The fiery cat sat on Ryan's lap, as he carefully ran his hand over Finley's back. The spirit's purring made its whole body rumble.

  "So, what now?" Ryan asked, looking up at his uncle. And Runar just scratched his head in thought.

  "I'm not entirely sure. I mean... they know we have a cure for the corruption by now, they have to. You said you don't know Richard that well, but do you think you know why he just... left?"

  Ryan looked around the area, spotting the remains of the destroyed robots. Runar had slightly filled him in just now on what happened earlier. The Richie from before he was corrupted would never do something like this. He cherished his creations dearly. Not to mention, even if he didn't care about them, it just made absolutely no sense in the first place to put them here just to watch them be destroyed. Whoever hired Richie must have told him how strong Runar and Yamada are, and-

  "How did he... How did he even beat Anders?" Ryan asked, looking up at Runar.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Okay, uhm... Can you do a magic thingy to see exactly which robots you destroyed?"

  Runar raised a brow, taking out his pen, "I guess so, yeah."

  Without further ado, he wrote some strings of runes into the air, layering them on top of each other. Ryan couldn't even keep up with the speed of what was happening. A moment later, as Runar activated the spell, the robots' bodies basically repaired themselves. They weren't put back together perfectly, though, it just seemed like the individual parts were held into their former positions.

  Ryan stood up, carrying Finley because the spirit refused to leave him alone right now, and looked around, "So... you said Anders fought him here, right? So why are there no traces of a battle? I've seen how Anders fights, it's not exactly... clean. And you can't tell me that he wasn't able to take down any of the robots at all."

  "I know, it's... weird. It doesn't make any sense. But no matter how much I look, I can't find an ounce of mana belonging to anyone beside Richard, so it had to be him," Runar let out a long sigh, "But really, don't get it wrong, those robots were definitely strong. Just stronger than I would expect from a Technomancer at Richard's level."

  Ryan had a bad feeling about this, "Maybe he just used some other trick, or got the jump on him?"

  "... I'm not sure if that would be enough to beat Anders to this level. The wounds that he got made it seem like a pretty rough fight. But you're right, there's no trace of it around here. And there's no mana lingering that would make me think someone came and cleaned it all up afterward either."

  "So what, the fight didn't happen here at all? They fought somewhere else? And then Richard brought Anders' body here to make you think that they were fighting here."

  "But why would he..?"

  A moment of realization came over Runar. He pulled out his phone and quickly dialled a number that Ryan couldn't make out from where he was standing. A few moments later, Runar was talking to someone, "Lockdown protocol. Do not let anyone in or out of the havens without my explicit permission."

  "Wait, what?" Ryan asked, confused, "What do you mean?"

  Runar just glanced at his nephew for a moment, "Just a safety measure, calm down. I just don't want to risk anything, alright? I just can't figure out what they're thinking or doing, but it's all too weird to not try and be extra safe. It's going to be a bit annoying for some people, but they'll have to just deal with it."

  "You're actually just locking them in now? Dude, seriously, just-" Ryan stopped himself. He knew that fighting about this wouldn't really do anything, so he stopped himself, "You think they'd attack the havens? Now?"

  "Better safe than sorry. We can open them up again in a few days, so just calm down," Runar said as he hung up the call, dialling another number, "As long as I don't know what's happening, we're on top emergency. If they were able to take down Anders, they have some trump card that we don't know about yet."

  Ryan stared at his uncle with thinly veiled anger. Even Finley seemed to be getting a little uncomfortable laying in his arms, "Whatever. But don't stop be from going down to the caves tomorrow for the last bits of celebration."

  "... I'd rather you didn't, but if you have to, sure," Runar replied, before turning his attention back to his phone. Ryan approached the bonfire and carefully put Finley back down on it.

  He had such a bad feeling about all of this. Like something was going to pop out from a corner and turn this whole place into some kind of hellish landscape. This couldn't be all, there had to be some plan b for today. But Finley was fine, now. With the barrier that Runar had put here, they couldn't corrupt the fire spirit again.

