In utter despair, Aoi watched his nephew lying at his feet, uncertain what to do. The duty within him clashed with familial affection, causing the warmaster much emotional pain.

Katashi's uncle was quite a rigid man. He loathed the complex political maneuvers and the "games" the Mizuno families played for influence.

Perhaps that's why he was so eager to offload all that responsibility onto the son of his deceased brother rather than shoulder it himself?

Nevertheless, right now he was obliged to make a decision. The entire city had been captured by him, and it was crucial to eliminate the chaos servants as quickly as possible before the situation spiraled out of control.

"Aoi-san," the voice of the Serpent made the warmaster bristle, but the following words caught his attention even more. "Perhaps you should hear my thoughts regarding your nephew."

"What do you want to say, Sumada?" Aoi snorted venomously. "Are you going to suggest a way to kill my clan head? Then don't bother; I can handle that myself."

"Fortunately, no," Stas shook his head. "I want to draw your attention to the fact that I've already seen something similar." Ordyntsev involuntarily glanced quickly towards the doors where Minoru and Kenta were standing.

"Really?"

"Yes," Ordyntsev confirmed. "Usually, chaos doesn't care much about those who pledge themselves to it, which makes the latter not so hard to spot. Strange and nervous behavior, causeless laughter, and, of course, ugly mutations. However, sometimes chaos deviates from this approach. It's rare, but it happens."

Stas looked at the pale Katashi.

"As I've already said, crude brainwashing doesn't have the best effect on the brains of the, so to speak, affected subjects. That's why chaos forces have a more subtle form of influence at their disposal if they need someone who shouldn't raise suspicions. In that case, the process takes much longer, but it makes it way harder to detect the corrupted."

"And how does that help our situation?" Aoi asked irritably. "So far, all I hear is making matters worse!"

"Patience, Aoi-san," Ordyntsev smiled faintly. "Let's think logically. Katashi Mizuno has been under the prolonged influence of chaos servants, who were trying to break his mind to subjugate him to their will. But would they drag it out this long and risk his health if they had succeeded quickly? What has forced them to torment him up to this point, preventing him from coming to his senses?"

Aoi's eyes widened in shock at this unexpected thought.

"So, you mean to say..."

"Yes, I suspect Katashi-sama is still fighting against the corrupting influence of chaos, and we still have a chance to save him."

"Damnation!" Aoi cursed, but his voice no longer held anger. Instead, a tentative hope had taken its place.

"Have it your way, Sumada. I hope you're not mistaken..."

"That won't do," Ordyntsev immediately cut him off, ceasing to smile.

"How dare you?" Aoi narrowed his eyes dangerously. "What are you, for the demons' sake, speaking of?"

"I want us to agree right now that it's not 'I'm not mistaken,' but at the very least, 'we're not mistaken.' I'm not going to take all the responsibility for your clan, which I have no relation to. This also applies to the fight against chaos servants. Yes, I'm helping you, but all decisions will be solely your responsibility."

"Who do you think you are, Sumada?!" Aoi snapped, losing the last crumbs of his already scant patience, releasing the prana pressure of a supreme warmaster. He wisely moved away from Katashi to avoid accidentally harming him.

And it's important to understand that such pressure could easily kill ordinary people simply by inducing a heart attack.

However, Stanislav had no intention of caving in or retreating. The bloodlust that emanated from him, though noticeably weaker, still matched the level of a supreme and could withstand Aoi's force.

Beyond the room's door, cries were heard, something and someone fell, then the commotion subsided.

The struggle continued for a few more seconds, and then both warmasters simultaneously canceled the pressure, drilling each other with unfriendly gazes.

"I think of myself as the one upon whom your clan's well-being depends, Aoi-san," Ordyntsev said tensely, driving each word like a steel nail. "However, I refuse to become a scapegoat if something goes wrong. And if you disagree with my condition, then we have nothing more to discuss."

"So you'll just spit on the orders of your clan head? I didn't know the value of Sumada's loyalty had fallen so low," Aoi scoffed contemptuously.

