“Come with me.” Josephine Wong sighed and said: “Let’s meet with Thomas and Aimee first. Maybe you can fill them in on the rest when you’re back to safety. Since I don’t really have the heart to tell you everything twice. But what I can tell you now is that it will take him a while before he can get back to us. And even when he’s back, we won’t have a lot of time.”

“Okay, that sounds… not good.” Caroline scratched her nose and said: “Was it due to the important thing he mentioned in his message?”

“What do you mean we won’t have a lot of time?” Jason asked as he stepped on a floating purple energy plate conjured by Josephine Wong to traverse the academy ground: “Boss - he’s not doing something THAT dangerous is he?”

“Sometimes the danger just arises and those powerful enough just need to step up.” Josephine Wong shook her head: “Now tell me, since I just heard from the headmasters that you have indeed caught spies trying to pry your rooms, how much do you know about the Hellingers?”

“Umm - not that much, but a lot more than before thanks to Laura, why does this name keep popping up?” Jason asked.

At this moment, Josephine Wong had already taken them to the place where Aimee and Thomas were taking their finals tests, and all five students headed towards Anderson Plaza on the purple energy plate with Josephine Wong. And along their way, Josephine Wong quickly shared with them what she and Jianmen did today - after a quick discussion about what needed to be done, they headed towards the Hellinger Castle to stop a potentially really dangerous artifact from being taken by a group of the Hellinger remnants. But they ended up finding that they might be too late, and the suspicion they had that the “artifact” the Hellingers had in their possession being related to a powerful substance in the world called Stone of Negation might just be true, and that it was unfortunately used inappropriately, which resulted in the very fabric of reality and this world being torn, and the defilers they were warned about could just be utilizing it to get into this world.

“I - I - I don’t understand - how could the Hellingers possess such a thing?” It was Laura Jensen’s first time hearing about this, and to no one’s surprise she was stunned and was almost rendered speechless: “If this was the case, how could they have lost during that - that incident?”

“Beats me. If it were me, I would’ve used it when it was clear that my family had no chance of surviving the battle. But it’s not important right now.” Josephine Wong got off the purple energy plate when they got to Anderson Plaza: “Get back to the inn, Jianmen told me he could buy us two days, so - I’d make good use of these two days.”

“What do you mean?” Aimee and Caroline asked at the same time.

“It just means, take full advantage of these two days that Jianmen will be buying us.” Josephine Wong sighed as she started conjuring a portal with special shining purple and bright light edges: “We have mobilized as many forces as we could, and I will try to mobilize some more and get more resources for the war - the defilers are coming, and it’s not gonna be a good day for anyone. In fact, omens would have started to show everywhere.”

“But - how could I help?” Jason thought for a brief moment and asked: “I still have my promise to Boss I have yet to fulfill.”

“Me too. Please let me know how I could help.” Caroline said.

“The basement, he had prepared a kit for both of you.” Caroline looked at Jason and Caroline with a smile: “He did pick the right students, I’m proud. I’m sure he’d feel the same way as me.” Then she turned to Aimee and Thomas: “And detectives, I have prepared a kit for you as well. And I would give you the same advice: make these two days count for you.”

“Ms. Wong, this is gonna be the end of days isn’t it?” Thomas asked with a trembling voice.

“Maybe it is, maybe not.” Josephine Wong finished the portal and stepped to the side: “Like I said, make these two days count.”

“What - what can we do?” Aimee’s eyes became red: “What can we do to help?”

Josephine Wong thought for a short moment, then sighed: “Don’t feel burdened to do anything - we came to this world much earlier than you, we have more time to harness power, position and resources, and it should just be us that hang onto the sky as it falls. Younger power wielders like you are the future, and just like any civilized society would do, we do not send our future into war. Now, go.”

When they stepped out of the portal, they were right in front of the Xianshi Inn, where Rash was there waiting for them. But there something was very different: the streets around the inn were all gone, and all they could see were endless empty spaces with stars shining from great distances.

“Welcome back Misters. and Misses.” Rash gently bowed to them: “Please don’t mind the change of scenery, you will still be able to go wherever you want, just that you might need to use your power to do it. And cars no longer work.”