  And... nothing happened. It was already evening, and the celebrations in the caves went on as normal, as Ryan had planned them. Things were a bit more tense than usual, because everyone down here was told of the lockdown, but Ryan was trying his best to make them relax. By now, they were enjoying the events for the day that Ryan had set up. The magic lanterns wisps of light were floating through the air, and the fire created by Maximus while he was using Granfell were also gathering quite the crowd.

  The dryads were staying in their forest the entire day, though. They really weren't the biggest fans of fire, for obvious reasons.

  Ryan was sitting on the flat roof of one of the buildings, just staring up at the crystal ceiling. He's had this weird gut feeling all day that he wasn't able to relieve, no matter what he did. He went to visit Anders, and he seemed to be doing alright. He said that he didn't remember what happened during the fight itself, but that was supposed to be more of a side-effect of the damage to the head he had taken and the rapid healing that this damage undertook afterward. The only thing he could tell them was that he fought with something with a small stature, and the way it moved sounded like one of the Roxie units like always. Maybe Richard just made one super strong version. Beside that, Anders should recover those memories with just a bit of time.

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  Then there was Yamada; she was pretty angry that Ryan had driven the bike, but after Runar spoke to her, she basically just gifted it to him. Ryan couldn't complain about that. Beside that... Ryan's mother was alright, his friends were doing great. Dimos had agreed to talk to Liam for a bit next week. Ryan even reached out to Michael to see if he was doing alright, but he had apparently just been practicing his magic control over the past week and hasn't done much else.

  Nothing seemed to be out of place. But this feeling kept chasing Ryan. He even had a nightmare about a massive lion tearing people apart, which he imagined to be the outcome of what could have happened if Finley hadn't been cured. But he was cured. Ryan was holding the proof in his hands.

  It seemed as though certain types of strong corruption left behind things like this. It was like the corruption's own 'core' that formed. Goria called it the 'Seed of blessing'... why was it created by corruption?

  There was just so much going on with him right now. Was he just being too vigilant all of a sudden? He was pretty sensitive recently. Maybe he should just take it easy and be happy that nothing was wrong. It wasn't like Ryan could do anything about it if things did happen. He had promised his uncle not to get involved unless specifically asked to.

  Ryan got out his phone and opened his browser. It was still on his university's website. He had to go talk to some course supervisors tomorrow so that he could switch to a magic track, but he still had to choose what exactly he wanted to do. Frankly, he could probably pick and choose, and the university would make it work somehow. That's how special a 'unique' class would be to them.

  Either way, figuring out what exactly Ryan wanted to learn at university was tough in the first place. He wanted to know more about spirits, but what did that even really mean? Spirits were all so... different to each other, and the spirits that were with Ryan were all somewhat different from other spirits too, as far as he could tell. Maybe he should just go with some basic classes and then figure the rest out afterward. While he was at it, he should head to the library tomorrow and learn more about what it meant to be max level, like Runar was close to.

  But before then, Ryan had to finish out the day, and distract himself from this disgusting gut feeling. He dropped his phone next to him and looked at the small plastic bag with the two seeds in them. One of them he got from Finley yesterday, and the other one he got from the lake spirit after curing it. Gaia had tried to plant one, but that hadn't done anything. Instead, Ryan probably had to take them in again to make them work.

  Goria had already supported the growth of the large one that had he had gotten from Kindly, so maybe these would do that as well. If these things were supposed to boost his growth somehow, then getting more would only make him grow faster... right?

  Ryan sat upright and let the two seeds drop into his palm. Last time, the seed was pulled into him because of his blood, but it was probably more likely to have been the mana inside of his blood. It was quite concentrated in there; there was a reason why vampires fed on blood, after all. Ryan pushed out some mana, and the moment it came in contact with the seeds, they crumbled away into nothing, disappearing just like that.

  But they didn't disappear fully, and instead, Ryan could feel a slight twinge in the corner of his eye, with a subtle headache coming on.

