Lord Shadow

That is the feeling he himself has felt. Detached, cold, distant.

Not because he instinctively and intentionally detached himself.

It is just the side effects of dealing with all of the big matters.

When you sit up in the mountain for too long and all you see is clouds and the sky, you forgot to look below the mountain.

And the more you forgot to look, the less attached you are.

And that is a terrible thing for him.

And now, it is like he reawakening those memories.

And feeling that feelings.

He is trying to make his heart….warmer. he himself had realized it. He had become too could.

he did not only see the structures and the natural wonders. He looks at these people, and look at their lives.

The people like always….are resilient.

So, he looks at the officers, the officials that govern these lands.

Some indulge themselves in power and some govern diligently.

those who indulge themselves does not indulge excessively.

Those who governs knows the right balance.

Because Pandemonium is newly established.

The people are still learning, and most people have suffered.

And because they suffered, because the experience pain, they understand kindness, understand the weight of kindness.

It shines through the dark. For people who have suffers all kinds of darkness, they yearn for the light

And now the world is stable and even the most corrupt knows which line should not be crossed.

It is not because of the threats of punishment or because wanting fame, but because they live in a chaotic era and now there is rejuvenation all over the world.

The dark days is over and everyone does not want to enter that period of darkness again.

Of course, mortals being mortals, someday even they would forget this pain.

And then when they forget, like always, they would repeat the same mistake.

And once again they learn from their mistake

This is the curse of mortality.

They forget.

And even they told themselves to learn from history, one person remembering it, does not mean the entire new generation would remember it.

Because new ideas are just a rehash of old ideas.

The young brave but ignorant, the old full of wisdom but stubborn.

And because of feelings, they would forget all of the pain.

The tragedy of human is to forget pain and cursed to repeat the same action that leads to that pain.

But it is also a blessing to forget.

Each generations make their own mistakes.

And each generation after that would overcorrect.

And in overcorrecting, they create more mistake.

Hence, the truth of life has always been in this word

Balance.

Right now, however the people are still righteous.

And Azief look at another thing as he passes by these cities and kingdoms.

Azief could see the fortune and luck of these kingdoms.

These luck and fortune contributed to the luck and fortune of Pandemonium

Pandemonium luck covers everything from the kingdoms to the cities.

And Azief also notices the temple.

A temple for him.

In many of the cities, there is a temple for him.

And some have temple for Raymond.

While some others have temple for Oreki and Hikigaya.

There is also many temple for Jean

Though they never mentioned them by their real name.

they did not call them Oreki or Hikigaya, Raymond or Azief or Jean.

They mentioned by titles. Some of them are titles they made up , some of them are the titles the world uses.

They pray to him, to those beings.

Azief don’t know whether Raymond could hear their prayers when they are in Pandemonium.

But while others might not hear it, he hears them

If he listens carefully, he could always hear them. It is just that he unconsciously blocks them. In other words, he mutes them

Most of the times, the wishes are for something trivial.

Some of them are just for a peace of mind.

Some of them are just prayers for reassurance.

A good day at their job, wishing to be loved by their loved ones, wishing common things.

Peace in the world, peace in their life, and all those stuff.

Many of those wishes are actually something they could fight for themselves.

Fate and destiny are always there.

But they help those who helps themselves.

Prayers are the last resort.

Just like war should be the last results of diplomacy, prayers are the last resort of effort.

Do the effort and if there is effort and all that is needed is some luck, some nudge, then the heavens if it is moved would move that advantage to you.

“Temples for me and those people” he paused from saying anything for a second and then there is a bitter smile on his face

He shakes his head

“They thought of me as gods” he paused for a second

“Since they thought of me as gods, then I should do godlike things”

And then as he looks at all of these temple some vision would enter his mind.

A glimpse of the future.

Was it just a normal vision? Sometimes, when he is doing something, his eyes would twitch. The eye that would twitch is none other than the eye the Oracle gave him.

But this time he felt something different. Those eye twitches are nothing new. Sometimes, it is the scene that triggers his eyes. Sometimes, it is thought that triggers his eyes

But this time as he looks at the temple, it felt like the power of wishes, of desire, of belief surges into him and his eyes is looking toward the future.

And in that brief moment where he saw the future, he was surprised to realize something

That the future become blurrier.

His eyes narrow

“the future becomes blurry?” he seems to be asking himself a question.

Unlike the Oracle he did not have all the answer when it is about seeing the future. After all, his path was never about looking at the future.

While he knows a bit about cause and effect, about taboos of looking through time….he

He does not know what he should feel about this. Should he feel happy because the future is harder to see or should he feel worried?

Uncertain future is….complicated, he thought to himself. Most people would want a certain future. But Azief wanted an uncertain future. An uncertain future means there are hope

A certain future means everything could not be changed.

He shakes his head and cast off the thoughts about the future form his mind. This glimpses means nothing right now

Instead, he focused back on looking….. at these people

Azief in every steps look at all of these….lives. his eye shining looking at all of the living beings and he smiles.

Wishes and desires, all of it present.

There is beauty and ugliness.

And for some reason he felt that he understands life a bit more.

But this understanding of life is more profound.

And then before he knows it, he arrives in front of a residence.

The residence is secluded.

There is a long gate and there is a tall wall connecting the gate.

The wall itself is quite tall, around seven feet seeming encircling this large residence.

In the world before ethe Fall, to create such structure would take a long time.

In this new world, to create such structure is just a whim by any powerful beings that could manipulate the elements.

If you have enough resources, to create this gate would only take a few minute tops.

The wall is not the special thing about this structure. It is the gate

The gate seems like a normal gate.

But Azief could see it is full of formation. Embedded in every fibre of its being

Anyone who is not given permission to enter would probably be hurl a hundred feet away. If there are people who forces it, then they might get killed by the thunder talisman below the ground.

But Azief simply pushes the gate and the gate opens.

The formation did not act.

There is no thunder falling from the sky, there is no golem monster emerging from the ground, no energy blast shot at him

Nothing. As simple as just pushing the gate

This time Azief did not sue nay methods. He did not even break the formation. Because this place, this gate recognizes him

He is here at one of the residence of his old friends.

This friend of his has many residence.

There is one in the palace. There is one in the city. And there is one in the outskirt. And this one….this one is the secluded one, far from the city, out in the boonies.

The gate is heavy.

And the moment he pushed it; the heavy iron gate seems to groaned.

He could see the fields.

Undulating field of wild grass.

There is even some chickens and some ducks.

Azief close his eyes for a moment and then he smiles.

“There is even a pond” he could hear the sound of the water. A stream. Maybe a small river near the estate.

He did not need to use his Divine Sense to know there is a pond here. Because this person loves pond.

The land stretched out for acres, a sea of green and gold rippling under the open sky.

There is also a path.

A straight avenue flanked by two rows of ancient oaks.

And when Azief says ancient, he means ancient.

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