Ryan ran around the party, trying to look out for Michael. In the meantime, Yanna and Kim were continuing to try and get control of the rowdier folk in the party. But no matter where Ryan looked, he just couldn't find him. Not in the house, in any of the smaller rooms around here, or even the garden.

  None of the spirits, who had been running around trying to keep everyone in check as well, seemed to have seen him either since things started going really wild.

  "It's not like he could have just disappeared, where the hell is he?" Ryan groaned, stepping through the slightly overgrown path toward the small pond in the corner of the garden, where Liam and Jade were sitting on a bench together. Violette stood in front of them, watching out for any sort of potential trouble, while the young vampire boy was showing Jade some of the fun things he had found in his game.

  "And here, when you do this, and this, and then hit the wall, a secret path opens up! There was a ton of treasure back here when I got in the first time," Liam explained with an excited voice, and Jade smiled while looking down at the screen, just making sounds of amazement.

  "Whoa, really? That's so cool!"

  "Right?!"

  Though this was a very nice moment, seeing Liam relaxed like this despite everything that was going on at the moment, Ryan still had to interrupt them, "Hey! Sorry, I just need to ask you guys something. Have you seen Michael? Liam you've met him before, he's my hydromancer friend that comes to the café sometimes."

  The boy looked up at Ryan and slowly shook his head, "No, I don't think so..."

  "Why? Is everything alright?" Jade asked nervously. She would have obviously heard the commotion that was going on over at the house, but she had promised to watch out for Liam so she had no clue what was actually going on. Ryan smiled lightly.

  "I'll explain later. Just stay here for another... twenty minutes, maybe?" he suggested, and quickly turned back around. He made eye-contact with the Fencer spirit standing in front of the bench, continuing to entrust the safety of those two to her.

  Ryan had a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't exactly that same sort of sensation he had when his intuition was trying to tell him something, it was a lot more complicated than just that.

  "Please be okay..." Ryan whispered to himself as he continued to run around. In the end, he had looked through literally every place he could be. That was... except for one.

  Ryan ran over to the shed that started this whole mess, looking up at Gaia, "Did someone come here?"

  The golem slowly shook her head, though something felt weird about the way she was doing it. It was too sluggish and slow. Ryan quickly placed his hand onto Gaia's chest. The moment he did, an exchange of mana was being created between Ryan and the spirit, like two currents flowing beside each other. When the spirits weren't inside of their domains and when the spirit link wasn't set up, this was the best way to figure out exactly what the deal was. What the spirits were thinking and feeling, and what their current state was.

  It was weak, but Gaia was starting to be affected by the spell inside of the chapel. But weirdly, her emotions weren't stronger than before, they were... weaker. Like her mind and mana had taken on a calmness like none other, as though she were the stone that she had been originally carved out of again.

  "... What kind of spell is that, really..?" Ryan muttered, staring at the shed's door, and then called Gaia back into her domain. He immediately linked to her so that the walls of her domain would be opened up, and spoke to her mentally, "Go over toward the seed of blessing, okay? Hopefully it should purify what you've got going on right now."

  Though, even when she was inside of her domain, Gaia just sat there completely motionlessly. Ryan had to go inside of his mind and actively lead her to the small sapling. She sat down and continued to not move, before Ryan stepped back into control of his body. And then, he pulled open the doors of the shed. When he did, though, he was hit by a flood of liquid splashing right against him.

  Beer and wine was floating in the air and shot at Ryan almost defensively, as though something was trying to stop him from coming in.

  "What the- Michael, what's going on?" Ryan stared inside the room, trying to see past the streams of alcohol floating through the air. Bottles were broken and even the top of the kegs had been torn off, as if the liquid inside of them had exploded out of them.

  Michael stood in the centre of the room, "I was just... I was just trying to help... I saw they were bringing things back here and I..."

  He slowly turned around, and droplets of water were streaming out of the corner of his eyes, mixing in with the alcohol around him. Michael's eyes were glowing blue, and the light reflected off the surface of the liquids around him.

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  "It's okay, I appreciate it... but just come out of there and take a breather, yeah? We've got things under control," Ryan said, trying to slowly step toward Michael. But as he did, the floating droplets of liquid were starting to change.

  They turned into spikes, with their tips focused directly on Ryan.

  "Stop it! Stay there!" Michael yelled, as a few of those spikes shot right out of the shed. Most of them missed, but Ryan could feel one of them digging into his skin, tearing open his shoulder.

  Trying not to yell out, Ryan pressed his mouth shut and held his breath until his tense body relaxed. Michael was clearly not in control of himself right now. He was standing right on top of that magic circle. Ryan's link with Morgana had already run out, so he had no way to actually confirm it, but he was sure that Michael was completely drenched in that magic.

