When Kai came to his senses, his body felt heavy and his vision swam as he sat up in his bed. He looked around finding himself back in his bed in his room. He noticed that it was already dusk, he had been unconscious for all day.

He remembered putting out the fire and the kids being rescued and he felt relieved but something about that fire had been nagging at him. It felt as if he was familiar with that nature, it wasn’t a normal fire but something that only a Dragon’s power could tackle.

Whatever it was, he had done his share and now they would need Ocean for the rest of it. The attack on Oasis was as good as declaring a war against Ocean Ryujin and he wouldn’t let the enemies go that easily.

Speaking of enemies, then only one name came to Kai’s mind. But before they could conclude that it was indeed her, they would need evidence. Kai got down from the bed and made his way towards the door.

He could only sense Sylvia outside who opened the door before Kai reached it.

"Young Master," she beamed before she rushed ahead and threw her arms around him.

"I’m so glad you woke up," she spoke and Kai noticed the sense of relief in her voice.

He patted her back and then asked, "Is everyone all right?"

Sylvia pulled back and stood with a straight back facing him.

"Yes, the injured ones were rushed to the hospitals and fortunately, there weren’t any fatalities but," she paused, her eyebrows furrowing deeply making Kai lean ahead.

"But, what?"

"We found the something from the scene." She said and Kai’s eyes widened.

"What?" He asked.

Sylvia pursed her lips, she looked like she was contemplating over telling him or not. Kai was getting tensed and anxious wondering what this thing was and if it was so bad that they couldn’t tell him.

"What is it?" Kai asked again in a firm tone.

Sylvia sighed before she turned, "It’s better to show you, please come with me."

Kai didn’t say anything as he followed Sylvia outside of the room. He could sense the tension in the air around him as the maids and servants who saw him greeted him but carried the unspoken anxiety behind their gazes.

The celebration preparations all around the mansion seemed like a clutter at this point. On his way, he checked the clock, it was half past eleven, they were almost in the New Year but none in their mansion seemed in a festive mode.

Sylvia walked towards the eastern wing and Kai’s steps faltered a bit as he remembered Ocean only taking him there once after the end of his first outdoor mission, before that he wasn’t even allowed to enter the premises of eastern wing. He had been successful in his mission over all but that place still seemed like a monster’s lair that he was hesitant to enter.

He recalled Ocean’s words when he led them there, "This place... isn’t pleasant. I don’t expect you to like it. In fact, I hope you won’t have to come here often. But it’s necessary. For what we do."

Sylvia turned around looking at him and he clenched his fists before he continued walking. He knew in future, this place would be his to use as among all kinds of people out there, there would still be those who would belong here.

They walked down the corridor, the soles of their boots clacking against the floor. At the end of the corridor, the large wooden doors, reinforced with heavy blackened metal stood. Sylvia reached out and placed her hand on the lock which was recently reinforced to be a mana lock unlocked after the mana recognized that the one entering was a part of Ocean’s chosen ones.

Kai was surprised as Sylvia was able to enter so easily. She glanced at him once before she entered, the burning torch mounted on the wall illuminated the stairs that went deeper into the darkness.

They walked down the stairs, Sylvia looked back at him occasionally until they reached at the end of the stairs and Kai was met with the all too familiar sounds of groans and muffled cries that he had heard the last time.

They took a right and Kai looked at the left side where Ocean had took him last time. He wanted to ask why they were going in the other direction but then he realised thatbhe didn’t know anything about this place to begin with so, he wouldn’t know which cell was designed for what purpose. They passed by the cells of the criminals who were shackled up before Sylvia stopped at the end of the corridor before a large metal door.

Kai’s heart hammered as he saw the familiar door and he gulped feeling his arms trembling.

Sylvia placed her hand on the mana lock and the door unlocked.

Kai felt the presence of three people inside along with one presence which made his blood run cold and body to lock up.

He couldn’t move.

Sylvia turned and looked at Kai’s face which had been drained of blood. The memories of the horrifying torture and curse crashed over him again and he felt as if his lungs were running low on air. His heart hammered and his body urged him to flee, to get away from this place.

"Young Master?" She called.

The words Young Master rang in his ears and he recalled, he wasn’t the young boy trapped in those shackles anymore. He wasn’t cursed anymore, he was saved by his guardian and he was no longer the little boy who needed protection. He was the Young Master of Ryujin family, the one who would take up Ocean’s place in future. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

He couldn’t let his trauma render him useless, he had to move past them and accept that he had become stronger than the young, helpless boy.

