As Ryan's foot pushed down onto the foam, it began to let off a soft glow that only grew stronger as he put more weight onto it. It felt unusual to walk on this, as the bubbles did give way to some degree, almost like walking on a bumpy rubber mat. Either way, seeing how confidently the others were walking, Ryan knew that there was nothing to really worry about.

  Gaia and Maximus were back inside of their domains, since Ryan was going to be too far away from where they could wait otherwise. Not just because he didn't know if they would actually not get wet, but also because of the crowd that was forming on top of the lake, Ryan didn't want them to get caught up in anything. As the dark lake was suddenly filled with a rainbow of light, the crowd came together, reaching the place on the lake that most of the bubbles seemed to converge. As more people gathered, the show also continued. Besides the small bubbles that formed the foam, there were some that were pushing their way through that layer, softly floating up into the sky. But they weren't just regular bubbles, rather, they were parts of the lake that seemed to be lifted out. Ryan could actually spot a few that carried a few very confused fish in them.

  Not long after Ryan reached the middle of the lake, the bubbles that were carried into the air had become so many that it was hard to see what was beyond them. Their water reflected the light from the glowing foam, almost appearing like they themself were letting off a soft light. But as time went on, the bubbles carried out from the water only became larger, carrying more water with them. There were some people that were almost waiting for the larger bubbles, jumping into them, swimming in the orbs of water. From down below, there were actually some aquarian folk that were brought along for the journey, happily waving at the crowd that had been waiting on top.

  Ryan could see the happy expressions of everyone around him as they were looking at the beautiful sight surrounding them. But this was still only part of the show. The bubbles continued to float upward in a spiral, finally reaching a peak what seemed to be hundreds of metres in the air.

  The light from the lake was reflected upward and upward, shining through the bubbles and glittering like the stars as the raindrops fell down onto them. And that rain itself was also starting to feel different, as if the droplets were a bit too slow. Before long, that became even more blatant, and the droplets were just floating there. Just by blowing in their direction, you could push them away like gravity had just completely turned off for them.

  When the droplets began to move toward the bubbles, bouncing up and down from them in every direction, they bubbles began to give off soft metallic percussion sounds like that of rain drums, and a melody sounded out through the area.

  It was truly a sight that you couldn't see every single day. Massive amounts of magic and a ridiculous level of degree were needed to achieve something like this, that was obvious to anyone even if they had no idea about magic at all. The view from outside the lake must already be amazing, but standing here below the bubbles and droplets was a whole other experience that Ryan couldn't compare to anything else he had seen so far. And that seemed to be the case for almost anyone that was standing here beside him. Both Yanna and Silvia had a glitter in their eyes that even they rarely showed, though they were already on the more easily excitable side of things.

  [Jester's Excitement has risen considerably]

  And it seemed like Ryan was the only one that thought so. For the first time, the message read 'considerably' instead of slightly. This meant that they were on the right track. There had to be something else here, right?

  Leaning over toward Silvia, he whispered into her ear, "Jester's nearly there, is there anything else?"

  The elf raised her brows, quickly rattling her brain, "Uh, I... Right, yes! There was one last thing! It only happens every four years, but the spirit of the lake is coming out to join the celebration!"

  Ryan smiled lightly, "Really? Hell yeah, that should-" he started, though the moment he said so, a bad sensation filled the pit of his stomach, "Hold on, just... no..."

  He let out a long groan as he watched something appear from underneath the water. It was mountainous and dark, with bulging warts all over its body. A massive toad covered in algae peaked its head out, as people let out an excited smile. Ryan turned over to Silvia, "Is that what the spirit is supposed to look like?"

  Silvia nervously shook her head, "I don't... I don't think so..? Is that..?"

  "Aaargh fuuuck," Ryan yelled out, frustrated, as the people directly next to him stared right at him, "What're you lookin' at?"

  The bubbles at the top of the spiral started to act weird. Silvia had explained what was supposed to happen a little bit earlier, and apparently the bubbles should just carefully lower back into the water, softly letting down anyone that might be swimming in them. But now, they were quaking rapidly, falling apart. The rhythm of the rain drums was starting to distort, and rather than being a calming, natural melody, it was a forceful song that seemed to assault the senses. Slowly but surely, everyone realized that something was going on. With how heavy the air was getting, there was no way that it wouldn't be obvious even to those that didn't have Ryan's intuition.

  And then, the water came crashing down, all at once, as if gravity had returned to all of it. The foam underneath the people on the lake gave way, and Ryan quickly found the glowing foam clinging to his skin.

  He didn't know what was going on, and the situation was getting worse by the second. People were panicking, trying to kick at the water to swim back to shore. Ryan felt some people hitting his shoulder and someone even kicked his face, and more than one person pushed him down under the water in a panic.

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  Ryan was also starting to freak out as the air in his lungs was forcefully pushed out by his body, but he could feel Tiar's calming squeeze on his arm. A symbiote was a being closely connected to water. They were born within it, and they held its essence deeply. Maybe that was why Tiar's influence was enough to let Ryan calm down. He soon saw his friends beside him. Yanna seemed to have regained her composure rather quickly and was trying to figure out where Ryan and Silvia were. Ryan himself quickly pushed through to the surface and gasped for air.

  "Ryan, did you see Silvia?! Where's Silvia, she-" Yanna asked anxiously, and Ryan immediately dove down under the water before she was even able to finish her sentence. Luckily, the foam was still letting off its glow, even if it had weakened considerably, and was lighting up the surrounding area. Spotting Silvia quickly, Ryan dove down. Silvia wasn't moving, sinking down deeper into the water.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her up, trying to find a gap between the people pushing each other away. Once at the top, Ryan pushed Silvia toward her sister, and quickly looked into the Minotaur's eyes, "Bring her to shore! And then find my bag, I have a small bottle in there with a greenish copper colour! Tell Runar to get it to me somehow!"

