Xander makes his way back to the plaza, finding Drakthar and Kali still being followed around by the songwriter who calls himself Maximus.

“You’re back… and she isn’t with you,” Kali somberly notes as she notices Xander return alone.

“He was there, God or whatever he is really called. I reversed time, he figured out too much,” Xander gives them a vague summary of his experience. They all stare at the ground collectively brooding over the situation with Gwendolyn.

Maximus is quick to notice this gloomy atmosphere; the others hear a calming melody and eventually accompanying vocals about love. It doesn’t take long for Xander to recognize the inspiration for this song comes from different stories from Gwendolyn and his wedding.

“Maximus, I think we all appreciate the sentiment, but don’t you think a song about them is only going to make him sadder?” Kali points out; thinking a song like this would only accentuate what is being kept from Xander.

“Oh my, yes, Miss Kali. I believe that would be right. I humbly apologize for my thoughtlessness, Mister Xander. Allow me to play a more cheerful tune,” Maximus apologizes before preparing to play another song.

“No, stop. I don’t think music is going to help but I know who can. Let’s meet up with Kayde and Lunette so we can discuss next steps,” Xander suggests, starting to walk off towards the ship the three of them arrived on.

They walk half a mile down the cobblestone path before they find their friends, Kayde on the ground with Fore atop him, licking all over his partially metal friend while Lunette stands close by laughing.

“Oh hey guys,” Kayde greets them once they come into his view. Lunette and Kali share a hug as Kayde tries to get stuff out of them, “So you here to compete in this tournament thing?”

Drakthar nods, “Yes, this tournament was created because of us. There is a man who runs this island. His name is God. He has these powers including immortality, mind reading, and control over weapons and objects”.

“You mean like telekinesis?” Lunette inquires, that last part sounding like a description of telekinesis to her.

“What?” Drakthar asks, never having heard of such a thing. The others look around at each other confused as they haven’t a clue what that is either.

“Oh sorry, forgot you guys don’t know things. It’s basically like you can move objects with your mind, or at least that's what the books I read told me,” Lunette gives them a basic explanation.

“His immortality is different from what we have seen before as well. Unlike those from the island, I don’t think he can be killed. I cut his head clean off but he didn’t die, instead, a new body grew out from his neck,” Xander lets the others in on his recent run-in with God.

They all freeze in shock, Drakthar and Kali having assumed that if they bested him in battle that would be the end of it, not thinking for a second that this type of immortality could actually exist.

“So we can’t beat him,” Kali is the first that dares to say it.

“No, I wouldn’t say that is true. I could develop a small box made of sturdy materials. If you cut off his head and put it inside the box, maybe the lack of space would inhibit his body from reforming,” Lunette proposes, already brainstorming a hundred or so ways to work around this.

“Cool, so I assume you muscle heads are going to join this tournament? While you guys do that Lunette can start to develop whatever it is will stop this God guy from regenerating. As for Fore and me, we’re going to enjoy island living for a bit,” Kayde gives a summary of their plans, attempting to leave himself out of them.

“No Kayde, I have a job for you,” Xander disagrees, knowing there is something only Kayde can do.

“Dammit, fine, what?” Kayde complains, thinking he could take a second to enjoy himself for once while they go forward with their boring tournament.

“Break Gwendolyn out of the tower they are keeping her in. The only one that is going to be able to stop you is God himself, so if he is busy watching the tournament that will give you an opportunity to sneak into the tower and break Gwendolyn out,” Xander elaborates, giving his quickly put together plan to Kayde.

“Okay, yeah, of course, I can do that buddy. Wouldn’t want to deprive you of that heartfelt reunion the rest of us got,” Kayde half quips.

He notices the jokes’ effect on Drakthar and Kali, in particular, is the opposite of what he intended, prompting him to question, “What? Am I losing my edge?”

“Kayde, Gwendolyn isn’t okay,” Drakthar bluntly states.

