-I swear I feel like I am trapped in a loop…

While I was just mumbling to myself and complaining, I was very close to the truth. After all, all I have been doing recently was just wandering from the other end of the castle to another, for seemingly stupid reasons, sometimes even without one.

I really was hoping that was going to end sooner or later…

When we arrived at the, well, laboratory, or maybe just Eise’s living quarters I dropped Goldie right next to the door, as far away from the shelves as possible and went to work.

Not wasting time, I started looking for some kind of gloves, or a piece of material that would help me handle all that mana infused stuff, and found it pretty quickly.

I think it was a similar set to the one I’ve seen Eise wear before: a pair of black gloves. Those were barely able to fit on my hands, but were good enough for my needs at that moment.

I quickly scoured through the supplies and found a small mana fruit.

I don’t know how it got there, nor really did I care, but what was important was the fact that it was full of mana. It was not the largest specimen though, if I was to try and compare, it was just a bit more potent than what I’d consider average.

I took the fruit and showed it to ILMA.

-How many of those would we need to rejuvenate “the entity”, ILMA?

She was still holding For, I kind of forgot to tell her to just drop her wherever.

She stared at the fruit for a good moment.

-1325 is required to bring the entity to full strength. Error margin of 10%.

-One thou… what the fuck?!

I expected many answers, but that was not one of them.

At the worst scenario I thought that I’d get a number in double digits, but a thousand?!

Just to make sure, I decided to ask her again, this time, a bit more precisely.

-Okay… ILMA, so you say we need over a thousand of those to just wake For up from a coma? Are you sure?

-Recalculating. To awaken entity For, the required number is 14. Error margin of 10%.

-That sounds a lot more reasonable!

But wait… why a thousand before?

Did that mean that For had a capacity of over thousand mana fruit?

Even to me where it was a bit of a stretch. That kind of mana was what you’d expect from a small leyline, or maybe even an Origin Crystal, not a person! And I knew what I was talking about, I was one of those!

Well, to be fair, I was already proven to be wrong on multiple occasions, especially in the department of my own mana capacity lately, thanks to the appearance of Iloa, then her disappearance.

Still, that was not what was the biggest problem here.

There was not even remotely enough of the fruits.

I scoured through the whole room and then the floor below, and I found less than ten of those. It was weird, I could’ve sworn that there used to be a lot more here…

Upon a closer inspection I realized that it was not just in my head: there really was stuff missing.

Especially the floor below, where the storage room was. Where once the fully stocked shelves and crates were, there was now nothing. Crates and bags were empty, some piles of herbs straight up gone.

On the main floor there was the same problem with potions or whatever else she stored in those bottles: some missing, some moved to a different place.

It was like someone just broke in.

I mean, that’s a strange way of saying that about the room that wasn’t even locked, but that’s what it looked like: like someone hastily was grabbing stuff from the shelves, looking for something, and meanwhile was taking other interesting stuff they found…

Besides the fact that there was no one else besides us on the island, it was doubly weird because I was pretty sure that only Eise knew what exactly was in each bottle.

Hell, even she probably had some issues remembering all that stuff, considering the fact that everything was scattered all over the place.

Sure, I was able to tell which one was magical, or rather infused, but that did not help at all. After all, the whole lab was used to produce stuff to regenerate mana in the first place.

Speaking of. Wouldn't it be possible to use some of those to resuscitate her? That’s what the whole point of this place was.

-ILMA, isn’t there something else in here with enough mana to revive her? - I asked before I started looking by myself.

-Affirmative. I have found 2651 objects with enough mana capacity that would be able to serve as mana source for the task.

-Holy…

I mean, I knew that there was a lot of stuff in there, but that was still a bit much. Especially after someone taking most of the stuff…

But wait, did she consider those potions too? That cannot be safe…

-Err, can you recalculate that ILMA, but without using potentially hazardous substances…?

-Calculating.

That took her longer than I thought it should.

-Found 27 objects. Approximately 23 are needed for the resuscitation.

-Now that sounds a lot more doable. Point those out to me, ILMA.

With her help I managed to find the items in question.

Those were actually quite mundane. Besides the fruit that I found before, she managed to guide me to one more plus some pieces of dried herbs. Those indeed looked infused, but I was not able to recognize them.

The last one though was a bottle.

-I don’t feel like drinking or even using a random bottle from that shelf… ILMA, what’s in this?

-Contents consist of: infused water, extract from ginger, garlic, pepper, salt, peppermint, radish, rose petals…

-Okay, okay, I get it, wrong question - I said, sighing. - I mean what’s the effect going to be if I drink this, ILMA?

-Ingestion results in: mana regeneration and diarrhea.

-Oh, fucking great combo, Eise, congrats… Do I have to drink this, ILMA? I kind of don’t want to figure out what would my stone ass produce…

-Negative. Absorption through skin contact is possible and recommended.

-Ah! That’s a lot less annoying. Start preparing, ILMA.

-Preparation unnecessary.

-Even better. Let’s start then, ILMA.

-Affirmative.

With that, she approached the pile of ingredients that I placed next to For and picked up the bottle.

With one swift motion she opened it and poured all of the contents onto the rest of the stuff.

The reaction was immediate.

Just like in the case of my hand, the ingredients started melting. In a matter of seconds, the pile of mana fruit and random herbs that I gathered from all over the house turned into goo and started steaming.

Smell was less than pleasant. The mix of the herbs that were apparently included in the potion was enough to make your stomach churn, and when she added the rest of the stuff it only magnified the effect.

She was not disturbed by anything though.

She waited until all of the continents were covered in the potion just to unceremoniously put her whole hand inside that steaming pile of shit.

