Masteria Online: Shattering the Dark God's Grand Scheme-Chapter 128 - Azir’s Analysis

Lumi processed the information in silence.

There was a key point to consider.

Why did Merath go through all the trouble of making a portal, just to not come? It confirmed something he thought he knew. Merath could not leave Elenora. He was holding back a horrible monster within that forest, one that required his constant presence, and the cost of abandoning that post, even briefly, would be severe for the people living there.

He had not left Elenora.

Yet, to send that much power through a portal spanning that distance, maintaining it long enough, and then stabilize three soul fragments simultaneously, the cost of that was not trivial. For anyone else, it might have been impossible. For Merath, it was possible but it wasn’t free. He had paid a significant price to accomplish it.

Lumi would not forget that.

This was the point where the Empress’s gaze shifted. It wasn’t quite accusatory, though it was certainly contemplative and questioning.

"As your squad was being transported back home, there was an issue." she said. "You. At some point during transit, without any warning, you simply were not there."

Lumi listened.

"The knights transporting you did not react. They did not search for you. They did not report the incident. They continued their duties as if nothing had occurred." Her tone remained as it was, but her eyes sharpened. "Only those of significant power, when asked directly afterward, could even recall that something had been strange. The rest retained no awareness of the gap at all."

She gave him a small smile. "Isn’t that interesting?"

Empress Aria stepped back, and Grand Tactician Azir made his entrance from the side of the room with the same sharp eyes he always held. He stopped a short distance from Lumi and gave a brief nod toward the far corridor.

"Follow me," he said. "Your soul is whole, but whole is not the same as healthy. You need treatment."

Lumi nodded in agreement. He turned back to Empress Aria once more, meeting her eyes.

He didn’t have words that felt sufficient. He bowed instead, and she accepted it gracefully. He followed Azir out.

...

He was taken to the same room where his soul had been branded.

This time, the purpose was different. Several magicians were already present, brought from Elenora by the look of their robes. Various reagents and catalysts were arranged on a side table.

Chief Knight Alice stood to one side with her arms folded, watching the preparations carefully. Her lip lightly quivered in irritation, but she didn’t speak up.

Azir directed Lumi. "On the bed."

Lumi complied, laying down.

Azir’s eyes sharpened further, a miracle given his permanent look of suspicion. "Your soul will be further healed. You have cost us much. Be sure that your actions prove us right to do so."

A different man might be offended. Lumi was not. "I will."

Azir nodded. "Good." He backed off and gestured to the magicians to work.

Lumi lay still and let them do what they needed to do. The procedures were not painful exactly, but they were not comfortable either. Soul work never was. Due to the nature of the work, the concept of sedatives did not exist, forcing Lumi to be fully conscious and aware for the entire ordeal. Still, it was nothing like the pain of his branding.

When they finished, he checked himself over. Changes in the soul were rather vague and difficult to perceive. Even to an experienced man like him, he had only so much familiarity with the soul. After a thorough evaluation, he could make his conclusion.

The remaining damage was gone. Finally, he felt okay once again.

It had been a long and strenuous process taking countless resources and the efforts of those stronger than him. That was a testament to how serious soul injuries were.

Lumi stood and bowed to Azir. "Thank you."

Azir dismissed it with a single gesture. Instead, he nodded to Alice and to the foreign magicians, and they filed out of the room one by one until only the two of them remained.

Then Azir turned to face him fully, and his expression settled, staring at Lumi’s eyes. "You freed Rena." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

"Rena freed herself," Lumi corrected. "The moment she felt the Elite Guard’s presence, she managed to awaken. I was there, but what triggered her was the Elite Guard, not me."

Azir looked at him for a long moment. "Yes," he said. "That’s exactly the point."

He turned slightly, moving a few paces as he spoke. "If Rena freed herself, then your role in the outcome becomes ambiguous. You went to Mora with our knights, and now Rena is freed. Optically, it makes sense for you to claim that you did so. But if she would have freed herself regardless of your presence, then the question becomes, what did you actually contribute?"

Lumi didn’t interrupt.

"I cannot consider this a coincidence. It is clear that you possessed information about Rena that you should not have had," Azir continued. "That information led to an outcome that benefited Herene significantly, or so it seems. But if your information did not cause the outcome, it means the outcome was already going to happen." He paused. "Which means the information you received was either accurate foreknowledge, or it was deliberately placed in your mind."

Azir met his eyes. He wasn’t accusing Lumi, simply analyzing the situation. "If the Wings of Darkness had implanted those memories, they would not have allowed this outcome. Therefore they did not. But if they did not, and your information was genuine, its source is impossible to explain. The Goddess of Time is dead. No mechanism for foreknowledge at that scale exists."

He let that sit for a moment.

"It is a contradiction with no clean resolution. I cannot validate your information, and I cannot dismiss it, because dismissing it requires explaining it, and I cannot explain it."

Lumi had followed every word carefully. He could see how someone less attentive might hear this as Azir making excuses or talking in circles. It wasn’t that. Azir was being precise. He was laying out the specifics of what he could and couldn’t verify, and being honest about where the logic broke down.

He agreed with all of it.