Chapter 598: Azzy's next mission: Search for Louis
Year 2008, 11th Epoch, Egrein City, Northern Qudour;
Mia with a noticeable belly bump was sitting in a rooftop restaurant, waiting for her boyfriend with all smiles.
"Louis was getting late. Shouldn't be here before me?" She wondered. Based on the conversation she had last night on the phone, she was expecting an official marriage proposal from him. She was happy but at the same time, she was anxious too.
Soon, Louis arrived and she couldn't help but hug him in excitement, not getting a glimpse of his face that appeared quite serious.
Forcing out a smile, Louis then sat down with her.
"So, what is it that you want to talk about?" She asked him right away in a hurry.
Hesitation appeared on his face but Louis didn't let her wait for long. He took a deep breath and said, "Actually Mia, there's something about me you have yet to learn."
"Hmm?" Mia became confused as it appeared that the matter ended up different than she expected. "What is it?" She asked.
Louis then spoke, "My full name is Louis Knight and I'm the last living heir of the Knight family of Nuberung."
"Nuberung? Never heard of it." Mia felt like there was some heavy story and she couldn't help but become curious.
However, Louis' reply to her was shocking, "That's because it is neither in Gaia nor Arcana world. It is more than a hundred light years far away from this planet."
"You are an alien?" Mia yelped in surprise. Thankfully, there was no one around apart from the staff members and they didn't care what kind of conversation they heard no matter how interesting or absurd it appeared.
Louis silently nodded and continued to explain, "We were living peacefully for several millennia but one day, everything changed due to the summoning of a demon by an idiotic group of college students. No one knows how they did it and who gave them the ritual method." His tone became lower and his expression became deadly serious.
"The demon brought its army and brought hell upon our world, eventually bringing an apocalypse. More than three decades ago, every kid below 10 years old was sent away to the worlds where soul energy exists. Now, the twenty-year time limit is up and I have to return to serve my homeland, and fight for freedom."
Mia stared at him in a daze for a few seconds, finding it very difficult to digest the information, "You are leaving?" She couldn't help but raise her voice.
This time, it wasn't a surprise, but the emotion of anger appeared on her face. "If you want to break up, be straightforward. Don't create such an absurd story."
In response, Louis let out a deep sigh and took out a star-shaped brooch made of some mysterious silver-colored metal with a black gem inside it. He placed it on the table, "This is our family treasure; the gem is said to be made from forging the fragments of the Jewel of Space. It is bound to my soul and I want you to hold onto it. That way, you will know that I'm still alive.
And I promise you that I will make sure to stay beside you when our child comes into the world."
Present;
Leveret Mansion, Egrein City;
"Sigh… it's been 16 years and he has yet to return," said Mia as she finished the story by placing the Jewelry box with the brooch inside it.
"At first, I thought he might be too busy in his war that he wasn't able to visit his daughter. Then, as months passed, my trust in him dipped slowly. I wasn't able to introduce her father. So, to shut up my relatives who keep on pestering me, I made up a lie that she is the result of a drunken one-night-stand I had with a man when I was on a trip.
Months turned into a year. The year turned into two years and I realized that he abandoned me for good, considering the fact that the brooch still didn't become an unbound item.
And one more year passed away.
As my daughter grew up and asked about her papa, my fear for her future rose considerably and I expressed my worries to Calder, who had been on my side for years. He proposed to me for the marriage for Sera's sake and I accepted it.
At first, it was just a marriage with no love. He is just like a roommate of another gender. But then, as years passed, I moved on and fell in love with the man who never left my side whether it is personally or professionally. I'm living happily, Azrael. I don't think my daughter needs her biological father right now, but yes, if not for me, I believe Louis owes an apology to Sera."
As Azzy took the box and observed the brooch with the gem inside of it, the Reaper gave him a shocking revelation about it.
"Eh? It's not the Space gem's fragments?" he couldn't help but raise his voice in his head.
The Reaper's voice then echoed in his head, "Yes, I sense no trace of 'Space' in it."
"But, it gives me the same feeling as I experienced when I encountered Jewel of Life and others," Azzy argued immediately.
The Reaper then replied, "I said that it doesn't contain Space, not that it isn't a cosmic gem."
"Eh?" Azzy was taken aback, "Then? Which one is it?"
"The metal used to create the brooch belonged to the Jewel of Earth," answered the Reaper before adding, "I know what you want to ask next. When you master the Jewel of Earth, you can create any type of metal from it. This one is a fragment and not the real deal. Hence, they merely transformed it into a metal with the properties of an adamantium but light as titanium.
But, that isn't what you must focus on. It's the seal placed on the gem. It is a teleportation seal that lets you travel to a specific world located far away."
"Hmm?" Azzy's eyes widened in realization and he took another look at the brooch, picking it up from the box and startling Mia with his weird expression that doesn't align with the situation.
"What is it?" She asked as he intently observed it.
Azzy looked at her and shook his head, "Nothing. Can you lend this to me? I'm thinking of doing an Aura tracing to track him down. But, I need to experiment on it a little bit."
"He is worlds away, Azrael," Mia quickly retorted, not accepting his idea and stretching her hand forward to snatch it away as she didn't want it to be destroyed. However, in the next second, she quickly took back her hand, changing her statement in an instant, "Anyways, I don't care about it. You can keep it if you want."
A couple of hours later;
"Thanks for the dinner, Mia. I will meet you later." Azzy said goodbye to his friend and left the place by flying. He flew until he found a remote location without any population and took out the brooch from his storage card.
"Well, here we go…"
As soon as he poured his soul energy into the item, it glowed up brightly. In the next second, Azzy disappeared from the world.
As he reappeared on barren land and had his vision restored, Azzy found himself in the middle of what seemed like a safe zone.
Hundreds of people were cowering in fear as guards in military outfits were firing rounds at enemies, who weren't caring about their injuries at all.
"What the... Are those zombies?" "And why is there a heavy suppression on my soul orb here?"
Planet unknown, Age: 4.58 billion years old.