Jane Silverstar woke up in her bedroom, scared and angry.

"That man, how dare he do this to me? I'll smash him to bits and hang his head for everyone to see!", she screamed. Then she kept screaming unintelligibly for around 10 minutes before someone knocked on her door. They didn't wait to ask permission before the door opened, and Carlos, Jane's assistant, came in, finding her crying and screaming and in a bad shape, riddled with wounds.

"My lady, what happened to you? Did an assassin try to kill you in your sleep?", he said.

"No, Carlos, leave me alone! I'm not well!", she sobbed.

"Don't worry, my lady. I'm here. Just order me, and all you seek will be yours,", he said. "

That man, Bre,", she stuttered. "Brelethro Vergan, investigate him. He has a disciple. Bring that disciple to me. I want to take all of his possessions, his knowledge, his secrets, all of it! I will then exact my revenge on both of them. I'll torment them until I'm tired of laughing at their soon-to-be pitiful lives. Do that for me, Carlos, and I'll further increase your payment!", she said to him. "Of course, lady Jane! It will be done. You can count on me,", he said to her in a soft voice.

"Great, then,", she smiled.

"Glad you're feeling better, my lady!", the man told her. "I'll leave now and close the door for you.", Then the door thudded shut.

"Brelethro Vergan, eh? That's a tough one to crack,", he said to himself. "But what can you do? The lady wishes it, so the right hand shall do it. A hand that taught her how to be a good, ruthless little kitten", the man smiled to himself. "I knew I caught the jewel inside the trash can from the beginning, and I'm finally inching ever closer to my goal.". He laughed lightly. "Also, what's with her and extracting secrets?", he thought to himself.

Queltsom:

I woke up feeling tired and sore. I touched around and found myself in a bed. This isn't the same as the one I freaked out on, so I'm in a different place. I wish the pain could go away, though. That all-encompassing pain that I remembered feeling ever since I was able to think, when I was much younger Anyways, I expanded my senses outward and felt a distant pressure. It radiated malice and wanted to control everything. But there's something wrong with this pressure. It feels... tangly? What's up with me finding myself kidnapped by someone who wanted to exploit me? "Grrrrrrr...", I groused involuntarily. The pressure heard me and came closer.

"So, little boy. You're awake at last,", a female voice said. It sounded arrogant and spiteful, and it made me feel weird.

"I have no idea who you are, lady. But can you get me out of here? I don't want this crap,", I said.

"Now now, little one. The only way you're leaving this place is in pieces,", she replied.

"And who in the endless depths of the abyss are you?", I growled, getting angry.

"I'm your worst nightmare. The bane of your existence. I'm the one who kidnapped you, and then you mysteriously escaped due to a certain band of people helping you, which are also under my chains, by the way. So, you're going to suffer, watch them suffer and die, then die yourself,", she said, and it clicked for me.

"You're Jane Sivler Sart. Aren't you?", I roared.

"It's Jane Silverstar, but yes, it's me. By the way, I have even more of a reason to keep you here. Apparently, someone I despise wanted to train a disciple. We did some investigations and found out that you, demon boy, are the one he seeks. So I snatched you before he did, and you're finally here,", she finished.

"Look, Jane. I'm not telling you anything about my secrets. But know this: I was raised by a dragon named Dragnoria. She taught me all about the omnis, or what I could understand of it anyway. She taught me how to protect myself and how to deal with creatures like you, you abyssal gremlin witch!", I said. She hit me with something sharp that really hurt.

"Enough, you rascal! You dare say that to your betters? I'll teach you a lesson on manners,", she screeched at me. I honestly didn't care. I just wanted to get out of here, deal with this idiot of a leader, free lady Eileen, and thank that guy who saved me after I gave Eileen a piece of myself.

"You're not my better." Dragnoria is. And no one teaches me anything other than her, unless I allow it!", I roared again. "Also, stop screeching like a dying banshee, you big monster!"

"Childish fantasies. You say a dragon taught you? Stop your nonsense and tell me the real secret of your power! We aren't in a hurry. I don't mind if you struggle more; it's a win-win for me because either way your techniques will be mine,", she said.

Then she did something weird to me, and I started hurting all over, much more than the usual pain I was used to.

"Speak,", she said, her voice infused with power that wanted to force me to follow her command, but I resisted it.

"No,", I replied, pushing back at her. ".

"Speak,", she said, harder this time. The weird power increased in intensity, and the pain also increased. But I can handle pain; it's nothing new for me. It has been with me ever since I was born. Compared to my first years of agony, this was but a drop in the ocean for me.

"I said speak!", she said, and the pain became a bottle in the ocean rather than just a drop. Still, I could handle it. Pain is an idiot that can go screw itself.

"I'm telling you that Dragnoria taught me everything I know about the Omnis. And I couldn't care less if you believe me or not. Screw you, old hag!", I said in a grave voice.

"Don't you dare talk back unless it's what I want to hear!", she screamed, and the pain went from becoming a barrel in that ocean before to a lake: "Speak!" "No!", to a river, "Speak!" "No!", to a sea. "I, *pant*, said, *pant*, speak!". "I, *gasped*, said, *gasped*, no! I knew that the aura was stronger than mine, but as long as I kept firm, I wasn't going to lose to a stupid idiot like that. The aura vanished, and I sighed in relief and smiled in pride at my accomplishment.

"I admit my defeat to you, demon,", she said finally, no longer sounding evil.

"I'm not a demon! I'm Queltsom!", I replied.

"Quel, tsom,", she said, turning my name for some reason.

