Death... and me

ƥαṇdα-ηθνε|·ƈθm

Obviously, Roan went into the Dimensional Realm to interrogate the Angel he captured. The twins knew nothing about the Heavens. For now, they needed to find where they could reach the Main Temporal Path so that they could return to the Realm of Gods.

Hastian suddenly felt like his head was being split apart due to the huge pain Roan caused him during their battle. He slowly opened his eyes, not being able to focus his mind for the same reason. He tried to guide his Light Element and Heavenly Energy into his Soul, but he quickly noticed that there was almost no Heavenly Energy available at all. Only then did he pay attention to his surroundings while using that little amount of Heavenly Energy to stabilize his Soul.

Finally, the memories of the battle came back before he put himself on guard, waiting for anything that could happen. Too bad, though. He soon noticed that he pretty much could move at all. In the Dimensional Realm, Sister Orb was god, after all. She locked Hastian as soon as Roan sent his unconscious body inside. 

"Seems like I was right. You woke up just when I thought you would," said a voice on Hastian's back.

Hastian felt a chill on his back and tried to open distance from whoever was near him. Unfortunately, no amount of strength could get his own body free. He then turned his head around with great difficulty, just in time to see Roan. "W-Who are you?"

Roan wasn't using his appearance. He just assumed the same form as he did when he fought Hastian inside the Temporal Gap. "Does it really matter in this situation?"

Still, Hastian insisted. "Could it be you are a Devil? Even from here, I can feel the Devil's pitiful Dark Element Affinity."

Roan didn't mind if the Angel thought him to be one. "Is that so? Well, that's up to you anyway. Now then, how about we talk a little?"

Hastian nodded. "Go ahead. What do you want to know?"

"That easy?" Roan was a little surprised by Hastian's behavior. Of course, as long as he could talk to them face to face, he could tell whether they were lying or not. In fact, Roan found out that it is a lot easier to spot a lie when he is interrogating Angels. That's because they try to always stay 'clean' in all aspects. Simply put, Angels are not used to lying at all.

Hastian just shook his head. "If I don't talk, something tells me you will have a way to make sure I do. Someone capable of going through the hidden Temporal Gap with Space-Time Angels defending, attacking from inside without anyone noticing, and then escaping definitely has his ways of getting what he wants."

Roan was satisfied with Hastian's words. "It's good to see that not all Angels are dumb. Very well, I need to go to the main Temporal Path. Where are we, and how do I get there?"

"The main Temporal Path?" Hastin was a little at a loss by Roan's objective. "Do you think you will be able to stop our invasion of the Underworld through this side? Aren't you being a little too naive?"

*Bam!*

Roan immediately kicked the Angel's ass, not in the mood to explain anything. "Who is making the questions here? Instead of asking meaningless questions that you know I won't answer, how about doing what you said?"

Hastian felt like he was being humiliated. Yet, he quickly calmed down and accessed his own Pocket Dimensional Realm. Roan had noticed from the start that Hastian didn't have a Spatial Ring, which was obvious due to Hastian's Cultivation Realm. Only Hastian could access his own Pocket Dimensional Realm. It was also because of this that Sister Orb allowed a very small amount of Heavenly Energy from outside to reach Hastian.

*Vup!*

a Jade Slip appeared on his hand, which he quickly threw to Roan. "Here you go. This is a map of the Heavens. Well, the center of Heavens, to be more specific. There are also the regions outside the center, but nowhere near as much information. I rarely need to go to the further reaches of the Heavens Realm, so I don't have much information about them. Nonetheless, the Temporal Path can be found there in the center."

Roan sent his Divine Sense inside the Jade Slip, and immediately, a huge map appeared in his mind. He could zoom in and out, increasing the level of detail of the regions he was looking at. "Hum? I see here that you don't separate the territories like countries and continents. How come?"

"Countries? Continents? Why would we do that?" Hastian asked back. "Such notions only serve to increase the discrimination and prejudice against each other. Don't compare us Angels with the Underworld and Realm of Gods' Races. Here, anyone can enter and leave any region they feel like. Trust is the base of Heaven's Races."

Roan couldn't see how an entire realm could work without those divisions. But then again, Angels were quite a weird bunch of Races to start with. Perhaps they truly felt like Hastian just mentioned. "Okay, that doesn't matter. At least you named the regions in an easy way to identify. The Temporal Path is in this Region 01. All other regions going out continued with 02, 03, 04, etc... very convenient. Where are we at the moment so that I can find us?"

"We are at Region 12096," Hastian answered truthfully.

Roan then zoomed out the map image in the Jade Slip, just to find out that Region 12096 wasn't anywhere near the Center of the Heavens. 'Well, that makes sense. Those Short-Term Temporal Gaps appear randomly. It would be way too much luck to have this thing near the center of Heavens.' Other than the general location of Region 12096, there was pretty much no other information inside the Jade Slip, except for a few cities near the Temporal Gap.

Roan didn't dwell on those thoughts for long. "So, which city's teleport formation should I use if I want to teleport to the Center of Heavens?"