The door creaked shut behind Alec. His steps followed one another, leading him further inside. Light streaks showering the library rendered the dust particles in the air visible. He hesitated to breathe for a second, lest those dust particles enter his nasal cavity and cause him to sneeze. His gaze sweeping through the library, Alec adjusted his necktie.

The library’s second floor was a bit eerie, making Alec look around contemptuously. Although it was rumored to be the most informationally loaded level of the library, Alec had never seen any person other than him go there.

'It's probably because the professors already have copies of whatever they are doing research on...' Alec thought to himself. ‘Magical academia has had a hard time for the last ten years. There were no breakthroughs in that time period, and very little advancement was made. The professors were probably focusing more on a small group of studies to make advancements.’

Alec was momentarily distracted by his thoughts. Then, however, his hand went into his chest pocket involuntarily and took out a vial. 'What..?'

Without thinking further, the mana brain forced him to drink the potion, and Alec didn't resist. There was a hunch in him that told Alec to trust the mana brain no matter what.

As the purple potion slid down his throat, Alec closed his eyes. When the last drops entered his mouth, he raised it further and shook it a few times to make sure it was empty. Shortly after, blue sparks started flashing all around his head. Once he reopened his eyes, Alec's temperament had completely changed. Before, he was relaxed and casual. Now, he was steadfast in his stance. His eyes flashed with determination as he took in the crimson lights showering down from the sky's corpse.

"I'm back. Again," Alec muttered to himself. His gaze caressed the library intimately before it settled on one of the tables. What remained in his mind wasn't plenty. He knew his goal, and he knew where to find his notes. "That should be it..."

Turning around, Alec walked up to his confused friend. It had been much easier to find a temporary pass once he himself had the permanent one. Professor Andrew didn't really seem to care who Alec brought along in his endeavors.

"What's going on?" Evan asked. He had been skeptical of coming with Alec, however, still followed him along. The temporary pass he was presented with was interesting, and the prospect of going to the second level of the library was hard to refuse. "What are those..."

"Drink this," Alec said calmly. There was no need to explain anything. Taking out another vial of mental cleansing potion, he held Evan's face and shoved it into his mouth. Without struggle, Evan accepted the potion. Once he was done drinking, a glint similar to that of Alec's appeared in his eyes.

"Huh... I can't believe that actually worked," Evan muttered to himself. He held his chin thoughtfully.

"I told you that it would," Alec said while walking toward the table. Without further ado, Evan followed him along.

"Where did you hide the journal?" he asked, catching up to Alec. His gaze wandered over the table but couldn't spot the book.

Alec didn't answer and raised his hand instead. His palm facing forward, a crooked magic circle appeared mid-air. Shortly after, the circle spun to activation. A much more well-drawn version of the same magic circle appeared on the table. Then, as if it had always been there, a notebook appeared under it. Once Evan saw this happen, he gasped in surprise.

"I still can't believe that this thing managed to blot out an entire magic branch," he said, to which Alec nodded in answer.

"Yes," he said simply. He tip-toed around the table carefully and reached the chair that was placed behind it. Evan, on the other hand, had to take one from another nearby table.

Sitting side by side, they opened the journal and started reading the entries.

The first section of the journal was about Alec's experiences before his first memory erasure, which Alec hid from Evan promptly. Evan didn't find this weird. He knew that there were some things that Alec had to hide from him. They were undergoing a tribulation so severe that anything less than absolute trust in each other wouldn't do. So, Evan chose to trust in Alec, that he wouldn't hide something from him unless absolutely necessary.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When he read through enough of the notebook, Alec pushed the notebook toward Evan for him to read too.

The part they reached was interesting, as it started with a date, unlike the previous entries.

[This thing... It has also taken away our calendar. Thus, we will be creating our own, just to make this thing easier to read.]

[The Chaos Calendar --> 01/01/00]

"That's interesting..." Evan muttered audibly. He looked around for a few moments and confirmed the journal's claim. "That's true. I don't know the date. I have a concept of months, days, and years, but that's all..."

"That is probably what we realized last week," Alec said. "I genuinely admire this thing's anti-memetic capabilities."

