When they woke up, the portal had closed. They had slept for more than twelve hours and still all of them felt tired. They were famished, exhausted, thirsty, at the edge of their mental capacity, and alive. Despite how narrow it had been, they were alive. That alone caused Reysha to giggle, when her mind was as awake as it could be. It was a weak, quiet giggle. Her burning lungs wouldn’t allow her any more than that.

Apexus reared his tired head and checked out their surroundings in more detail. They laid on the silver pathway they had seen before, located inside a midnight blue sphere, silver dots were sprinkled about the surface. Now that he looked at them more closely, Apexus realized that the dots were more akin to stylized root-knots than the dots he knew as stars.

At the side of the path, several forks led up to portals on their own. The slime counted a total of ten. At the end of the path was a throne, on which an angelic and unnerving figure sat.

Petals grew from its metal flesh and bloomed into white, golden and red flowers that covered up the majority of its paper white skin. The largest of all replaced the upper half of its head with an intricate rose, leaving behind a human mouth with dark red lips and an androgynous chin. Eight eyes, like those of a fly, sat in a circle under the rim of the head-rose.

Its body was both male and female, having one medium sized breast on the left area of his chest. Aside from its limbs, that was the only part of the angel’s body untouched by any flowers. Although arms and legs were humanoid, a set of insect-like, white legs extended from in between the flowers at various points.

Although Apexus knew that this was an angel, he couldn’t help but feel that he was staring at something alien to the world he came from.

“Venerable one,” Aclysia said, her tone as weak as Reysha’s giggles and Apexus’ thoughts. “May I request your name?”

“Veramas, 1042nd of the hallowed Progenitor’s angels,” the flower-covered being, showing needle-like teeth behind its human lips, answered in a tranquil tone, neither male nor female in its pitch. “I’m the guardian of the paths between Leaves the first one created. The Long Way, as it has come to be called.” He raised a hand to the sound rustling leaves and gestured at the portals. “You may step through whichever gate you desire. If you are uncertain, I can advise you.”

“Can we stay here for a bit?” Reysha asked.

“You can stay until you starve, certainly,” Veramas responded with cosmic apathy.

“Sounds great!” the tiger girl responded with what little energy she had mustered. “I’ll need another minute…”

Apexus wholly understood that and laid back down next to her. Aclysia followed suit.

_______________________________________________________________________

When they awoke again, several more hours later, they were finally in a state of mind to consider their next step. A waterskin passed between Apexus and Reysha, keeping them alive in the absence of any remaining food. They had no rations; their hunger was only growing and even their water was running out.

“What now?” Reysha finally presented the question on everyone’s mind.

“We’ll continue to try and survive,” Apexus told her, emptying the rest of the waterskin.

“Yes, obviously, but how are we going to do that?” the redhead specified her question. “Oy, flower-angel-creature-thingy, if we step out of one of these portals, can we come back in afterwards?”

“You will be allowed to step back for ten minutes,” Veramas responded, continuing to be indifferent to seemingly everything.

“Thing gives me the creeps,” Reysha mumbled.

“Be respectful, you are before one of the most ancient beings in the Omniverse!” Aclysia chided her comrade. “As the 1042nd angel, Veramas is older than all of the gods after the Progenitor. They must have seen the shaping of the first Leaves.”

“Really?” Reysha looked over. “Looks like it’s dressing up as a Parasy-“

“REYSHA!” Aclysia interrupted violently. “Do not finish such a blasphemous sentence!”

The two had a staring contest, one trying to intimidate and the other measuring how far she could take whatever joke she was laying out in her head. Also, just exactly how much she wanted to rebel against commandments she wasn’t allowed to violate. “Alright then,” Reysha relented, to keep the peace.

“My greatest apologies, venerable one,” Aclysia bowed to the angel on its throne.

“See to it that it is not repeated,” Veramas commanded, a slither of annoyance worming its way into the tone of the ancient, divinely created being.

Deciding to switch the topic before Reysha’s contrarian nature could show itself, Aclysia asked, “Why did you want that knowledge anyway, Reysha?”

“I was just thinking, if that… thing,” she glanced at the closed portal. “Follows the path we took, stepping out into various worlds would confuse it, right?”

