By the time the call with Japan ended, they had gained only a little more information about the spires. It seemed Japan had roughly the same level of knowledge. Anything regarding the current status of the spires was classified, but their arrival was a different story.

Japan was eager to learn how things had unfolded on their end, as they had been struggling to gather all the required 'monsters.' But then a couple of weeks ago the system suddenly notified them of a change: all the guardians had been killed by an overload within the system, and they only needed to collect the pieces of the first rite.

"How did you handle the requirements for the summoning?" Commander Ryoji Takahashi had asked.

This was met with a confused expression from the General.

"What requirements?" he asked.

The other side fell silent for a moment before the Commander finally responded.

"We must have had different experiences," he admitted. "We lost two of our three crest bearers at the time. Luckily, we held back our best fighters—just in case something like this happened."

Mark's eyes narrowed at that.

When they had completed the first rite, all three of them had nearly died, their lives used in the spire's creation. If Japan had somehow anticipated the danger, they had been far more cautious than their own side. But, in all honesty, the system had never warned them that this would happen. It was impressive that Japan had managed to figure it out in advance.

General Faustus had looked visibly conflicted but quickly composed himself.

"Thank you, Commander, for your cooperation. We have some things to confirm on our end, but we'll contact you soon."

Mark had noticed that neither side mentioned the Unbound, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. Had the guide the Caretaker sent reached every sector? If so, how far along were they?

Knowing the system, there would be a reward for opening the spire first—but they just needed a little more time.

After that, General Faustus had dismissed them, but the drive back was anything but quiet. Everyone had opinions about Japan's intentions. From what they could tell, Japan was doing well after the fall. They had lost a fair portion of their navy, but if the seas were as deadly as they described, that hardly mattered. For now, they had moved inland, staying near Tokyo only because of the spire.

Now, as they stepped back into the lobby, Ethel let out a sigh.

"I'm glad we finally got in contact, but all that did was leave us with more questions. I'm told Elizabeth will be here this morning—hopefully, she can fix the comms by this afternoon. We're still working with too little information." She turned to Mark. "For now, get to the clinic. I'll send Shelby to help you sort through everything."

She glanced at the rest of the team.

"I have jobs for the rest of you, but hopefully, by tonight, we'll have more answers."

Everyone broke apart to head to their own duties and Mark made a beeline for the clinic. He'd wanted to head here the whole morning to see how things were progressing.

When he arrived at the bunker-style hospital he entered and looked for Willow.

The Head nurse was in the middle of coordinating NAS's intake. True to their words NAS had a long line of people heading all the way out the front door.

Making his way through the corridors Mark arrived in a large viewing room looking down on the chamber below.

There were several seats in here for long-term use and as Mark walked in he noticed Wesley standing near the glass pane watching what was going on. Beside him was a tall man in a white lab coat and when Mark realized who it was a smile came over his face.

Wesley already knew he was there but when Mark went to stand beside them.

"How are you doing Doctor Friedrich, it's been a while," he said.

The grumpy German man jumped slightly as he tore his eyes away from the scene unfolding below.

"Ah, it's you, Mark. Don't you know not to creep up on people by now?" Mark couldn't help but chuckle.

"I wasn't creeping Doc, you were just too lost in thought," he said knowingly. Mark couldn't fault the work-obsessed man.

The process going on down there was interesting. Turning his sight to the room below he saw a line of Nas's people moving from one door into the room and out the other, never straying from the line painted on the ground. There were about a dozen healers at work here. They had posted up near the edges of the large room, each with their own guard beside them. The room they were in was the one built to contain Aura users.

Honestly, it wasn't all that much stronger than the others. For every room in this place, they used concrete reinforced with a steel support structure. All Mark had managed to do was get a layer of saturated steel from their workshop and coat the inside of the room. The material was stronger and able to handle most aura users on a rampage. Of course, if their level was too high it wouldn't matter what Mark put down in there, they'd rip up the floorboards.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Regardless, the healers were hard at work projecting their Mana. They used a variation of Mark's construct and released constant [Prana Pulses]. This created a large field that people had to walk through to exit the chamber.

"If anyone enters that shouldn't be here we'll know about it," Mark said to the two. This method was the most efficient they had come up with as it took very little energy just to check the Corruption levels. Willow had set this up incredibly fast, but seeing as they didn't need many resources on their end it was completely doable

Near the exit to the room, a nurse sat down at a table taking down the names of the people in the clear. She had several aura users next to her help to keep everything under control.

Seeing everything going smoothly Mark turned back to Friedrich.

"So Doc, what brings you here? I'd have thought you wouldn't have time to leave the healer's house."

He shook his head.

"Willow invited me to see this. Honestly, since the clinic here opened we've seen a marked drop in numbers outside our door. So much that I can even afford to take breaks" he said.

Most people would be happy at this, and Mark could tell he was, but there was also a lost expression in his eyes.

Mark nodded and patted the man on the back.

