"Haaa! Instructor Zirrack what are you doing here?" For a second the trio was shocked when they saw a familiar that always gave them the chills.
"I was commissioned to save you guys." Zirrack too was also surprised to see them.
"Don't mean to interrupt but is it me or is it hot?" Brian's question made them realize that they were even sweating.
"I had knowingly teleported us to a place far from the fire, how is it still hot?" Blake said as he used his hands to fan himself, but they had close to no effect against the heat.
"Sorry, for the inconvenience. Let me deal with it." Saying those words, Zirrack flew far away from them and began summoning the heat within the barrier to himself.
"I wonder how strong he is." The trio had felt the tremors that had been rocking the facility and had also seen the level of damage the environment had taken at the core.
It made them wonder what realm Zirrack was.
'Now before he is back. He will surely ask what went on in the facility, so we have to decide on what to say.' Blake spoke to them using their mind link.
There was no way they would mention anything concerning Ebony and Ivory, neither will they mention his space element.
'Mentioning about the researches on each floor and your ability to crack arrays is quite safe. So, we don't have much problem as long as we don't mention them.' Castiel said.
[The problem with that is how were you guys able to defeat PAC-X bots? Zirrack has faced them and would be able to know what you guys are capable of.] The system pointed out a loophole in their story.
'This means I would have to mention void shift. Just hope professor Hoffenheim isn't offended." Blake wasn't sure how he would react when he learned of this.
'That doesn't explain how you were able to defeat the golems.' Brian mentioned another problem.
'Who said we have to mention that he destroyed any?' Castiel said, but at that moment Zirrack had returned.
The atmosphere had returned to normal and the fire within the barrier had cooled down. The lava in the crater had solidified and everything except for the charred ground and burnt plants had returned to normal.
They were expecting him to begin the question and answer session, but immediately he returned he pulled out the communication orb and contacted guild master Walden.
"They are safe now."
________
Back to the core.
The moment the trio was teleported out of the facility, the intruder alarm stopped and multiple holographic interfaces appeared all around the gigantic thranium crystal.
Complex calculations could be seen on each screen and this went on for some minutes before the gigantic crystal floated out of its position and a stasis pod rose from the floor.
When the pod opened up, cold air rushed out as a naked man stepped out.
Although he looked like he was in his late-40's but was hundreds of thousands of years old. He had silver hair and eyes with a gleeful smile that had a tinge of madness to it.
He had a slim build and stood 5' 11'' feet. His physique could make anyone mistake him for a random commoner, but if Zirrack was here right now he would sense the Deity level aura he was releasing.
The craziest part of this was that if Zirrack or the trio were down here, they would have found his face very familiar because he looked exactly like professor Mack Hoffenheim!
[Welcome Back, Master Azkelwart.] The facility's core greeted its true master.
"Long time no see Fury. How have you been?" Azkelwart asked his closest friend.
[Currently, I am fine, but a lot has happened while you were gone.] The core sighed.
"Give me a rundown on it. Also, where did Zultra go, is he too busy to say hello?" Azkelwart said as his eyes glowed and the images of everything thing that had occurred in hundreds of millenniums poured into his head.
[Zultra left base and is currently living in the city not too far from here. So as the time of your return neared, I formed a plan to get outsiders to release you and everything worked out fine.] Fury said, expecting praise from its creator.
"Well as long as he got to finish the dark matter crystals and the rest, then there is no need to recall him because all work and no play makes one depressed." Azkelwart said after some pondering.
"As for you, don't you think you are being too manipulative?" Azkelwart asked causing Fury to bend its holographic head.
He had watched how Fury had brought the trio and force itself to reset in other not to kill them, before leading them to the next floor and granting them access to the core room.
Although they were suspicious of the unknown owner, they had never thought that the core was the one behind everything.
"You did really well, especially by holding yourself back and not sending the Z1000 bots to kill that angel. For this I will get you a greater power source and give you an upgrade or 2." Azkelwart said with a proud smile.
Luckily for Zirrack, if not that Fury had listened to all his calls with Walden from the moment he stepped into the Bulian hills. It would have sent out 5 out of the 100 Z1000 bots also known as angel killers instead of the PAC-X bots.
Not only were they immune to divine pronouncements but their body, weapons, and synergy were flawless, meaning Zirrack would have died in a matter of minutes.
[Master are you sure you really want to give out Ebony and Ivory because they aren't that far.] Fury asked.
Every time Azkelwart was entering the stasis pod, he would always place the sword as a gift just in case something had happened and an outsider was the one to free him.
"When did we start taking back gifts? Besides Ebony and Ivory are of no use to me because I have no negative emotions to feed Ebony and mental faculty is far greater than that of Ivory." Azkelwart said as he came out of the white room and headed for the wine cellar.