The explosion was far louder and stronger than before. Everyone in the room - even the giant creatures - felt themselves physically shaken by it, no matter how far away from the pyramid itself they were standing. As before, the rubble filled much of the room - but this time, something extraordinary was happening to it. It was disintegrating right before everyone's eyes! Then, all of a sudden, the creatures began to disintegrate as well.
A voice from where the structure had been spoke. "You know, Manifestum, I did not finish my sentence... I was about to say that it was up to the pyramid to decide - and decide it did." Cheers and clapping erupted from the room as Finnwich reappeared as the dust cleared. The creatures from the pyramid, on the other hand, were no more, just as the material that had made up the structure itself.
Reconciliation was in the air. Lee quickly spotted his mother and father - the latter of whom was clearly still recovering from the shock the pyramid had delivered when removing his mark - and ran to them to embrace them. He saw his brother, uncertain as to whether he should join in. Lee motioned for him to come over; after a moment, the Ping family reunion was complete.
Through his peripheral vision, Lee saw many of those present hugging each other. Even those who were now obviously workers from Coral Grove shook hands, but this surprise paled in comparison to that which Lee noticed between Kimmie and her mother. After a brief moment of uncertainty on the part of both mother and daughter, Lee saw something that he had thought impossible with Cassandra's involvement - a hug.
"We will never be truly apart again, right?", Lee asked his now-reconstituted family. "Never, bro - I mean brother... I now know that this is my real family," Li responded. Then he sighed and continued: "It's too bad Priscilla is still recovering and can't be here right now." He was referring, of course, to his pet snake; she had been shocked by Cassandra during a battle between the three of them. Lee then broke from the family hug to embrace Tina, who had come up running towards him, but she had something else on her mind as they kissed once again. Lee realized he definitely wasn't the only one doing so - he spotted Cam and Brandy doing the same as well, among several other couples among the students.
Then Lee noticed Finnwich gesturing towards him and several other students to come over - specifically, the members of Lee's little group. As they walked over to the old man, Lee suddenly realized he was still quite confused about something. He turned to Finnwich and asked: "How did you know?"
"Ah, that was quite simple, my boy. You see, I had torn out a page from the book." It was not Lee but Tina and Jenny this time - who had been listening in on the conversation - who quickly realized something: that he was referring to the page he had torn out from the book before being taken away to Coral Grove after they had opened the pyramid together; they both recalled Jenny exclaiming: "Hey! How come the next page has been ripped out?" Finnwich continued: "While at Coral Grove, I retrieved a replica of a certain device that you are quite familiar with..." The wizard smiled at Lee.
"Of course!", Lee exclaimed. "The cipher... you had a replica?"
"Indeed, in my office," Finnwich said, "or rather my former office now, I suppose... I knew it was important to obtain just in time, and it seems I was correct on that count."
Lee smiled back, in part because of his deduction of this matter. Then he turned to Cam and asked: "You mentioned something about beating Barrage... did you really?"
"Oh, that... dude was like under control again, and he told us all to go back to class, you know, as if nothing had happened...", Cam began.
Brandy continued where he had left off: "So we ended up using Finnwich's little trick - you know, the one you told us about..."
"Oh, you turned him off then?"
"It wasn't easy, bro...", Cam responded. "We had to, like, sneak up on him and all that. Of course," Cam said, pausing for a moment then continuing, "we do make a great team as leaders..." He trailed off, nodding at Brandy. "Well, everyone else helped a lot too, of course," he said after a moment.
The teens stood along with the elderly wizard to loud applause and cheering. Lee realized that the situation was much like that of an incredible performance having come to an end - except that, instead of bowing, the main actors just stood there soaking in the adulation.
After all the small group of friends had been through, finally receiving some proper recognition from a significant number of other people was definitely pleasant, especially since many of those others had been unaware of their deeds on previous occasions (not least due to brainwashing). However, they all knew that even this was unimportant compared to something else they had gained throughout their adventures, something even more intangible but more valuable. They had gained true friendship.
"Well, this is it, isn't it?", Lee asked his friends. "Yeah, bro," Cam responded. "Most yesfinitely!", Holger exclaimed. "Yes," Tina said, "I think it is."