“What? Is she hurt or something?” Lunette asks, trying to figure out if this is something they can heal.

“No, she is not… present. I can’t really explain it. You have to see for yourself,” Drakthar struggles with how to best explain Gwendolyn’s current state.

“That doesn’t make much sense but okay,” Lunette notes, not satisfied by that vague an explanation.

“Excuse me, I do not mean to interrupt but the opening ceremony for this most illustrious tournament is minutes away from beginning. I suggest those of you who are participating return to the plaza,” Maximus notifies them of the time.

“Who is this guy?” Lunette asks, looking at the gaudily dressed songwriter.

“A pest,” Drakthar growls as he, Kali, and Xander heed the pest’s warning and head back towards the plaza.

They return to see much fewer people than there were when they left.

When they get to the edge a man stops them, “Only those competing should be in the plaza. If you enter you are competing”.

This warning causes Maximus, who was still following them, to stop, waiting outside of the plaza, as he does not seek to participate. Drakthar, Kali, and Xander walk past the man, uneasy eyes following them as they make it to the heart of the plaza.

While looking around, Drakthar notes that most of the Iron Legion listened to his warning, only a handful of men have entered including their leader, Shash, and the self-proclaimed strongest, Xenos.

God walks out onto a balcony overlooking the plaza full of warriors; most take no notice of him.

He clears his throat before beginning the theatrics, “Welcome everyone to my tournament. You all stand before me claiming yourselves the strongest warriors this world has to offer. But to me, you are all lowly mongrels”.

The crowd starts to get rowdy, irritated by God’s claim, some even resorting to tossing whatever they could get their hands on up at him.

God easily dodges the items hurled towards him as he continues, “But one of you might prove yourselves the strongest of the garbage, and that person will have the unique honor of dying by my hands”.

The jeering gets louder; all of those below certain they could defeat such a man that clearly values his looks over his prowess in battle.

“Yes, yes. All of you are eager I can see. Let me explain to you how this is going to work. We will begin with a large battle royale featuring all of you. The last eight of you standing will move on to the next stage of the tournament,” God explains, leaving out what will happen after that round.

The crowd stops yelling up at the man above them, growing silent as they begin to look around, sizing up their competition as they know only eight of what must be hundreds will make it past the first round.

“The first round will occur in two days, in the arena we here call the Pits,” God notes before turning around and beginning to walk off the balcony. Just as he is about to disappear behind the doors leading inside, he turns around.

“One more thing,” he starts to add, an amusing idea having just come to him.

“The person I expect to win is him,” God points down directly at Drakthar standing tall amongst the crowd.

“His name is Drakthar, that is all,” God identifies him before truly taking his leave back inside the building. Every man in that plaza’s eyes are staring daggers at Drakthar, each of them keen to prove the audacious man’s claim false.

“This isn’t good, he’s going to be a target now. Everyone is going to try to come after him,” Kali worriedly whispers to Xander.

“I don’t think he minds,” Xander points out, causing Kali to look at the grin across Drakthar’s face, almost as if he was suppressing maniacal laughter.

After minutes of silence, everyone continues to look over at Drakthar and those associated with him. The fighters within the plaza begin to disperse, heading off to prepare themselves for the bout in two days.

Kali, Xander, and Drakthar follow suit, walking back towards where they found Kayde, Lunette, and Fore.

“He really called you out,” Kali comments as they get on their way.

“That is certain. I was able to quickly compose a few lines from this. Let me play them for you,” Maximus butts in, having regrouped with his favorite subjects of his songs.

“No,” Drakthar stops the man’s singing with a single word, his gaze conveying what he would do to Maximus if he disobeyed and continued.

“I don’t care that God called me out. I’m going to have to defeat all of them eventually if I’m to prove myself strongest. He helped me,” Drakthar gives his take on it now that Maximus is silent.

