A black void. Floating within the void was Ed's unconscious soul, which was orbiting around his 7-colored mana-core. However, there was a new addition to his mana-core. A very slight trace of purple had appeared on top of it. The other 7 colors met together atop the core, merging into the tiny purple spot.

A large mass of golden light peacefully circled around the mana-core. A single speck of the golden light struggled fiercely, attempting to leave the mass. Again, and again it failed, only to rest a bit and try again. Finally, it broke free. It shot towards Ed's soul, stopping just in front of it.

"Oy! Wake up!" The golden light yelled. Slowly, the golden light transformed into a handsome man with curly hair, a long beard, and sideburns. It was Mayor Mick! He struggled to reach his hand towards Ed, as if some invisible force was holding him back. Finally, he flicked his finger and succeeded in tapping Ed on the forehead. Ding! It sounded like a bell being rung as a ring of golden light briefly flickered into existence before disappearing. A new crack appeared on the forehead of Ed's soul, coexisting with the two previous soul cracks.

Ed's eyes shot open, briefly glancing at his mana-core and Mayor Mick. Then, he vanished.

...

"Ugh..." Ed groaned as he groggily woke up. He rubbed his eyes to try and relieve his throbbing headache. Blinking several times, he took in his surroundings. He was completely nude, and he was in a small dark cavern. There was barely enough room to stand up. The only path available to him was a winding tunnel with flickering purple light. Throwing away the question of why he was naked, he cautiously made his way towards the light.

"The fuck?!" He exclaimed in shock as he rounded the corner. In front of him was a sea of purple lightning. It was reminiscent of the Atlanta nightmare attack, except for the lightning being purple instead of silver. 'How the hell did I get here?' He wondered as a shiver travelled down his spine. That lightning would absolutely obliterate him to ash if he tried passing through it. Turning back the way he came, he examined the rest of the tunnel and cavern carefully, but there really were no other paths.

He frowned as he sat down. 'I need to calm down and think.' He sighed as he closed his eyes. 'I remember fighting Samantha... Right, I should have collapsed afterwards. After that? A vague dream about a river and a lion?' He shook his head, struggling to recall the dream. Unfortunately, it slipped away from his memories just as quickly as it came. 'What else?' His frown deepened as he struggled to remember. 'The Mayor of Orlando? Did he help me wake up? And my mana-core, why was there purple mixed into it?'

Having collected his thoughts, Ed opened his eyes and stood up. His body transformed into his crocodilian form, including the claws, tail, and fangs. He looked down at his hands. 'Seems like I've fully converted. Probably 99.7% mutant flesh by now. I can hardly be considered human anymore.' He looked at the sea of lightning in front of him. It was in plasma form with a wall of lightning perpetually covering the sky above it. Not even the cavern ceiling was visible due to the mass lightning blocking his vision. Hesitation appeared on his face as he slowly reached his left hand forward, curious to see if his body could handle even the slightest trace of the overwhelming power.

"AGH!" He jumped back, gripping his wrist in pain. His hand was nowhere to be seen, not even the ash remained. "HOW THE FUCK DID I GET HERE?!" He couldn't help but to curse aloud, angrily slamming his foot into the nearby cavern wall. He paced back and forth while thinking, occasionally throwing a tail lash towards the cavern wall to relieve his frustrations.

'Damn! This would be so easy if I could use my powers!' Instinctively, he attempted using his powers. A tiny purple glow appeared on his fingertip, flickering like a dying candle about to be blown out by the wind. 'What?!' He stared at his finger, stupefied by the light covering it. His concentration wavered, and the light vanished.

'A purple light?' He frowned as he rubbed his chin. 'The slight trade of purple I saw on my mana-core?' Suddenly, a flash of memory streaked past, and he remembered swallowing a purple orb within his dreams. 'I ate a purple mana-core?! I'm lucky I'm not dead, but how did I absorb its power?' He had read journals before on people trying to absorb the power of mana-cores. Hell, he had experimented with it himself on test subjects. The result? Instant death unless used for extremely careful repairs on mana-cores.