"Yeah... That's fine and all but why did you name it 'The Chaos Calendar'?" Evan asked. He couldn't see a reason behind it. At his mention of the name of the calendar, Alec shifted his gaze back to the journal.

"Huh... I have no idea. I'm sure it's not that complicated though..." Alec answered. Flipping a page, he threw the question to the back of his mind and read through the rest of the journal.

"So let's continue with what we have learned this week. Today should be... 08/01/00." Alec said while taking out The Author's Pen. He tapped the pen on the table three times before writing down the date and turning his gaze back toward Evan.

"Hunter Howard has gone back to teaching this week. That might mean something," Evan said. He then got up and circled the table with his hands joined together behind him.

"Yes. That was shocking," Alec said while noting the event. "Maybe there have been some shifts in the academy's power structure."

"That is possible..."

"I've also noticed that the infirmary has disappeared," Alec said. He scratched his temple with The Author's Pen before continuing. "Edward had a weird tumorous growth on his arm..."

"Do you think it might be something related to this..." Evan said. His words cut in half, and he looked at the journal once again before continuing. "Demonic incursion? It's incredible that we fought against demons and forgot it..."

"I have no idea," Alec answered his question with a frown. "I don't know how a demon looks other than the description in the journal. So I can't identify if the lump was related or not..."

"God damn it," Evan cursed under his breath. Placing his hand on Alec's shoulder, he read the description of the demons Alec had written about in the journal once again before returning to pacing around the table.

"Oh! There was this interesting news..." Evan muttered, struggling to remember for a second. "Apparently, the illusive array will be used for the final exams of this term."

"What's that?" Alec asked with a raised brow.

"It's an incredibly complicated ancient magic array spanning the entire underground of the academy. Once activated, it creates semi-real illusions of random monsters for the students to fight against," Evan explained. "Apparently, nobody has seen it be activated before, including the professors."

"That's weird. Why now?" Alec asked, to which Evan shook his head.

"What's weirder is, I clearly remember being told that only the headmaster can activate it," he said.

"But... Didn't the headmaster disappear a long time ago?" Alec asked.

"Mm..."

"There's definitely something weird about that. Just the fact that we don't even know the headmaster's name is..."

"Worrying?" Evan finished his sentence.

After a short while of silence, both sighed in resignation. Alec started noting things down while Evan kept thinking.

"Shouldn't we have some kind of plan in case things don't work out?" he asked suddenly. Alec stopped writing and tapped The Author's Pen on the journal, splattering small amounts of ink on it.

"We already do," he said. Evan stopped pacing around the table thoughtfully and looked at Alec.

"What? What kind of plan?" he questioned.

Alec lifted his head from the journal and looked at him.

"I have absolutely no idea."

"Huh?"

"I mind wiped myself to forget what the plan is. Shortly before the mental cleansing potion ends, the mana brain will hand me a heavily protected memory package strengthened by memetic magic," Alec explained. "Then I will mind wipe myself again before the anti-memetic entity does."

"That's kind of smart..." Evan muttered.

"I have a hunch that you were the one to think of that," Alec said before going back to writing.

The next ten or so minutes went by silently. Alec finished taking his notes with the help of Evan and then went on to study memetic and gravity magic.

Evan's mental cleansing potion was about to run out, so he was readying himself to leave. However, before that, he stopped and thought for a second.

"Say, I know that these potions of yours are hard to explain. I still don't know how you make them..." Evan muttered. Alec's interest was piqued. He closed the book in his hand and threw it aside. "But, is there any way you might make more? Are there other potions that can be used casually? Something like the health potion or that stamina potion the journal talked about?"

"Yeah... There is. Where are you going with this?" Alec asked, his brow raised.

"If you could create more, what if, let's say... You gave them to me and we started selling them?" Evan asked nervously.

"What? Sell? How? The academy regulates the selling of potions heavily," Alec asked.

"I will deal with that part," Evan answered. "You make the potions, I sell them. We both do our own jobs."

Hearing his words, Alec's mouth opened in awe, then his lips rose into a wide grin. Raising his hand to hide his amused expression, he agreed.

"Sure 'partner', let's team up..."