The group had left the Pocket of Sanctuary during its final half-an-hour, choosing to rifle through the remains of the Citadel of Horrors. The monsters were weak and didn't put up a fight, translating to an easy exploration and looting session.

They had all split off and prioritized different things. Vivi was looking for any kind of magic and magic knowledge. Short Bus was looking for where they stored the food. Red was just walking around and touching things, apparently relishing in her new body's senses. Ghost Ears went with Ben and was pointing out what to loot, and what to leave behind, a concept Ben had trouble with.

“Prince Ben,” Ghost Ears said exasperated, “the walls aren't valuable enough to loot.”

“Pff, shows how much you know,” Ben said, prying at the wall with a looted sword, using it like a crowbar and really throwing his back into it. The plate of chitin peeled off with a wet, disgusting sound, revealing dead white flesh under. Ben immediately looted the plate, then looked at the rest of the wall.

“All of it?” Ghost Ears asked, a desperate plea in his voice. Ben frowned, looked at his damaged chitin sword, then put it away.

“I suppose not,” he finally conceded, and the two of them continued their exploration.

“We'll want to find the Citadel Treasury,” Ghost Ears said once they were moving, “it should be unguarded and unsealed now that the Citadel Lord is dead. Congratulations on your achievement by the way.”

“It was luck,” Ben said, being completely honest, “and that Citadel Fly was just as inexperienced as I was. Honestly, if he hadn't been so concerned with toying around with us, we'd have been dead in a heartbeat.”

“We still won,” Ghost Ears countered, and there wasn't really any arguing with that. Along the way Ben, and Frankie by extension, were casually grabbing anything and everything that wasn't bolted down. His [Magical] body wasn't his favorite thing in the world, but the sheer size of his Utility Pocket was a great panacea for the inconvenience of feeling like his feet were bouncy dry balloons. It felt limitless, even though it wasn't.

The hallways were long, and every room attached to them was filled with some fresh horror, some new way to make Ben disgusted. It was bugs and cruelty all the way down, and he'd be happy to get out of here.

After they'd looted it. Completely looted it.

There was a room with a miserable looking Volkswagen sized grub covered in sword like growths and wounds from where the swords had been ripped off. Ben killed the grub and [Whap'd] the body, then thought to himself that he was going to need Red to do some [System Looting] to transform all these large corpses into something smaller.

They passed another room, another mutation chamber room, but this one had white grubs floating in the tanks. Ben took all those too.

The next room had an enormous despondent centipede wrapped around a black chest with horns. Ben got really excited, and then spent a solid two minutes trying to kill the centipede who didn't fight back. Failing to do any real damage to the creature Ben just stole the chest. Before they left the room, Ben saw that the centipede had a necklace with a golden key on it, and stole the key. The monster weakly hissed at him, then collapsed to the ground in a fit of pure sadness.

“Wow,” Ben said, looking back at the room and then shaking his head, “they really aren't taking this well.”

“Their entire reason for existing was to serve the Citadel Core and Lord,” Ghost Ears said.

“Like a religion?”

“Roughly.”

“Got'chya,” Ben said, pointing and making two clicking sounds with his mouth, which sounds way more awkward being described than it actually is, “end of Conan the Barbarian, Thulsa Doom's beheading. Everybody goes home, except, this is home.”

“That makes very little sense to me.”

“For now,” Ben said, adding 'Watch Conan the Barbarian with a bunch of fantasy aliens' to his To-Do list. Then moving it up near the top next to ‘Do The Quest.’

Eventually they came to a set of golden double doors decorated with golden worms, flies, and a bunch of skulls. Ben looked at Ghost Ears, eyebrows raised.

“I think this is it,” he said, and then pushed the door open with a single hand, “After you.” Ghost Ears scouted ahead, then called out in a choked voice. “Prince Ben!”

Ben rushed in, ready for a fight. Instead he saw a large room that looked like it would have been a nightmare to fight flying creatures in with it’s really, really high ceiling. In the center of the room, on a raised dais, was a green casket. It was green like corroded copper, and as Ben approached it he saw that it was indeed corroded copper.