Kai felt his body slowly relaxing as he took a step ahead and Sylvia turned and entered the room.

The room was more like a laboratory which had a lot of equipment and several glass cages, in one of such cages was something that was weighing on Kai’s mind.

Silas, Roan and Enora who were inside gathered around that glass cage turned at once to see Sylvia and Kai.

Roan frowned as he saw them, "Sylvia, why would you bring Young Master here?"

Sylvia looked down and Enora placed a hand over Roan’s shoulder before she looked at Kai whose eyes were searching for the thing inside the glass cage.

"Young Master, you’re awake. Are you feeling all right? Why did you come down here?" Enora walked over to him blocking the cage from his sight.

Kai looked up at her, "I’m fine now."

"That’s good to know, but you should return to your room now, Young Master." Enora said and Kai frowned.

"Why?" He asked before he looked at Roan and Silas.

"I’m a Ryujin too, and in Master’s absence I have to look after this place and everyone!" Kai spoke in a voice a tad bit louder than he had expected.

He couldn’t deny that he still felt the chill but he wasn’t going to back down and run back to his room like a weak little kid.

Enora looked at Roan and Silas, Roan was about to open his mouth to ask Kai to return but Silas placed his hand over Roan’s shoulder stopping him.

"That’s right, in Ocean’s absence, you’re the one who has to look after these things." Silas said and Kai looked at him.

"Come over," Silas beckoned him and Kai walked over to Silas.

Silas looked back at the glass cage and Kai followed his gaze feeling his insides churning as he saw the severed arm of a human lying before him. There were several markings sliced into the arm, looking like an intricate curse which made Kai nearly throw up.

"What’s..." Kai couldn’t even make up the whole question.

Roan who saw him sighed but answered, "We found this at the school, it might have been purposely placed there to create that fire."

Kai’s head whipped up at him and Silas took the lead to explain further.

"It’s a body type curse," Silas said and Kai looked up at him.

"What you had was the soul type," he added and Kai clenched his fists, Silas noticed it but continued.

"I had explained to Ocean about these two curses but, this one is a variant from the body type curse. Body type curse is usually bound to a specific object but this one is probably bound to something else. We need to find more information and moreover, we need Ocean here as soon as possible as I can’t figure out what this arm was doing in that school."

"Someone must have placed it there," Roan said, "that means we have a mole among us. I’ve already ordered for the guards and the other teams to scour the place to look for that mole, we’ll need to find him soon enough before something else happens."

"Did you report Master about this?" Kai asked and Roan frowned.

"We tried, but for some reason we couldn’t reach through." Roan said and Kai pursed his lips.

He could only hope that nothing bad would happen henceforth, but he had no idea that the ticking of the clock was only bringing them closer to the upcoming chaos.

Back in the dark alley of Oasis town, a man was coughing violently, he couldn’t understand why he was going through this. He had been the only one who had managed to get through the impenetrable fortress called Oasis and now he was dying for some reason.

He had made a deal to save his dying daughter but now he couldn’t even save himself. He coughed and coughed throwing up blood, his hands trembled as he felt the blood oozing from his nostrils, ears and eyes. The blood dripped onto the snow turning it black instead of red and he wondered if it was because of his blurry eyes that he was seeing that.

"Why... Why..." He wheezed feeling as if his insides were on fire.

He had fulfilled his task so why?

He recalled the words of his employer quite clearly, "You just have to place this thing in the Oasis Foundation school and your work would be done. The medicines would be delivered to you."

But he didn’t find the medicines rather there was this agonizing pain that was cursing through his body. He coughed again and noticed the black spider web-like veins running over his skin. He gasped in shock as he couldn’t contemplate of what was going on. Why was he like this? What would happen to his daughter if he died?

He tried to drag his body ahead to look for someone, anyone for help. He didn’t mind being found by the Oasis people but he at least wanted to find them so that he could tell them the truth.

But soon enough he felt as if he couldn’t take it anymore as he slumped on the street and thought of his dying daughter, inhaling and then he released his last breath.

The black figure who had been watching him from the roof of the nearby small building, confirmed that he was dead before they disappeared to go and report to their master.

Their plan was going smoothly.