Once again, he started pacing back and forth. 'Can anyone absorb purple mana-cores? Or am I unique in that regard because of my mutant flesh? Tai had mentioned the cores being extremely valuable. Is this why? I've already theorized that the purple smoke and lava are related to the strengthening of esper bodies down here. Is the purple mana-core also related to that? Where does manullium fit into the equation? The purple smoke seemed similar to manullium, but the lava directly melted manullium into nothing? The two substances are clearly different, but how?'

His questions soon turned to frustration as he had no answers. 'I need test subjects and test materials!' His eyes glowed with a mix of desire and madness as he briefly forgot about his more pressing predicament of being trapped. Quickly recovering, he glared at the wall of lightning. 'I made it here somehow, so I should be able to make it back. There are two possibilities. One, the sea of lightning is a temporary existence that comes and goes over time. Two, I unconsciously controlled the purple mana somehow to break through the sea of lighting.'

Not wanting to waste any time, he sat down and got to work training the new mana. If his regular mana was like a vast ocean, then his new purple mana was like a single drop within it. It was practically nonexistent, making it so that it took multiple tries to get the small purple glow to appear.

Days passed. His right hand healed due to his mutant flesh. The small purple glow now encompassed his entire finger. He slowly pushed his finger forward into the wall of lightning, and he remained completely unharmed. It seemed that his purple mana was fully capable of protecting him from the violent energies. However, his total amount of purple mana hadn't changed at all. He sighed while staring at the purple glow. 'I can't increase the amount of purple mana. Is it like how I can't train my normal mana down here? Or does is it just work that way in general?' The only method he had was to constantly improve his control over the insignificant amount of purple mana. He needed to make it thin enough to cover his entire body so that he could escape. Unfortunately, it grew increasingly difficult to spread the mana thinner over wider portions of his body.

The days turned into weeks, and the weeks into months. Interestingly, Ed did not grow hungry during this time. It seemed that the small trace of purple mana provided the energy his body needed, and after all this time, he had finally succeeded in covering his entire body with it. 'Time to leave.' He grinned as he confidently stepped towards the sea of lightning. His entire body submerged into the plasma, completely unharmed.

He controlled his crocodile tail to push him forward. As a crocodile chimera, swimming felt as natural to him as breathing, even if that swimming was in a plasma sea. It took him nearly half a day before reaching the other side. Climbing out, he was met with a path of purple fire. The flames burned hot and were almost as destructive as the lightning. Fortunately, they couldn't break through Ed's defensive purple veil.

He casually strolled through the fire, enjoying the sights as he went. 'It really is quite different from the portions of the maze I remember. I wonder how far I am from the settlement?' Suddenly, he froze in place as he stared in surprise at the scene in front of him. A purple lion was resting, surrounded by a pack of purple lioness. Ed's stomach growled in hunger for the first time in months. He could feel his mouth water as he instantly rushed forward, desiring to slay and devour them.

Unfortunately, the lions noticed and were quick to run away. They seemed to fear him greatly, as if he was their mortal enemy. They were much faster than him, and they soon vanished from sight. 'Damn!' Ed sighed in disappointment. His instincts were practically screaming at him to give chase and eat them, but he forcefully resisted the urges. He continued along the path of flames.

He traveled for several days without seeing any sight of the lions. Finally, he met with an icy purple tundra. Sharp glaciers jutted out from the land. The freezing energy was slightly weaker than the fire from before, though it was still deadly. 'Seems like it'll only get easier as I continue.' Ed nodded to himself. As he travelled, he eventually spotted a familiar pack of lions. It was actually the pack that had run away from him just days earlier. Interestingly, it seemed they could not handle the ice, as they were all frozen solid. Ed walked near a lion and tried crushing the ice with his tail. A cracking sound rang out, followed by the shattering of the ice. The lion's body broke into tens of thousands of shards. Not even a purple mana-core remained. He crushed the other lions and had the same results. Disappointed, he continued on his journey.

After journeying for another day, Ed froze in shock. In front of him was a purple ice giant, at least three stories tall. It had sharp hands and legs, the surface of its body shining like a mirror. Its two purple eyes glared angrily from up high. The lions from earlier seemed like tame kittens in comparison.

