As Oliver remembered the prophecy, he couldn't help but to sneer at them. He looked back through the hole, up at the building Ashtehar stood safe in and spat. "a.s.shole," he muttered right before searing pain shot through his head. He grabbed his head as if it would help and suppressed a scream. He twitched around, hoping the guards wouldn't look down and notice him. After the headache subsided, he took a deep breath. 'My mind is slowly getting used to the pain. I can't let them get complete control of me.'

Activating his mana sense, he felt Doevm leaving the base. He hurried to follow. 'He's just as innocent as I was,' he thought back to the time where things were simple, back to when he could bare to look at himself in the mirror. 'Our sect is nothing but evil. Why are we allowed to do the most horrible things yet speak words of praise to the G.o.ddess?'

'Because we are righteous, and we serve the G.o.ddess,' a voice said. 'Our actions are a necessary evil in the world.'

'Just get out of my head already!' Oliver nearly cried and clawed at his head enough to sc.r.a.pe bits of flesh off his scalp. 'Get out, get out, get out.' The pain returned with an even greater intensity.

'Follow orders. Kill Doevm.' Oliver's body stiffened, then followed its orders.

'Sooner or later that voice is going to kill me,' Oliver thought. 'It's getting worse every day. I'm already used to pain. If the average person felt that headache, they would collapse. I'm sure the same thing happened to Ashtehar. I wonder if his headaches are as bad as mine.' He dispersed his thoughts. 'I'm sorry Doevm. I have to listen to it. I'm too weak.'

Doevm turned around several times, but Oliver made sure to keep enough distance between them to where he could remain hidden. His hands were shaking as they grabbed his robe. He stuffed his sleeve in his mouth to quiet his rapid breathing. 'I have to kill him. I have to do it. I can't let him see me. I don't want to do any of this. I'm sorry Doevm.'

'Think of it like running from Ashtehar,' he told himself to keep his heart steady. 'If I had to count how many times I tried to escape from that man, I'm sure it would reach the hundreds. I'm sure if it wasn't for this voice, he wouldn't be able to track me down after escaping. Compared to him, hiding from Doevm is nothing. Compared to the looks I get around the base when I toss off my hood, this amount of stress is nothing.'

'The G.o.ddess will protect you,' the voice tried to sooth him, but only made his face contort.

'Can you just be quiet for a second?' Oliver pleaded with it. 'Ashtehar took me from my family, promising glory and riches but I only get you, this disembodied voice!' Another headache took him to his knees. Ripping out strands of hair, he managed to offset the pain with more pain. He stood up. Doevm was walking out of his range. He panicked and ran forward. 'I can't lose him, or I'll get beaten again.' Following the footprints in the soft forest dirt, he eventually came into a clearing.

The trees had large scratch marks over them, but they were being covered by a fresh layer of bark, signaling how old they were. At the back of the clearing was a rock wall leading up to a tangle of vines. He squinted and saw a something behind the vines, as if they were hiding something. At the base of the wall was Doevm.

Oliver felt it, the unmistakable feeling of mana sprout from Doevm as if he was hiding himself this entire time. He had no excuses anymore. Doevm would have to die. To Oliver's dismay, Doevm turned around, stared straight at Oliver, and closed the distance between them.

"I'm sorry Doevm," Oliver said as his body was covered in magic circles. "I have to kill you." Light red life essence poured out of him. As Doevm's spear neared him, he parried it with his bare hands.

"I'm sorry too." Doevm used the momentum from Oliver's parry to kick him back. "I can see you're just a puppet." He charged again. Leaves were kicked into the air as they fought. While Doevm was the better fighter, Oliver simply healed himself. After a minute, a smile appeared on Doevm's face.

"Why are you happy?" Oliver asked as he backed away and the two circled each other. "Are you the Lich? The one the prophecy told us about?"

"There's a prophecy?" Doevm asked as he examined Oliver's stance for weaknesses. "What does it say?"

"That you must be eliminated." Oliver's mouth spoke words without his volition. The headache returned and he lost control of everything. He was forced into the background of his own mind. He could feel everything, he could see everything, but he couldn't control himself. The voice charged at Doevm, attacking in strange combination attacks similar to Ashtehar's.

Doevm was pushed back. Each round of attacks made a new b.u.mp on his body, near his vitals. While his life essence was darker and thicker than Oliver's, self-enhancement magic overcame that difference. 'Doevm, use your magic!' Oliver thought. 'Take me down. Why are you holding back?' Doevm's breastplate was dented as the voice knocked him into a tree.

Doevm coughed up blood then held a hand to his chest. After a flash of golden light, he stood up as if nothing had happened. "It seems I can't go easy on you." He sighed and s.h.i.+fted his grip on his spear. Oliver felt himself twist and turn as if the world was tearing itself apart.

Oliver's mana went fuzzy just like his mind. His physical enhancement spells vanished. All he had now was his life essence. Oliver called upon his mana, but nothing happened. He went from fearful for Doevm's life to fearful for his own life. 'Please, don't kill me,' he thought. 'Listen to me! This is my body. I should be able to say something!' The more he willed his own body the greater the resulting headache. Doevm closed in and Oliver's world went dark.

…

"Wake up," Doevm said as water fell on Oliver's face. He opened his eyes and found himself tied to a chair. Looking around, he was in a cave. Papers detailing designs for healing spells covered the stone walls. While some were familiar, most were ones he had never seen before. Doevm walked over to a table filled with sharp metal objects. "Now, I'm going to ask you a question. If I don't get an answer…" He picked up one of the instruments: pliers. "I better get an answer."

