The red parasitic mold whose hunger never stopped was slowly closing in, resisting any form of change.
Its color darkened, and bits of red light could be seen from the thick black layer on it.
A second later, it wasn't just color that changed. It started losing its light, compressed inward, losing its heat.
The condition of the watch had ended. Whatever had been feeding the mold was gone now.
A second later, the weakened mold fell on Kaelen. It didn't burn anything.
Kaelen lifted it and threw it on the closest monitor.
The mold on the walls settled down like a bedsheet.
Kaelen investigated the walls; they were clean as if the mold had never existed.
A voice came back from the stairs. "Don't you care about leaving this place as soon as possible?"
Kaelen turned and noticed a man in oversized clothes, almost the same physique as his. He was inspecting a test subject in a cage that had been pretending to be sleeping before.
Kaelen took out a chain and took slow, short steps.
The man looked at the chains and lifted his hands up in the air. "Hey, I just saved you."
Kaelen's body refused to move. "Who are you?"
"The person who saved you," the man said.
His knees gave up, slowly bending. "Why?"
The man took out a hat, identical to the magician's hat. "I want your help with something only you can suffer through."
Kaelen's already tensed-up joints started crushing themselves.
The magician looked at his knees falling and gave a disappointed look.
"What kind of help?" Kaelen asked.
The magician took a deep breath. "I can't tell you that right now, or you will convince yourself into not sacrificing it."
Kaelen's back started hunching, similar to how the man from that house was. "Sacrificing what?"
The magician stared at Kaelen for a moment, waiting for something. "Didn't I already tell you that I can't tell you?"
"Can I go now?"
The magician faced his palm towards Kaelen.
Kaelen's back and joints shifted back to their normal position.
"You might feel like you are making progress," the magician said, "but all of this is just an outcome they have already prepared for; if they wanted to, they would know every single move of yours."
"They? Whom are you referring to? Is this a trick to turn me against my allies?"
"Your allies, who are they? The person who destroyed your life, the one who forced that change onto you, Rowan, was the reason why all of this happened. For you or me, there is no ally in this war for authority; they want you for it. Without it, they won't even greet you."
"I never expected life to be this easy," Kaelen said. "It's a give-and-take relationship between everyone. For me, anyone who trusts me and whom I trust is an ally. My life was never destroyed; they gave me a new one, one that I have adapted to, one that makes me useful, one that gives me the power to do what I have longed for."
"Where are these allies of yours leading you?" the magician asked. "They never give you answers; they are scared to. You consider them allies, but they don't."
"They trust me even more; Rowan sacrificed everything for me. Aurelion trusted me to complete a mission I could never have; he protected me from your cult. They have their reasons for it, and they told me everything I needed to know. What more can I ask for?"
"What are they leading you towards?"
Kaelen made a fist and dropped it. "Just shut up."
The magician's hand moved.
Something split open behind Kaelen's eyes; his void tore into reality, void tiles spreading across the room, the magician standing inside them this time.
When the void stretched across the room, the test subjects were in it too — not swallowed, not moved, just included inside the space as if reality had accepted the void as part of itself.
There was a short moment of realization and shock; he wasn't going inside his void; his void was turning into reality.
Rowan jumped out of his void, snapping Kaelen out of it and taking over. Taking the void inside.
The magician felt it.
"Don't ever ask Kaelen for help," Rowan said.
The magician stepped back and nodded, not out of agreement, but because he finally understood the warning.
Rowan left without any other word.
Someone had cleaned the bodies above. The followers who had been chasing him lay dead in small alleys, killed before they could leave witnesses behind.
In a random alley, Rowan stopped.
They were teleported to his void. The same road where they met for the first time.
Rowan said, "You need to know some stuff before you encounter anyone like him."
Kaelen nodded.
"These people, they are prepared, just like how you were prepared for the sect members; you can't win with brute force against them." He searched for a word. "You need protection from them, or you will get destroyed, as just happened. Don't you dare do this kind of stunt again."
Kaelen grinned. "I gave it a thought when I was inside the house. How can I remember only the memories where I want revenge? Kaelen clicked his tongue before saying it. You must have been the reason for it, aren't you?"
Rowan almost immediately answered, "Yes, but I never thought you would be so reckless, and Aurelion letting you leave alone was reckless."
Kaelen;s jaw tightened, fists clenched and said, "He respects my decisions, he lets me do what I want, and he doesn't give it the shape he wants."
Rowan's voice turned cold. "You're a kid in a game with no end. Where no one wins. I'll stop once you're strong enough to survive it."
Kaelen let out a big "No," "I will be the one to stop." He flickered his fingers and returned to the real world.
Rowan kept trying to take over all the way to the house.
When Kaelen reached home, there were more shoes than before; he could recognize Zeph's shoes, but others were unclear to him.
He pushed the door. Absolute silence.
Nevyziel came out of a doorway, her head sticking out with a smile. She signaled Kaelen to come inside that room.
A roundtable and 8 chairs: Everyone was there; one chair was left for Kaelen.
Thousands of paper covered the table, everyone was more focused on reading than Kaelen.