nside Sepphira's study.

Almost the entire wall of the rooms were lined with shelves that almost reached up to the ceiling, each of them were filled to the brim with books and scrolls. By the door, there was a wooden cabinet made of wood with a sleek curved front and were inlaid with intricate designs made of pearls and ivory.

The floors were covered with a wool rug adorned in geometric designs with bold and vibrant colors.

Satoshi, Mulah, and Sepphira were seated on low sofas in front of a big table, the low sofas were littered with colorful soft cushions. Tea and sweets were served on a small round table. Satoshi and Sepphira, were now trying to calm themselves, both for an entirely different reason.

Satoshi was still a little bit pale, only a bit of color had returned to his face, he was still reeling. While Sepphira was just done laughing her ass off and was now trying to catch her breath. Satoshi looked at Sepphira, he felt wronged.

Satoshi was just done telling Mulah and Sepphira about what had happened. Mulah had already gotten used to the way Satoshi jumbled his words when he got agitated, but this was Sepphira's first time hearing such a thing. For her, the very concept of "ghoterfucker" and a "mhost" seemed to be very funny.

She was repeatedly saying those two words.

"So, is it supposed to work like that, the room?" Mulah tried to shift from the topic by asking Sepphira a question.

"I'm not sure, how the room works itself is something we still haven't entirely figured out," Sepphira answered, her giggles sounding in between words, "but it's certainly the first time I have heard of such an experience."

"So was it really a ghost??" Satoshi couldn't help but asked

"No." Sepphira briefly said, "it was a mhost!!"

Satoshi looked at Mulah with pleading eyes, while Sepphira finally lost it.

"Come on, knock it off. Then what do you think it could be, maybe some kind of an illusion attack? Or a conjured familiar?" Mulah asked.

"Hahahaha I'm really sorry but this punk walked into it on his own," Sepphira said.

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and then continued, "but it shouldn't be those things."

"The whole Palace Museum complex is covered in arrays of restrictions to protect it and its occupant from outside threats. It is also equipped with formation arrays to detect malicious and hostile intents from within, so if someone inside were to set up some kind of illusion array or conjuration array, the formation will pick up on it and the guard elders will be notified." Sepphira continued.

Mulah looked at Satoshi and somehow, there was worry in his eyes, "So, would you look further into it later?" he asked Sepphira.

There was a look of understanding in Sepphira's eyes as she hear Mulah request,"...of course, I'll look into it."

"Right, what were you doing anyway to be together with Kirgio, you boys having a coffee date or something?" Sepphira asked Satoshi.

If Sepphira didn't ask him, Satoshi would have completely forgotten about it due to the shock. He began recounting the inquiries and requests that he found on the boards with Kirgio's name on it.

Mulah was obviously shocked by the kind of inquiries that Kirgio made, but Sepphira's response was somehow kinda mute.

"Universal treasures, bloodline powers, reincarnation bodies, mythical deities…each of these things on their own is indeed shocking, but to be looking at all of them…it seems to me he must have some kind of objective." Mulah mused.

"More importantly, the Evil-eye..have you known about this?" he asked.

Sepphira lowered her voice and calmly answered,

"Of course, in fact, not just me, but we have become aware of it for quite some time. But since making inquiries is not illegal, we can't do anything against him. So we settled with keeping him in close watch while burying him in menial tasks and hope he aint got no time to proceed with those. Didn't I make him receive you too when you guys arrived?"

"Did you manage to gain anything from watching him?" Mulah asked.

"Nothing so far, we suspect it was as Satoshi told us, it was the Human King that made him do so."

Mulah secretly looked at Satoshi and seemed to be a bit unsure as he asked,"Could he be…from the Power?"

Sepphira suddenly turned her gaze sternly toward Mulah, it was the kind of gaze that says 'I know what you are doing, stop it' kinda gaze.

"It can also be possible." she finally said.

