Jack woke up in Roddin’s house in the same bed that he woke the first time but this time Bjorn was already at the room and sleeping seated in the side of the bed which made Jack’s heart warm but this feeling quickly subside when he felt an excruciating pain in his whole body, this made him hold tight his chest trying to suppress a scream of pain but failed miserably which awoke Bjorn:
- Father, what happened? – Bjorn asked worried but at the same time relieved that Jack is back to normal – Father? – Seeing that Jack wouldn’t stop screaming Bjorn shouted for help – Roddin help!!! – He shouted as loud as he could which ended more like a roar than a shout but fulfilled its purpose the same way since Roddin appeared just some seconds after the shout and became surprised when he saw the state that Jack was in.
- What happened? – He asked trying to see if he could find what is wrong with Jack but didn’t manage to help.
- I don’t know, I woke up with father’s scream – Bjorn explained and also trying to sense what is happening with Jack but he also couldn’t find anything – What could be the cause for this? – Bjorn asked worried for Jack.
- Maybe this have something to do with that change in personality – Roddin theorized but couldn’t truly find any reason for a change in personality could make this kind of thing happening.
- Caw – Garuda cawed worried emerging from Jack’s shadow.
- So you too don’t know what happened – Bjorn said understanding what Garuda said.
- You can understand him? – Roddin asked surprised.
- Yeah, it is because we are brothers – Bjorn said without thinking if Jack would like to hide this fact or not.
- Wait, what? – Roddin said surprised – Is he like you, a beast that has evolved and given a name, or is he truly his son? – He asked even while feeling that it would be strange if Garuda is truly Jack’s son.
- Garuda was created by my father and given a body through the life energy collected from those with crimes and evils – Bjorn said what Garuda told Bjorn about himself.
- Life energy can be used to create a body?!?!?! – Roddin asked surprised about one of the possibilities of life energy – No, more important, Aragorn can see the crimes and evils of someone? – He said since he never heard of an ability like this only of abilities and spell with similar functions.
- It is the function of one of his fires but can we focus on the fact that my father hasn’t stopped screaming in pain???? – Bjorn said worried since even after this brief conversation Jack hasn’t stopped screaming, it lessened but the scream was still filled with pain.
While Bjorn and Roddin talked, Jack felt something inside him expanding beyond safety’s limit and it isn’t expanding with support like when he uses life energy, it is being expanded forcefully as if his body is growing in real time and fast or as if his bones are growing too fast and making his skin and organs extend forcefully, and the worst of all: he can’t even identify WHAT is expanding, when he uses life energy he can feel what is expanding even if he doesn’t know in which part of his body is, or even if it is a part of his body or some kind of meta physical thing. Jack tried to do things like use cards, use his connection Bjorn and Garuda to make them see what is happening with him and even tried to say something but nothing that he tried worked, all his action were cut in the middle by the pain that made him not maintain control over his brain long enough for him to do any action but one thing made him resist the pain, a painkiller more ancient than sapient races: wrath, one of the most pure feeling that exist, it can even give a kid enough strength to overcome an adult if well used and overcome by it. His wrath isn’t about the pain it is about something unknow happening to him in while he stands in a sea of unknowns that his life is becoming and this filled him with a primal wrath instead of the fear of the unknow – What is happening to me??? – He shouted in his mind with all his wrath fueled willpower which carried his desire for knowledge and wrath from the unknow that doesn’t want to be revealed. This was so powerful that even resonated with his authority:
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Your will is resonating with your authority
Connecting with Babel’s Library
The knowledge that you seek is being delivered upon you
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And with a flash of light a thin book appeared in front of Jack while the pain subsided, the book opened and in its only page it said: “You are experiencing a change in your affinities to make them stronger and improve your affinity with your authority”.
Then the book closed and Jack saw the symbol in its cover: a universe with countless things and has a black hole in its center, but then Jack noticed that this is in truth and eye, the eye of something big and that looks directly to the person holding the book.
