"So…" Mia started, her eyes shifting between her brother and the fluff of pink that floated near his shoulder. "You changed your career trajectory?"

"This little guy," Magnus began, his voice carrying an air of delight, "I encountered it while trying to get out of the Labyrinth. It seemed pretty cute, so I just let it follow me."

As he said, Magnus reached out in an attempt to pet the pink fluff, an action which the latter mercilessly dodged.

"Yeah—he does not like you," Mia pointed out.

"Let's not sweat the details."

"Allowing a random spirling to follow you when you barely just escaped danger?" she sighed, crossing her arms as she gave her brother an exasperated look. "Your heart is too big, Magnus, you know that?"

Magnus only let out a carefree laugh, the sound light and unburdened despite their current circumstances.

Meanwhile, Ace, still in his pink fluff form, gave the twins a side glance.

After recognising the escaping figure as the archmage of the Zacriya Kingdom, Ace had headed down in an attempt to see what was going on, only to be dragged back into his diminutive form the moment he left the mountain's peak.

Ace sighed inwardly, disappointed with his own body.

What shortly followed his transformation was the encounter with the archmage. Though the two had crossed paths at various points in time, such as the royal family's banquet, they had never officially met. The result was that Magnus's misidentification of him as a spirling, like so many others had before.

As the trio prepared to leave the lake, a rustling sound emerged from the bushes in the distance. The twins tensed, ready to strike at the slightest provocation, their instincts honed by years of experience.

Without warning, the pink fluff among them began to glow with an intense, bright light. The transformation, almost blinding, struck their minds into a momentary blank, and the luminance seemed to span across the entire jungle.

When the light finally dimmed, what replaced the fluff was a full-grown man standing before them. His hair, ivory-white, caught the faint light filtering through the trees, emphasising his unmistakable features.

Mia was the first to snap out of it. Her eyes widened visibly at the sight, taking in the familiar face of the man who she'd seen in the newspapers back in the Zacriya Kingdom.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, her surprise evident. "You're…"

Ace turned to her, bearing zero emotions on his stoically handsome face.

"Mister Angel!"

A flicker of dismay crossed his features, which led to the man giving her the cold shoulder.

"Wait, I know you." Magnus studied the white-haired man intently, narrowing his eyes. "You're with Edris, right? Dolan's also told me about you."

His questions were left hanging as Ace steered his attention towards the bushes across the lake. His focus was on an entirely different matter.

Given the strict requirements of his human form, there was no way he could regain access this easily.

Which meant…

Another wave of rustling sounded in the distance, this time steadily increasing in crescendo.

Before they knew it, another group emerged from the treeline.

“Edris?” Magnus blinked.

A familiar dark-haired man popped out of the bushes, pushing its branches away as he stepped into the open. Three more soon appeared behind him.

"Oh—" Edris's mouth parted slightly as the two groups came face-to-face with each other. His startled expression was soon replaced by a look of insight as he took in the presence of the trio.

Thanks to Owein's expert navigation and his Tempest, which neutralised all the jungle's attempts at mana-based illusions, they had managed to reach the lake without falling victim to any potential mirages lurking within the region.

Edris had kept his Distributor activated the entire time, an instrument designed to detect Ace's unique mana signature. As soon as they were close enough, the instrument had gone into effect, guiding them straight to where Ace was.

Edris glanced at the group for another second. His eyes briefly lingered on Magnus, then Mia, before finally settling on Ace.

"Looks like we found you all just in time," he remarked with a gentle smile.

Three birds in one stone.

Quite the efficiency, if he were to say so himself.

***

After the unexpected encounter, the two groups merged into one and decided to congregate the following day at Yukioe's cabin for a proper debrief.

Originally, they'd aimed for Mia's lair in the jungle, but it was far too small to fit all of them, hence the alternative.

The scent of pine and the distant sound of a flickering flame lamp greeted them as they stepped inside. Yukioe had not yet returned from the Healing Faction, leaving the house unusually silent.

The group gathered in the living room, the soft creak of the wooden floor beneath their feet the only sound breaking the stillness.

Edris, ever the calm and composed presence, took on the role of host.

"Tea? We restocked up on frion tea just a few days ago," he offered.

"Yes, please!" Mia stretched her arms into the air as she strolled towards the couch, Magnus wadding behind her.

"Some pastries also wouldn't hurt," the archmage pressed a hand onto Edris's shoulder with a meaningful nod. "I could breathe in a cow right now."

"..."

Ives sat silently in a corner, chin resting on her palm and legs dangling from the high stool.

Her eyes flicked towards the dark-haired man with a hint of concern. The latter, noticing her gaze, gave her a gentle smile.

Earlier, the seven-year-old had pulled him aside and warned him that Yukioe might be upset when he returned. But Edris had merely raised a finger to his lips, signalling for her to keep it a secret.

He wasn't worried—Yukioe had a temper, but Edris knew how to handle him.

At least, that was the initial plan.

Edris shook his head inwardly, watching the Vyris twins as they lounged on the couch, truly making themselves at home.

