Slowly, Lukas' vision began to brighten once again as he felt the soft, warm covers of his bed over him. With a groan, Lukas attempted to pull himself up to a sitting position only to feel a sharp pain right next to his stomach and in his chest which caused him to gasp as he tried to stop himself from making too much noise. As he rested his back against the wall, Lukas looked down at his body to see no external injuries which just confused him as he had to question why he was in so much pain. Suddenly, as Lukas began to recall all of the events that had happened yesterday, somebody knocked at the door which made him look over to his door and attempt to stand up. A terrible pain shot through his body once more which forced him to pull his body back into his bed. "Come in." Lukas shouted at the door in the hopes that whoever was on the other side would hear him. Slowly, the door opened as Eanaro entered the room whilst throwing the eye up into the air and catching it.
"I believe you dropped this." Eanaro said as he threw the eye at Lukas and it landed on his bed. Lukas quickly scrambled to hold the eye which ended up causing him even more pain as Bethany appeared by his side once more. "Don't do that, you'll end up doing more harm to yourself that'll need to be repaired!" Bethany exclaimed to Lukas as if he was her child. "God, what the hell happened to me?" Lukas asked as he gently held onto his stomach. "Have you seriously not read up about soul weapons yet?" Eanaro replied with another question which appeared to irritate Lukas. "What the hell was all that for yesterday? You nearly killed me!" Lukas yelled as he had clearly grown a severe disliking to Eanaro. "You say that as if you were not going to kill a million or so civilians if I did not interfere." Eanaro stated as he shook his head. "Well, you could've just interfered until I had calmed down instead of insulting me and making it worse." Lukas explained as he turned his head away. "I was insulting you so you would let out even more of your emotions, doing so would've made you calm down quicker if you did not decide to get back up and begin fighting again... and also you nearly killed me in the process." Eanaro spoke calmly as he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.
"Speaking of the moment when I got back up, I heard what you said, you were willing to leave me there to die if it wasn't for my Hysterical Strength!" Lukas exclaimed as he was clearly finding Eanaro's defensive words quite distasteful. "Your... what?" Eanaro questioned Lukas words. "Hysterical Strength... it's happened twice now. It only happens when I'm desperate to survive, it seems to make me... and I'm being generous here; about 3 times stronger than normal." Lukas stated which seemed to catch Eanaro's attention and interest. Eanaro put a hand up to his chin as he presumably thought about something before speaking up once more. "Perhaps... you'll be fine by yourself if that's an ability of yours." Eanaro thought out loud as he turned to leave the room. "Where are you going?" Lukas asked as Eanaro turned back to face him. "I'm going to do my job and I suggest that you do the same. Get well soon." Eanaro said as he ducked under the top of the frame and closed the door behind him. "What an absolute bastard." Bethany spoke out loud despite nobody other than Lukas being able to hear her.
"You know, I really hate him and I really hate how I agree with almost everything he said." Lukas told Bethany as he slowly attempted to get out of bed. "Don't push yourself too much, you're still incredibly injured." Bethany insisted as Lukas managed to get up onto his feet. "Who are you, my parents?" Lukas asked in a joking manner before taking a few steps forward only to feel another wave of agony which caused him to stumble backwards onto the bed as he panted heavily in response to the pain. "Okay... maybe I'm not fit to be walking around yet." Lukas admitted as he gasped for air once the pain had subsided yet again. "You don't say." Bethany responded with a sigh. After a moment of silence, Lukas came up with an idea. "Is it possible for me to use the eye's powers to just float to where I need to go? I mean, after that training session I had and everything that happened between me and Eanaro, I don't think my powers are that much of a secret anymore." Lukas suggested in the hopes that Bethany would be able to approve of his idea. "I mean... you could try but it takes a lot of getting used to. Believe me, I accidentally sped up and slammed into walls a few times when I first started trying it. In fact, considering your injuries, I wouldn't recommend even attempting it." Bethany stated which got a sigh from Lukas as he just thought that he may have had a good idea.
"Where would you even go anyways? If you're going to visit Niko then you need to make sure that you'll be safe when you run into a destroyer and you're not in optimal fighting conditions to say the least." Bethany explained to which Lukas simply nodded as if he had heard that same thing a thousand times over. "I was going to go to the library just like I was yesterday. I was also hoping that I could spend the entire day there reading up about stuff and being productive instead of just sitting here like an injured kid." Lukas clarified his plan to Bethany. "Well, I mean, you ARE an injured kid. There's no way that I'm going to let you carry yourself all the way over to the library considering the state that you're in." Bethany said as her spirit sat down beside Lukas. "Since when did you decide to become the new motherly figure in my life?" Lukas jokingly inquired. "I did that ever since you nearly got yourself killed because you wouldn't listen to me... you know, literally a few hours ago?" Bethany replied completely seriously. Lukas sat there in shock as he didn't expect Bethany to respond like that to his joke.