"Oh, not at all. As promised, I will heal Lord Katashi and then leave your lands. How you deal with the hordes of chaos servants is not my concern. So, do you accept my offer or not?"

Aoi's face twisted in irritation, but he had to yield. He needed Shiro the Serpent's aid.

"Blast you, I agree. Your name will no longer appear in this matter. Now, will you finally start doing what you came here for? Or, I swear by all the spirits, I'll lose my temper and chop you into a dozen pieces with my axe to feed to the fish so your soul will never know peace!"

"Of course," Stas nodded contentedly and headed to Katashi. "Let's not resort to murder."

Unlike before, Ordyntsev eliminated the chaos gradually, aiming to inflict the least amount of pain on the body. And although the patient trembled slightly, fortunately, nothing unexpected happened.

The next step was to finish healing the wounded body, which was somewhat difficult due to the severe wear and tear of the entire organism.

Nevertheless, after spending twice as much energy as needed, Stas partially solved the problem.

"Well?" Aoi couldn't contain himself, quickly scanning Katashi when the green light finally faded.

He did not particularly like what he saw. The clan head still looked sickly, but at least his skin color had returned to normal.

"Physically, he is as healthy as it is possible right now, but I have no idea how he will react when he wakes up. I would advise you to prepare."

Aoi just nodded grimly.

"I'm waking him up," Ordyntsev warned, touching his glowing green palm to the forehead.

For a moment, the room fell silent, and then Katashi let out a wild cry as he tried to jump out of bed, only to be held down by four hands.

"No! No! Scram! Go away!" he yelled incoherently and hoarsely, his eyes wild with madness. Monstrous veins bulged on his emaciated arms.

"Katashi-sama!" Aoi shouted desperately, looking into his nephew's face in fear. "Come to your senses, it's me, your uncle!"

"Un... Uncle?" The thrashing slowed down as the Mizuno head stared greedily at his uncle's leaning face, as if afraid it would disappear. "Is it really you, or just another illusion? Wait, how do I know you're not some demonic vision?"

"I doubt, Lord, that your illusions would make room for me as well," Shiro noted cheerfully, thus drawing Katashi's intense attention to himself.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"And who are you? Wait... I know you!" Katashi exclaimed in surprise, his face gradually smoothing out and regaining awareness. His arms relaxed, falling back onto the futon. "You're Jishin's friend. What are you doing here? And can anyone tell me what in the world is going on here?"

"I'm glad you've finally come to your senses, nephew," Aoi smiled in relief, and it felt like an enormous weight had suddenly been lifted from him. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I was working with documents," began the Mizuno head, but then he flinched sharply. "I was attacked! Damned traitors. Where are they? I hope they're still alive because I want to kill them with my own hands!"

"You'll have your chance," Aoi nodded meaningfully, gloomily looking away.

"There's been a lot more, Katashi-sama," Stas clarified, receiving a warning glance from Aoi, but Katashi looked at him with interest.

"Alright, Lord," Aoi switched to a formal tone because of Stas. "Listen to what happened during your absence."

After that, the Mizuno head's uncle tried to describe as briefly as possible what had happened. And he even resigned himself to Stas's additional remarks whenever the latter clarified certain aspects regarding the chaos.

"Oh, Kami, so much senseless bloodshed... And now I know what it was," Katashi painedly placed his hand on his forehead. "I remember my visions vaguely, but they kept saying something. Their words burned and tortured my head and body, but I refused them every time, though now I don't remember what."

"We're lucky you have such a strong will, Katashi-sama," Stas praised the clan head, causing a weak but sincere smile from him.

"If we're alone, I allow you to address me by name and without honorifics," Katashi nodded imperiously, quickly turning his mischievous gaze away, as if anticipating something.

"Lord," Aoi exclaimed indignantly.

"If I haven't spent a couple of hundred years in that damn dream, I'm sure that's how friends are addressed," Katashi readily started arguing, attempting to sit up, and he even managed to do so on his own.

