Darius felt his mind falling into an abyss of darkness, his consciousness pulled left and right by whatever force/magic Marasmus had placed in his mind.

However, utilizing his high Intellect, Darius quickly guarded his key thoughts and memories while splitting a part of his mind to deal with this 'intruder'.

Once the split consciousness interacted with the black light, it was pulled into a long memory sequence that had been neatly arranged and contained a lot of data. For any normal fellow with 10 points of Intellect, this would be enough to shatter them and turn them into schizos.

For people at the level of Darius though, it was only enough to disorient the split consciousness for a second before it parsed all the data and replayed it according to the arrangement.

As such, Darius was pulled into the life of Marasmus… no, Sino D'Mara before he died.

......…..

The first thing he saw was a cold hovel that stank of feces, despair, and rotten meat. A few men and women of varying ages lay around weakly there, the rags they had for clothes not even able to keep away the horrifying cold.

Most were thin as sticks and had murky eyes devoid of any hope. In a corner of this shitty shelter was a woman holding a baby in her arms. Despite looking like a vagrant, she did have some pleasant aspects to her looks, but it was barely enough to call her a beauty.

The muck and filth covering her certainly did her no favors in that regard. As for the child she weakly held, it couldn't even muster the energy to cry out as it had been sparsely fed since it was born.

If any doctor had been around to take a look, they would quickly discover that the baby was likely only a few weeks away from death. Then again, its mother wasn't in any better condition.

Eventually, the baby let out a weak cry to get food. The mother blankly stared at the child in her arms for a few seconds, before nonchalantly removing one of her breasts and placing the mouth of the child on it.

The memory skipped forward from here.

...…

Ka-crack!

The horrendous sound of a barbed whip lacerating flesh sounded out, along with the weak grunt of a child. A man wearing a green turban and a purple vest with baggy black harem pants stood over the fallen body of a child with anger on his face.

"Vile little shit, you dare try to steal from my shop? A thousand curses upon you!" The fellow roared as he cracked the whip back and went to town on the child curled into a ball at his feet.

He was more than happy to be able to vent his anger on the child. However, his face changed when he saw two armored city guards walk over with suspicious expressions on their faces.

One of the guards removed his sword and pointed at the child being whipped. "Is this another thief?"

The other guard kicked the body and raised him up, ready to carry him away. "Hmph, according to Ludoian law, the punishment for theft is to cut off the arm of the criminal, no matter their age!"

Surprisingly, the shop owner shook his head and grabbed the boy. "No, no, there has not been any theft committed. The boy merely spoke rudely to me so I saw fit to punish him. Hmph, if he dared to steal, I would have personally escorted him to esteemed sirs!"

The guard looked unconvinced, but since the shopkeeper himself defended him, they could only kick the vagabond child once a final time before leaving. The shopkeeper, and the other onlookers sighed.

The fellow then cast the lad aside. "Quickly scram before they come back and don't let me ever see you again!"

The boy, who had been silent like a mute, rose to his feet. He had a gaunt face that showed off malnutrition, murky brown eyes, and filthy black hair. He wore what was basically rags for clothes and one of his arms was held against his chest even as the other was used to weakly lift his body up.

As he limped away while bleeding from his back and sporting many bruises all over. Once he had left behind the market, his clamped hand revealed the body of a soft apple within. Looking upon the loot, his formerly expressionless face finally showed a hint of a smile.

The memory skipped forward from here.

.......

The next thing he saw, was a cold laboratory that reeked of modern science and disinfectant. Many men and women in white lab coats moved around in a bio-lab meant for human experimentation, steadily working on their latest projects.

A very important-looking scientist in a white coat came with a writing board in hand. He then looked down at it and asked a question to the lead scientist in this particular operation.

"How is the subject? The data tells me he's a low-quality product from that barren desert that got sold by his mother for some food and clothes. Do you really believe such a thing can yield any worthwhile results?" The head scientist asked coldly.

The lead scientist continued with his work cutting up and researching the target on the table before him while answering. "I thought the same, sir. However, the data fails to mention that this lad has a strange new organ within his body, right next to his heart."

The head scientist, now curious, walked over to get a better view. Under the guidance of the lead scientists, he also saw the anomaly.

There was a blackish tumor on the side of the subject's heart that seemed to work in tandem with his blood circulation, yet did not seem to hinder his daily functions nor take up necessary space within his body.

It looked less like a parasite and more like a symbiote that hoped to live alongside its host. The head scientist snorted. "I admit that it is interesting from a biological point of view, but what exactly is so special about this thing?"

The lead scientist paused and admitted with a bitter tone. "Nothing yet. Apart from this, the subject is normal… well sub-par at best. There is almost no research value in it anymore."

"What a waste. Dispose of the subject and make room for a new one. I can't allow your talent to be wasted on this useless trash!" The head scientist ordered coldly as he left the room.

"Yes sir." The lead scientist affirmed before he instructed his assistants to begin disposing of the target that was still alive but partially sedated all this while.

Feeling slightly bored, the lead scientist couldn't help but turn to the body of the young teenage boy on the table and take a final look at the strange tumor he had been investigating for weeks.

Murmuring to himself, the scientist showed a dazed expression. "I still can't help but feel that this thing looks strangely like… like some sort of stone…"

The memory sequence came to an end there.