There was no sign of Zheng in the surroundings. Even his blood couldn't be seen as if he had been turned into smoke under the effect of his own attack, leaving nothing behind
Even though Azekiel couldn't see any remnants of the man, he was sure that the man had been killed. There was no doubt in that part, at least.
After killing the man, Azekiel moved on to the mission of the twelfth floor as if nothing had happened.
****
Since Raphael and Lia were with the old man and weren't under any restrictions to be on any floors now. They were also in the Spiritual forms, so they could go wherever the old man could take them.
However, instead of being taken anyplace crazy, the old man brought them to a place that was much darker.
They should hardly see anything there, but they knew that it was a cold space.
"Where are we?" Raphael asked the man, which made the man smile.
"Where do you think you are?" the old man asked in return.
"If we knew, why would we ask you?" Lia didn't believe that it was a question the old man even needed to ask when it was so obvious. "Just tell us where we are."
"You are in the Temple of Souls," the old man answered, not keeping the two Familiars of Azekiel in suspense.
"Is this where we're going to get our bodies back so we can go back?" Raphael tried to observe the surroundings, which was quite hard, thanks to the darkness all around.
He could feel that the room they were in was quite big. However, he couldn't see the walls or what the walls were like. For that, he needed to move closer to that.
"Your bodies? You think it's going to be that easy to reverse death in this tower?" The old man was somehow amused. "Even though your souls are back here, recreating your bodies is much harder than you can expect. It's not going to be this easy as it's a long process."
"How long? And if we're not here to get our bodies back, then why are we here? What's the purpose of our presence?" Lia inquired. "I thought we were only coming here for our bodies and then for some training."
"You got all of that right, but you got the order wrong. It's not getting back bodies and then training. On the contrary, it's first training and then getting bodies back," the old man explained.
"In essence, you're all in the temple of souls, which is a place where you train your souls, so your souls are strong enough to get your bodies back. If you're weak, you might be destroyed in the process of getting your bodies back. So for that specific reason, I brought you here. Any other questions?"
"So this is like a training hall for souls?" Raphael asked, curious. "How long are we going to be here? And when can we go back to Azekiel?"
"How long before you go back to him depends entirely on how long you take to finish this trial, strengthening your souls, and getting back your body. After you are done with all that, I will have no reason to stop you. You are free to leave whenever you please however you please," the old man innocently answered even though he knew that there were some complications in the answer.
He was saying that you are going to send them back after they regain their bodies; it wasn't quite as simple as that. The process this time was going to take a very long time, and by the time they were done, the tower would have changed so much that they would have found it quite hard to recognize it.
The time they were going to spend on this training and other things was enough time for Azekiel to clear most of the floors and reveal his true identity for the whole Tower to see.
And if his real identity was out, it was obvious that Raphael and Lia were going to know about it as well. And once the news about it was out, they wouldn't even consider going back to the person again. Even if they decided to go back, it was clear that their mindset about him was going to change a lot, thanks to all the revelations.
For now, they thought he was just a person who was worried for their safety and wanted them to be strong. They thought it was why he sent them here. But by the time they were going to leave, they were going to know the reality and why Azekiel took the actions that he did.
Even though the old man knew that Azekiel took these actions to protect him from the subtle influence that was acting up on his head, that wasn't the extent of it. The old man knew that Azekiel was a person who had been fighting himself for a long time, and he had just reignited that fight inside his heart.
Before defeating anyone else, Azekiel needed to defeat himself, which was what he was trying to do by sending Raphael and Lia away from him.
****
An entire city was burning in Flames. Pained screams could be heard even from a great distance as many were being burned by the flames.
There was a person standing in the distance, watching the city burn. He could clearly hear the yell and pleas for help coming from inside the city. However, the man seemingly ignored the pleas for help. Instead, he kept his focus on the screen before him, which was showing that his mission had been completed.
He was also given rewards for this floor.
Azekiel closed the screen, glancing at the portal of the next floor, which wasn't too far from him. He didn't go to the next floor right away though. Instead, he just stared at the burning City, which once used to be a prosperous City on this floor.
"Carnage and destruction... The only path that can lead me to my goals but still..."
With time, the fire started dying down, but so did the calls for help which disappeared much faster, as if there was no one left to call for help.
After the fire ultimately died down, only the wreckage was left in its wake, with no signs of life. The houses came crumbling down as their foundation had been weakened.
Azekiel entered the portal, moving onto the next floor. At the moment, each Floor was like a step that led to his destination, and each floor consisted of crushed hopes and dreams. Only his dreams and hopes mattered to him now.
After he entered the portal of the next floor, the portal disappeared, and the world of this floor once again returned to its deafening silence.
*****
"So how long is it going to take for us to be strong enough to regain our bodies?" Lia asked the old man.
The old man could only smile in response. "Who knows? It all depends on how you perform here. If your performance is great, you might finish it in a few months. On the other hand, if your performance is bad, it might even take a few years for you to clear this. And once we count regaining a body as well, you are looking at around ten years or something pretty close to that."
"Isn't ten years a bit too much?" Lia exclaimed, surprised. They were going to take ten years? That much time was enough for Azekiel to reach the higher floors and clear them. What was going to be their use in his conquests if they came out after everything was over?
"Of course, that's not an exact estimate. You can shorten that time with your talent and your hard work," the old man further explained.
"As for how much you can shorten that time, it depends entirely on you. I can only give you a basic estimate if I consider you to be the worst at learning from the challenges ahead. However, the faster you are with everything, the faster you're going to succeed in getting your body back."
"If the worst estimate is ten years, what's the best estimate?" Raphael asked the old man. He had seen the worst end of times. Now he wanted to know the optimistic side. He didn't believe they were going to be that bad.
In his mind, he knew he was going to be the best of the best, no matter what kind of training his soul went through.
"The best estimate is around one year if you hadn't lost your memories. But with your memories, it makes things more complicated as we need to work on your memories as well, which will take some more time. So I would say, around one and a half years is my best estimate."
"Of course, you can finish it before that and surprise me, but I doubt."