Ed should have felt tremendous fear at such an encounter, but instead he only felt excitement and hunger. It was as if somebody had put a five-star meal in front of him. All he had to do was enjoy it. Instinct took over his rationality as he charged forward.

The ice giant roared in anger. It swung its giant arm down like a club, slamming it against the icy tundra. Hundreds of ice shards blasted towards Ed. He hurried to dodged them, but one shard managed to graze his left arm. He was shocked as a cut appeared in his thin veil of purple mana. The ice instantly began freezing his arm, making it so that he was completely unable to move it. He hurriedly reapplied the purple mana, which fortunately seemed to stop the spread of the freezing energy. All he could do now was hope that his mutant flesh could naturally eliminate the foreign energy if given enough time.

Recovering his sanity, Ed no longer rushed forward. However, his hunger refused to allow him to admit defeat and retreat. Instead, he carefully analyzed the ice giant. He slowly moved closer, and the ice giant released another attack. He quickly fell back and dodged all of the incoming ice shards. It was like a dance as he repeatedly moved closer and farther from the ice giant, aiming to fully grasp its attack patterns.

Soon, his confidence grew. Ed charged forward once again, dodging multiple volleys of ice shards as he went. When he finally got close enough, he leaped onto the ice giant's leg and held on tightly.

Enraged, the ice giant slammed its arm down towards Ed, like a man swatting an annoying fly. Ed hurriedly let go of the ice giant's leg, falling back towards the tundra floor. The stupid ice giant attacked its own leg, causing a series of cracks to appear. This process repeated itself several times as Ed continued using the same strategy. Eventually, the ice giant shattered its own leg entirely, causing it to topple to the ground.

"Wow!" Ed yelled out in surprise. 'This may just be the stupidest thing I've ever fought.' He moved closer to the ice giant, and it once again struggled to attack him. He played the game again, this time getting the giant to repeatedly crush its own head. It wasn't long before the ice giant's head exploded into thousands of shards. Ed disregarded the ice giant's tough body as he dug through the shattered shards of its head. Soon, he located a purple orb as big as his fist.

'What a big mana-core.' He grinned as he licked his lips. Instinctively, he grabbed ahold of it and raised it to his mouth, completely prepared to swallow it down. 'Ugh!' He forced himself to stop right before putting it in his mouth. 'Have I gone insane?! What'll happen if I actually swallow this thing?!' He forced himself to lower the mana-core. 'I can always eat it later if it turns out to be safe. Besides, I could use it for experimenting when I get back.' He held onto it tightly as he continued his journey.

It was nearly a week before he reached a small lake of purple lava. 'I finally find something I'm familiar with down here, but this...' He sighed to himself while shaking his head. While it was true that he had seen plenty of purple lava in the cage, this was his first time seeing a whirlpool. It took up the entire lake while spinning rapidly. He clenched his teeth as he dived in.

The first half of the journey through the whirlpool was easy. It forcefully pulled him down, making it so that he didn't have to do any of the work. However, when he reached the bottom he was faced with a 2nd whirlpool. The two whirlpools worked together to keep him at the bottom of the lava. He struggled fiercely against the currents as he forced his way up the 2nd whirlpool. It took him nearly 15 minutes to escape and surface above the lava.

"Huff! Huff!" He gasped desperately for air, a trace of fear hidden within his eyes. If not for his crocodile tail, he probably never would have made it out alive. He looked at the path ahead and sighed in relief. There was more lightning but no plasma. It was the usual lava river he was used to from when he first entered the maze. The lightning was like a light rain when compared to what he had experienced at the sea of plasma. He easily swam through the river, almost enjoying the experience as he went.

He eventually left the lightning entirely. Only ordinary purple lava remained. He soon left that behind as well, climbing out of the river and into a large cavern. 'Damn.' He sighed while looking at his surroundings. 'I thought I had finally made it through all the hard parts.' The cavern in front of him seemed quite ordinary. However, there were hundreds of purple eyes staring at him from within the darkness. It seemed that his troubles had only just begun.