"What's going on? Is Ryan really just going to bring them down there..?" Silvia whispered, leaning over to Modak. But the orc just stood there, silently staring at the gift shop that was in the midst of burning to the ground right now.

  "... I don't know, Silvia. He probably has some other plan. Some insane thing he's going to pull the moment we're out of sight. Something like that," Modak said, staring at the fire in front of him, "I just... I can't believe this is really happening right now. How did Richie turn into that?"

  Silvia placed her hand onto Modak's back, "I don't know. That corruption thing is crazy, right? I mean, we know that this isn't him, at the end of the day. It's just turning him into that, and he can't do anything against it."

  The orc looked at his friend and shrugged, "I don't know about that. I don't know a lot about it, but I thought that corruption was just supposed to drive you mad. Like... with Kindly, he was acting out because he was in pain. And even during that rampage of Energiser in the robotics club, it really just went on a rampage. It didn't start calculating how to be the biggest psycho asshole in the world."

  Modak looked down at his hand. His fist was bruised from that punch earlier. He groaned loudly, sitting down on the dirty ground. Silvia sat down next to him. The robots came a bit closer, surrounding them a bit as if trying to make sure that they could see anything they were doing. Realizing that there really wasn't anything they could do here, Silvia leaned her head onto Modak's shoulder.

  "I'm sorry. I know he was your friend."

  Glancing at Silvia, he nodded, "Yeah. He was."

  The two just sat there for a while longer. By now, they were sure that Ryan and Richard had gotten down into the labs, at least, and nothing had happened yet. If there was some kind of emergency, surely the robots were going to go back and support Richard.

  "You know..." the orc started, sniffling lightly, trying to speak in the same tone and cadence as the rest of the conversation, "Ryan said that the Roxie downstairs acted autonomously."

  "Hm? Yeah, he did." Silvia seemed confused.

  "And Richard gave them a command."

  "Uh... Yeah?"

  "Our phones don't work in here," Modak continued, trying to speak in a low voice, though he tried to strain the 'don't work' part of the sentence. Silvia raised her brows for a moment.

  "Dude, what are you talking about?"

  The orc let out a long sigh as he slowly pushed himself off the ground. He tapped the small display on his arm, "The mana is so dense in here that any signals beyond a few metres are scrambled, especially magical signals like the ones that Richard sends out. Which means that they can't send out distress signals back to him either."

  "What are you doing? You know that we can't... destroy them," Silvia tried to whisper, almost skipping over the last few words in hopes that the robots wouldn't hear her.

  "I'm not saying that," Modak stared at the robots in front of him, particularly at the speaker set into the chest of one of them. Richard probably left it here to keep mocking him, "But Richard did just prove a particular principle to me. Do you know how that spark came to be?"

  Silvia shook her head.

  "In terms of auditory magic, you vibrate the air, or rather the mana in the air, to try and cause particular patterns of high and low density of mana to cause the effect that you're looking for. Those patterns connect with the mana from the original soundwaves, and poof, you've got magic. What Richard just did was vibrate the air so hard that he basically caused so much friction he forced an effect. He forced the movement of mana in the particular way that he wanted."

  "Yes? Isn't that the same thing?"

  "Not directly, no. The way Richard is doing it is aggressive. Forceful. It's going way overboard, it's roundabout, and almost violent, like... trying to make a bonfire to light your cigarette, but you put the cigarette in a glass of water. He's forcing his will into the world by making the cigarette light up despite being wet, basically."

  Silvia still didn't quite follow, "And what principle did this prove?"

  "That ambient mana is way more willing to do what you want than I thought. Seriously, it's actually quite impressive."

  Modak pressed a button on his display, and a rhythmic tune played from all over his body. It was just a few overlaid tones, synced with his breathing and heartbeat. Silvia nervously stared at him, watching as the Roxie with the speaker inside of its chest started moving closer.

  "Dude, what are you doing?"

  "Just... calm down. Get ready to paint, okay?" the orc said, taking a deep breath. This version of Richard was vindictive and jealous. If any of them, Richard would have told the speaker-Roxie to kill Modak, which was what he was counting on. Because now, Modak started to run, trying to get away.