The pain had already stopped, and by that I mean that it had returned to the normal level of bad I was already used to. I inspected the woman's pressure again and found that mass of tangling tendrils expanding and retracting toward what I assumed was the head, facing some resistance, according to something inside me. Someone was trying to mind-control her? No, someone is trying to mind control her, not in the past. It's still trying to get in even now. Dragnoria said that mental control was the worst kind of manipulation someone could go through, no matter how bad they were. I thought about removing that mass from her, and I fought. My emotions and desire to save this woman from that mind control, even if she hurt me and kidnapped me and my saviors, and another pressure I fought against.

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The pressure felt like a farmer or a mad scientist cultivating a seed of ruthlessness and arrogance, of anger and spite. Unfortunately, that seed was Jane herself, and she was being manipulated into growing up the way that the one with the offending pressure wanted. I sought to cease that cultivation and let Jain be herself. Maybe she hurt me because this other pressure told her to? I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. A completely random thought occurred to me. "How do I know all those words?".

Somewhere along the way, I felt a concentration of energy that desperately fought back against the mind mage, not managing to do any damage—until now, that is. I gripped that energy, which felt like a light to my mind's senses, and I strengthened it. I'm not sure how, but I strengthened it through my own energy. The light grew stronger, and that strength carried an imprint from me, a message into her true self, sent to her through the warm, light-like energy without any obstruction from the mind mage.

"Snap out of it, you old hag. Why are you letting it control you?".

Something was drilled into me, sending pain racking through my head and tearing my mind apart, melting it. If I thought the pain I felt when I was born was an ocean, then this pain that touched and obliterated my mind felt like an entire universe. It was a miracle that I was alive at this point. Once it reached my soul, however, it hit a wall of steel. No, of diamond. A wall of solid, unbreakable flame that burned the tendril of bad mind magic and sent it recoiling back into wherever it came from.

I lost my secondary consciousness after that tendril of mental energy tore my mind apart, which probably explains why I knew that there was a wall in my soul or that I even knew it was my secondary consciousness. I don't think I'll remember it after I wake up, though.

Earlier:

"Where in the bloody abyss is my disciple?", Brelethro screamed. He looked all around, but he found neither a demon nor any strange eyes. Then something tugged at his awareness, prompting him to think. So think he did.

"Wait a second. There's a net in my thoughts somewhere. Someone touched my mind. Now who in the God's universe did this and where is he?", he asked himself.

"Wait, he? That was the weakness I needed! This guy accidentally left an imprint of his mind inside mine, and this imprint will tell me all about this son of a poisoned mushroom's location,", he continued, talking to himself as usual, for him at least.

"So what happened when I said the name of my disciple?" Someone, most likely Jane, the queen of all bastards, decided to hunt my prey down instead of me. Well, he's not exactly prey, but still,", he added.

He blanketed the whole village of Elva with his subtle and unassuming aura, then performed a deep search for that mental signature.

"I'll be luckier than usual if he's actually practicing his craft right now,", he mused to himself. "Aha! There you are!"

He tracked down the signal and zoomed in on it. What he saw was a mass of black mental infection crawling all over Bastard Queen's mind, but facing a mild mental resistance. The infection was composed of suggestions and gradual, purposeful manipulative ideas, so he must have been very patient and very careful to avoid breaking her mind with a full-on, immediate mental assault. The mental barrier of Lady Bastard suddenly increased in power, and something penetrated the infection's ravaging force and rippled across all her mind and most likely her soul. Because whoever is doing this is very inexperienced and is just winging it, the intent of whatever that something was was clear as the morning sun.

"Snap out of it, old hag. Why are you letting it control you?", The message strengthened the mental defenses of Bastard Queen even further.

"It's only a matter of time now until her mind fights off the infection. Now what's that mind guy going to do?", he thought.

From the gate where the infection spilled, a tendril shot out into another mental signature. It tried to override the mind within, but it couldn't touch even a single thought. When it failed to control it, it decided to melt it instead. The mind shattered like tissue paper, but the tendril went further, trying to reach beyond. A boom sounded out in the dead zone of mental signals, and the tendril recoiled, looking almost, burned? Brelethro mentally teleported himself near the dead zone, and he saw a fallen child with brown skin and ethereal-looking eyes.

"The strange-eyed demon, eh? Now you've done it. You're definitely going to be my disciple!", he grinned happily.

He carried the child under an arm, then went and freed the woman and the other boy, and they went to Kerrio's home.

"May I stay to help and train this lad, my lady?", he said respectfully.

"Yes, you are allowed to come in. Please make sure he lives, and don't pressure him. Something tells me that he's very scared, and I don't want him to be uncomfortable,", she replied.

"Scared, eh? What he did should have killed him on the spot, but being scared makes sense,", he replied.

"What happened to him?", the other boy asked.

"His mind got annihilated when he tried to save a woman who wanted to kill him. Jane Silverstar was mind-controlled, and that kid just brute-forced the whole thing like nothing I've ever seen. And trust me, because I've seen a lot of things, I tell you. That kid has a huge amount of spunk. I'm quite certain I've picked a rare cookie as my first disciple,", he said, and both of them gasped in shock and horror.

"Sorry for rambling out like an old man. Ah, who am I kidding? I'm an old man and a half. But I'm not good with kids, so please respect my bluntness,", Brelethro said with a smile, as if he expected it all to work out on its own.

He felt a violent signal invade the kid's hollow mind space, trying to incert itself before the true mind reformed, so he clamped down, and the signal shattered, returning to an unknown place that the old man himself could not look into. The spirit.

"Looks like my disciple has some correctable drawbacks after all,", he thought to himself and sighed.