The man’s face crumbled. "I don’t... I can’t tell. Weeks? Months?" His voice cracked. "I remember arriving on this island. I remember Joseph greeting me, we hunt out for some time. After that it’s all... blurred. Like a dream I can’t wake up from."

He pressed his palms against his eyes.

"She gave us pills. Said they would make us stronger. And they did. But after the second one, I stopped being able to say no. I stopped wanting to say no. That was the worst part. I didn’t even realize I had lost myself until just now."

Moon’s expression remained calm, but inside, every word confirmed what he already knew.

His plan had worked perfectly. Cleanse had broken the curse. And the man in front of him was proof.

...

The man pressed his forehead against his knees and let out a shaking breath.

"Thank you...I don’t know who you are, but thank you."

He was silent for a moment. Then his eyes suddenly shrank.

"My family. Back on Earth. I have a beautiful wife, and an energetic young daughter that makes my day shine even in a gloomy day. I haven’t contacted them since... since it happened. I stopped caring about them. I stopped thinking about them entirely."

His hands clenched into fists.

"She didn’t just take my freedom. She took them from me too. I was made to lose interest in everything except hunting, following orders, and staying close to the others." His jaw trembled. "My daughter is seven. She probably thinks I abandoned her and her mother...they probably hate me now.."

Moon looked at him calmly, "You can contact them once we’re done here. But first, I need your help."

He gestured toward the five unconscious bodies beside them.

"Your friends are in the same state you were. I need to cure them to, there is also plenty more in the base that needs saving. Before we can go back to earth, before anything, we need to save others, and take down that...witch."

"Witch...huh? That nickname suits her. But can you can do that? You can free them?"

"I already freed you, didn’t I?" Moon smiled, "What stops me from freeing them too?"

Moon reached into his storage ring and took out a small vial filled with a pale liquid. He held it up so the tank could see it clearly.

"This is an antidote I acquired. It’s not easy to come by, and I don’t have unlimited supply...but its enough for what we need." Moon said evenly. "I’m going to administer it to each of them. Some might take more than one dose before it works."

He knelt beside the next body, the brute, and poured a small amount of the potion into his mouth. Then he activated Cleanse, masking the spell’s beneath the motion of tilting the vial.

The brute didn’t react on the first attempt. Moon waited, then administered another dose, activating Cleanse again beneath the cover of the potion.

On the third attempt, the faint shimmer of a shield flickered across his skin once more.

Moon inspected the tank’s reaction, but he didn’t think much of it. ’Oh? Maybe he doesn’t see it?’

"Take care of your companion, he will need some explaining."

The tank nodded his head, "I will."

Moon leaned back and capped the vial. Then, moved to the next one.

It took time. Some required two attempts. Others took five or six before the shield finally appeared. Each time, Moon made the same show of pouring the potion before quietly casting Cleanse beneath it.

By the time he reached the last one, the healer, the first few had already begun to wake. Their reactions were similar to the tank’s.

None of them took it well. But all of them were free.

♢♢♢♢

"Thank you!" The six Evolvers spoke at once, their eyes fixed on Moon with reverence.

The tank stepped forward, speaking on behalf of the group. "We will listen to you and obey your orders. You freed us from that witch. You gave us back our minds, our families, everything those evil people took. You have revived us from death!"

He placed a fist over his chest.

Moon looked at them for a moment. Those were six Evolvers that had trusted him enough to follow him. He didn’t take their words about following him to death seriously, that kind of trust doesn’t come this quickly, but their words were enough to show that they would follow his instructions. And that was all he needed.

"Then I won’t be polite. Like I told your tank before, there are many left that need saving. But there are also people that deserve to die. They orchestrated this entire thing. The woman, Joseph, and...him." Moon turned his body, letting the group see Mirage approaching from behind the boulders with Frey draped unconscious across his back.

The archer’s face twisted in anger, his knuckles turning white around his bow. "That’s him. He’s the one that enhanced my bow. And from then on I..."

The brute’s expression darkened, and the two mages exchanged a look of disgust.

’Good. They don’t have any mercy toward him.’

Moon needed to lay down a foundation. He wanted these people to follow his lead without question, and that required a shared enemy they all agreed on. Frey was that enemy, every person standing here had been at some point or another touched by his inscriptions, and every one of them had lost months or perhaps years of their lives because of it.

Of course, Moon didn’t want to kill Frey because of that. The reason was because Frey knew too much about Moon. About his Grim Reaper talent, and his multiple classes. That knowledge couldn’t be allowed to walk free. But Moon couldn’t say that to these people. Their trust was fragile, built on gratitude rather than loyalty.

So he used what they already felt to kill Frey without getting opposition later on.

"He is one of her closest subjects. The cause of many people’s suffering, including yours. He is not a friend. He is an enemy we have captured, and we will use his information for now."

The archer stepped forward, his jaw clenched. "I want to kill him."

Moon raised a hand. "Not yet. He still has value alive. Once that value runs out, you’ll get your chance."

The archer’s eyes burned. His grip on the bow tightened until the wood creaked. But after a long moment, he exhaled through his nose and stepped back.

"Alright. But when the time comes, please, I want to be the one to do it."

Moon nodded once. "You have my word."