Leon sat on the spinning chair in his room, gazing out the window. The blank wall from before had turned out to be a window, the entire thing. He just had to press a button on the screen in front of the desk to activate it. The sight was captivating, but Leon had some research to do. He didn't even know where he was, really.

He looked at the screen in front of the desk and stood up to reach it, but he had to stand on the chair before his fingertips touched the smooth, cold surface. Leon still hadn't gotten fully adjusted to living in such a small body. It was annoying, not being able to reach a wall because his arms were too short. He looked down at the surface of the desk and poked it, hoping there would be another one on the desk itself. It seems he was right, since a white screen spanning the length of the desk lit up, the text on it tailored to work and research, rather than general activities like the screen on the wall. It had many options to choose from, and many of them used words and phrases Leon didn't quite understand. He clicked on the first option, which took him to another screen that had more options. He clicked the first one again, something labeled SCAROMAMT. It led to a long text, which Leon started reading.

The text appeared to be describing information on the building he was in. It was called the SCAROMAMT, an abbreviation for Spell Casting and Research of Magic and Minerals Tower. The people that work here call it "the tower" for short. It deals with anything and everything related to magic and minerals. The tower has various wings related to various fields and tasks. There is one wing that performs detailed research on minerals, which act as fuel and energy for most, if not all, current technology. Leon glanced at all of the blue and purple lines around the room. Those must be activating various things, such as the door, and that Rahdal from earlier. Different minerals serve different functions and purposes, and more research is being done to determine if the short range of functions can be expanded or increased, or if more minerals with completely different functions can be discovered and implemented.

Leon only saw the purple and blue minerals in his room, but he remembered seeing lines (maybe tubes?) of green minerals on other towers around the SCAROMAMT. He wondered what those green minerals did, since the purple ones seemed to make things float or fly in the air, as he found out when he touched the rectangle slab next to his bed and it began to float, and the blue ones seemed to fuel short, repetitive motions, such as the opening and closing of a door.

Other wings of the tower, he read, include the Sorcerers' Wing. It seems that wing is where apprentice sorcerers learn the various subjects required to become full-fledged sorcerers, such as Magic Arts and Spell Formations. There are specialized fields, too, such as Minal Creation. Leon read further, but there wasn't much more to note, just further details he could learn later. The white-robed individuals were researchers, apparently. Anyone belonging to a research department, regardless of the field, wore one of those white robes.

He was going to pick something else to read, but just then, his door opened, and a researcher appeared, hair tied behind her head in a tight bun, her skin dark and her eyes a medium brown. She was smiling, and Leon feared he knew why. He glanced at the list he finished making earlier, the one that would start these researchers and sorcerers on a long, complex search and series of tasks that would lead them nowhere. The researcher waited expectantly, and Leon sighed, handing the list to her, but she didn't leave. She looked down the hall once before back at Leon, tilting her head. Leon had to follow her to explain the list, didn't he? He groaned internally at the thought. He had hoped he only had to make the list and they'd leave him alone, but that was too good to be true, it seemed.

He sighed and stood up before following her into the hall.

When they arrived at their destination, Leon's nerves reappeared. The room they entered was enormous, and crowded with researchers. The second they entered the room, the people nearest to them glanced at Leon before their eyes widened in shock and realization, and they turned to their neighbor to whisper something. The process continued, and soon, the whole room was trying to catch a glimpse of him. The woman that brought him here led him to another side of the room, where a stage and podium were. Before he stepped up, the woman gave him the list again and said, "Mr. Regaard, you just need to explain the things you wrote on here. Everyone wants to participate in stopping the catastrophe, after all, so they'll all need to know what they should do. Don't be too nervous, you'll do fine!"

She gave him an encouraging smile before disappearing into the crowd. Leon's hands started shaking as his small fingers gripped the tablet. It wasn't paper. Someone explained to him they didn't use paper anymore, just Minals with the same function. Paper, the process of making it, was bad for the environment, and Minals weren't. The news was disorienting. Paper was such a basic, fundamental part of life. He'd always been able to write by hand his notes and discoveries on the thin sheets, but now, he had to do so on this foreign object. It made him miss his own era, for the first time since he'd been brought here. Now, standing in front of this room full of people, he desperately wished he was gripping paper, not this glass-like object.

He gulped, trying to shove his nerves down to a place no one else could see, and stood up on the podium. He ignored the dozens, maybe even hundreds, of expectant gazes staring it him from all over the room. He looked down at his tablet, going over what he wrote again. It was similar to what he told people after the first catastrophe.

"How much do you know about the catastrophe itself? The reason behind it, its origin, and why it's happening again?"

One of the researchers spoke up, their voice a little distant but loud enough for Leon to hear. "Well, we know that warnings of the catastrophe could be found from ancient civilizations four thousand years ago. We also know that the origin of the catastrophe is from the same era, and that it has to do with an incredibly large discharge of a vast reserve of magic, but other than that, we don't know much. A lot of the records that explained how you solved the catastrophe from your time are gone now."

"So how did you even find out that the catastrophe is going to happen again, and with such a precise time measurement?"

"Some of the surviving records record signs of the catastrophe. We weren't aware it was going to occur again, but when we began noticing these signs all over Anertha, we put the pieces together and used current technology to estimate the date of the catastrophe."

Leon nodded. He may not know how to stop the catastrophe, but explaining it's origin was something he could do. His years of research had not gone to waste. "The catastrophe is a failed magic weapon an ancient civilization built. If you can't find the ruins of this civilization, or this weapon that they hid, then the catastrophe is impossible to stop."

Murmurs and chatter filled the room as people processed this information. Someone spoke up, asking him a question Leon previously hoped he didn't have to answer. "If that's the case, how come you never revealed the location after you discovered the ruins and stopped the magic weapon? And how come the catastrophe is coming again, if you did supposedly stop this weapon two thousand years ago?"

Leon sighed again. He couldn't keep claiming he completely stopped the catastrophe from his own time, so he told another lie, one he hoped would be more believable. "I stumbled upon the ruins on accident on the day the weapon was supposed to discharge. Back then, I thought I had stopped the weapon fully, but now that I am here and you have told me it's going to occur again, it doesn't seem like that is the case. There was no way for me to know if I stopped it completely, because I was never able to find those ruins again."

Leon glanced at their faces again, and he began noticing the traces of despair again. He waited, knowing another question would come. It did, coming from someplace closer to Leon than the previous person. "Then how can you stop the catastrophe that is on us now? Is it possible at all?"

No, he wanted to tell them. No, it wasn't possible, I'm just going to stall for time until the world ends, for good this time. Instead, he said, "That's why I'm here, isn't it? I wasn't able to find it again in the past, but remember that this is two thousand years later. I haven't even been here a day and I already witnessed technology on a scale that people in my time would call the work of gods. With your modern technology, and my expertise and knowledge, we are sure to find those ruins before it's too late. I need you to listen closely to me, now. These are the first things you must do to start the search…"

Leon words just then struck something in him. He hadn't realized it until he said it to this room full of researchers, but he was right, wasn't he? He was never able to find those ruins in the past, but maybe he would be able to, now that he could use the advanced technology of this future civilization. Maybe they would actually be able to find the ruins. Maybe, just maybe, Leon could have hope that the world won't end this time, either.