“You scared me,” Ben said, staring at the casket. It was large, relative to Ben. To a regular sized human, it would be a bit smaller than their ribcage; big, but not large.

A dead gremlin was laid out in the room, his hands on the casket. Some sense, some imprinted ability from The Quest told Ben this was one of the Elder Gremlins he was supposed to kill.

“What the hell were you doing here?” Ben asked, then took the body and examined the corroded vessel again.

“I wasn't expecting this,” Ghost Ears said, sweating as he stared at the loot. Ben casually [Whap'd] it, and Ghost Ears flinched.

“What is it?” Ben asked, leaving the room after glancing around and seeing nothing else.

“That was the Citadel Treasury,” Ghost Ears whispered, then quickly flew to catch up.

“That's it?”

“That's an Ancient Reliquary Casque,” Ghost Ears countered, “and a very old one.”

“Is that good?” Ben asked, feeling like it was good.

“That's good,” Ghost Ears said, “that's very, very good.”

Ben grinned, and the two of them continued their looting spree until Short Bus telepathically contacted them and told them the Pocket of Sanctuary was about to expire.

Inside the silent quiet ruins of the Citadel of Horrors the nine of them, including Frankie, stood in silence outside the Pocket of Sanctuary. Each of them was covered from head to toe in treasure. It was comical, they were like pirates who just raided a royal galleon, walking around the deck of their ship dressed in gold and jewels. Red had removed her creepy helmet at Ben's request, and had it stored in the Utility Pocket attached to her wrist.

The Pocket hovered off the ground, its large purple tentacles retracting and then vanishing. The dark oval of space lightened then vanished. An ephemeral pink ribbon floated in the air where it had been. It was quickly claimed by Frankie who grabbed it through a Utility Pocket portal. The ribbon adjusted its size and floated around the elemental in the same way it had floated around Betsy.

Dryst, despite a complete and total lack of relatable anatomy, looked like he was going to blow a fucking gasket. The sight of so much unique and rare treasure all concentrated in one place, with such a new group, was almost too much for him to handle. Thirty-One was laughing, apparently he'd passed the point of no return and just thought things were funny, and Anna had moved into firm denial.

Frankie portaled in-front of Dryst and looked up at the physically larger elemental, and stared him down. Ben could practically hear Frankie saying something like 'Do something about it, I dare you.' Ben glanced up from examining his nails, his go-to action for when he really wanted to show someone he wasn't interested in talking about something. Dryst went for it anyways.

“What,” the geometrically perfect elemental said, “what is your companion wearing?” Vivi surprised Ben by being the one to answer.

“None of your business,” the Aeon Slug said, reading a book titled 'The Index Of Names and Natures', a book that appeared to be on fire, and then extinguished itself by becoming dripping wet, then dried itself by turning dusty and stony, then softened itself by somehow becoming the wind, then turning bright white, before lighting on fire again. Ben blinked several times and looked away, he'd been mesmerized by the smooth, seamless transitions the book was going through.

It was unfortunate that Ben, and practically everyone in the party excluding Red, had also looked over at Vivi when he talked, and been similarly mesmerized by the sight of the shifting tome. The reason being, it allowed Dryden's Poets to walk way, way too close to them without anyone raising an alarm.

“That, Dryst,” the tall, dark red Sunlet male said, his body language open and friendly, “is a Raiment of Power, likely from the Purebeast that Aeon Slug summoned and slaughtered for power.” Anna jumped, Thirty-One beeped in alarm, and Dryst's normally white coloring darkened.

Short Bus crossed his arms and had a 'Who's this fucking asshole' expression of disdain on his face. Red wasn't looking at Dryden, but instead was staring at his group of invisible demons, who had frozen in place, unsure of how they'd been spotted. Ghost Ears, as a [Royal Vizier], immediately flew to Ben's side and started [Advising] him on the situation. Ben widened his stance, adopted a neutral facial expression and adjusted his Wishing Ring, which Dryden had already cataloged, along with the rest of the valuables of the group.

Vivi smiled with his eyes and just started blabbing.

“That's actually correct!” he said, completely oblivious, “well, not about me summoning it, or slaughtering it, but that is a Raiment of Power! I wasn't expecting anyone to recognize it, are you a [Scholar] by any chance?”