Satoshi heard and watched all of this, so naturally he noticed the uncertainty in Mulah's voice and the look in Sepphira's eyes. While he might be curious about what the Power meant, he knew how to read between the lines thus decided to keep his silence.

But he still felt he must speak up on something, after pondering about it for a bit he decided to just say it.

"About that Evil-eye..I'm not entirely sure if you have it, but if you do, you should keep it somewhere really really safe, and don't let anyone know."

Sepphira was touched by Satoshi's sudden voice of concern. She gave her quite a sweet smile.

"Thank you for your concern boy, but you can rest assured. It is impossible for him to get to the Evil-eye."

"What makes you so sure?" asked Satoshi, in his mind one shouldn't be so sure against someone as shady as Kirgio.

Sepphira made an even sweeter smile than before, her eyes twinkled.

"The Evil-eye is me. I AM the Evil-eye."

—

Lah Mansion, the evening after Palace Museum visit.

Mulah was hunched over his desk in his study, there were various kinds of drawings, diagrams, and reference books scattered on top of his desk. Some even spilled onto the floor below. On his right hand Mulah was holding a graphite pen while his left was holding down a ruler. He was currently working on his draft for the conduit alteration as Satoshi had suggested.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

After drawing this particular line Mulah put down his graphite pen and looked at his draft of the new design. He had been working non-stop since they got back from the Palace Museum. He got the feeling that he must get this done as soon as possible.

He looked at a letter on top of his desk to the right, which he just wrote earlier, and reminded himself that he must send this letter to Xinjia-kor as soon as possible.

Mulah stretched his body and was instantly reminded why growing old sucks, his whole body ached over a few hours of sitting on his desk. Mulah looked back at the design that he made after following Satoshi's suggestion and his mind wandered to this afternoon.

Sepphira had told Satoshi the truth about Evil-eye, that it was not a thing, it was a person. Moreover, Sepphira herself was the Evil-eye.

The truth about the Evil-eye wasn't as shocking as Kirgio had told Satoshi and there was a reason for that. It came from a region that today would be somewhere in the Afar-Asira Supercontinent, and it came from a legend back to the Second Era.

It was said to begin with a figure known as the Witch of Kerachmat.

The Witch of Kerachmat was a regular woman of the academia before she gained all her notoriety. Due to some circumstances it was revealed that she and her people would face a deadly catastrophe in the future, but it didn't tell her about the details of the catastrophe.

Hardened with the resolve to extricate her people from the catastrophe the woman developed a prediction technique that went beyond the boundaries of numeracy, it was the Evil-eye.

The Evil-eye was not anchored on the principles of astronomy or numeracy like most prediction techniques. Instead it was anchored on two ethereal principles: fate and reincarnation. Thus, instead of prediction, it was more correct to say that the technique was looking at the various branches of realities and enabled the caster to see which one was more in accordance with the will of the universe.

The woman successfully led her people and averted the disaster, and at the same time, had reached the rank of Grand Master. Her sphere of influence on the area continued to grow as she continued to lead her people toward greater and greater glory, and at the same time the amount of people that were wary about her became many.

Various powers around the area began to band together to stop the woman's influence from advancing further, in fact, they were looking to break apart their people across the area to prevent such a person from ever appearing again.

The woman obviously saw this coming, and as a way of comeback, she developed another technique that enabled the Evil-eye to manipulate people by the means of illusion and to defeat her enemies by the means of curse.

She got to outlive her enemies but was not for long. As news about her latest stint traveled, more and more power was in opposition of her, and she couldn't hold off all of them. Not only were they fighting them in open battle, they also schemed against her and turned her own people against her. Inflating the true ability of the Evil-eye to a ludicrous degree, in a bid that more people would join their cause.

The woman was finally vanquished and after her death she was given a humiliating burial and was later referred to as the Witch of Kerachmat as an insult. Her people were scattered and became part of other nations that later conquered them.

Sepphira came from the lineage of these people. And to this day, either by the work of fate or some kind of powerful bloodline restriction, no other people outside this lineage could possess the Evil-eye.

