Before today, none of Caroline, Jason, Aimee and Thomas knew that Josephine Wong could cook. And to their surprise, they were not aware that her go-to was some kind of fusion cuisine.

“Baked potatoes with pieces of fish stuffed inside, steamed Manchurian rice with some sticky rice mixed in, fresh tofu soup with seafood made with slow cooked fish bone soup broth and various fish from the lake in the farm, fresh thinly sliced deep water fish from the lake - it’s edible fresh and raw according to Jianmen’s notes. I don’t know what it will taste like, so I’ll just make it a sashimi. Here’ some steamed vegetables, marinated venison steak cooked to medium, and broiled salmon.” Josephine Walked stood in front of the table and said: “Most of the food and materials are from the farm here - except for the salmon and the rice. So, eat them slowly, they have the ability to help you regenerate and heal, they are quite potent yet still gentle, but they will also fill you up very quickly.”

“Thanks for the treat, Ms. Wong.” Caroline asked with some level of hesitation: “But - can you tell me anything about Boss?”

“Patience, Caroline, we went through several traumatic events today, if Boss needs a ton of time to heal, then we’d be in no rush huh?” Jason said.

“I understand your eagerness to know.” Josephine Wong sat down by the table and said: “Believe me, I remember my first time seeing him injured like that. It’s horrifying, but it’s the nature of the kind of power he wields.”

“And what kind of power is that?” Caroline asked.

“Karma.” Josephine Wong nodded and answered: “The laws of cause and effect. I won’t go into it for obvious reasons. But one thing you should definitely know is that, it is a kind of power that even the gods cannot wield without cost. When that, uh, that ENEMY broke out of some kind of prison and trap established by someone under the Clearwater Municipal Hospital, my team fought against it, and we were losing. I had to use a very powerful one time artifact against it - but I was also severely, and almost fatally wounded. And just like what he had done so many times before, Jianmen came in and saved me and pursued the enemy. Then he encountered something in this pursuit, and he thus got injured, both from the fight, and from using his power.”

“When will he wake up?” Rash asked: “That kind of wound - I don’t suppose very soon?”

“Not very soon. Unfortunately.” Josephine Wong sighed: “And he’s still conscious, he just needs a lot of time to rest and heal. He woke up one time since I’ve been here. All he could tell me was but a few things. And what he told me worried me, which was one of the reasons I had to get you out of the academy the moment I learned that the academy was no longer safe. ”

“There’s so much information there - I’m not sure where to even start.” Thomas was chewing a piece of thick venison steak, then he laid down his fork and said.

“Start with the most basic of things then, which question troubles you the most?” Josephine Wong asked while gently stirring her tea.

“Clearwater Municipal Hospital.” Jason cut Thomas off with a concerned look on his face: “What was trapped in it? What kind of enemy are we talking about here?”

“I - I have the same question.” Caroline raised her hand.

“Defilers.” Josephine Wong sighed: “This I CAN actually get into some of the details - because the rules are quite different and tricky regarding this kind of subject.” Then she gave Rash a look: “Correct me if I’m wrong or missing something Rash, I think you might know more about them than all of us here.

“Think of pollutants or toxic chemicals that are hazardous - they are technically from the very nature in which beautiful organic lives like birds, frogs and dolphins inhibit. But they are processed, and in our case, twisted and born out of some kind of sickness that existed as long as the order that kept the world going and universe functioning.” Josephine Wong drew a holographic image of a virus/bacteria in the air with her finger: “One aspect of the core natures of defilers is that they are pollutants, they are born from chaos and nothingness. But they are also much more than that - think of it this way: they are pollutants with minds of their own, they crave chaos, corruption and destruction.”

“So they’re like walking malice.” Thomas said.

“No, it’s way worse, because even malice has its own order, its own rules.” Rash shook his head: “Malice is born from strong negative emotions and insanity, which is still within the spectrum of order, the kinda order that often escapes sane minds, but still order nonetheless.”

“They do bear some resemblance to malice, or should I say malice bears resemblance to them.” Josephine Wong continued: “Which is, they do need some kind of order and existence to function, even though they spread chaos, corruption and nothingness and their powers come from it. It’s like the relationship between clustered malice and sanity.

“The one that was trapped under Clearwater Municipal Hospital, by malice no less, was a relatively young and weaker defiler. And the time Jianmen woke up, he told me that he encountered a more powerful one, one that could only project an avatar here due to the rules of the universe, one that he had never seen before. So he decided to use the strongest spell he could conjure at that instant. And his injuries were the result of that spell. ”

“... and the fact that we’re all alive is evidence that he did indeed strike that avatar of the greater defiler pretty hard.” Rash chuckled.

“Wow - okay, that’s depressing to hear.” Thomas exchanged looks with Aimee: “And I thought being a Grant Academy graduate was close enough to the power ceiling. But if the defilers are so powerful - how come we’re still here?”

“Well, as harbingers of destruction and nothingness, they can’t exactly go wherever they want and stay wherever they want.” Josephine Wong said: “For example, summoning a portal might not be too hard for a regular power wielder. But for them, they literally had to sacrifice parts of their very being in order to teleport through a short distance.”

“But - who the hell trapped that defiler under the fucking haunted hospital?” Jason asked: “I’ve been in there! The paranormal presence in that place was crazy, I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it. You’re saying someone literally used malice to trap a harbinger of death in there?”

“Believe me, we are just as confused, if not more.” Josephine Wong sighed: “A lot of records about that hospital have been scrubbed, something must have been really, really bad for that amount of cover up to be undertaken. But, before we proceed, I need to tell you something, it’s about your families.”