Raphael wanted to stop Azekiel. He even thought that he was succeeding in convincing Azekiel to stop the plan of using Soul Snatch on Alion. Still, unfortunately, he was somewhat too optimistic, especially when Lia agreed with him. Even he hadn't expected that Azekiel was going to refuse his suggestion and Lia's.
Normally, there was Gluttony of Knowledge on his first kill, which worked right before the Soul Energy started transferring. It was the same even this time as well.
[Gluttony of Knowledge activated]
A flood of memories started rushing inside the head of Azekiel, overwhelming his own mind. The memories were just too many. It was as if the man had lived for thousands of years and had seen so much that it was too overpowering for Azekiel's head.
If it was an ordinary person, that many memories would have been enough to break his mind. Fortunately for him, with his strength growing, even his mental strength had grown, thanks to all the Spiritual Strength he had absorbed throughout the weeks.
The memories gave him a heavy headache as if his head was going to explode, but it was still bearable for him. Instead of thinking about the headache, Azekiel was more immersed in the memories.
He even lost control over his body which dropped to the ground, right beside Alion.
"What is happening? Is he fine?" Lia became slightly concerned to see Azekiel fall. She hadn't seen him like that before. His expressions also made it look like he was in pain for now.
Raphael stood with a deep frown on his face. He knew that it wasn't dangerous for Azekiel. It was just the side effects of absorbing so many memories at once. What concerned him more was the effects this was going to have.
Alion was extremely worried about some informed getting out, which he considered too dangerous for everything in existence. Because of that, I wasn't even willing to tell that to him as long as Azekiel was alive. But now... That knowledge was already going to Azekiel. Raphael couldn't do anything but watch, wondering just how it was going to play out.
Was the reality really going to be destroyed? Or was Alion just exaggerating about it? That was the biggest question. If it was the latter, that meant Alion was just acting and trying to fool him, which was the better option for now. But if it was the former, that begged the question. Just what was going to happen after Azekiel finished accumulating all this knowledge?
Not only did the memories continue flooding Azekiel, but the spiritual energy also rushed into his body, leaving Alion's body, increasing his strength even more. The strength increase wasn't any less either. Instead of just increasing his strength by a fraction, the increase was so much that it essentially doubled all his stats.
Moreover, what was even more surprising was that for the first time, his hunger stat actually came down.
The process continued for a long time, and Azekiel continued to resist the urge to give up because of the pain. He bore with all the pain, even occasionally roaring like a wild beast.
The knowledge accumulation lasted for close to an hour without a break. Fortunately, it eventually stopped as all the memories reached Azekiel. Finally, he could stop, but by now, his mind was so overburdened that as soon as he stepped, forcing himself to stay up, he lost consciousness.
It was as if it was a way for his mind to tell him to just shut down everything for now as it went through the memories properly.
Azekiel's screams stopped. The signs of pain on his face also disappeared as it appeared like he had gone to a peaceful sleep.
His chest was still heaving up and down.
Raphael picked up Azekiel in his arms. No matter what the future held, he couldn't be scared of it. He didn't know what Alion was worried about, but for now, Azekiel was still the same old friend that he knew.
He carried Azekiel to a room inside, placing him on a bed to let him rest as he hoped that nothing was going to change because of these memories.
Throughout the rest of the day, Lia and Raphael waited in the room for Azekiel to wake up. Since he wasn't injured or wounded, he didn't need any treatment. The only thing which was hurt was his mind, and it only needed rest.
"Raphael, may I ask one thing?" Lia asked Raphael after a long silence.
"What?"
"For some reason, you didn't look happy when we killed Alion. I was controlling Lenora, so I didn't see and hear it. You also called out for someone to stop when I was about to kill Alion. Did you want him alive for some reason?" Lia asked.
She didn't ask this question before Azekiel since she didn't want to make Azekiel angry by doubting Raphael before him. She knew how much Azekiel trusted him. That's why she waited for an opportunity like this to ask the question.
"Even now, you don't look happy that we took out our biggest enemy at the moment. Did I do something wrong? Or are you upset that I changed your plan?" she asked further. "I don't think you are the person who would be angry because I took the credit. So I don't understand why. Why are you not happy? Is it because of me? Or because of something else?"
"You are overthinking it," Raphael responded. "I'm also happy that we killed our enemy, but it's also true that I'm not as happy as I should've been. I was asking Alion an impossible question about how he knew about us. He was from the future."
"I wanted to know everything that he did, but you suddenly killed him, so I was just a bit taken aback that I couldn't get the answers I was looking for."
"He was from the future?" Lia asked, surprised. "You mean like the real future?"
"Yeah. He came to this time using the stone of time as well. I wanted to know why..."
