The loyalty of each subordinate remained almost the same since he had last seen. What shocked him more was the experience cap to reach the next level. To reach the next level, he needed a humongous eight million points. His elemental manipulation increased by ten percent except for darkness which increased by five percent. Before Michael upgraded the spells, he decided to buy a few blueprints for new weapons. He mainly bought these weapons to fit the Big Bertha.

Michael accessed the store without a second thought and bought the blueprint to build a torpedo launcher.

[The host has successfully bought the blueprint for torpedo] said the system. He bought the torpedo for a whopping six hundred thousand badass points. The torpedo launcher was worth the price. It could launch five torpedoes at the same time. Michael could power it with the arch energy crystals. According to the system, two torpedoes could destroy a frigate, and four could destroy a man o warship. For some reason, he had a gut feeling that he would need to power up his naval army soon. Considering his gut feeling had never betrayed him, he went with it.

He wanted to use the remaining points on a new weapon. Now that he had become the 5-star Blacksmith, he only needed a blueprint from the system. He would be able to forge the weapon by himself. He rummaged through the blueprints to pick the best weapon. He mainly looked for a sword because of his mastery over swordsmanship. Some swords had a special affinity to elements such as fire. In other words, these swords could conjure flames. Most of these swords had no chance against the Dark Flames. Hence, a pair of swords called the dark swords caught Michael's eyes. Just their name alone was enough for Michael to buy them. In addition, these pairs of swords could withstand the dark flames. The only downside for this pair of swords was the things needed to forge them, especially the ore. According to the system, the ore could only be found in the demon's grave. It was the most dangerous realm in the entire world. The demon's grave would make the treacherous ocean look like a children's playground.

He needed five materials to forge the swords. Luckily, three of them were in the demon's grave, and the other two had to be bought from the system. Which made forging the swords without a system an impossible task. Michael bought the blueprint for the swords cost him eight hundred thousand badass points. These two purchases exceeded Michael's expectations. After buying these two, he only had two hundred thousand badass points in the system. Instead of spending them, Michael decided to save them for another day.

He exited the system with the decision to visit the demon's grave soon. As he exited the system, he saw Gaya walking into the room. To his surprise, she seemed serious. She didn't even hug him.

"You need to see something," said Gaya.

The smile on Michael's face disappeared. He quickly got off the bed and followed Gaya to an empty room in the castle. Gaya didn't speak a word till they reached the room. When they reached the room, the door opened with a slow creak. Michael saw Adelia, and Azazel was waiting for him inside the room with a dark box atop a pillar.

"My lord," Adelia and Azazel bowed toward Michael.

"Is the armor piece inside?" Michael asked as Adelia nodded. Judging by the looks on their faces, Michael knew something was amiss. Hence, he scanned the box for any booby traps. The system took a few seconds to confirm there were no traps inside but a hologram. As soon as Michael touched the box, it clicked. Soon, the box slowly opened, revealing the armor piece inside. But before Michael could touch the armor piece, a hologram of himself appeared above the chest.

Michael took a step back. Just the hologram was enough to make Adelia and Azazel drop to their knees. The holographic Dark Lord's gaze swept across the hall. Michael felt a warmth through his body as though the Dark Lord was scanning him. Since it was not a soul piece but a hologram, Michael knew the past Dark Lord must have used the system to use technology from the earth.

After the warmth faded, the Dark Lord locked his gaze with Michael.

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"Congratulations. You are doing better than I was expecting," said the Dark Lord.

"Finding these armor pieces must be your priority," The Dark Lord paused, sighing heavily.

"You must have lots of questions. For now, I can only confirm your suspicions. Yes, I went back in time and became you. Time traveling is not as simple as they showed us where we came from,"

The Dark Lord smiled a little. Even though it was just a hologram recording of himself, Michael noticed an immense sadness in his eyes. He seemed tired, void of any happiness. Seeing him, Michael immediately thought of Gaya.

"Did something happen to her?" Michael questioned himself.

