Rasmus looked around and noticed the damage that Uriel had caused. He could see slashes on the ground around him like claws. Aris was the one who created an invisible barrier around the arena so nobody would get hurt from the duel. He was astonished by Uriel’s strength and power, but he was interested in the martial art that she had learned from the east. He used to manipulate heat and electricity within his body to overcome his limits.

"How was it?" Aris asked with her brows raised.

"It was a surprise," Rasmus muttered as he looked down at his clothes, completely torn apart because of Uriel’s relentless attacks. If he didn’t have the dragon’s scales in his body, he would have been covered in cuts and maybe lost a few limbs and fingers. "Was she this strong before?" Rasmus looked at Thalior, who was watching the knights carry Uriel’s unconscious body out of the training ground.

"No, she wasn’t this strong. However, we were trained by Lord Lazarus before the big war in Centriva, before the demons invaded the Holy Nation. Even so, she wasn’t this strong, and I’m as surprised as you are, Count," Thalior answered, his gaze never leaving Uriel. "She has been in seclusion until you came, Count Blackheart. When she heard that Lady Aris was coming, she left seclusion and came to see her," he added.

Rasmus wasn’t the only one who was interested in the martial arts, Aris and Rullein also took an interest in those after what Anastasha said. Rasmus looked at Aris and Rullein, and they couldn’t hide their desire to visit East Neva as soon as they could, and then he looked at Anastasha. Anastasha glanced at Rasmus when she felt his gaze, and she slightly tilted her head to the side with a smile formed on her face.

"When are you going to East Neva, Count?" Thalior asked out of curiosity.

"Soon, very soon," Rasmus answered as he turned his head toward the east. "I have to visit old friends of mine in Eddenvilla first," he added.

Thalior nodded with understanding and then he excused himself because he wanted to check on Uriel’s condition. Not long after Thalior left, a raven blocked the sunlight and made Rasmus look up at the sky, noticing it was Javi’s raven. He slowly raised his hand and the raven descended until it landed on his palm with a message tied to its leg.

Rasmus grabbed the scroll and looked at the content with Aris and Rullein beside him to see what Javi and the Blackhands had found about the cult. Anastasha wanted to look at what kind of information that Javi and the Blackhands got. When she saw Rasmus’ expression, she noticed a slight shift in his brows.

The information that Javi gave Rasmus was a bit shocking because they found nothing. No matter how much they tried to gather any information about the cult, nobody found any leads, or anyone who knew about it. He found it disturbing because Thalior mentioned the cult and shared information about the cult’s activity in the past months. Unfortunately, those informations were proven to be false after Javi and the Blackhands investigated them.

"No traces, nothing?" Rullein arched her brows.

Rasmus’ eyes scanned the debris around him while he was deep in thought. The first thing that came to his mind was the existence of Angels and what they were capable of. He had read thoroughly about religions back on Earth, all the books that he could read, he would read it until the end. He knew Angels were special beings, that there were histories of them walking among humans. That part made him remember the same explanation about Angels, and that was that they were capable of making any living soul unaware of their existence, altering their memories and even perception.

Rasmus could get an answer if Videl was still with him, asking if Angels were capable of erasing any memories and traces of their existence. If his suspicion was correct, that meant the Angels protected the cult and all its cultists, making the world blind about their existences. That was when fear came to his mind, a fear that one day humans’ memories would be altered and ruin everything he had built.

"Rasmus?" Aris asked with her brows raised, staring into Rasmus’ distant gaze.

"It’s nothing," Rasmus shook his head, but his distant gaze lingered. Interpret and analyze this new scene in extreme detail for me. "I’ll be right back..." He muttered and hurriedly left the training ground, and for the first time, he felt like time had caught up to him, breathing the cold and unmerciful right on his nape.

Anastasha was deeply intrigued at Rasmus’ sudden change of expression. Both Aris and Rullein looked at each other, then Aris raised her brows at Rullein but Rullein shook her head. Rullein couldn’t use her power against Rasmus anymore, she couldn’t see through his memories because he had possessed the Overlord’s existence that she couldn’t bypass, blocking her from seeing Rasmus’ thoughts and memories.

Rasmus went into his chamber while the raven was sitting on top of the table croaking and waiting for him to finish writing a reply. As soon as Rasmus finished writing a reply, he rolled the piece of paper and tied it to the raven’s leg. He sent the raven back to Javi to investigate based on his suspicion. He stood in front of the window and stared at the sky, his hands gripped on the frame with a disturbed expression before he walked away from the window.

Eight hours later, Javi was sitting on the cliff, staring down at the barren land below him when he heard a croak in the sky. He didn’t need to look up when the raven landed on his shoulder and pecked Javi’s cloak. He took the scroll from the raven’s leg and read the reply from Rasmus with a flat expression. After he finished reading, he tore the papers into tiny pieces before he let the wind blow them away.

Javi gathered all the Blackhands and conveyed Rasmus’ suspicions and missions to each one of them. There was no question asked and they all disappeared into the night to do their missions.

The next day by afternoon, some of the Blackhands came back to their rendezvous point. The information that they had gathered even shocked Javi, he couldn’t believe it, and he understood why Rasmus wanted them to investigate it as soon as they could. However, he didn’t want to give the pieces of information to Rasmus yet because he wanted the rest of the Blackhands to come back with the information.

When all the Blackhands came back from their missions and shared what they found, all of them looked at each other in disbelief. This was an odd case, disturbing even for them when they had met and encountered demons. Javi on the other hand, he wrote all the information he had received from Blackhands and then sent his raven to Rasmus.

It was in the middle of the night when Rasmus heard a croak outside his closed window. He got up from his chair hastily and opened the window to let the raven in. He took the scroll and read the results of the Blackhands’ investigations related to families that lost their children in the past few months. That was when Rasmus stumbled on his steps until he fell to his chair and his expression stiffened.

He slowly put down the report and his gaze fixated on it where Javi’s handwriting filled the whole small paper. The report revealed that all the families that had lost their children, they didn’t remember having any children, not only them, but the whole villages, towns, and cities of the families they lived in, the children and people that went missing, it was as if they never existed in the first place.

"This is problematic..." Rasmus muttered as he sighed and massaged his nose bridge.