just in two decades of time?
It was tough for Uphiar to believe Azzy's words but the latter didn't care about it either.
He turned his head to look at the lady scientist, "Ms. Kim, Mia told me that you have his confession. Can I take a look at it?"
Dr. Mac nodded and took a PC tablet out of her storage card, giving it to him while playing the video.
Azzy watched it calmly for a minute and gave it to Mia to take a look at the video before switching his attention back to the culprit.
"He doesn't deserve to live but I don't want to use his skeletal body as one of my undead summoning beings. So, I can't kill him directly. Can either of you kill him for me?" said Azzy.
As Mia involuntarily flinched a little bit and hesitated to answer, Dr. Mac took back the tablet and clicked a few times before opening a program.
On the screen, there were red, blue, and yellow buttons. At present, the yellow button was blinking.
Handing it to Azzy, she explained with a smile, "The red will activate the killing mechanism, the blue will deactivate the plasma energy chains, and the yellow will hold like a prisoner. It's your criminal and it is your choice…"
Azzy didn't even hesitate to click on the red button.
In the next instant, the intensity of the plasma energy chains increased tenfold, vaporizing the body with so much ease.
"What the…"
Mia thought that they were only energy threads but she never saw that the body of an 8-star realm expert, including his bones and skull, could be vaporized in a matter of seconds. At the very least, she never watched such a scene with her own eyes, only read of legendary battles in history books.
Meanwhile, Azzy raised his hand and reached out to his chest, placing it on his heart. "I'm too calm. Why do I feel nothing? No sense of satisfaction or regret. Nothing… Is it because I didn't kill him personally? Or is it because I no longer think of death as nothing? I wonder…"
The Reaper, this time, didn't give him the answer he needed and simply commented that justice is served.
As if this matter is no longer important, the lady scientist then informed Azzy that they should talk in person about other matters.
Azzy, who returned to reality from his thoughts, nodded and followed her, leaving his friend back in the lobby because the matter is private.
Everyone has their own secrets and she respects them. Not to mention, she only reunited with her high school friend and former teammate after three decades. So, it would be foolish of her to think that he would let her know about his secrets.
As the President of the nation, her mentality also grew tremendously strong. Hence, she wasn't bothered to be outlined like this and continued to wait.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mac and Azzy entered a chamber at the end of the corridor where another familiar foe was held as a prisoner. At present, he appeared to be asleep.
It was at that moment the Reaper suddenly advised him to either wear a mask or just not enter the place at all.
"Eh?" Azzy was taken aback. He didn't understand why. The Reaper told him that this guy is just an avatar and it would be troublesome if Azzy's face will be known to the real one, who might come for revenge later on.
Azzy wanted to argue that he will be strong enough to kill the avatar of Berith, the next time he dares to come to Gaia, but in the end, he shut up his thoughts and told the scientist that they don't need to enter the chamber.
Dr. Mac didn't know what Azzy was thinking. But, since the teenager himself isn't interested to meet the prisoner, she didn't bother to go in and closed the door while taking him to the control center.
On the way, she talked about the demon.
"We are currently using his body for studying demonic energy. I must say that its composition is completely different from the different types of energies we know so far, like solar energy, plasma energy, soul energy, nuclear energy, natural energy, etc…
If it is anything that is similar, I should say the dark matter but of a concentrated form…"
"Dark matter?" Azzy never heard of it.
Dr. Mac explained the basic definition of dark matter one can find on the internet. Since Azzy neither had knowledge nor was old enough, she didn't bother to go into full details.
Azzy also didn't ask any questions as he wasn't that interested in the topic too. He just wanted to finish this meeting and return home.
Other than that, she also talked about how she knows about his secret of time traveling through Aria, which kept records of the events. She claimed in meeting his older version a couple of times during the past decade and worked with him on some missions.
This let Azzy understand that he will use the time traveling once again but since asking for the details might change the event, he kept his thoughts to himself.
After they entered the familiar-looking control center and take their seats, Dr. Mac pulled her chair toward Azzy and said with a serious look, "Alright, let's talk business. But, before that, I need your trust. And for that to happen, I'll tell you about my past and my connection with the Arcturian Empire."