After Jack fully comprehended the book’s cover it vanished in a flash of light and only then Jack saw the face that Roddin is making: one of pure confusion and astonishment – That, that, that was a book of Babel’s Library… How it is possible? – He mumbled lost as if he saw something more unbelievable than a decapitated man walking normally in Earth.
- Father you are okay!!! – Bjorn said hugging Jack not caring about the book that appeared out of nowhere and vanished like it was never there – I am so glad that you are okay – He said making his happiness transparent to everyone to see but Jack saw that beyond that happiness there is the fear of losing someone he loves again but he left it quiet for now since he doesn’t want to overburden Bjorn with feelings for now.
- Wait, please explain how did you managed too summon that book – Roddin asked with the look of a fanatic in his eyes - Please, you don’t know how important that is for me – He said begging for answers like a man that almost reached his body limit of how much it can stay without water without dying begs for water.
- Why are you reacting like this? – Jack asked feeling that this is strange.
- You really don’t know how valuable a book with even a single page from Babel’s Library is, do you? – Roddin asked incredulous but looking at Jack’s face he understood that Jack truly doesn’t know the value of the book that he summoned – Each book of Babel’s Library contains specific knowledge that can help anyone who has the same or a similar problem, plus it is said that the contents of the book can change depending on who holds it so even if it is just a single page or even a single line it can help in my researches and even in our quest to take the throne back – He explained as calmly as he could while controlling his emotions in a way that he doesn’t end in that miserable state again.
- …..They are so valuable? – Jack asked after some seconds of silence.
- Sigh, yes, they are – Roddin said depressed that someone just summoned a book from Babel’s Library without knowing its true value.
- I could try to summon another book that you want – Jack said naively still not understanding the value of these books.
- He, do you think that it is so easy to summon a book from Babel’s Library – Roddin said in a mocking tone of someone who is finding an entire situation funny.
- Why the books from that library are so valuable? – Jack asked thinking that even if it has a lot of knowledge if it is a library that few have access it can’t be a good library.
- You don’t understand – Roddin said extremely serious – In history there were heroes, sages, kings, emperors, archimages, there were all kind of powerful and influential beings but those who have even glimpsed a part of a book from that library always became the strongest and most influential in their specific fields and every single one of them said that if they could they would even given up their changes to improve just so they could see more of those books – He explained earnestly – Those books contains secrets and knowledge that even those at the top of the top covet, plus it is said that in the library there are even cards that can give powers beyond comprehension or legacies that only the true heirs of them can even hope to find them – He said vehemently excited from imagining Babel’s Library.
Hearing Roddin’s explanation made Jack become even more stupefied about his authority and its powers, if he can have enough knowledge to protect his loved one and to seek more knowledge for him it would be fine but he also know that if what Roddin said is true then this type of knowledge could contain some kind of curse or be so sought after that people could attack him just to use the chance to gain more knowledge from Babel’s Library but he still needed to understand his authority and the best way is to help Roddin so he said – Tell me one topic that could help us in our quests and I will try to summon a book about that topic.
- Sigh, okay – Roddin said hopeless – What is the military power of the usurper? – He said thinking about his true quest.
Jack used all his focus and his desire to help them tried to simulate the same situation where he first summoned a book and surprising everyone, he did it. In a flash of light another thin book appeared and opened itself revealing its information “The usurper of these lands has signed a contract with the Demon Lord of Conflict, in exchange for doing anything they want inside the forest without being hunted down by the kings forces they will provide him with powers and troops so he has an almost unlimited military power. It is advised to gather a considerable number of elites who have advantages against demons and do an infiltration mission” Jack read the content aloud and then the book disappeared in another flash of light.
Roddin had a mixture of feeling, he is stunned by Jack managing to summon a book from the mythic Babel’s Library but he also is fueled by wrath from discovering that the usurper, the king’s brother, had in fact signed a contract with a demon lord and this wrath also came from Leela who saw and heard the entire situation from inside Roddin.
- That vermin, he gave up our pride and sided with our worse enemy – Leela said after shifting with Roddin.
