Cayden and Lapsa kept watch as Cronix prepared the energy sealing arrangements, in a small field near the end of the cemetery.

They wasted no time setting things up, but their speed coming here bothered Cayden. He frowned as he thought about how Cronix dismissed his worries earlier, and had the three of them rush here.

It only took an hour for there to be countless arrangements, his speed was so crazy when creating them, it frightened Lapsa.

When Cronix was done, he beckoned the other two over, the crow was already on his shoulder, but leaned over to her and told her to go to the middle before he turned back to the two other boys, "We only have a few hours to make this work, so let's not waste any time, Lapsa, go to the middle with her."

"You say it like that's not a long time, and couldn't you make them without a time limit?" Cayden asked.

Cronix's eyebrows began to twitch, "Do you want quantity or quality?"

"Guys enough fighting, who knows when someone will arrive, we should do this fast." Lapsa said, before walking up to the crow.

Cronix nodded, "That's a good point. Cayden, go keep watch."

Cayden followed his order, and went back to the edge of the cemetery.

Now it was only the three of them in the area. Lapsa looked at Cronix, and sighed, with a bitter smile, he approached him, "Cronix, I've been thinking about what you told me yesterday."

"Yesterday?"

"Yeah, you know, if I'm ready to kill or not." Hands fidgety, he continued, "I don't think I have a problem with killing."

Cronix's eyes narrowed, "Is that so?"

Nodding slowly, Lapsa said, "I remember when I broke into young master Topaz's room, and I was met with young master Onyx, I didn't hesitate to use the formations you gave me to try to kill him, and there was this other time..."

He trailed off when he saw Cronix was shaking his head, "I don't think that counts. You were cornered, and used what you could to get out of a bad situation, even a cornered rabbit bites. Tell me you have no trouble after you actually kill someone."

"Do you think it's possible for me to never end up in that type of situation again?" Lapsa asked, although his words were more of a joke.

Cronix laughed, and replied with, "I wish, now go back to the center."

Nodding Lapsa began walking, but he only got three steps before he stopped, "Why are you staying with the arrangements?"

"The usual energy sealing arrangements can't hide anything from a Core Creation expert, but I might be able to enhance it with my mental energy."

"Oh." Lapsa muttered, before the two finally stopped wasting time, and began working, both Lapsa and the crow stayed in the center, while Cronix stayed in the outer part of all the energy sealing arrangements.

Soon enough, a strange formless, colorless energy surrounded the formation area including Lapsa and the crow, the energy quickly infused itself into the formations, activating them.

The amount of energy sealing arrays made the area feel like there was a cloak on top of it, even the magical energy in the air was hidden.

"Cronix really is amazing." Lapsa muttered as he watched Cronix start all the formations at the exact same time.

Once the formations were activated, the crow took out all five of her stars, and Lapsa immediately focused on the task at hand.

The crow picked aside three of her stars, and began merging the remaining two together. "This is where I come in." Lapsa muttered, before he grabbed the crow, and began injecting mental energy inside her, similar to how she injected magic into Cronix.

Her mental state immediately went berserk when she felt another's energy enter her, and she was very close to exploding the two flawless stars she was about to merge, which would have instantly killed Lapsa.

However her mad state barely lasted a moment before Cronix's pendant was able to calm her down.

Lapsa didn't really understand what to do with his mental energy, so far the only planned part of their rushed idea was setting up the energy sealing arrangements.

The crow felt very uncomfortable with someone else's mental energy inside her mental expanse, but she knew it was Lapsa's, so she didn't try destroying it in her somber state.

Lapsa awkwardly stood still as he watched the crow trying to merge her stars,

What am I supposed to do now?!

Cronix frowned as he watched the two at the center,

Hurry up Lapsa!

Cayden's brows knitted together when he smelled a very peculiar smell, but it was very familiar since it only belonged to humans.

Panic was settling in Cayden's mind, and he had to think fast. He turned towards the field, and used the only idea he had in his head.

Cronix suddenly felt the earth underneath him bend, and a downward incline began forming. This kept happening until they were completely out of sight.

That was when the person came into view, they weren't anyone Cayden recognized, but their presence and his panic proved his point, they shouldn't have rushed into things.

It wasn't only him, but Cronix also realize how stupid he was to rush into things like these, and he finally noticed the clueless expression on Lapsa's face.

Lapsa was in full blown panic mode, nobody explained to him how exactly his mental energy was supposed to aid the bird, if anything it was distracting her.

My mental energy is useless if it's just lingering in her mental expanse! What am I supposed to do?

Lapsa had to think about this for a while, before a small idea brightened up his mental expanse, and he remembered something Cronix once mentioned.

Memories are infused with the mental expanse, and could be taken out, but what if I infuse my own mental energy inside her mental expanse, maybe that could enhance it.

But a frown quickly surfaced on his face,

But how do I do that? I don't even think I can, I haven't even entered my own expanse, but maybe... He can.

Lapsa turned around to Cronix, who was already looking at him. He lifted his hands up and beckoned him over.

