With the ice greatsword still in his hand, and the grimoire floating steadily above him, Ryan walked through the garden. He had just put Michael down onto the grass a good distance away from the hut, where Silvia and Modak where taking care of him, though mostly Modak as the elf was already getting preoccupied by her partner again. While the was doing so, Modak also had to try and figure out what track he could use to achieve what Ryan had just suggested, and turn the potion into a mist.

  Though the crowd had been rowdy up until now, something seemed to have happened as he cut through the sphere. All that mana collapsing in on itself must have interrupted the way the spell seemed to communicate with itself across different 'hosts'. At least, that was the only way that Ryan could explain what was happening right now.

  Everyone was just staring at him. Especially those that already knew about him before he awakened, and had heard the rumours of the 'knight in scuffed armour'. And now, that guy had been fighting with guys all night, and was suddenly walking around with a sword of ice, exuding a menacing, chilling air.

  That spell seemed to practically boost all sorts of emotions into their absolute extremes, and that of course included things like fear. And oh, were they scared of Ryan right now.

  But Ryan didn't care. That wasn't what was important right now. Rather, this was probably preferable over them making a mess and hurting each other any more than they already were. The slightest annoyance could turn into a full-on rage with this spell if you weren't careful.

  Out front, through Morgana's special magical sight, Ryan was able to some figures approaching. It was easy to see the mana of an Awakened person through Morgana's eyes. It was so much stronger and more potent than others', after all. If an unawakened person's mana was a soft, light pastel, then an awakened person's was like a bright, glaring neon.

  "Ryan?" the woman in the bright yellow hazmat suit asked, staring at the figure that was now standing in front of her.

  "Did you bring the potions?"

  Rose immediately nodded her head. She held over the small briefcase that she had been carrying with her. Inside were five small flasks with potions, "How many people are affected? If they're as out of control as you say they are, it might be a little hard to get it to them, but we should be able to figure something out?"

  "I thought I told you, but we're having a party."

  "Yeah? So?"

  "... What is your experience with parties?" Ryan looked at Rose, and though he wasn't able to see her expression, he knew that she was clearly confused by what he was saying. Her head was slightly tilted to the side while Ryan was explaining, "We have about 200 people here."

  Rose's face, obscured by the hazmat suit's mask, clearly dropped in response.

  "Excuse me? How do you- What? A party with 200 people? How do you even know that many people?" confused, Rose started pacing around. The other people that she had called to come here with her, since Rose obviously wouldn't come when called to a situation like this without a little bit of support, were less confused, yet still surprised and most importantly - they really understood the situation.

  "Is it... all of them?" Rose finally asked, after a moment of contemplation, and Ryan shrugged lightly.

  "Some more than others, and there are a few people that aren't affected at all, for a variety of reasons. But yes, we can just say that all of them were affected," Ryan explained, turning around to make sure that none of the partygoers had followed him here, "We just need to make sure that we can properly cure them of this, without them seeing you."

  "What's wrong with how I'm looking?"

  "You're wearing a hazmat suit and are trying to feed people a potion."

  "That is... very fair, actually," Rose sighed, "But what, it's not like I can just walk around without this suit."

  "I know, and you won't. You're going to come with me to the workshop, going by the edge of the garden as much as possible. I'm going to have Gaia block you on the way so that nobody sees you. There, you will immediately work with Kim to mix together a version of the potion that is more than strong enough to work when vaporized throughout the entire property. Kim is already putting together a strengthening base," Ryan began to explain, "We're going to keep holding them off. 'We' being Yanna, the spirits, and I. At the same time, Modak is going to alter one of his tracks to allow for the easy vaporisation of the potion while keepings it properties intact."

  Rose stayed silent for a few moments, more than just confused, "What is... going on with you right now?"

  Ryan tilted his head slightly to the side, smiling softly as he did so, "What do you mean?"

  "You're so calm about all of this.."

  With a nod, Ryan turned around, letting Gaia out of her domain. By now, she was properly purified through the seed of blessing. As he unsealed her and the golem's body grew to three times its former size, Ryan looked over at Rose, "My mind is just pretty clear right now. It's basically the opposite of that spell. Through Morgana and Maximus together, my emotions simply do not overtake me that easily right now."

