"Let me?" Words echoed as Azekiel's figure disappeared completely.
He appeared behind Zheng. Moreover, for some reason, his body was floating in the air as if he was able to fly.
With Raphael and Lia, he never flew. He only had Raphael's help to fly. Even in the Castle, when everyone started falling, Azekiel didn't fly. He just used his claws to hang by the wall, which made it look as if he couldn't fly.
However, now that Raphael and Lia were here, he was quite free.
There was also a reason he didn't fly before. He knew that Zheng was keeping an eye on him. Why bother with flying when there was no need to? If Zheng didn't know how much of his powers he had received, then Azekiel wanted to keep it that way.
Azekiel's figure appeared behind Zheng, which he saw thanks to the Dragon, who was keeping an eye on everything.
Despite the help of the Dragon, Zheng was still a bit too slow. Azekiel's movement was like lightning, even at this speed.
Zheng also disappeared. He appeared far away, not taking any risk. Moreover, he had decided that he was going to stop talking. Azekiel wasn't an enemy who he could take lightly.
Unfortunately, as he appeared in the distance and looked where Azekiel was flying before, there was no one there.
Even the Dragon couldn't find Azekiel this time as he wasn't behind Zheng.
Zheng's jaws dropped as he managed to find Azekiel before his dragon could. And that was because Azekiel wasn't anywhere close to him. Azekiel was floating right under the Dragon.
By the time Zhang noticed, it was too late. Azekiel stabbed his Gauntlets of Gluttony in the Dragon, absorbing the strength of the Dragon.
Instantly, the Dragon turned into the purest form of energy, being sucked inside Azekiel's body. Moreover, that strength wasn't just soul energy this time. Azekiel's level also increased, thanks to the Dragon's energy, along with his stats.
Moreover, it worked to weaken Zheng since the Dragon was connected to him. It also took away his biggest advantage.
Thanks to the return of his old memories, Azekiel now knew just what these Gauntlets were actually capable of. How the Gauntlets were used until now was just the tip of the iceberg.
Azekiel had a cold devilish grin as he looked back at Zheng in the distance. That grin... Zhang could never forget that wicked grin. He had seen that same grin many times before when Azekiel was on his conquests in the past.
If Azekiel ever looked like his old self, it was now!
"You can't scare me!" Zheng roared, not stepping back. Even though seeing that same old grin sent a chill down his spine, he still knew he was going to win! He needed to kill Azekiel at any cost!
"Who says I want to scare you?" Azekiel asked. "If you're scared, you'll go back to her. And at the moment, I would prefer to stay away from her. So it's better that you're not scared, sweet little Zheng."
"You!" Zheng raised his hand, calling forth the Power of the sun.
A ball of flame started gathering above his head, encompassing a warmth that could burn anything in existence. However, even at the sight of the sphere of flames, Azekiel didn't move.
"I see. So you did learn some new tricks in the past. However, along with the strength of an attack, you need to look at the flaws of it too. Did she not teach you the basics? The biggest flaw of that attack is that it takes quite a long time to condense. And in that much time, you could be killed three times over."
"A smaller yet weaker attack is much better. Like this," Azekiel raised his right hand. A flame condensed above his hand into a sphere. However, that sphere was much smaller and seemed to be much less destructive.
Azekiel tossed the small sphere toward Zheng.
To avoid the sphere, Zheng teleported once again, but this time ten meters behind Azekiel.
The Sphere of flames still kept condensing. "The flaw you're trying to tell me, I've known about that for a long time. She taught me more than you ever can! Moreover, I would prefer to learn from the winner than from a person that lost from her..."
Zhang wanted to destroy Azekiel with one attack, not to stretch the fight. And until the sphere was ready, all he needed to do was keep teleporting to avoid the attacks of Azekiel. It wasn't long before his mini sun was going to be ready.
Azekiel still wasn't phased. Amused, he turned around.
He brought his thumb and his finger together. As soon as he snapped, a small space portal appeared before the sphere of flames that he had tossed before.
Another small portal appeared right behind the huge sphere of flames that Zheng was still condensing.
The small sphere of fire didn't target him though. That's also why Zheng couldn't sense it.
Instead, the small Sphere targeted the small sphere.
As soon as the smaller sphere hit the bigger sphere, the bigger Sphere started becoming more unstable.
Even Zheng was losing control of the bigger sphere. No matter what he did, he couldn't bring it back into his control.
"Second flaw of that attack," Azekiel commented. "The sphere is very unstable. A small interruption can make it even more unstable. That's why one must protect themselves as well as their sun until it's ready. I'm sure you knew about this as well?"
"You!" Zheng glared at Azekiel with bloodthirsty eyes as he realized that it was too late now. He couldn't control the sphere.
Unfortunately, he couldn't teleport either. There was some kind of restriction on his Teleportation.
"There is one thing that you would not know though. It's something that only the creator of this tower can know," Azekiel coldly stated. "The hidden restriction on the twelfth floor, only a certain amount of Teleportation are allowed before the floor seals your ability to Teleport."
Azekiel had created many such small yet insignificant restrictions on each of the floors. Each floor had a different yet minor set of restrictions which he made just because he was bored even creating the floors.
Such restrictions didn't affect the floor's working to anyone's experience in any significant way. In fact, most people in the tower didn't even know what the restrictions on each floor was, since they never set off the conditions for the restrictions.
As soon as Azekiel came on this floor, he had already taken that restriction into consideration. He had placed his pieces in such a way that only he had an advantage.
"On Earth, there's a saying for a situation like this," Azekiel stretched his arms, casting a powerful barrier around him.
"Checkmate."
Zheng couldn't control the explosive sun, but he also couldn't leave it and fly away as it was going to explode as soon as he separated from the unstable sun. That's why, Teleportation was the only option he had, but that option was restricted! Azekiel intentionally made him teleport so many times.
He was also the first person who started Teleportation to subconsciously influence him to do as well!
Boom~
Even after trying to control the unstable sun, Zheng failed as the sun ultimately exploded right above him.
Under the loud Explosion, Azekiel couldn't even hear the rageful roar of Zhang, who was right at the center of the Explosion.
Even though Azekiel was far away from the explosion, even then his barrier was struggling to protect him from the destructive energy.
Fortunately, his Gauntlets could absorb some of that explosive energy, giving backup to his Barrier while making him stronger.
Before long, the flames had passed through, disappearing. In their wake, scorched ground was left behind.
Azekiel couldn't even see the remnants of Zheng, which was quite disappointing to him.
"Can't even use Soul Snatch on him. At least it was an entertaining firework."
Azekiel landed on the warm ground. He could still see some smoke in the air. Moreover, the air was so warm that he was covered in sweat as well. Still, he was quite pleased.
He felt satisfied. Only two people knew his reality at the moment. One of them was dead, and the other wasn't going to tell anyone about him. For now, he was away from all excess troubles.
"You were right Zheng. You should never take advice from the person who lost. Unfortunately, your history is a bit weak if you thought that I actually lost that day..."
He looked up at the sky. He still remembered the day just like yesterday. Even though the history might not remember it correctly, he knew what exactly happened that day. He could never forget it.
"The story about my death that had been manipulated so much... Hah, it's somewhat amusing for sure. The story about a brave woman killing me in a battle?"
"Don't worry though. You won't be alone, Zheng. I'll be sending her and the others after you as well," he commented. "You'll certainly have lots of company as it's time for me to cleanse the tower of all the trash."
