As the two sped across the landbridge, a voice spoke in his head. “Do you really think you alone can stop the upcoming wars?”

Gaius shook slightly, an action that did not go unnoticed by Isabelle.

“What’s wrong?” Isabelle asked, unsheathing her rapier immediately. “Is it an enemy?”

“No,” Gaius. “Someone’s speaking in my head. And by the sounds of it, that someone happens to be the same person who guided me in finishing off the Human God. Who are you?”

“Me?” the voice in his head asked. “I am…someone who yearns for true peace.”

Unfortunately, ever since the Map of Stars had been rendered inoperable, Gaius had left Nexus with Nakama. Otherwise, Gaius would have called upon him for help, to identify just who this mysterious interloper in his mind was. It was almost certainly benign, but—

“I assure you that I am very much benign,” replied the voice.

“In that case, show yourself. You’re reading my mind, and I probably look like a lunatic in front of Isabelle right now. I don’t like either of that,” Gaius replied. “I haven’t done anything to you yet, but I think I can, if push comes to shove.”

“…Just don’t be scared.”

“Scared?” Gaius glanced at Isabelle, who was staring at him curiously. “Well, the perp in my head’s going to show itself, and it’s asking us not be scared.”

“You, scared? Pfft.” Isabelle giggled. “The only thing you’re scared of is…making me angry?”

Gaius cleared his throat. “I’m just relaying a message here, okay? And besides, I don’t know who’s scared of who when night falls…wait, wait. Lower that hand! We can talk it out nicely!”

Before he could flee, a hand clamped down on his shoulder, and Gaius shuddered at Isabelle’s smiling face.

“I’ll show myself later, I guess.” The presence in his mind faded away as Isabelle reached out for him, and his mind went blank. He didn’t quite know what happened for the next five minutes, but when he regained awareness, his cheeks felt very, very tender. They weren’t smarting — Isabelle never actually used any force — but there was something shameful in, well, whatever Isabelle did to him.

Isabelle’s arms were wrapped around him, a self-satisfied smile on her face. The stress and worry that had lined her face earlier was now gone, replaced by an expression of bliss, the same expression she had whenever she concluded a session of spoiling Nakama. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone else present to witness the whole thing, so—

“Ah, the joys of love, eh?” An unwelcome voice spoke in his mind.

Gaius froze. Hey. Didn’t you say that you were going to take your leave, huh?

“Huh? Did I say that?”

He snapped. A grey sphere erupted out of him, and Isabelle looked up in shock. Before she could say anything, Gaius exerted the full might of his Domain and scanned through his own mind and body, before locating a small little ball that clearly didn’t belong in there. Immediately afterwards, his will turned into a string, which bound up that tiny little ball.

Plucking it out like a berry, Gaius shrank his domain and dangled the little thing in front of him. “Gotcha.”

Isabelle, who was naturally confused, let out a small shriek as soon as she recognised what the ball was. It was an eyeball, one that looked like it had been freshly plucked, and even its sudden appearance had startled Gaius.

“What are you supposed to be?” Gaius asked, poking the eyeball with a finger. To his surprise, he could actually poke it…although since it was in his Domain, bound by a thread of his will, it actually wasn’t all that surprising.

“I’m…” The eyeball pondered for a moment. “I…can’t remember.”

As for how Gaius could tell that the eyeball was pondering…the Abyss Sovereign himself didn’t want to know. However, his instincts were telling him that this eyeball had something to do with the Crying Abyss — eyeballs were pretty much a distinguishing factor for anyone who had been affected by its madness.

The only thing that detracted from this theory was the fact that the eyeball sounded very sane to Gaius.

“You don’t happen to have a third or fourth eye, do you?” Isabelle asked, directing a question at Gaius. “How did you pull an eyeball out of you anyway?”

“I’m reasonably certain that I only have two eyes,” Gaius replied. “This little fellow seems to have slipped inside my soul somehow; the only reason why we can touch it right now is because it’s in my Domain.”

The eyeball spun around on the spot. “What is this place anyway? It feels familiar, but there’s something grand to it.”

“You’re asking the wrong person…and to begin with, why are you the one asking questions?” Gaius eyed the eyeball, and briefly wondered if he should do anything funny to it, like spinning it around or something.

Unfortunately, the eyeball’s ability to read his thoughts were clearly contingent on being in him, which meant that the little organ had no idea what Gaius was tempted by right now. Since doing so would look bad on him, however, he decided to hand the eyeball over to Isabelle, who had gotten over her surprise.

“Why are you giving me this eyeball?”

“I’m afraid that if I hold it for any longer, it’s going to become a toy in my hands,” Gaius replied.

“Wait, what were you intending to do to me?” the eyeball asked, before turning to look at Isabelle. “I’m just a poor something, so…”

“Alright, alright.” Now that the toy…the eyeball was out of his hands, Gaius found it in himself to ask questions once more. “First, why were you inside my soul? Second, what’s your purpose in doing all these? Depending on your cooperativeness and your answer, you may or may not be sent into a round trip around Orb.”

“Threatening an eyeball. Classy.” Isabelle chuckled, before her face turned into a mask of granite. “Whatever he does to you will be nothing compared to me, though.”

The eyeball trembled. “I’ll try my best…”

For some reason, that single action tugged at Gaius’ heartstrings, and he decided to start the questions before anything else could happen. “Alright, then. Let’s start with the basics. Where did you come from?”