Hoping that she didn’t notice my poking around, I feigned ignorance.

-So. You clearly changed your mind. Put me down. Please? - I asked casually.

The question snapped her out of thought.

-Hm… Yeah… no. You still should…

But, despite that, she released her grip, and I finally was able to stand on my own two feet.

Huh. That was easy.

-Thanks… - I said, trying to massage my neck

-Yes… Huh?!

She suddenly looked at me with wild abandon.

-What?

Did she realize I managed to peek into her mind?

-How did you do this?! What are you doing!?

-What are you talking about?

-How did you make me release you?!

What?

-Er… I asked? And you listened…?

-Tomipvu!

With one swipe of her hand, she conjured a bunch of mana and gagged me with invisible force.

I don’t need to say that didn’t work for long. My ability to drain was still intact, after all.

I kind of wanted to play out that I was gagged, but she realized immediately that the spell failed, so I just shrugged.

-I’ll be quiet if you want, but I have not done a thing to you.

She was clearly in a defensive position.

First time, in fact.

Up till now she was calm and confident, like…

Well, like one of us.

She was one, to be honest.

Never mind that, though.

I still had no idea what she meant. I influenced her?

How would I even attempt to do that?

It’s not like I had some miraculous power to control people and…

Wait.

I did.

And, confirming that were her scattered thoughts. Even with me having to listen very closely, I knew what she was thinking.

-His administrator privileges are still working?! No… it’s not possible. I already confirmed that those were void a long time ago… the databases are dead, so are those rules… Was that because of those deals he had?! Fuck! How many was that? Melle, For… It’s just two people! But Mike… No. He’s dead. And all his are dead. That doesn’t mean a thing.

Melle?

Right. I had a deal both with her and with For. But wait… Does that mean that she was also assimilated?!

I should’ve known that after she disappeared… I should've known that nothing good would come from being close to Mike.

He was done too, apparently. I sort of already knew that, but still had a bit of hope that he was still kicking.

Shame. I’d love to hear his side of the story. Probably is not going to happen any time soon.

In any case, what she thought cleared up what happened. Or at least gave my theory a bit more credibility.

Since I’ve arrived, I managed to strike a couple of contracts, or “blood binds”, or whatever they wanted to call them. And now at least two of those people were part of her.

Apparently it didn’t mean that the magic disappeared. Instead, it got transferred to her.

Hell, it apparently got enhanced. I didn’t consciously order or try to use the contract, of course, and yet it worked. Seemingly against her will

Did that mean I could just tell her what to do?

I probably could try.

But what should I ask?

-So… what are you doing then? Can you tell me? - I asked, trying to be as inconspicuous as it gets.

But I didn’t get an answer.

She realized I tried that…?

-I need to focus. I have to somehow dispel that thing… I can’t do anything to him if that’s working…

Well, apparently not. She was just not listening to me.

I guess.

Wait. Wasn’t I forgetting something?

The rest of the party!

I approached the rest of the group.

So far, they were just standing there, in the exact same positions ILMA made them show themselves. No movement.

And, after a closer inspection, also no breathing.

Damn.

Wait. Let’s not jump to conclusions. I knew I didn’t have to breathe and was still perfectly fine. If those were in a trance, it’s possible that they just stopped it out of lack of brain activity…

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Not like that was much better, but still.

Looking at For, I touched her neck, trying to check her pulse…

She was still warm. And her heartbeat… was there.

Ha. So ILMA was feeding me bullshit.

Well, then again, her body working doesn’t have to mean she’s still herself somewhere down there…

She finally noticed I stepped away from her.

And me touching For apparently startled her.

-What are you trying to pull?! It’s no use!

-I am not doing anything - I said calmly. - Just checking your… hostages.

-Those are not hostages.

-Those are me - she said through For’s lips.

-Damn. Yeah yeah. So. What’s your decision? What happens to me now? Tell me.

-Nothing. I have to study this body of yours more. I thought it would be easier… instant even, but…

She stopped.

Ha. So that magic was really working.

She replied to my order. Well, at least until she realized that she was doing it.

-I am just asking - I said immediately, shrugging and stepping away from For. - I kind of want to know what I am supposed to do now.

I was apparently a bit too sure of myself, because she once again grabbed me by the neck and lifted up.

This time, I didn’t even bother moving.

-Ouch.

Once again, I felt the drain, but this time it was more like a small sting that almost immediately ended.

She noticed.

And was not happy about that.

-What is wrong with this man?! How the hell did she even manage to work with him?

