"At the moment, we see Azekiel as an enemy, but we forget that he isn't just that. In the situation we are in, he isn't just an enemy but also the key that we need to open the door to the next floor," the old man explained, not knowing if his people were getting what he was trying to say or not.
Barring a few, most of them realized just what the old man was saying. The entire reason they went with this slaughter was because they needed more strength to clear this floor. With the death of one of them, they now had no choice but to take the help of others, and at the moment, Azekiel seemed like the best choice.
"Will he agree to join us?" a chubby King asked, resizing that there were just too many uncertainties. "If he's looking to kill all the kings and work alone, it would be quite hard to convince him. That is if he can even find him. Now that he has killed one of us, I doubt if he'll even be on this Floor. He must've left for the lower floors to avoid being found."
"That's quite possible. It'll be hard to find him as well if that's the case, but it's still much faster than finding another King and training him to reach the same level. If we want to clear this floor, he's our best option," the old man answered. "Even if he doesn't agree to help us, we need to find a way to convince him!"
"It won't be hard." A smile spread across the lips of the old man. "After we find him, we just need to let him know his situation and that he only has two options. One is that we kill him for his aggression against one of us, and the other is that he joins us. I think that should make his choice a bit easier. Don't you think so?"
"In that case, we'll begin the search for him." The other Kings agreed as well.
"Remember one thing. No matter what, you aren't allowed to lose more men! Make teams of three kings for the search so that even if the negotiations go back, we don't lose more of us."
"Also, as soon as you find him, make sure to inform the others. Don't negotiate alone. I would like to be the one to talk to him if possible."
The old man told the others to maintain some precautions before letting them begin the search. Almost all of them knew what Azekiel looked like. Unfortunately, even with this knowledge, they all knew just how hard this task was. There were thirty five floors, all as vast as worlds of their own, and Azekiel could be in any of them.
For them, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. All of them had a different approach to how to go about doing this. Some wanted to go and take the help of their men and people of the world to find Azekiel, while others wanted to use a different approach. Some even had the plan to make Azekiel come to them instead of going to him.
"I will leave the search to you." The old man didn't take part in the search. At least not yet. He left the search on the other and left on his own, not telling them anything as to where he was going.
After an initial discussion, all the other Kings also left, leaving only Osiris behind, who observed all the dead around him.
Azekiel watched the kings discussing something. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could understand it more or less, the way he saw them look at the Tower in shock. It was clear that they knew who he was. In any case, it was only a matter of time since he couldn't just hide the entire tower.
It wasn't surprising at all.
"It seems they will now begin searching for me. Not unexpected." After watching all the kings leave, Azekiel sat on the roof, bringing out some fruits from his ring.
"I didn't know that the world intelligence would go down this much in my absence. Despite spending so long in this tower, these people still hadn't realized how to really clear it. The closer they get, the farther they become. It seems I expected too much from them."
As he ate his fruit, sitting all alone, he kept talking to himself just to remove some of the isolation that he was feeling. Generally, he would've talked to Raphel and Lia in this situation, explaining things to them, but in their absence, he found things to be quite different.
"First, I need to see this Raphael, who is ranked on the tower, and find out how he's still alive. After that, I can go back to my work. Since the floor isn't going to be cleared anytime soon, I should still have plenty of time."
"May I ask why you want to meet me?" Azekiel was lost in his thoughts when a voice came from behind him.
He curiously turned around, even though having a rough idea as to who had arrived. The voice was clearly Raphael's, but the aura was more powerful. It was the aura of a King as if Raphael had a real body and the strength of the top King.
"I should've wished for something else as well." Amused, Azekiel stood up.
He was just thinking about Raphael, and the man was right there before him.
Azekiel turned around, observing Raphael behind him, who was standing in the air.
Raphael also landed on the roof. "I heard you were here to look for me. May I ask why that was, Azekiel? Or should I call you ...."
Initially, Azekiel understood how Raphael managed to sneak in behind him, which wasn't surprising but what really surprised him was how Raphael knew his real name that wasn't even mentioned in the Tower! The name that even the Kings of this floor didn't remember.
Only the beings in the higher realm knew what he was used to be known as.
"So what brought the Tower Lord to meet me?'
"You seem to know a lot about me." Azekiel was also intrigued at how Raphael knew that much about him. There were two possibilities that he could think of. One was that he was in contact with beings from the Higher Realm in the Tower. That could explain why he had extra knowledge.
As for the second possibility, it was that this Raphael was the same as the Raphael who accompanied him on his journey all this time, and that's why this Raphael had all this knowledge. If it was the latter, it was even more surprising since it meant the Raphael that was his familiar had his memories connected with this Raphael without knowing.
His Raphael didn't get this Raphael's memories, but this Raphael got everything from his Familiar without them knowing, which included everything that he himself told Raphael, including him being the Tower Lord.
"It shouldn't be the latter. Even he doesn't know my real name. That can only mean it's the first option. May I ask who is helping you from Higher Realm? Who is your source that told you about me? Who else knows it?"
Azekiel narrowed down on all the possibilities before realizing that only one of them appeared to be possible when he looked at the flaws in both of them.
"I'm afraid I was the person who asked you a question first. It's only good manners to answer first before asking a question."
Just like the old Raphael, this Raphael also seemed to be very proper and into manners, but he was a little less friendly than the Raphael Azekiel knew.
"Why is the Tower Lord looking for me?" Raphael repeated the question.
"I'm not the tower lord," Azekiel answered. "At least not anymore. But soon, I'll get back what rightfully belongs to me. However, until then, you don't have to address me as such."
"As for why I'm looking for you... I'm afraid I can't tell you that. Let's just say I wanted to see if you are really who I thought you were."
Raphael didn't pretend not to understand what Azekiel was saying. He had also seen Azekiel's journey with the other Kings at the start. Even he knew the Familiars that he had summoned, including him. Even he was slightly surprised when he initially saw it.
"So you're here to see how I can still be alive if my Spiritual Form is your Familiar?" Raphael asked. "Aren't you the Tower Lord? You should be telling me how that's possible."
"As perceptive as always. It's not possible for a person to be alive if their spiritual form is available inside the tower to be made a Familiar. That only happens once a person is dead. Even I was slightly surprised to see you alive after all that."
