(Braden)

A violet light envelopes both Zack and the Fallen Adventurer mostly likely his brother's corpse as the five of us process the fact that all nine Crystals swore in our heads with Zack's words. Even the transcending of limitations shouldn't have allowed this Skill to work, since his brother's soul has moved on to heaven.

Yet if that violet light and the response of the Crystals is any indication, it's working.

The light fades away, and Zack starts to fall. The Fallen Adventurer – Bryce – catches him, a smile on his lips. His eyes are no longer dull, but a bright azure filled with mischief and amusement. His hair is still dirty, but it's regain some health to it. His skin is no longer greyish, but pinkish and healthy, even if dirty.

He has a Status.

Bryce Level 6 Health: 36 Mana: 90

He was in heaven. He was back in reality. How did Zack do that? That shouldn't be possible!

Bryce carefully lowers Zack to the floor as Normar hits him with a Heal, bringing him up to 360 Health. With how powerful Normar is, that must be Bryce's maximum Health right now.

"It seems he can't accept reality," Bryce smiles, his voice as full of mischief as Max's, or maybe even Zack's when our leader gets into one of his moods. He looks at us. "Going so far as to exert his power over existence itself to make his desires happen. Unfortunately, he's pushed too far, and is drained. He'll likely be out for three or four weeks from this."

Bryce walks over to the weapons Zack dropped when he saw his brother and picks them up, then gives Zack an amused look.

"You did follow through on that promise, though," he says, then walks over to their sheaths and slides them in. "You killed him with the weapons made for me."

Bryce straps the sword to his back and the knife to his belt. They were forged for him? Ah, right. I remember hearing from Brandon that Zack and Bryce were having weapons forged from the Spook Ingots Zack had received from the Spook Master. Those must be them. He'd promised to kill the Avatar with the ones made for Bryce?

After fixing his weapons on himself, Bryce walks over to the altar.

"Thanks for figuring that out," Bryce says. "It probably would have taken me a bit to realize."

He places a hand on the altar, and I watch as the altar begins to glow. A few moments pass, then he steps back and returns to Zack as the chamber repairs itself. Bryce pokes his brother a few times, then adjusts Zack's position so that he looks more restful, completely ignoring the beam that just shot up out of the chamber.

"If you guys are wondering what happened," Bryce looks at us. "I wasn't quite in heaven. I'd more or less gone to the entrance, figuring Zack would eventually do this. He's stubborn like that, and I know I'd have done it. With my powers over existence, I was able to view into here and have been watching him – and all of you. Sadly, my sight was really the only thing I trained, but it was worth it."

He smiles.

"I got to see quite a lot of fun things," he says. "Even if there were some dark times for Zack and Luca."

Luca grabs my mantle, half-hiding.

"Don't worry, Luca," Bryce stands. "I met your brother on his way in. He's waiting for the end of this, and he doesn't remember his time here in the Boundary. No one does, since it's not part of reality. The only reason I did was because of my unique state of not fully crossed over and having my soul not truly 'at rest', as it were."

He approaches us. He stinks a bit, but I'm not going to blame him for that, since he just came back from being dead for something like five or six months.

"Do any of you have something to write with?" He asks, and Normar pulls out a quill and some paper. "Thanks."

Bryce accepts it, and with a wave of his hand, telekinetically moves some rubble towards us. He sits on one piece and uses the other as a table, where he just starts writing, a look of concentration on his face. We check on Zack during that. He looks so peaceful. Peaceful and happy. His brother said he drew on his powers over existence to pull Bryce back.

That's… rather frightening, and I'm sure Zack couldn't do it for anyone else. Not because of the obvious price he's had to pay, especially if Bryce was honest about him being out for three or four weeks. No, because I don't think he could enter the emotional state needed to do that for anyone he doesn't care about deeply.

Maybe for the four of us, but definitely for his brother. His first friend. The person who initially helped him really start to change who he was.

We sit around Zack, waiting for Bryce. We're not sure what he's writing, but we all get the sense it's for Zack. He can't compare to his brother anymore, and will need to catch up. Chances are, he's going to try to compete to see if he can beat Zack's Ascension time.

"This isn't good," Normar mutters, and I look at him. We all do. His face flushes. "It… don't worry about it, guys. I was thinking about war stuff."

The others might believe that, but I don't. You were thinking about something to do with Zack bringing Bryce back. I look at Bryce, who is still writing whatever that is, then I look at Zack, who looks so peaceful and happy.

It seems monsters are avoiding us right now. Because of the fight that occurred, or for some other reason?

When Bryce finally finishes writing, he folds a couple of the papers up together and asks Normar for some wax to seal it with. After sealing the letter, I guess, he hands it to Luca.

"This is for Zack," Bryce tells Luca. "Don't open it, save it for when he wakes. It's… well, it's for him."

He smiles, then his eyes turn violet. He looks at Normar as his eyes return to their natural blue.

"I'm heading into Lost Territory," he says. "Don't worry about my safety, I'll avoid anything as powerful as the Avatars."

"You have debuffs," Normar stands. "And are quite weak. The Levels-"

"I have a Spook Ore Sword," Bryce smiles. "And I'm Zack's brother. My sight's been trained up, too, so I'll know when something's coming. I need to push myself, and hard, to catch up to Zack and make up for the lost time. Take care of him for me, would you?"

