"We are influenced by many things, it's the reason why Styles are usually written into, rather than out from. The reason why we tend to have a unified moral code, and why we tend to classify certain things as evil." – a dark philosopher

A blur crosses the sky, making swift progress to its eventual destination.

'We're only a few steps away, soon it'll all come together,' Thinks the gray-haired rogue mage.

The mage starts chewing his nails, 'it worries me to have to leave it there, but I'm sure it'll be fine. After all, it does have that constitution.'

The mage starts smiling.

'Who would've thought. Making mage sight by injecting beast blood into the eyes is a common practice for the upper echelons, but usually they disassemble the rest of the augmentum for a new focus, or to sell the parts. But who would have thought! By continuously injecting beast blood into a sine magicae their body approaches closer and closer to that of a magic beast! The way things are going, due to the beast's natural regenerative powers, I'm going to have an unlimited supply of concentrated magic and augmentum flesh! This will do wonders for my research!'

The man looks across the landscape.

'Though, as of late, he has been more and more sessile…'

The man shakes his head, still soaring across the barren landscape.

'I've been using the unaligned gray beast so far, but it's time to see if I can get my hands on the blood of one of the moving giants. There is the issue with the cities that rely on them, but I really do wonder what effect it will have…'

That is when a beeping sound starts to fill the air.

'What's this? The fire alarm…'

The man checks his watch and clicks a few buttons, nods, and then continues on his journey.

'That should stop any fires, though it will somewhat damage some of my papers, but I have back-up copies of the important ones anyway.'

While the man zooms off into the distance, a deluge of white powder encompasses his lab, and a white powder coats Alex's entire body. The red smoke though, had already done its damage.

Ivona looks towards the red column, contrasting with the evening sky.

'I've found you.'