Death... and me



Around a day later, somewhere a few hundred kilometers away from the Gufelin Canyon, a patrol of Angels was watching the area. Suddenly, their leader's Divine Sense noticed something before quickly giving the order. "Follow me!"

A moment later, the group landed near the body of an Angel. However, that Angel wasn't dead. He was just unconscious or perhaps sleeping. Near him, two other Angels seemed to have just arrived and were trying to wake him up. When they saw this new group arriving, one of them quickly stepped forward. "Oh! It's senior Liduin."

Liduin, the leader of this patrol, also recognized the Angel there. "Franfa from the scouting teams, right? What is happening here? Isn't that Abdiel of the outer scouting groups?"

Franfa immediately nodded. "It's him indeed. We were on our way back to the Canyon when our Divine Senses detected his body. We don't know how long he has been here."

The other Angel near Franfa shook his head. "Senior Liduin, our cultivation is too low. There is nothing we can do to help senior Abdiel to wake up."

Liduin nodded and approached Abdiel. "Leave him to me. It seems like his soul is locked due to a Divine Energy Seal that prevents it from communicating with the rest of his body." This wasn't anything hard to accomplish. It's just that you would need the total cooperation of the target to make it work. 

Liduin helped Abdiel and pressed his forehead. A stream of Divine Origin Energy and Light Elements entered his head, targetting the barrier there. The barrier wasn't that powerful to start with. Even if Liduin didn't do anything, Abdiel would eventually break free of it in a few hours on his own. He was just giving some extra help.

"Ouhhh... my head..." Abdiel finally began to recover his consciousness before he suddenly jolted. Immediately, he jumped back and flew several hundred steps away from Liduin and the other Angels. "T-this..." Of course, it didn't take long for him to recognize the Angels there.

Seeing that Abdiel recognized him, Liduin went straight to the point. "Abdiel, what happened to you? We received the report that your group was attacked, and you disappeared right after. Where have you been?"

Abdiel looked around and couldn't see the presence of Roan or Sesame. There were only Angels around, Angels he knew. "Liduin... was it you guys who saved me?"

Everyone looked at Abdiel in confusion. "Saved you? Not at all. We just found you lying down here," said Franfa with an awkward expression. 

The other Angels also confirmed his words. "Indeed, we also just found you lying here. If someone saved you, that was definitely not us."

Abdiel then focused on his body, trying to find if Roan and Sesame had put anything strange there. However, what he saw there made his mind almost freeze. 'T-The Soul Restriction is back!!!'

That was correct. Abdiel was sure he saw Roan taking the Restriction out of his body. Not to mention that he talked about the connection between Heaven and the Underworld in this place. If the Restriction was there at that time, he should have been killed before saying anything. 'How did they put it back?' He couldn't help but think.

Liduin, who was in the same hierarchical position as Abdiel, asked once again. "Abdiel, is there something wrong with you? We need to know what happened."

Abdiel then calmed down before confirming that other than the Soul Restriction, his body didn't have anything else left behind. At the very least, it didn't have anything he could find with his Divine Sense. Following that, he checked his Spatial Ring, just to find out that his badge was still missing. Sure enough, the Roan and Sesame had kept that. "Not good! Everyone, we need to go back to Gufelin Canyon immediately. Some Devils are trying to use our Teleport Formation!"

"What?!" Liduin was taken aback. However, Abdiel didn't waste time and immediately took flight, speeding into the distance.

Liduin didn't have another choice and quickly followed Abdiel. Naturally, the other Angels did the same.

On the way, Abdiel used his Divine Sense to talk about what happened. However, there was one thing he couldn't talk about, and that was the Temporal Connection hidden in this place. Now that the Restriction was back, he was impeded from doing so unless he received authorization from the higher-ups in the Canyon.

Nonetheless, knowing that there were Devils who would try to enter the Canyon was important enough. Their group quickly followed the two Space Bending Realm Angels, flying straight to the Teleport Formations in the Canyon.

Arriving there, Abdiel went to see the Angel in charge, a female called Lara. Her five pairs of wings showed her Space-Time Realm cultivation. 

"That's what happened! Have anyone used the teleport formation with my badge, Lady Lara?" Abdiel asked.

Lara shook her head. "Let alone use your badge. No one has used the Teleport Formation in the last two days. You know we have kept this place as conspicuous as possible due to that reason."

Franfa, who was also there with Abdiel and Liduin, found it strange. "Senior Abdiel, it shouldn't be possible, right? There is no way a Devil can enter this Canyon without being detected. Any presence of Dark Element would have been immediately detected by our several formations."

Abdiel didn't feel relieved, though. "Lady Lara, permission to talk about that thing."

Lara knew what Abdiel wanted and nodded. Everyone there knew about the connection, and this place was her own office. It was totally safe. "Go ahead."

Abdiel opened his mouth and was just about to explain when suddenly, the Soul Restriction in his soul activated, releasing a Divine Sense Message in his mind. 'Oh, just so you know, I modified this Soul Restriction a little before putting it back into your head. You can talk about meeting us, but you must not say that you revealed the existence of the Temporal Connection between the two realms to us. Otherwise, say goodbye to your soul.' The automatic message then disappeared, leaving only the Soul Restriction behind.

Abdiel's mouth then slowly closed... not being able to utter a single extra word.