Steampunk Era: Mad Abield

After Malin swore he didn’t play foul and passed the lie detection, Ails could only consider this situation as a special case of his bloodline’s activation period.

"It seems we better not have direct contact until your bloodline stabilizes," Ails finally said, covering his fingers burnt by Positive Energy as he ran off.

Malin watched him leave, then turned to the others, "I’ve said it before, there is always a way out of despair."

"No, if it weren’t for you, we couldn’t have found this path..." Elder Hoffman looked at Malin with a somewhat joyful smile, "It’s wonderful, just thinking that the torturous path of the Secret Keeper may end with my generation, that’s truly wonderful."

"...Teacher, is it really impossible to preserve your soul, not even to return it to the River of Mana?" Malin asked.

"Yes, it’s precisely because of this that those children chose to fall into despair and corruption," Elder Hoffman said with a nostalgic sigh, "I remember the face of each one of them, just like I remember all the brothers and sisters I’ve cleansed... Malin, my child, how did you and this guy get to know each other?"

So Malin recounted his entangled fate with Ails from start to finish. When Malin mentioned letting Ails deal with the souls of Chaos, Elder Hoffman looked at him, "Promise me, child, that it’s a fine choice to let the souls of Chaos suffer eternally but... Do purify the souls of those few apprentices of yours. It’s you who brings an end to the torturous path of the Secret Keeper cult, and I also implore you... to put an end to all this so that the children taught by Colin in the future won’t have to kill each other anymore."

"I promise you, Teacher," Malin nodded.

"Thank you, my child." After speaking, Elder Hoffman waved his hand, starting to shoo people away: "Malin, Colin, you go first."

So, Malin and Colin left the room, then Malin patted Colin’s arm, "Put the ring back on, dummy."