"William," the voice appeared again.

"Why am I always hearing this voice," William said to himself.

"You can here me," the voice sounded surprised, "I've been trying to connect and convey my words to you for long. It seems leylines are getting weak, to not mentain the barriers."

"Why do I always hear you?"

"'cause I wish to talk," said the voice. "I wish to ask you. . . To stop me."

~~

The area, being in the cursed belt area, witnessed either constant fog or constant rain. There was no time when people here witnessed sunshine for more than a couple of hours.

Not surprisingly.

Very few people lived in this 'cursed belt' area. Mostly those who could skilfully manipulate the natural flow of energies around their bodies. The rain here, just like the fog, was not meant to touch the human skins. Unless one wishes to have a skin disease and die due to the toxicity in the air.

William, the old man and Mary walked through the roughly made road in the area, away from the old man's mansion. William and the old man walked together while Mary preferred walking some distance behind them. The rain continued to accompany them through the area like a constant shower of warm drops.

"What was the vision you had?" The old man asked. "The dream, which is still disturbing you."

William was quiet for a while, maybe hesitating, before glancing at him, "In my dream, I saw my, or should I say mother's, old mansion in Zora," he said. "The place still had those gravitational abnormalities and that bluish tinge, which was not much of a concern. But, later I saw images and visions. . . which felt. . . real."

Vision in a dream. The person thought.

"I saw a child, just like me," William continued. "He looked like me, yet I could know I was not him. There was something different about him. I saw him with Mary. I heard many voices as if someone was talking to me. Then, I saw him with a person, a man in the mountains. Images faded and I saw that person, now grown, with Steve Tradis, from Eva.

"He said many things. About me, about the ranks, about the world and humanity. He said, I should find him."

"Hmm..." The man nodded. "Visions have more relation to the human thought process and the strength of mind. What you think, or try to manifest may act like a catalyst for it. The state of your mind is chaotic. So, I won't be surprised."

William, for some reason, was not satisfied with his words, but he preferred to stay calm and follow him.

"William," the man said again. "Do you remember things before Zora and Lydia?"

William paused again, "Yes, I do-"

"Be honest."

"Okay, I don't completely remember things," William said. "I do remember people when I meet those people again."

The man hummed again was quiet for a while and started explaining, while taking William to the place he was heading to. "Around twenty years ago, a fire broke out in a small settlement on the northern outskirts of Scythia. Soon, small household fires, with the flowing winds, engulfed and combined, making it deadly like a monster.

"Things happened in the blink of an eye and people's world fell apart. People would run around and try to protect what is important to them. Most of them, with their family, escaped the place.

"During the same fire," The person continued and, William chose not to question. "A woman walked out of the house with her two kids, two tiny lives, one 3 and the other 5 years old, crying over the other two who couldn't survive that monstrous fire. Following the incident, appeared some. . . beings, chasing down the chosen one after the prophecy of the new beginning was heard."

They stopped as the way ended in front of the rough mountain wall. William glanced back confirming Mary, too, had arrived with them.

"The road ends here."

"The part of this wall is an Illusion," Mary said from the back. "An Illusion of multiple layers."

William walked ahead. His palm touched the mountain wall, noticing the rough, hard surface of the mountain. William applied force, concluding the rigid surface. "It doesn't seem like an illusion."

Mary walked ahead and touched her open palms on the mountain wall. Her eyes closed for a moment, and her palms pressed with force on the walls and William could notice a part of the wall glitch for a brief.

"Try again."

Mary said and William tried to touch the wall. To his surprise, this time, his palms went through the wall.

"The illusion cast on this place has multiple layers," Mary said. "Many layers. Make sure to calm your energies and be calm in general. These illusions of higher layers are related to higher dimensions. You mess up your life force, and you might end up in some other place."

"Other place?" William asked.

"Illusions like these, beyond a human creation, functions like a junction," the old man said. "They connect different places, dimensions, and maybe even realities."

"If your mind is calm and strong enough, which almost no humans have," Mary added. "You generally don't find it harder to cross. If you're not strong enough. You'll either end up in some other place or might get lost in the realm of illusion. . ."

"Get lost?" William would ask. "For how long?"

"As long as you find a way out."

William understood what she was willing to say. If one's control over one's consciousness and stability of mind is not strong enough, one could get lost in these layers forever. Unlocking illusions like these will also need immense strength and precise control over the natural flow of energies. Which means, this place won't be accessible for people, unless they're excellent with energy control, which most humans are not.

Mary walked ahead and the old man followed. William, in the beginning, hesitated and was unwilling to enter. But, the lust for knowing the answers to the questions, crowding in his mind, was bigger.

He entered.

Everything was blurry and dim. While William crossed, Mary's words were heard, either from her or in William's mind, "Keep your mind calm. Walking through the illusions is tampering with the dimensions. Walk straight and stay calm."

