Concentrating, Cale sat in his study and one of the books the Eldest had brought him. It was a story about the emergence of beings without mana, which the chairman suspected was the Kormandent.

The last few weeks went by much too quickly. A few days ago, the Eldest and Cale had decided to inform the other High-Magicians about Grischa's condition, some of whom reacted with sheer horror. So every now and then they stopped by Cale's appartment to pay the sick man a visit, but each time Grischa was asleep.

His mana poverty was now clearly noticeable. He could sleep most of the day and still be exhausted, he was hardly ever hungry, and since his body formed ice on his skin, Cale forced his friend to bathe once a day. But above all, Grischa's mental state suffered. Some days he was relatively well and as cheerful as ever, but most of the time he didn't seem to respond at all when anyone spoke to him. He would absentmindedly squat on the bed and stare at the bookshelves in front of him for a good several hours.

That was also what prompted Cale to call in his colleagues. They had split into two groups and scoured the creature levels, while the rest stayed in the capital to take care of official business.

Unfortunately, they had not had much success. Almost daily, meanwhile, Cale conversed with a healer from Frignez whose area of expertise was in researching new diseases. If it didn't take her several weeks to get here, she would have come by herself long ago, so Aletta often had to perform tests for her. Mainly minor tests of what was happening to Grischa's mana, but with each attempt both Cale and Aletta were afraid.

Meanwhile, for a good hour, Cale had been reading while Grischa slept in the room above him. He was absorbed in the words that in the serious moment he did not notice the communication crystal. For a moment he hoped to hear William's voice, but this time Aaron reported to him. As he let mana flow in and his face appeared before him, neither party made any comment. The small spark of hope that Cale had for a brief moment was instantly extinguished. Demotivated, he set the crystal down on the table in front of him and held his head with his hand to control his despair.

"I guess you didn't have much success", Aaron's voice rang out in his usual cold manner as Cale looked at the book.

"There's so much going on here, but we're not really making any progress either. Sefra, Joshua and Malte as well as Rosalie and Ziyad are currently searching for the Kormandent, we initiated all of them a few days ago. The Eldest has talked to quite a lot people from all over the world, I have been to a few meetings as well, but no one has had this problem before. The only real help is the healer from Frignez who is trying to get us more information with her tests. They try to suppress the symptoms and keep his mana circuit alive, but they don't really have good results either. I'm already so desperate that I'm reading old history books that talk about people without mana", Cale said in a sad voice, demonstratively raising the book in the air in front of him. With each passing day, he doubted that he would be able to find a reasonable solution. Despite all the contacts and energetic help, they were hardly making any progress. "Grischa is now completely absent-minded. I have to force him to get up and eat, it's gotten that bad. Most of the time he sleeps and only very rarely, for no reason at all, he is suddenly awake again and realizes what is wrong with him. I always try to calm him down, but I can see myself going crazy."

A long sigh could be heard from Cale before he turned his gaze to Aaron and banged his head with his hand. When he had left Bellator a few monthsago, he always assumed that he would now be dealing with Miguel Heriog or finding out the reason for the attack now, not having to watch a dying mage powerless all day. Cale really hadn't felt this lost for a long time.

"Do you have anything useful, no matter how unimportant it may sound?"

"Not particularly much, no. I talked a little with Basil Kama, but he remembers the day of the attack only dimly. According to him, there are several, maybe even a whole colony of Kormandents. As you said, they are intelligent and they can even speak according to him, according to Sir Kama they possess the common tongue. The only really interesting thing was how they get around. According to Sir Kama, they are not supposed to just be fast, they are supposed to teleport."

Based on Aaron's statement, Cale straightened up in wonder and lowered his hands.

"Teleport? Are you Sure? I've never heard of anyone ever being able to do that", the 12th seat calmly replied as he noticed the movement above him. Grischa was currently spinning in bed, which is why he stood up and headed for the stairs with his book and crystal.

"I've never heard that either, but then again, it doesn't seem entirely unrealistic. Maybe there is indeed a possibility, but we don't know it yet."

Thoughtfully, Cale stopped at the stair railing and glanced at the crystal itself. Aaron was right, there was a possibility. After all, there was circumstantial evidence for it in the elder's vision. The development of Grischa itself are often miraculous, the communication crystal itself, for example, had been unthinkable ten years ago.

