Sylvester and the rest of his team could only watch in horror as the figure that emerged from the cocoon slowly stood upright. It was a tall man with fair complexion and long brown hair wearing no clothes whatsoever.

At first this man didn’t even pay attention to Sylvester and simply inspected himself, glancing over its hands and arms all wide eyed almost tearful.

“My body it!” The man shouted in disbelief as it touched his own cheeks and carased the skin. His eyes then shot wide open upon placing his left hand on his chest.

“This, this is a heart beat. This is my heart beat!” The man said in a joyful voice, almost breaking into tears upon this realization.

“I’m alive. I’m alive again!” He screamed over and over, his voice trembling with happiness. The same cannot be said however for the Magician’s troupe.

As they stare into the jubilating man in front of them, they all could feel a sick feeling rising from the pits of their stomach like they were looking at something that was fundamentally wrong and revolting. It was so intense that they were actively fighting the urge to puke.

Feeling weak on the knees, Estelle suddenly fell to the floor while holding on to her mouth and stomach, fighting off an intense and sudden feeling of nausea. Upon seeing this, Artian immediately came to her aid.

“Estelle!” Artian asked as he held her arm.

“I’m fine, Artian. Just felt a little woozy.” She said in a reassuring tone. “What the hell is that?” Estelle asked as she looked at Sylvester who also stood there frozen and in a daze.

“That, that was the Lich we were fighting earlier right?” Rossa asked in distress, but even her words cannot seem to reach Sylvester who stood there quiet.

“Damn it, damn it! What is this mana? Why does it feel so wrong? What was that thing that he ate?” Sylvester asked himself as he racked up his memories for an answer.

Sylvester has never encountered this sort of situation during all of his travels. Right now, he was caught in unknown territory with no help to rely on but themselves while lives hang on the balance.

But one thing is for certain. His mind and his heart are only screaming one word; run.

“Guys we need to ru-” Sylvester screamed before he was suddenly interrupted by a cold laughter.

“Hello there, little worms!” The naked man said in a cold voice, his eyes now focused directly on Sylvester.

“Smoke and mirrors!” Sylvester yelled out, veiling him and his friends in a thin barely visible smoke that caused their figures to disappear from the former Lich’s sight. However, with a snap of his finger Sylvster’s spell suddenly broke as small shards of glass started raining on their position revealing themselves once again.

“Going somewhere?” He asked as dark violet spears suddenly manifested out of nowhere and launched itself towards Sylvester.

“Oh no!” Sylvester screamed when suddenly his two assistants stood in between and blocked the attack, however it wasn’t enough.

The spears then forced themselves forward piercing the two warriors through the chest, going past all their armor. This caused the two shikigami assistants to puff into smoke and return to being mere cards. Sylvester didn’t waste any time and called back the cards using the spell point return.

This simple action alone was enough to make the once dominant group feel cornered and scared, as this quick attack can only mean one thing.

“It can’t be, chantless casting?” The four of them simultaneously thought as they continued to stand by and weary over their opponent.

The man then continued to look on to the frightened quartet as a smile formed on his face.

“Why so scared? Weren’t you all full of life and bravado earlier?” The man said in a playful tone.

“Well now, how about we continue our performance from earlier? I do want to test out my new body after all!” The man continued his mockery as large cracks appeared on the ground underneath Sylvester and everyone else.

The four of them naturally tried to move away from whatever it was the man called forth but they were all a second too late as skeletal hands came out of the cracks and grabbed their feet and legs.

“What are these things?” Artian yelled as he struggled to get away from the grip of the skeleton underneath. With one swipe of his sword he was easily able to cut them down, but they were simply replaced and refused to let go.

“Get off me damn it damn it!” He screamed.

Rossa on the other hand gathered mana and raised her hands upward.

“Binding chains of light!” Rossa shouted as a magic circle appeared a few meters behind the four of them. Chains then manifested from the circle and aimed themselves towards Rossa and everyone else.

“Now Artian! Cut them off!” Rossa shouted as she pointed down onto the skeleton hands below. Artian nodded and gathered mana into his sword.

“Blessing of the wind!” He yelled as sharp blasts of wind cut through and freed the four from the bony grasps. Immediately Rossa pulled them all to safety with the chains she called forth earlier.

As all of this was happening, Estelle and Sylvester tried to attack their enemy by firing an arrow and using burst fingers to retaliate.

However this proved futile as their attacks simply disintegrated before they could even reach the target.

“Hmm not bad.” The man suddenly blurted out as Sylvester and the rest successfully escaped his clutches, if only temporary, but it doesn’t seem like those words were aimed for them at all.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had this much power before, and-and there's new knowledge planted into my head. Unfamiliar and yet not exactly, these memories these things all swirling inside my head, giving me power!” The man yelled as his sudden outburst caused a violet pulse of mana to radiate from him.

Soon he once again focused his attention towards the youthful enemies before him and with a smile he raised his left hand upward. All of a sudden, Sylvester and the rest felt an oppressive force envelope their bodies preventing them from moving.

They all started to float upwards as if on command by the man who smiled victoriously as he played with them like toys.

“It seems that this is too much for the likes of you. Tell me? How does it feel to be so weak and powerless? Because I seem to have forgotten!” The man asked as he waved his hand, causing the group to be launched into the walls of houses that were still standing.

