In a dimly lit room, sunlight passed through thin curtains draped over the windows and fell upon the face of a sleeping boy.
"Hmm..." Feeling the warmth of sunlight shining on his face, the boy frowned in discomfort and slowly opened his bright purple eyes.
He sat up on the comfortable bed, looking around the dimly lit room with a slight frown etched on his face.
"A dream…" He muttered, recalling the terrifying war like scene he had just seen. But quickly dismissed the thought.
"With my current broken body, it's impossible for me to have drea—" The boy suddenly stopped mid-sentence and stared at his smooth, scar-free palm in a daze.
He touched his face, and upon feeling the soft, unblemished skin, the frown on his face deepened.
"An illusion…" He whispered. Standing up from the bed, he sniffed the air.
Sensing nothing out of place, he reached out to touch the bed and then the walls of the room.
"My sensory abilities are working fine, and it doesn't seem like an illusion. Besides..." The boy walked toward the mirror positioned against the wall and stared at his reflection. "I have already destroyed all the chips they implanted in me, so it's impossible for me to fall into an illusion again."
In the mirror, he saw the image of a thin boy who appeared to be around fifteen years old—170 centimeters tall, jet-black hair, purple eyes, and dressed in night pajamas.
Looking at the familiar yet somehow foreign face, the boy was momentarily dazed, his heartbeat rising slightly.
Noticing the erratic rhythm of his heart, he quickly reacted and placed a hand over his chest.
"A normal heart..." He murmured in shock—and then stood stunned once again.
He stared at his reflection in silence.
Emotions like shock, anger, joy, pain, and fear—he had lost them long ago, ever since his body was modified, turning him into something neither fully alive nor truly dead.
"What is going on here?" He asked, trying to recall everything that had happened after he returned from meeting Mike.
"I went to sleep, but was awakened by the birthday reminder set by tha—" He paused, his eyes narrowing as a memory surfaced.
He remembered the shooting star-like phenomenon that had suddenly appeared.
"I think I heard something like 'Found you'... and then... I can't remember anything after that."
Azrael rubbed his face, feeling his mind descending into chaos.
"I wanted to become a normal person again... to feel things once more. But now that I am feeling everything... I just want to switch off my brain and return to the state I was in before—when no matter what happened, I wouldn't feel surprised or affected at all."
"Hmm?"
As soon as Azrael spoke those words, he suddenly felt a cold current sweep through his mind, as if his head had been submerged in a basin of ice-cold water.
Instantly, his messy thoughts vanished, his confused eyes returned to a calm state, and a feeling of indifference—one he often experienced while speaking to Mike and others—engulfed him.
"What is this strange sensation?" Azrael raised an eyebrow, noticing that his thought process now seemed far more efficient than before.
He suddenly recalled the strange dream he had just seen, and his eyes narrowed.
"Titan King... strange monsters... and people powerful enough to destroy massive areas with just slight movements... Was that really a dream?"
Azrael looked around the room carefully and found it oddly familiar.
"It's similar to the room I used to live in before I was thrown into that hellhole... but it's more luxurious than that."
He once again considered the possibility that he was hallucinating, but the cold clarity engulfing his mind assured him that what he was seeing was not an illusion—it was real.
In his current state, with his mind unusually active, he could perceive his body clearly.
He knew without a doubt that there were no chips in his brain, heart, or any other part of his body—meaning no one could be manipulating him through artificial means.
Moreover, the illusions he'd been subjected to in the past—triggered by the implanted chips—had always felt noticeably different from his current sensory experience.
The senses of touch, smell, and physical presence in those illusions were far less vivid than what he felt now.
"This body... it looks like mine when I was fifteen years old. Does that mean I have somehow returned to the past?" He murmured, glancing around the room again.
"If that's true, then why am I here? As far as I remember, I was already thrown into that hellhole when I was thirteen... I shouldn't be in this place at my current age."
As he spoke aloud, he once more thought back to the dream he had seen and turned toward the window.
"Maybe I didn't return to the past at all... maybe this is an entirely different place."
He walked to the window and slowly pulled aside the curtains that concealed the view outside.
As the curtains parted, bright sunlight poured into the room, and the scene outside became much clearer.
Although his mind was still immersed in the strange, icy calm, Azrael couldn't help but feel a flicker of shock at what he saw.
But just as he felt the emotion rise, the coldness in his mind intensified—and he returned to his usual indifference.
"What is that?" He muttered under his breath.
Through the window, he could see a lush green garden. Various types of flowers and trees adorned the landscape.
Other than its sheer size, there was nothing particularly unusual about the garden.
But... beneath one of the trees in the garden, he spotted a creature.
No—not a creature.... But a giant monster.
It had the head of an eagle, the body of a lion, and a pair of dark brown wings folded neatly against its back.
Azrael narrowed his eyes at the strange beast. Just as he was looking at the beast, he felt something inside his pocket.
Reaching into it, he touched a small, round, cold object—clearly made of metal.
He pulled it out and found an old, crack-filled, bronze-colored pocket watch resting in his palm.
"What is this?" Azrael muttered, frowning.
Just as he was examining the old watch, an information window suddenly appeared in front of his eyes:
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---) Pocket Watch (Ancient Relic): A powerful space-time relic imbued with a Universal Core. Currently heavily damaged and cannot be used.