Ace leaned by the wall beside the kitchen, fiddling with something he had sculpted with mana. The fluctuation emitted from the object seemed to be affecting the flame lamp, which ebb and flow within the glass case with slight turbulence.

"...Hm."

Edris was beginning to regret this decision.

With the help of Celio, the two prepared the tea, setting out cups and a selection of snacks on the low table in the centre of the room. The group settled into their seats, the tension from their recent battle slowly dissipating as the warm scent of tea filled the air.

Owein had left shortly after they all met up at the lake, unable to stay outside for too long due to the restrictions imposed by his clan. The Lucid Clan, residing in the Northern Lands, had quite strict rules about their members' movements due to their unique connection with the Labyrinths.

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Owein had only been able to meet Edris unnoticed because he was en route to an approved meeting with the Moons.

As they parted ways, Edris had thanked Owein for his help, unsure if they would cross paths again. Frankly, he steered towards the negative.

With the peculiar nature of the clan, Edris couldn't think of any other situations where they would cross paths again aside from another Labyrinth, in which the sole thought of the place was enough to send shivers down his back.

Yeah—no way.

Edris shook his head.

He did not want to go through that again.

Now, back in the present, the group sat around the living room. Once everyone was settled, Edris activated the infuser orb that the Crown Prince had gifted him right before his departure from Nolmes.

The orb, a version exclusive to the Zacriya family, pulsed with a soft red light rhythmically, in an attempt to establish connection.

Moments later, Dolan Zacriya's face came through, slightly distorted but clear enough.

"Look who it is," Dolan's silky voice echoed through the infuser orb, and a look of surprise dawned upon him after seeing the others in the room. "Oh?"

"Things somehow just turned out like this." Edris shrugged a smile. "With everyone here, we thought it was time to catch up on a few things."

"My thoughts exactly," Dolan mused, his red eyes flickering to the twins on the couch. "Magnus, how are you feeling?"

Mia had sent him a message right before she went deep into the Dene Jungle that she'd located her brother. Just before Edris sent him the video invitation, Dolan was still in the middle of planning to dispatch his mage brigade as reinforcement.

Luckily, the current situation was telling him that there was no need to do so.

"I'm alive, which is quite impressive, not to brag." Magnus cleared his throat, shifting into a more serious tone. "It was a little girl that had kept me imprisoned. Her power seems to be very rules-bound. The moment you violate one of her rules, you're subjected to her control until the next day."

"A mind control-based Touch?" Celio frowned. "I've never heard of anything like that."

"Psychological-based Touch aren't too rare to come upon, but they're definitely dangerous if one knows how to manipulate them properly," Magnus said.

"And by dangerous," Mia chimed in. "It's not always physical, but mental. Those psychological Awakeneds really know how to mess with your head."

Magnus nodded. "And the little girl? She knew her power well. She was able to optimise its effects to the fullest extent by confining me in a space within her control. No physical damage was inflicted on my end, so I suspect that whoever was behind her, I don't think their goal was to injure me, but to stall time for something."

"It's Nest," Edris spoke up, locking eyes with Mia Vyris across the room, who nodded in return.

She briefly gave the group a run-through of what they'd discussed in the Playroom, including Weisha's diary and potential involvement with the Seven Conquerors.

Weisha's diary naturally led them onto the topic of the Labyrinth, where Edris took over in sharing what he could recall, which was surprisingly a decent amount as he weaved together fragments of memory with the details Owein had provided.

It seemed that the transportation between the Labyrinth and the real world was tampered with when Mia entered his mental space. He suspected that the Playroom had acted as an anchor, preventing a complete erasure of his memories from the Labyrinth.

"Nest was also in the Labyrinth. Not sure how many, but they were there. In fact, we'd come across one head-on," Edris said, peering at the white-haired man leaning against the wall. "Ace could speak more about that."

"Robin. The same person who took part in the underground explosion," the white-haired man’s explanation was curt but to the point. The tone of his voice carried a lingering contemplation. "The first encounter, he could hypnotise others upon physical touch. The second encounter, he had possessed the Principal as a whole."

The air in the room felt chilly. All eyes were on Ace as he gazed directly into the screen.

"He is dangerous. And so is Nest."

Magnus echoed the thought.

"Mister Angel here is right," he said. "When I was under Canary's control, I never felt a moment at peace. Every trifling thing in life could secretly be a trigger point and trap, and you never knew when you'd fall into another one of them and lose sight of yourself.

"Rather than killing me, they were more interested in driving me to insanity."

"...I see." Dolan leaned back in his chair, a hand running through his fiery hair as he blew out a sigh. "You've been through a lot."

The archmage had retold his experience with such nonchalance, as though it wasn't him who experienced it. However, Dolan knew how hard it must have been to persevere through the mental fight and escape the situation.

"Mia, how's your time in the jungle treating you?" He redirected the conversation to a more lighthearted subject at hand.

The decision was much appreciated among the group, as eyes collectively steered towards the pink-haired woman on the couch.