  While the other Roxie unit stayed behind, the speaker-Roxie chased after the running orc, though it appeared to be moving quite casually. The speaker on its chest began to vibrate, and right then, Modak slowed, trying to keep a very specific distance to the robot. The air began to heat up, and Modak could feel an extreme heat build up in his chest. That was when he stopped running, and the robot did the same.

  It was painful, extremely so. But he knew what he was doing right now. His breathing was strained, but he was trying to get a slow rhythm into it, which was quickly translated into a particular combination of tones coming from his special, magic-synthesis speaker. It was vibrating not the outside air, but the way the speaker was faced, it was vibrating the inside of Modak's body. Specifically, the massive amount of mana that the Roxie unit was currently forcing inside of his chest. His mana-rejection disorder was trying to force all of that mana back out, but Modak's own speaker was changing the wavelength of the vibrating mana within his body to keep it locked inside.

  In simple terms, he was trying to diffuse this hot, vibrating mana through his entire body, for one single reason. If Ryan was able to break down a single lump of his aura with some intense impulses of mana, Modak should be able to break down the rest of his aura with an even more intense impulse of mana.

  And since the rhythm he was forcing this heat into was synced with his heartbeat and breathing, he was also forcing his aura to be pushed along and sped up in that particular way. The fact this was possible was something he was taught by the electrical magic forcing its way into him through his hand earlier.

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  It was strenuous and painful, but Modak was able to hold out. He saw how Ryan was looking earlier. If he was able to get beat up so much and put his life on the line to help save his best friends, then Modak could do the same.

  His body kept heating up, but not because of the speaker-Roxie, but because of the aura inside of him. It felt like it just kept melting while moving around in him, pushing around any other lumps left inside of him. Since the strong waves were already moving along with his breathing and heartbeat, it was easier to grasp. It was easier for Modak to take a hold of. He was starting to understand the flow of his own aura.

  Maybe the fact that his heart was beating like crazy and he was practically hyperventilating helped. It made his aura already move around crazy fast inside of him. It was like he was dealing with water at this point. An ocean of aura, which he just had to slightly guide.

  Modak had seen how Ryan moved when he fought plenty of times. He had read up on the theories of how aura connected to martial art maybe hundreds of times over. He knew what he had to do, and how he had to move.

  Carefully, the orc slid his left foot forward and twisted his right shoulder back. The aura splashed around inside of him, bouncing against his chest. It all seemed to be guided toward the right side of his body. Down the funnel that was his arm. Through his elbow as it shot forward. Into his fist as it impacted the speaker-Roxie's chest.

  The orc could practically hear his index and ring finger breaking, but he heard something else shatter. Modak had invented this technology. He knew exactly how sensitive it was, and right now, he knew better than most others how a wave of aura interacted with mana.

  The robot practically flinched and pulled back as the flow of mana inside of it broke, leaking out into other important machinery. Its arm twisted awkwardly, so much so that it popped out of its mechanical socket, just hanging off its wires, while its head turned around far too much to the left. Almost every other joint in its body turned and twisted in random directions and then locked in, making the Roxie unit just fall to the ground like that.

  Modak's right hand was dripping with blood, but that wasn't even comparable to the flood that was flowing out through his nose and lips. His eyes were completely bloodshot.

  Silvia stared at him in disbelief, clutching her brush in her hand. Before even realizing, she snapped her head at the other Roxie, but confusingly, it just kept standing there.

  "What just... what's going on? Didn't Richard tell them to kill us if something happened?"

  "Yeah... If we ran or attacked or something. It also told 01 here to take care of me, and 04 to take care of you," Modak said, coughing out some blood onto his sleeve, "But did you run? Or attack yours?"

  "N-No... So... wait, are you...? What just happened?"

  "What just happened is that... Richard is a cocky asshole. He never would have thought that... either of us could destroy his precious robots, so... yeah. He got sloppy, and his robots follow his commands to the letter," Modak slowly walked back over to Silvia, "Now it's your turn. I need you to draw something really... really specific, okay?"

  Silvia quickly nodded. She didn't have a lot of mana left, but she could still try.

  "Can you go any slower?" Richard groaned loudly, looking down at his wrist watch, "I've got places to be, you know?"

  Ryan turned around toward him, "Have you always been this annoying? I remember you being a little more stoic as of recent."