"Listen, I've wanted you to work here since the beginning. Willow and Carl could always use more help. If you ever want a place here, it's yours." Mark said.

Friedrich had seemed reluctant to leave the Healers house last time because of his patients, but now that they had become much larger than expected there was always room for more hands. The likelihood that some of his patients would come here was also high, but by now Mark knew Friedrich. He needed to decide things on his own and come when he was ready, so Mark didn't push the topic instead he went back to watching the process.

About half an hour into it they got their first anomaly.

Mark was talking to Wesley.

"And you say they don't know what they are here for?" he asked.

Wesley just shrugged.

"It wouldn't be much of a test if they did. They all think this is just a routine checkup we instituted."

Mark was in the middle of bringing a paper cup to his lips for a sip of coffee when there was a sudden disturbance below.

A woman in the line had suddenly dropped to her knees as the guards moved to restrain her. The healers had identified someone with Corruption. Several people from Nas had moved to protect their ally but froze when they heard Wesley's voice over their coms.

"All units remain calm! Do not attack they are trying to help her," he growled.

The woman in quiet was kneeling over clutching her stomach. Deciding he needed to get a better look Mark headed downstairs. He covered himself in a construct and [Light control] to cloak himself, though it wasn't perfect it would have to do.

When he arrived in the room he saw his people were already lifting the woman and heading towards one of the other exits.

Mark frowned and glanced at the nearest healer. Deciding he needed to see how they handled this Mark followed them out. He'd spread an inviable construct over their people and found the woman. First off he could tell she was not a Corrupted human, however, her Cv was incredibly high. If he were to guess it was probably in the high seventies. That level of Corruption had huge physiological effects on a person. Not to mention the aches and blackened veins that came as a result. The thing was his skin outwardly looked fine but Mark only needed to poke a little deeper to realize it was makeup.

The woman had masked her exposed skin with a layer of makeup to cover the outward appearance. Mark hadn't expected that but it meant that while she had made things difficult for herself, she was still able to be saved.

Mark could extract her Cv and she'd be alright, and he almost did but something stopped him.

He could fix this woman but what was their plan going forward? What happened when he wasn't here?

To his surprise, the guards escorting them didn't seem at a loss as to what to do. They moved swiftly down the halls and Mark followed after them. They got to the research department and made their way into a small room, depositing her on one of the few empty beds.

Mark was surprised to see Carl in this room along with several other healers.

He'd not been able to find the medic since his return, but maybe this was why. The moment they entered the healer went on high alert. Carl moved to the woman's bedside.

"Ma'am you are currently suffering under extreme Corruption exposure. We're going to attempt to lower your Cv, please give up permission to do so."

To her credit, the woman grunted out her consent and Carl went to work.

To Mark's surprise, he began using the method they had developed a while ago but it was far more advanced.

Carl activated a skill and all of a sudden the woman began to calm down. Then with the help of the other healers, Carl directed a large amount of Prana into the woman. She absorbed it all but at the same time, Mark could feel her Cv rapidly withering away under their combined effort.

Mark was shocked at their efficiency and realized he was completely unnecessary here, they could probably get rid of all of her Cv.

This fact meant that the clinic could take care of Cv, and by the looks of things, this was not the first time.

A satisfied smile appeared on Mark's face as he backed off. Heading back to the room he couldn't believe how far they'd all come.

Mark could have stepped in at any time, but he didn't need to. He joined the lines of healers to assist wherever he was needed but as the day wore on and the new shift took over Mark felt a deep sense of pride spreading throughout his chest.

Willow found him during the day with Shelby and his men in tow and Mark put them to work.

The number of tasks never seemed to dwindle, with people always on the move, but as busy as they were, the workload was manageable.

By the time Mark and Shelby left for the evening, Mark had seen the place in full swing and it was working better than he'd ever anticipated. When he arrived back at the base he went to go find Sam and Jonathan to tell them the good news.

When he found them in one of the open offices he called out to them.

"You guys will never believe how well the clinic is doing, frankly I struggled to find a place to help them all," Mark said with a content grin.

To his amusement, they both shot him similar grins.

"We believe it because we had the same problem. Everything is running well, so well in fact that we both had to take a step back"

Mark pursed his lips. It made sense, they hadn't been in the city for days, and things were bound to change.

Ethel walked in at this point and Sam brought up their concerns. The woman's face softened as she looked at the three of them.

"Oh my darlings things like that are going to happen. When you start a company it requires time and attention, but as it develops, the right people get put in place. The need for you dwindles. Sure, they can always use help, but at a certain point, it is best to leave them to their own devices.

"So what do we do then?" Jonathan frowned as he watched her."

"That's the easy part sweety. Normally I'd say relax, but we can't afford that luxury. So instead, get stronger. The system is challenging us to grow, so make it regret that. There is more than one way to help the Order. Sometimes all you need to be is something we can believe in, and rely on. We'll take care of the rest."

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