William was quiet the whole time. Moving ahead as they walked toward the end, the illusion gradually faded, revealing to his eyes, a massive creation of nature and energies. A tree, which would shine like it's made of stars, every branch, and element of it.

"What place is it?"

"A small branch of 'the world tree', a small opening of layline which, deep inside, connects to the world tree and heart of the planet. A place where the vessels are preserved."

A tree bigger than around 50 feet, with broad girth and its branches, spread wide like a shelter. From the most expansive tree branches, strong blue veins descended, holding something which looked like capsules.

"What are those?" William asked.

"Walk ahead. Have a look," was all the old man said. William, to his words, walked ahead, while also noticing the glowing stems and roots underground, like a nervous system of a tree connecting it to the surface.

As he moved closer to the capsule-like things, attached to the blue veins, he would notice figures, like human babies in the capsules, born from the glowing tree. Except, those babies, just like William and the young man from his dream, had unnatural silver-white human hair. At this point, William had gone all quiet, trying to refuse what his mind was concluding.

"But. . ." his voice broke. "B- but I do have faint memories of Scythia." He'd say.

"Why else do you think," the old man said. "was your body able to preserve her consciousness and, with her faint spark of consciousness, able to ressurect her back?"

William did not respond.

"Your energies are similar to her's," the person said. "'cause they originate from the same source. From the world tree."

William still sat quiet, calming himself.

"That day." the old man continued. "The day, some days after the fire broke out, a lady knocked on my door. Her hands, carried her wounded body, which could not have survived. The wounds were healed, but the energies were depleting. Many times before, I had effortlessly fixed the energy flow and rescued many humans, but for some reason, even after trying everything I could, I was unable to fix his energy flow.

"That was until I observed your mother, and noticed her silver-white hair." The man paused for a lengthy time. And, fearing what the man might say, William hoped he would not conclude what his mind had already concluded.

"I asked Mary, your mother, to follow me and brought her to this very place. Under this tree. I still remember, there stood a-a-something, near this tree, I could feel it's existence. I felt it, whispering in me, guiding me to walk ahead with the mother holding the child.

"I had already accidentally found this place before the rumors reached my ears about the existence of a tree, which itself is a branch of a bigger tree that connects the energies, the leylines and the life on the planet to the cosmos.

"That day, the child, who was on the brink of his death, passed away and was absorbed by the roots and veins of the tree of life, and was united with the very cosmos and existence. Surprisingly, a new capsule soon descended from the branch of this tree. A capsule, holding a newborn, a child who opened its eyes in a completely identical body, with silver-white hair and creation of Divine."

William stood frozen in his place. His mind, still refusing to what his ears had heard.

"She's not the one who made you like this, William," the man said. "You were destined by the cosmos to be the way you are. And so was she." the old man glanced at Mary. "She, with the hair and energies similar to you, after all, has the same appearance as you."

"Can you give my memories back?" William said, his eyes, looking down to hide the tears. "Things happening and what my life has become. I can't take it anymore."

"The memories you once possessed will just give you more pain," the man said. "Why do you want to give yourself more pain and suffering?"

"Even so, at least I won't have to live with a big question mark my entire life," William said. "Right now, it's as if, I don't have any past. As if I'm lost in some chaotic void, where everyone except me knows about me."

"Very well." The old man walked ahead and grabbed William's hand. He pulled him as he walked toward the bark of the massive tree.

The old man grabbed William's neck and pressed his forehead to the tree's bark. The pressure in his blood veins increased as the old man channeled the flow of energies through William until William's consciousness was linked to the tree.

A spark struck his mind while countless lights flashed in his eyes. Memories flooded in his head, like a stream of hot water. Many memories- his birth to a vessel mother and a human father, the war and the flames which had engulfed his childhood, the dizzy memories of monstrous entities who chased his mother and deeply wounded his vessel-human body. A blank, dark patch of memories where he passed as Vessel-human and opened his eyes as a Vessel. Other memories, which William had no records of, were revealed and a stream of tears flowed through his eyes.

His body froze like a thick layer of ice before breaking apart again as he fell to the ground when the darkness covered him again.

~~

He, again, woke up with a start to find himself in the same room of the old man's mansion. He noticed Mary, sitting on the chair beside his bed.

"How do you feel now?" She asked.

"Rested and tired at the same time."

Mary nodded to his response and sat quietly. William, after a while, got out of bed and walked outside, toward the old man's room. As he walked out, he was startled by the presence of the old man, just outside his room.

"You feeling good now?" He'd ask.

"Better than before."

The old man hummed, turned around, and was about to walk back to his room until William stopped him.

"The suits we were dressed in when we arrived here," William said, grabbing the old man's attention, and he turned back. "I'm sure, just from their composition, you know those were pseudo suits. Just a layer of skin, made of energy, which resembled actual fabric."

The man nodded in agreement.

"Do you have the physical ones?" William asked. "The real suits, used for heavy jobs in an environment like this."

The man nodded again. "I sure do."

"Can you lend me those?"