“A [Warrior Poet], actually,” Dryden said, smoothly shifting his attention to the Aeon Slug, “and what poet wouldn't recognize a Sash of Gilgamesh when he saw one?” he said laughing.

“How the fuck do you know about Gilgamesh?” Ben asked.

“It's one of the oldest and most well known stories in The World,” Dryden said, now looking at Ben and giving him goosebumps with a look and with his revelation, “the story of the [King] who killed a Pure Beast and claimed its body for his own. They are High Artifacts of the highest order,” Dryden continued, staring at Ben who had restored his neutral expression, “rare as rare can be, because penetrating the Pure Lands that surround the Heart of Heaven. . .” Dryden trailed off and laughed. “The body of a Pure Beast could start a war that consumed the entire World. Tell me, what happened to it? Where did it go?” Naked avarice was written across his crystal features, which had gone cruel.

Ben wasn't sweating. He wasn't gulping. He wasn't doing anything that screamed 'I've got the body of a Pure Beast in my inventory'

Vivi's eyes went wide, and he desperately glanced over at Ben, before gulping and then intentionally ignoring Ben as hard as he could. In that moment, Ben felt like he could really kill the Aeon Slug.

“Frankie,” Red said, her voice high and sweet, startling everyone out of an increasingly tense moment, “could you please go over to that wretch and hand him the Raiment of Power?” her useless, extraneous eyebrows were high, and her face was mocking. Dryden's face shifted to one of alarm, and though the demons were invisible, they scattered at the mere threat.

“Keep it away from me!” he shouted, his body starting to glow with red light. Red smirked.

“That's what I thought,” she said, then Frankie portaled into her arms and she began stroking the Utility Pocket Elemental fondly, super-villain with a cat style, her arm occasionally touching the Raiment of Power without incident. Ben looked at the scene, and then at the out-sized reaction of Dryden. He adjusted the Wishing Ring and looked at the Sunlet, who seemed to be reassessing his odds of successfully murdering everyone here and looting their corpses.

“Anna,” Ben said, and the teenage Sunlet girl jumped. She was clearly terrified of Dryden, “we're in your custody,” he said, “so I'll leave it up to you. What should we do in this situation?” Short Bus sniffed, his eyes closed, and his face directly looking at one of the demons that was trying to sneak around.

“Don't even try it,” the shark growled, and the sneaky demon froze in place. Nobody could see it, but it glanced at Ben's ring, and decided to not chance it.

“I think,” Anna said, “there's no way we get out of The Overcavern Forest alive,” she said, “while these assholes are on our tail.”

“Oh,” Ben said, nodding his head and accepting the answer.

“I just want to go home,” she said the word and her voice practically broke into a sob. It would be unfair to not say that she was handling this situation far better than any other iron rank team in Solas would have. Ben nodded again.

“I know the feeling, one last question though,” he said, and projected his intentions to Short Bus, who unfolded his arms and projected the plan to the rest of the group, excluding Anna's party, “where's the most dangerous place in the Overcavern Forest?”

“The Gloom,” she said, clearly not understanding.

“Thank you,” Ben said, then started talking as fast as he could, “I wish-” he said, and instantly Dryden's Poets sprang into action, starting to rush their position, “Dryden's Poets,” Short Bus blasted Dryden with a cone of psychedelic, holographic light from between his eyes, the [Anima Blast] completely disabling his higher cognitive functions, “would be teleported to,” Ben continued, while Vivi blasted away a leaping demon with a blast of magical air, “the most dangerous,” Ben said, and Dryden recovered quickly from the blast, his high levels assisting his recovery, “part of ” Dryden was fast, and covered the distance between them nearly instantly, “The” Dryden was tackled by Red, who screamed in pain as soon as she hit him, “Gloom! And-”

One of the lights on Ben's ring went out, before he was able to tack on 'and we were safely teleported to Anna's mansion in Solas.' The World did not freeze, nor did reality give a single shudder, but Dryden's Poets instantly vanished from their positions, all of them, including a large number of demons in Solas, transported to the most dangerous part of The Gloom.