  "Urgh..." he groaned, grabbing his head as he looked inward. Something was quickly happening in the space between the domains. Until now, there had only been that young tree sitting on a mound in the centre of the pond created by Goria. But now, around the tree's base, a thick layer of grass was growing. Beside that, a small layer of moss appeared on the side of the tree. He wasn't sure if anything else changed, but somehow, his mind seemed a bit clearer. Like the air in his mind was cleaner now.

  Ryan took a deep breath, "Well, it seems to have some effect, at least."

  With a smile, he stood up, looking down at everyone that was excitedly watching Maximus. He noticed one of them looking toward him and waving. They were saying something, but Ryan couldn't understand them. It was just buzzing, and whirring, like someone was yelling through ten layers of fabric. There was a slight whistle in the background there as well, which was growing louder and louder, as Ryan felt something went on his lip.

  He touched his hand to it and took a look. His fingertips were covered in blood. An intense dizziness came over Ryan, as his sight turned blurry. Losing balance, he fell forward over the rooftop's edge. Of course, the building was just a story tall, so it wasn't a long fall, but dropping down head-first still wasn't the safest thing around.

  Ryan pressed his eyes shut, since his body didn't seem to respond to what he was telling it to do. He mentally braced himself for impact, but... nothing happened. Ryan opened his eyes, looking straight at a wardrobe. Now, he could feel the pressure of Kindly's 'arms' pushing up against him.

  With a long groan, Ryan forced himself to smile while pressing his nose shut, "Thanks for catching me, buddy."

  Kindly slowly let Ryan back down. Though he felt quite unsteady on his feet, it was a lot better already. He had no idea what that just was, but Maximus had definitely noticed it. He was coming up to Ryan with a box of tissues that he grabbed from Runar's office, and he quickly grabbed some to press against his nose, "Thanks."

  'Maybe that was a bit too much...'

  He should be more careful from now on. But at least it was over now. Though, as he thought that to himself, Ryan noticed that in the brief moment where he hadn't paid attention, the seeds of blessing in his mind had... grown. Just a moment ago, the fresh grass and moss were just small patches, but everything was just way... more. The tree had grown up a hefty amount, and the grass was thicker and covered even beyond the confines of the pond. The moss was growing onto the ground, which was now covered in actual dirt and stone.

  It seemed like that rapid growth just now was what made Ryan nearly faint. With an awkward laugh, Ryan tried to laugh it off, trying to calm down everyone that had just seen him fall. He convinced them to continue on with their celebrations, and though most of them ended up doing so, a few individuals stuck by him almost like glue.

  For one, Kindly was standing next to him the whole time now, with one of his tentacles always halfway reaching out to Ryan in case he fell down again. He wanted to calm the mimic down a bit, but saying that he wasn't going to faint again felt like a bit deceitful. Really, he didn't know that for sure. But he did wish that the spirits wouldn't be so worried. They in particular must have noticed that something was wrong with Ryan for a few moments there. It was like his mana was still reeling from what just happened.

  Either way, for now, Ryan just had to take it easy. He took out his phone again. There should be a stream of the bonfire plaza's celebrations being shown right now. It should be quite close to sunset, so the switch from bonfire to fireworks should be starting soon. He also planned something similar for this today, so he wanted to make sure he got the timing right.

  With a tissue held against his nose, Ryan looked at the livestream. The fire was raging, and people seemed to be having fun. The camera was pointed right at the bonfire, and soon, Ryan could see something moving inside of it. A small red cat was moving onto the flames, like sitting on the peak of a mountain.

  But something was wrong. Finley was swaying back and forth. He started coughing and convulsing. It looked like Finley was choking on something. The flames that made up his body grew darker. They grew... black. A deep, ugly black. Finley's body grew larger, the flames clearly hotter. The bonfire collapsed, and within it, a large, black lion stood, growling at the people. And then, a large flash appeared, completely blocking out the camera's view, distorting it to the point of not being able to see anything at all.

  Then, the stream cut out.