It’s not that hard. Not like you are even trying to.

I am unsure what she was trying to do, but her face was telling me that she was straining.

Did she really think it’s going to help?

Sure, magic responds to your will, but so far she should’ve known that Origin Crystal is a different breed of magic completely.

At this point, no one knew how exactly it worked.

-Can you not? - I asked, but didn’t get a response.

I guess I have to be more direct?

-Put me down.

That worked immediately.

Huh. So it was really that easy?

Well, maybe easy, but not without consequences.

She was positively fuming, seeing that I had influence over her. And, of course, a moment later she went ahead and tried grabbing me once more.

I was not going to let her, though.

-Do not try that again. Do not attack me.

That stopped her in her tracks.

But only intensified her anger.

For a good moment, we just stared at each other without a word.

-Don’t look at me like that. It’s not like I knew that would happen - I said, shrugging and stepping away from her, just to be safe.

-...

What, now the silent treatment?

I guess that was one of her options.

But, it’s not like I couldn’t make her talk.

I didn’t even need to, though. I was just going to step away and listen to her thoughts. That was a much simpler and more sure way of knowing what she was trying to do.

And even if she noticed, it’s not like she could just stop. Or stop me, in that matter.

But, despite that, her thoughts were pretty empty.

I am not sure if that was on purpose, but her mind was just flooded with anger that made it hard to even understand a singular word.

I think I managed to pick up some, including some profanities and my name, but that was not going to help anyone.

So, back to being direct, then?

Not the worst option.

-Tell me what you are trying to do here.

-Trying to collect myself - she managed to squeeze out before she covered her own mouth and muffled her speech.

-You realize that I can just tell you to stop trying to silence yourself, right?

The look on her face told me everything.

She didn’t realize. And now was trying to figure out a way to prevent that. Too bad there wasn’t anything that could…

-Tomipvu.

Again with that spell?

It was no use. I was going to just drain it whenever it targets me and be done with it, but…

It did not come.

She was not targeting me. She targeted herself.

Smart. Since it was her spell, she was hoping that it would work on her…

But for naught.

After all, she was made out of the same thing as me.

The moment the spell managed to reach her, it disappeared into a puff of mana.

-Good idea. Too bad it didn’t work. The Crystal is a pain in the ass in more ways than just the obvious one.

But, she was not done.

She had a different idea. Not so sure if it was “better” so to say, but it definitely was novel.

Without saying a word, she looked at Kon, or rather his body, which started moving towards her.

He placed his hand on her mouth and a flash of light and a moment later, her face had changed shape.

She no longer had lips.

Well, that’s one way to make sure you can’t speak…

But that also made me wonder.

Sure, we were immune to magic… but not to all of them, as demonstrated.

What rules exactly was that following?

The easy answer was that anything that was just essentially a gathering of mana would be a failure, and since Kon was working with mostly the mana inside the target, it worked on the crystal.

But was that correct?

I didn’t have any way to check, sadly.

-I guess you cannot answer now… - I said, nodding. - Good job. But so what? We are still here in a standstill. I am still here, and you are still doing… something? Hell if I know what.

She definitely was not amused by my rudeness.

Instead, she turned her attention to the rest of the party. First on the chopping block was Kon, since he was closest.

It kind of surprised me.

I thought she already assimilated them completely, yet what she started doing was definitely making me wonder about that.

She, just like with me before, grabbed him by the neck, and when she made contact, started draining his magic.

For a moment I thought it wasn’t going to work on him either, since he had Origin Crystal and all that, but I was wrong.

A massive amount of magic started flowing towards her, and Kon’s flame started slowly dying down.

Was it even his flame?

Since the “awakening”, so to speak, his magic and everyone else’s for that matter, was different and very similar to the one I could see in ILMA.

What was she trying to do…? Reclaim what she gave him or something…?

My first instinct was to interrupt the process, so Instead of staring and thinking I leaped forward and wanted to slap him away, out of her grip, but she noticed that.

The moment I took a step towards the pair, a large, stone slab appeared in front of me, blocking my path.

Despite the fact that it was created just a moment ago, it looked… familiar.

The material was exactly the same as I’ve seen in that underwater castle.. and the same as the one I knew slabs with that portal magic were made out of.

Now, when I think about it… wasn’t the whole “bowl” made out of similar rock? And the tunnels between that place and the rest of the world?

But, despite losing time on identifying the rock, I was still fast enough to just avoid the wall right at my face and step around it…

And fall into a trap.