After listening to Sol's brief explanation about all of the Shandrian Scrut's accusations and insistence that interdimensional gates didn't exist, I promised to rescue her and hung up on her, turning to my companions.

"Predator theory huh?" Kat asked, spiked tail lashing. "When'd you come up with that nonsense?"

"Yulia and I have been discussing the human experiment data that I stole from the Frontenachii Wendigos for a while now," I said. "We had some theories, but didn't have an exact confirmation of positive Predator-Prey factor until I saw what was happening between me and Vee," I explained.

"What, this whole crystal tower bullshit isn't just from that bullshit interdimensional lighter?" Kat arched an eyebrow.

"The mage tower wasn't just created by magic - it was created by love. The kind of love that can only exist between predator and prey," I said. "Between an Omnid and a human. The long chase we did today was the key."

"Bullshit!" Katherine crossed her arms.

"Yet again," I said. "I must point out that there are no other crystal towers here or anywhere really."

"That's because no one else is stupid enough to try making one," Katherine growled. "And no other human has been permitted to come to Arx to bond with two Omnids nor do they have mana-casting lighters."

"The Wendigos tried it," I said. "Their experiments with human subjects showed interesting results when they attempted to understand the magical resonance between Omnid and human hearts. But they approached it wrong - they tried to force it, to dominate, control and terrorise. They didn't understand that the key ingredient was willing participation. The chase has to be mutual. Both participants have to want it. Otherwise the balance of the wheel breaks and you get some really effed up shit."

"Effed up shit like what?" She asked.

"Well," I waved a hand at the crystalline room around us. "This is the highest order of Syntropic magic. The opposite is destructive, chaotic, disorderly magic. Look at Em," I said. "A perfect example of what happens when an Omnid tries to force dominance without understanding the need for balance. She chased the hell out of many nullies without it being mutual."

"That's ridiculous," Katherine scoffed. "Em's just a violent knob. She chases weak Omnids too."

"Is she though?" I asked. "Or is she desperately trying to fill a void she doesn't understand? Look at how she latched onto me the moment I showed up - not because I'm special, but because I represented something she's been missing her entire life."

Kat rubbed her forehead.

"Sounds like you just have a fetish being chased by these two idiots and you're trying to justify it with some pseudo-scientific nonsense," Katherine growled.

"The Wendigo data doesn't lie," I said. "They documented hundreds of cases where human test subjects developed magical abilities through prolonged exposure to Omnid predation. The problem was, they couldn't replicate the results consistently or even benefit from it properly because it produced random, incredibly destructive magical events."

"So?" Katherine challenged.

"So, they missed the emotional component," I explained. "The chase has to be playful, mutual. The human has to want to be caught just as much as the Omnid wants to catch them."

"You're suggesting that humans and Omnids are... what? Naturally complementary?"

"Yes," I said. "I am. Under the right conditions Humans and Omnids produce a resonance effect."

"What conditions?" Katherine demanded.

"First, both parties have to be willing participants," I explained. "Second, there needs to be an element of pursuit and evasion - The Hunt. Third, there needs to be genuine affection or at least mutual respect. And fourth, there needs to be a balance of power - the human can't be completely helpless, and the Omnid can't be completely dominant. There are other factors that amplify The Hunt ritual, which I've discovered recently, such as: higher aetheric density, having a soul bond and the human eating shakes made from the bits of the Omnid that's chasing them."

"That's the stupidest thing I've heard," Katherine scoffed.

"The Frontenachii researchers called it the Netherweave Fold," I explained. "When an Omnid's crystalline heart resonates with a human's biological one during pursuit, it creates a unique form of magic. The longer and more intense the chase, the stronger the effect. When both are placed in a room with high aetheric density and make a wish, the Netherweave Fold implodes into itself, bending reality in a particular way. Ergo, crystal tower."

"So," Io mused. "If either of us felt hatred or dislike, we wouldn't get a crystal tower, we'd get... what?"

"The tower would implode or melt or turn into radioactive slag or reality would tear. Maybe something like what happened at Lake Eerie," I said. "A destructive magical event that tears reality apart rather than stabilizing it. The Wendigos documented numerous cases where forced bonding resulted in dimensional rifts, spontaneous combustion, the Omnid and human test subjects melting through the ground, or worse."

"What happened at Lake Eerie?" Katherine asked.

"Ci?" I looked at the Quetzi. "Can we tell Kat and Io about what happened to you two years ago? Do you want to tell them about it yourself?"

Cinder's feathers shifted through dark colors, clearly uncomfortable with the topic. I hugged her. Then Vespera did as well.

"We're with you," I told her. "From now on and forever. No matter what."

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"All for one," Vee added.

Cinder exhaled, trembling.

"I... I was tricked," she let out quietly, her feathers shifting through darker colors, forcing the words out of herself. "A Skinwalker named Valor Thornheart pretended to be interested in me. His clan took me and some other Omnid girls to Lake Eerie for a ritual. They... they tried to use our singing to wake something in the lake. The leviathan. An Echo of the Wormwood Star. The Skinwalker clan... killed the other girls, stole their Lazarus bracelets to absorb their souls. Em... saved me, but... the thing in the lake, it left something in me... a tear. A nightmare that I can't wake up from."

Cinder's wings turned black, tears filled her eyes. She started to sob into me.

Katherine's emerald eyes widened as she processed Cinder's words.

"That's why you stopped singing," she breathed. "Why you joined Em's group. Why you declared yourself... Kaleid. Why you just allowed Em to harass the shit outta me online and did fuck all."

