Azimuth: The Elden Throne

.

.

.

—

"My Status... It's pretty nice overall." Dale said with a small smile after he dried his face with his hands

'Excluding the remarks at the end, it's nice to see the gradual increase of the Skill's levels and the Stats values.'

'I'll need every ounce of strength I can get for the future anyway...'

Once he finished reading his Stats, Dale took his time to lay his head on the wall and 'appreciate' the chaotic state his bathroom was in.

'Broken tiles, the walls are charred, I've somehow crushed the shower register, don't remember doing that... The bathtub paint is now completely gone, and parts of the stone and marble are melted… Great.'

'This place needs a complete reform, I can't do this on my own… Not before my parents return.'

He thought about it for a while before getting out of the shower.

"My parents aren't home now and my brother went to a friend's house, I have some time to fix this before they're back."

'And I ought to do it quickly, if they return and see this... I'm cooked.'

…

/Later… Somewhere beyond the sea…/

"... Alright, I'll see about that. We can talk more about it once we meet face-to-face again… Good. Until…"

[Call Closed]

"Hum… It seems a lot changed in a single day." Roger said with a deep expression as he tapped on his Office table

'I did expect the boy to call me after the event ended, but I didn't expect him to change so much… It's far beyond my expectations.'

'Just what kind of rewards did he receive for his efforts for his tone to be so... Cold?...'

He was hiding something, that was what Roger felt.

However, that wouldn't be fair to the boy either, as Dale said he would explain everything as long as they met again.

From his way of speaking, it was almost as if they had met recently, even though the last time was when…

Something was missing and Roger couldn't quite put his finger on it, what could it be?

The missing link for this entire scenario?

"No point rummaging through it if he'll explain it to me eventually." Roger said out loud as he shook his head, already knowing what to do next

Roger slid his hand across his Office table, prompting a virtual holographic screen to manifest atop it.

He quickly went over a dozen screens before finally stopping.

Reflected on the screen was a satellite image of a secluded Village in the mountains full of expensive and large Manors, quite the little Village to live in...

'He said he wished for a home he could stay in comfortably as he's afraid of impacting his family members with his powers… He wishes to move to Japan with his family and live here so they can also be safe when he's not around them.'

'A bit sudden, but it goes well with my goals. Having him close by where I can also employ my greatest influence would be for the best, though it makes me wonder what made him so desperate for it.'

'I thought he didn't trust me this much... This must be due to his changes... Either he realized something I'm unaware of, or something or someone pushed him to take desperate measures.'

'Hopefully, it's not the latter, the lad doesn't deserve to be in such tension this early in his life... No more than he already is.'

'I imagine it's due to what he asked… How did he come to know of the Perch? Much less that they're targeting him? Could this be the reason why he's so desperate?'

'Above all, how come he's so sure of the Oath? Although I talked and confirmed some of his words, I suffered no backlash from it whatsoever...'

'Did he already go through the "ceremony"?...'

'He has much to answer for… But first, I need to bring him to safety.'

'A kid like that wouldn't act scared if he did not have a reason for it… Oh, I should also send someone to help him with the "refurbishing" he talked about.'

'It would be awkward for the both of us if we had to deal with his family members finding out about this side of the world...'

Roger's expression relaxed as he opened another virtual screen, looking at several things at once until someone knocked on his door.

/Knock…/

"Mr Roger? May I enter?" A feminine voice echoed from outside

"Enter, we have much to discuss."

His secretary was here.

…

/Back home…/

"Yawnn… Hopefully, they get here soon, I really need to sleep…"

Dale sat down before his computer, having difficulty keeping his eyes open as he used his chair to spin around, trying to gather focus and some energy.

'Technically speaking, I've been up for two days straight. The day I went to South America and the day I returned from Babylon.'

'Although both days aren't connected directly, my body already stayed up for 24 hours due to Babylon before I returned, which isn't much given my constitution.'

'However, although that may not be enough to physically tire me, I'm mentally exhausted...'

Dale closed his eyes, blinking heavily as he took a sip of his hot chocolate on the side.

It wasn't healthy to drink such a thing at this time of the day, especially since he skipped breakfast and it was almost time for lunch, but he didn't care, he just wanted something like this right now. Something sweet that went down his throat easily.

