Walking through the city, Rael was practically a cosmic horror, reducing the population of Demon Kind by thousands a second. On the bright side, no one really bothered them in public, and for those who tried, Rael simply waved his hand and killed them instantly, even if they were Grade 8’s or 9’s.

Though, when they arrived in front of a restaurant, Rael decided to start holding back, since the last thing he wanted to do was kill his waitress. And so, when they sat down and ordered their food, the first thing that Rael did was apologize once again.

"I really am sorry about all of this. Especially ditching you last time. I didn’t mean to, but I was afraid someone might actually die if I didn’t do anything," Rael said.

Lilith shook her head. "Don’t worry about it. I know. Gaia told us all about it, even if you were withholding some information. On that note, you still don’t look satisfied. Why?"

"Ah. I just think the guy I killed isn’t really dead yet. Can’t blame me though, he’s been stalking me since I first came to this world. I’d assume he’d have some kind of precautions," he replied.

"Didn’t you absorb his memories?" she asked straight up. "If so, shouldn’t you already have a vague idea?"

A faint smile appeared on her face. "I don’t want to give you an epiphany by accident, since I don’t want you leaving again. But hey... Look through his memories. My father taught me some mind manipulation techniques too, especially regarding mind reading."

"Apparently, whenever someone is trying to hide something, that memory would be further back in their mind. So essentially, if you play out their memories from the beginning, the memory which should be earlier might appear later."

Basically, she was saying that if he were to play out Durian’s life from the very start, some of his more sensitive memories might be pushed to the end, where they would technically be more sensitive.

But if those memories were gone entirely, then there would be obvious gaps. Evidently, when Rael attained someone’s memories, he didn’t exactly do a play by play of their life. He would have everything, and so he would comb through the most important details.

This was the current him. In the past, at least the couple first times he did this, he had played their lives out. Maybe the being who had been watching him all this time knew that too? Hmm...

"You might’ve not wanted me to get an epiphany, but I think I did," Rael said with a sigh.

"Pfft. That’s fine. Do what you have to do."

Rael stared at her for a moment, then sighed.

"Give me one minute. I’ll be right back."

With that, Rael pretended to go to the bathroom, and once he was out of sight, he vanished, entering his own personal realm, where time was stopped.

Like this, he felt more at peace, and more importantly, he had more than enough time to do a quick review. Or rather, it was not quick by any means. These beings... He had killed so many and absorbed even more memories.

It was unbelievable, and although Rael hated it, it took him nearly 14 Eons to comb through all these memories. It didn’t feel like that much time had passed either, which was the scary part.

Perhaps he had learned how to filter out time? Or maybe his perception was just that scary, since he didn’t even need to be actively focusing to remember anything.

He could just fall asleep while reliving the memories, and he’d remember everything.

Heh.

That was what he did. Sleeping for nearly 14 Eons was a blast. He was still a little tired, but at least now, Rael knew one crucial detail.

And that was the fact that Durian’s memories weren’t actually Durian’s.

They were constructed in a way that made it seem like the person that Rael killed was Durian. It was almost like he had predicted which memories Rael would look for, so he filled those in. In reality, this man was just some random Grade 10 who had been experimented on, and whose memories were altered beyond belief.

It’s like a mix of 50 people. Sheesh. Durian really had his shit together, since if not for Lilith’s help, I might’ve just missed this entirely, Rael thought with a sigh.

And indeed.

His suspicions were true.

Durian wasn’t dead.

But where was he, then? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

No one really knew. All the people that were responsible for this mess conveniently had no knowledge of Durian.

As for Rael, he had already frozen the time in his realm, so he went ahead and made it transparent, allowing himself to be frozen in time in the middle of the cosmos, and then doing a quick search.

The search... Well, it wasn’t quick by any means. It took a very long time, and assured Rael that Durian wasn’t in any of the realities. The realms were also a big mystery, since he wasn’t in any of them. Dimensions... They were a big red flag too, but the odds of him relying on a dimension to hide himself were very low.

After all, by now, he must know that Rael had a way to find him. There was one realm that Rael couldn’t exactly see into properly, and that realm was none other than the Dream Realm.

What could be the alternative? Could he search the Dream Realm quickly, while also keeping time frozen?

Rael thought of doing so, but the moment he tried to reach into the Dream Realm, he noticed right away that there was nothing. For the Dream Realm to exist, time must flow, and anything that even remotely meddled with time made the Dream Realm inaccessible.

So in short, he would need to sacrifice time, a lot of time. Sending constructs in there wouldn’t do much either, unless...?

Wait... Since I gave them sentience, if I make them humanoid enough, can they dream and enter the Dream Realm?