Red cried out in pain, and she was staring incomprehensibly at the very large hole in her stomach, gasping and looking at the very red blood on her green hands.

“Oh,” she said, her voice thin, weak, “that's why you named me,” she said, then collapsed, her eyebrows twitching, and her energy eyes flickering in their antler cages.

“Fuck!” Ben said, “Clear the area!” he started pushing everyone away, clearing some space around the slightly convulsing Beyonder, feeling panic in his chest. Red was supposed to be fucking invincible! In a panic, Ben started speaking, “I wish-”

“Shut your mouth and move!” Vivi shouted, interrupting and forcibly pushed Ben away, “get out of the way and don't you dare pull another slimy Field Wish!” he yelled, and then pulled a glowing red vial from his cotton-candy looking portal of an inventory, “wasn't expecting to use this so soon,” he groused and unstoppered the vial, then poured half the contents on the wound and the other half in Red's mouth. “Drink it, drink it, that's it,” he said soothingly, propping her into an upright sitting position on his long body via telekinesis.

Ben watched as the fatal injury sealed before his very eyes, and she bolted upright, her cloud eyes growing bright before fading to their usual luminosity.

“What happened to me?” she asked, looking down at where the injury had been.

“You nearly died,” Ben said, walking over to her, and in her sitting position, their faces were on the same level, “and you saved my life.”

“Died?” she asked, “that's impossible. From a simple puncture wound? That was barely. . .” she trailed off, “excuse me. I'm not used to the vulnerabilities of a body, I should not have been so careless,” she said, then stood up, but immediately fell over on weak, shaking legs, “I,” she said, but Ghost Ears interrupted her.

“Red, I recommend you lay down for a bit,” the fairy said. The Beyonder didn't need much convincing, her eyes growing dimmer and dimmer as Vivi telekinetically helped lower her onto the ground. She murmured 'Thank you', and then the lights in her antlers went out, and her body went limp. Her chest rose and fell, and she immediately began snoring. Loudly. Like, holy shit, sleep apnea, call a doctor I don't think that’s normal loud.

She took another breath in, ripping another snore in the process. It was undignified, and the single most humanizing thing Ben had ever seen from Red.

“Well, that-” Ben started to say, but was interrupted by another snore. “I think I can get us out of the Overcavern Forest with this,” Ben said, holding up his hand and indicating his ring.

The reactions were as follows: Short Bus nodded his head and said 'Good idea'; Ghost Ears frowned but didn't say anything; Vivi and Anna both snapped to attention and immediately started yelling at Ben about 'Field Wishing'; Dryst and Thirty-One seemed to be conferring about what they should say, and ultimately chose to say nothing; Frankie jumped through Ben's hand and stole the ring right off his finger.

“Hey!” Ben shouted, running after Frankie, who was keeping out of reach.

“You seriously just suggested using a wish to teleport to Solas?” Vivi asked, a disgusted look on his face.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” Anna said, “didn't you go to fucking school?”

“Yeah?”

“Must have been a shitty school if they didn't even teach you about how to properly use a wish!” she said, “Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that you just saved all our lives, I'd have punched you in the face. Field wishing!”

“I know, field wishing!” Vivi said, and then shared a look with Anna, the look of two people who were both disgusted and in total agreeance with one another. Ben thought about saying something like 'What's field wishing', but chose to preserve his dignity instead.

“Don't make a wish till we get to Solas and get you a build-a-wish ticket, and a wish specialist, preferably a [Lawyer] of some kind.”

“How much of a loss do you think we had there, seventy percent?” Vivi asked.

“We'd be lucky at seventy. He said it was an Honest Wish, he probably lost ninety-five percent of the effect.”

“Seriously?” Ben asked, “How about a thank you? They're my wishes, I'll do what I want with them.”

“Ok, thank you,” Anna said quickly, “But you'll be doing yourself a massive disservice if you make any more wishes. Just. . . just trust Vivi and I,” she said, and Vivi started nodding with his eyes, “one of the core bits of education we, and by we I mean the Signatory races, get is about how to handle wishes. There's a right way to get maximum value, and there's a way to waste it. Field Wishing is considered. . . it's. . .”

