[Passive Skill: Gluttony of Knowledge activated]
As Azekiel finished his Soul Snatch, the passive Skill, Gluttony of Knowledge, became active on its own.
Azekiel sat in a daze as he went through the memories of Elijah. He saw Elijah killing the person who took care of him, all so he didn't lose the inheritance. It was just as Elijah had described before. There was no difference.
It didn't matter at this time though. He was already dead, so no matter what he did in the past, it was of no significance. He was more focused on the memories from the moment Elijah entered the castle to see what he saw on the third floor. What was the mystery of the two books?
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait for long for those memories. He noticed Elijah finishing the Trial of the Second Floor. He was the last of the Kings to finish the Trial, which made him feel really insulted. He was weaker than the other Kings when it came to offensive strength. It was only his defense that was great, but that defense was useless when it came to finishing the Trials.
Elijah was two months behind the King, who finished the trial before him.
By the time he reached the Third Floor, the other Kings had already cleared the Trial of the Third Floor and moved onto the fourth.
It was at that point that Elijah almost gave up on the thoughts of catching up to the others. He just gave up and wasn't in any hurry to clear the floor. Instead, he decided to explore the Third Floor more than just the area where he needed to be to clear the Trial.
As he explored the Tomb of Gods, he went to places that no other King explored on that Floor. That's where he ended up before what appeared like a Temple. He wanted to explore the Temple, which made him really curious, but before he could open the door, the Statue that was present before the Tower came to life, commanding him to leave.
As for the Statute, it was exactly like the statue from which Azekiel had received the second book.
Azekiel finally understood why Elijah didn't think twice before believing his illusion about a Statue coming to life. This had happened to him once before, after all.
Elijah tried fighting the Statue to barge inside the Temple, but he was thrashed badly. Even the Hammer of Greed couldn't hurt the Statue.
Being defeated, Elijah took the statue more seriously. Instead of trying to force his way inside, he directly asked the statue why he was being stopped from entering.
****
Azekiel went through the memories of this timeline from Elijah, gaining all the insights he needed. Finally, he understood why this guy had decided to waste so much time on this Floor just for one book.
Just like with Michael, Azekiel also received the memories of Elijah from the other timeline, which didn't exist now. That timeline's memories also ended when that timeline was destroyed with Azekiel's return in time, so there wasn't much to those memories that Azekiel didn't know before.
Azekiel stood up, stretching his arms. "We are done here."
"So, did you find out about the books? What's it about?" Raphael inquired. He was already informed by Azekiel about his ability that could take the memory of the person he had killed.
"I got all the answers I needed, and it certainly was worth our time."
Azekiel started explaining everything he had managed to find out without hiding anything from Raphael. After spending so much time with Raphael, he was sure that Raphael could be trusted along with Lia. Both of them were his Familiars after all.
"There is a temple outside the Trial Zone on the Third Floor, but to enter the temple, you need the two books and the numbers that are on them. Moreover, there is supposedly an entirely different world inside the Temple. Each of the two books contains one-half of the map of the world."
"As for what's inside that world, it seems even Elijah didn't know about it. All he was told by the statue was that the person who could get inside had a chance of achieving something that could change history forever."
"Elijah was the weakest and saw no hope of competing with the others, so he sought whatever the Temple held, believing he could change his fate."
Azekiel explained everything he found out. " So, what do you think?"
"Essentially, we don't know what's inside the Temple. There might be something really good, but there might also be something that is completely useless for us. You are different from Elijah. You aren't weak, so it might be useless for us to go there," Raphael analyzed carefully.
"But then again, it would be foolish not to see what's there. If that's one thing I know about Osiris is that he doesn't exaggerate. If he said there was something really important there, it's certainly worth taking the risk," Lia chimed in.
Raphael also agreed with her. Even though he had pointed out the negative sides of trying, he hadn't finished. "I agree. Even though it might be completely useless for us to go there, it's still not something we should ignore. Still, there's one problem in it."
"What?" Azekiel asked as he walked out of the room, leaving the body of Elijah behind, which had no use for him anymore.
He went to the stairs while Raphael explained the problem.
"The problem is your goal to take the Ruler of Floor title. If you go to the Temple instead of finishing the Trial, we might take more time to finish the Trial. The chances of you getting the Ruler would go down," Raphael explained.
"That's not a problem at all." Azekiel stopped on the first floor and picked up the two books he had kept on one of the windows. "All we need to do is clear the Third Floor first and get the Title. After that, we can spend as much time on the floor as we want without having to worry. Right?"
"That should work." Raphael nodded. "So we will clear the Third Floor first."
"Yes, but before that, we need to clear this Floor. The War still isn't over. Only after my army takes over the Empire of Greed will I be halfway through the Trial."
"That's right. You need to take over two Empires. Empire of Greed will be first, but what about the second?"
"Second? Is that even something you need to ask? With the latest boost, my stats are more than Michael had. So we might as well go for the big fish."
"Meaning?"
"Empire of Wrath. I didn't have any enmity with that guy, yet he schemed to have me killed. He hated me without reason in the last timeline. I might as well give him a reason to hate me in this timeline," Azekiel answered.
