"Are my words bringing back memories to you?"

It was Jezebeth's words that coaxed Kevin out of his thoughts and back into the present. When he raised his head, he looked directly into Jezebeth's eyes.

"How much do you know?"

Kevin asked, his eyes losing focus every so slightly.

"Not much."

Jezebeth replied, walking around the patch of grass he was on.

"My recollections are rather disorganized. Only fragments of the past remain in my memory. Many times, I recall beating you. I recall the various methods I used to defeat you...but I do not recall the exact events that transpired."

Jezebeth's feet came to a sudden pause, and his head turned.

"...Of course, this is due to the fact that I have not yet amassed every fragment. Once I've collected each and every one of them, I'll naturally remember everything."

"I see..."

Kevin blankly stared at Jezebeth and slowly closed his eyes. No one knew what was on his mind at the moment.

Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared directly at Jezebeth.

"...So the reason why you called for me is just for this?"

"No, no, no."

Jezebeth waved his hands in the air.

Even though his actions were a little over the top, Kevin felt uneasy around him.

Jezebeth exuded an air of calm and self-assurance, which gave the impression that he had everything under control at all times...and Kevin's countless regressions had proven that this was the case the majority of the time.

Of course, things were different this time.

Jezebeth continued.

"Not really the reason I called you here. I've just been wondering. If the records are your enemy, why don't you just work with me? ... Why don't you just allow me to consume the earth and access the records? I can put an end to them for you. If that is your objective."

Kevin merely smiled at Jezebeth before lowering his head and murmuring.

"...You wouldn't understand."

"What wouldn't I understand?"

Jezebeth asked, the smile on his face fading.

"Tell me precisely what I would not comprehend. From what I can tell, your objective is the records. The same applies to me. If we work together, we will easily be able to get to the records. Once we reach them, I will assist you in defeating them. What wouldn't I understand?"

"Heh..."

Kevin let out a soft chuckle, and Jezebeth's face became expressionless.

"You think I'm capable of beating the records? Me? The being that was created by the records?"

Kevin shook his head and waved his hand in the air as the world around him began to disintegrate slightly.

The mountains, the clear blue sky, the mountains...it seemed as though everything was beginning to shatter like glass, including Jezebeth, who did not move from the spot where he was standing.

"Since you've already figured out almost everything. I'm sure you know that it's not possible for me to fight the records. You should know full well that I was born to obey the records, and regardless of whatever happens, that will never change."

It was common knowledge that a puppet couldn't fight its own master.

Regardless of whether Kevin hated the records or wanted to fight them, it was impossible for him to do that.

It was against his very nature, and betrayal would only lead to the destruction of his existence.

"...I can't defeat what controls me, and I know that you know that."

Kevin retracted his hand briefly before turning around and raising it once more. A dazzling white glow materialized on his arm and completely enveloped it.

"This was all that I needed to know to prove my hypothesis."

However, just as he was about to completely shatter the illusion he was in, he heard a couple of faint words coming from Jezebeth's direction.

Kevin redirected his attention toward him and began to formulate his response. However, just as he was about to open his mouth to respond, his eyes stopped on a spot right behind Jezebeth, and for a split second, his face tensed.

"Wha―"

Jezebeth smiled at Kevin as he extended his hand in front of him and then slowly closed it into a fist.

"There's no need to be shocked. I'm sure 'he' will be even more shocked than you, but that doesn't matter. Our time together is over, and I found out everything that I wanted to know."

Crash―!

Before Kevin could even finish his sentence, the world around him shattered into a million pieces.

"You better take care of your body. It'd be a pity if you died before I even made it to earth."

Kevin was only able to hear those words for a moment before he was whisked away and found himself back in his office.

"Cough...Cough...Cough..."

It was at that point that he once more began violently coughing, and blood once more began to spill all over the floor, splattering all over the gray carpet beneath him.

As the excruciating pain that had been radiating through his chest continued to intensify, he had no choice but to get down on one knee and support himself by placing his arm over the wooden desk that was next to him.

'Shit...'