They all let out a loud grunt as they were banged against the walls with great force, completely unable to resist and almost knocking Rossa unconscious as blood ran down her face. And it was during this time that Estelle’s transformation was fizzling out, reverting to her normal state.

However, this seemed to have only caused the man to be drawn to her.

“You there, woman.” He said as he slowly moved her figure out of the wall. “You look strange, and very delicious.”

Estelle’s body then slowly moved towards the man who now had a burning hunger glowing in his newly formed brown eyes.

“Estelle!” Artian yelled out as he struggled to break away from the grip, but the most he could only move was his hands. But in a little twist, this would prove to be a moment of opportunity for them.

As the man drew Estelle closer and closer, she suddenly opened her sight revealing the petrifying gaze of the blacked stained eyes underneath. This powerful ability, while extremely effective, has one very dire side effect. Estelle, too, is affected by the petrification but at a much slower pace giving her enough time to stop and cover eyes in a normal situation.

But it seems that trying to subdue their enemy using this method is causing Estelle to freeze up as well.

As the Eyes’ powers began to take effect, the strangling hold on Sylvester and the rest suddenly disappeared causing them to fall to the ground. Rossa lay down on the ground, struggling to get her wits about, while Sylvester and Artian immediately rose to Estelle’s rescue.

Artian charged in, sword on his waist while Sylvester used Dark strings and attached multiple invisible strings to the ground he was currently standing on.

Artian managed to arrive first and grabbed Estelle’s body while simultaneously covering her eyes, breaking the contact between Estelle and their enemy. Sylvester arrived shortly after and attached the dark strings to his two friends while creating an invisible platform two meters away from their enemy to target with his gravity shift.

And within a few short moments, Sylvester activated the dark strings causing both Artian and Estelle to suddenly be pulled back towards Sylvester’s initial position while Sylvester now stood close and face to face against their foe while Artian placed the ski goggles over Estelle’s eyes.

“Hello there, I like the new makeover!” Sylvester yelled out before shooting the man with burst finger, serving as a distraction while the man quickly regained his senses much faster than anticipated.

But before he could reply, a bright pillar of light appeared from underneath his position. Rossa has now managed to recover her senses and launched an immediate attack towards the enemy only for the man to come out unscathed.

As they quickly tried to scramble their heads for something they could do to fight back. the four of them quickly found themselves pinned down by the same oppressive force from earlier. But this time Artian, Estelle, and Rossa were forcibly made to lie down on the ground while Sylvester was held in place.

“Damn it! Fuck fuck fuck!” Artian yelled out in desperation as he struggled with the hopeless situation while Estelle and Rossa were almost in tears as they watched helplessly on the sidelines.

Yet despite the dire escalation of events, Sylvester still managed to smile at the overwhelming opponent that now faced him with a crooked face. The two stared at each other for a few seconds before Sylvester finally decided to break the ice.

“What? Is there something on my fa-” But his words were suddenly interrupted by his own loud and painful screams, as the man pierced his right shoulder with a cursed violet spear.

Sylvester then felt his entire left arm overcome by an almost paralyzing pain while simultaneously feeling an intense burning sensation all throughout. All of this added on top of the pain of being stabbed meant that not even he could maintain composure.

The man then laughed as he reveled in Sylvester’s pain while his friends continued to watch in horror. He then grabbed Sylvester by the neck and brought him closer.

“Now finally, you break, little worm.” He said as Sylvester struggled to breath causing the man to laugh loudly once more.

“Do not worry, for you will be a stepping stone for my return. The return of the great-” But his words suddenly stopped.

“Great who? Wait who am I?” The man suddenly shouted as he tossed Sylvester’s body away while his invisible grip on the rest of them immediately disappeared. Rossa then pulled Sylvster back towards them with chains of light as their enemy continued to ramble.

“Sylvester!” Rossa screamed as she immediately tended to the injured man. Sylvester tried to smile but could’t because he felt that the situation was about to get even worse.

“Who am I? Where am I? Why can’t I remember?” The man screamed and screamed, as images once again appeared inside his head. From the moment he woke up, he thought that he was gaining strength would bring back what he lost, but something else was happening.

Faces that should or were familiar suddenly blurred and obscured, words and conversations became twisted and distorted as his mental landscape started to collapse. Unknown faces, unfamiliar vistas, and distant lands invaded his mind intertwined with images of impossible geometry and impossibly large structures. 

These visions alone would be enough to drive one mad.

“Who are these people? Are these my memories? Who are you? Who are you? Where am I? What is t-t-t-t-this?” He screamed and screamed as he held on to his face, his words becoming more incoherent with each passing second.

As his mind continued to break down, a familiar voice from the masked entity suddenly spoke inside his head.

“Oh I forgot to mention, the seed of knowledge has but one fatal flaw. It can completely erase your sense of self as you inevitably drown in a chaotic sea of wisdom and knowledge, thus you will truly be reborn as your past and memories cleansed away!”

The voice then paused to let out a mocking and amused chuckle.

“This never gets old! You people always take my gifts without a second thought!” The voice whispered inside the man’s head, but it seems even these words could not reach him as only one question prevailed.

“WHO AM I?!” The man let out a loud shriek as his body began to undergo a grotesque transformation.