Mia leaned back with confidence, clearly in her element. "I like it a lot, actually. No one's there to disturb me, so I can experiment all I want."

Dolan's released a half-hearted chuckle on his end, laced with dry humour.

"Well, yeah. No one in their right mind would use the jungle as a residence." He paused, then added, "But I suppose one wouldn't be an archmage if they were in their right mind."

Edris inwardly agreed, his mind flashing back to the other archmages like Saire Harkness.

"Mhm. Speak for yourself." Magnus didn't seem the least bit offended by the Crown Prince's remark. He laid his hands out, a smug look on his face. "Who was it that almost left home a few years ago when His Majesty had forbidden him to pursue the archmage pathway? I won't say."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dolan put on a blank expression, yet the pink tips of his ears gave him away.

The mood shifting back to normal, they moved onto more formal matters.

"Well, I'll talk a bit about the situation on my end," Dolan said, his expression stern as he inched closer to the screen. "The moment we had received notice of Magnus's disappearance, the Expedition Army and Professor Harkness began investigating the matter."

He exhaled heavily, carefully choosing his next words.

"So far, the investigation results are pointing towards a system infiltration." He glanced up. "It appears that someone had cracked into the admin system in the Mage Faction.

"They had gained access to the inventory, then proceeded to steal several pieces of data files on sacred artefacts. One of them was called 'Split Second', which allowed the user to transport any object they'd touched in the past twelve hours to some inputted coordinates.

"We suspect that Nest had somehow managed to replicate and modify this sacred artefact to include live beings, which is how they succeeded in capturing Magnus."

"It's becoming clear," Edris stated, "that there's definitely a machina within the Nest organisation."

Dolan seconded the claim. "Someone responsible for creating and manipulating the tools driving their actions."

Edris's mind flashed to the sacred artefact that had appeared in the underground Sect. It was a device capable of draining the mana from Awakeneds.

First, The Plunge. Now, a sacred artefact capable of transporting humans without teleportation.

Edris considered reaching out to Alan Grennor at some point. As a machina himself, the man might have some insights into others of his kind.

"We need every piece of information we can get. In the meantime, it might be necessary to meet with the leaders of the Adalan Kingdom. Ideally, we could get Haisen Xine involved in this investigation."

Haisen Xine was the Crown Prince of the Adalan Kingdom.

Although Dolan wasn't too close with him, they'd met a few times back when he still was in his adventurous phase, before his brother had fallen ill and he was required to return to Zacriya as the new Crown Prince.

"His Touch is quite useful for this situation. If we could get his aid, I believe it'll give us a good advantage in the situation." Dolan paused, then directed his next words to the Vyris twins. "I need you both to return to the capital immediately. The investigation for the infiltrator is still ongoing. We'll need both your Touch to get to the bottom of this."

Mia exchanged a nod with Magnus, then gave him a salute. "Understood. We'll head back as soon as possible."

Dolan gave them a firm nod, only to lift his head the next second.

Someone seemed to have entered his office. The Crown Prince disappeared from the screen for a minute or so before reentering into view.

"It looks like this meeting will have to draw a close," he said, looking apologetic. "Thank you all for sharing these valuable pieces of information. Mia and Magnus, I will see you back in the capital."

He then turned to the dark-haired man.

"Edris." There was a slight pause in his words as the Crown Prince peered towards the traveller. "We'll stay in contact."

Edris gave a faint smile.

"Of course, Your Highness."

With the call concluded, the group sat in a contemplative silence.

They had pieced together a great deal with the meeting, but there were still too many unknowns. The link between the Labyrinth, Magnus's kidnapping, and the hidden members of Nest hinted at something much larger, more dangerous than what Edris had anticipated.

The dark-haired man sunk back in his chair, the weight of information settling heavily on his shoulders. He lamented inwardly, pressing his palm over his eyes.

I just don't deserve any breaks, huh?

If it weren't for Nest being a threat to his peaceful life and his promise with Ace, all Edris wanted to do was take the lifetime of luxuries from the laveric diamonds and enter into permanent seclusion.

As he drowned in his internal sorrows, Edris felt a poke on his arm. He slowly brought his hand down and opened his eyes, only to see Ives eyeing him with a cautious look.

It was then he finally noticed that something was off.

The room had been quiet for too long.

An ominous foreboding arose within him as the dark-haired man straightened his back against the armchair, only to be confronted with Yukioe's smiling face. The others in the room had long risen from their positions, all shifting towards the latter's end.

The Vyris twins shot him a look of prayers, while Ace kept at the wall, arms crossed and ready to watch the show.

Even Ives and Celio had retreated to the other side. The former peered at him in pity while the latter rubbed his neck, gazing everywhere but at him.

"Edris."

Goosebumps immediately shot across Edris's entire back.

“Yukioe,” Edris gulped. Under the man's crescent eyes, he mustered a smile. "How was work?"

"Not as good as the party you're throwing here in my house," Yukioe said in a tone lighthearted but sounded no different to Edris than the bell of imminent death. He looked at the dark-haired man and smiled wider.

"What? Am I not invited?"