Again, Lindsay sighed.

"I know." he muttered.

They continued to look, before they stumbled upon a heavily-locked metal door... one that almost looked like it could belong to a safe.

"....hm." Lindsay mumbled.

"This might be the door to the Order's sand hoard." he commented.

"Question is... how to get through."

"....I can pick up on SOMETHING behind it." Lindsay replied.

"And it's honestly frightening." he admitted.

"But we've located the vault, essentially." he then said.

"Are we going to need to use the sand?" he asked her.

"...can we even use it at all, or is it even wise to, actually?" he then asked further.

".....hm. Not a bad idea." Lindsay responded.

He then approached the door, and checked it over.

"I suppose I could force it open." he said.

"I mean, given how sure of themselves the Order sounds, they might not have protected the door very well, save for... well... from other Order members." he reasoned.

"Or this could be extremely difficult to get into." he muttered, grabbing the door.

"HALT!" then then heard a voice command.

Lindsay was silent, before sighing.

"If you say so." he said.

He then grabbed onto the door, strained his muscles, and started to exert his strength on it.

As he did so, the one that had called out, as well as 3 other people, charged towards him and Vanessa.

"STOP THEM!" the 'head' yelled, all of them swirling with corrupted sand mana.

The members paused for a moment, clearly trying to resist it, before their bodies seemed to act on their own, and they turned and started to leave.

"HELP!" one called out.

"INTERLOPERS ARE GOING AFTER THE SACRED SAND!" they yelled further.

With that, Vanessa heard a LOT more footsteps.

"Almost... got it..." she then heard Lindsay grunt, the creaking and groaning of the metal door filling the immediate area.

Lindsay paused for a moment, raising his eyebrow slightly at her statement.

'...that's... new...' he thought.

He then sighed, and continued to pull on the door... as 8 new people started to pour down the hallway.

"Holy crap." he then said, seeing the people.

"Well, have fun? I guess?" he told Vanessa, before yanking on the door some more.

"NO! THE SAND!" one yelled, as some spears of corrupted sand started to fly towards Vanessa.

"Hooooooooly crap..." Lindsay muttered.

He then shook his head, and exerted his strength just that little bit more, before he managed to tear the door off of its hinges, and tossed it off to the side.

As soon as he did, a wave of ominous corrupted mana washed out from the vault... so much so, it even made the Order members there pause for a moment.

However, as soon as Lindsay jumped in, they seemed to remember why they were there.

"STOP HIM!" one yelled, as the heat started to drastically rise, and flames began to pour out from the vault.

The member paused for a moment, before screaming out in sheer agony and pain, just as there was another flare from the vault, and Lindsay started to yell as well.

There then seemed to be a massive surge of both corrupted and fire mana, before the flames and heat seemed to disappear and dissipate almost immediately.

"........" there was silence from the vault, before Lindsay staggered out and collapsed onto his knees.

"...it's done." he said weakly, his voice having a dark edge to it... one it didn't have before.

Lindsay was about to answer, when a sudden voice spoke up.

It was different than any of the voices they'd heard before. It was commanding... it was ominous... and it filled Lindsay with a sense of dread.

"Hold it RIGHT there." the figure told Vanessa as they approached.

"Don't think for a moment that can't see what you're doing." they told her further.

"Now... from what I can see... my Order is in a shambles, it seems." they went on.

"I assume that is why I have been unofficially summoned here?" they then asked.

"Mmhmm." the figure responded, as they made their way past Vanessa and Lindsay, before looking in the vault.

"Well, then." they said.

"Interesting." they commented.

"Never seen THAT done with the sand before." they said further.

When Vanessa looked in, curiosity getting the better of her, she saw that Lindsay had actually used his flames and the sand to craft an exquisite glass statue of a phoenix.

Clearly, Casey was rubbing off on him.

"Regardless, thank you both for calling my attention to this." they commented further, before cracking their knuckles.

"Guess it's time for a hard reset."