When Luna had pushed the four silver needles into his magical gates to save his life, it had left permanent marks. There were four perfect, glowing white circles burned into his skin. One near his collarbone. One on his side. One near his stomach. And one directly over his heart. The four circles pulsed with a very faint, soft green light.And there were dark scars, too. In the center of his chest, there was a patch of skin that looked like gray ash. It was a shadow that never washed off. It was the residue of the dark, toxic magic he had absorbed when he saved Luna from the poison. He was not just a man. He was a living diary of absolute agony. He had paid for every single miracle with a piece of his own flesh. Lila slowly dropped to her knees on the hard wooden floor. She did not care that her old bones hurt. She crawled forward until she was right next to Rick. Tears poured down her wrinkled cheeks. She slowly reached out

The thick, glowing green seal that Rick had placed over the cracked floorboards was pulsing. But it was not pulsing with a steady, healthy rhythm. It was flashing rapidly. And the green light was turning pale. "Rick," Luna gasped, pointing at the floor. "The seal."Underneath the green magic, a blinding, freezing white light was pushing upward. The white light was like a sharp knife trying to cut through a thick blanket. A loud sound of breaking glass echoed in the small cottage. A tiny, hairline fracture appeared right in the middle of Rick’s green magical seal. A tiny wisp of freezing white mist hissed out of the crack and floated into the living room. The white mist touched the leg of a wooden chair. The heavy wooden leg instantly rotted, turned to black ash, and the chair crashed to the floor. "They are waking up," Rick said. His voice was hard, cold, and absolute. Rick jumped up from the

The sunlight in the room flickered slightly, but it stayed warm and bright. "We have given you exactly what you want," the Founders explained. "You wanted to come home. So, we built a perfect, permanent home for you inside our magic. The temperature will always be warm. There is no hunger here. There is no sickness. There is no death."Rick walked to the wooden front door of the cottage. He grabbed the handle and pulled. The door was locked. It did not move an inch. It felt like it was made of solid steel. "Do not try to leave, Doctor," the voices warned. "This room is made of absolute deletion magic. If you use your green Earth Qi to try and break the walls, our magic will instantly react. It will delete this entire room, and everyone inside it, from reality. You will all turn to ash in one second."Luna gasped. She ran to Rick’s side. "They trapped us. If you use your magic, we die.""Exactly," the Founders said. "S

Lila had proved him wrong. The ordinary people of the world did not need a magical god to save them. The earth already had all the medicine they needed, growing right under their boots. Luna smiled. She had not heard Rick laugh like this in years. It was a beautiful, completely human sound. Lila chuckled too, happy to see her boy smiling. But the room did not like the laughter. The perfect, cold white walls of the cottage suddenly flickered violently. The fake sunlight shining through the window turned a sickly, dark gray. The warm fire in the stove instantly went out, leaving only cold, black ashes. The smooth, emotionless voices of the Founders echoed angrily from the walls. "Cease this noise," the Founders commanded. Their voices shook the wooden floorboards. "Laughter is a chaotic emotion. It disrupts the perfect order of the Quarantine Zone. Be quiet."Rick did not stop laughing. He stood up fr

Rick pulled his hand back instantly. He gasped. "Rick!" Luna said, stepping forward. "Are you hurt?""No," Rick breathed out. He stared at the lantern. "It is a memory. This lantern holds a memory."Suddenly, a soft, trembling gasp echoed behind them. Rick turned around. Lila stood near the entrance. The old woman had dropped her wooden walking cane. She was staring at a small, poorly made wooden lantern sitting on a stone shelf near the door. Lila’s wrinkled hands were shaking violently. Tears immediately filled her cloudy eyes. "Lila?" Rick asked gently. He walked over to her. "Do you know this place?"Lila slowly reached out. She picked up the clumsy wooden lantern. The wood was carved unevenly. The glass inside was thick and scratched. "I made this," Lila whispered. Her voice broke completely. "I made this with my own hands."Rick stared at her. "You made it?""