"Great work, Lia." Azekiel patted Lia's head. Everything happened so fast that even he found it hard to believe that they had succeeded. It was as if he was overthinking everything before.
Lia came to her senses, soon enough to realize that she was in Azekiel's embrace. She freed him and stepped back. "Shall we see our reward?"
"Yeah." Azekiel entered the castle, being led by Lia. The quest was completed, and all thanks to Lia. Because of the trick they pulled, they didn't need to didn't Alion, which was the best part since fighting him was the most troublesome part of the quest because of his strength.
Fortunately, the quest didn't mention that he needed to kill Alion like a gentleman by fighting him. Since the words weren't clear about that, he believed this was quite fair. It was quite similar to how he finished his floor quest on the second floor of the tower.
Azekiel cared less about the process at this point and more about the goals. Even if he had to take a route like this, he didn't care. He would've preferred to kill Alion with his own hands to get his revenge, but after considering Raphael's description about Alion's strength, he let that stubbornness go and agreed to Lia's plan.
Now that he had succeeded, the plan paid off as well.
He entered the castle and reached Alion's body. Raphael was standing right beside the body, without much expression on his face.
"We did it!" Lia exclaimed as if informing Raphael as well. "We cleared the mission in one day!"
"So this really was your plan," Raphael commented.
"It was. We were going with your plan, but when we kidnapped the girl, I realized that her consciousness was linked to someone indirectly. You also claimed that the man knew everything we did. That could only mean she was connected to this man."
"That's how he knew about us. So we came up with the plan to use her without disturbing the connection, thanks to the mark of Servitude. It was even easier to achieve when she was unconscious."
"Since it was a sudden change of plan, and we didn't have much time to pull this off, we decided to execute it right away," Azekiel chimed in as well. "It went perfectly, especially since you kept the man's mind distracted. It was a group contribution."
Azekiel patted Raphael's shoulders. "Thank you as well."
After finishing, Azekiel went to his knees and reached out his hand to use Soul Snatch on Alion. That way, he was also planning to gain his memories using the Gluttony of Knowledge to know just who this person was and why he attacked them.
"I think you should use the card of Summon on him," Raphael abruptly said, right when Azekiel was about to use Soul Snatch.
"Why?" Azekiel asked, seemingly confused. "This man killed my family. I don't want him as a Familiar."
"He is quite strong when he isn't being backstabbed. I believe he is stronger than Avila. If you make him your familiar, it can be quite good for our future. Moreover, we would most probably need him with all his knowledge and strength. Through him, we can also control all the Monsters and have them stop hunting humans."
"Moreover, he killed your family. Is such a death really enough for someone like him? Make his soul work for you to atone for the sins he committed."
Raphael's suggestions sounded quite valid and logical from the outside, especially with all the reasoning he gave, but only Raphael knew why he was asking that. If Alion was honest, that meant his knowledge could destroy everything if it reached Azekiel.
That knowledge could only be stopped if Azekiel didn't use Soul Snatch and Gluttony of Knowledge with it. If he used the Soul Card to make Alion a Familiar, that information could be prevented from reaching Azekiel!
Moreover, in that way, Alion could return to inform him just what actually happened in the future and what he was so worried about. Raphael still had many questions that could only be answered by Alion.
"I think that can be good." Lia also agreed with Raphael on this. "Even though we were able to kill him that easily, in battles, he shouldn't be this easy to kill. He could help us quite a lot in the future."
It was rare to see both of them agree. Despite that, Azekiel still found it hard to agree with their suggestions. No matter how valid their suggestions were, bringing Alion back as his summon seemed hard. It was like him giving another life to the one who killed his mother.
Even if Alion was going to be like a servant, which could be a punishment for him but still, this seemed something he was hesitant to do. Alion's presence was always going to remind him about the past. Also, he couldn't trust Alion like he could with Raphael and Lia.
Even though it was true that Alion knew quite a lot about the tower which made it a good idea to have him as a familiar but, that wasn't enough; if it was about battle prowess, he trusted Raphael and Lia to fight and win. If it was about knowledge, he could take all the knowledge that Alion possessed through Glutton of Knowledge.
If it was about punishing Alion by keeping him as a servant, that was less of a punishment for Alion and more of a punishment for him.
It was a hard decision to disagree on something that was suggested by Raphael, but he did so. He clenched his fist before declaring his decision. "I'm afraid I'll have to reject that suggestion."
Contrary to Raphael's expectations, Azekiel rejected his suggestion and went along with his plan. He placed his hand on Alion's chest.
"Soul Snatch!"
Before Raphael could say anything else, Azekiel used Soul Snatch, which activated the Gluttony of Knowledge as well.
Massive amounts of Spiritual Energy entered Azekiel's body, but what was more important was the knowledge...
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