historical

"Help you? I told you he is here to kill you."

Raphael didn't understand why this guy was misunderstanding him when he was being so clear. He said clearly that Azekiel wasn't here to help him but to kill him. How could he confuse that with help?

"You won't understand, Raphael. At least not until you know what I do now."

"And what is that?" Raphael asked. "Since we are working together, shouldn't you be telling me what you know? If I'm going to trust you, then shouldn't you trust me as well?"

"If not, then how can I trust you myself? How can I know that you aren't just making up a story? Tell me why you seem to avoid killing Azekiel. Just why? I want to know everything that you know. You say you know something about Azekiel that I don't know? If you're not just lying, then you should be able to tell me."

"As I said, I'll tell you when it's time. If I tell you right now, it might break your mind and your entire worldview. Then that would be a problem," Alion responded. "If you know, that will bring you under the same set of limitations as me. And I don't want that to happen. At least not until Azekiel is killed."

"I want you to gain back your past memories and your body back first. Then after you kill Azekiel with Lenora, I will tell you everything... I'll tell you the reality of our world and everything that is hiding behind this seemingly ordinary reality in plain sight.

"If you think us attacking Earth was wrong, then what happened to us was even worse... We are just trying to make everything right. But that's not enough! We need more resources! We need one more Time Stone!"

"You need one more Time Stone?" Raphael grimaced. "Does that mean you already have one or more?"

Alion simply smiled in response. "You can think what you want to make of that statement. As I said, I can't tell you anything. I don't want to create a paradox. You have no idea how badly I want to tell you, Raphael... No idea."

"A paradox? By telling me? How is that possible? Unless... You aren't from this time?"

Even though Alion didn't tell Raphael in explicit terms, just his use of the Paradox was enough to give Raphael some ideas.

The only way a paradox could be created was if the present was dealing with the future. Small changes couldn't affect the future in a big way, but if the change was big enough, then the Paradox was going to be created, which had the potential of sealing them in a time loop that was impossible to get out of.

That's also one of the reasons he wanted Azekiel to about traveling back in time, even if he had the Stone of Time.

Alion remained silent for a brief moment before shaking his head. "I should've realized who I was dealing with. You're still the same old Raphael, who is always so quick to understand."

"So I was right. You are from the future? Is that how you know Azekiel and me? Is that why you say that I don't know Raphael more than you?"

"That's right. I know Azekiel more than you can imagine. At least at this point in time. That man... He isn't what he looks like. Raphael, I'm being absolutely honest when I say this, but that man! He is the reason behind all our problems! If I could, I would've killed him with my own hands!"

"Wait. If it's about a Paradox, won't you influencing me to kill Azekiel to create a paradox as well? If it's a paradox that can be created with me just knowing about the future, then killing Azekiel would create an even bigger one."

"Moreover, if you came here at this time to kill Azekiel, if I kill him, Azekiel won't have a future. And if he doesn't have a future, you probably won't meet him at whatever point in time that you do. And if you don't meet him, you won't know him. You won't come back to influence me, and he'll still be alive? Isn't that an infinite loop?"

"I didn't come here to kill Azekiel... My intention wasn't to come at this time period. But the Time Stone I had could only get me this far. That's why I had to do everything I did."

"That's why I had to destroy most of the humanity... That's why I had to bring on the Apocalypse for the earth because that was the only way for me to call the Tower of Sin," Alion answered.

He further explained. "As you might've guessed by what I said so far, the Tower of Sin only comes to worlds that are near destruction or that are almost destroyed. In other words, the Tower will only appear in an apocalyptic world."

"When I left with the Stone of Time from our reality, I didn't know that it was going to toss me here and be destroyed. I needed more... I needed to go back more... So I called the Tower."

"You knew the stone of time was on the third floor of the tower!" Raphael understands everything. "That's why Lenora was there! That's why you knew so much about the tower!"

"That's right. I knew where that Stone of Time was at this point. In fact, that's the only Stone of Time I know since I was the person who received that Stone of Time in the future. That's also the stone I used to come back in the future."

"So the time loop paradox that you're talking about? They are already created... In fact, many of them. But the paradox I'm talking about is way more than the time loop paradox. What I'm talking about is way more dangerous... And not for us only."

"Killing Azekiel isn't my goal. In fact, I didn't even know he was in this city when we attacked. That's why he managed to escape before since we weren't looking for him. But now that I have an opportunity, I don't want to let it pass. Help me, and save yourself from future pain."