"But he's Sumada!"

"So what?" The Mizuno head snorted, stretching his lips into a wide smile. "We're just trying to make the old feud a part of history. Moreover, this man saved my life and, apparently, my soul. So I don't see a problem. Or are you against it?"

"You're the clan head," Aoi surrendered gloomily.

"Don't be jealous, my dear uncle," the childish form of address made the adult warmaster grit his teeth. "You'll still remain at the very top of my heart." The head's tone became mockingly caring.

In response, incoherent curses were heard, but it was clear how the oppressive atmosphere in the room significantly dissipated.

Everyone present was genuinely glad that the Mizuno head was alright.

"So," Katashi clapped his hands. "Right now, only two things concern me. What I'm gonna chow down on and..." He fell silent, staring at Stas's outstretched palm that held a few sweet dried flatbreads.

Ordyntsev always carried a bit of long-lasting edibles in one of his pouches. With a life like his, one never knows when one can eat properly. Moreover, Stas involuntarily considered that if he were suddenly transported to another world again, he would at least have some food supply for the initial period. For the same case, other compartments contained a couple of gold nuggets, thread with a needle, and a fire striker with flint.

Since Stas had no predisposition for the fire element, using the ray of destruction to light a fire seemed a bit excessive to him.

"Then one problem is partially solved," nodded Katashi, as if nothing unusual was happening, and happily crunched on the "cookies" under his uncle's stern look. "Now, regarding these chaos servants. What's the plan?"

Aoi's demanding gaze fixed on Stas, and the latter did not disappoint him.

"When I learned about the existence of such filth as chaos, I began working on how to fight against it."

Katashi nodded approvingly, hastily stuffing another "cookie" into his mouth. One could only imagine the hunger pangs the warmaster's body was experiencing, struggling to recover after such a long starvation.

"My research resulted in techniques for destroying chaos and detecting it. And while the difficulty with destruction is that it is tied to my lineage and only I can create it, I tried to make the detection as simple as possible to learn."

"Why?" Aoi asked with slight interest, despite him "sulking" at Ordyntsev.

The topic of creating techniques was clearly of interest to him, as it would be for any experienced warmaster. And Shiro's skills in this direction did not leave him indifferent.

"Because I suspected that chaos would not stop and would continue to spread throughout the world to destroy us all. Based on this assumption, I planned to distribute this technique to as many people and clans as possible so they would start cutting out the traitors. Only everything started much earlier than I expected."

"I agree," Katashi thoughtfully concurred. "So the cause of the attempt on me was chaos?"

"At least one of the causes," Ordyntsev agreed. "Now I plan to train as many warmasters as possible in my technique for detecting the energy of change."

"What are you talking about?" Aoi started to get irritated again. "We don't have weeks to learn a new technique. Even if it's so useful."

"I think your people will be able to master it in about a day," Stas felt satisfaction, seeing the shock on the warmasters' faces.

"Impossible!"

"With a regular technique, that would be the case, but here it's not so straightforward," Ordyntsev smirked. He enjoyed telling and boasting about his achievements. "From the very beginning of creating the technique, I set myself the goal of making it as easy to learn as possible."

And here, Shiro was absolutely honest. He deliberately limited himself to concepts and associations that could be familiar to anyone, even the most unusual person. It was difficult and inconvenient but still doable.

Unfortunately, there was one problem he couldn't solve.

"These are excellent news," the Mizuno head approved of what was said. "Aoi, kindly send suitable people for training. We need to hurry while we can still resolve the situation without much bloodshed."

"However, I must warn you right away that my technique has a huge flaw," the earthling hurried to interject, wincing a bit. "My technique is based on regular prana and... natural energy."

"Holy Kami," Aoi exhaled, looking at Stas in a completely different way. More like at a man wrapped in dynamite sticks, a complete psychopath.

Even Katashi stopped eating, a flatbread frozen in front of his mouth.

