The small mirror was only half a meter wide, having a circular shape. The mirror’s edges appeared to be made from the purest form of gold. On the back of the mirror, there was a small carving, seemingly made from gold as well. The carving depicted a beautiful hourglass that was half empty on both ends.

The man’s projection tapped the center of the mirror, which made the glass turn black. The hourglass on the back of the mirror seemingly reset.

As the man stood with his arms behind his back, the mirror started showing some images. As for what it was showing, it was none other than the past itself.

The mirror was showing what happened on this floor before his arrival.

“So the little King of Gluttony entered, and the Guardians were intact by then.” The man nodded. “So he surely didn’t do it.”

Soon, the mirror started showing another person approaching the two guardians.

Seeing that person, a frown engulfed the man’s face. To be specific, it was the mark on her forehead which surprised him.

“That mark… No wonder I sensed his Aura. This is more serious than I thought.” He grimaced.

He watched the girl swiftly destroy the two statues before she entered the Temple of Gods.

“He’s using that girl…”

The silver-haired man gazed in the distance, frowning.

Outside the Tower of Sin, a young man stood on the top of a mountain, gazing at the Majestic Tower in the distance. There was an amusing smile on his face. “I am so close…”

The two people were looking in each other’s direction as if they could see each other.

****

Twelve hours passed inside the Temple of Gods before Azekiel was finally out of the rainforest.

He finally stepped on the dry land, getting out of the rain he hated the most

The journey, which shouldn’t have taken them even six hours, took precisely twelve hours, all because of the care they had to take along the way.

Fortunately, there was no need for that anymore. Not only was there no rain anymore, but there was also no mist covering the ground.

Azekiel stood on the beautiful green grass, which was completely dry. There was not even a speck of water on the grass. A bright sun gave the surrounding land the warmth it needed.

Azekiel stood under the rain, stretching his arms. After suffering in the rain for twelve hours, he couldn’t describe how relieved he was to see the sun once again. His fingers had also stopped trembling now.

He could still see the constant rain in the distance where he came from. The eternal rain was really strange, but he couldn’t care less anymore.

If he weren’t in a hurry, he would’ve stayed right there, letting his clothes dry before covering the rest of the journey but time was of the essence.

He had seven days, and one day was already gone. That left only six days, and he still didn’t know how far he had to go to get to the Stone of Time. Each second he saved here could be the difference between life and death.

“Raphael, can you go ahead and see if you can find any nearest human establishment?” Azekiel asked.

Since Raphael was fast and could fly, it was easy for him to go ahead and find places. It was also better to send him ahead so he could search the surroundings as well, in case they were walking in the wrong direction. Because from where he was standing, Azekiel could only see the plane land, filled with grass as far as the eyes could see.

Raphael did as he was asked and went ahead. At the same time, Azekiel also walked in the same direction as it was better than wasting time here.

Fortunately, this time Azekiel didn’t take as long as before. Within a couple of minutes, he was back.

“I see a town nearby. It’s in that direction. But that town… I don’t know why, but something felt strange about it.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was as if the people of the town could see me, which shouldn’t have been possible,” Raphael explained. “Though I can’t be entirely sure if they really could see me, but that’s the feeling I received. I think we should be careful with the town. This place is called Temple of Gods, so it certainly won’t be an ordinary place.”

“As long as they can’t see through lies, we should be fine. We just need someone to open the book for us after all,” Lia replied. “We don’t need to settle in the town.”

“Instead of wondering if they can see us or not, I think we should go with the assumption that they can see us. Don’t speak anything about the book or the curse in the town. If they really can see you, they can probably also hear you,” she continued, seemingly not worried at all. “As long as we are careful, there’s nothing to worry about.”

Raphael agreed with her that they shouldn’t speak with the assumption that no one else could hear them. They had a habit of doing that, and it was time to change it, especially when they were inside the town. However, he still felt something wasn’t right. There was a bad feeling inside his heart that wasn’t going away.

“Should I look for another instead, just to be safe?” he asked Azekiel.

“I don’t think we can afford to waste time like that. This town shall do.”

Because of lack of time, Azekiel refused the offer and advanced in the direction of the town while bringing out the two books from inside his clothes to give them some warm sunlight so they could dry as well.

After twenty minutes of walking, Azekiel reached the entrance of the town; his clothes had become somewhat dry, just not entirely. Fortunately, the books dried faster than his clothes.

“So this is the town.” He stood at the entrance of the town, which gave him an ancient feeling. The houses in the town weren’t even close to modern. In fact, they couldn’t even be called houses from ancient times. They were something else entirely that Azekiel had never seen before.

Each house appeared to be made from the wood that he had seen in the forest. However, what was strange was that it wasn’t as if many wood pieces were used to make the house. None of the houses had a single joint. It was as if the house wasn’t made by cutting wood; instead, the house was made inside the wood itself by slicing the shell.

“How could that be?”

He didn’t understand how that was possible though. To have that happen, how massive must those trees be?

“Why are you three standing there? Come inside.” A voice came from somewhere.