The fact that Sepphira decided to tell Satoshi about her longest held secret actually surprised Mulah.

Mulah had come to seek her help with predicting the outcome of his endeavor in designing an alteration for the conduit, yet that afternoon, they saw something totally unexpected in those predictions. What they saw was so shocking it was difficult to wrap their heads around, and yet, Sepphira still decided to tell Satoshi all this.

'She must have seen something more. Satoshi, what are you really…' Mulah thought.

—

Satoshi was sitting in one of the pavilions in Lah Mansion. Since this was still the new year holidays, Satoshi decided to stay in the mansion. Judging from the latest development, it was very likely that Mulah must return to Xinjia-kor sooner than previously scheduled. Thus Satoshi wanted to spend some time with him as much as he could.

He was reading a book titled "The Scrolls of Penta-chakrams". It was a book, not a scroll, and it wasn't about the weapon chakrams, it was about the philosophical thoughts of a Martial Grand Master from Dai.

The book, and the life of the Martial Grand Master itself was so stunning that he was awarded the rank of Deity posthumously after many Grand Master came forward and claimed that the teaching helped them greatly in their journey of becoming Grandmasters of their own rights.

On the table in front of him were two more books: "The Path of the Truest" and "Way of Salvation". He was trying to compare the thoughts from each of these books and come up with his own thoughts.

"Do you even finished any of those books you read? Every time I see you, you always always have different books." Mulah's question came out of nowhere.

Satoshi wasn't surprised by the sudden question, he was expecting Mulah after all, "Some books I finished but there are more that I didn't get to finish, naturally."

"Then why don't you finish them instead of starting a new one?" Mulah asked.

"If I feel I get to a point where I can no longer gain anything meaningful from the book, I will stop reading it." Satoshi answered.

"I will continue it later when I have the time or when I get new understanding about the thing that confused me before. If not, I will just stuff my head with useless stuff but understand nothing." he continued.

"Hmm, that makes sense." Mulah said and then went silent.

Satoshi felt this silence and kept his own. Since they left the Palace Museum he could see that there was something weighing on Mulah, Satoshi just didn't know what, so the two of them sat in silence.

"What is the power?" Satoshi finally couldn't hold back from asking.

This was the thing that Satoshi decided against from asking, but now when he looked at Mulah lost in his mind, he couldn't help wondering if it had anything to do with it.

Mulah was startled by the sudden question, not to mention, Satoshi basically just asked what had been on his mind all this time. Instead of answering he just stared at Satoshi.

Satoshi looked back and repeated his question, "What is the Power?"

—

Nevas Kingdom, Clovas Province, Nevas Cluster Continent.

While Satoshi and Mulah were talking, something notable happened in other places.

A grand castle that looked like it was spawned directly out of books about celestials and immortals stood on top of a hill over a magnificent city. Its towering spires rose up against the sky. The entire wall of the grand castles were made out of white limestone, every single one intricately carved with runes, symbols, and magical inscriptions.

On its entrance stood a huge door made of some kind of dark-wood, and on its side were carvings of different mythical deities that looked like they might come alive any second.

It was entirely dark inside the grand castle, and the grand hall seemed to stretch on forever. The high ceilings were adorned with reflections of celestial bodies, and the walls were lined with stained-glass windows that depicted many things from beast, scenes of battles, mythical deities, even an entire map of the current observable world.

At the end of the long grand-hall stood a pedestal, and on top of it was a big wooden chair. The wooden were dark brown in color, and were so simple, it gave a strange contrast against the rest of the grand castle.

On each side of this wooden chair were gigantic humanoid statues, one on each side. Due to the darkness within the grand-hall, the figures of the statues were difficult to see, but even without the darkness both the statues gave off an ethereal feeling that made them seem elusive. One could only see that the statues were in fact not facing front, but instead both had their gaze on the wooden chair, looking down from up high, their gaze glowed a strange light.

