34 A new world

Looking down at the distant peculiar shapes that looked to be three humanoid figures, Aziel's eyes turned glossy with the sudden surge of memories. Sensing a familiar presence, the only creature that got close to him so far in all his time exploring the surface of this new world, Aziel couldn't help himself but call out as he slowly floated down the slope.

"Dinah?"

Aziel muttered, mostly to himself. The memories of their time spent together, the long talks, -which albeit sounded rather awkward due to the method of communication of the time-, the stargazing nights they spent together.

He never admitted it to her, but Aziel truly enjoyed the little primate female company. After all, the main reason he decided to settle down with them, and even put up with their humiliating way of attending to him was because he grew bored of the endless loneliness that accompanied his cursed existence.

He wanted companionship, he thirsted for any form of social interaction. After several thousand, nay millions of years of dominating the prehistoric era, he never could converse with any of the creatures, beasts. Their vocal cords never evolved, the only sound any of the monsters could utter were guttural roars and hoarse incomprehensible yells.

Even after the grand cataclysm, after life once again, filled up the planet with new forms of furry beasts, growing much more compact in size and shape compared to the first iteration, they were still rather primitive. Whilst after absorbing a sizable sample of them during his first couple of days before he found these hairy primitive humanoids, none seemed to be able to form sounds of any complexity. The most he found was a chuckling-like regurgitating form of noise from the smaller chimpanzee-like mammals.

Anyway, the fact that the female, which he named Dinah after a while, had kept his companionship night and night again… made Aziel's time vastly more enjoyable.

Still, in the end, Aziel had to move on. Despite trying his best to close up and fight these feelings, once he felt the same vibrations, the same presence of soul waiting right in front of the place where he left them when he secluded himself… Aziel had a hard time bottling his feelings. As his mental barrier, a dam had broken, his emotions surged to the surface, thrusting their miniature daggers into the pulsating flesh of his heart, wrenching it in the process.

He couldn't help but feel guilty, and even slightly regretful of leaving that pure creature behind. He betrayed her feelings, leaving her alone in her sorrow without looking back.

Still, Aziel felt that what he did was ultimately the right call. At the time, the era was just not ready. Yes, he could have dominated that tribe by force and influenced them from the get-go. Make them grow a different path under his rule, bask in his power, evolve in a completely different direction.

Heck, at first, he had the thought himself, however after a while, as he lived amongst them, felt the same greed, the same sins that seems to follow these creatures along wherever they set foot Aziel eventually decided against it.

The trouble of guiding such a sinful species, whilst he himself had hundreds of questions weighing down on his shoulders, troubles he still hadn't resolved to this day… Aziel felt it was better to just let them be.

Traversing through the thick of the dust and smoke, their hazy silhouettes, gradually started to take on clear shapes, making Aziel go surprised yet again.

'Hmmm… They are no longer hunched-back but standing straight as they are gazing in my direction. Still, what is this am I feeling from them?' Aziel mumbled, taking a moment to hone his senses as it scanned the three paralyzed figures whilst slowly inching closer and closer.

'Fear?' Aziel frowned, focusing his gaze on the female instead. 'Are they scared? Did they not recognize me? Does she not remember me?' He muttered, still not fully aware of the vast changes his body had vent through.

He could feel the gentle wind as it caressed his smooth, fair skin, - something that never happened before, as his sturdy scales were resistant to the elements to the point he never even felt the cold, the breeze… and after his last stint with the volcano, even the heat.

He knew his body had changed drastically, after all, he had seen a small teaser even in the darkness of the cave. His once-majestic height, his dark glossy skin, his reptilian origins have seamlessly merged with the many other essences he had gathered, as well as the human genes from Dinah's tribe creating something new.

Also, learning that [Essence Restitute] will strive to recreate his old image, he had an inkling, a general idea of what he currently looked like. He already felt the long set of hair floating against the wind.

Eventually, Aziel slowly landed a dozen or so feet away from the shocked and paralyzed trio, at the foot of the mountain. Though the massive cloud of dust started to settle, the silhouettes slowly gained color, both parties were still rather obscured from each other. Both sides were silent, trying to figure out the other side first.

Whilst Aziel was silently staring at them, scrutinizing their figures and trying to make sense of their strange attire and tools they were using, the trio themselves were just as equally perplexed by what they were seeing.

"J-jake! W-what is g-going on? J-just w-who is t-this... this... dude?!" The first to break the silence, Jay turned towards his friend standing in the middle of their group and whispered in his direction.

Or so he thought.

Due to his nervousness, the volume he originally intended to be lower, was much higher. In the end, before he even realized it, he was nervously shouting, yelling like an idiot at his friend.

"W-why are you..." Jake grumbled his reverie, his stun broken due to his friend's effort. He was about to turn towards Jay when suddenly they were frozen in the spot of the ancient, deep voice that filled the area.

"Ilth ambar na-shur; im odar nha ha in il nen, im tur- odar ha in i coe, im tur- nahr ha in i gwilith."

The strange figure did not stop either, even as his speech was way too outlandish, strange for the trio to comprehend, he didn't seem to care. The figure turned to look at Myra who in turn looked at the boys for help. Her gaze was asking, desperately begging for them to do something, for she was clueless at what was going on.

As the dust settled, and they could finally take a glance at the man standing in front of them, they were turned speechless at what greeted them.

The man reached out his right hand, looking at the bespectacled girl, and with a beautiful, yet sad, melancholic tone spouted a single word. A single question, a single name.

"Dinah?"