"Cayden, Cronix, what happened?!" A girl's voice sounded out in the area, which caused both Cayden and Lapsa to freeze, neither one of them brought anything to shield themselves.

Yet the only one who wasn't worried was Kara, who simply gathered the dark elements to quickly surround all of their bodies.

By the time Wendril arrived, the two of them, plus Cronix, were all covered with the dark elements, masking all their animal characteristics, while also hiding her.

But the dark elements didn't mask all the blood that surrounded Cronix's body.

Wendril gasped when she saw it, "Oh my goodness, is he dead?!"

Cayden shook his head, and said with a relieved voice, "No, I can still hear his heartbeat."

Despite the reassurance, Wendril still looked concerned, and she didn't notice the oddity in Cayden's words. Wendril's reaction caused a strange feeling to rise in Lapsa's chest, and he asked, "Have you ever seen a dead body before?"

"Well... Not exactly..." Wendril trailed off, Lapsa could tell she was getting uncomfortable with the topic. But he couldn't stop his lips from having a slight curve upwards.

So my reaction to death isn't strange...

Cayden didn't heed any attention to their exchange, instead he chose to grab Cronix by his sides and hoist him over his shoulder.

He then turned around to take him inside, but when he saw the holes in the walls, he sighed, and asked, "Wendril, do you think we can get this repaired?"

Wendril thought about it for a while, bouncing her head from left to right, "In your case, it's a bit... Complicated. Because of the deal you guys made, you kinda own the residence..."

Cayden nodded, and interrupted her, "Okay, so how much do we have to pay for repairs."

"Wait, let me finish. I said 'kinda', you guys don't actually own the residence, you just don't pay for the rent, and if this had happened to a normal customer, we would've just charged more on their rent, and fixed it ourselves. So technically, you don't have to pay a crystal, and we'll fix it."

Cayden and Lapsa looked at each other, they both smiled knowing they have to worry too much living here.

But Wendril suddenly frowned, "Usually, we would have workers to deal with this sort of stuff, but... We've been having a bit of trouble, so..." Wendril let out an exaggerated breath, "I'm going to be having to do the repairs myself."

When she turned to their residence, and the mess they left it in, she wanted to cry, "How about I just take you guys to another building, and I can take my time cleaning this... Disaster?"

"Yeah, we can do that, just give us a few minutes to collect our things." Cayden said, before motioning Lapsa to come with him inside.

Wendril stayed outside, still taking in how much they wrecked the residence.

Inside, Cayden and Lapsa collected their things, with Cayden taking Cronix's magic bag to also collect all of Cronix's research.

This only took about thirty minutes, and they went back outside, where Wendril was cleaning up the scattered bits of wood while she waited.

When she saw them, she stopped what she was doing, and put the wood in her magic bag, "You guys ready?"

Cayden nodded, while lifting the dirt next to him into a bed shape, and placing Cronix onto it. He then manipulated the earth to lift into the air for easier travel.

"Good, follow me." Wendril said, guiding the two boys, and hidden bird, to the next residence. Ignoring the pain in her heart when Cayden destroyed more of the yard.

It didn't take long for them to reach their new residence, and after seeing them off, Wendril left for Madame Potpourri's office.

"Do we have any spare wood?" Wendril asked the madame as she entered the office.

Madame Potpourri frowned, "Why do you need wood?"

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Our... Guests... May have severely damaged the residence they were staying at." Wendril said, while leaning against the chair in front of the desk, choosing her words very carefully.

"Severely damaged? As in destroyed!?"

Without any idea how to lighten the words, Wendril just gave a direct answer, "Yes."

Madame Potpourri pinched the area between her eyebrows, and asked, "Did you charge them?"

"No, our policy is to increase our rent, but they don't have to pay rent, so they technically get it free of charge." Wendril explained.

"I'm assuming since we are... Understaffed, you'll be doing these repairs yourself." The madame took a deep breath, "You should've told them they had to pay, that way, you'll at least get something out of this."

But Wendril shook her head to those words, "That would be lying Madame Potpourri, I'm not going to do that, and besides, we haven't really been keeping our part of the deal. I mean have we given them any resources?"

Madame Potpourri chuckled, and muttered, "I raised you, yet you still take after your parents." She went silent after that, thinking about what she was going to do.

