My goodbye to DUK3 and his sudden crop of test subjects – I mean disciples – was quick and painless. I was half expecting them to offer me some kind of tracking beacon like Lucas had, but they seemed pretty content with the data gathered already, and though the Construct was polite enough, there did not seem to be a great deal of feeling in it. Of course, it was hard to tell, given the general lack of inflection when talking in non-native languages.

As I waved one last time, Walker gestured for me to proceed him through the portal. Stepping up to and through the plane of rainbow light, I was once more thrown into a tunnel between worlds, the endless void marked by innumerable lights. Before long, the now familiar pressure of the liminal space began to bear down on me, a crushing omnidirectional weight that made me wonder if my Agency assisted me at all it with, and if so, what it would feel like for a person without it. It was my understanding that the gates the gods employed to allow worlds to meet in war were just scaled up versions of this, but given I had never been through one, it was impossible for me to know. Maybe I would get the opportunity at some point, given the way my second life was going.

As the pressure was becoming too much for me, as my vision began to tunnel, I stepped through the portal at the other end, emerging into a room with black walls decorated with flowing lines of light. I was back at the Blacksand Citadel, and around me, I could see most of my friends, Cad being conspicuously absent.

Assignment Received... Difficulty C+… Time Limit: Complete!

For the second time, get back to your own world! You have no idea the headache the local gods give me over these little visits of yours. If this happens again, we may need to revisit the terms your employment.

Bonus Reward: Not this time!

Status: Completed! I have such a headache, please do not do that again.

I stared at the smoky grey tablet that had popped into my line of sight, but dismissed it quickly. It was not important, and it provided no benefit to me so it did even come close to being as important as my friends. As the shape vanished, I looked around but before I had time to say anything, I was tackled to the ground by a small flying object with blond hair. I was surprised that Darina would so openly show her affection, but only for a moment before she started rapidly punching me in the shoulder.

“Idiot! How could you abandon your mission like that?!”

I was only taken aback for a moment before I started to laugh; it only spurred the diminutive apprentice to punch harder, but I could not help it. I was glad to be home, with my friends again, and her reaction was so typical of her that it just bubbled out of me.

“With advisory caution, I am not sure your actions are conveying the meaning you perhaps mean them too, Darina...”

Reff seemed confused by the response to my arrival, bending over slightly like he was contemplating pulling her off me, but apparently he knew it would only make it worse.

“Humph!” Darina finally stopped hitting me; I’d like to say that I was fine, but the apprentice was close to me in terms of pure strength, and the spot she had been hitting was building up to a hell of an ache. “This idiot deserved it, for abandoning his duty. And worrying you.”

“I missed you too, Darina. And I didn’t exactly abandon anything. I just wasn’t expecting the equivalent of an Apex from another world to... borrow me.”

“Humph!”

With a grin, I hugged Darina, knowing it would annoy her and stood up as she began awkwardly hitting me again. Putting her down with one last squeeze, I stepped out of easy range, leaving her silently fuming and instead stepped towarwds my giant friend and hugged leg.

“It’s good to see you, Reff! Sorry to worry you.”

Looking down at me wrapped around his leg, Reff replied, his normally level voice coloured by a slight smile.

“With glad acknowledgement, it is good to see you as well, Hunter. We were worried when you vanished through yet another portal.”

“Yeah, apparently power doesn’t always make a person polite. Who knew?”

Letting go of Reff, I turned to his sister who was stood slightly back from her brother. Apparently afraid I was going to try to hug her too, Riffa offered me a quick bow. I chuckled as I bowed back, contemplating whether I should try anyway, but not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

“Hey, Riffa. I missed you too – one of the Apex level people I was staying with had a similar power to yours, it was pretty effective!”

“With mixed curiosity, one of the Apex level individuals? There was more than one?”

“Yeah, there were two of them, each from a different world. The world we were on was dead, nothing there but us three... for the most part.”

“A dead world? How is that possible?”

Darina’s voice no longer sounded angry – as much as it had – but was rather curious. I took it as a good sign.

“They had theories; we can talk about them later. I have a lot to tell you guys!”

That was when Walker stepped through the portal, the bright door fading from existence with a snap. Turning at the movement, I also noticed that my friends, and now Walker and I were not the only ones in the hall.

Three other figures stood to the side, a short distance away. One of them I recognised; Sonja, the Apex of the Mending Flesh her lambent eyes looking at us with amusement. The other two were wholly unfamiliar. The first was very slightly taller than I was and just as broad, but with skin so pale he was almost a match for the risi. He stood with his hands on his hips, white fur draped across his shoulders and pale gold hair tied in complex braids around and behind his head. He wore a wide, toothy grin below blue eyes so pale they looked grey.

The second stranger was short – though not as short as Darina - and slender, with a wild shock of jet-black hair and eyes equally as dark. He wore a dirt and weather-stained gi cinched with a black belt that made me think it was not dyed but had simply never been washed.

As Walker exited the tunnel, his head turned slightly to take the three – whom I assumed were Apexes, given the presence of Sonja - before gesturing my friends and I closer.

“Reff, Riffa, Darina and Hunter, I introduce you to Jorl Snowblinder, Apex of The Crystal Drake and Bo Ai’rong, Apex of The Unfettered Frame. Sonja, you know.”

