"So it confirms that all these strange castles were made by the same person," Raphael commented, walking closer to Azekiel. He sat on the bed as well.
Azekiel used a Summon on Raphael and Lia before giving them some fruits to eat as well. The two of them also worked hard with him, and he was sure they were hungry as well, maybe not as much as him, but still.
"That's right. I already told you that all those Castles were created by the same person. I just stole one of these castles for myself." Azekiel took another bite of his fruit.
He kept his mind somewhat distracted by food to not think too much about the origin of this castle. Even if he knew about it, he didn't want to explore that memory.
"At your peak, you must be stronger than the person who created this castle, right? He created these castles, but you created a tower that can hold this castle and the entire space-time hostage."
Raphael couldn't help but try to relate the strength of the tower's creator and the castle's creator.
Azekiel simply smiled in response. "Who knows, maybe he was a thousand times stronger than me, or maybe I was a thousand times stronger than him. We will never know. Moreover, you can't judge someone's strength based on what they can create.."
"What can we judge them on then?" Raphael asked in response.
"To know how strong one is, don't look at what they can create. Instead, look at what they can destroy..."
Azekiel's answer seemingly came from the depths of his soul as his expressions momentarily changed. It was just a brief change though. His expressions recovered to the same careless ones instantly. However, even that slight change didn't go unnoticed by Raphael.
"What can they destroy? How do we know that?" Raphael asked. "We only know what that person and what you created. We don't know anything more. We neither know what you were capable of destroying, nor we know what the creator of this castle was capable of destroying."
"That's the thing." Azekiel took another bite as he explained. "Life is very erratic. Anyone can take a life... We all have the potential. But what about the ones who can destroy entire worlds? When you take them into consideration, the entire power scale changes from the core."
"That's the scale where we judge the ones who are truly strong. And that's also the level where differentiation between the two becomes very hard. That's why it's impossible for you or for me to know who is stronger."
"Though it doesn't matter who was stronger. If I had come across the creator of this castle, I would've killed him even if he was a thousand times stronger."
"Why?" Raphael asked in confusion. Why did Azekiel want to kill the person that he didn't even know from what he claimed?
"Just to see what I was capable of," Azekiel smiled, giving a reason that Raphael found quite odd.
"Just to see..." Raphael repeated.
"Anyway, stop talking about the person who made this castle. Tell me about yourself. After we retake the tower and you get your body back, what will you do? What are your goals when we are free of all this?" As if to distract Raphael, Azekiel asked another question.
"My goals after this is all done?" Raphael asked, actually getting distracted since this question was actually so intriguing. If he was really going to get his body back and return to life, just what could he do?
"Can I leave the tower then?" He asked Azekiel.
"Sure you can," Azekiel answered. "You will be free to go anywhere you want, do whatever you please. So, what will you do then?"
Raphael scratched his temple, trying to think of a world where this was possible. He tried to imagine a life where he had his body back, and there were no enemies to fight him.
The scene was really beautiful and peaceful for him if it became reality, but he knew he couldn't do much. The tower was free of space and time restrictions, but not the outside world. He couldn't just go back to his home world and change the history as that could have some really strange reactions that even he couldn't guess.
He understood that his past was already done. The ones who had died in the outside world were dead. He couldn't change that without creating new problems, so all he could focus on was his future.
"I will stay in the tower and maybe create a family of my own," he answered, surprising Azekiel.
"You mean you'll get married in the tower? That's not bad. I'll look forward to being invited to your marriage."
"You'll get the first invitation, don't worry. You'll have a big hand in me getting back my life. I do hope I can find someone suitable. I've been an orphan, but after I get a family of my own, I won't be alone."
"You were never alone Raphael. You always had us... Always. The only difference is that your family will be bigger after you're married. And who knows, within a few years of that, you'll also have some little Raphaels that will call me uncle."
Even Azekiel seemed to enjoy that possibility a lot... A world where Raphael was happy.
"What about you Lia? What is your ideal world like? What will you do after you are free? Do you also want to create a family?" He asked Lia. "If yes, maybe you two can marry each other."
"Nonsense. I won't be marrying anyone, let alone him. If I get my life back, I will just relax and be lazy. At that point, I'd have had enough adventures in my life. I can already see how tired I would be at that point. I don't want to do anything else after that."
"If anything, I'll just stay with you, and waste my time. I don't need to do anything more than that. And once in a while, I'll go on some small adventures. That's all I have in mind at this point."