"I did everything possible to reduce the involvement of the natural energy and its effect on the user. But I didn't have time to finish my endeavors. As a result, those who use the technique will gradually accumulate natural energy, which will eventually lead to their death."

"How long will they have?" Katashi asked with a suddenly dry throat.

"It depends on the frequency of use," Stas shrugged. "But in the best case, no more than a couple of years. Tissue damage will accumulate, and the end will be the same."

The warmasters exchanged glances. It wasn't hard to understand their thoughts. They already looked at Ordyntsev as a walking corpse.

On the other hand, Stas couldn't help but notice the increased respect from both Katashi and Aoi.

The earthling wanted to roll his eyes – the local obsession with self-sacrifice for the sake of the clan and family was quite irritating to him.

However, he didn't try to dissuade these people. Right now, this little unsaid point played to his advantage, providing several convenient diplomatic opportunities.

"We will find people," Aoi finally said.

"Will they know about the consequences?"

"Yes. I'll find a way to convince... volunteers."

"Excellent, Aoi, I'm counting on you," Katashi began giving orders, deciding the conversation was over. "And now, could you arrange for a meal for me and my new friend? By the Kami, I'm ready to cut off and eat my own hand."

"It will be done," Aoi bowed, giving Stas a warning glance.

"Wonderful," Katashi leaned back on his bed and waved his hand carelessly as his uncle left them. "Don't take offense at my uncle; he can sometimes be too strict, but you won't find a more honest and devoted person."

"Oh, don't worry, I wasn't even considering it," Stas replied politely, carefully observing the young man who tried to appear cheerful. "Katashi, if I may address you so, may I ask you a rather personal question?"

"Yes, I've allowed you to do that. And what's the question?"

"Are you alright?"

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air. The artificial smile slid off Katashi's face like burnt plastic, revealing something pained and unhealthy underneath.

"No, Shiro, I'm not alright at all. You know, I didn't want to involve my uncle; he's having a hard enough time already..."

"It's probably none of my business," Ordyntsev continued cautiously, as if walking through a minefield. "But I was under the influence of that thing, you know what I mean, for some time. My friends pulled me out in time, but... Maybe I can still offer you some advice?"

Katashi's right-hand fingers trembled traitorously, but he quickly grasped them with his left hand. Stas pretended not to notice.

"It's so strange," Katashi chuckled nervously. "I look at you, at my uncle, but I still can't believe you're real and not a continuation of that nightmare, albeit a much more sophisticated one. How can I know, for example, that you're real?" The last sentence sounded particularly fierce, and it seemed to be what concerned the Mizuno head the most.

"Well, first of all, you need to relax," Stas smiled amiably at the unnerved Katashi. "Look, if you're right and everything around is unreal, then your fear only benefits chaos, slowly wearing you down."

"And what if you're deliberately telling me to relax to subdue my defenseless consciousness?" Katashi inquired suspiciously.

"Fair point," Ordyntsev agreed. "Nevertheless, wouldn't you agree it's doubtful that chaos would tell you about its ugliest sides? Especially those after which you'd prefer to kill yourself rather than fall into its embrace?"

"Hm, you have a point," Katashi smiled more easily.

"And finally, look around, notice details, and analyze," Stas continued. "Any illusion has flaws that an experienced eye can spot..."

"Ha!" Katashi snorted sarcastically. "Are you going to tell ME how to fight against the art of illusions? I probably know as much, if not more, than you."

"But it works, doesn't it?" Ordyntsev smirked cunningly. "The pulling and unpleasant feeling in your chest is gone, and the world no longer seems such an unreal and gloomy place?"

"The rumors weren't lying; you're as sly as a kitsune! Or maybe as a serpent, right?" Katashi joked, regaining his composure.

"As you wish," Ordyntsev flashed with serpentine pupils.

"What I wish is for someone to finally bring me something to eat!" Katashi yelled louder toward the door, irritably tapping his fingers on the tatami. "Did Aoi forget about it, by chance? I'm dying of hunger here!"