The Author's POV

"Cough…Cough…"

Kevin's coughing fit started right in the middle of him organizing the stack of papers that were sitting in front of him.

While he was protecting his mouth with his hand, he became aware of a wet feeling in his hand. When he looked up at his hand, he noticed that blood was dripping down the spaces between his fingers.

He quickly removed his hand from his mouth.

'It looks like this is a lot more severe than I had originally thought.'

This was the price that Kevin needed to pay in order to seal an entity that stood at the very pinnacle of the world, or, to be more accurate, the universe.

It should come as no surprise that sealing such a person would result in significant drawbacks and injuries; Kevin was suffering as a direct consequence of his actions.

He had long known that something like this would've happened, and he didn't regret his actions.

"Pftt.."

Another mouthful of blood came out of his mouth, and his complexion became noticeably paler. He noticed that his vision was becoming distorted, and his right hand started shaking.

The symptoms only lasted for a couple of minutes before Kevin was able to recover with the assistance of a potion that he had placed by his side.

It was something that he had prepared earlier in anticipation of something like this happening.

"Cough…thank god I didn't have to fight over the past month."

One of the reasons he remained in his office the entire time was due to his injuries. He was in no way qualified to fight anyone at the moment.

At the moment, unless he was pushed to go all out, even a newly promoted <S-> rank could beat him.

"Ukh."

Kevin let out another groan and then covered his forehead with his arm.

After regaining his composure with a few long, slow breaths, he was finally able to refocus his attention on the documents that were spread out on the desk in front of him.

As he reached for his pen to put his signature on the papers, he suddenly became aware that the world around him was beginning to warp severely.

"Ha? What's going on?"

The unexpected turn of events immediately took Kevin by surprise, and he looked around in bewilderment.

The background of his room began to fade as a new background began to reappear behind him.

Before Kevin realized what was happening, he found himself suddenly standing in the middle of a green patch of grass, in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, with large towering mountains in the distance, clear blue skies, and all sorts of large trees in the distance.

"This is not earth."

Kevin realized rather quickly that wherever he was, it was not on earth.

Simply observing the size of the trees and the general absence of human influence was sufficient for him to come to the conclusion that he was not on Earth.

Wherever he was, the environment was simply way too pristine to be Earth.

"You're finally here."

It was at this time that a voice resounded inside of the world, and Kevin's head immediately snapped backward as he spotted a figure with long white hair and crimson red eyes happily sitting on the grass, gazing into the distance with a contented smile on his face.

"Jezebeth…"

Kevin's face went ice cold as soon as he recognized the person who was sitting on the patch of grass.

Before he could say anything, Jezebeth spoke.

"I merely used the connection between our two powers. Although I'm talking to you, this is merely a projection. If you try to hurt me, nothing will happen...the same goes for me."

Jezebeth made a pause and fixed her gaze on Kevin for a brief period of time before turning his attention back to the breathtaking panorama and murmuring.

"…Not that you would even be capable of doing anything to me."

"You don't need to tell me this much."

Jezebeth's provocation didn't faze Kevin one bit as he kept his composure and didn't react in any way.

This came as quite a surprise to Jezebeth, but he quickly grasped the crux of the situation and cracked a small smile.

"It appears that you, too, have regained a portion of your memory. What wonderful news! Another of my old acquaintances has resurfaced. The world isn't as lonely as I thought it was."

Jezebeth gestured for Kevin to join him and sit down next to him while patting the patch of grass that was next to him.

Unfortunately, Jezebeth was promptly rejected by him, and Kevin continued to stand in the same place while staring at Jezebeth with a chilly look in his eyes.

"Why did you bring me here?"

Jezebeth idly cocked his head to the side and gazed over at Kevin.

He examined Kevin's body with his eyes, moving his head up and down as he did so, and it wasn't long before the furrows between his brows became arched in surprise.

"You…"

"You haven't answered my question. What did you bring me here for?"

Kevin cut Jezebeth before he could say anything else.

Taking a moment to sort his thoughts out, Jezebeth replied.

"If it's not too much trouble, I just wanted to know the answers to a few questions. Moreover, I am quite lonely. To alleviate my boredom, I wanted to see if anyone was willing to accompany me."

As he looked down at Jezebeth with his arms crossed, Kevin didn't even make an effort to acknowledge the last part of the sentence he had just said.

"What is it that you want to know?"

"It's simple really…"

Jezebeth slowly stood up from the ground, and he made his way toward where Kevin was standing.

On the other hand, Kevin did not move from his position and watched as Jezebeth approached him.

Because this was an illusion, Kevin did not experience any physical pressure coming from Jezebeth's body; however, the moment that Kevin's gaze met Jezebeth's, he felt a suffocating sensation engulf his entire body, making it difficult for him to stare at Jezebeth directly.

'This body is still too weak.'

Instantaneously, Kevin began to accuse his body of being the cause of such a reaction. If it had been a fully synchronized version of him, then this kind of pressure would not have had any effect on him at all.

However, as he had still not fully synchronized, his body couldn't help but react to Jezebeth's extraordinary presence, apart from his mind.

"Among the questions, I considered asking you, the ones that have stuck with me the most are probably the ones you wouldn't bother answering, as is the case with the last ones. Nevertheless, I will continue to try my luck..."

Jezebeth paused, his eyes perfectly synching with Kevin's.

"If my guess is correct, you avoided killing me on purpose during previous regressions despite having the capability to do so, is that correct?"

"What makes you think that?"

Kevin asked, somewhat surprised by the question.

Who would've thought that he had figured out this much already?

"I'm not stupid, am I?"

Jezebeth replied with a smile.

"I already have an idea, so hear me out."

The grin that was already present on Jezebeth's face grew noticeably larger as he carried on with his speech.

"So...let's say that the reason you always lost to me wasn't because you were unable to beat me, but rather because you had some other goal in mind other than beating me."

"I can only think of a few potential answers off the top of my head, but the one that has been lingering in my mind the most is the one that I consider to be the most ridiculous, while at the same time being the one that I believe to be the answer that is most likely to be the correct one."

The smile on Jezebeth's face started to recede, and his eyes also started to dim.

"The reason you never wanted to beat me was not because you weren't capable of beating me, but rather because you had another target in mind... the records, wasn't it?"

"..."

Kevin felt his throat get stuck with something as Jezebeth exposed all of his thoughts directly.

A tiny chuckle escaped from Jezebeth's lips the moment that he realized that he had hit the nail on the head.

"I see…Although you haven't directly confirmed it yet, I can already tell from a glance that you've pretty much confirmed my assumptions, and now that I understand your goals, I'm also starting to get a better idea of what you've been planning for the past few regressions. Haha, and here I thought I was the crazy one."

Jezebeth took an unexpected step forward and moved to where Kevin was standing before lightly poking him in the chest with his finger.

His finger obviously passed through his body, but Jezebeth seemed to pay no mind to this as his eyes were fixed on Kevin.

"…and here I thought I was a ruthless guy. Compared to you, I'm a lot tamer, aren't I?"