Atlas hotel room, Kroma city;
Sitting on the bed, Azzy was focused on the screen of his smartphone. He was browsing the internet.
"The story of Aladdin, Jinn (genie), and the sorcerer Jafar... I see… everything made sense if the writer of this story happened to be Uphiar himself. But, why did he create an evil character for himself? Because he knows he's evil? Or because he feels guilty? Who knows…
Let's see the other works of this famed writer."
When he was a child, Azzy used to watch a cartoon on television. When he traveled back to the past and met Uphiar for the first time, he thought that the villain in the anime he used to watch looked quite similar to his teacher.
Only now, he finally realized that this is the same man who wrote the story and sold it to an entertainment conglomerate in the first place after his book became widely popular.
As Azzy grew a bit more curious about Uphiar's other books to see if he could find any more similar characters and understand what kind of person he is, he learned that this former teacher has written many bestselling books during the past three decades.
The most popular of them is named Sinbad the sailor. Seeing its massive popularity, Azzy took a glimpse at the synopsis. He found it oddly familiar for some reason.
After reading the first couple of chapters, he closed down the website in anger, "That plagiarist… No wonder I felt it familiar… Several of these scenes were actually on that stone slab where the elf bard wrote his adventures. Not only he stole treasure from his organization but he even stole someone else's stories. To think I had wasted a whole hour on this… Ugh…"
Putting back the smartphone in his pocket, he took out the teleportation card (variant). "Let's go…"
"Hold your horses, kid… You can't go like this. You need more preparations and more thinking." The Reaper stopped him from activating the card.
As Azzy asked what else is there to think, the Reaper made him realize that killing Uphiar will be revenge, not justice.
Giving justice to Barton and Sahara in the name of law means that Uphiar's crime should be proved or Azzy would need to record his confession.
And giving justice to the victims in the name of the Death clan means that he should not be influenced by his emotions and treats the culprit as a stranger. He should listen to his whole story before passing judgment.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtIn the first case, Uphiar would have to be brought to WAMO alive along with the evidence of his crime.
And whether it is revenge or the second case of justice, Azzy should be careful of exposing his identity in case Uphiar is with someone else and that person is innocent.
Azzy forced himself to meditate for a while and calmed down his emotions before finally activating the teleportation card, which was fixed to Uphiar's location.
"Here we go…"
He disappeared and reappeared in a high-class restaurant.
In a dim-lit restaurant, a piece of beautiful melody was playing in the background while a single couple was sitting in the middle of the room, having a candlelight dinner.
Azzy didn't recognize the woman but she appeared to be a civilian. On the other hand, the ugly middle-aged fellow was recognizable.
"Uphiar…" Azzy muttered under his breath, trying his best to suppress his killing intent.
The sorcerer with the snake-shape staff also sensed the presence of an intruder the instant Azzy appeared there but upon realizing that it is a 7-star Arcana Master, he didn't bother at first but then, in the next second, his facial expression changed once he sensed killing intent.
Putting away the glass, Uphiar let out a smile, "Babe, it appeared that we have a guest. Excuse me for a moment."
"hmm?" The beauty looked at him in confusion before following his gaze and finding someone walking toward them.
Uphiar also seemed surprised when he saw the blank mask on Azzy's face. In his view, having the mask means that this guy has a high possibility of belonging to some secret organization or Special Forces of an enemy country. "Who are you?" he asked.
Azzy responded by summoning his death scythe, "Your death, Uphiar."
"Hmm…" Uphiar furrowed his brows in displeasure. "You don't know who you are dealing with, mister. Leave before you regret disturbing my mood."
Without showing an ounce of expression on his face, Azzy calmly said, "Oh, I know exactly what you are. A thief who stole the Jinn from the Temple of War, a plagiarist who used the tale of adventures of someone else for your benefit, and a murderer who killed Barton Everglade and his wife in the hopes of snatching the jewel of life."
"You… who the hell are you…" Uphiar quickly raised his magic staff as soon as he heard those words from Azzy. He never thought that the truth would be exposed all of a sudden, after a decade of peace, and too, when he was having a nice time with his new girlfriend.
