When he looked at the woman, he realized that there was no ill intent on her face.
She looked at the professor with care. He could see the look of worry in her eyes as she gazed at the old man.
"Sleep," she said as she raised her finger and traced it from the top of the professor’s head to the bottom of his chin.
As soon as she did, the pulsating blue glow on the professor’s skin dimmed, before the power building up inside him slowly turned dormant once again.
It was safe—for now.
"What did you find out?" she mindlessly muttered underneath her breath as she looked at the professor.
Michael, realizing that this woman may not be the enemy he thought she was, raised a question. "What’s happening to him?"
The woman looked up at Michael, her eyes squinting as she observed him up close.
His strange disposition was still lingering on her mind. There were a lot of things she didn’t know about Michael–like why he was with the professor–however, she could see that he didn’t mean any harm either. He was just defensive because he wanted to protect the professor.
After a few seconds, she began to explain.
"His brain has shut down in order to preserve his body. It’s a failsafe that he put into himself in order to assure that he would be able to process the immense amount of information that he gathered."
It seemed that the professor really did experience an information overload. The revelations that he had just uncovered were far too much for his normal brain to process, causing this ’failsafe’ to trigger.
"Why would he do that?"
The woman chuckled. "He’s always been a great hoarder of knowledge. Even when it’s too much for his mortal brain to comprehend, he goes beyond his own limits to understand it."
Reminiscing about the professor made the woman let down her guard for just a brief moment. But, she immediately put on a stone-cold face as soon as she noticed.
"That is the only thing I’m going to tell you for your good will. I see that you were simply protecting him," she said as she started to stand up with the professor in her hands.
"Wait, you can’t take him away." Michael said, trying to stop her.
"He’s in great need of attention," she argued.
"I know a great healer," Michael argued back.
But the woman shook her head. "This is a special case. Only we know how to wake the professor from this state."
Michael paused. "And how can I trust you?"
He had no idea who she was and what she planned to do with the professor.
"It’s because we’re part of the same organization," she revealed.
The woman then reached down into the professor’s wrist covered by his long white coat.
Just below his palms, there was a tattoo of a sun with eight distinct rays with a completely different style.
Michael recognized them to be representations of the eight mana elements: water, earth, fire, wind, lightning, poison, dark, and light.
The woman then pulled down the collar of her black robe, revealing the very same tattoo on the bottom of her clavicle.
That’s not a normal tattoo, he realized.
It was laced with Aubility Power, meaning that it wouldn’t be erased by normal means. It looked like even after a severe injury, the tattoo would still recover as if it was her own skin.
[Whoever placed those tattoos is not simple,] Harbinger said. [You should try and fight them.]
Michael ignored that last part.
This tattoo seemed to really prove that this woman and the professor were part of the same organization.
The question now became: who were they?
Upon first impressions, the professor didn’t look to be the kind of guy who would waste his time being in an organization. All he would want to do was study history. He was a lone wolf in that regard.
So he was curious to see what kind of people they were, and their goals. He assumed it aligned with the professors’ seeing as he had that tattoo on his wrist.
"And what organization is that?" he asked the woman.
She quickly pulled back her collar, hiding the tattoo. "You don’t need to know."
He and ChatJK5 hadn’t heard or known about any group with this kind of special symbol. It could have been from a small, unknown group in the middle of nowhere, but that was unlikely.
Since they had at least one member who was in the Nascent Spirit realm, they definitely couldn’t have been from a small organization. They must be a group that was in the same league as the conglomerates.
"I need to know what organization you are in if you’re going to take the professor away," Michael asserted.
The woman looked at him and said, "I’ll tell you this: the professor is an extremely important figure within our organization. His deep knowledge and insight within the history of the world is vital to our goals.
Without him, the very structure of our organization will crumble. People from all over the world will mourn. Ideas that had been growing and molding for hundreds of years will go kaput. And our hope as a species will be lost.
Trust me when I say that we will not let him die, I promise you that. Or else, our whole world will deteriorate even more than what it is now."
Michael raised his eyebrows as the woman began her preamble about the professor’s importance in their organization and to the world as a whole.
He knew that the professor was an important figure due to his knowledge about history, but he never thought that it would go this deep. He never thought that ’the fate of the world’ would depend on it.
As it turned out, Professor Lichtenstein wasn’t just a crazy dude obsessed with history. He was actually someone important in an organization that seemed to have its roots spread all over the globe.
He could tell by the way her Light mana was fluctuating that she was getting emotional talking about the professor. That wouldn’t come from someone lying.
After hearing all this, he couldn’t help but be curious about this secret organization of theirs.
Why hadn’t he heard about it till now? Why do they need the professor? Who is this woman?
He was filled with questions, but had no one to answer them. The woman was adamant in keeping her secrets. And Michael didn’t feel exactly comfortable pressuring someone from the Nascent Spirit realm to spill the tea.
Just then, the professor’s body began to glow with a blue light and pulsate again.
"It’s acting up again," she said worriedly. "I have to get him back to our base."
The woman carried the professor with both hands as she floated away from where she came.
This time, Michael didn’t stop her.
He didn’t know anything about the professor’s failsafe. He doubted he’d be able to cure him of this affliction, so the best chance for the professor’s recovery was to let him be scurried off by someone who knew him well.
Just as she was about to disappear off into the horizon, she turned around and faced Michael.
"Thank you... for saving my father," she said, before blinking out of existence.