It was early in the morning and the sun had already risen high in the sky.
Gabriel had already been waiting at the roof of the Royal Castle, looking into the distance as if he was waiting for something.
Even though Alion had agreed to take him to the place where he wanted to go, he still told Gabriel to wait till the morning before departure for some reason.
Gabriel assumed that it was because Alion wanted to prepare something for the trip while also making some arrangements back at Karyk's castles to make sure that nothing went wrong in their absence.
Even Gabriel had done some preparations of his own.
He had initially wanted to deal with the matter of Lambard first. However, with the urgency of the current matter, he left Lambard for Avilia for the time being.
For some strange reason, the little demigod was still deep asleep. Before leaving, he wanted to make some excuses to the little girl. However, now that she was asleep, he just left a message with one of his knights outside the little girl's room to inform her when he left.
After he and Alion were going to leave, there was no one in the Royal City who could stop the little girl. However, Gabriel could only hope that she wasn't going to cause any unnecessary troubles.
"Are you sure I can't come with you?" Standing behind Gabriel, Avilia looked at his distant back. She didn't understand why, but he appeared slightly different than the last time.
Even though Gabriel wasn't using his shroud of light, yet she couldn't feel his aura of death. It was as if Gabriel's control over his element of death was so high now that even a Holy Lord couldn't sense his aura. It was as if not a single thread of his aura leaked without his permission, unlike before.
What was even strange was that she felt as if Gabriel was even more incomprehensible for some reason, even though it had only been one night. There was only a few meters of distance between the two, yet it felt like they were standing thousands of miles apart.
"Not this time." Gabriel already had Alion and didn't feel it was safe to take more people with him. The place they were going was too dangerous according to Alion.
Avilia didn't raise the question again and agreed to Gabriel's instructions. She didn't know why, but there was something deep within his heart which made her unable to say no to Gabriel. Even she didn't understand that feeling herself.
It hadn't been long since the two of them started working together. However, strangely enough, she didn't like the feeling of being away from him. At the same time, she also didn't want to make him get angry at her. Even she was conflicted inside her heart as to what was happening to her.
She raised her left hand to summon a flying eagle to carry Gabriel to his destination. Unfortunately, just as she was about to finish her summoning, Gabriel turned around.
His beautiful blue eyes looked deep within Avilia's eyes, momentarily stunning her. There was a slight trace of darkness that could be seen deep within Gabriel's blue eyes.
Looking back at Gabriel, Avilia even forgot the rest of her summoning spell, only losing herself in Gabriel's eyes. She already knew how beautiful Gabriel's eyes were.
However, there was a strange kind of charm in his eyes now which made anyone who looked into them momentarily stunned. It was as if those eyes contained vast worlds deep within.
"You don't need to call any beast this time. I'll go alone."
"You think I will spy on you through my beast?" Avilia didn't know why, but she felt slightly taken aback. It was as if she was surprised that Gabriel still couldn't believe her.
"It's not that." Gabriel shook his head before giving a brief explanation. "It's just that I need to pass through the cities of the other Holy Lords to get to my destination. When they see your beast and me sitting on it, it'll attract unnecessary attention and I don't want to have to waste my time dealing with them."
Avilia remained silent. What Gabriel said made sense. She was also slightly happy that it wasn't because Gabriel didn't trust her. He was just trying to avoid some unnecessary trouble.
However, this also gave her some hints as to where Gabriel wanted to go.
'A dangerous place and to reach that place, one has to pass through the territory of more than one Holy Lord? Isn't that... The Abandoned City of Gods?'
Avilia was stunned as soon as she realized where Gabriel was planning to go. The City was said to be the plane where real gods lived once upon a time. Throughout the time, many powerful people tried to explore the city but in the end, none of them came out alive!
Even the Holy Lords who entered that place only received death and nothing else! Even the last Holy Lord of Water died because she entered the City of Abandoned Gods accidentally!
She wanted to persuade Gabriel to think twice before going to that place as it was too dangerous even for him. However, looking at Gabriel's determined eyes, she realized that he wasn't going to change his mind.
Gabriel abruptly turned his back on Avilia, seemingly distracted by something. He looked at the sun in the distance, lost in some thought. Avilia didn't realize that it was because he had just received Alion's message.
"I'm waiting for you outside the Empire borders."
"I'm leaving. If possible, take care of the Empire," Gabriel turned around, revealing a calm yet beautiful smile. "When I return, I'll hopefully be bringing back the real Emperor of this place."
Gabriel started rising in the sky. Two beautiful black wings appeared on his back. The wings appeared to be made of a dark fire which wasn't fire at all. Instead, it was the pure and untainted aura of death.
What was even weirder was that despite Gabriel using a spell of death so openly, Avilia still couldn't feel Gabriel's aura which was contained only around his body.
The wings not only allowed Gabriel to fly high in the sky, but the speed that provided Gabriel was also faster than the peak speed of the Beasts that Avilia lent him to travel at times.
Gabriel glanced at the Royal City one last time before he flew south.
As soon as he reached outside the borders, he noticed Alion standing there with the support of a protective wall. This time, he wasn't wearing any dark cloak, revealing his handsome face.
"You're finally here."