Cronix frowned, and his mood worsened, this was just another display of how wrong he was. But he had to complete his task, so he approached Lapsa.

When he was in talking range Lapsa immediately began explaining the problem and his idea. Cronix's eyes were bright, "This idea could work, but I have no idea how to do that."

Lapsa's eyebrows tilted together, and he looked forward with downcast eyes, but he heard a sigh, and an order was given to him, "Make sure nothing goes wrong with the energy sealing arrangements."

There was a determined glint in Cronix's eyes as he stared at the crow, when Lapsa saw this a slight smile arose on his face, and he took off to take care of the arrangements.

The crow glanced at the running Lapsa, then to Cronix, before focusing back on her stars, but some of the magic energy went in to destroy Lapsa's lingering mental.

Cronix moved his fluttering hair out of his face, before putting a hand on the crows head and interjecting his mental energy inside her mental expanse.

The crow was less wary of Cronix's mental energy, considering she spent so much of her time around it, so she was able to focus more of her energy on her stars, but that wasn't the only thing her trust was allowing them to accomplish as her mental expanse became less defensive.

But Cronix couldn't do anything without being able to know what his mental energy was doing,

Wait, so if I want to help the crow, I need to be able to see what my mental energy is doing? Then I need the external eyes...

Cronix frowned, but he didn't have the time to complain, all he could do was focus. So he closed his eyes, and tried to focus.

However there was now panic appearing in his heart that was disrupting him, and there was no pendant to help him out this time.

This pressure coupled with the regret of rushing things created the biggest disturbance in his mind.

His mental energy was slowly becoming more and more chaotic. But thanks to his messy mind something else appeared in his heart, desperation.

Desperation is a great motivator and could lead to results no one expected, whether good or bad, and in this case, it was great, as Cronix could see again because of his desperation.

However his sight didn't come from his eyes, and what he was looking at wasn't the world around him, but a space. It was barren, without any energy or light, yet he could see just fine.

This... Who knew this was what I needed to be able to use the external eyes?

There was one thing in the empty mental expanse that was producing light, and it made Cronix gasp. It was a red cage holding flakes that he instantly recognized.

Most of the flakes reacted when Cronix came near, although not as strongly as the flakes in his own mental expanse.

Cronix's mental energy became shaky and even more chaotic as he backed away from the red cage.

This isn't the time to be worrying about that, but why does she have a cage too?

Cronix forcefully pushed that thought to the back of his mind and began wandering around the crow's mental expanse, his mental energy forming an avatar of his physical body.

Thinking about what to do, he suddenly remembered when he first saw the information table in action.

He destroyed it and saw his memories go back into the mental expanse. When it was absorbed it looked like its existence was fading into the expanse.

The memory confused Cronix, but it also gave him an idea. Outstretching his 'arm' he slowly began dispersing his mental energy, but he wasn't destroying it. It all dispersed into little particles of energy.

In the physical world Cronix stroked the Crow's head while whispering, "Imagine my mental energy inside your mental expanse, embrace it, make it feel like it's at home."

The crow's mental expanse was slowly being altered to accommodate Cronix's mental energy, and it was absorbed into her mental expanse.

The crow's mental state instantly sharpened, and both her speed and precision improved. She was able to tune out the outside world, so much so she didn't hear Cronix's gasp as her earliest memories became visible to him.

After he watched the Ayuna finally leave the cemetery after visiting a certain gravestone, Cayden finally noticed he stopped breathing. The relief he felt seeing them leave was tremendous.

But there was also a new feeling coming over him, it was irritable and it started off faint, but it soon began burning. There was an invisible pressure weighing down on him, but this wasn't only him.

It was even worse with Lapsa, his lower stages could barely withstand the pressure, but his situation wasn't as bad as Cronix, who was the closest to the source.

The source being the crow, as her stars were about to merge into one, and the aura was leaking out. Cronix had to use his mental energy to boost the arrangements, and to support himself.

With the support of Cronix's mental energy and a bit of Lapsa's, the energy sealing arrangements hid most of the traces of the crow's semi-Core Creation aura.

But all that changed a few seconds later when her Core Creation aura suddenly overloaded. Cronix immediately stopped supporting himself, and infused all his mental energy into the arrangements.

The arrangements were able to accommodate the crow's aura now. After a few minutes the aura subsided, and so did the arrangements, but for different reasons.

Cayden looked back at the arrangement area, and the first thing he saw was a pale faced Lapsa, his breathing was heavy.

He peeked further back, and his pupils dilated, in front of the crow were three deep blue orbs, but that wasn't what caught Cayden's eyes, but the transparent orb with a faint bronze halo surrounding it.

She did it...

...

"That's not how you...!" Ortan abruptly stopped yelling at a servant for seemingly no reason, and he looked in the direction of the cemetery, a frown evident on his face.

He could faintly sense the aura of a new Core Creation magic user, but as soon as he felt it, it vanished.

Was it my Imagination?