“Disgusting,” Vivi said, “it's disgusting. I almost think I wish we'd rather have died than watch you make that wish. You didn't even start with a statement of efficiency Ben,” Vivi said, and Ben just stared at the Aeon Slug till he kept talking, “something like 'I wish the full power of this wish be used effectively for my exclusive benefit in pursuit of' and then the rest of your wish,” Vivi explained.

“Oh, yeah, I totally had time for that,” Ben said, then pointed at the sleeping, recently healed, Red.

“It hurts,” Vivi said, “that hurt to watch.”

“Well it hurt when you wasted all my chests from your dungeon,” Ben said, grumbling.

“Please, I paid for the system to stock those with the cheapest random loot available,” Vivi said, “it was no big loss.”

“That was my treasure,” Ben grumbled, but dropped it. He looked around and felt a sudden chill, not a physical wind, but something else. “Let's. . .” Ben said, trailing off, his brows furrowed, his skin suddenly pebbling, goosebumping, “let's set up camp here.” Vivi looked up from Red, an expression of concern on his face.

“You sound different,” he said, his eyes narrowing, and then suddenly scanning the clearing the Citadel sat in for threats.

“I just got a bad feeling, that's all,” Ben said, staring deep into the forest, “let's just all get some rest. Set up some fortifications.”

–

Vivi had cast his extremely useful [Ring of Stone] spell and created a short wall around them, and then cast several trap and alarm type spells in the area to give them advanced warning of any threats. Then, using some of the plentiful dry dead wood around them, they had created a very large bonfire and were all sitting around it.

Well, Anna had crawled into the fire, given everybody the middle finger and fallen asleep, but that was besides the point. Ever since the moment she went into the fire, it seemed to no longer consume the wood and burn eternally high and hot.

“I feel like starting a forest fire,” Ben said, looking around at the dead, destroyed forest the Citadel had produced.

“I second the motion,” Red said immediately, then winced from the sudden motion of raising her hand, “I feel very strange.”

“I'd be surprised if you didn't,” Vivi said, “you've done some very impressive, very mana intensive things today, and recovered from a mortal wound. If you don't wake up tomorrow feeling awful, then I'm not an Aeon Slug.”

“Moderate your volume,” an entirely mechanical voice said, speaking from Thirty-One's body, “I am currently in sleep mode.”

“Ben,” Short Bus said, leaning in from looking at the fire and getting closer to Ben, managing a whisper, “god I don't even feel like I'm talking.”

“Then use telepathy.”

“No, talking is fun. But Ben, Thirty-One's brain is asleep, and he's being piloted by his AI shell right now. Isn't that fascinating?”

“It's something all right,” Ben said, staring at the still floating robot for a few moments, then shaking his head and looking away. Dryst had collapsed into three golden rings that hovered off the ground and softly chimed and made gentle, sleeping music.

None of Ben's group had fallen asleep. They all felt on edge, even if they couldn't say why.

“When,” Red said, then grimaced, “when are we hunting the Gremlins? I have their leader marked, he will never escape me.”

“Plus, we've got that Quest,” Short Bus said, telepathically this time, in a soft voice.

“We do have The Quest,” Ghost Ears commented.

“Yeah, we do have that The Quest thing,” Ben said.

“Indeed, we are on a Quest,” Red said, and then, coordinated by Short Bus, everybody looked at Vivi at the same time and stared at him until he started talking.

“I take it you want to know about The Quest?” Vivi asked, and everybody kept staring at him, “ok, ok! Stop it, you're making me nervous!”

“I should tickle him,” Short Bus said, and then Red said, 'I should kick him.'

“The Quest,” Vivi said, launching into the explanation, and then just to be a dick, Ben interrupted him.

“You said The Quest was the way out, that's what you said when I met you, that it was the way out of The World, that it was the whole point of everything.”

“The Quest,” Vivi continued, ignoring Ben, “is an ancient agreement between the Signatory Races, who are the rightful owners of The World, and those who have been conscripted to fight here on behalf of The System.” Vivi paused, then looked at Ben, “I do owe you an apology. I wasn't going to give you The Quest back in my lair, that was a lie. You were really freaking me out, I'd planned on sending you away and then running when you were gone, but then you surprised me and. . . I really couldn't have spent another day in that damn tree. So, I'm sorry I lied about that.”