"I'll tell you everything!" Oliver tried to say, but nothing came out. He tried again only for the same result. 'Please, why won't you listen to me? I can't take it anymore. The pain, it's too much. I just want to run away from this life!' He kept crying as if someone would save him from the inside of his own mind.

"You'll have to kill me," The voice said for Oliver. It glared at Doevm as if he was its mortal enemy. "You can never break me nor the word of the G.o.ddess. Ashtehar will follow my trail and find me eventually." It pulled at the restraints and clicked its tongue. "How did you take away my divine powers?"

"Magic," Doevm laughed and got closer. "What is your name?"

'You already know my name!' Oliver thought. 'Or did he forget about me? Now that I think about it, I haven't seen him in the medical wing in months. He healed himself too. Does that mean he's forgotten about me?'

"I will never tell you heathen." The voice spat in Doevm's face.

"I see," Doevm said as he held the pliers around Oliver's fingernail. "Do you actually hear the voice of the G.o.ddess?"

"Of course!" The voice yelled. "She is glorious. May her mercy guard the good, and my fists destroy the wicked."

Doevm walked around the back of Oliver. He felt a hand grasp the top of his head and his world warp a little. Oliver saw Doevm appear next to him on the inside of his mind. "Oliver are you here?" he called out into the empty s.p.a.ce.

Oliver took deep breaths inside his mind. "Please," he begged. "I already am forced to torture myself every night and day. I thought I would have developed an immunity, but it still feels the same. Please don't do it."

Doevm turned to face Oliver but he acted as if he heard nothing. The voice rang out inside his mind, "You can never break me. I am the will of the-" Doevm disappeared from his mind.

Oliver opened his eyes in reality as Doevm retracted his hand and smiled. "You're perfect," he said. "The best test subject I could have asked for." The voice looked down at the pliers already clamped around one of his fingernails.

Oliver could already fell a little crack in it and a small sliver of pain. The pliers clipped down, and his fingernail was ripped off. He screamed as it felt like his finger was stabbed. Even though the nail was ripped off in less than a second, the feeling kept persisting. He Rocked back and forth in his mind holding his hand, yet on the outside, there was nothing. "Stop," He whispered. "Please just stop."

"Who received the prophecy? Who knows about it?" Doevm held the pliers to another nail. "You have nineteen tries now. Don't make this harder on yourself."

The voice smiled: "Then I will prove myself nineteen times. This is a trail I must overcome, sent to me because of the G.o.ddess's grace."

"So be it." Doevm ripped off another nail, then another. Oliver had gained resistance to pain. This did not mean immunity, it meant he couldn't pa.s.s out from it. He felt each and every single nail and the stabbing sensation pulling at his mental state. By five nails his screams turned incoherent. By ten he simply twitched around with his eyes wide open. By fifteen, he simply moaned, all energy lost. After it was over, Doevm set down the b.l.o.o.d.y pliers and wiped the sweat off his brow. "You're a resistant little guy I give you that much."

"Of course," Oliver's voice huffed. "Now please release me so I can kill you." It struggled at the chains. It still couldn't pull on its magic.

"I don't think so," Doevm held on to Oliver's head and picked up another instrument, one that looked similar to a spoon. He held it to Oliver's eyes. "You know what the best part about healing magic is? I can do the most painful things imaginable on repeat. I can pry your fingernails off, regrow them, then repeat. Fingers, limbs, eyes, teeth, they are all just things I can use to break you."

"You can never break me. Give up." The voice said.

"You sound different." Doevm said as he put the spoon back on the table. "When I first met you, you talked like me. Now you talk like Ashtehar. I wonder why that is."

'Wait,' Oliver thought in his desperation, in a deprived state of hyper-awareness. 'He remembers me. Why did he ask my name? Maybe he can hear me. Maybe I can resist!' He screamed as loud as he could. The headaches were nothing compared to what he felt in his fingers and toes.

"Because I have grown in faith." The voice said as it smiled.

"You know what I think?" Doevm walked behind Oliver and put his hands on his head. "I think you are both not in control." He closed his eyes as the voice controlling Oliver screamed for the first time.

Oliver felt something. He sat up in his mind and saw Doevm standing there. "Doevm, I'm sorry." He said. "I couldn't control myself. It wasn't me. Please just let me go."

Doevm put a hand on Oliver's shoulder, who flinched. "Don't worry, everything is over now." His transparent necklace lit up in response to the ball of darkness in his hands. He crushed it and the voice vanished along with the headache. The necklace dimmed.

Oliver felt his body float back into his control. A blinding light appeared, and he was back in control of himself. "I understand," Doevm said while wearing a smile. "You were a good test subject. I think I can fix myself now."

He untied Oliver, who fell out of his chair: "Just like that? Don't trust me. The voice, it'll control me. Our sect is just a lie." As he spilled out the secrets of his sect, but the voice didn't come. The headache was gone. "I'm free?" He looked at his hands. His hands, not the voice's. "The G.o.ddess is a lie." No pain came. "Doevm, what did you do to me?"

"I freed you," Doevm said. "Your soul was being manipulated by another. I destroyed the other soul. You were a great test subject. If it wasn't for your will and resistance to pain, you wouldn't be in control right now. I realized a great many things working on you."

"Thank you." Oliver bowed, already used to words worse than Doevm's. "Thank you. How can I ever repay you?"

Footsteps approached them from the outside. They both sat in the quiet cave. Taking a peek out through the cover of vines, he saw Ashtehar next to someone he had never seen before. 'What is he doing out here?'