Lord Shadow

He knows he need to gain more information. It is impossible that Katarina just disappeared from Earth. 

And why would she leave? 

She would not leave. Reaching to this point of thought did not make Azief felt at ease. Because he knows that if Katarina did not leave, then someone had made her leave?

‘I miss something’ he muttered to himself. He must have missed something. Something important.

It was at this moment when he was confused that eh suddenly look toward his left. 

There is a fluctuation of Time energy around the area. The thunder is still thundering, lightning still fills the skies and rain falls heavily around the area.

But the moment that fluctuation of Time energy appeared, around the ten-meter radius of the area, everything stopped. 

The raindrop did not fall; the sound of thunder also was sealed by this time energy.

Lightning in the sky was halted like it was frozen there, appearing like some kind of painting of lightning upon a canvas of white

Azief narrowed his eyes as someone suddenly appeared. It was Jean, another one of his Time Avatar.

Azief look at him and the moment Jean saw him, there is a bitter smile on his face. Then sighing, he said

‘I am sorry. I let you down’

Azief clench his fist as he could already guess what Jean is apologizing to him about

The thunder roars louder, the lightning flashes by all the area, striking the forest with golden and red lightning, engulfing it, whirlwind spirals over the clouds devouring it.

The Heaven was enraged.

Azief eyes turns sharp and his aura rises up and the entire sky opened up. Then he simply said with a cold voice

‘Explain’ Jean did not speak. It is hard to speak about what happened. 

Words sometimes is not enough to convey meaning. Some nuance is always lost when language become the medium of communication.

So, Jean close his palm. Time energy swirls around his palm. It gathers time. No, to be more accurate, it gathers moments of time, scenes of Time. 

Then he opens his palm. 

On top of his palm, there is an orb-like thing. 

This orb floated a few inches above Jean palm. It looks like a bubble but inside the bubble is Time. Jean blows this bubble toward Azief. Azief let the bubble come to him. 

The bubble arrived and Azief touch it with his fingers.

And he was there. Azief was there. Azief saw what happened. 

At first he was shocked. Now, he knows why he is feeling something was wrong when he killed the Demon king

‘So, you are not dead’ He thought to himself but Azief anger is actually rising right now. 

He did not even see the entire thing yet but for some reason he could guess what would happen.

It appears that Balfor did not die as he had expected. 

Azief rewind back his memory trying to see the source of this mistake. And his mind remembers that there was a fraction of a second, that there is a cut on Balfor finger.

Blood Reincarnation? Azief thought to himself. 

This is not a rare method. Especially for someone that reach the level of Balfor. Blood Reincarnation is one of the skill that is always made used by demonic creatures

But just because it is not rare doesn’t mean it is easy to practice. Azief quickly tried to scour his memories about the Blood Reincarnation skill. He then found it in many of his memories when he was in the Seresian world. 

The Blood Reincarnation skill enables the practitioner to be reborn as long as even one of their blood were injected with their Soul

But there is a con about using such skill. 

Of course this kind of skill to be revived after death had many variations and differences according to one own understanding of the skill. 

But, Azief could see that when the Demon King appears on that hill, his power level is around Divine Comprehension level

And Azief knew

‘You become weaker’ Azief then saw how Balfor took Katarina and open up the world portal to the Seresian world. he even left it a bit open so that Azief could come after him. 

Azief immediately understood what Balfor is trying to do. 

‘He wanted to fight me in his home ground’ Azief frowned.

The Demon King defeat against him is dependent on many factors. 

There is the fact that there is the Orvanians fleet helping him. 

There is also Hikigaya and Jean. There is also the attack from many of the Disk Formation leveler all around the world. the Heavens. The force of the Will of the World.

There were many factors that aid him in defeating Balfor. He had the home ground advantage. And because of that home ground advantage that strengthen him but weaken Balfor, Balfor had no choice but to forget trying to take the Ten Eternal Rings.

Azief knew that the true target of the Demon king is the Ten Eternal rings. It is why Balfor left open that portal. It is a small portal but it is a portal to that world nonetheless.

He wanted to lure Azief into that trap and take the Ten Eternal rings from him. 

He saw how the Demon King choked Katarina and Azief eyes turned red in anger. The restrain of Time around him strengthened and the scene become a little bit unstable. 

Azief quickly calm down his mind and the scene become clear again

He saw what the Demon King had done and he know now why he could not sense Katarina. 

Inside this Time-Scene, he could not move. He could only saw things that had happened in the past like he was there.

If he tries to move and affect the progression of the scene, the scene would become blurry. There is lines of Time and Space inside the scene. 

It is like liens you would see when your television did not have signal and static lines appears

Only in this scene that Azief is in right now, these liens are made of Time and Space to recreate back the past

Not everyone could see it. Those who could see it is beings that already reached to a point where they could control Laws.

Azief know that if this scene was perfect, Azief could break through these lines of Space and Time that acted like the grain of a film, and enter to that point of time

But Jean understanding of Time did not yet reach the apex. Someday, Jean might even able to capture a moment in time and allow people to back to that moment in time to change things

Azief knows…this is Jean explanation. 

He was unable to help.

Jean at that time was already almost drained of his power. He had been using his Time Avatar continually to keep the damage of the battle between him and the Demon king minimal to the world. 

He had saved many lives.

Jean shows him this scene was so that he would understand. That no matter what he did at that time, he could not have been able to stop the Demon King.

Azief close his eyes and he was back at the current moment. 

Azief look back at Jean

Jean look at him and he could only sigh

The thunder slowly dissipated. 

The lightning constrain itself on the sky and did not strike the land. 

The wind calms down. And then, the rain stops. When the rain stops, the clouds opened up showing the bright shine of the sun.

The area slowly calms down. The oppressiveness of death dissipated and life force bloom.

‘I accept this explanation.’ Jean nodded.

‘I am still sorry.’ Azief said. 

‘You could not have done anything even if you have tried. It was my fault. I…. made the wrong choice again. I should have…’and he only sighed. 

He did not show it…but Azief is more concerned about Katarina right now. 

Most of the question he has is also answered. But one of the question that is not yet answered is what Jean is doing at that hill. 

Even with a brief scan of his Divine Sense, he knows that the one sitting under that tree on that hill is Jean true body.

‘What did you do after Katarina was sucked into that Seresian world?’ Jean simply said

‘Three days’ 

‘What do you mean?’

The difference of Time between our world and Seresian world is a bit different. I change the properties of Time. So, when you enter the portal to that world you would come three days after the Demon King had kidnapped Katarina’

Azief then ask him

‘what would have happened if you did not seal time?’

‘Then you would arrive at that world three months later’ Azief frowned. Even three days is long for him. But he understood one thing. He needs to be prepared.

If Katarina dies, if she is even injured, Azief don’t know what he would do. He wishes that the Demon king would not hurt Katarina in the slightest. If not for some left sanity in his mind right now, he would damn it all and went into that portal.

But if he loses, not only he would die, even Katarina would die. The more anxious he is, the more he force himself to be calm.

After all, the objective of the Demon King is not Katarina. It is the ten Eternal Rings.