- Well, he knew that he was weak and did something to change that – Jack said calmly and bluntly.
- …….. – Leela became silent for not knowing what to say – Sigh, you are right – She said after remembering what “Jack” said to her that since she is weak she can’t hold onto her pride – But still… Sigh, it is just that to think he would even go to those things.
- Why this is so strange? – Jack asked like there is nothing wrong – If they are your worst enemy they are also those with techniques best suited to deal with elves and theirs characteristics – He said stating his way of thinking.
- The way you talk almost seems like you aren’t an elf too – Leela said noticing the inconstancies in the way Jack talk.
- Ah… - Jack said noticing his mistake – It is just that I am not from these lands – Jack said trying not to lie – In the place that I am from the biggest problem isn’t demons but ourselves – He said talking about humans and how they are the biggest problem on Earth.
- Wow, I am curious about where you are from – Leela said trying to imagine a place where the problem isn’t the insidious demons but the elves since she still thinks that Jack is an elf.
- No, you aren’t curious – Jack said sternly – When the problem is your own specie you start losing hope in it – He said with dread in his voice showing to Leela how serious is the situation where Jack is from.
- Could you see the situation with my family members? – Leela asked trying to change the subject.
- Ok – Jack said and then focused thinking about Leela’s father with all his might and again in a flash of light a book appeared and opened itself and Jack read the content aloud “The king of these lands, the father of the girl in front of you, sacrificed himself to protect his wife and his oldest and youngest daughters” – So you are the middle princess – Jack said after reading the content and the book disappeared.
- Wait, it didn’t tell anything about my younger brother – She said revealing that her family is a little bigger than the book told.
Then he did the same thing but focusing on Leela’s little brother and this time the content of the book was more dark “The prince is being held captive by demons, he is lucky since the only thing that is happening with him is being tortured and not passing by the same things that the females of the royal family would pass” Jack read and immediately understood what this meant which made him have a grim look in his face but Leela didn’t understand why so she did something that made her regret:
- Why it is said that he is lucky for being tortured? – She asked angry and at the same time confused.
- How can you be so naïve? – Jack asked hen he realized that Leela is serious – When most females are captured by an enemy country unless the enemy country is more civilized the females will be used as toys and it would be even worse if it is from the royal family and even if the country is civilized the soldiers could do this even going against the law – Jack said with a sober tone but before Leela could even assimilate the information he said something that made even Bjorn feel a cold shiver through his spine – Even males aren’t safe from things like this, since in most dynasties the males are the one to inherit the throne if they are captured they could suffer from things like be castrated to end being brainwashed in lot’s of ways, from using drugs to pass by the same treatment that the females of would pass, so even if they are freed the royal line would suffer – He said while Bjorn trembled from imagining the situation that Jack said while Leela felt a sense of dread that occupies most of her mind.
- Can, can you see what they plan to do with my brother? – Leela asked stuttering thinking that if something like this happen to a member of the royal family would be terrible and this is without taking into account that it is her little brother, if this is put in the table too it would make her cry.
Without needing to ask twice Jack did this and the contents of the book made him surprised “The demons plan to corrupt the prince by injecting him with their dark energy and corruption too”, Jack became shocked when he read that and Bjorn emanated a murderous aura but it was worse for Leela and immediately Jack tried to summon another book containing the location of the prince but he felt a headache that made him grab his head and almost shout in pain.
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Accessing Babel’s Library consumes ten times more energy than using a control card for ten times
It is advised for the Titan to rest
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
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Even after hearing this Jack insisted on forcing his way into the library while his headache only got worse, in the end he succeeded and the book appeared but his nose started to bleed from the strain that his body went under and then he read the contents of the book “The location of the prince is 2 kilometers to the south of the place that you first entered this village, at the moment he is being transported to another hideout of the demons” after reading this Jack tried to summon “Shadow Leap” but failed because his head started to ache even more.