  "Okay, I'm staying here. Just talk to me, okay? What's going on?"

  Michal stared at Ryan. At the wound on his shoulder. He slowly glanced past him, seeing tiny figures approaching. The other spirits were rushing over, noticing that Ryan had gotten hurt, "I'm just... I'm a failure, I'm useless..."

  "Dude, what? What are you even talking about, you're awesome, I don't-"

  "Don't patronize me!" Michael yelled, as ripples of magic flowed through the entire shed. The liquids already floating around him shivered, while more and more bottles and cans shattered and exploded due to the pressure coming from within them.

  Ryan was able to see Michael's eyes a bit more closely during this, as his eyes widened slightly out of confusion and obvious fear. At first, it seemed like Michael just wasn't in perfect control of his magic right now, but it was more than that. His eyes were filled with more than just the normal light that came when you used skills. The irises were starting to 'melt', taking on the texture of his mana as well, rippling as more and more droplets started splitting off from it. Michael's mana was completely rampaging.

  Mana was the essence of the soul and the mind. If one's emotions were too out of control, and your grasp on your own magic was lacking, something like this could happen to a lot of magic users. Though... it usually didn't look like this. Those with control so lacking that their magic could rampage usually didn't have the mana to do any real damage. But Michael was an extremely special case.

  Ryan looked at Michael and smiled lightly, "Okay... you feel like a failure, I feel like that all the time as well."

  "Failure? You? You have a unique class, you have so many friends, you can easily manipulate your magic while I keep struggling to even not make it go wild!"

  He hesitated to reply. It was clear what was going on. Michael was always a guy that was very self-conscious and fearful, to the point where he was so tense that Ryan thought he was some kind of huge asshole the first time he met him. Of course, he soon realised that wasn't the case. Michael was a genuinely good, kind guy. Yeah, he was a bit gullible at times, and often didn't think too far ahead, but that didn't mean he was useless.

  "Michael, I... for the first almost two decades of my life, the only thing I was good at was fighting. I'm not particularly clever or creative, and I'm really kind of a dick when it comes down to it. I just get so fucking angry at the littlest stuff, I..." Ryan tried to explain, but he didn't know if it was working. He stopped himself, and took a slight breath, "Even if I have a slightly special class, that was all luck. That wasn't anything I really... earned."

  With a deep rumble, Michael's magic started to spiral around him, "No! You're just saying that! Your class shows that you're special!"

  "I'm not special... seriously, I just got lucky."

  "I said to stop saying that!"

  Heavy ripples shot out from Michael again, as a wave of magical water, mixed in with tons of booze, shot out of the shed and pushed Ryan back. Maximus had jumped up and pushed against Ryan's back to stop him from falling. He tried to step back forward, but it was too late. The whites of Michael's eyes were being flooded with his mana. His magic shot at the old walls of the shed, and the wood that made it up was torn away.

  Michael's magic was flooding the pattern underneath him with so much mana that Ryan could practically see the spell's effect permeating through the air, rippling harder and stronger. As Ryan turned around, he could see that the party was really getting out of control. If Michael continued activating that spell, then maybe there was nothing to even rescue by the time Rose got here. He just had to hold out another five or so minutes. By then, Rose would hopefully get here and bring those potions with her. Everything would be totally okay, then.

  But... something else was happening in front of Ryan's eyes. Michael's magic was changing. At first, it looked like the magical water was just mixing with the beer and taking on a darker colour, but that wasn't the case.

  Usually, the water created by Michael's magic was pure and clean like that of a fresh river stream. But now it was more and more like the stagnant, muddy water of a swamp. It was starting to swirl around Michael's body, spiralling like a whirlpool centred right on him.

  "What the hell..? Morgana, what's going on?" Ryan asked, confused, "Why is Michael's magic changing like this?"

  The witch spirit floated closer toward the twisting bubble of muddy water that was surrounding Michael, trying to look deeper into it. Morgana flicked her wrist, as a sphere of light appeared in the air. Slowly, from its centre, it was turning into a black shadow that was feeding off the light, making it disappear in front of Ryan's eyes. He roughly knew what she was trying to say.

  The magic circle that Michael was standing on was powerful magic that could change one's mental state. Since magic was innately linked to one's mind and experiences, if Michael's state was changing rapidly enough, then his magic could evolve and change in similar ways. But even so... this fast? Because of something that was effectively a debuff..? How was that possible?

  As Ryan tried to see through that murky water, he managed to catch a few glimpses of Michael sometimes. He was clutching his own head and had squatted down on the ground. He wasn't okay right now, maybe he wasn't even fully conscious anymore.

  And though more spikes formed when Ryan took a step forward, he knew what he had to do. He pushed his hand into that sphere of muddy water magic.

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