Even without my enhanced sight I was pretty sure that It had to be painful, even on her emotionless face I could see a hint of discomfort. Considering the fact that up till now I have not seen her face turn at all, the strain she had to be under had to be immense.

And to confirm that observation, what I was seeing with my enhanced sight was… disturbing to say the least.

At first, it looked just like in case of her waking up, or trying to wake up Kon.

The multiple waves and colors of mana merging and weaving inside one another, just to start merging together into one color.

And yet, that was not the end.

Just as the mana “stabilized” so to say, she placed her other hand on the body, and the process began anew, this time with For joining in on the fun…

Weirdly, not only her.

As the flow of mana started “washing” through her, a similar process started to Goldie, to my absolute horror.

All the time I have been keeping an eye on him, just to be safe and to have an early warning if he was to regain mana seemingly out of the blue like the last time.

So I immediately noticed that anomaly.

But, even though the mana was definitely flowing through both of them, they still were as unconscious as before.

For did stir a couple of times. I thought. I hoped.

But that was not even close to waking up.

-I see not much of a success, IL…

But before I was able to finish my sentence, something hit me.

And not just a thought or some amazing idea that would help us magically in the current situation, no.

What hit me was a constant stream of mana.

At first, I got startled.

An unknown source of mana that just gifts it to you?

Yeah, I doubt that.

Whoever or whatever was trying to connect to me, was smart.

And not just smart because I said so, no. It was sentient.

A familiar feeling again.

Being incomplete, feeling lack of something.

Along with the pictures of nothingness.

And in one of them, there was a small singular building that definitely looked very similar to quarters of the MIRE. At least what it used to be. After all, it’s in ruins currently… thanks to some developments.

It felt very similar to when I got connected to everyone else.

Before I was able to process it fully, it changed.

And this time it looked very familiar.

Red Edge.

I heard the voice.

For the first time, during a vision I heard a voice.

Not artificial one, nor one through and to your own mind.

This one was just plain old talking.

Speaking of, those who I “accidentally” was spying on seemed to have a pretty heated conversation about something.

-We are close…

It was definitely Axelrod.

And… Odar? Or wait… Jacob? Jack? More voices…?

The vision shifted again. This time I was looking through someone’s eyes… it had to be Axelrod.

I shook my head, not sure if my mind was playing tricks on me.

I definitely was hearing them. Yet Axelrod was alone, standing there, waiting for something.

Suddenly, the voices stopped.

He was still on that small island with the tablet I landed on earlier, although this time, it was changed a bit.

The tablet was broken. It looked like someone had cracked it with something, like it was struck with something heavy.

Just as I noticed that, Axelrod turned away from the broken stone and instead started looking away, towards the edge of the world, the large waterfalls.

The falls… looked different.

I already got used to seeing the strange fog-laced edge that loomed constantly at the end of the horizon. Even the misty mana that was constantly blocking the view on the water was already sort of normal to me.

That’s why I instantly noticed the difference.

Right where he was looking, there was some kind of disturbance happening. Considering the size of the overall falls, it was small, I would say not bigger than just a dot in the distance, but it was undeniably there.

A dot in the magical fog that was brighter than anything, indicating that whatever that was, it had a lot of mana to it.

Suddenly, it cracked.

It was just visible for a split second, like lightning. It forked from the dot spreading quickly and disappearing just as fast, but instead of being full of mana, it was the opposite. It was completely dark.

It was a strange sight. I got used to seeing mana flames and I have already seen many shapes, colors and sizes, but not black.

As that weird black lightning vanished, so did the dot, and, surprisingly, the mana fog. It was just a split second, but I was able to see further beyond it, seeing a blue sky behind.

Just as that happened, I suddenly felt absolute overwhelming happiness. It was definitely not coming from me though. Thanks to the connection to Axelrod, I felt what he was feeling, and he right now started laughing hysterically.

-IT WORKED! IT WORKED!

He yelled to the sky. Just like some mad man.

-YOU HEARD ME?! I AM COMING BACK!

Yeah, I heard him alright. And not only me.

Next to me, I started feeling movement.

I tried snapping out of that strange trance, but for naught, I was still trapped in his laughing mind, albeit half-way.

With some strain I managed to take control over my own senses, too, essentially seeing double… well, if I was to consider my “mana sight” it would be triple. It was annoying and hard to focus on, but nevertheless I wanted to check what exactly was moving next to me.

I fully expected it to be Goldie attacking me again for messing with his head, and I was not completely wrong.

It was him, but instead of attacking, he was still lying on the floor and… he was laughing. He wasn’t the only one though. Just like him, For was also having a good chuckle next to a wall, and even Kon, with his own voice this time, still touching For, was laughing as well. Hell, even I was laughing.

That was eerie to say the least.

I blame Axelrod for all of this.

It was clear that the connection to Axelrod extended further than ever before. Was that my fault though? I only connected to Caleb… Was it possible that he took over that connection and spread… like some kind of virus?

Iloa did say that reversing such a link was possible, but complicated, so had a tough time believing that he did it subconsciously. After all, he didn’t try to contact anyone at all, just was doing his own thing without care in the world.

If he would’ve known that something like this was happening, if he was to do it on purpose, would he show us, or me in this case, it all? Or he didn’t care at all if someone saw him?

Or, did he just expect for me to be lying on the ground, unconscious, just like the three people in front of me?

There was no time for questions, because the connection was still strong and ongoing. And Axelrod finally stopped laughing.

He took a deep breath and looked once more unto the horizon.

The forked black lightning and the dot were gone, leaving absolutely no trace.

-I need more… I need to get them faster…

I heard myself talk in unison with him and all others lying on the floor.

I think he finally noticed that he was not alone, because he suddenly stiffened.

-Mrgh… annoying…

He sat down right next to the broken stone and closed his eyes.

And that was the last image I saw from that vision.