Lukas decided to see how much Bethany really cared about him at that moment. "Admit it, this whole situation began with you talking to me so you wouldn't get bored... but now it's something completely different, isn't it?" Lukas asked which seemed to catch Bethany by surprise... although not entirely. "What makes you say that?" Bethany inquired as a clear attempt to evade the question if only for a little bit. "Well, when we started this journey through The Multiverse, you were really passive-aggressive with me but now, it seems like you've made it your job to take care of me until I can reliably fend for myself." Lukas explained which seemed to shock Bethany even more... as if she had been doing all of that subconsciously. Suddenly, Bethany let out a small laugh before responding. "Come on, somebody had to look after you after all those times when you nearly got yourself killed. You would've been dead if it wasn't for me." Bethany joked as she put on the tone that she had with Lukas at the beginning of their journey.
"Y'see, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Ever since I had one emotional moment with you right there with me, you've been able to joke like that so much even though you never did that before." Lukas stated which made Bethany laugh again. "What can I say? It must be the remnants of whatever motherly instincts I have left after the countless battles that I've faced. I just see a child like yourself who needs help and I can't just ignore that." Bethany admitted as she was clearly slightly embarrassed to admit it. "Aw, does the almighty goddess of destruction have a soft spot?" Lukas jokingly asked which made Bethany laugh a bit. "I guess I do." Bethany replied as she stood up. "You know, you're really something. It's been a while since I felt like there was somebody who I could completely trust... thank you." Bethany explained as Lukas thought he heard her sniffle slightly. "It's no problem, really. I would've done the same no matter what type of things you had done... I mean, in a world like The Multiverse, crimes like that happen daily, right?" Lukas rhetorically inquired as Bethany brushed her arm over her face.
"Okay, can we stop talking about this stuff? It's about time you learnt how to travel around more efficiently." Bethany spoke as she faced away from Lukas whilst wiping her face two more times. "There's a better way of traveling than flight? Okay, now this is something I've got to see." Lukas explained as he attempted to stand up once more but decided against it before the pain even had a chance to return. "Just imagine the place that you want to go to and then click your fingers and blink at the same time." Bethany stated which confused Lukas... was such a quick form of transportation really so easy to use? "Alright, I guess I'll try it." Lukas said as he followed Bethany's instructions. With a deep breath, Lukas held up his hand before clicking his fingers and blinking at the same time... only for seemingly nothing to happen. "Um... so what exactly was meant to happen there?" Lukas asked as he looked around his room. "You've just got to get the timing down. Oh, also you might want to hold your breath as you do it." Bethany suggested to which Lukas tried again multiple times only to have the same outcome.
Lukas let his breath out as he carried on trying. "I don't know about you, Beth... but this doesn't seem to be worki-" Lukas was about to say before he suddenly felt light headed and out of breath and he noticed that his surroundings had changed. "What did I tell you about keeping your mouth closed? You're lucky that was just a short distance, you'd probably be dead if it wasn't for that!" Bethany scolded Lukas as he looked around to find himself in the library. "What the hell was that?" Lukas asked as he tried to catch his breath. "Teleportation, the act of disappearing from one space and reappearing in a completely different one almost instantaneously." Bethany clarified which made Lukas' eyes widen. "I just teleported? That was way different from what those texts I read before said!" Lukas exclaimed as he looked to see himself sat in a wooden chair that was right beside a giant bookshelf. "Well, the guys who wrote those things had never done it before, they were just going off of pure speculation." Bethany said which seemed believable to Lukas.
"Well, I guess we shouldn't waste any more time." Lukas spoke out as he held out his hand and thought about the orbs that he had touched which had caused him to see those visions. Suddenly, a book flew into his hand that was titled "Memories of the Deceased" which confused Lukas; could this really be what he was looking for? "Since when did you learn to do that?" Bethany asked in complete surprise. "Well, most of the eye's abilities are used just by me thinking about them... so I just tried thinking about what I wanted to know about." Lukas explained as he slowly opened the book and began to read through it. "I swear, one day you're going to get yourself killed using that logic with the eye's powers." Bethany said with a sigh to which Lukas just shrugged as he began quietly reading to himself. Bethany watched as Lukas' expression turned from one of intrigue and curiosity to confusion and uncertainty with every paged that he flipped over. "What the hell?" Lukas whispered to himself as he held a hand to his face and placed the book on the table beside him.
