Adrian was speechless for a long time. His lips parted but no words came out.

The man across from him didn't move either. He simply sat there, his calm gaze fixed on Adrian, studying every flicker of emotion on his face.

Adrian's mind was a storm of questions. Questions about his death. About the mysterious Pact. About what he had become if his human side had truly died. But he pushed them all aside. None of that mattered right now.

His voice trembled as he finally spoke. "How can I stop myself from hurting them? Please… I beg you… tell me… please."

His knees hit the floor.

Nothing hurt more than knowing he was causing pain to the very people he loved—those he had sworn to protect with his life. Every pained groan he heard from them felt like a blade twisting in his heart. It crushed him, each sound pulling him closer to despair.

He couldn't take it anymore. Whatever it cost, whatever he had to endure, he would do it.

"Make this stop."

The man studied him in silence, his expression unreadable. Adrian's desperation, his sorrow, his guilt—all of it was carved into the tears brimming in his eyes.

Finally, the man sighed. "It will hurt," he said quietly.

Adrian nodded without hesitation, ready to face anything.

The man didn't say another word. He simply reached out, pressing his palm to Adrian's forehead.

Adrian gasped. A sharp, cold sensation pierced straight into his mind. His mental barrier crumbled instantly—the man walked through it as if it wasn't even there, as though he were taking a casual stroll through an open door.

"Agh…" Adrian winced, his body tensing as he felt his consciousness being pulled deeper—falling smoothly into the abyss and then crossing it.

His eyes widened as he realized where they were headed. The man was already moving toward his Gate.

And then, without warning—

"GAAAAHHHHH!"

Adrian's Gate shattered.

The pain exploded through him like a thousand jagged shards tearing apart his insides. It was as if molten iron was being poured into his veins while his bones cracked one by one, each fracture echoing in his skull. His chest burned, his muscles convulsed violently, and his vision turned white as if the world itself had been bleached out by agony.

He clawed at the floor, nails scraping the wooden planks, but there was no escape. His mind felt like it was being split open, layer by layer, while an invisible force twisted every nerve until they screamed.

It wasn't just pain—it was annihilation, a feeling like being ripped out of existence and forced back into it again. His body writhed on the ground, trembling and convulsing as his own scream filled the small hut, raw and ragged, tearing from his throat until it broke.

It was nothing like anything he had experienced before. Nothing like wounds or burns or broken bones. This was pain that existed beyond the body, reaching into his very soul and grinding it down.

It took a few moments, but Adrian finally stopped—his body falling lifelessly to the ground.

He soon realized the pain wasn't physical at all. His body felt nothing. It was his mind that screamed—the tearing agony of a broken connection between his conscious and subconscious self.

The man exhaled softly and said, "This will keep you in control for now. Your body will focus on repairing the Gate instead of tormenting your girls."

Adrian slowly pushed himself up, his gaze meeting the man's calm eyes.

It was perhaps the first time someone had inflicted such unbearable pain upon him, yet all he felt was gratitude.

He lowered his head. "Thank you…"

The man gave a quiet hum. "Sit down first. I imagine you have many questions."

Adrian obeyed, wincing as he moved. The pain in his mind was gone, replaced only by the dull sting of his shredded nails and trembling hands. Ignoring them, he sat across from the man.

The first words out of his mouth were, "Who are you?"

The man's brows lifted. "Haven't you discerned it yet? I am you."

Adrian let out a dry breath. "So, I'm sitting before the greatest Runesmith in history?"

A faint smile crossed Avirin's face. He shook his head. "At this point, I didn't even have any knowledge of runes. We never needed them."

Now that he no longer could hear Ariana and Ruby's cries, he decided to know more about himself and the past; utilising the time so he could have better control over the situation in the future.

That's why he asked. "I was wondering… what is wrong with this world? Magic is so freely used here… and the children?"

He recalled what he had seen while searching for Avirin—how magic thrived everywhere. People wielded it without hesitation, even for trivial things like transportation and menial labor. It was as if magic had become an instinct, an extension of the body itself.

"During this era," Avirin began, "independent magic was permitted to anyone who devoted themselves to the Great Ones."

He sighed. "As for the children… they're raised that way. They're taught what to see, what to speak, what to hear. People of this time must be careful about what they perceive. Since children lack such filters, their parents keep them under strict watch."

Adrian's brow furrowed deeper. "That sounds ridiculous."

Avirin gave a resigned shrug. "That's the law. You're either a devotee—or dead."

It took Adrian a few moments to digest everything.

The world after Darkness had been terrifying. Even when he had read the diary entries of the man—accounts of the time when Darkness first spread across human lands—he had felt the sheer horror people must have endured. Entire towns, entire lives, swallowed by fear and chaos.

But even before Darkness appeared, life here hadn't been any better.

The people lived like slaves to the Almighty Ones. Their every action, every thought, was monitored and bound by devotion. To maintain loyalty wasn't optional—it was survival. And those who dared defy? They were executed without mercy, like the man at the northern gate.

Adrian's thoughts turned to Annabelle. 'So what the Fallen God told her… was true.' She had shared those warnings with him before, recounting the visions and truths the Fallen One had revealed.

He also showed fragments of the past to Bella—a time when the most important duty of every human was to worship, pray, and remain utterly devoted to their Gods. Life was measured by faith, obedience, and subservience, with no room for personal freedom.

It was a past that felt as suffocating as it was reverent, a world where devotion had replaced choice, and fear had become the law.

Adrian looked at Avirin and asked, "So what place is this? Why aren't the people here forced to worship the Gods?"

Avirin responded with his gaze hardened, "Because this village, and a few more villages like this, is excluded from the rest of the world. A few people dared to defy universal law and now are outcast."

Adrian's eyes widened, "Wait…are we currently inside Witches' jurisdiction?"

Avirin wryly smiled, "The woman you met at the entrance…she is the mother of all witches….and also, the one who gave birth to me."

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A/N:- Thanks for reading.

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