Normar protests, but Bryce turns and leaves, taking off running. He moves well for someone who just came back from the dead.

About a minute after Bryce disappears from sight, I catch the flapping of wings and turn to find Nik flying towards us. He lands beside me and frowns at Zack. Normar explains what happened.

"And you let him go?" Nik asks.

"He's too much like Zack," Normar averts his gaze, blushing. "He just came back from the dead and was using his psychic powers as if he'd been using them for awhile."

"That's the sort of thing Zack would do," Nik looks at Zack, then frowns. "Normar, escort them back to Maelnor. I'm taking Zack to the Dark Temple. If Bryce is right, he'll need someone to watch over him."

Normar nods, then Nik lifts Zack up and takes off flying. The two priests manifest their wings again. Normar takes Max and Gavin, while Luca carries me. I can tell he's struggling with his gripping, so I make sure to hold on tight, just in case he drops me. I'd prefer to hang onto his back, but then I'd be interfering with his wing-flapping.

We reach Maelnor and go straight to our home, where Kit and Aurum are playing marbles with Nit and Nin. Aurum's winning, but that doesn't surprise me, he's gotten pretty good at marbles. We sometimes play at night, if we're both having a hard time sleeping.

On Normar's property, though, not my team's. If we didn't do that, we'd risk waking people up. Zack sometimes watches us. Max tells his brothers, Aurum, and Kit about what happened with Zack and Bryce, and they seem sort of confused.

Then, Kit makes dinner and I play cards with Luca, Gavin, and Max while the others watch. Luca wins, as usual. I could win, if I actually put the effort in, but it's fun watching him think he's clever enough to beat all of us even when he's not cheating.

So I just play the same playstyle every time, just for him. It's easy to predict what he's going to call for the same reason he's able to predict the others.

After we eat dinner, I change clothes, then leave the property and make my way to the Dark Temple. The beastborn let me know that Gold is inside, and I don't see any other Dark Knights around, so I sit on one of the walls surrounding the Dark Temple's entry space and relax. It takes a bit, but a Dark Knight eventually comes out.

"Wondering how Zack is doing?" She asks, and I nod. "He's sleeping right now, and we don't know when he's going to wake up. Based on past things, he'll wake after a few weeks, steal half the bedding in the rooms, then go out to do something before we catch him."

I snort. Yeah, Zack probably would do that. I just hope he wakes sooner rather than later. It's not good that he keeps doing things which knock him unconscious for long periods of time.

(Gavin)

"Where did Braden go?" I realize our ranger's missing as Luca and Max get ready to take a bath.

"He went to check on Zack after dinner," Luca answers. "He might be doing some training with Brandon now, since we're not on rest anymore."

Oh. That was three hours ago, did it really take me that long to notice he was gone?

"Okay," I say. "Enjoy your baths, I'm going to do some stuff."

They nod and head to the bathing room, then I leave the property. With Zack unconscious, the four of us will likely spend our time waiting for him to wake by training and preparing. He's going to want to travel out into the Lost Territory. Since only he and Bryce can reactivate the City Barriers, it's unlikely anyone else is going to.

And it's unlikely Bryce will, as it would mean needing to face more Avatars, which he's too weak to face right now. That does make me wonder how he's going to leave the pass past Kaelmar, though, since he'd have to go through the other Lost City to do so.

I reach Peter's house and knock on the door. Mama Bear answers it.

"Hello, Mama Bear," I say. "Is Peter in?"

"He sure is," she steps aside. "Come on in, Gavin."

I enter the house and walk over to Peter, who's sitting at the table, looking at some report or something.

"Hello, Gavin," Peter says. "How are you?"

"I'm okay," I answer. "I could probably wait a day or two for this, but it occurred to me while the team and I were playing some games earlier, and I wanted to ask before I forgot."

"Go ahead," he says.

"I could probably take on Paladin, now," I say. "Most of my fighting style lately is protecting Luca, which means I could work as a Paladin without much difference to how I am. It would Level a little slower, though, due to how it works. But at the same time, I have a Rank 2 Class available. Stone Knight. It requires being an Elementalist with an earth affinity and being a Mystic Knight, both Classes at Tier 5. Elementalist is Tier 5, Level 5, while my other two Classes are maxed. But that would also Level a little slower, since I'm already high in Level for knight Classes and it's Rank 2 instead of Rank 1. At the same time, however, it would grant me a couple of more Stat Points per Level."

Peter gestures for me to sit, so I do, and he thinks for a few minutes as Mama Bear serves up some tea. From what I heard, they were both pretty good during the fighting. They got a lot more done than I did, that's for sure. But I still did my best.

They're just that much better than us.

In the end, none of it really mattered. Big Flame put an idea in Zack's head, the Crystals and Zack discussed it, and then Zack basically dealt with everything on his own. To find out that neither he nor the Crystals had actually expected that to kill the King Monsters was surprising. They were doing it to increase the chances of victory over them.

"In the end," Peter speaks up, and I focus on him again. "The choice comes down to what you want, Gavin. Which Levels from stuff you will use more of?"