A curious expression made its way to the old man's face. He could, again, feel the growing instability in William's life force. "And where exactly are you heading?"

"Those voices and that person I saw in my dream, just like me," William said. "When you touched my head to that glowing tree, I saw him again. I heard many things, many same voices, and visions in my memories. He again said. . . come find me."

"And you believed those voices in your dream?"

William backed off by a step, "I know you must be thinking I'm losing my mind to pursue some voice I heard in a dream. But, this feeling I'm getting. . . It tells me it's more than just a dream or fantasy."

"And where will you find this person?"

"A big circular field of glass, like a thick layer of frozen water, or a frozen lake on which a massive triquetra was carved and a big stone slate, standing in the center of the design. And massive creation of energies, around the stone slate, like a mechanical creation."

The dimensional seal. The old man realised and said. "And do you know where it is?"

"I don't, but I can feel a sort of connection," William replied. "Like it's calling me toward the place. In the northeast."

"So, you've decided to leave?"

William nodded.

The old man exhaled his breath, "Very well."

~~

The very same day, before the brightness was enough to be called dawn, William and Mary left the place. The old man, who till the end didn't reveal his name, provided them with the suits, identical to the ones which they had manifested earlier, which could withstand the intense pressure and the toxicity in the air in certain areas outside the mansion's vicinity.

The strange men, who once fought with them, the old man, and Lenard stood on the borders of the mansion vicinity, expressing their farewells. Steve had asked the old man to keep William out of the war, so he should not come across any ranks, but the war was raging in the Himis and on the southern borders of Lydia. His journey would take him eastwards, deep in the belt, which was in a way far from the war.

Little did he knew.

Ever since William arrived with his mother, Mary, the old man could feel and see, every time they spoke, interacted, or even encountered each other, William's restless mind had lots of questions, unanswered questions. As if he was constantly searching for something, except, he didn't know what he was looking for.

Resisting him, or stopping him from leaving, would have made his young, restless mind even more desperate, tempting him to choose the wrong ways. And the old man believed in destiny and fate, so, he chose to let William go.

"Take care of Charlotte, Lenard," William had said before leaving. "Even when she gains back her consciousness, make sure she doesn't leave until fully recovered."

"I shall try my best," Lenard had replied, before expressing his farewell.

The faint shower of rain stopped when both moved outside the forest area. As they moved, through the Rocky Mountains and the barren plains full of gravel, a thin layer of fog accompanied them throughout and the sun refused to show up from behind the thick clouds. The long capes of their suits freely waved with the calm flow of winds.

They moved ahead.

On the southern end, it was mentioned in Nation Thena's records, roughly around the same time as the rumbling in the Himis. The seal on Thena's northern borders was tampered with by an external force, resulting in faint waves of an earthquake. Following the waves of earthquakes, many human-like machines, humanoids, appeared from the ground, as if ascending from the abyss.

Battleships ascended in the air and tanks moved ahead. The amount of firepower and manpower, combined from Himis and the Lydia-Thena borders, used that day was the largest in known human history. Humanoids, summoned from other dimensions, were annihilated as if the dust is broomed from the surface.

Thena's army, led by the lower Eva elites and some Warriors from their nation, made sure the war doesn't enter even the outermost settlements of Lydia or Thena. In the records, there were no mentions of any ranks or Devil-like entities, which disproved my assumption made due to some rank's absence in the Himi's battle.

Walking ahead, deeper in the cursed belt, almost at its Assyrian end, William and Mary's feet stopped, noticing the thick, dense layer of fog ahead. The mist sure had constantly accompanied them throughout their way-that's what this cursed belt was known for.

But ahead, they could notice the layer and density much stronger. The densest they'd ever witnessed. Almost like a wall, except, they could partially see inside which was more of mist.

"The density is more than our bodies could handle, even in these suits," Mary said.

"It's like a wall. . . Created unnaturally to keep out the distractions." William said. "The flow of energies, I could feel, is the largest and most stable around here, this place. I might be wrong, but it must be the place Steve once mentioned, the seal."

The seal? Mary recalled, and said, "Allow me."

Mary walked a step ahead. Her hands extended and, following the flow of eternal energies, the fabric of the suit loosened and contracted behind, exposing her palms. Mary's bare palms touched the unnatural wall of mist.

Her blood veins intensified, regulating the flow of energies. Her mind focused on an attempt to unite her consciousness with the energy flow, and pressure was applied at a single point in time. A wave, William could feel, of higher frequency emerged, spread in the unnatural wall, and the molecules of the mist burst apart like a balloon surface, revealing the inside.

The flat surface of the glass, like a thick layer of frozen clear water with a massive triquetra, carved, touching three points of the circle's diameter. And the stone slate in the middle, above which, was the creation of natural energies, ascended in the air-just like William had seen in his dreams.

The seal was revealed with its union to the uni-mind, a creation of energies, created to harness the divine energies and initiate a new beginning.