  "Runar? Your uncle? But-"

  "Just do it!" Ryan didn't give her time to question him as he turned around, swimming toward the massive toad that had to be cause of all this. It was just sitting there on top of the water, menacingly staring at the havoc that it was causing. The spirit of the lake was already corrupted. Ryan figured that Richie would have done something to spirits beside just Maribelle, but to think that they would do it right before today. This was probably the worst place something like this could happen.

  "Fuck-" Ryan swam toward the toad as fast as he could. He would need to somehow cure it from this state, but he wasn't sure if he could do the exact same thing as before with Maribelle. Or rather, he was fairly certain he couldn't. Even if he could douse the toad in the cure once he got his hands on it, it was raining, and worst case, it could simply submerge and effectively make Ryan waste part of the cure. If only it weren't raining. Toads absorbed things through their skin incredibly easily, so the cure should be pretty effective otherwise.

  Whichever the case, Ryan was fairly certain that the corruption couldn't spread through touch anymore. Otherwise, Richie would have infected anyone that he came across. Not to mention, though the toad spirit seemed clearly corrupted, there was none of that black gunk that Ryan knew he needed to avoid.

  Basically rolling a die, Ryan grabbed onto the side of the toad's body. Its body felt disgusting, beyond just the bumpy sliminess. Mentally, it felt like he was pushing his hand into a dirty trashcan in a bathroom to the point he wanted to throw up. Corruption really felt disgusting. Even so, Ryan had to do his best. He climbed onto the toad's body, and by the time he got out of the water, the bulging eye on its right side was staring at him.

  The toad shook its body, trying to get Ryan off, but he simply dug his fingers deeper into its soft skin. It pulled back in pain, just shaking harder than before, and slowly but surely, Ryan was sliding off.

  "Gaia!" Ryan exclaimed, and the golem almost immediately stepped out of her domain, appearing on the toad spirit's back at double her normal size. Ryan watched as the toad's legs sprawled out, and Gaia quickly pulled him up onto the spirit's back. For now, if he could pin it down like this, then that was great, but he had to make sure to unsummon Gaia right away if things got worse.

  Looking into the distance, Ryan was trying to find Yanna to see how close she was to reaching the beach, but it was too dark to see anything at all. Some people had turned on torches or other lamps but that wasn't enough for Ryan to be able to tell what was going on there.

  But there was one thing that he did quickly spot, and that was a light, distant glow that was clearly of magical nature. Feeling in his gut that he had to hurry, Ryan regained his composure and jumped up, stretching his hand up as far as he could. And as if guided there, the glass bottle with the concentrated cure landed in his hand immediately.

  Ryan fumbled with the bottle's lid. His hands were too slippery from the toad's slimy body; he wasn't able to open it up.

  "Godsdammit!" with an angry yell, Ryan tried to use his teeth to turn the lid, but as he was trying, the toad spirit was starting to fight back more actively. It pushed itself off the water as if it were solid ground, trying to shake Gaia and Ryan off. He could already feel himself lose balance, and that was definitely going to just be worse for Gaia, so he pulled her back into her domain. Once her weight disappeared from the toad's body, it jumped into the air. It clearly hadn't intended to do so, but with a two metre tall golem suddenly disappearing from its back, its attempts to get back up were rather overwhelming.

  It jumped a few metres into the air and Ryan was unable to keep holding on. He fell back into the water right next to the toad, letting go of the bottle in the process. At least it was still closed, so the cure wasn't lost, but Ryan had to scramble to get it back, only barely grabbing it before it was too late. Not to mention, he wasn't on top of the toad anymore, which was even worse.

  The corrupted spirit stared right at him, and a moment later, its tongue darted out at his upper body. The water splashed all around him as the punch-like impact struck his chest. Like glue, the tongue stuck to him and pulled Ryan toward the toad, and he could see himself get closer and closer to the dark abyss that was the toad's mouth.

  "M-Maximus!" as Ryan yelled this out, the knight jumped out of his domain with the dagger Ripper in his hand, and he immediately cut into the toad's tongue. Before it was able to close its massive mouth around Ryan's body, he was able to jump out and climb back onto its back. By now, it seemed as though the mages realized that something was going on and were trying to see things better, so the rain started fading away. Ryan practically tore the lid off the bottle with his teeth the moment he felt the rain had gone down enough, and then poured the liquid out onto the toad's back. He could see it being pulled in almost immediately, and was trying to pool as much of it as he could with his arms to keep it on the toad's back.

  The spirit convulsed in pain as its skin began to crack like clay, as if the cure completely dried out its skin. It convulsed on top of the water, and slowly began to sink back into the lake as if it were some kind of swamp rather than the regular water that it was.

  Ryan took heavy breaths, quickly pulling Maximus back into his domain before he sank down into the water. Soon enough, the mages had decided to put a spotlight on the area as an orb of light appeared in the sky to give them a proper view of the situation. But all they saw was a single young man still left in the water, before he quickly dove down. He had no time to worry about who could see him.

  He swam down to the toad as it was trying to tear its skin off of its own body. Realizing what was going on, Ryan got to it and helped, pulling away the corrupted skin. Layer by layer, he was removing what was there, and the bits that were pulled off simply crumbled away without another trace.

  At some point, the toad stopped. Its body went limp, as if it was unconscious. Ryan's mind began to race as the rest of the toad's body began to fall apart as well.

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