Lord Shadow

If what Azief had with Sofia, is a burning consuming passion, a fire that burns bright and dangerous, then what he has with Sofia is calm, serene, breezy like the wind that blows in a perfect summer evening. 

She….is someone that Azief felt comfortable. But not in a boring way. It is like she knew him in a way that even he doesn't know. 

And she felt the same way for him. Katarina could see the darkness in his heart. But she did not run away from it. She did not try to change that darkness.

Nor did she try to change him. because she knows that same darkness. The feeling that you would never be good enough

That you are not worthy of love. But while Katarina had a brother that made her overcome all of that, Azief did not have such a figure.

A man need to be strong. 

And Azief is a man that always pretended to be strong. 

He does not believe that he deserved happiness and he does not know how to reciprocate love…. simply because for most of his adult life, he had never felt that anyone could love such a broken person

So, Katarina, what she did for him, is embrace that darkness. It is not that Katarina did not want to change him. She did want to change him

But because she used to be in the same spot as he is, she knows the best thing she could do is by being beside him

And just that, embracing that part of him that he himself could not embrace, that alone had saved him.

If he could not overcome that darkness, even Katarina could never always embrace him. He knows that.

It is unfair to always expect people to save you and to always stays with you. That is just selfishness.

But Katarina loves him. And she takes a bet on him. 

That the man he loves could overcome it. And while he could not say that the darkness is eradicated, every time he saw her, he saw that light.

And seeing her again, right here, after worrying about her wellbeing, it is like light shines upon him again.

Two people in love…separated, not because they are not in love with each other but because…. life is not so simple. 

Azief is not a man that could hurt Sofia. He didn't want to hurt him but inadvertently that is what he did.

But at least, right now, at this moment, things between them for a moment become simple. He is happy seeing her well, and she…. she is just happy seeing him here

Azief smiles for a moment and then his smile faltered. 

In that moment of the hug, he had forgotten everything

But now that they are in the ground again, life, reality once again intervene

He thought of Sofia and he felt guilty a bit. Guilty that he is smiling and laughing…. while she is hurting somewhere.

Katarina did not notice such expression. Probably because she is in love. Probably because she is happy.

When those two are combined, sometimes, even the most obvious hint could not be seen

The wind around them blows hard, as it makes Katarina hair flutters and Azief sleeves to sways. Now that they did not hug each other, they could see each other and both of them recognizes the changes on the other

Katarina of course notices that Azief had changes his attire. It is no longer the same attire of Shadow Lords she had seen before.

Instead there is glowing intersected lines that is knitted on the tight clothed attire. Runes, she thought to herself. 

But there are also other differences

Azief body seems to emits a different kind of power. Katarina notices this when she was hugging him. But it wasn't until now that she looks at him carefully. 

Azief had gotten stronger again. That is her honest thought.

And then there is that eye. One of Azief eyes is different from the other. And the eye that looks at her, is the same like the eye of "that person"

But she doesn't think this is the right time to mention it. 

As Katarina was looking at him, Azief however is looking at his right and left expecting an attack from the Seresian demon. 

Katarina notices it and she suddenly remember that she forgot to tell him 

'Don't worry. The Demon King would not come.' she said. Azief then look back at her, his eyebrows raised

'What do you mean?

Katarina look at the surroundings and knows that this is not the place for them to have a talk. And it is not something easy to explain.

After all, what happened is quite a fantastical story. 

'Let's talk at my Palace. Follow me' 

Katarina then flew toward the sky and in just one moment she broke the supersonic speed, creating shockwaves in the sky and splitting the clouds. 

Azief watches her with his gaze. 

Even though her speed surpassed the speed of sound, in Azief eyes, he could still follow her movement. 

In his eyes, everything could be slowed down.  Oddly enough, the laws of this world did not reject him.

He waited for her to reach near the castle before he takes a step forward from where he is 

The laws of Time and Space around him seems to bend

As he manipulates the Laws around him, the space area around him began to bend in a weird manner, causing a distortion in space, making it look like space itself to bend. 

Azief at first fears that the Heavenly Will of the Seresian world would strike him down but after he had fallen down and having no thunderbolts attacking him, he knows something had happened to the Heavenly Will of this world and as such, he threw his reservation away and manipulate the laws of this world.

Like he expected, there is no resistance whatsoever.

He took that one step and in front of that Palace gate, as Katarina is about to land on the front gate of the palace, the space around the area seems to bend and someone come out from a void space.

Katarina raises her eyebrows looking at this. A second later, she landed on the ground. Waiting for her in front of the front gate is Azief.

'It seems you have improved again. That is quite a neat trick. I guess I have a long way to go' Katarina said

Azief only smiles and then he looks at the palace in front of him. It is very beautiful.

The Palace looks a lot like the Versailles Palace in France. 

If there is a difference, it is that this Palace is ten time bigger and ten times wider. 

Outside there is robotic guards. That is a shock. 

These robotic guards do not look like tin cans but a lot more like some kind of cybernetic organism. The reason Azief could immediately see through the skins was his Divine Sense.

The entire area is also full of life. 

There is trees and large forest in the distance

  There is also a large lake with fishes jumping out from the lake every once in a while. 

Azief could see that there is a bridge over a small stream of water with flowers and a small hill in the distance. 

And there is water lily. And he smiles thinking of that. And he also sees human-like race on the hills nearby the Palace doing some gardening

From the moment he came to this world, he did not even see one Seresian demon.

It was almost like they were wiped out from the Seresian world.

He looks at Katarina figure and thought whether Katarina is capable of killing every Seresian demons in this world

it only took him a few seconds before he discounted such possibilities.

It would be impossible with her Disk Formation realm power to annihilate the Seresian race. 

Even Azief who is in Essence Creation leveler did not have the confidence to take on the entire world of the Seresian demon what move to destroy all of them

Seresian demons are not millions but trillions. Because the method of producing demons is unnatural. 

There is too many question in his mind right now

His Divine Sense immediately spread out from where he was standing and it only took him less than a second to make sure that there is not even one Seresian demon in the radius of one hundred kilometers.

And that is truly weird. 

There is no Seresian demon in the Seresian world? That is just impossible.

Katarina did not know what Azief had done. 

The way Azief uses his Divine Sense, unless one is a Divine Comprehension leveler, they would not be able to detect it. 

Katarina opens the large gate and enter the Palace area. 

To reach the front door of the place they have to walk straight from the entrance gate. There is a walkway that stretched for five kilometers. 

On each side of the walkway there is a garden. 

The shrubbery is well maintained and it was at this moment that there is people cutting the grass and cutting unnecessary branches from the trees that decorated the area.

'Is this really the Seresian world or did I went to one of its sub-world?' he thought to himself.

Azief rarely talks his experience when he was in the Seresian world. It is not a period of time where he is proud of himself. 

At that time, he was really weak and he was a slave. 

But it was his experience in the Seresian world that bring him to today. 

It is because of the encounter in the Seresian world that he got the Ten Eternal Rings and how he got the legacy of the Etherna. 

Seresian world is consisted of three worlds. 

The main world is the Seresian world where the Seresian demons are located. And Azief knew he did not confuse this world with the other two worlds

Because he knew what happened to the other two worlds 

>>>>