952 Scratch

Michael didn't mean it literally when he talked about 'starting from scratch.' Unfortunately, the reality looked different. He was forced to cut a lot more out of Alice than expected. He removed the two biggest spots of Blood Incursion on her Soul and infused two 7-Star Soultrait Symbols before working on the small and mid-sized Blood Incursion spots. At first, it looked like Michael would be done quickly, but it didn't take long for him to realize that the Blood Incursion spread much more through Alice's soul than expected. Michael was forced to infuse more SoulStar Fragments into her than initially expected. It was good that Michael didn't invest too many SoulStar Fragments into the Untamed Awakened and the Nestor himself. If he had gone wild as he would usually to upgrade his Soultraits, Michael wouldn't have had enough to mend Alice. Even now, Michael wasn't certain if he had enough. He fixed the biggest spots by adding two more Soultrait Symbols. They were only 4-Star Soultraits, but that was enough to fill Alice's soul once again. The tiny spots wouldor shouldheal on their own or with Michael's support in the next few years. She might not be able to use her Soultrait Symbols at that time, but that was a small sacrifice compared to dying.

'I hope she won't be angry. Wellat least she cannot attack me with her Soultraits if she goes wild.' Michael tried to stay optimistic, but that wasn't always easy.

He was exhausted after removing the Blood Incursion from her soul, but he had to continue quickly to remove the influence of the Blood Incursion from her mind as well before something could go wrong.

Cutting out her memories was even worse than fixing her soul. Michael knew what he had to do, but it was painful.

He used the Needle of the Lost Memories to remove Alice's memories of the last few years. Her memory was reset to the day before they met in the Golden Sun Province. [You will be fine. Don't worry.] Michael wasn't sure about that, but he knew hesitating wouldn't help anyone. He took a deep breath and went to work.

Several days passed in the blink of an eye until Michael was done. He put the Needle of the Lost Memories aside and looked at Alice's sleeping face. She was coated in the advanced healing serum, sleeping soundly like nothing big had happened. Unfortunately, that would change soon.

"Come inside," Michael called out, and Kaleb entered the room. Kaleb had changed into a neat set of clothes he'd worn a few years ago. He had shaved and cut his hair short like it used to be. It was no surprise since only a few years had passed, and Kaleb's Tier was high enough to slow his aging process, but Kaleb looked almost like he used to look when he was 17. Of course, Kaleb lost his baby fat in the face, and he was much broader than he used to be, but Alice would recognize her brother easily. Michael was certain about that.

"Are you fine with me being here? I thought you wanted to talk to my sister first. Likeexplain everything that happened, reveal you guys are a couple, and so on?" Kaleb asked, fidgeting with his clothes.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Alice doesn't remember me and has thus no memories of warming up to me. She is the Frozen Duchess, you know?" Michael forced a smile on his lips.

"Youare right about that. But Alice will be confused about her progress, the loss of her territory, and the gain of several Soultrait Symbols. It will be quite difficult for me to explain to her how she now has two 7-Star Soultraits, another 6-Star Soultrait, and two new 4-Star Soultraits."

Michael shrugged, "I will stay in the room if you want, butI don't know what I will do or how I will react. It was already difficult to push you and Zeke back to your normeven then, you and Zeke are still not as close as you used to be. I know you and Zeke treat me with respect, and I thank you for that, but our relationship was more relaxed and less tense in the past. I understand how to feel or I think I understand what is going on within you since you lost all memories of me as well but I hope you can use your experience to help your sister." Michael had much more to say but decided to remain silent. Kaleb looked into Michael's golden eyes for a while and nodded.

"I'm ready," Kaleb turned around and looked at his sister.

The advanced healing serum around her dispersed. Michael retracted it back into his body, where he tried to feel how the old advanced healing serum fused with the serum he had accumulated. He would have never noticed this, but Michael couldn't look at Alice. His ears perked up when she gasped for air, but he didn't look up. If he looked up now, Michael knew everything would be over. He would do something stupid and mess up their relationship.

Michael didn't want that to happen.

"Alice!" Kaleb exclaimed and embraced Alice tightly. She groaned and pushed him away, or tried to, because Kaleb didn't move an inch with the strength she'd applied.

"Kaleb? Whatis going on here? Why are you so strong?" Alice's voice resounded in the room, piercing Michael's heart. He was forced to hold his breath and stare down to the ground.

Alice Zenovia pushed her brother away with much more force than before and sat up. Her eyes were trained on her little brother, who looked back with teary eyes.

"What the hell happened to you? How are you already Awakened and a Higher Lifeform already? And where is my territory? Nowhere are we? This doesn't look like our home or my territory. We should be in the Origin Expanse, but I have never seen or heard about a place like this," Alice looked outside for a moment and her frown deepened. She glanced over at an unfamiliar man sitting far away from the bed, unmoving like a statue. Her lips parted, but she couldn't say anything for a moment.

Kaleb noticed something in Alice's eyes and smiled even brighter than before.

"This might be a little bit hard to believe, but the last thing you can remember is several years ago. We are already older than you can remember, and a lot... like a lot, LOT happened. I don't know where I should start. There is so much to say," Kaleb exclaimed and turned to Michael.

"Where do you think I should start, Michael?"

Michael looked up but didn't glance at Kaleb. He forced a smile into Alice's ocean-blue eyes. Alice's lips parted again, but she said nothing like last time.

'Do I want to go this far instantly? She won't be able to take this much information at once. Nobut I can ask her at least.'

"Kaleb is right. Due to certain circumstances, your memories of the past caused you great harm. They changed you. We were forced to remove them permanently orwe would have to kill you" Michael's expression distorted to sadness at the thought of killing Alice. She noticed that and nodded, "...Okay"

Michael was tormented by his thoughts and about to say things he would regret. Thus, he released a burst of Qi inside him. The pain forced Michael to get his act together.

Alice sensed that Michael had done something, but she didn't respond.

"Do you want to see my memories to find out what happened, or do you want to hear about it instead? Seeing something you have forgotten might be more painful than hearing about it," Michael asked, but Alice tilted her head.

"Kaleb should have more memories with me in them. Why should I watch yours?" Alice asked coldly, yet a trace of doubt glistened in her eyes.

Michael smiled sadly, "Because I'm the only one remembering our love."