  "Shut it," the gnome replied, and Ryan just rolled his eyes. He was currently leading Richard, the soldier, and the Roxie units through the lab's hallways. Whenever some kind of enemy showed up, the soldier would take it down almost immediately.

  "... I also remember this guy being a lot more... well, normal," Ryan stared at the man. He felt incredibly uneasy. The soldier was giving off the same exact vibe as the Roxies were, but that didn't make any sense at all.

  "Well, sure, but I improved him."

  Ryan turned around confused, "You improved him?"

  "Yeah. Like what I'm going to do with you when we're out of here," Richard explained, "You should be proud, future DF-03!"

  "What? What does DF mean?"

  "Dumbfuck."

  "Are you a child or something?" Ryan sighed. It was really just a snide remark with not all that much thought behind it. Though, Richard seemed to find it quite insulting. But instead of grumbling to himself, he pulled out a small pocket knife and stabbed Ryan right in the back. Not in any important part, but just slightly to the side. It wasn't a deep stab either since there was still the layer of his hoodie in between, but it was plenty painful and stunned Ryan for a moment, "Wha- man, what are you-"

  "Call me a child again and you're staying awake for the surgery."

  "Surgery- What are you even-" Ryan tried pressing his hand onto his back to slow the bleeding, but as he did, he could see the soldier flinch just so slightly. Now Ryan was putting it together, "Holy shit, did you turn this guy into a robot?"

  "No, of course not," Richard sighed, as though annoyed, "He's a cyborg. He still has plenty of his original bits. I just swapped out a lot to make him stronger, faster, and easier for me to control. With just a snap of my finger, I can make him do whatever I want," he began to laugh out loud, "Want to see him do a cartwheel?"

  Ryan felt a lump in his throat. This situation was insane. Richard was insane. Was he actually going through some kind of breakdown right now?

  "Richard... what are you here for? Why are you in this dungeon?"

  "We're here to find something, obviously. Just that we can't do that until this dungeon isn't a dungeon anymore," the gnome explained. Ryan was actually extremely startled that he was just given the answer just like that.

  "Hold on, you're trying to close the dungeon altogether? You can't do that, you-" Ryan stopped himself. He didn't even know why he was trying to convince Richard. That wouldn't work anymore anyway, "What are you trying to find? What's in here? How do you even know about this place?"

  "Uh, how else would I know? Someone told me."

  Ryan frowned a bit. But the only ones that were suppose to know about this place were people in the family. And it sounded like Richard had some actual precise information about this place and the way this worked, "Is there... a spy in the family?"

  "Gods, you're slow. Obviously, yes. How did you even get into NRU?"

  "... Who is it?"

  "The fuck do I know, I don't even care either. I'm just doing my job, that's all."

  "Didn't you say you were going to work as some kind of engineer? Why are you doing this weird dirty-work all of a sudden? Does Christopher have anything on you?"

  "Does he- Hah, obviously not. He just pays really well. Plus, he gives me anything I want to upgrade my dear Roxies, and I even get to play around with new projects like DF-02 over there," Richard laughed. His voice echoed through the entire space.

  Ryan didn't know if he liked this. It didn't take long until they got to the boss room again, stepping through. The destroyed Roxie from earlier was still laying around in here. Richard approached it and squatted down in front of it, "You... did this? And here I thought it was doing a good job keeping fucks like you out."

  Ryan shivered. The air that Richard was giving off right now was downright terrifying.

  "... Just... tell me what it is you're trying to find down here."

  "What, you think you still have the right to ask questions? After what you did to her?!" Richard pointed at the crushed robot on the ground. This might be a long shot, but Ryan had to try.

  "If you don't tell me, I'm not going to let you inside there."

  Richard locked eyes with Ryan, groaning loudly, "Fuck you. Fine. If you can't tell, my corruption is superior. It's an advanced species compared to all the slop that's spread throughout all these other- Whatever. It's not... perfect, sadly. Which we're trying to change. The corruption has mutated so far that we need an earlier version. A much, much earlier version, that we can compare my superior corruption to."

  Ryan's stomach dropped, "And you're... looking for it here because..?"

  Richard glared at him, "You are such a moron, you know that? Just wandering around here, not even realizing what this place is."

  The gnome slowly spoke the words that Ryan didn't want to hear, "This is the place where the first corruption was made."

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