Azrael gritted his teeth. His shoulders shook as another divine spear pierced him. However, he didn’t scream this ti.
Instead, he glared ahead, letting out a heavy breath as a healing spell washed over his body, healing the wound for the nth ti.
Azzy stood a few steps away. With hands behind his back, he said softly. "You should have already experienced a lot. If you move, your body will be pierced by the spears."
Azrael laughed bitterly. "Hard not to move when speaking about them."
"You ant the Death clan?" Azzy asked.
Azrael inhaled sharply and said, "The Death clan killed my entire family. Every single one of them." His fists clenched so hard his nails dug into his palms. "For what? All for the sake of treasure. These hidden clans are all hypocrites. They do actions in the na of protection, but in the end, they only act for their selfish needs. For the sake of the peace, my ass."
Azzy didn’t comnt on anything yet. He rely gestured to him to continue his story.
"After I was teleported to the Llyne Nation, I settled there and worked wherever I could... in the farms, and docks, while living a low-key life. Didn’t stay anywhere long and continued to travel all over the places." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Later on, I joined a Marine trading company. I used to go with other n, sailing in the sea and catching various types of fish. The pay was high, and the people were friendly too. But then, in one of the sails, our ship was captured by sea bandits who imprisoned us and sold us to the slave traders. Then, slave traders sold in the West to so noble who controlled islands there."
Azzy’s fingers twitched slightly, like he didn’t like that part.
Azrael noticed but kept going. "They put in the mines. It actually turned out to be a blessing as I found a way to absorb energy from the ores there. I kept on working diligently while secretly feeding the energy to the seal in my body in the hopes of awakening the power that my Aunt gave to . But certain circumstances forced to go berserk there, and I escaped the place, ran away to the Arcana world, and started hunting down the wild monsters. And for the past few months, I worked at a guild until one mission brought to the Werewolf Lord, where I was forced to reveal my demonic powers and you caught ."
He exhaled slowly, and the room finally fell quiet.
"That’s my story," he said. "All of it. There’s nothing more I could say about myself."
*
anwhile, inside Azrael’s Mindscape;
A low, amused hum echoed in the dark corners of his consciousness.
"Tsk... he’s not simple at all", the devil muttered. "Azrael of this reality seed to be a lot dangerous than even Michael." A small ripple of irritation pulsed from the demon.
After a pause, the devil said to himself. "Still fine. I have plenty of ti to counterattack."
The voice faded like smoke.
*
Back in the Real World
Azzy folded his arms, narrowing his eyes after absorbing the contents of the entire story. "So Barbara is the one who raised you, right?"
Azrael blinked at the sudden shift. "Yeah."
"And," Azzy added, "you awakened only black lightning?"
"Correct."
Azzy’s brows knit together. He looked away for a mont, deep in thought, trying to connect the dots.
Even if Azrael is from a destroyed tiline, most of the parts, the history, and such that predate Azrael should remain the sa, because the tiline deviates only because of the Reaper’s successor’s actions unless Znuvo interferes. If Znuvo didn’t alter things before his birth, family ties shouldn’t have changed. In that case, Barbara should be his cousin, as it was the current tiline. But she wasn’t. She was his aunt, supposedly.
He exhaled sharply. "How old was she compared to you?"
Azrael shrugged. "Twenty-five... maybe thirty years older, I guess? All I know that she has raised since I was a baby."
Azzy froze. "That gap."
That exact gap.
Azrael’s response indicated that twenty-seven years could be the age gap between Azrael and Barbara... It is the sa distance as his own ti-jump...
And in Azrael’s tiline... if Barbara were born at the sa ti as this tiline, she should have ti-traveled. But logically, she couldn’t ti-travel. So how did she jump generations? Why is she older? Why was she an aunt instead of a cousin? What changed? Maybe she was either born way earlier or Azrael was born way later, perhaps, due to Znuvo’s intervention in the tiline at so point, the butterfly effect caused this age gap?
Azzy stepped closer without realizing it.
"Azrael," he asked carefully, "did Barbara ever tell you your parents’ nas?"
The 17-year-old thought back. His face stayed blank for a long mont. Then he shook his head. "No. She never said a thing about them."
Azzy’s heart gave a small, uneasy thump. "And... did she ever tell you why the death clan wants you?"
Azrael snorted. "Nope."
"And she never explained anything?"
"Nothing."
The answer made Azzy’s unease solidify into sothing heavier.
Sothing felt wrong.
Very wrong.