"Could be that it works like zero magic, but you have to talk that through logically and test it first. The problem is, if it's true, we'll probably never find the creature."

"That's what I thought too, but explain this to me. When you use your null magic, how exhausting is it and how much mana do you use?"

Cale immediately understood what the 3rd seat was getting at. He dropped down on the step and, with the help of the null magic, made the book in his hand disappear.

"It definitely draws a lot of mana, the bigger the object, the more. It's not actually exhausting, only if I use it often or for a long time."

"What if it's similar with teleporting? If the creature has limited ability to teleport? Also, the creature has limited mana available, so it can't carelessly go from one place to another", Aaron voiced his guess.

"Sounds plausible, except that assumes one thing: we are correct with our findings."

"You're right about that", Aaron countered calmly and Cale could see him starting to move. Apparently Aaron was no longer completely alone. "Even if we do find them... if there's more than one, how do we find the right one?"

All the things they had found so far were hypotheses. Without the actual creature, they could determine purely nothing with certainty and finding it seemed almost impossible. If the creature really could store the mana, he would not stand out from the crowd.

"We're going in circles", Cale reluctantly admitted after a long pause and slumped on the stair step. The fact that they weren't making any progress at all was getting to him, especially since he got to see the effects of it every day. "What are you going to do now?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing", Aaron replied before his image shook briefly and unusual noises could be heard in the background. Cale could briefly see Aaron turn around to the back and shout something to someone before turning back to Cale. From the voice, it had to have been Ben.

"I think we should talk to the others. Maybe we're missing something obvious", Cale confessed, picking himself back up. He hesitantly walked up the steps and let his gaze fall on Grischa. He didn't bother to envelop him with his barrier; he wouldn't wake up anyway. "I would prefer to go in search of the creature myself".

"I feel the same way. Just sitting around doing nothing isn't going to get us anywhere."

"Please don't go to the creature level alone. You know that's too dangerous", Cale immediately reminded him as he realized the intent behind Aaron's words. Aaron looked to the side and didn't reply anything, as if he was thinking about what to say now.

"Is that why you wanted your friends to go with me? Are they monitoring me?"

"Monitoring you? What makes you think like that?", Cale threw back in irritation, but denied his statement shortly after.

"Just a... feeling. Your whole behavior towards the 4 foreign Anuxers just struck me as odd. How did you meet them anyway?"

"I met them at a tavern in Bellator", Cale announced, getting goosebumps when he noticed Aaron's gaze. "Who do you think I am, anyway? I didn't send them along to keep tabs on you. I had a feeling they could help you and I was right, wasn't I?"

"Yes. Admitted, I didn't expect her to be really helpful."

"You're even more suspicious of strangers than I am."

"You're suspicious? When have you ever been suspicious?"

"I'm suspicious all the time. Especially if I don't know the person at all, then I basically don't trust them."

"Then what was different this time? Your friend Liam said to me that you've always been open minded with them."

"He sees what he wants to see", Cale evaded a specific comment. "Let's get back to the Kormendent. I know you're a loner and won't listen to me, but don't put your life in danger just to look for the creature. And above all, don't drag my friends into this, unlike you, they would have no chance whatsoever in a fight against Kormendent."

"But they wouldn't die on contact", Aaron casually added, which immediately made Cale tense up a whole body. Jerking, he had stopped in space. The air was stagnant and he hadn't cleaned up in several days. Dozens of books lay on his side of the bed, cups between them that he hadn't taken back to the kitchen. For well over a week, the only thing he did was read and talk to other mages about Grisha's condition. No one made any comment about the mess, that Cale had simply forgotten.

"What are you implying?"

"What if we let the Kormandent come to us and not the other way around?"

"If you dare use my friends as bait, I'll never forgive you, Aaron. I swear to you, I'll kill you", Cale replied in a loud and extremely threatening voice. He couldn't believe what Aaron had just said. Anger overcame Cale and he could feel a threatening amount of mana leaking from him. Spasmodically, he clutched the crystal in his hand convulsively.

"I didn't mean it that way and you know it. I just meant that it was an option?"

"Don't you dare, Aaron. I don't care at all if you pick any other people and sacrifice them, but if you willingly put my friends' lives in danger...", proclaimed Cale, slowing down and becoming more articulate with each sentence. "...then I swear to you, I will hunt you down for all eternity and kill you the moment I see you. I'm a very vengeful person, remember that. So keep them out of it!"