  "... And what about that way of talking?"

  "I assume it's a little bit how either Morgana or Maximus would speak if they could," Ryan smiled lightly, "Either way, let's just get started. Let's say... you've got about ten minutes to prepare the potion boosters with Kim?"

  Rose looked around back at the people she brought with her, and then back at Ryan, to make sure that she heard him correctly, "Ten minutes? Seriously? How am I supposed to-"

  "You simply have to. The spell's power keeps synergising with itself across people, and keeps getting stronger. It's going to be hard to make sure people don't run off in this chaos. Though, that reminds me," Ryan looked at the person that had been driving the car, "Two of you need to go out there and try to look for a person that I threw out before realising what's going on. Their name is Nora Jackfield, I'll send you a picture and their address. It looked like they were overtaken pretty strongly, so please go out and look for them. They're either wandering around here, or they're back home."

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Two of the agents nodded their heads, quickly getting back into the car as Ryan pulled out his phone. Maximus jumped up onto his shoulder so that Ryan could actually see what he was doing, and then continued his instructions, "The rest of you, please come inside and help manage things a bit. Specifically, just put away anything in the living room where people could get hurt, give people some water to drink to maybe help sober them up a bit, since the alcohol definitely isn't working, and just stop any of the big fights that could be happening."

  And with that, everyone went off and did what they were told to do. Rose, hidden by a still slightly groggy Gaia, rushed through to the workshop, and the other agents of the family made their way inside the building so that they could help out wherever they could. And meanwhile, for as long as Ryan was still linked to Morgana and Maximus, he was basically trying to use his newfound focus and his sight that allowed him to see the magic of the world to make sure that nobody was leaving or running off.

  He really just hoped that things would be resolved without anyone getting too hurt. Over the next few minutes, a few people seemed like they were upset and were trying to leave, but Ryan managed to 'convince' them to turn back and stick around for a while. It seemed that the spell was gazing them to a point where what they were experiencing seemed 'normal', and even the chaos that other people affected by the spell were causing wasn't bothering them too much.

  Everyone that wasn't affected by the spell, however, was met with an extreme response no matter what they did. Luckily, Ryan's sociability stat was strong enough to let him figure out exactly what he needed to say, whereas the deep calmness he was feeling gave him the patience to slowly make them turn back around.

  He managed to calm down the people that were scared or angry, and could direct the people that were extremely excited and happy to a scary degree to spots in the house or garden where they could go all-out for a bit.

  And by the time ten minutes passed, Ryan heard the music abruptly stop. People clearly weren't happy, but before long, he could hear a new song play over those speakers.

  While not nearly all of the speakers scattered around the house were the type that could synthesise magic, Modak did have to reuse a few of them. As long as no magic was fed into the channels in the back, they were totally safe after all.

  Over the past ten minutes, Modak probably ran around the house and set up the right cables. Hearing all of this, Ryan would usually run over and make sure that everything was working. But he just had to trust his friends that they knew what they were doing. Which, of course he did even if he had run over, but right now, the instinct of having to be there, since all of this still felt like Ryan's responsibility, was gone.

  "This is better than any anger-management therapy I've ever gone to, you guys," Ryan laughed a little, smiling at the two spirits next to him. He pushed his sword into the ground, and kept standing there like some kind of guardian, making sure that everything was okay. Before long, he could see something spread throughout the house - a magical mist. It was travelling through each of the rooms, through the entire garden, and people seemed to be taking in the effect of the potion through each and every breath.

  That soft, magical glow that was sticking to everyone at the party dissolved almost immediately. The few people that Ryan could see from out front here were clearly a bit dazed and confused, now that their minds cleared up a bit. Well, 'cleared up' probably was the wrong word, they were still extremely drunk.

  But now that everything was 'fine' in that sense, Ryan could go in and take over a bit. He was pretty sure that nobody else had really thought about what to do after everyone was 'cured'. And so, Ryan rushed inside, finally getting rid of the item that he copied through Tiar's 'Spirit Armament'.