After a few seconds of thinking, the madame made a decision, "I'm going to hire someone else to repair the residence they destroyed. You should prepare for Transition Day, and while you're at it, find out what they need. Tell them I hope they all enter the flawless Caster stage by the time of the focuser game."

Wendril nodded, and left the office, feeling a bit relieved she wasn't the one fixing the residence.

...

Cronix woke up a few hours later, floating in the mental expanse. The ice wraith's blue light and the red cage's light both illuminating his surroundings.

"So I'm back here." Cronix floated upright, and examined his surroundings, he first looked at the ice wraith, since all his mental energy was being drawn to its direction.

The ice wraith's hands and feet were fully formed, their completed look resembled a human in shape only, the actual visual look was completely blue like glacier ice, and it didn't look completely solid.

As for the rest of the body, there were little bits forming in their places, such as the torso, and the legs and arms.

Cronix smiled, and looked into its eyes, the eyeballs were translucent, but the irises and pupils were nowhere to be seen.

After looking over the wraith, Cronix shifted his attention to the only other thing illuminating his expanse.

The red cage containing his memories.

But unlike with the ice wraith, Cronix stayed far away from the cage, only watching it from a distance.

After making sure there were no changes within the cage, he left the mental expanse. When Cronix opened his real eyes, and sat up, he found himself on a bed, in a familiar yet different room.

The layout of this room was exactly the same as his old one, but he could tell this was different, by how the room wasn't destroyed, and the different shade of purple.

"So, we got a new house... I wonder how they managed that." Cronix mumbled, as he collapsed back onto the bed, still exhausted despite just waking up.

A dark animal swooped down from a nearby drawer, and landed on the bedpost. He looked up and saw Kara staring down at him, he smiled, and muttered, "I'm alive..." Before closing his eyes.

But a little memory had his eyes shoot back up, and that memory was the reason he was like this in the first place.

"Cronix, stop wasting time, we still have work to do." He told himself, trying to get himself to stand up, but his body didn't want to listen, and he remained motionless.

That's when he heard voices,

"He already took a pill, I don't think he needs another one."

"Lapsa, stop being so stubborn, just give him another pill."

"Cayden, this is the last one, we should save it for emergencies."

The door slowly opened, bringing their conversation into their room, "This could be considered an emergency, and Wendril said she'd bring more supplies..."

Cayden trailed off, he finally took a glance at the bed, and saw Cronix staring at the both of them.

"See, just one pill was enough." Lapsa muttered, sounding a tad bit annoyed.

Cayden ignored him, and asked Cronix, "How do you feel?"

"Tired." Cronix responded, closing his eyes again.

"It's honestly a miracle you survived all that." Lapsa said, sitting beside him.

"I've survived worse." Cronix replied, shifting his shoulder blades as he remembered a certain event a few weeks ago.

"Anyways, give me a few hours, and I should be up and about in no time." Cronix said, trying to sit up, but still failing to find the strength to succeed.

"Lapsa, can you..?" Cronix didn't need to finish, as Lapsa understood and propped him up against the bedpost, "Thank you. Now could you guys, you know, let me rest?"

The two boys nodded, and left the room, but Kara stayed, nipping at little bugs she found in Cronix's hair. The moment they left, Cronix closed his eyes, and began performing cognitive gathering.

...

Aster stood at the balcony in his room, it overlooked the entire capital. From here, he could see his civilians, and their everyday lives, from the Casters to the Star Core Magicians, even the occasional Magical Being stage expert.

He could see the everyday routes they took, the ones they avoided, like the roads leading to the Holy Knights Headquarters. Usually, this one would be at the top of his worries, but not today.

His wings drooped, and he fiddled with a bottle of golden liquid in his hands, its label read, 'Astral Sap'.

There wasn't anyone around him, but he began to speak like there was.

His first words were, "Our daughter has the same type of unicorn as you, isn't that great? It's like she's following in your footsteps."

After those words, he sighed, and raised his bottle to his lips and took a drink. As he gulped down the astral sap, a strange energy appeared by Aster's drooping wings, it was small and faint, and it flew around him, before taking the form of a butterfly.

Its body was fully sky blue, and it gave off an ethereal feeling.

When Aster saw it, he smiled a smile of bitterness, and extended a finger. The butterfly perched itself onto his finger, and rested there.

"If only Aaron accepted what really happened to you, he's still trying to track down Nircel, he still thinks Nircel wanted to kill you... I just hope Lenore's presence distracts him."