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 his line

about it? Have you

***

like

witness but not be a part of. The

He felt powerful.

invincible, and best of all, he felt

managed to forget all the pain that had

however did not last

point. He wasn't sure when, but that comfortable dream started to crumble right before his very eyes, revealing to him the truth that lay behind that sweet and beautiful

A nightmare.

"Huh…ah, what's going on?"

he could more or less come to an understanding of what had happened not

"This… Ah…"

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

of different emotions came crashing down on him all at once as different images appeared within his vision displaying all the

and all of them were of him doing

Killing, blackmailing, kidnapping...

"Ha…ahh…"

It was as if he were

It made breathing impossible.

you come to your

depts and he raised his head. It was there that he caught a glimpse

Octavious had an idea of

that had pulled him out of his

"Y,you…"

his words. He tried, but every part of him hurt. He wanted

the two eyes drift away

like the after-effects of our fight were a bit stronger than I thought.

Darkness overtook Octavious's vision.

***

him a few questions, but it looks

my eyes away from Octavious. He

my hand and four people appeared before me. The

I smiled.

Did you

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

power that far surpassed this world. To them, I

them that they had a similar level

Amanda and Edward in the distance. He seemed rather haggard at the moment

was most probably protecting them

"Oh, right."

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

toward the four beside

go for now. There are a

I looked toward Octavious.

need to talk to