Arfanez slowly walked ahead toward Alzik and lifted his hand above Alzik's head. In Arfanez's presence, Alzik was totally frozen out of fear. He was sweating continuously without a stop as his entire body was trembling extremely fast. As for Elesia, she was still in an unstable state, holding her head tightly while sitting on the ground, covering her eyes totally.
"Well, it's not like I would love to murder a subordinate of mine but you know what, it's not my thing to keep a piece of selfish crap alive." Arfanez said with his casual smiling face. His eyes were closed but after finishing his sentence, he slowly opened his eyes and put his gaze upon the top of the castle.
Pieces of golden magic power came out from Arfanez's hand and slowly activated his telekinesis magic. Using telekinesis magic, he grabbed Alzik's head and instantly shattered it into ashes. Red fresh blood and kernel seeds came out from his head and scattered around there.
It was all silent; Alzik couldn't scream, couldn't cry out of pain. It was almost like Arfanez annihilated his soul itself before his consciousness could understand. As Arfanez killed him right there, Alzik's body fell to the ground and vanished away without much time like mists. Arfanez wasn't totally expressionless in that moment. He was smiling as always, but there was no extra expression on his face, it was nothing more than a casual event for him.
While Elesia was hiding her entire face under her hands, she finally removed her hands from her face and witnessed the terrifying scene of Alzik's demise and the torture he faced before his death. It wasn't something she could take on with her soul being damaged up to 98%; she simply lost her consciousness. But it wasn't really bad. As he died, Alzik's magic power entered Elesia's soul. Her soul damage rate returned to 0%. However, her consciousness was still off.
Arfanez slowly stepped toward Elesia's unconscious body and leaned down toward her head. He smiled a bit at her face and closed his eyes for a moment and then spoke up while opening his eyes, "Do you know the fate you deserve right now? I wonder if you do. I don't know your deserving fate. Are you selfish? Are you stupid like them? Or could it be that you are similar to that very person I know?"
While speaking, his voice appeared pretty gentle as usual. However, it was getting deep and intense as he continued speaking more.
Arfanez slowly raised his left hand up in front of his gaze and stared deeply at it. His eyesight was totally focused on his hand lines as he was deeply thinking about something. His expression was still unchanging, totally the same as earlier, smiling and gentle with terrifying golden magic power running around him.
He kept his gaze like that for some moments and then raised his voice again, "I doubt you can be like him but, I won't kill you. But remember, your soul won't be standing much longer, from the moment when you'll be selfish, or be revealed to be selfish to me." Arfanez said calmly as his voice appeared even more hostile.
Then he lifted his right hand up ahead and created a golden magic portal in a matter of a moment. He looked behind a bit toward my gaze and said with a smile, "We're going to meet very soon. So let us play one more game, mister."
Right then, Arfanez stepped his foot inside the portal and vanished away from there without spending much time. His destructive presence disappeared as well as the causality of the world returned.
I closed my eyes for some moments and took a long breath. I felt like a huge piece of rock finally disappeared from my chest. But I couldn't smile widely. The presence of some terrifying disaster made me think much more seriously, made me even more worried. I don't know how big the disaster will be but I could feel the pressure of the disaster, which terrified me pretty badly. But the success of the ritual made me happy, made me smile for some moments.
After taking the unconscious Elesia with them, Marco and Maria returned to Zeldia. I was waiting for them and gave them a warm welcome for their victory. But we knew that it wasn't the end, it was only the beginning of something massive, some massive disaster. It was a warmup victory for the final victory, which was waiting for us in front of us, not so far away.
A week passed ever since then. As we returned to Zeldia, I helped the three of them adapt to their newfound abilities. Though they are fast learners, it's just for my mental peace to help them regarding the matter.
Following that, they easily managed to adapt to their abilities. I decided to prepare ourselves for the final clash with the true spirits. Even though with the power of the retainers, it's still hard for us to defeat the true spirits, as their strength surpassed even that of the retainers. Rumors say they killed multiple retainers on their visit to the 5th layer. Though it's nothing more than some rumors, I was aware of the capability of the true spirits. But out of all these, I didn't inform any of them about the true spirits' superiority over them even after the ritual. Because I simply don't want them to be worried regarding the matter. But I felt like they're already aware of that, could be or not, I just didn't want to think about that anymore.