“That could work, but it is more likely that it will come here first,” Apexus chimed in. “So, it would just step out into the other worlds briefly, like we would.”

“The issue is that we do not know exactly how a Deathhound’s tracking ability works…” Aclysia mumbled and looked over her shoulder. “Venerable one, would you share with us the wisdom, if you have it, of how a demon may track us?”

Veramas stared blankly for several seconds, weighing its decisions. It didn’t have the emotional range to care much for anything, not the aeons that passed by it in silence and not these newcomers asking for advice beyond the usual. Not even the sparkless nature of the humanoid slime, clear to the angel’s gaze, fazed it. To such a being, sharing information or passing it by made no difference.

The response had a tone similar to it reading off a page, “A Deathhound tracks those it has interacted with before by following the trail they leave in the fabric of worlds, an Art called Fatetracking. Should its target move out of Leaves and to a world where the powers are constant by divine decree, the trail would be interrupted.” The trio perked up at that, hopeful. “The trail could still be followed, albeit the gaps would cause confusion.”

While that was not quite as good as complete freedom, it did mean that Reysha’s plan could work. “What’re we fucking waiting for then?” Reysha asked, gesturing at the gates. “This could buy us months, years even!”

“Unless the demon is smart enough to find out about the Long Way,” Aclysia pushed back.

“Then we gambled and lost nothing,” Reysha responded with a huge grin. “Come on, bubble butt, there’s no downside to this. What’re ya getting so worked up about?”

“We’ll doom ten worlds!” Aclysia shouted back.

“At worst we’ll doom several dozen lives on those worlds,” the tiger girl responded immediately.

“How dare you be so callous, Reysha?”

“I…”

Apexus raised his hands, “Stop.” The girls pressed their lips together, knowing this would devolve into a fight if they kept going. “We already had this argument. The creature will exist and move on Apotho’s behest, whether it’s chasing us or not, bringing death wherever it goes. It may be callous to send it on collision course with certain worlds for our benefit, but there will be no increase in suffering because of us.”

“We direct the suffering and the moral content of an action is in its means,” Aclysia responded.

“The moral content of an action is dependent on the shit sandwich you have to eat otherwise,” Reysha crossed her arms. “Again, bubble butt, you can have us and everyone else that encounters that thing die or you can have everyone that encounters that thing die. We’ve been through this.”

Aclysia ran the logic through her less trauma-addled mind and was unable to find a repudiation that wasn’t based purely on her emotions. “We must find a way to kill it,” she presented, however. “To our benefit and to that of all we would doom in the future. That you must agree with.”

“Of fucking course.”

“Yes,” Apexus nodded as well. “We must grow strong ourselves or ally ourselves with those that could protect us.” He hesitated to say it, but ultimately knew that they had an obligation to try. “Perhaps the Church or the Adventurer’s Guild can help us.”

“Perhaps…” Aclysia was slow to agree. Even now, knowing that they were, at least, not actively pursued by the Church, the three were hesitant. “We should investigate a possible agreement… and we should seek out teachers.”

“Yeah… been kinda okay to figure things out on my own… but it’d be better if I had someone who could at least give me an idea what I can do,” the tiger girl agreed. “Plus, I need someone to teach me about different weapons.”

“I will need someone who can teach me at all.” Apexus looked at his hands. “Raw physical strength is not enough – will not be enough.”

Aclysia nodded and turned to the flower-covered ancient one more time. “Venerable one, may you tell us the world that best fits our criteria? We seek to train ourselves and find allies to kill the Deathhound that chases us.”

“You will not find the Church there, at least not in a matter beyond the barest of outposts,” Veramas gestured at one of the gates. Beyond it lay a golden landscape of trees carrying leaves of yellow and orange. “The Autumn Leaf of Tacuitus, a place where many former adventurers of high standing retired to train others in safety. It is unlikely they will appreciate such a threat, but organized and warned they could face it.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Apexus nodded. “Thank you.”

“There is no need for gratitude,” the eight-eyed angel responded, tranquil like the primordial void. “I have no use for the concept.”

The three stepped through each of the nine other gates once. Then, finally, through the one recommended.

Hope – they dared to feel as much.