"I told you earlier. I'm your death…"
Azzy no longer wasted his time and attacked him with the scythe.
Uphiar, who is in the legendary realm, assumed that the opponent is a threat. Hence, he casually created an energy barrier with his staff.
Never in the world did he imagine that the barrier erected by the staff would shatter like glass on first contact with the scythe and Azzy went on slashing at the enemy's chest.
Uphiar reacted on time and jumped back before raising his staff. The eyes of the snake glowed, releasing some type of gaseous substance.
Azzy was familiar with this technique very well and he was prepared against the poisonous gas that will cause hallucinations to whoever breathes in.
By blocking his nose with his soul energy, he was able to protect himself from any harmful gaseous substance or bad smell by purifying the air that reached his nose.
However, not everyone can be the same as him. There are others in the room like a couple of waiters, a manager, a music band, chef, and all of them breathed in the gas. Including the girl who sat with Uphiar, everyone started to go crazy.
Meanwhile, Uphiar punched the wall, making a hole and trying to get outside. Whether it is for getting more space for the battle or looking for a way to escape will soon be revealed.
Azzy suddenly went into a dilemma. Should he protect the others or go after him?
If he chose the former option, then, Uphiar might take advantage of this and cause more trouble for him. And if he chose the latter, then, his conscience will not let him forgive himself for putting innocent civilians in danger.
It was then he heard a scoff escape from the Reaper, followed by scolding. "Idiot, use the hourglass to reverse their situation. Why do you always forget such things in a battle?"
"Ah! That's right…" Azzy quickly summoned the hourglass and unleashed the soul skill, selecting everyone in the room except for Uphiar as the target.
In the next instant, all of them turned into specks of light, traveling through the walls and other obstacles and leaving for their respective locations where they were exactly around 12 hours ago.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"You… what did you do?" Uphiar's eyes looked like they popped out in shock.
"Something the likes of you won't understand." Azzy was calm on the surface but was actually quite proud of what he had done. Not only he saved the innocents from the harmful gas he was also able to keep his eye on the enemy.
Uphiar's face hardened and he was angry for being belittled by the assassin. He wasn't a fool to not atleast realize that the disappearances of his girlfriend and the other staff had something to do with the hourglass in Azzy's hand.
He didn't know whether they were sent away or captured but one thing he knows for sure. He cannot sense anything from the hourglass. He made a miscalculation in his quick analysis and concluded that the object in Azzy's hand is a treasure.
A look of greed appeared on his face and the sorcerer took out a magical mirror from his pocket.
"Come out, Jinn. I need your help…"
The mirror trembled for a couple of seconds and released a tremendous amount of smoke, then a bald human-looking giant with a tiny ponytail made his appearance beside Uphiar.
Looking at the oddly-familiar giant, Azzy commented, "I guess you do have a lot of life force to sacrifice if you were willing to pay 4 weeks of life force per second. But, I should say, it is quite smaller than I imagined. Maybe, it is because we are in a confined space?"
It didn't surprise Uphiar that Azzy knows about the price he had to pay the exact amount as the latter already displayed knowledge about his crimes.
"Kill him…" He ordered the Jinn.
"Yeah, as if I would give you that opportunity." Azzy raised the death scythe and unleashed the soul skill.
"Soul skill: Claws of Death"
"No, wait…" The Reaper's voice echoed in Azzy's head, all of a sudden.
Most of Azzy's soul skills were almost activated instantly. Hence, the moment he unleashed the soul skill, the portal appeared behind Uphiar and a pair of hands came out of it before piercing the sorcerer's back.
Uphiar spits out a mouthful of blood.
In the next second, the Jinn acted on the orders it was given without caring about its owner. After all, for this cosmic being, its owners' lives don't matter.
The Jinn, with the power of a supreme being, charged forward toward Azzy while he was slightly distracted by the Reaper's brief interruption.
Without the Eyes of God also activated and the distance being too less between them, he couldn't see the attack properly. As a result, his chest was struck by a powerful fist.
Azzy flew back and crashed into the wall. The wall broke and Azzy fell into the kitchen, coincidentally spilling the hot oil over him.