Danger, Danger.

"Ready? I'll start my spell. Close your eyes."

In response to this, John tightly shut his eyes. Wasting no time, Dignitas brought out the Log and took out the pen that accompanied it.

"Let's see…" He thought. "We'll scratch this out, and then rewrite it so that the All-Seeing Eye implant is now in John's hands!"

The moment his pen left the book's page, Dignitas felt an unimaginable pain hitting him on his torso. It was like an invisible nail had been lodged inside him, and was being repeatedly struck by a hammer.

"Fuck…" He bent over in pain, garnering the attention of Evangeline, who noticed the author clutching his chest in pain. .

"No, I'll be fine. But John…" Dignitas' anguished expression instantly brightened the moment he saw an eye appear in John's hand.

The protagonist seemed to have noticed it, too. He tightened his grasp on the eye and instantly bolted for the window located towards the back of the theater room.

"Go, John. Don't let them have it." Dignitas whispered to the earpiece.

"He's got the eye! Get him!"

The guards stationed at the back instantly noticed the disappearance of the artifact. When they saw John suddenly make for the window, they opened fire at him. Small-scale spells were flung carefully, so as to not injure the guests.

By the time they had closed in on his location, John was already long gone, having fearlessly leapt through the window.

Commotion and chaos rose inside the room the very next moment. No one failed to notice how the implant had been stolen in less than ten seconds, and were giving management all hell for it.

"Esteemed guests, please calm down. We assure you that the implant will be retriev–"

"This is an injustice! If I was the one in charge, this wouldn't have happened!" One guest shouted from the crowd.

"What a disgrace of a security! They couldn't even prevent one of their artifacts from being stolen!" Another shouted.

While everyone was busy panicking over the stunt the trio had pulled, Dignitas made it an effort to get out of there as quickly as possible. He grabbed Evangeline by the hand and led her to the exit.

"Let's go. We have to meet up with John soon."

Daylight robbery in the middle of a hundred people! Now if that wasn't a successful heist, Dignitas didn't know what was.

He quickly led the Lunalite through the Sister Of Fate's halls, somehow managing to make all the correct twists and turns without losing their direction.

Despite the incident that just happened a few minutes ago, the entire building still seemed to be unaware. It retained its cheery atmosphere, as thousands of people continued chatting.

Once the two of them were out, Dignitas and Evangeline made way in the direction where John went. Pulling out the map, the author was able to discern a few locations where the protagonist could have gone.

Of course, he wouldn't have left without them. That meant that he was hiding somewhere, waiting for a signal.

Thankfully, Dignitas had that taken care of, too. He looked to Evangeline, who was still eagerly waiting to figure out what her role was in this madness.

"Here it is. We're in an open area, and it's pretty dark, so John should notice this easily. Go on then, create your trident," Dignitas said as he pointed to the sky above them.

It was indeed quite dark, and as such any form of light would be visible from hundreds of meters away. And if Dignitas knew John, he knew he wouldn't stray too far.

Finally understanding what she was meant to do, Evangeline instantly casted her spell, calling her familiar blue trident into existence a good distance above them.

"And based off the watch… it should be night now. Nice."

While the trident was originally transparent and difficult to see without its blue coloring, Dignitas had no fear that John wouldn't notice it.

After all, Astral Arts had a unique twist to it. The more stars there were in view in the sky, the stronger the magic that was cast. It made perfect sense, as even if the stars were more than billions of kilometers away, Lunalites could still harness their power.

And one cannot simply forget the biggest celestial body they were currently on. Indeed, Midania itself could act as a base for Evangeline's magic. Astral Arts didn't only take power from stars, but also planets and other large objects in space.

The excess power granted to Evangeline thanks to the stars allowed her to repeatedly summon her trident, creating a bright, blinking blue radiance above Mislokur.

"I know John saw that. Let's wait for him here."

***

No less than two minutes later, John was able to correctly follow the blinking blue light. It led him directly to where Dignitas and Evangeline were waiting.

"Psst. Over here." Dignitas whispered from an alley as he saw John pass by.

"Dignitas? I'm glad I found you." The swordsman followed the source of the voice into the alley, where he found his two friends sitting around a small makeshift fire.

"Same here. Were you followed by anyone?"

"No, not that I sensed. I have the implant here." John dug into his pockets and gave the small eye to the author for him to inspect.

"Well, if you didn't sense anyone, then I guess that's good enough for me. Now, let's take a look at this."

"Yeah, that's it, right. It's practically a carbon copy of the Seraphs' eyes."

The pupils' color was an emerald green, similar to Lorelai's own. Dignitas could feel a faint amount of mana being emitted from the inside, which confirmed that this truly was the All-Seeing Eye Implant.

"Now that we've got this, we should make a beeline for the surface. No more time to waste, especially when you've got people on your trail."

After a minute, the trio then continued on their journey, consulting the map to make sure they used the fastest route possible.

It was difficult to avoid being labeled as suspicious, due to how many guards were out on patrol. And by now, practically the entire city of Mislokur had been notified that the implant was stolen, and were now on the hunt for the ones who did it.

They too wanted a piece of the pie. No, rather, they wanted the entire pie, and would do anything they could to get their hands on it.

"We're at the last stretch. Don't fall asleep now."

The trio was constantly alert the entire journey back. They needed to keep their eyes peeled for anybody who seeked to do them harm. It was much so that they didn't even bother to rent a room in an inn and continued moving after minimal rest.

But their hard work had managed to pay off. There was only five minutes left between them and the grate the two humans took to get here.

The moment they reached the ladder connecting the grate, John almost leapt in excitement. Their mission had been successful!

Many things were gained from this short journey. Firstly, they had found a new elven friend in Evangeline! Her origins were still very much unknown, aside from the fact that her home was supposedly on the moon.

Secondly, the implant. This was the entire reason why they had made this journey in the first place. With the All-Seeing Eye Implant, Dignitas would be able to fulfill his side of the contract and find a way to return Lorelai back to her past state.

Finally, and perhaps the most important thing they had gained, was a closer bond. John firmly believed that the more you understood a person, the more you would come to enjoy having them by your side.

And this was no different. The team the pseudo-squad had formed reminded John of the past parties he led in his first and second lives. They had the same positive atmosphere theirs carried.

"Finally… the outside world!" Dignitas smiled as he breathed in the fresh air. They were finally out of that stinking city, and were now reconnected with civilization!

"Who knew I would come to miss the air!" John said as he took in great big huffs. Mislokur had done its worst in regards to changing how he smelled the air.

Even Evangeline was surprised. She had rarely ever gotten the chance to see the beautiful blue sky, as daytime back in her home world was no different from any other period of the day.

"Yeah, I definitely missed this. Let's head back to the Academ–"

Beep! Beep! Beep! Dignitas was suddenly caught off guard by the amount of notifications that plagued his smartwatch. His eyes widened in response as he read through all of them.

*Dignitas, are you there?! Come back, the Academy is under attack!*

*Where are you?!*

*Coieme back, we fneed helpla*

*...are you there? Please… come back.*

Most of the messages were from Andrea, and were sent in such haste that she even forgot to correct her spelling errors.

That was when Dignitas realized. Something terrible had happened while they were away.

But the real kicker was the last message. He could feel the emotion behind it… almost as if she was faced with the most dangerous situation, and needed him there.

"Even I know when to panic, fuck. The Log didn't tell me about this."

"Hey… Dignitas… did you also get messages?" John asked. It seemed he, too had his smartwatch bombarded with SOS texts from Curie.

"Yeah. Let's go. Lorelai's calling me."