After seeing the effort that Jack put to conjure “Shadow Leap” Bjorn transformed in his bear form took Jack and Leela and put them in his back and said – Father, just tell me where to go – And then Jack started to guide Bjorn to the right place while scarring the elves because of a giant bear running across their village.
When they arrived at the place Leela shifted to Roddin after checking to see if there was someone seeing them that then said where the south is and then Bjorn ran in that direction. While this happens Jack focus all his attention in trying to improve the process of regenerating the energy that he uses to use cards, he tried to locate where his energy pool is and see how it regenerates but he couldn’t find where it is located so he tried to use part of the regenerated energy to stimulate his body to see if it would help regenerating his energy. It really did something, just not what he was expecting:
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The Titan is imbuing his body with energy
Its body is absorbing the energy
Its physical stats are improving at a fast pace because of the improved potential
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This truly surprised Jack but made him continue doing this so he could become stronger but at a moderate pace so he could still regenerate it. He felt his body tingling, his bones, skin and organs becoming tougher slowly making everything itch but he needed to hold it, or at least that is what he thought, so he could get the best benefits of this situation.
After some time running they arrived at a place in the forest where a procession of demons passing through some more secluded places of the forest and using magic to conceal themselves, or at least try. These demons are taking some elven prisoners that are wounded but one of them is so badly wounded that he is being dragged by something resembling a hellhound, or at least what is normally pictured as a hellhound, and it immediately striked Leela that had shifted with Roddin.
- That is my brother Rasdel – Leela said already crying and then turned to Jack and asked – Please, save my brother – She begged to Jack while kneeling which moved him so he did something that he already did before and this time he cast his “Create Card” card so this action could become easier and the card generated was:
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Fire Punishment
Bring forth a fire punishment burning all evil and from it generating life energy
Action Card
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But, at the same time he did another action:
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Fire Healing
Bring forth a fire healing burning all wounds
Action Card
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And something unexpected happened while these two cards ravaged the massacre field:
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The cards are resonating
The cards created a spell card
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Fire Judgment
Bring forth a fire judgment to bring punishment and reward to all
Spell Card (Newbie Stage)
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When Jack thought that everything was over he became even more surprised:
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The Silent Reaper of Justice is asking to interact with the Fire Judgment
Do you allow it?
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- Yes, I allow it – Jack said forgetting that “The Silent Reaper of Justice” is also made from a black card and not some weak card, but one that represent massacre:
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The cards are resonating
The cards created a spell card
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The Silent Reaper’s Judgment
The Silent Reaper will bring forth a judgment to punishment and reward to all
Spell Card (Newbie Stage)
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Jack initially though that it was almost the same thing as “Fire Judgment” so he decided to cast this card instead of the others but what happened surprised him greatly: in front of each person of the procession appeared the image of a reaper and with them also appeared the balance of justice and they started to say the good and evil things they did and measured their karma and only then applied the punishment or gave a reward to them but here is the problem: the judgement also applied to the elves so most of them came out safely but some of them suffered a punishment which made Leela surprised but when she looked at what the reapers said she understood what happened but still ended asking one thing to Jack:
- Why some of the elves being punished and some of the demons being rewarded? – She asked confused even while hearing the explanations that the reaper gave.
- The balance of justice is impartial – Jack said half-heartedly but then confessed – Ok, I don’t know why I just used some powers that I have that then started to resonate with one another and created other powers that resonated with others and then, this happened – Jack said explaining how this happened.
- What?!?!?! – She said surprised – You just used some power that you didn’t even understand in our people and my brother?!?!?! – She shouted thinking that since the demons are suffering punishments no one would bother them especially since there is a giant bear with them, because Bjorn didn’t turn back to human form, but she was greatly mistaken and noticed this when a cloaked demon came out from a tree and tried to attack Leela with a blade emanating a dark and amorphous energy that even extended out of the blade. The blade was millimeters away from Leela’s neck when Jack blocked the blade by hitting its handle with “Flamma Imperial” while fueling it with enough energy to create a fiery aura that made the demon drop the blade while backing away but then took two throwing knifes imbued with corruption at Jack but in a moment that he desired a shield to protect Leela “The King of Weapons” appeared and transformed in a light shield but with the difference that it is HUGE, so huge that covered all of them: him, Leela and Bjorn.