Cinder sob-nodded.

"The entity that attached itself to Cinder's soul is something ancient from the depths of the Astral Ocean," I explained. "An Echo of the Wormwood Star's impact. A being of pure Entropy. The opposite of what Zee Captain is."

"And you think your... Personal predator theory can save her from this... being?" Katherine asked skeptically.

"It already has, partially," I said. "The crystal tower is proof, the beginning of my understanding of the magic of the Hunt and how to apply it to fight Entropic entities."

Kat pursed her lips.

"The Skinwalkers' ritual failed because they tried to force it," I continued. "They attempted to use violence and fear to create a resonance cascade effect, but that only attracted the Entropic entity. Also, they used Omnids, not people."

"The reason why reality shattered so bad on that lakeshore was because they raised the shit out of the lake's aetheric density with the beast cores," Vespera added.

"And now something is living in that tear," I said. "Something that latched onto Ci when she was there."

"And you think you can... what? Love it out of her?" Katherine asked skeptically.

"No," I shook my head. "I think that we can create tools to fight it. Like this tower. Vee, how's the aetheric density of air here?"

The Thunderbird walked around our couch, snapping her talons and raining sparks.

"714.55," she said. "Super pure unaligned stuff too. Yep. The tower is definitely slowly refracting magic outta Abystall below us."

"Which means we're going to need a core sooner rather than later," I nodded. "To raise it up even more."

Katherine sighed.

"I believe it is time for another big confession," I said, with a deep exhale. "I've manipulated all of you to this point. To make this tower on Arx. The Hunt was the key."

"Still going on with that? Not all Omnids are hunters," Katherine said, waving an armored hand at Io. "Look at this useless knob-wing for example. He don't hunt nobody."

"Hey!" Io protested. "I hunt plenty!"

"You hunt interdimensional snacks," Katherine rolled her eyes. "That doesn't count."

"Yes," I agreed. "Not every Omnid hunts in the same way. Some hunt information, some hunt experiences, some hunt emotional connections. The core component is specific interactive-ness."

"Interactive-ness?" Katherine asked.

"Cinder is a Quetzi, she hunts pure human love and devotion," I said, making Cinder shine with pink and violet and gold tones, drawing away the sad black curtain on her. "So I gave her all of my love. I manipulated Christi Negal to inject myself into all of Cinder's classes, annoyed her, made her chase me. Again and again. Until she bit me. Until I made a declaration about building a glorious murder pyramid for her." I tapped the crystalline floor with my foot.

"You.... argh!" Cinder flapped her wings, looking like she wasn't sure whether to be annoyed, or to strangle me, or smother me in another hug.

"Io is a Death Mothman, he hunts for human-caused disasters," I moved on from the rainbow-dragon. "So I gave him the biggest man-made disaster I could. I destroyed Undertown for him."

"Groovy," Io commented, munching on a pocky.

"Katherine," I turned to the Stollwurm. "You hunt human fear. So I unleashed Duskbloom on Undertown, cranked the fear dial all the way up."

Katherine's emerald gaze hardened. "You... deliberately caused mass panic? Just to what? Satisfy my hunting urges?"

"Not just urges," I explained. "To create a specific magical resonance. Enough resonance effect between you and me to contribute to the foundation of this tower."

"Ohh! What 'bout me?" Vespera hugged me, sending sparks raining all over me.

"You, my sparkly birb, hunt electric impulses, deep neural networks," I said. "Resonance. A human to electrocute. As much as you want to. Forever. A human with a mana-burning lighter through whom you could create a localized Celestorm, enough to forge this tower, enough to imprint all of your 'current' ideas into the most incredible, most complex hexagrammic runework project imaginable."

Vespera's talons sparked with electricity, her eyes gleaming. "Ke ke ke. My human Resonance engine."

She buried her beak into my neck, nuzzling against me hard and wrapping me in her talons.

[Mine] Her electrical current-voice danced in my head. [To zap. Zappedy zap. zzzap. He he he current. You funny.]

Katherine's emerald eyes narrowed. "So you're saying you deliberately manipulated all of us into creating this... crystal tower?"

"Yep," I nodded. "Manipulated. Brought together. Prodded. Lead along. Guided. Figured out the right conditions for something truly magical to emerge. Luckily for us, it worked out."

[Mmmmm. Death ray.] Vespera gigged in my head.

"Riiiiight," Katherine said. "Lucky we didn't all freaking melt. How are we rescuing Sol exactly?"

"Hopefully, we're not," I said. "The adults are. If they're still alive that is."

"What do you mean IF they're alive?!" Cinder sputtered.

"You heard Sol," I said and tapped my silver tag. "Cast Brother Vassily."

The tag began to vibrate in my hand. I waited. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. One minute. No answer.

"Shit," Vee opened her eyes. "That's... not good."

I nodded.

"Cast Innkeeper Nikkola," I ordered next.

I waited. Nothing.

Cinder swallowed.

"Cast Captain June of Team Hydroblades," I said next, my companions drawing their breath.

No answer.

The silence stretched, thick and heavy.

"Cast Captain Cinder, Team I love you," I said.

Cinder's bracelet buzzed. She accepted the call. Our faces appeared atop both of our bracelets.

I hung up.

"Yep," I nodded. "No adults then and no other Omnid help."

"What do you think happened to everyone?" Cinder asked.

"Seems like the Bank made their move," I said. "The Enforcers must have been sent after everyone to silence them after Zalimar's drug operation went tits up. Just us then. Against all of Shandria. Fifteen hours till Sol, Quint and Em are executed. Peachy."