Following the matter, we finally reached the conclusion of our internal conflicts regarding the matter. By giving up our hope and lingering for the world, I called out the others to await me in our regular gathering place, the garden that's placed beside Raizel's old house. Maybe he got a new house right now, maybe he's lost in illusions but, right now, I want to be ignorant about that, I want to be ignorant about the existence of Raizel, just in case of ignoring my emotions for him.
Without delaying much, all of us gathered there. Following my sentences regarding our decision, we reached a conclusion to begin the mission right at that very moment.
"I'm pretty sure about all of your determination. I believe none of you are going to step aside until your soul fades away or you reach the point of victory." I yelled. Though my voice sounded pretty strong, it was lingered with some pieces of worry, but it wasn't really visible.
Marco and Maria nodded without thinking further. Elesia kept her gaze down for a few seconds and lifted her gaze toward me with glowing eyes, "No matter what, I will bring out the victory this time. I've failed once, but I want to keep the faith in myself, I want to tell myself that I can still stand and go ahead, I can smile, I can bring the smile of victory to my face." She thought to herself, her eyes began to glow further as her internal strength returned, making her strong like the way she is supposed to be.
"I will do my best, I will definitely win this time." Elesia said with her wide and bright smile.
I smiled back as a reply to them, a narrow and confident smile appeared at the corner of my mouth.
"So then everyone, let's go ahead toward that." I said with a smile, my voice appeared much cleaner than earlier. It was a sight of confidence, similar to the moment when they confronted the retainers.
I drew a magic circle in front of us. A dark magic portal appeared there and began to rotate. I put my left step inside the portal and teleported away from there. Following me, they got inside the portal as well and teleported away. It was a magic portal that teleported us to the supreme realm.
A magic portal appeared in front of the supreme realm's castle gate. Following me, the others stepped out from there as the guards in front of the castle instantly bowed down in front of us as a sign of respect and obedience. I asked them to be less formal than usual with us since I'm not much of a person who likes someone to act like his slave. Following the guards, we reached the primordial room of the castle that was placed in the center of the castle, known as the room of the throne that belongs only to the supreme ruler.
Without taking further time, I got inside the room along with them, leaving the guards behind. I saw Muzan's presence there but in a different way than I was hoping. Leaving the actual throne empty, Muzan was sitting on a throne that's placed right beside the main throne. His appearance was completely the same as the last time I saw him.
As soon as Muzan saw us, his face brightened but lost the brightness right afterward; something began to lurk in his mind.
"Master Aizis and….but…..where's Master Raizel?" Muzan said with a smile, a trace of worry appeared in the latter part of his sentence.
I didn't reply for some moments. Then I ignored his question and yelled, "Well, you can find the answer later. We're going to the spiritual world so from now on, it's your job to keep Zeldia safe, it's an order from me."
"Even if we don't come back, keep it intact, no matter what." I added, my voice appeared stronger than ever, commanding but respectful.
"As you order, I will do everything to do it, even if it takes my life." Muzan replied while saluting us.
I replied with a smile and then left a farewell to him, "Well then, we're leaving."
Without waiting for further moments, we left the throne room and came out of the castle. It appeared that Muzan also left the castle following us to see us off.
Since the spiritual world exists in the same layer as the supreme realm, it was unnecessary for me to create a magic portal. So I created a dark teleportation magic circle covering the four of us and was about to set off. However, a strange voice appeared to be heard all of a sudden, "Will the world really stay intact without your presence, Aizis Jasin?"
It was the person with red hair and glowing eyes, Rayan Akira, appearing a bit away from us. He was wearing a long red coat and cape as usual. Is that face known to me? Well, no, but the appearance seemed really familiar to me. Those eyes, gaze, and smile aren't something that should be strange to me. But yet I couldn't recognize his identity.
He gently stepped ahead toward us and stopped in front of us.
"Does your world really stand in the very way it's supposed to? Is Zeldia really in the right hands you want it to be in, Aizis Jasin?" Rayan said calmly. His smile was still intact without a flaw.
Ignoring his questions, I asked him for his identity, "Who are you?" Though I ignored his questions, they were lurking in my mind, beginning to force me to think more and more about that. It was like a scratch that was giving me pain continuously without a conclusion.
Following my question, Rayan smiled a bit and replied, "I'm Rayan Akiya, the one who concludes flaws."