"I cannot explicitly explain to you why I traveled back in time or what mistakes I made. Instead, I was only able to leave you something behind to help you on your path. However," The Dark Lord stopped for a moment before continuing,

"I must tell you one thing, you will fight Noah but do not rush into the battle. Noah is not the only enemy you have to fight. Not all people fear and worship gods. Some want to get rid of them," The Dark Lord's voice became stern and serious.

"They would go to any lengths to do that. So you must protect your own and get stronger," said the Dark Lord.

"And take care of my Gaya," a miserable smile appeared on his face. Gaya's eyes watered just by seeing him sad. Despite everything, he was still the man she fell in love with. Hence, seeing him hurt and sad made her eyes tear up.

"No matter what happens, do not fail to protect her. I reset the entire universe, so you can get the happy ending that I didn't," He sighed. To Michael's surprise, the Dark Lord turned his gaze toward Gaya. Michael wondered how the hell did he locate Gaya correctly in the hall.

"I would give anything to see you smile one more time," For the first time, Gaya heard the Dark Lord's voice stutter. He was the emotionally strongest one of the two of them. Yet, he seemed so vulnerable at that moment.

"I love you, my dear wifu," Finally, the Dark Lord smiled. Soon, the hologram started to flicker.

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"Do not rush into the battle with Noah," Before the hologram faded away, Michael heard the Dark Lord's warning about Noah one more time. After the hologram disappeared, Michael remained still, without uttering a word for a few minutes. Silence fell over them. A few minutes later, Michael took out the armor piece from the chest. It disappeared into Michael's system storage. Two more pieces, and he would have his armor once again.

"What happened in this room stays in this room. Got it?" Michael asked them, looking over his shoulder.

"Yes, my lord," Azazel and Adelia nodded. After hearing the Dark Lord's final words, Adelia was worried about her daughter. It took her almost three decades to reunite with Gaya, and Adelia didn't plan to lose her again. But no matter how worried she was, she did not question the Dark Lord's ability and love to protect her. If someone could protect Gaya, it was him. Michael then turned around. With a flick of his wrist, he took out two silver parchments from the system storage. He threw them at Adelia.

"Take Saber with you and find me the remaining armor pieces," Michael ordered. Adelia nodded before leaving the room with Azazel.

"Michael," Gaya came to his side and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Are you worried?" she asked.

"No," Michael shook his head. He turned around to look her in the eyes. With a gentle smile, he cupped her face.

"I am not my past," Michael gently massaged her face.

"We will get a happy ending. I promise you that," said Michael.

"I know you will," She smiled. The two of them shared a moment of intimacy and left the room. They headed for the outside. Just as they stepped outside to greet the dark army, he saw Gibson running toward him. He was drenched in sweat.

"My lordmy" He couldn't speak through his heavy breathing.

"Take a deep breath and relax," said Michael. Gibson took a deep breath as he was told.

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"My lord," Gibson put his hand inside his robes to retrieve a golden parchment.

"It came from the empress,"

Michael was surprised by Gibson's words. He opened up the parchment to read what the empress had to say.

"That's surprising," said Michael after reading the parchment.

"What is it?" Gaya asked. She couldn't hold her curiosity anymore.

"The empress wants to meet me,"

Just like Michael, Gaya was surprised by the sudden invitation too.

"Might be a trap," said Gaya.

"I don't think so. She wants us to pick the place and the time. She is only bringing a War God named Belanor,"

"Belanor huh?" Gaya remembered the name. She didn't know him when she put two arrows into him, but when she asked Sadie about the War God who attended the Aqua Palace auction, Sadie found his identity.

"You know him?" asked Michael.

"I should tell you how we got the third armor piece,"

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Just her sly smile was enough for Michael to paint a rough picture of what had happened. At Least he was glad that she didn't kill the War God.

"Let's walk and talk," Gaya grabbed his arm and started to walk toward the waterfall. On her way, she told Michael everything that had happened. Michael listened to her story in utter silence. What she did was the right move. If he was in her shoes, he would have done the same. But Michael worried about the reaction from Gondolin for attacking a War God.

"We need to meet the empress and sort this out. We have enough enemies to deal with," Michael sighed. Since the empress was arriving with only Belanor, Michael had a feeling she was not looking for a war. Otherwise, she would have sent an army instead of coming to meet him alone.