He was suffering from the consequences of his decision to use the Akashic laws, despite the state that his body was in.

Nearly half of Kevin's organs had failed, and if it weren't for the thin layer of mana that was still circulating through his body and into those organs, Kevin would have died right there and then.

"Blergh."

Coughing eventually led to him vomiting, and the floor was soon splattered with even more blood. The world began to spin, and Kevin's vision gradually darkened.

Thankfully, Kevin was able to hang on to the last bit of sanity he had and managed to keep his balance before collapsing to the ground with his back resting against the wooden frame of his desk.

Lowering his head, Kevin's vision spun, and his eyes drifted toward his hands, which were trembling uncontrollably.

'...I don't have much time left.'

***

The aftermath of the conflict that took place between Suriol and Ren was not a pretty sight. The sky was pitch black, and the surface lands were demolished; large swaths of the ground were pitted with craters and radiated with residual demonic energy.

The decaying bodies of the fallen soldiers were still lying on the ground, where they had been left, even though it had been weeks since the battle had ended.

A rancid and sulfurous odor persisted in the air, permeating a significant portion of Immorra's landscape, which was currently dead silent.

Not a single living creature was in sight.

C..crack―!

The tranquility and silence of the world were abruptly shattered in one of the secluded parts of Immorra by a disruption in the sky, which was followed by the sudden appearance of a gate in the middle of the iky.

It was from this gate that two demons emerged.

Their auras―which completely engulfed the region that encircled them―created a further imbalance in the world as the demonic energy in the air suddenly started to shift in their direction.

As one of the demons surveyed the surface of the world, a voice that was both raspy and ominous reverberated through the air.

"...What happened over here?"

"It appears that a major battle has broken out."

"Big would be an understatement."

The demonic beings touched down softly on the surface of the scorched earth.

The moment their feet touched the ground, one of the demons knelt down on one knee and ran his long, slender finger along the surface of the scorched earth.

The demon pinched a piece of earth and brought it close to his nose in order to catch a whiff of it.

Sniff. Sniff.

After catching a whiff of the earth, the granulated earth fell from his fingers, and the demon slowly stood up.

"According to the residual demonic energy that is still present on the ground, the battle took place about two weeks ago, which is roughly the same time that we stopped communicating with Duke Suriol. The one in charge of overseeing this small planet."

"...From the looks of things, the battle ended in the orcs' favour. Or, more like, they both were killed."

The other demon muttered, his brows slowly contorting into a deep frown as he wondered.

"How is that possible?"

They naturally went through the motions of reading the report about the condition of Immorra before coming here.

According to what they knew, it was absolutely impossible for the orcs to triumph over the demons in battle.

Their forces were too few, and they had no Duke ranked prospects.

"It's obvious. They had someone to help them."

The other demon replied, his voice turning more sinister and his eyes gleaming with a dangerous light.

"This is not something that the orcs are even remotely capable of accomplishing. They were successful in obtaining assistance from a third party in some inexplicable way."

After lowering himself once more to the ground and picking up some dirt from the ground while allowing it to run down his fingers, the demon briefly closed his eyes, and his voice deepened.

"I can feel the presence of some residual mana within the soil...it's faint, but the power contained within is immeasurable...I can definitely see how a Duke Suriol would lose to it...."

The demon's eyes opened very gradually as he watched the last grain of earth fall from his fingers.

Before issuing a command in a chilly tone, he looked at the other demon and slowly combed his long, pink hair behind his head.

"Report the findings to the lord. I'll take a look around the world. I'll trace the mana around the world and see where he has been. I have a feeling that I'll find something very interesting soon enough."

Fwap―!

The demon's wings suddenly spread out behind his back, casting a significant shadow over the region directly in front of him.

The next instant, with the beat of his wings, a sound that sounded similar to a flap of the bedsheet echoed, and the ground beneath him began to split apart.

An afterimage of the demon was left behind.

It was a process that took several seconds, but eventually the afterimage of the demon dissapeared, leaving nothing in its wake...and the world turned silent.