As sothing popped up in his head, he spoke as he raised his hand. "I need to check sothing first."
Azzy didn’t answer. He simply responded by stretching his hand forward. One of the glowing spears floating around Azrael reacted before returning into his hand.
Azrael’s heart skipped a beat. "What are you doing now?" He couldn’t help but wonder whether this guy would kill him or sothing...
Azzy this ti answered through words. He inspected the spear, then turned to Azrael. "I need a bit of your blood."
Azrael opened his mouth. "Wait— What?"
"Don’t worry, it’s just a vial of blood. Not much..."
In the next mont, a thin slice of light shot out from the spear’s edge, nicking Azrael’s arm before he could even react. A drop of blood floated up on its own, shimring.
Azrael groaned in pain, but he didn’t move, not intending to be pierced by those divine spears.
Azzy, anwhile, caught the blood in a small vial. "You’ll have to stay here for another day. Don’t move too much. The spears will react."
Azrael’s face twisted. "Just free , you bastard—!"
He jerked violently, trying to yank his arm free.
The divine spears sang with a sharp hum.
Shing! Shing! Shing!
Three spears stabbed through him again—shoulder, thigh, lower ribs, once again reminding him not to move. Azrael’s roar echoed through the pocket dinsion.
And right after—
WOOOM—
The healing seal lit up beneath him, glowing warm gold as it closed the wounds.
Azrael panted hard, sweat dripping down his chin. "Damn... you... bastard..."
Azzy didn’t even look back. He placed the crystal away. "I’ll return after one day," he said calmly. "When I do, I’ll decide what to do with you and the devil inside you."
"Like hell you will—!"
But Azzy had already vanished in a ripple of space.
Azrael glared at the empty air. "This bastard... what the hell did he want..."
For a mont, it was silent. No one is there to respond.
But then a soft whisper echoed in his skull. "Azrael... talk with ."
Azrael stiffened. "Huh?"
The voice ca again, steadier this ti. Azrael... this ti, I only wish to speak. Not take over."
Azrael blinked. This was new. "You? You’re the devil, right? The power that took over a while ago."
"Yes, it was . But don’t worry." The devil’s whisper filled his head. "I no longer had the intention to take over you. "
*
anwhile, at the Shadow Moon of the Arcana world;
Azzy stepped back into the real world, appearing in his room. Everything was quiet except for the slow, soft breathing from the bed.
Leiza was still curled under the blanket, completely asleep. Her hair had fallen over her face.
Azzy walked over and gently brushed it aside. "Sleep well," he whispered, pressing a kiss on her forehead.
She smiled unconsciously and shifted a bit.
Azzy’s expression softened. Then he vanished again.
A mont later, he appeared at a remote lake under the dark sky of the Shadow Moon without a single soul in sight.
He exhaled. "Good. No one will sense anything here or disturb ."
Azzy reached into his spatial ring and pulled out the treasure he had taken from the devil earlier.
He then sat cross-legged. "Alright... let’s try refining this."
He placed the treasure in his palm and let divine energy flow into it.
At first, it responded gently, like a wild animal slowly getting used to a hand.
Then—
BANG!
A concentrated beam of dark aura flew out of his palm and slamd into his chest like a hamr.
Azzy gasped. "Wha— argh!"
A wave of black-and-gold energy exploded over him. A curse shot into his veins, started burning his insides.
He hit the ground hard. "Agh—! Damn it..."
As the curse was in full effect, his skin began to peel—actual strips of it sliding off like burned paper.
Inside him, his death energy and divine energy lashed out, crashing into the curse like storms and attempting to nullify its power.
"Fight it... fight it..." Azzy gritted his teeth. "Co on..."
anwhile, the Jewel of Life suddenly manifested on his forehead, glowing fiercely. It poured healing into him—rebuilding flesh, repairing bone, restoring blood—only for the curse to tear it apart again.
His back arched violently as the curse tried to rip out his core.
His vision was also blurred. His breathing beca too heavy to the point that he couldn’t breathe anymore. His heartbeat beca too slow. His brain wasn’t receiving enough oxygen. His organs began to deteriorate.
Heal.
Destroy.
Heal.
Destroy.
It repeated. Over and over.
The following forty minutes crawled by like centuries. But eventually, the combined effort of his natural energy, divine energy, and Death energy managed to nullify the curse, and the jewel of life returned his body to its peak state. Just as the last speck of curse was about to disappear, a pair of eyes appeared in Azzy’s mind. His heart skipped a beat when he felt that.
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