"Aizen-bao, you're going again?"
"What else?"
After resting for a bit, the dizziness from teleporting back to this spawn point faded slightly. Aizen prepared to make his fifth attempt.
The little pink-haired girl looked at her companion, who was filled with a stubborn drive. She hesitated for a moment, then spoke softly.
"Actually, even though I can't move with you directly, there should be some ways I can help."
"How?"
"Oronyx's Prayer."
Hearing this, Aizen froze. A moment later, he couldn't help but slap his forehead.
"Right. I completely forgot you had that basic skill."
Miss Cyrene's highlight reel involved nuking the Iron Tomb and reformatting the universe. But before that, she was basically just an unremarkable village girl. back in her hometown, her specialty was this Oronyx's Prayer.
To put it bluntly:
It was a divine art of time.
Borrowing Oronyx's power, one could perform a certain degree of time manipulation.
However, the effectiveness depended on the user,and whether you had any connection to March 7th.
As a fellow "Immaculate Child," Oronyx naturally favored Cyrene. And as March 7th's companion, it made sense that the Trailblazer could use Oronyx's Prayer too.
"Can you still use the Prayer?"
"...I should be able to squeeze out one use."
The pink-haired girl answered softly, her face still rippling with a brilliant smile, showing not a trace of gloom.
"No."
Aizen gave her a deep look, then calmly rejected her.
"Why?"
"Looking at you pisses me off."
"..."
Miss Cyrene fell silent. It was the first time anyone had spoken to her like that. Indescribable emotions began to ripple in her heart.
"Your smile,it's not fake. Your kindness is pure, too."
"But exactly because of that, it makes me feel... like you aren't living like a human being."
Aizen sighed, standing up, his tone becoming solemn.
"In my understanding, you should be angry. At the very least, you should possess rage or hatred. Just like that little brother from your hometown, you should be accumulating that rage continuously until you can break free from the shackles of the 'Scepter'."
"But you just keep smiling. Like you're trying hard to suppress your emotions, trying hard to be optimistic, trying hard to face all suffering with composure."
"Cyrene, if you really want to help me..."
"First, become human again."
With that, not waiting for Cyrene's response, Aizen clicked the 1-1 Map again and vanished from the Great Tomb of the Nameless Titan.
Leaving only the pink-haired girl standing alone, looking lost.
"Become... human again?"
...
Janusopolis.
Returning once more to this city-state built against the mountain, Aizen was starting to know the way.
His previous attempts had all been fruitless, but at least he had mapped out the routes.
In his digitized vision, he could see the map interface left over from his previous exploration,one of the few basic functions currently available to him.
Combined with the friend-or-foe markers, this was the reliance that allowed him to avoid the encirclement of Janus Temple guards and Chrysos Heirs.
Unfortunately...
Even with this thing, he wasn't exactly a professional stealth operative.
His repeated failed attempts to approach Tribios had exposed him, and now the security was even tighter.
At this rate, even Tribios's original plan to steal the Coreflame of the Doorway would likely become exponentially harder.
But he couldn't worry about that now.
"First, leave Janusopolis. Head for the territory of the Sky People."
With the map's help, avoiding wild monsters and highwaymen shouldn't be an issue.
The only trouble was pinpointing the location of the Sky Territory. Fortunately, Seliose lived in a place far from the two main clans of her homeland.
But that living space also had traces of winged beasts, so it must be close to the Sky Territory.
"Need to find a way to record a map."
Sneaking up to Teacher Big Tribbie was basically impossible now, but security elsewhere might not be so tight. Although this era didn't have public libraries, the great nobles and high priests had plenty of stone tablets in their private collections.
He had cased a few joints before. Aizen began using his map ability to play hide-and-seek, constantly dodging patrol vision cones and diving headfirst into the homes of several great nobles and high priests.
[ "Chronicles of Janusopolis" - Recorded ]
[ "Oronyx's Prayer: Part II" - Recorded ]
[ "Geography of Okhema: Part III" - Recorded ]
[ " The Rainbow Bridge and the Sky" - Recorded ]
[ "Legend of the Winged Beasts: Part III" - Recorded ]
Knowledge that was incredibly precious in this era was rapidly uploaded into Aizen's brain via "Quantum Reading." It was a pity he didn't have this data-entry ability before transmigrating.
After swiftly collecting the information from the nobles' stone tablets, Aizen left Janusopolis as silently as a ghost, heading in the direction of the "Winged Beast Habitat" recorded in the tablets.
Back in the day, Fujimaru Ritsuka could run across North America on two legs. There was no reason a brother couldn't do the same, right?
After digitization, his stamina and hunger were displayed as visible numbers. Looking at these stats, how could he still treat himself as the useless trash who started wheezing after 800 meters?
Now, he was a veritable Fourth Natural Disaster!
Even if he was still a bit of a noob right now.
But the future was promising!
Motherfucker...
It's just Amphoreus. Watch me clear this in one life,,,,,,!
Over the next two or three months, Aizen traveled back and forth between the Winged Beast Habitat and the Great Tomb of the Nameless Titan. He constantly evaded external dangers while asking passing, somewhat-friendly-looking Amphoreus locals if they knew of a little girl living alone in this area, accompanied by winged beasts.
"I have experienced three betrayals..."
Okay, actually more than three.
Looking at the brown-haired girl gathering raspberries not far away, Aizen couldn't help but tear up.
God dammit.
Who said the folk of Amphoreus were simple and honest? There were way too many people who temporarily equipped the "Bandit" license.
Some even deliberately led him into dangerous areas. If he hadn't been able to force-recall to the Demiurge Tomb, he didn't know how many times he would have been iced.
Although he wasn't sure if the brown-haired girl ahead was the Seliose he was looking for...
At the very least, she was the first target who matched the profile.
"Who are you?"
The brown-haired girl seemed to notice the somewhat ragged little boy and asked subconsciously.
The next second, she saw the boy's body sway and tilt backward rapidly.
Decisively, the girl dropped the raspberries in her hand. Like a sudden gale, she appeared beside Aizen in an instant, catching him just before he collapsed onto the ground.
"Are you alright?"
As she supported him, a trace of concern flowed through her saintly green pupils. If she really was that person, this would indeed be her reaction.
A pure, noble, brave, and stubborn knight.
"Your name... is Seliose, right?"