After a while;
The Arcana Masters were out of the pocket dinsion.
Kai spat and laughed, then sobbed once and wiped his face with the back of his hand. "By the gods... we’re alive."
Lucas crawled to his knees, "Damn... that werewolf was so nerve-racking."
Jaden growled. "That rookie bastard... who would have expected he turned out to be a demon..."
Celia quietly murmured. "So what... he saved us."
anwhile, Azzy calmly stood and watched them gather and murmur along.
While everyone else is just either thanking Azzy or murmuring about their own feelings, Iphi was the first to notice sothing important.
She asked. "Your Grace... Where’s Captain David? Where is his corpse?"
That question paused everyone and made them stare at Azzy for the answer.
Azzy let the desert wind pull his cloak. "He died in the field as a hero," he said. "I naturally wouldn’t leave him to rot, don’t worry." He pulled a small, black sigil out of his palm — the sa sigil that had pulsed when he called the pocket-dinsion that these Arcana Masters were earlier imprisoned.
"At the mont, he is resting inside a pocket dinsion. however, he won’t be coming with you..."
"Eh?" "Huh?" "He won’t co with us?" "Why?"
As his earlier reply brought various reactions from the rest of them, Azzy then explained, using a white lie. "I bound him with a forbidden seal. The seal holds his soul to his body. It takes 200 years at a minimum for the bond to stabilize. Two hundred years later, he’ll awaken whole as before."
A shocked murmur ran through the group. "Two hundred years." The number landed like a stone in a still pond.
Iphi’s hands curled into fists. "You—two hundred years? That’s—"
"A long ti," Azzy agreed. "I know. But he will be safe with ."
Myra stared up at Azzy with wet eyes. "I don’t know what to say."
Azzy looked down at her and said. "Live well. That’s what your captain would have asked."
Iphi kept looking, as if she expected the captain to step out of the shadows and scold her for imagining him gone. Her voice was small. "Will he—will he rember? When he cos back?"
Azzy’s expression didn’t change much, but when he answered, his words were precise. "Yes. He will return with mory intact. That’s the whole point of seal. It has no side effects, no loss of energy or mories or anything. The only thing it needed was ti."
Jaden then, rough with relief, asked the practical question. "What do we tell our higher-ups? Can we report it exactly as it happened, or does his grace have any order?"
Azzy turned, and his eyes were suddenly all commanding again as he ordered. "You will report to them that both the treasure and your captain’s body will be in the hands of Aquiloria. If they don’t have any idea what Aquiloria is, tell them the demigod ordered this to be reported to their higher ups the sa. Keep passing this report to your higher-ups until soone above you knows of Aquiloria."
The Arcana Masters exchanged looks.
"Anyway," Azzy then continued, brushing a speck of snow from his coat sleeve, "my job here is done. I’m leaving. And how to deal with the Werewolf Lord is up to you guys. All the best..."
As their expressions darkened, Azzy’s gaze slid toward Iphi again. This ti, he spoke sothing more personal. "Ms. Magnolis, it’s really nice knowing that people I know are doing well. But your growth doesn’t match the potential of your Arcana Spirit."
Iphi stiffened, uncertain whether to take it as an insult or concern. However, she stayed silent as Azzy had more things to say.
"If you’re ever interested in retiring from your current job and intending to settle elsewhere to reach your potential, pushing past your current limits," Azzy continued, "you’re welco in Calot."
He paused, then glanced toward the others’ pale faces. "The offer extends to all of you. After all, Calot will beco the center of everything when they co and threaten our survival..."
"They?" Celia echoed in wonder.
Azzy gave no answer. His eyes flickered once and then, like a fla snuffed by the wind, he was gone.
He reappeared miles away in the sa cold desert.
"Alright," he murmured, scanning the surroundings. "No one’s around."
Then he lifted his hand and, with a thought from his head, his hourglass was summoned with its white sand flowing freely.
"Tempus," he said quietly.
The hourglass rotated once, and a soft, echoing voice filled his head. "Master..."
