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…

to meet his line

Have you come to your old

***

felt like a long

a part of. The memories were faint, and he felt comfortable in

He felt powerful.

and best of all, he

that he managed to forget all the pain that

not

down at one 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

A nightmare.

"Huh…ah, what's going on?"

but he could more or less come to an

"This… Ah…"

and his body was weak. He felt

him all at once as different images

were many of them, and all of them

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,

It made breathing impossible.

Have you come

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

Octavious had an idea of who

had pulled him out

"Y,you…"

every part

noticing that, Octavious felt the two eyes drift away

after-effects of our fight were a bit

Darkness overtook Octavious's vision.

***

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

eyes away from Octavious. He was in

chin, I waved my hand and four people appeared before

I smiled.

Did you enjoy the

to stare at me without saying a word. The way they looked at me felt rather uncomfortable, but

them was a power that far surpassed this

me if I told them that they had a

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

most probably protecting them from

"Oh, right."

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

the four beside

of questions, but let's go for now.

I looked toward Octavious.

need to