The four of us bowed to the newly acquainted Apexes almost as one. I was somewhat used to meeting incredibly powerful beings, as were my friends, but being polite to them was always a good idea. Especially given my recent kidnapping. Not to mention that we had so recently seen the Crystal Drake as we started our journey back, as well as knowing the reputation of the Apex Hunter.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both, and again, Honoured Apexes.”

“It is my great privilege to stand before you, Honoured Apexes!”

Reff and Riffa replied almost in sync, the former acting as host and the latter expressing sentiment on their behalf.

“With awed respect, we welcome you to the Blacksand Citadel, Honoured Apexes.”

“With awed respect, it is our privilege to meet you, Honoured Apexes.”

“Hahahaha, you lot are so formal! No need, no need! Friends and family all!”

Jorl Snowblinder was loud and his voice carried the laughter with it, even after the laughter faded. He made me want to slap him on the back and go for a drink, but I held myself back to a wide grin.

The Unfettered Frame on the other hand spoke quietly and deliberately, but that did not seem to hold his voice back at all, as it echoed about the hall as if he screamed.

“It is always a pleasure to meet promising cultivators. I look forward to the day you all may join our ranks.”

Bo Ai’rong offered us a warm smile and a small, precise bow, as if he was nervous. It was the least at-ease I had ever seen somebody of his level, but I supposed that it made sense that different people would behave differently, even with all that power.

Offering a return bow to the Unfettered Frame, I made sure to dip much lower than the Apex had, and noted my friends following suit. Rising once more, I turned to Jorl, my mind going back to to when we had seen him flying above us, all those weeks before.

“We saw you flying, when we were on our way back from the Sha Forest. It was... you were huge”

“Haha, you saw me? Did you see the two giant storm apes? That was a surprise! There’s always one that shouts at me as I fly over, but now there are two!”

“Yeah. Their names are Rainmaker and Cloudbringer. They helped us out on our mission. They’re really ni- uh, terrible beasts. Vicious, brutal and without any kind of mercy, really.”

“They are? Well maybe I should pay them a visit and see how shouty - and brutal - they are after I'm done...”

“In quick interjection, they were those things to their enemies, but mostly kind to us, Honoured Apex.”

I looked up at Reff as he added his piece; on the one hand, I did not want the Apex of the Crystal Drake flying off to start a fight with them, but on the other, Rainmaker had been pretty explicit that he did not want their kindness or easy-going nature getting out.

“Yeah... they were... appropriately brutal. Nothing worth fighting over, Honoured Apex...”

“Oh. Good! A fight with them would probably be fun, but I always liked the old ape. He always seemed like a really smart guy.”

Disregarding the implications of Snowblinder considering Rainmaker intelligent based on yelling at each other through the sky, I chose to believe that the Apex was unusually astute and had simply seen through the thundering ape’s ruse.

“There is also the fact that we have been gathered here for a purpose, Jorl. We have been interrupted in our roles for this reason. It would be impolite to leave when we await only one of our number.”

“Uh, yeah. Sorry Bo.”

“Chian Jilow has not arrived while I walked the worlds? I had hoped she would, but I suppose I should not be surprised. It is, ‘against her dignity’ to travel without her ‘retinue’.”

Walker sounded irritated, which was a fairly uncommon state for my brooding mentor; he was usually pretty calm about most things, beyond people being threatened.

“Wait, she’s traveling with her legion? And the stupid moving palace?”

Snowblinder sounded incredulous, and given that most Apexes seemed to travel mostly alone. I could understand why somebody choosing to wait on an entire army, and whatever a moving palace was, could be seen as strange, given this was intended to be something of an emergency meeting.

“She is. Though at the least, she was easy to find. She was notified more than a month ago, so I am expecting her arrival at any time.”

“A religious fanatic Chian Jilow may be, but she is dedicated in the protection of this world and its peoples. You should both at least show her respect for that, if not for her other tendencies.”

Ai’rong’s voice, which had already been strangely intense and powerful had taken on a firmer tone that suggested rebuke, and I felt it shiver through the stone around us and for a fraction of time so small that it was almost imperceivable, I had the sense that I stood before something both massive and powerful, and barely restrained. But the moment passed, leaving me wondering if it had been real, or whether I was imagining it based on the things I had heard about him.

“You are correct, Bo Ai’Rong. I should not let my dislike of her proclivities colour my judgement.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it... but the palace is stupid...”

Walker sounded unaffected, but apologetic, making me doubt the feeling more. Jorl sounded contrite, but had not hesitated to broach his original criticism again. Sonja, who had been silent up to that point, turned a grin on the Unfettered Frame, poking him casually in the shoulder.

“Relax you should, Bo. Mocked, her eccentricities should be. Learn, how else will she?”

Ai’rong’s smile grew slightly and he slowly quirked one eyebrow up.

“And you think that’s your place, Sonja? How long have you been on this world, and you still have your accent? I have been mocking it for centuries and you have yet to change.”

“A wheeled and golden palace, I do not travel around in.”

It was sort of weird to see and hear four of the most powerful being on the planet bantering, but it oddly gave me some hope that they were not that different. So many of the pseudo-Ascended I had met were just kind of... weird. I was glad that this seemed to be more about the individual, than them becoming eccentric as a result of the power.

There was a saying back on Earth, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”, but it seemed like lots of people with absolute power were pretty good at keeping each other in check. Wheeled golden palaces notwithstanding...