"..." Thal sat in the room, through it permeated an awkward silence.

"Why didn't you say that before!?" Thal asked.

"I tried! But you wouldn't let me speak!" Bromy replied.

"If I knew Alex was still alive I wouldn't have gone this far!" Thal exclaimed.

Bromy shrugged.

"I appreciate the sentiment, though!" Alex exclaimed.

"Go back into the sword if you want, who cares..." Bromy shrugged.

"Alex performed a simple trick, as he was about to die of poison, he let his blue flames burn him, since the fire did the final hit, he wasn't technically killed by the ring and thus could respawn!" Dylan explained.

"Thanks, Dylan, by the way where the fuck were you for half of this arc?!" Bromy demanded.

Dylan shrugged.

Bromy breathed a sigh.

"Well, we can finally go home now!" he said.

His expression turned grim as he looked to the group again.

"And if any of you mention what happened to the others I will murder you, got that?!" Bromy warned.

They all nodded.

"Anyway... what about your sword?" asked Bromy.

"I have a name!" Thal exclaimed.

"Hmm... I dunno," Alex shrugged.

"Is it really wise to let a demon king just do whatever he wants?" asked Bromy.

"You don't have much of a choice, do you?" asked Thal jokingly.

"Well, I trust Thal won't usher in ten-thousand years of suffering and despair!" Alex exclaimed giving Thal a thumbs-up.

Thal breathed a sigh of relief.

"..."

"Mortal life-spans are so short, I might as well stick around with you guys..." Thal relented.

"And so the tsundere-sword is back!" Bromy exclaimed.

"I don't know what that means, but never call me that again!" Thal said with a disgusted look.

"I never expected Thal to look like... this..." Bromy remarked.

"Seriously? I kind of imagined him like this from the start!" Alex laughed.

"I imagined a shadowy, formless monster!" Dylan admitted.

Later that day Bromy, Thal and Alex were picked up by Pedecree, promising to return every now and then.

Thal could switch to a sword whenever he wanted, so for the ease of travel, he stayed sword-shaped.

They brought bags of souvenirs.

Armour polish for Bonifacius.

A notebook for John when they put him back.

A fancy lighter for Jordan.

Some magic trinkets for the rest of the group.

And an ungodly amount of pickled glumroot, a tough, jerky-like plant that's similar in flavour to liquorice.

Stacks of screenshot-paper.

Real papers so the jGuardians could stop writing documents on quest pages.

Bromy sat in the back of the cart with stacks of boxes and sacks, he was chewing on some of the glumroot, the flavour became repetitive in a matter of minutes.

"We do also have some good news for you guys..." Pedecree began.

"News?" asked Alex.

"Mmm, curstl finally got someone to start work on the L.F.T.O base, she asked me to drop you guys off there before we go anywhere else," he continued.

"Nice!" Bromy exclaimed.

"So, where's the base?" he asked.

Pedecree scratched the back of his head.

"Guess..." Pedecree said with a grin.

"...dear god... no!" Bromy exclaimed.

"That's right! Your favourite desert!" Pedecree exclaimed jokingly.

"A desert?" Alex asked.

"Karath..." Bromy remarked.

"It's dry..."

"It's hot..."

"And it's your new home!" Pedecree exclaimed.

"...since when have you become so sadistic?!" Bromy demanded.

"In all seriousness, your base will be located in the very west of Karath, in other words, by the beach," Pedecree continued.

Bromy's excitement for the project went from zero to one-hundred.

"So... permanent beach episode?" asked Bromy.

"Still... why would Curstl want John to be this far away from the main base?" asked Alex.

"Well, since there is the friend's-chat and John's and or the Thief's teleportation, travel-time isn't really an issue..." Pedecree explained.

"Her main reasoning was...-" Pedecree cleared his throat.

"To deal with whatever Bromy inevitably makes," he explained.

"...I'll take that as permission to experiment," Bromy explained.

They rode for several hours, heading up from Calsh to Lokle and west to Karath.

They spotted it in the distance, tall walls about four meters in height, about four meters in thickness as well.

Within them stood one large building, it was partially complete and had around a dozen rooms and three large open rooms, from the looks of it the base also went down below ground level, though it was hard to guess what was there.

A large arena-looking building was located on the top-left of the rectangular area of the base.

Other than that was also a large warehouse housing at least two floors of storage space.

Cobblestone roads led from each building to the other, a large rectangular courtyard stood in the centre.

From the looks of it, the inside of the base was filled with actual albeit dry soil.

There was still no grass, though Bromy could get some growing in no time.

The base was still mostly empty, Only three people were there.

Bonifacius, carrying some of the rock.

Bournell, the mason and or carpenter giving out orders and building the base.

And an armless and legless JohnWillEdge, pretending to be alright as he stood in the sun like the black knight.

Bromy got off the cart and unloaded the luggage along with Alex and Pedecree.

"Bromy! Good to see you again!" Bournell exclaimed extending a hand towards him.

Bromy shook the old man's hand.

"You too, the base is looking great!"

Bromy took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Everything is going back to normal..." he said with a satisfied smile.

"But..."

"IT'S STILL TOO FUCKING HOT!" he thought.