  "Everyone, please get outside, I think we have some kind of gas leak, just get into the garden please!" he yelled out, his voice carrying well over the sound of people's confused muttering, "Just one by one, please!"

  He pushed a few people forward, funnelling them into the garden. Ryan made sure to specifically walk by a few folk were more affected by others, especially those that got violent, "Are you guys okay? Sorry about earlier, I was concerned about how much you were all fighting. Do you need some water?"

  Walking over to every single person that was deeply affected by this spell, he tried to somehow explain away what had happened. It was maybe a bit immoral, gaslighting them like this, but it was better than trying to explain that they were hit by a mind-altering spell placed into the garden by a fucking cult. He didn't want anyone to worry or get hurt anymore.

  Bit by bit, everyone sat down, and Ryan continued talking to them, "We already called someone, she's going to check on all of you, okay? And don't worry about what she's wearing, it's just a safety measure as she checks out the leak inside later," Ryan said, looking toward the workshop where Rose was still hiding out. She slowly came over to him.

  "Didn't you say..?" she whispered nervously.

  "Yes, but it's different now. Just check on a few people, especially the ones that got hurt, and make sure there are no long-lasting effects. You're the biggest expert on these kinds of things we have right now. I want to make sure there are no lingering effects. And once you've checked out them... please, seriously check on Michael. His mana still hasn't returned to normal," Ryan explained, and Rose immediately snapped her head around.

  "Wait, what? You mean the kid that we fed a potion to directly?" she rushed over to where Michael was laying. Fae and Silvia were taking care of him, making sure that he was okay. Silvia was also cured by now, of course.

  Rose immediately checked up on him, and looked around nervously, "Can you guys..?"

  "Of course. Fae, Silvia, skedaddle for a moment," Ryan said, locking eyes with Silvia. He hoped that she would understand, and she quickly did.

  "You as well, please... I know that you... but..."

  "Don't worry, I think I'll be fine," Ryan squatted down next to Michael, "Just do it, it's okay."

  Rose was hesitant, but she slowly nodded. She took off her mask and leaned forward, trying to feel Michael's breath on her cheek.

  She checked his pulse with her fingers after taking off her gloves, and finally, opened up one of his eyes. His irises were still giving off a slight glow.

  "I'm guessing this wasn't his mana's original colour..?"

  Michael's eyes were muddy. A little less than before, but... muddy nonetheless, "No, it wasn't. It was a pure blue."

  "... This isn't good. We'll have to check up on him somewhere else, I can't do anything for him here. Ryan, I'm so sorry..."

  "No, this is my fault. I should have been more careful. What good is my intuition when it doesn't warn me of something this important," Ryan replied, looking down at Michael.

  Rose slowly put her mask and gloves back on, "I've already told a few more people to come. We'll have some drivers bring everyone home, and we're getting some stronger potions to treat the people that got hurt."

  "Thank you."

  "And are you...?"

  "I'm fine."

  "But how?" Rose asked, and Ryan stared back at her. He let out a long sigh.

  "You know how, when some types of corruption are cured, something like a small seed is left behind?"

  "Yes..?"

  "Well, when we cured Kindly, I accidentally absorbed the seed that came from his. It took root in my vessel, and now it's grown to a point where it can counteract things like this. Whether it's the spell or... you," Ryan explained, smiling lightly, "I still don't want to push things, but for now, it's okay."

  "Seriously? Ryan, are you insane? How could you not tell any of us?" Rose was more than just confused - she was borderline terrified of what Ryan had just revealed to her.

  But Ryan shook his head, "It's a seed. Gaia was able to inspect it, and it's nothing bad. Rather, it's good. It strengthens my magical vessel, just how Tiar strengthens my physical body."

  Rose sighed, shaking her head, "Still, this..."

  "Seriously, don't worry. And thank you for coming so quickly."

  She hesitated, but finally responded, "Of course."

  Ryan looked over at the rest of the people gathering in the garden, "What a great first real party at this place, huh?"

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