"So tell me. How is it that you are alive?" Azekiel asked. Despite being a tower Lord, when he was curious about how it was possible for this to happen. Even though Raphael claimed that he did it know why he had a spiritual form even though he was alive, Azekiel was sure that he at least had some idea since it was related to him.
"If I knew how it was possible, I wouldn't have any need to keep you alive. I could have killed you twice over by now since I am sure the ones above would've rewarded me heavily for that. You are quite popular even after all these years, after all."
"You know about me, yet you think you could've killed me?" Azekiel was quite amused at this response. There was one thing to be brave, and there was another to be outright foolish, which he believed the young man was being.
"As people often say, wisdom doesn't come with age. I see that's quite true." The stench of blood could be smelled in the air, which had just witnessed all the slaughter, carrying this stench far and wide as if bearing witness to what had happened recently.
Most of the Kings were out there, making plans on how to find and capture Azekiel, unaware that the best of them had already found Azekiel.
"If you know about me, then you should know why this Tower was so scared of me."
"That's the difference between past and present. Even though I didn't see that time, I do believe the stories that I heard about you, but that's all. You might've been a strong being in the past, but now... Now you are no more the god of this Tower. You are also a human now who is trying to climb the tower."
Raphael was also confident of his assumption since everything pointed at this.
"It's not hard to guess. If you weren't weaker, you could've gone to the top floor right away. That's how reckless you used to be. The one reason you are climbing the tower and finishing the missions is because you can't climb without that."
"That means you no longer control this tower. As for what that implies, I'm sure you know as well as I do. So if would really benefit you if you don't do anything stupid."
Not only did Raphael tell Azekiel's history, but he also issued a threat to him.
Even being threatened, Azekiel still had that smile on his face. He had always seen Raphael as an ally. Seeing him as a potential enemy was certainly very refreshing.
"Who knows." Only after Raphael stopped with his threat that Azekiel spoke. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I am weak. But are you really willing to take that risk? The only way for you to find out if it's the truth or not is it the path of battle. If you're right, then good. But if you're wrong, that means you'll end up dead."
"Are you really willing to test that theory of yours with your life? Are you really ready to throw your life away after coming this far?"
Azekiel didn't want to, didn't Raphael at the moment. It wasn't that he was scared. Instead, it was because he wanted to get his answers first. He didn't know what Effects it was going to have on the Raphael he knew. There were just too many things that made him hold back.
Another reason was that he didn't want to get higher in the tower ranking. He was in the top 40 already.
In the higher realm, there was a different ranking of Kings who had passed through to that realm. There was also a small ranking there which showed the top ten of the Middle Realms. The worst part was that the ranking didn't just show the name.
Azekiel wasn't his real name, so he could still have some advantages, but once his face was shown on the ranking with his name, all his old enemies were going to be aware.
He knew the Kings in the middle realm, and some of them even saw him in the past. He didn't know which of these kings was in contact with the Higher Realm like Raphael, but here, the only risk was that they could inform the people above.
On the contrary, if his name appeared in the top ten, there was no need for anyone to inform anyone.
It was clear that the person who killed him wasn't looking at the middle realm. If she was, he knew she would've been here herself, but with so many people knowing about him, it was clear that they weren't going to wait until he could come to the Higher Realm.
They were going to come here for him instead. He wanted to delay that as much as he could since it was better if he was stronger at that time to use the key and the inverse key.
He wanted to delay using them as long as he could. The best way to avoid that was by not fighting Raphael here since even if he killed Raphael, his name was going to jump straight to the top ten as Raphael was a top tier mage.
"Anyway, I'm still surprised you have been on this floor for so long without being able to clear it," he stated, changing the topic of the battle.
At the same time, he even turned back and walked to the edge of the building, looking over at the beautiful city. It was a small gesture but showing his back to the enemy in this manner was sending a signal, and that signal was that he wasn't scared of Raphael.
It was an implication that he believed Raphael couldn't kill him even if he attacked from behind since he was so strong. It also served another person since it prevented Raphael from attacking. As a warrior, he wasn't going to attack someone when their back was facing him.
"The guardian of this floor that you created isn't easy to defeat," Raphael stated as he also walked closer, standing right beside him.
Even he wasn't in any mood to fight. If he wanted to, he could've killed Azekiel right away.
Even he had seen a bit of Azekiel's adventure. He saw how Azekiel treated his spiritual self as a familiar. He never made him do anything against his wishes, often treating him like a brother.
That kind of personality was completely different from the cruel and ruthless monster that he had heard so much about. It was clear to him that maybe he wasn't that bad. Still, he knew it was too soon to judge. That's why he came here to know Azekiel personally, to see if he could glimpse at the darkness hiding inside Azekiel's heart.
"You didn't ask your contacts on the higher floor on how to do it?" Azekiel inquired. There was a very particular trick to clear this Floor which people rarely discovered. It was only through that trick that people were able to defeat the Guardian of the Floor. That's why this floor was considered a challenge of strength and wits.
Since the ones who cleared this floor already knew about this trick, he was surprised Raphael and the others on this floor didn't.
'I don't want their help to clear this floor. I'll do it myself!" Raphael declared, finding it beneath him to ask for help in this. No matter how long it was going to take for him to clear this floor, he wanted to be proud of it when he did.
"I doubt your friends agree with that notion. They seem quite eager to clear this floor, going as far as to kill everyone here. Unfortunately, they are still walking the wrong path, not realizing how stupid they were being. No matter how strong they become, they will never defeat the Guardian of the Floor. I selected that guy for a reason after all."
"It amuses me and at the time, saddens me to see how low intellect these Kings have. Despite that, they managed to reach this floor. What a pity..."
"Anyway, it seems we are getting a bit off track," Azekiel tapped his forehead, remembering that the other Kings weren't worth his attention at the moment.
"Why didn't you join them in this?" he asked Raphael. "Didn't want to get your hands dirty?"
"I didn't feel like doing it," Raphael answered with a short sentence. "I also think that this isn't the way to clear this floor. No matter how strong we get, there is always the Guardian who is one step stronger than us. It's as if we make him stronger by becoming stronger."
"If you think that, why didn't you stop the others?" Azekiel grinned, seeing that Raphael was thinking in the right direction. He was at least close to getting to the right answer, just not quite there yet.
"They didn't listen, and I didn't force them. They can do as they please. I'm not in their group, after all. It doesn't matter what they do…."
