Lukas was quietly brushing Jesse's hair while Aiden watched silently. They were barely awake from passing out, but conscious enough to not fall face-first to the floor.

After Olivia had briefly explained the situation, Ellegaard had opened up the gates to let the others in, explaining what had happened with a faintly apologetic note as she shoved papers sloppily into some drawers that she would undoubtedly never open again.

This had led to someone (Aiden or Olivia, but Jesse had been too hazy to pay attention) making a small theory about it, which now led to them sitting around the room in a rough kind of circle while Lukas fussed over Jesse and the others continued theorizing.

Ellegaard frowned, drumming her fingers quietly on the table. She'd organized a little bit, but not enough for it to look actually neat. "I did notice it starting to take over... but I thought since I was a baron, I'd be able to repel it before long."

"That is the case with most negative energy... which makes you wonder why this one was an exception," Isa murmured.

Nurm jabbed away something sign language.

Jesse rubbed a very sleepy eye, looking like they might pass out any second after and sniffling. "Um... Nurm sai' tha' since I had to use a really strong spell... 's likely it was either jus' really strong... or had some magic thing tainting it."

Ellegaard's brow creased. "To have magic be able to magnify the power of negative energy, without the user itself getting corrupted... it can't just be a regular demon. That kind of magic isn't the type the average demon can learn..."

"But then it's not any of the lords, either," Isa chimed in, her lip between her teeth as she considered this. "This kind of magic is... it's old. Not quite as old as Ivor's. Pretty sure it's forbidden... which means it has to be someone who was taught this sort of magic as a kid."

"Not very helpful. There's a lot of demons out there who've been taught this magic as a kid since it was 'recently' forbidden," Hadrian grumbled, which got him a few looks.

"He's right," Ellegaard murmured. "I learned about this magic as a child. That narrows it down to about half the demons in Cosmos... it was some extremely powerful magic, though."

Aiden grunted. "So maybe someone with excellent magic casting skills?"

The conversation was cut off by Olivia abruptly vaulting to her feet, shooting across the room, and slamming the door open with so much force that Jesse jumped and fell onto the floor, to Lukas's dismay.

"Hey-!" Olivia stopped, frowning out into the empty space beyond.

"What is it?" Hadrian sounded annoyed by the interruption. "You heard something?"

Olivia frowned out at the empty hallway beyond, then turned back around and shut the door more securely. "... no. I just... I thought I saw something green beyond here. So I figured it was a demon that dyed their hair, or a doll... but there's nothing there."


Ellegaard eventually offered them some rooms to stay for the night, apologizing for the trouble (to which Hadrian replied bluntly that it was kind of their jobs to fix trouble). Lukas offered to stay in the same room with Jesse, but Hadrian vetoed the idea.

Partially because he could see Jesse twisting their fingers in that awkward way that meant they were trying to figure out how to say no without being offensive.

It felt like only a few minutes of sleep had passed, Jesse still barely coherent from the level of magic they'd had to do, before Hadrian poked Jesse none too gently, which made them squirm slightly in their sleep and crack open an eye. "Nn... 'adrian...?" they mumbled, sleepily.

The door was open behind him, enough that any passerby could've seen if he was doing something suspicious- which honestly was a comfort.

"Get dressed, slugger. We've got to head to Boom Town in a few hours once I can teleport us both." He spoke curtly, almost sharply. "Looks like the others there are having trouble again. Already told Isa so we can leave."

"I hope nothing dangerous happens..."

Hadrian sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shoving his glasses up onto his forehead.

After a moment, his voice became the tiniest bit softer, as if he'd just recalled they'd done the level of magic that Ivor would've still had to mumble a few words for without really getting enough rest. "Look, kid, I'm sure it won't be that dangerous. Yes, Boom Town's pretty much the most dangerous place in Cosmos-"

Jesse wondered if that was supposed to be comforting.

"- but it's not like Magnus wants us all to participate in the Death Bowl."

For some reason, all Jesse could think about at that name was the Super Bowl and having two teams just run around with a deadly football. Which made them want to smile faintly.

"... the... Death... Bowl?"


"What's the Death Bowl?"

Jesse might've asked the others this, having not gotten a straight answer earlier from Hadrian, but they were currently hunched over and trying not to vomit all down their front.

Hadrian stared at the others, looking almost incensed while Jesse was still recovering from the abrupt, urgent need to vomit that teleporting had brought upon them. Perhaps it was a good thing they were incapacitated, actually, they didn't want that look directed at them.

(Didn't want to have done something wrong.)

"He what?"

Mevia was glaring at Hadrian, while Gill and Maya were trying to shrink away from the aura of pure hatred the two of them were giving off. "Look, it's Magnus we're talking about-"

"And he won't let us work on the negative energy problem unless we participate in the Death Bowl? What kind of stupid logic is that?" Hadrian snarled.

"Magnus's, that's whose stupid fucking logic it is," Mevia snapped back. "You know he's a paranoid son-of-a-bitch, he needs to know that you can handle it before he just lets you waltz on into there."

Truthfully, in a weird, twisted way, that did make sense to Jesse, but they decided not to chime in with this opinion.

"It doesn't have to be all of us," Radar piped up meekly. "It... can... just... be... one participant." He'd shrunk back upon both Mevia and Hadrian turning looks of pure fury upon him.

"... just a suggestion."


A/N: Poor Radar; he just wanted to make a suggestion.

Poor Jesse needs to sleep for the next two days... they're not getting it. At all. Sorry. xD

The reason they're moving so quick is because negative energy needs to be fixed urgently; it can't just sit and wait for formalities or it can get that much worse.

Responses to reviews!

Syra Nyth: True haha.

Northern Goshawk: that's Ellegaard... practical to a fault... / No, I'm actually doing a lot of schoolwork... also writing bloopers can take some time extra that tends to make me procrastinate on chapters.

bungaMawar001: fdjka;fa

Happygoluckymegami: they're more worried about the negative energy issues, tbh.

TheAmberShadow: hehe. it's an eggcellent chapter, is it not? Omelet you theorize about what's going on.

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x