Damien hesitated for a moment, but seeing the man's pleading eyes, he stopped holding himself back.
Those words.
"Read my story."
They weren't words that alluded to a story that could be told.
Damien was told to read the story not listen to it. The problem was that his ability to do so wasn't something others were supposed to have.
This man was assuming that Damien could read his story.
Or, at least, that was Damien's assumption. When he put his hand back on the man's head and felt with his mana, though, that assumption became fact.
'There's no barrier.'
The man's mind was now open like it wasn't before.
'Maybe it's because I healed him?'
It may have been an instinctual reaction towards his savior, but it also could've been something deeper.
No person, no matter how mentally crippled they were, would willingly open their mind to others without a basis of trust.
That action held great meaning that every living being instinctively knew.
To allow another person into one's soul was an absolute show of trust. To do so without trust was an absolute show of submission.
The natural response of a human being was to protect his or her independence. As long as ego existed, it was impossible to invade another person's soul without injuring them.
Even for Damien, who targeted existence rather than soul, this logic held true.
'He's looking for Dante. Can my father also…?'
Damien shook his head.
'He asked me to read his story. Whatever it is, I'll learn it when I do so.'
He allowed his mana to flow as it wished.
He entered the man's mind, entered his soul, and read the truth of his existence.
Alex West.
He had a more important part in Dante's life than Damien thought.
In the beginning, there were six.
Dante, Hugo, Alex, Serena, Persia, and Claire.
They were a group that traveled and did everything together.
They were the ones who created their legend together, and they were the ones who created Void Palace together.
Six of them, not five.
Among them, Alex was the one who knew Dante the best.
They grew up in the same city. They didn't actually become friends until their teens, but they'd been acquainted through mutual friends and on good terms since they were kids.
Their relationship wasn't a shallow one.
When they actually found themselves becoming friends outside their mutual groups, they realized they had a lot in common.
As Dante began his adventures, leaving his hometown and traveling the world to become powerful, Alex followed him.
When Hugo was recruited, when Serena and Claire joined, and when Persia was saved, Alex was there.
He was Dante's right-hand man. From the very beginning of his journey, Alex had been his most trusted comrade.
They went through countless struggles together. They grew together, becoming people their old peers could never imagine them as.
They fought together, cried together, and almost died together.
No matter what happened, Alex was always standing by Dante's side.
There was never any resentment between them.
It was surprising. There was hardly ever a time when relationships like theirs could remain pure.
Dante's talent began to show early. The longer they stayed together, the further Dante went as Alex lagged behind.
Still, Alex didn't resent his or Dante's talent. He just tried his hardest to keep up, gaining his own opportunities and chasing his own goals.
But Alex made an easy target.
Unlike Dante, he didn't have overwhelming strength, and unlike the rest, he didn't have any great background.
The enemies the group made through their travels always targeted Alex when they found themselves unable to touch the rest.
Of course, for a while this led to chances that let Alex get stronger, however, the level of their enemies eventually became far too much for him to deal with.
It was a story as old as time, one that had repeated itself an immeasurable number of times over the course of history.
One day, when Alex was out on an expedition, his enemies found him.
And they overpowered him.
He didn't have the luck to find a way out.
Instead, he was captured. He wasn't killed, but instead tortured for several days without pause.
Unfortunately, his enemies were smart. They didn't keep him locked up long enough for his allies to get concerned, and they didn't announce his capture at their hands.
Alex was left hopeless, and in that state, he was infected with a parasite that took control of his body.
His mind was locked away, forced to watch the actions of his body through a screen.
That was the state he returned to Void Palace in.
As if everything was normal, his body continued acting. He watched as days turned into months and months turned into years, but no matter how much time passed, nobody could tell that he was no longer himself.
Until that fateful day.
That day when he stabbed Dante in the back.
At that time, Dante hadn't become invincible yet. He was still in a phase where he couldn't stop everything with power alone.
And, when he was weakened after a huge breakthrough, Alex struck.
With a blade coated in the worst poisons known to man, he drove a blade through Dante's heart.
It was a terrible day for Void Palace.
Not only did Alex betray them and fatally wound Dante, but he also destroyed several of the palace's facilities and killed several of their rising geniuses before escaping.
None of his old friends could stop him.
All of his bridges were burned that day.
And he could do nothing but watch as he was slowly driven to insanity within the confines of his own mind.
His body started working with the Straea Clan from that day forth.
The parasite had all his memories and experience. It acted perfectly as if he'd truly become a traitor.
The Void Palace group had multiple encounters with him over the coming years, but they were never able to see the oddity within him.
He desperately pleaded for them to save him. He wanted someone, anyone to see what was happening to him and tell his friends that he wasn't the man they thought him to be.
But it was impossible for him.
He was forced to work as a slave for the Straea Clan under the control of the parasite for thousands of years.
Or was it millions?
He couldn't tell.
But it went on until another fateful day.
Dante Void disappeared.
And suddenly, Alex West became useless.
The only reason they used Alex was because of his relationship with Dante.
It gave them the ability to maneuver around a lot of obstacles to get to him, especially with the knowledge Alex had accumulated from spending years together with him.
When Dante disappeared, they lost the need to use Alex.
As for what happened to useless tools?
The answer was clear.
Alex was thrown away.
He was meant to be killed, but with the last of his sanity, he managed to overcome the parasite for barely a second, fusing into its consciousness.
He became one with the creature, and, as his mind devolved due to its influence, it started acting on his base desires rather than the orders it was given.
He escaped the Straea Clan because of that fusion, but the only place he could go was into hiding. Nobody would accept him anymore.
That was how he found himself in the cave.
His bottom half was severed when he fled from his captors, and his mind was in pieces.
Millions of years passed once again.
And Alex's state only got worse.
All hope was lost for him.
Until he felt that aura. The one he thought he'd forgotten after so many years.
Void.