A faint thudding sound of steps against the stone floor of the grand castles resounded in the dark. A tall, slender, humanoid figure, came up from somewhere that couldn't be seen, its long limbs swaying in rhythm with its walk. There was no face on its head.

"A new report just came in, there has been a reaction. Suspected to be in relation with the beast." the faceless figure spoke toward the wooden chair, despite lacking a mouth.

A silence suspended in the entire hall.

"...where…" a reply came from the wooden chair despite it being empty.

"It was in Golden Ayodhya." the faceless figure replied

The sound on the empty wooden chair seemed to be thinking, it took a while for a reply to come.

"..the forbidden..room.."

"Yes, it was the forbidden room. What would you have me do?" The faceless figure asked.

"..send him to..follow.."

When the command came the faceless figure prostrated it self in front of the empty wooden chair and wholeheartedly assented, "Your will be done, Human King!"

—

Afar Province of Afar-Asira Supercontinent.

Within the shroud of eternal mist.

Several figures with humanoid properties were sitting down at the border of Afar and Kmetafar. Every single one of these figures were big and tall, even sitting down on the ground, they were almost as tall as a regular person standing up. Their skins were pitch black with a faint bluish hue, various war tattoos and runes snaking across their body.

Even with their eyes closed, every single one of these figures looked extremely fierce. Each of them were holding weapons of their own, and by the way they were seated on this border area, it looked like they were guarding something.

One of the giants, the one with the most tattoo among them, suddenly opened his eyes and looked up, after a brief moment, he closed them again. At that moment, a faint patch of shadow made its way into the forbidden wilderness of Afar.

The entire forbidden wilderness of Afar was shrouded by an eternal mist that protected it from prying eyes. This entire province had been reclaimed by nature, and for more than a thousand years no one had ever set foot into its depth. Its borders were tightly guarded by the finest among the giant warrior race of Kmetafar: the Warrior God Tribe.

At this time a shadow went into the untouched land of Afar. Despite the thick blanket of mist, and treacherous terrain, it moved swiftly and confidently. As the shadow moved, it was strangely joined by other shadows and slowly grew bigger and bigger. Shadow of a tree, of a rock, or even of a grain of sand moved toward this swiftly moving shadow and added to it. It became so big, it looked like the night sky was moving across the forbidden wilderness.

The shadow began to slow down when it reached an area of the wilderness that was illuminated with light. In an uninhabited region untouched by civilizations for thousands of years, strangely, there was a light.

The shadow stopped entirely when it got to the source of light, and when it did, the now unimaginably large shadow that came with it began to quiver. But it wasn't a quiver of fear, it was a quiver of delight.

The source of this light was a huge orb of light. It was very big, it would take tens of people holding their hands together to get around it. In Front of this orb of light the patch of shadow looked like a speck of dirt.

The orb shined a white light with a tint of greenish hue, it turned the world around it into a world of green. But when the patch of shadow approached, it strangely didn't get cast out or turned green, as if it is willing to allow it to exist.

The patch of shadow got in front of the huge orb of light and let out a small clicking sound as if it was trying to communicate. Strangely, these two seemingly opposing forces weren't using sound or telepathy to communicate, instead they were exchanging messages by invoking certain emotions in each other: they were empaths!

The greenish-white light of the huge orb was quivering faintly while they communicated, same as the patch of shadow. After some time, the orb of light suddenly released an intense burst of light and it grew much much dimmer.

After the flash of intense light, the patch of shadow suddenly grew bigger and it absorbed the large culmination of shadow that joined it before. The entire shadowy region of the province were now reacting to this and came from all over the forbidden wilderness to gather, as if willingly wanting to be absorbed.

A humanoid figure slowly emerged from the shadow, it phased in and out of existence, looking very ethereal. After it completely emerged from the shadow, the large swathe of shadow covering the forbidden wilderness was drawn into him, turning everything to its normal state.

A small and hoarse voice sounded from this figure, "..soon sister...I'll bring him for you.."