“Forgiven,” Ben said, his voice strong and short, “now, The Quest.”

“I didn't lie about that. You need to do The Quest to get out of The World, well, not you specifically. . . really, anyone, anywhere could do- let me back up. The Quest is a resource available to the Signatory Races that allows us to, one single time in our lives, compel any non-signatory race in any number, to complete a single task. Whether it be trivial or impossible, we have that right, that power. One. Single. Time,” he said, looking everyone in the eyes, emphasizing that he'd lost something by issuing The Quest. “Once issued, power and assistance proportional to the task are automatically assigned to the Questors. The details of how this assistance manifests vary wildly, and seem to be tailored to each Quest party. Are you following so far?”

Ben made a gesture with his hand, telling Vivi to keep talking. The darkness of the woods had been beaten back by the tall campfire, the yellow flames warmed all of their bones. Short Bus was paying attention to Vivi, but his eyes kept getting drawn to the mesmerizing dance of fire; fire was new to the man-shark.

“Once the task is completed, the primary questor is granted a reward, a certificate that states the difficulty of The Quest they completed and has a bunch of details irrelevant to this conversation. The ticket must then be redeemed at the capital city of the Signatory Race that issued The Quest, and all memb- it's a whole thing,” Vivi stopped, realizing he was really getting into the weeds on this one. “The ticket is presented to whoever is in charge of the race, and then the Questor can ask. . .” Vivi sighed, “Ben, you're never getting out of here. If you complete this quest, you'll have to get the Ancient Aeon to agree to start The Trials, and he never will.”

“What are The Trials,” Ghost Ears asked, “I've heard of The Quest, but not The Trials.”

“That's because we aren't supposed to talk about them,” Vivi said, “because then everybody would ask for The Trials, and we don't want that. The Trials are a global event that open up the seven, or eight if we're being technical, Quest Dungeons that are hidden throughout The World. First of all, those things are slimy dangerous and contain creatures and objects locked away since the founding of The World. Second, the Quest Dungeons will begin sending out wave after wave of monsters, starting small and then getting larger and larger, until they are all defeated. Then, after gathering the Singularium, someone has to bring them all to the Final Fortress and. . . nobody knows, but you have to bring them to the Final Fortress, and that's all anyone knows.”

Vivi paused, his eyes growing shadowed.

“If we made it down there, and you presented those objects to The System, then he would remove your entire species from The World. He'd also remove the collective species of everyone still living in your party.”

“Oh,” Ben said, looking at Vivi, “including the Aeon Slug who originally gave me The Quest.”

“Yes. The Quest Dungeons would be open to everyone, but only someone who has completed a Quest would be able to present the Singularium at the Final Fortress. The charter of The World is quite clear on that.”

“I guess that's pretty bad then,” Ben said, leaning back and staring at the patchy canopy of the dead, dry forest around them.”

“That's pretty bad,” Vivi said, “and now you can see why it will never happen. The last time the trials were activated was when humans got out, and they took the. . . well, there are others who have the power to activate The Trials.”

“Who?” Ben asked.

“Oh, there are a few signatures on The Charter of The World,” Vivi said, his tone brightening and taking on a light, gossipy tone, “just powerful beings who helped The System build this place. There aren't many, and most of them aren't even in The World, you know? They're in The Beyond, and their signatures are basically ornamental. Red, are you all right?” Vivi asked, his eyes stiffing in alarm and sitting upright, and he went over to Red.

“I don't feel right,” she said breathlessly, and then began spasming, then screaming. Her eyes flared bright like a sun, and she shot up like someone in a nightmare. She began screaming and clutching her head, thrashing, and Short Bus suddenly clutched his head as well.

“Ben!” he yelled, his voice completely empty of humor and jokes, “Something's happening!”

A feeling of absolute terror washed across them, then, abruptly, vanished. Red stopped thrashing, then collapsed, her eyes going out.

All at once, everyone's vision went dark.

[System Update]

[A HOSTILE Lord Of The Beyond Has Entered The World]

[Easy Mode Activated]