Lord Shadow

The other Etherna sighed and then they said

‘Borgan, we are relying on you. This is our last scheme. Our desperate scheme’ she looks above her, like expecting to see someone and then she sighed.

Azief this time look intently at Borgan looking upwards and then he could see that there is a certain light in her eyes as she looks upwards.

It is obvious to Azief now that when she look upward she look far away and probably her gaze look through other dimensions and worlds.

And she seems to be nodding to someone. It is a pity he could not see who she is looking at. 

Borgan then pointed toward a spot and said

‘Build it here. Let us build a stairway that will lead to our Final Hope’ And then as one of the Eterna was about to speak, one of the Etherna turns around and he looks straight at his direction

“just like last time” Azief thought to himself. 

This is the moment when he would be discovered 

Etherna is said to be master of every energy and Law of the Omniverse.

And one of that Laws must be Time. 

At that time, he did doubt whether what he is seeing was only memories.

Now, he is quite sure that when he saw these creatures, his consciousness travels through time, unintentionally spying at this momentous moment of the Stairway being built through the connection of the souls and unwittingly entangled in Time Stream.

He also now knows that when you travels through time, do not be surprised if you get caught by other people Time Avatar. 

Because when you reach that level of power, you must also know that others could also travels through time.

Azief remembers Azul whose past could not be travelled to unless he allows it. 

Azief has a theory that when someone tries to returns to Azul past, there will be a barrier that could not be broken

And when it reaches  a point where it will mess up Azul own future, that barrier would appear. 

Or Azul might have cut off that part of the past from his own Time Stream. 

Another theory that Azief had about Azul timeline, is that he cut off his own Timeline and seal it into the Six Sabers.

  And that is why, when he changes something in those six lives, it changes the future

And finally, the future where Azul is with his lover is completed. 

Of course…..this is just a theory. But it is a solid theory for him. Because he realizes that travelling through time comes with its own risk.

The only difference was, the last time he unwittingly using the souls that present during the times of the construction of the Supremacy Stairway to bypassed Time Stream and see what happen during that time

In a manner of speaking, it was like he is a character seeing a point of view from the souls that is used to craft Supremacy Stairway. 

But that was during his trials on the supremacy stairway. 

This time however is a bit different

He did not walk he Supremacy Stairway to arrive here. 

He arrives here from the ring.

  And just like before the Etherna that is about to create the Supremacy Stairway notices him

‘Look here. Who is this? A spy? Everyone is about to take advantage of us now that we are about to fall…Hahaha’ One of the Eterna laughed as he looks right at his direction.

The Eterna must have mistaken him for some other alien. 

It means when the Etherna was constructing their stairway, in that long-forgotten time in the past, someone was hiding and watching over them

And in those memories, Azief was inhabiting the soul of another to see what happens in the past. 

That happens because at that time Azief was walking on the Supremacy Stairway to refine his Soul Law Avatar

Borgan look at him 

And Azief smiles

At that time, he doesn’t know whether he was mistaken or not, but he could swear he saw Borgan smiling at him before the Etherna waved his hand and then the memory stopped there.

But today, now, at this moment, Azief is quite sure that Borgan is smiling. 

He was waiting for Borgan to wave her hand and he to return back to the forest.

Borgan waves her hand but he did not return.

  Instead, the Etherna, the planets, the space around them….all of them was pushed to the background before completely fading away like some kind of oil painting that is being washed away by a dissolver.

But he is still here. 

And Borgan is also here.

  They look at each other and Borgan smiles at him. And now there is horror in Azief eyes

“Isn’t this a memory?” he thought to himself. 

That is what he thought since the beginning. But this did not happen the last time

Borgan did not look at him like this and smile at him like this. 

Borgan shrink herself to around six feet three and she is now floating in front of Azief. 

Her countenance also become more human-like, with long white hair and an elegant dress made out of stars.

“We meet again” Borgan said with a smile on her face. 

…

For a moment Azief was stunned. He did not know to react to this. From the very first moment, he have the leisure to look at all the things that is happening because he believes all of it is a memory 

But now, it is clearly not just a simple memory. 

Azief calms himself down, takes a deep breath and close his eyes. He takes a few second to centre himself and then opening back his eyes, he is now calm.

“Where is this? What is this?” this is the question he wanted to ask. 

Borgan is not impatient to answer the question

“Follow me” 

As Borgan beckoned him to follow, Azief felt as though he was being tugged from the fabric of existence itself. 

Space and time whirled around him in a chaotic frenzy, like a tempest of cosmic energies.

  It was a quite jarring experience, leaving him gasping for breath.

Then, as quickly as the disorienting journey began, it ended.  𝑂𝓋𝓵𝐞xt.𝑐𝒐𝑀

Azief surroundings shifted dramatically. 

He now stood in a forge unlike any he had ever encountered. 

The air buzzed with the volatile blend of cosmic energy and molten metals, giving the impression that he had entered a realm between reality and the surreal.

Beside him stood Borgan, her presence a pillar of serenity amidst the otherworldly landscape.

  Azief blinked, trying to shake off the lingering dizziness as he surveyed the celestial forge. Everything about this place felt both mesmerizing and alien.

Azief attempted to come to terms with his abrupt relocation and the pounding headache that echoed from the transition. 

With caution in his voice, he turned to Borgan, his curiosity mingled with a healthy dose of trepidation.

“Where have you brought me, Borgan?” Azief inquired, the otherworldly surroundings adding an edge of uncertainty to his words. 

“This place is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

Borgan regarded him with a smile, her eyes reflecting the radiant energies that filled the forge. 

Azief could sense that this was no ordinary location; he could felt like he could feel the heat.

And this kind of heat that he felt…feels….warm. 

Like an embrace. It is a weird feeling to feel right now

And he shakes his head. He still feel quite not right in the head. 

Borgan could see that he is struggling and she said

“This kind of journey is usually accompanied by headache. Considering your attainment in time space laws is not that powerful, this kind of side effect is already generous enough.”

Azief took a few second to digest the words and took a few second more to truly calms his mind.

“Where are we?”

Borgan smiles that knowing smile and then said

“you already know” Azief frowns. 

He did not frown because Borgan did not answer him. He frowns because he did know. 

This is a forge. 

But he should not have known that. After all, he is now inside one of the chambers of the forge. He even knows the name of this Forge.

This Forge is called the Forge of Worlds.

Questions whirled in his mind. 

He shouldn’t have known the name of this place, let alone be so intimately familiar with it. 

The realization that he had never set foot in this forge before should have weighed on him, making him feel like a stranger in an alien land. 

Yet, the moment Borgan had transported him across time and space to this mystical chamber, Azief felt an inexplicable familiarity, as though he had walked these chambers countless times in the past.

This is a mystery that needed solving, and the answers is likely entwined with the ten rings he had been seeking to understand. 

“Why did you bring me here?”

“To know. To understand certain things. That is why I brought you here”

“Why?”

Borgan did not answer. 

Instead, she waves her hand and it was like a movie begins. 

It was like he was in a world with no time, and now, she waves her hand and the pointer of time moves again. 

Fires bursting and sounds of striking echoes.

The sound is the sound of the Forge of Worlds

And Azief opens his eyes and opens his senses. 

“What are do you want me to know? What do you want me to understand?” he ask himself.

Borgan smiles as she looks at Azief. 

“This is where a new future would begin. From the past” she thought to herself

At the same time, someone in a broken star is dreaming. And in his dreams, he met an old friend. 

And he smiles and a Song long forgotten is to be sung again

…