Hecathe\'s eyes narrowed down on the screen that directly opened the messaging tab that had been last opened when he had gotten into that car accident.

Hecathe read the last message that had been sent to him and he tried to type in something as he wondered.

Would Alphius reply?

In the end, he did not know what to write, and hence, he simply stared at the screen blankly till he heard a notification.

A new message had arrived.

[Thank You, Hecathe]

Alphius... Was alive...

Hecathe didn\'t know if he wanted to laugh or cry but he did indeed sigh in relief as his lips unconsciously curled up with an honest smile.

In the end, it was fortunate that the two of them were alive and it was also assuring for Hecathe to know that everything that had happened had not been just a mere dream.

"Why are you smiling to yourself?" Azazel asked with a frown as he looked at Hecathe with suspicion.

"I\'m just glad to be alive," Hecathe breathed out as he put the phone aside and leisurely stretched his arms that felt a little sore.

Azazel looked to be confused but by the time he saw the last message that Hecathe received, the phone had once again died, leaving a black screen.

"I\'m shocked to see someone thanking you," Azazel spoke with a sigh, "That surely doesn\'t happen a lot."

"It doesn\'t, does it?" Hecathe chuckled as he responded, "It\'s so rare that it makes me feel happy."

Azazel couldn\'t help but roll his eyes as he saw Hecathe\'s face glistening with the soft rays of the bright sun. The expression on his face was a bit too calm. Even his demeanor had completely changed and he was unusually happy. It really made Azazel question whether this was really the Hecathe that he knew.

"Are you in love or something?" Azazel clicked his tongue as he came up with the most logical and yet, unnatural explanation for the situation.

If it had been someone else, Azazel would be more confident to say that these were the side effects of love but because this was Hecathe that he was talking to, he already knew how impossible that situation would be.

Hecathe falling in love...?

Azazel would rather believe that the sky was fake and would fall down on them tomorrow.

Hecathe chuckled as he replied, "Maybe I am."

If Azazel were drinking water, upon hearing this, he would have spat it all out like a water hose, but sadly enough, he wasn\'t drinking water.

"What?!" Azazel questioned out loud in shock and disbelief, "You have got to be kidding me!"

Hecathe chuckled even louder as he heard this reaction that was to be expected, "I fell in love with this place."

"You fell in love with... A hospital?"

Hecathe shook his head, "I fell in love with this world. It has no monsters, no dragons, no mages, no three willows of spring, and no mecha-suits. It\'s so peaceful that I can\'t help but fall in love with it."

"..." Azazel seriously considered if he should be calling a psychiatrist for this or not, "Are you being sarcastic right now?"

Hecathe once again shook his head, "Not at all."

Azazel pursed his lips into a thin line, "I feel like the more I talk to you, the more my IQ decreases."

Hecathe chuckled once again and Azazel immediately took out his own phone and called the psychiatrist.

Hecathe closed his eyes and tried to get some peaceful rest as he thought about the things that had happened.

If Alphius thanked him, it must mean that they won the war. Hecathe\'s plan B must have succeeded just like he had hoped it would.

However, it was a pity that Hecathe was not there to see the end unfolding.

While he was thinking this, he suddenly remembered the face of LeiLei.

Since the beginning itself, he shouldn\'t have trusted her completely and even after knowing this, he still did trust her. If she had not been under Lara\'s control, perhaps she would have fully joined hands with Hecathe. In fact, even in the end, LeiLei still listened to Hecathe\'s request and although it was not necessarily an order that needed to be completed, he was sure that she would grant him that request because she wasn\'t a puppet.

She was certainly created to be a puppet, but maybe even the creator of this puppet did not see just how human she was.

In the end, did she die...?

Hecathe didn\'t know why but he was rather curious to find the answer to that question.

Lara would not be forgiven. Her fate was sealed by Hecathe himself, however, LeiLei was different. Her end was at the mercy of Marvin.

Whether he chose to be merciful or not wasn\'t really something that could be easily guessed.

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"I... Don\'t understand..." Lara muttered as she got even more confused after hearing Zather\'s words.

Her steps faltered a bit as she backed up and spoke through a shaky voice, "How come...?"

"Are you wondering why you can\'t read our minds? Or are you thinking about how you are unable to control us?" Zather asked with a smile as she slightly tilted her head, "It\'s actually quite easy to understand."

Zather lifted her hand and showed off the ring that she was wearing. In fact, it seemed that she wasn\'t the only one wearing such a ring. Even Lara\'s mother had a ring around her finger.

"Alphius was quite smart," Zather spoke with a soft chuckle, "He probably knew that he won\'t last too long in this war so he made sure that he had a backup plan."

A young man named Zail sighed as he stepped forward and spoke, "You shouldn\'t have met him as Xanie\'s brother."

At first, Lara looked to be clueless as she heard this but after hearing a bit more, she eventually understood what had gone wrong.

That damned Hecathe...

He had taken a precaution that Lara had not calculated.

After meeting with Psion, Hecathe had gotten a bit suspicious of all the three willows of spring, and hence, he had done a little research on them.

He found out the ability held by each of them and after finding that out, it was clear to him that Lara had something to do with Psion. At first, Hecathe wondered why the girl would use Psion just to warn and incite Hecathe against the three willows of spring, especially when she was also included in those three willows of spring.

However, it took almost half a day for him to realize that Lara was probably not as innocent as she presumed to be. Of course, even then, Hecathe did not suspect Lara to be the one behind everything, but he did find that it would be best to take a precaution just in case.

After that, Hecathe secretly went to visit Zail and asked him to make an artifact that could prevent mind manipulation while at the same time, something that everyone could wear with ease.

Zail was not born with an impressive ability, however, he was not a mecha-suit either. He was someone who was skilled at using mutant beads.

Mutant beads in this world could be used for a variety of things. Even mecha-suits were run using the power of mutant beads.

There were also some people in this world that could use mutant beads to create artificial abilities. They would extract the energy contained inside a mutant bead and successfully transfer it into another vessel and in the process, they could even mend the energy to act a certain way, giving it some properties that it did not originally contain.

The people who did this work did not possess a specific title and were almost impossible to find since it was a skill that needed both a natural talent and years of dedication.

It just so happened, that one day, when Hecathe was visiting the illegal auction house, he found Zail trying to sell a magical amulet that was made using this process of mutant bead power extraction. In fact, after seeing how Hecathe was selling pure mutant beads, it was Zail who approached him first, however, instead of a deal, his identity was immediately exposed in front of Hecathe who swore not to carelessly speak of it to anyone else.

Zail was the one who came up with the idea of making it into a ring and Hecathe was the one who provided the money and the pure mutant beads.

Since they didn\'t have a lot of time, Hecathe couldn\'t personally come and collect all the rings and hence he tasked Zail with that as well.

While Hecathe traveled to Zeblor, Zail went to all the guilds in Ocasia and gifted them all with a ring. To the people who knew Hecathe personally, Zail also passed on a letter along with the ring.

The letter gave them a choice.. Whether they chose to wear the ring or not was according to their own preference but if they did indeed decide to wear it, they would indirectly be abandoning the three willows of spring and joining sides with Hecathe.