"What's the matter?" Bethany asked as she floated right next to Lukas. "I just don't get it. These Memories of the Deceased are supposedly things that appear because dead people get their memories scattered across the universe that they live in. Dead people have been brought back to life say how they forgot everything that they knew and felt weak until they found these floating orbs that reminded them of their homes and their families and gave them strength again." Lukas slowly explained what he had read as he covered his face in an attempt to understand. "So, what's the problem?" Bethany inquired as she seemed to be having trouble seeing what was confusing Lukas. "Well, that's the thing; only dead people have seen the memories of their past lives and it's always been their own lives that they remember... so how come I'm finding memories in which the people in the visions address the person who's eyes I'm seeing through as 'Lukas'?" Lukas questioned himself as he stared at the bland, blue front cover of the book.
Bethany stayed silent for a moment before speaking up once more. "Disregard anything that you don't completely understand, you may find the information required to understand it later." Bethany repeated those same words that Lukas had told himself before. "How many times are we going to have to disregard something that we don't understand?" Lukas asked rhetorically as he held out his hand and thought about what Eanaro had told him; 'Soul Weapons'. Suddenly, a second book flew into Lukas' hand with the title being the same as the words that he had just thought of. "Just a quick skim." Lukas stated as he opened the relatively small book. It didn't take long for Lukas to finish reading and his facial features seemed to imply that he understood everything that he was seeing. "So, what do you think?" Bethany asked to see what Lukas thought of the book. "Well, from what I understand, the weapons that I summoned forth are physical manifestations of my soul... so I guess that explains why Michael crushing the blades was hurting me so badly." Lukas explained as one of his blades manifested into his hand and it appeared to be slightly cracked but not as much as it was before.
"That's actually quite interesting. I've never actually heard of something like that, everybody that I've met just uses a hand-made weapon." Bethany spoke in genuine surprise as she didn't expect to hear about something that she had no previous knowledge of. "Yeah, apparently only people with strong souls can wield them and they are incredibly powerful as well... but there's something that I don't get." Lukas said as he thought a bit longer about the subject only to come up with no plausible answer to his questions. "What is it?" Bethany questioned as she looked around at the other people in the library who were paying Lukas no mind. "Well, in every single report of somebody being able to wield a weapon like this, everybody has only been able to wield one which makes sense; one weapon for one soul. Then, how do you explain how I can wield two? It can't be because of the other soul that's contained in mine because the weapons alter their appearances based on the person who they belong to which explains why mine looks so unnatural." Lukas thought out loud before slowly shaking his head.
"Do I need to repeat myself about disregarding things?" Bethany rhetorically asked to which Lukas just sighed in response. "Well... whatever." Lukas said with a disappointed tone as he flicked his finger up into the air as the two books began to return to their original positions. "Is that all you wanted to check out?" Bethany inquired as Lukas nodded his head to respond without much effort. Lukas then began clicking his fingers and blinking whilst holding his breath and after a few attempts, he teleported back into his room. "I know that you're worried about me and what happened yesterday... if you want to talk about it then I'm willing to tell you what I know." Lukas stated as he sat down on his bed once again. "That's strange, I was about to bring up exactly the same thing and say what you said word for word at the end." Bethany replied which made Lukas laugh slightly before trying his best to get serious once again. "Seriously though, is there anything you want to know?" Lukas asked once again as his smile quickly faded.
"Well, mainly I want to know what caused you to go like that. Like, what were you thinking just before all of that happened?" Bethany inquired as Lukas laid back onto his bed. "I was thinking about Michael... and all of the similarities that he had to the Seekers... and then I thought that maybe he was the last Seeker that Eanaro didn't tell us about." Lukas explained as he slowly began to close his eyes. "Well, I mean, didn't Eanaro begin to say the last Seeker's name and didn't it begin with a T? Also, if Michael was the last Seeker then why was he about to kill you before Eanaro interfered? Zero was specifically ordered not to kill you, were they not?" Bethany bombarded Lukas with questions only for his mind to not be able to keep up and for his eyes to slowly begin to close. Before long, Lukas fell asleep as Bethany sighed. "Sleep well." Bethany spoke despite the fact that Lukas was unable to hear her at that moment.
"If one loses their memories but they carry on living, are they really considered the same person anymore? And what of the person that they used to be? Can they be considered dead if they technically no longer exist?"