Seeing that his weapons were blocked the demons tried to fade into the background but ended failing when Jack transformed “The King of Weapons” imbued with the “Righteous Fire” into a whip and grabbed the demon but something surprised Jack and the demon: the fire didn’t burn the demon. The one who recovered quickest was the demon that in these brief seconds managed to came out of the whip’s grip and went back into a tree.
- Why that fire didn’t burn it? – Leela asked because she could feel that this fire has some kind of will and that will is staring at her and judging her.
- This fire only burn those that committed crimes or did things that are considered evil – Jack explained – This is why it is strange, that demon hasn’t done anything that could make this fire burn it – He said with a pensative expression.
- Wait, what?!?! – Leela exclaimed surprised but quickly covered her mouth and looked at the trees worried that the demon would appear again but became a little relieved when no one came.
- Maybe that wasn’t a demon – Bjorn suggested – It didn’t have the same aura that those demons have – Bjorn said once showing that beasts have even more advanced senses than Jack, Leela and even Roddin didn’t expect.
- Can you explain the difference? – Jack asked trying to gather information.
- Its aura is like that of Leela, Roddin and those elves in the village – Bjorn explained implying something ominous.
- Does this mean that it is an elf from this area? - Jack asked surprised.
- Yes – Bjorn said without thinking about how Leela would think about one of her own wielding a weapon imbued with corruption.
- No… It can’t be… Why?... – Leela muttered lost in her thoughts while Jack examined the blade that the elf used, he tried to sense something but it was like looking at a damp stone and want to know why it is a and why it is damp and this made him a little angry but then he remembered a card that he almost never used: “Eye of The Sage”, he decided to use it on the blade but regrated because his eyes started to bleed from the strain and he finally discovered that “Eye of The Sage” can put as much strain on his body as connecting with Babel’s Library but all focused on his eyes but the good thing is that he discovered more about the weapon:
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Corruption Blade
Attack: 200~??? Durability: 123~200
Attack Speed: 100~???
This blade absorb corruption to improve itself
It gets more fragile as it absorbs more corruption
This blade slowly affects the user
This blade can spread corruption to any who is hit by it
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- This blade, huf, it can affect its user – Jack said while hufing from the pain but then quickly regrated using “Eye of The Sage” when another of these elves that seems like demons appeared from a tree and went straight to Bjorn with another of these blades, Jack tried to summon all his remaining energy to block that attack but all he did was to make his eyes bleed even more but he still tried.
In an adrenaline-fueled slowed time while he saw the blade slowly approaching Bjorn who was caught off guard and in this moment Jack felt the desire to go beyond his limits, the desire to even go beyond his physical form and deep inside Jack he felt something clicking, like cogwheels that where stuck suddenly started to spin again but before he could do anything Bjorn struck the elf in the head faster than the elf could even follow, which then left the blade fall in the ground and became unconscious while Jack just made the face of someone who was left alone in a party but managed to ask worried – Bjorn, are you okay?
- Yes father, you don’t need to worry about me – Bjorn said happy that Jack is worried about him – But we need to decide on what to do with all that life energy – Bjorn said pointing to the enormous cloud of life energy that formed itself above the survivors of the judgment – I think it would be best to improve your resistance to energy depletion so something like this don’t happen often – He said referring to Jack’s bleeding eyes – It would be best to improve energy and body regeneration so even if something happens that need you to use so much energy again you can recover quickly father – He said thinking about powerful Jack would be if he has a good regeneration.
- This would be a good thing to have – Jack agreed and decided to divide all this energy in s 1:1:1 ratio of resistance to energy depletion, energy regeneration and regeneration but this time he was lucky because it didn’t itch so much since this time it was only improving his regeneration and resistance to energy depletion and not something more meaningful so he quickly recovered after dealing with something the size of a giant cloud and with the “mass” comparable to its size entering his body and then he experienced something incredible his body recovered at an astonishing rate which even surprised Bjorn.