Azzy’s expression hardened. "Summon the Ti Prison."
The hourglass pulsed, flipping itself upside down. The white sands began to fall, and a ripple spread through the air before a bubble materialized. Inside it was the devil trapped. As their eyes t. The devil’s eyes darted left and right. His body, however, continued to be frozen in ti.
Azzy stepped closer and raised his palm slightly.
"Release."
Crack.
The bubble shattered soundlessly. The frozen air rushed outward as the devil’s body snapped back into motion.
"You damn human!" the devil roared, surging forward the instant he was free. Black lightning exploded around his arm before claws stretched toward Azzy’s throat.
But the strike never landed.
With inhuman precision, Azzy caught the devil’s wrist with the grip like iron.
As the devil’s face darkened in frustration, Azzy’s eyes remained glacially calm. "Still impatient," he murmured.
Then, without raising his voice, he lifted his right hand, forming a seal. Ten zodiac symbols from Ram to Capricorn appeared swiftly before connecting themselves in a circular formation with a golden thread.
"Decarune Seal."
In an instant, all the planets inside the devil’s soul orb were chained, firmly chaining his soul orb and cutting off his access to soul energy.
The devil scread as his wings thrashed violently. "You... bastard... what are you doing?" he spat in venom.
Azzy’s face remained unreadable. His hand tightened slightly as he spoke. "I believe I ntioned that I have questions that you need to answer."
Then in the next mont, he delivered a single, brutal kick to the devil’s chest.
BOOM!
The impact cracked the earth. The devil’s body was flung hundreds of ters away, crashing into an ice dune with a thunderous wham. The snow erupted like a storm cloud as a result.
Before the dust could settle, Azzy raised his left hand. "Co forth, Tezca." The Death Scythe appeared.
He lifted it high above his head, and his lips barely moved as he murmured, "Soul Skill: Claws of Death."
At the sa ti, the devil, enveloped in a demonic aura, let out a snarl. His black wings unfurled as he charged forward. "You think that pitiful seal can stop ?" he bellowed, letting out a thunderous growl. "You can bind this body’s soul energy, but you cannot touch my demonic essence, Brother."
Azzy didn’t respond as he had already unleashed his move.
Before the devil crossed half of the distance, a deep, guttural groan echoed from behind him.
Rrrrraaaaaghhhh...
Two colossal skeletal hands burst out of the dinsional rift behind the devil with their bony fingers bigger than trees. Before the devil could twist his body to evade the attack, those fingers pierced straight through his torso, erging from his chest like ivory spears. His eyes widened, and black blood splattered onto the ground.
"Wha—!"
The skeletal hands curled, gripping tight, and then began to pull him toward the portal.
The devil scread in pain as his demonic aura was sucked from his body, drawn into the swirling black portal that the hands had erged from.
Azzy then tapped forward with his foot and reappeared just a few feet away from his target. "Now," Azzy said quietly, his tone neither angry nor rciful, "answer , demon. You only have ti until you get dragged into the rift. Once you do, you will die. Your body and soul will be destroyed."
After a pause, he asked. "Now, what did you an earlier — this reality?"
The devil growled low, his body shaking as his life force was sipping away rapidly. "I’m not from this reality."
Azzy’s eyes narrowed. "Go on."
The devil’s grin was bitter now, defiant even as his form began to flicker. "Originally, brother... we were from another reality. When I rged into this body, the shift of our fusion ripped through the barrier between tilines. We crossed the rift... and ended up here."
"A destroyed tiline?" Azzy murmured.
"You said you ended up here, not that soone sent you. You ca through by accident?" Azzy then asked.
The devil nodded, "Yes... No one sent ."
Azzy’s gaze flickered briefly. "How is this possible? I am the only one who can send people from destroyed tilines. Others cannot just have access to them."
And then Tempus’ voice whispered in his mind, "Master... there is another who walks the tilines."
Azzy’s hand froze mid-motion. "Another?"
Tempus answered, "The one born of the Jewel of Ti — Znuvo."
"Znuvo?" Azzy frowned, "I heard this na."
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