Maybe it was due to his memories of the far future, a part of him seemed to long for this as well... A small fragment of a future Dale all wished to prevent and change.

Amidst his thinking, once he gathered enough determination, he stopped playing around to open his Computer Folders, scrolling through the untouched files of his Zenith Collection, seeking answers for questions he had just recently begun to pay attention to.

Questions he never thought about before.

'It's rather interesting to think about it… In the future timeline, when I showed the relic to Qrubin, he didn't raise the issue of Zenith's fall to me, making me oblivious to that side of history.' He thought as he read through the files

'Why did he decide to tell it to me now? What changed between then and now?'

"... Is it because of his mental state?"

Dale knew Qrubin's personality was slowly vanishing, being pushed deeper and deeper into an abyss neither of them knew if he would return from or not.

It was only a matter of time before he made the transition from Human Artificer to Undead Lich, this was something he experienced during his two months of training under him, and something he visualized clearly with the fragmented memories he inherited of the future.

He was slowly losing his mental capabilities, his ability to remember, and form coherent thoughts, his emotions, his everything was being chiseled away for every second he was awake.

That was why Dale was initially unwilling to meet with Qrubin, but eventually did to warn him of the future and also as a way to potentially work towards something.

There was no reason to not contact him sooner as he would be forced to regardless.

It was better to do it now rather than later. Qrubin's time was only going down, not up.

Within the next few months, the Qrubin as they knew would vanish, leaving behind only a hollow shell of himself, this would lead to the first sealed creature within the Catacombs to flee and wreak havoc on the surface.

Still, somehow, despite his fears, the Dale of the future was able to survive this disaster and rebuild Resko, though he was unsure how he did and what the results of said event were.

Although, he knew of the price for said victory... Both Erile and David's sacrifices...

Just thinking about it made his blood boil in rage... And helplessness.

"Anyhow, let's see here… Is there anything that could help me?"

'Just what kind of danger could have surfaced after the Heroes defeated the Final Boss? There has to be a hint here…'

Amidst his thoughts, Dale had the idea of checking some of the old theory forums, he knew that people loved to think and imagine how the next game would be and what Azimuth's story would be about.

And although the forums did not exist anymore due to the secretive worldwide deletion of content, he still had most of the logs saved in his hard drives.

Maybe someone with extensive lore ideas figured something out that could potentially serve as a threat to the world following the achievements of the Heroes in Zenith.

He also wished to somehow figure out the main storyline that led to the birth of the second Generation, insight into it may help him understand and figure out aspects of his current circumstances.

With this in mind, he began moving around his drawers, finally finding what he sought.

After clearing some dust from the driver and installing it on his PC, Dale began browning through the documents…

[Ding!]

[Dale, you have a guest] The House Virtual Intelligence said gently so as to not startle him from his state of deep focus

"Hm? AH! They finally arrived."

'I'll leave this for later… I need to fix my bathroom first.'

After putting on a shirt and a pair of shorts as he was just in his boxers, Dale opened the door, revealing a group of three construction workers with a dozen equipment boxes next to them.

After a short interaction, Dale led them to the bathroom where they began working speedily, removing and changing everything inside it.

Outside, another crew of a dozen people kept loading items inside the elevators. And in the blink of an eye, around an hour, they completely modified the bathroom, changing pretty much everything to a replica of a different material, more resistant to his outbursts.

After thanking them and offering them some coffee, they parted ways, leaving Dale behind with a brand new 'super' bathroom.

"Woah… Professionals truly are out of this world… With a tint of luck, my brother doesn't notice the changes, if he does, I'll just say I've cleaned it a bit."

'Anyhow, I'll thank Roger and log in, there's much left to do…'

Although Dale was very curious about exploring the files in his PC, he knew those could wait, it wasn't like they would go anywhere.

So once he was done thanking Roger and taking a short nap to rest his mind, he changed into his special suit, hopping inside his pod as he began his dive into another world, taking over the body of another him…

[Logging in…]

…

.

.

.

Notes

(I made a small mistake at the end, leaving behind some notes, if anyone saw them, I apologize, it happens from time to time)

This ontent is taken from frewebnove(l).