- I guess now things will be more smoothly – Bjorn said happy that his father has become stronger and have a better chance to live – But we still need to know what to do with this elf here – He said pointing to the unconscious elf.
- I think it would be best to have this decision fall into Leela and Roddin’s hand – Jack said but then noticed that Leela is the one still in control and is still perturbed about this sudden information that there are elves attacking other elves while using corruption – I will try something that may or may not help – Jack said while approaching Leela and mentally holding “Darkness Control” in his hands and imagining a darkness that infiltrates the enemies minds like there is no resistance, he tried to think of things with powers that affected directly the mind and can’t be blocked like the madness of H. P. Lovecraft that only from seeing his creatures but his darkness won’t necessarily invade the mind to cause harm and he knew that it went right when the system rewarded him:
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The Titan has unlocked a new element the Mind Invasive Darkness
Mind Invasive Darkness: The darkness that only target the mind so all minds are prey to this darkness
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And with this he used this darkness too invade Leela’s mind and calm her but, when he entered her mind he became shocked about what he saw: her mind is a complete mess full of worries, fears, obsessions and even dark desires and all of them appeared as tangled strings, dark abscesses, strange forms and flashes of images.
He didn’t really know how to proceed so he tried to untangle the strings to ease her worries, it was difficult since he was worried that if he did something wrong it could maybe damage Leela’s mind so he proceeded more like he is doing a surgery than untangling strings, then he tried to clean the abscesses but he didn’t knew where to put the pus so he used his darkness as a channel to the outside of Leela’s mind and put outside her body the pus but then came the obsessions and dark desires, since they are part of Leela and not a part that normally can be a problem to her he left it there before analyzing some of them.
Leela has obsessions with some strange things, or at least strange to a more civilized people, like strength, blood purity and even enhance her bloodline but contrary to this obsessions her dark desires are more in line with trying different things, diversity and see how other people lives which made him conclude that she probably was forced in this obsessions by some sort of distorted sense of duty to her family and after thinking this Jack remembered that in some stories the elven royal families are incestuous and in the dark age, or middle Ages, nobles thought that blood purity is when the blood of a family isn’t mixed with other families, there was also the not distribute power to other families reason but this isn’t what Jack is analyzing now, so Jack immediately went deeper into her mind, deep into her memories and there he started to search for any clue of her obsessions being part of some old concept that since from uncountable time has generated children with diseases.
He searched so deep that he even found things that Leela herself had forgot but he didn’t find anything that suggested her family forcing her into this obsession, when he was almost giving up he found did find something, he saw that Leela when a young girl that was curious and wanted to discover more things had saw her family tree with description and in the older generations where in breeding was a rule they really became more powerful but also their health was worse, they lived less than other elves so in that moment her obsession started to gain ground inside her mind while her desires where being suppressed and becoming dark desires, desires that someone has but because of society’s pressure, family pressure and even the pressure from someone on consciousness or like this case obsessions. After seeing all this Jack started to see more of the reasons that made Leela have the obsession of blood purity but with each time he became more and more relieved since in none moment Leela had been forced on doing something against her will neither did she did something but ease his mind he decided to do something about her desires so he went back to the “surface” of Leela’s mind and looked at the flashes that represent her dark desires and he did something in a moment without thinking too much: he filled these flashes with energy which made them evolve from just flashes to visions of Leela interacting with normal elves, she having a normal life and not needing to worry about what others would think of how she lives or worry about a pride that only made her life difficult, things like this and only after Jack confirmed that nothing would change that he saw that made him decide to go out of her mind.
When Jack finally exited her mind she almost fell in the ground by having a burden removed from her mind and having someone see her story in such an intime way but didn’t fell because Jack grabbed her which made she blush and say – You must take responsibility about the mess you did inside my mind.
At the moment Jack didn’t know but what he did would bring some small and some great problems.