The Author's POV

"Huuu.."

I took a deep breath. As I moved away from Octavious, who was lying down on the ground in front of me, I experienced a range of conflicting feelings.

'This is as far as I can extract…'

I was only able to retrieve a limited number of memories from his mind before my abilities started to fall apart and I was ejected from his consciousness. It was the first time that something like that had occurred, and I must admit that it caught me off, guard.

That being said, I had seen enough.

'The orb must be a defensive mechanism to stop anyone from prying any deeper. A pity it stops right when things were getting spicy...'

It was the only explanation that I could think of at the moment.

Thinking back about his memories, I wasn't sure how to react…

'I somewhat expected this after seeing Melissa's memories… but this runs deeper than I originally thought.'

I finally found the answer to a lot of the questions that had been plaguing me for quite a while.

'…So this is why Kevin sent me over here.'

It was to make me realize that there was another power within the world that was controlling everything from the shadows.

While I wasn't completely sure of its purpose, from what I'd witnessed, it appeared as though its goal was to eliminate and stop all those that had certain levels of talent, leaving only Octavious to reign at the top… someone whom they had full control of.

'The real question is… who is the one controlling everything?'

It had something to do with the records… that I knew, but I wasn't sure if it was the records themselves.

'Protector of the Seat of Diligence? Was that what he said?'

"Hmm."

My brows furrowed as I pondered over the memories I'd witnessed. It was then that I heard a slight groan coming from beneath me.

"Ukh."

Octavious slowly opened his eyes, and our gaze met. Staring at him, I extended my hand and thin white threads forced themselves out from his body before moving toward my direction and entering the palm of my hand.

With each passing second, Octavious's eyes became clearer and clearer, and once I reached the point where I could no longer take in any more of the white thread, his eyes turned completely clear.

"Ah... I..."

He started mumbling incomprehensible things while looking around him in a confused state.

His face was pale and he seemed to be displaying all sorts of different emotions at the moment. He was a far cry from the Octavious that I knew.

Compared to the stoic and powerful man that I knew, the man that was before me was a frail shell of what he once was.

He seemed broken…

bent down to meet

about it? Have you come to your old

***

felt like a long

witness but not be a part of.

He felt powerful.

best of all,

all the pain that had haunted him for a very long time.

however did not last

but that comfortable dream started to crumble right before his very

A nightmare.

"Huh…ah, what's going on?"

could more or less come to

"This… Ah…"

head to stare at his hands. His lips were dry, and his body was weak. He felt pain all over… and most importantly,

different emotions came crashing down on him all at once as different images appeared within his

them, and all of them were of him doing inexplicable

Killing, blackmailing, kidnapping...

"Ha…ahh…"

he witnessed, the more he felt that he was suffocating. It was as if he were in the deepest part of

It made breathing impossible.

you come to your

raised his head. It was there that he caught

had an idea

man that had pulled

"Y,you…"

words. He tried, but every part of him hurt. He wanted to say something, but he

if noticing that, Octavious felt the two

a bit

Darkness overtook Octavious's vision.

***

him a few questions, but it looks like I'll

moved my eyes away from Octavious. He was in no

hand and four people appeared before

I smiled.

was it? Did

stare at me without saying a word. The way they looked at me felt rather

surpassed this world. To

told them that they had a similar level

the distance where I could see Amanda and Edward in

most probably protecting them from

"Oh, right."

hand once more. The barrier that was surrounding us disappeared, revealing

looked toward the four beside

lot of questions, but let's go for now. There are a few things I still need

I looked toward Octavious.

still need to talk