It really wasn’t surprising that the Code piece would be buried beneath a mountain of bones. Michel had long since lost the ability to be surprised by his Wonder. He’d spent what must have been most of the night looking.

His summon was useless for most of it. He’d asked it for help but the monster huffed and flew off. Sometimes it would come to bother him while he was looking around, but the great beast seemed interested in annoying him more than helping. It seemed agitated and would bite and peck at his uniform or hair–never enough to hurt him, but always enough to bother him. He swatted at his Summon, tried to chase it away. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it spread its wings and roared at him, or tried to chase him around.

They weren’t fighting but Michel didn’t know what to call it. It was probably just agitated. He could feel a sickness in the air, a heavy weight. Obviously the Code. Or whatever other curse decided to plague Mont Saint Michel this week.

He’d explored by the lake, explored by the dungeon, explored the high towers.

It wasn’t to be found.

Michel wasn’t one to give up but he was getting pissed off. There was a brief moment where he thought it might have benefitted from letting Necro and Lupu tagging along. Although, he wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to handle it with his summon being a brat.

Agitated but determined, his efforts paid off eventually.

At the bottom of a corpse pit.

Super smart, great place to leave the most important thing here. A trap door had opened and dropped him down atop of the bones. They were so old and dry that they cracked and turned to dust. The more he struggled, the deeper he sank.

So he decided to see how deep it went.

It was hard to tell with his eyes closed; a rib bone–or something equally offensive–nearly poked out his eye so he had to shimmy down until he hit the bottom. From there, he had to wriggle and shove underneath the suffocating pressure until his back pressed against the wall. He couldn’t stand up; he tried but the weight was too much. All he could do was keep moving in small movements until the wall suddenly opened up.

Bones had spilled out into a small passageway that would have otherwise been entirely hidden, but Michel used it to escape. He had to lay on his back and shimmy along. It was pitch black and even as his eyes adjusted, he couldn’t make out anything. He couldn’t sit up straight. He could draw his knees up almost all the way before they scraped the roof of the small passage, and dig his heels into the ground and push. He could rest on his elbows to help him wriggle but that was even more uncomfortable.

It probably only took three minutes of struggle to escape the tunnel but it felt closer to hours.

Where it was once dark, suddenly there was light.

In a hollowed out room he would not have ever imagined locating, he found his Code piece.

He’d seen the one on the Moon but this in no way compared. A fizzling, wicked little light that looked like it was more lightning and rage than it was a pleasant little orb.

Great, that looked like fun.

He was supposed to resonate with that? What the hell, why?

Michel lay on his back for a moment as he stared up at it. He didn’t want to do this. He wanted his magic to be stable and he wanted a weapon that wasn’t crumbling at the slightest touch.

With a groan, he dragged himself up. It took a moment to decide how he wanted to approach the Code but he figured poking it with his temporarily stable weapon wasn’t the best idea. Was he supposed to pick it up, to hold it? Could he just look at it and think hard enough and make everything go back to normal?

He tried. He didn’t feel anything but frustration.

So then, handling it felt like the only option. He was tired and cranky and didn’t have more time to waste.

Begrudgingly, he stomped over to the Code. He stuck out both hands and scooped it up like he expected it to burn him.

His vision went white before he could find out.