Lord Shadow

But now, when Azief remembers that scene again and recreate it in his mind, he could evaluate Arial powers at that time.

Azief believe that if Arial could harness the true power of that sword, he would practically reach Sovereign level.

Then he shakes his head and shook that thought out of his mind. 

He focusses back to the present and try to see if there is even any similarity between that hero who fought such a powerful enemy and the Arial he is looking at right now

But the more he sees, the more he feels disappointed. He was eager in the beginning but Arial slowly become dispirited after each loss.

The nobles bicker with each other instead of banding together to fight a common enemy

Azief could see and deduce with a glance that the reason why it was so hard for these nobles to unite against each other is because there is no unifying figure among them

Thinking about this Azief could not help but think of Arial. The Arial he knows…... one of his most praised feats were the fact that he unifies most of the human kingdoms under his Empire.

Probably because Arial in this timeline had seen how disunity among the nobles leads to losses of human army

Of course, the Arial right now, probably could not know that one day he would become such a powerful figure that commands the world.

But it is clear that because Arial sees the losses of battle and the unchanging behaviors of nobles that he become dispirited

Even in the face of the extinction of the entire race of humans in the Human Continent, the nobles, kings and Queens could not help but platy intrigue against each other and try to fight for benefit. 

Arial spend most of his time in the army being a tracker as he seems to be adept at tracking enemies track. But he himself was one of the many trackers.

Azief fast forwarded the time and years passes. And then after his mind could not take it anymore, the projection moves normally again.

This time, he saw that Arial seems to have given up on the human army. It seems clear that the Human Army would lose against the Demon Army. 

Azief saw how Arial chooses to run away from the battle. Azief made a quick judgment of Arial and thought of him as a coward when he sees this but then he shakes his head

'It's not really fair to him' he thought to himself. 

Arial of this world is powerless to do anything to change the outcome of this battle. 

Even Azief could see that the situation is hopeless. Actually the Human Continent when compared to the Demon Army is not that different.

If the Human Kingdoms had truly united from the start and did not scheme against each other it is very probable to repel the Demon Invasion. And Azief knows that the Demon race is not entirely monolithic in their actions.

The Orcs might be excited to follow the crusade to the Human Kingdom but in the end, this is Arakath war and not the matter of the Plains of Orcs

If the Human kingdoms had managed to slowly down the momentum, or even break the Demon Army morale one time, then the differences between the Eight races of the Darklands could easily be manipulated. 

But instead of uniting against a common enemy, the kings fought for each other benefits 

It wasn't until at the end that they truly try to band together but by this time it is too late. Even Arial could see that and in this life he did not even have a noble education. 

Some people might call Arial act as an act of cowardice but to Azief, Arial just did not want to fight in a hopeless battle. 

If there is even a chance of victory or that he being there could change the war, Azief believe that Arial would not leave his position. 

But, while Arial had honed his battle skills and survives many battles, none of his deeds is recognized and as Arial saw that the kings fought for their benefits and not to repel the Demon invasion, he loses heart and become disillusioned with the resistance force

Years and years of it, and Azief did not want to judge that man. Arial escaped just the night before the battle. Azief hovers above him, like some ghost looking at him entering a tunnel

He walks inside a dark tunnel, his feet step on the puddles of water and he keeps walking further and further away from the site of the battle

Even though, such darkness seems to be able to swallow a man whole, Arial keep walking. In just a few hours, he pants in exhaustion but his eyes are determined. 

'Wanting to survive, wanting to live is not wrong. The conclusion is already set in stone' Azief mutters. He had hoped that his words could reach him but of course it did not reach him. 

Azief as he hovers beside Arial could also smell the odor coming out from the underground tunnel. 

It is not exactly a pleasant smell. 

The projection world that the Orvanians had created not only enables him to make use of the energy of the projection but also enables all of his senses to be stimulated.

Azief with his enchanted senses could even be replied by such smell but the smell did not affect him that much. It affects Arial more than it affects him

'This place must be stinkier than I thought' the reason Azief did not smell the scent is simply because he could control the sensitivity of his olfactory senses.

After all, if he is walking around with all of his sense enhanced each thing could drive him crazy. 

When he wanted to focus on something far away, then he mobilized his senses. 

But most of the time, his senses are like normal humans' senses. And at certain times, he would lower the sensitivity of his senses.

Just like right now. 

There were a few times Azief could see that Arial is retching and almost throws up because of the smell of the tunnel 

Azief saw Arial eat inside the tunnels. Probably because of his exhaustion. The stench must be unbearable but Arial must be starving. 

It was a lunch pack

  'Eat, drink, walk…stay alive' Arial muttered it almost like a chant by now.

His hand is shaking but he devoured the food quickly

It did not take long before Arial leave the tunnel and then he travels away, far from the site of the battle. Azief keep following Arial from behind. 

After awhile as his mind began to feel a bit relieved, he fast forwarded the vision again and this time, Arial is already at Vern

Vern is one of the Empire in the Human Kingdom. It is also the empire that Arial had broken in the other timeline. 

But the moment Arial enters the capital of Vern, he realized it was empty. 

What he didn't know was that Azief also saw the surrounding area of the Vern Empire with his Divine Sense. 

And it is not only the capital that is empty. 

All of the regions inside the Empire territory is empty. 

There is buildings and structures but there is no people. It was like they disappeared all of a sudden. 

'What happened here?' As for the other kingdoms even though they were attacked by the Demon Army, it would not show such a bizarre phenomenon like this. 

No one had attacked Vern yet there is no people. 

And Azief didn't think that they migrated to the Western Desert or something. 

The feeling he felt was like they just disappeared all of a sudden. 

The Vern Empire had long close the gates to their states and retreated back to the mountains and rivers of the Empire. 

This timeline is not a timeline that Azief is familiar with so he did not know what had happened and he could not even guess how things had become like this

There was no such occurrence when he was at Earth X

'I need to see if I could find some clue' he thought to himself and then he closes his eyes and his Divine Sense exploded out from him covering the entire Vern Empire. 

It envelops the entire capital city, the states of the Empire and the regions and for a few seconds he tries to analyze and tries to observe if there is something weird.

He could see that there is a house that has food on the table but there is no people. 

There is a tavern and there is all kinds of assorted fruits and snacks on the table but there is no customer and there is no tavern keeper. 

He frowned.

He could not find any humans all over the Empire. If this happens in the past even Azief would felt a little bit creeped out.

But he is quite accustomed to such event by now. Then he opens his eyes

'It is hard to find any clues of what happened here. But it is clear this has something to do with magic' he thought to himself 

He frowned as he felt the trace of the magic. Because he is very familiar with this kind of magic

'Time magic' Quickly Azief could see that this might be the beginning. By now he is one hundred percent sure.

This Arial is the Arial that he knew. 

And this is really the wrong timeline. Of course, he was sure at first but there was always the nagging feeling that he might be wrong and this Arial is the Arial of a different Earth.

He even thought that the helmet had sent him to a different place.

But after feeling that magic and knowing that Time Magic is involved, he could deduce what happened easily

'But, this kind of trace of such obvious Time Magic, what the hell actually happened here?' Azief thought to himself.

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