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…

down to meet

it? Have you

***

felt like

be a part

He felt powerful.

of all, he felt

that had haunted him

not last

dream started to crumble right before his very

A nightmare.

"Huh…ah, what's going on?"

fragmented, but he could more or less come to

"This… Ah…"

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

once as different images appeared within

were many of them, and all of them were

Killing, blackmailing, kidnapping...

"Ha…ahh…"

the more he felt that he was suffocating. It was as if he were in the deepest part of the ocean, surrounded by water, pressuring

It made breathing impossible.

about it? Have you come to your old

out of those depts and he raised his head. It was there that he caught a glimpse of two deep blue eyes

fragmented, Octavious had an

was the man that had pulled him

"Y,you…"

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

if noticing that, Octavious felt the two eyes drift

our fight were a

Darkness overtook Octavious's vision.

***

wanted to ask him a few questions, but it looks like

Octavious. He was in no state

my hand and four people appeared before me. The moment they appeared, they stared at me with

I smiled.

it? Did you enjoy

without saying a word. The way they looked at me

power that far surpassed this world. To them, I looked no different than

I told them that they had a

see Amanda and Edward in the distance. He seemed rather haggard

protecting them from the aftershocks of

"Oh, right."

I used, I felt apologetic and waved my hand once more. The barrier that was surrounding

the four beside

you have a lot of questions, but let's go for now. There are

I looked toward Octavious.

need