".....what?" Lindsay asked, his tone quiet and surprised.

"No... no, that... that can't be..." he said.

"How...? Why...?" he mumbled, now seemingly lost in his own mind.

"The... the formulae should... but... it'd be a slow-release..." he went on.

Ash just sighed.

"I think it's like poison." he said.

"Doesn't matter if you guzzle it or have a slow steady drip. It'll kill ya."

"N-no..." Lindsay stammered.

"That... that can't be..." he said.

"Pretty sure she knows what she's talking about it." Ash chimed in.

"...." Lindsay was now silent, before falling into a chair.

"How...? Why...?" he mumbled.

"All I wanted was to try and make the world a better place for all." he commented.

"Well, road to hell and all that." Ash said offhandedly.

"What?" Lindsay asked.

"How is that removing what a human is?" he asked her.

"YOU'RE a human. Mom's a human. Mages are human! Well... 99% of them are." he corrected himself.

"Wait... their soul?" he asked.

"Is mana THAT deeply tied to it?" he asked further.

"Seems so, bro." Ash commented.

Lindsay was... silent now.

But it looked like he was trying to talk. To move.

But something was holding him back.

"....." Ash watched this, before looking at Vic.

"Okay, I think he gets it." he told her.

"Do you legit want to KILL him?" he asked her.

"Or... yourself, for that matter."

Lindsay almost looked like he would turn into a vegetative state at that point.

He looked at her, horror and fear in his eyes, before nodding quickly.

"Y-yes." he stammered, his heart beating far faster than was healthy.

And whether it had been the mana influx, or the sheer terror he was feeling, he looked to either pass out, or die.

"Great." Ash growled.

"Well, I suppose scaring your victim to death is one way to force them to bend to your will." he commented.

"Congrats. Pretty sure you've stopped him from going through with his plan." he told her.

"...and once he comes back from this, we'll see if he ever decides to tackle some problem ever again..." he then muttered.

Lindsay was unresponsive for about 10 seconds, before his eyes opened.

And he almost freaked out when he saw who was hugging him.

It wasn't a violent freak-out, but his eyes flashed with panic and fear, before he somehow managed to calm himself down.

"No, she didn't permanently kill you." Ash said to him.

"Odds are she would have without a second thought, though." he went on.

"So. Have you learned your lesson?" he asked.

"...yes." Lindsay replied.

"I'm scrapping the project, destroying all evidence of it, and I think I'll just use all my spare time to... plant trees or something." he said.

Lindsay nodded again.

"I'm done with science." he told her.

"Completely done. No more." he said further.

Ash just shook his head.

"And how do you do THAT?" he asked.

"Just 'poof' and you're there?"

"....Eddie...?" Lindsay asked.

"Seems the future is SO bad, that we go by Eddie and Joe." Ash told him.

"You know, shortening our middle names and going by something that sounds more normal, and makes it easier to hide and blend in." he explained further.

"...I..." Lindsay stammered.

He then just hung his head, dejected.

"...I think he's done with trying to do science stuff, so... that's good?" Ash said to Vic.

"......" Lindsay was silent.

"Sure." he said.

"I... I should go." he then said further.

"I need to go to the Unit." he finished.

With that, he quickly disappeared in a burst of red flames.

"Guess he's going to destroy his research." Ash commented.

"I think that's the only place he's been storing it."

Ash just rolled his eyes.

"Given what I just saw, I don't think he could have done anything to you." he told her.

"I doubt he could have summoned the resistance to." he admitted.

"If I were to wager a guess, you evoked the same level of power, fear, and authority as Vanessa." he then said further. "And as soon as anyone does that, he tends to wimp out quickly." he went on.

"So yeah, I suppose there was a 1% chance for him to have fought back or reacted violently, but odds are that wouldn't have been a problem for you, anyway." he added with a shrug.

"Seems like you could kill both him AND me with a flick of your wrist."