The cracks on the mirror kept spreading until nothing could be seen on the mirror. It was as if even the mirror didn't dare to show his reflection suddenly.
"Why are you standing before a broken mirror?" Just as Gabriel was distracted, he heard a voice coming from behind him.
"Avilia?" Gabriel asked, turning around. Avilia was out of the shadows again. "Did you find out which forces were watching me?'
Avilia rolled her eyes. "Shouldn't you ask which forces weren't? All the Churches saw the commotion in recent days. All of them were keeping an eye on this city."
She continued, "However, there was someone else who was also watching. I just don't know who it was. It definitely wasn't someone from a Church."
"Probably Lambard. That guy is getting intrigued as well it seems," Gabriel answered. Even though Lambard sent his maid here to investigate, he was sure that he was still going to keep an eye on the City at least.
"It's not him. I've already taken him into consideration," Avilia responded. "I don't know where he's hiding, but my beasts can easily sense his spying. The one I'm talking about is someone else. Someone who even my beasts can't properly sense."
When Gabriel was fighting, Avilia wasn't sitting idle either. She was using her beasts to find out just how many forces were observing this city.
Hearing Avilia's answer, Gabriel was slightly surprised. Avilia's beasts could sense the spying of all the Churches and even Lambard. However, they couldn't recognise what method that mysterious person used to spy on the City? Didn't that mean the person was more threatening than the Churches? But who could be more threatening than a Church?
"Temple of Time?" He subconsciously muttered, frowning. He had heard in the Tower of Challenges that the Temple of Time was an existence that could stand toe to toe with the Churches. However, they were even more mysterious.
Novius also told him that now that the orb of time had reappeared in this world, it was only a matter of time before the Temple of Time reappeared in this continent!
'Why would they spy on this city though? Did they find out that I have the Orb of Time? No, this can't be. They shouldn't be able to sense the orb. It's kept in the Grimoire. It's impossible for anyone to sense it. Then why? Just a random check? Or are they suspicious of me?'
Just the thought of being observed by the Temple of Time was a headache for Gabriel. The Temple of Time existed even in the Era of Karyk!
Moreover, the two sides had enmity since Karyk stole the Orb of Time from them. Despite this enmity, Karyk didn't destroy the Temple of Time like every other organization that stood in its path. That was enough for Gabriel to understand that the Temple of Time probably had as much strength as Karyk at his peak!
Since none of the sides could destroy the other completely, that only meant that both sides had more or less an equal level of strength.
'But that was in the past. I'm not Karyk. I don't have as much strength as him. I don't even have as powerful an army as he commanded. I don't know the strength of the Temple of Time, but they should still have a similar level of strength as they did in the past. The balance is already broken...'
Gabriel wasn't worried about facing the Churches since most of the Holy Priests were more or less similar to him, part of the younger generation who used Grimoires as their source of strength. He had enough faith in his Grimoire to face them. However, the Temple was different.
The Temple of Time was like a snake lurking in the darkness, bearing its poisonous fangs, ready to bite as soon as it was given an opportunity. What was worse was that no one knew where the Temple was even situated at all! They could appear anywhere and disappear right after.
Even when all Churches worked together in the past, they couldn't do anything against the Temple of Time!
Gabriel couldn't help but rub his forehead, feeling as if the times ahead were even more chaotic than he expected. There were Churches after him, there was Lambard who had a complicated relationship with him, and then there were the other Empires and now the overlord of the land, the Temple of Time!
Gabriel didn't know what the future held for him, but he knew that no matter what, the only thing which could help him was his own strength! He had to be the strongest... Only by becoming stronger like Karyk could he hold back the Temple of times!
'I need to find the mystery behind that garden, no matter what it takes! Time is running out!' He clenched his fist, having a general idea of what he had to do.
"You know about the Temple of Time?" Avilia asked, slightly surprised. Since Gabriel didn't appear much knowledgeable about this world due to his late entrance in the realm of mages, she didn't expect him to know the secrets that only the higher ups of the Churches knew.
Most of the mages didn't even know about the existence of the Temple of Time since it hadn't appeared in a long time. The ones who knew about it were already dead in this world!
"Am I not supposed to know?" Gabriel asked in return.
"I didn't mean that." Avilia shook her head, wondering if Gabriel misunderstood her words as her looking down on him. "I was just surprised. Even I didn't know about this before I took the highest position of the Church of Summoning and went through the records."
"Anyway, what you said could make sense. If it's the Temple of Time, it would make sense why I couldn't sense their identity. They are the most mysterious out of everyone. Even the Churches don't know the methods they use."
"I just don't understand why they would appear in this world again and take an interest in this city? Noticing seems out of the ordinary in this city, at least to me. Nothing other than..." She briefly paused as she stared at Gabriel. "Nothing other than you! You are the reason they are keeping an eye on this city?"
"Seems to be that way," Gabriel also had the same thought. He knew that other than himself, there was another strange thing in this city which was that garden.
However, there was no way the Temple was observing this city for that garden. The garden existed in this city from the beginning. If they could've sensed the garden, they would've been here decades ago.
It was most probably him who attracted their attention since he was the only new addition to this city in the last few days!
"They are observing this city because of me…"