“I like the confidence but now that God has painted a giant target on your back we are going to need to think strategically to get past this first round. While you might be individually stronger than everyone, if they come at you like a mob they will win. And now every single brainless ape is going to be seeking to defeat you to prove himself,” Xander starts to elaborate on his strategy.

Drakthar grunts disapprovingly, preferring to just kill everyone who comes at him without having to think about it.

“We all know how strong you are but you aren’t going to win if you have to take on one hundred men by yourself,” Xander continues to try and convince him.

“Fine, just tell me what you want us to do,” Drakthar reluctantly agrees, urging Xander to get on with it.

“We will need to fight defensively, covering each other’s backs as new challengers arrive. We can’t go running off searching for the enemies we want to face because theoretically, there should always be someone coming at us,” Xander continues on going further in-depth on a suggested formation for the three of them to use so they have enough space to fight while maintaining their circle.

Once Xander is through explaining, Kali asks, “Drakthar, out of curiosity, who do you think are the strongest ones here?”

Drakthar takes a few seconds before responding, “Arua, she is Sharn’s daughter so she must be strong. Also, there is a man who I fought alongside in the Pits known as Radek, he will also prove himself a challenging opponent. Other than them… I’d view you two as my biggest competition”.

“Well then, if you want to face us we’ll all have to make it past this first round,” Xander comments, reemphasizing the need for his plan. The other two nod as they hear sniffling from the man following them.

Maximus notices the three fierce warriors looking at him so he explains himself, “Friends yet rivals, such a romantic notion. I am touched by your words to each other. It will make a beautiful ballad”.

Drakthar grunts disapprovingly at the man’s words, increasing his walking speed in an attempt to maybe finally lose him. They find Kayde, Fore, and Lunette in a nearby tavern, Kayde chatting up some of the locals as Lunette furiously scribbles down things in her notebook.

“Hey!” Kayde cheers as he sees his friends enter. They are surprised to see everyone else in the establishment begin to greet them the same way.

“These are the ones I was talking about,” Kayde notes as he slaps the guy behind the counter on the arm.

“My stars, if it’s not Drakthar, the beast of the Pits. Please, use my humble tavern as your home as long as you need. I want to tell my grandchildren one day that you stayed under this very roof,” the innkeeper begs.

“Fine,” Drakthar agrees, taking a glass of ale from Kayde before sitting down next to him.

“If I may, could I use that stage over there to sing a tale of the great mister Drakthar’s exploits,” Maximus humbly requests of the man behind the bar.

He responds by gesturing towards the stage, Maximus, wasting no time, makes his way up there and begins playing the same tune he played for Drakthar and Kali earlier. Drakthar sits there miserably, deciding that downing his drink is a good reaction to all of the fanfare around him.

It doesn’t take long for him to become surrounded by fans, having to fend them off for the rest of the night as he drowns his annoyances with cheap ale. Kali, who is unable to get close to Drakthar due to the crowd, decides to sit down next to Xander at a table in the corner of the tavern.

“You okay?” She asks him, noting the pensive expression he has been wearing all night.

“I don’t know. I can’t stop thinking… I just expected that once I found her it would be this passionate reunion like all the other times… but after what you guys told me and what I saw that they were doing to her… I feel so stupid, so worthless,” Xander tells her the thoughts he has been harboring.

“Hey, don’t. How could you have known something like this was happening? It’s not your fault, it's God’s. We’re going to get her back, in two days you’ll get that reunion you wanted once Kayde has gotten her out of there,” Kali assures him, putting a hand on his back.

“Yeah,” Xander half-heartedly agrees, knowing it is more complicated than that.

“Come on, you should join the herd of drunkards, they all look much happier than you right now,” Kali tries to get him to stand up.

Xander looks at the men singing along with Maximus’ songs as they knock back drink after drink.

“That’s funny, you say that yet you chose to sit in this gloomy corner too,” Xander points out.

“That was only to get you, now come on, switch me with one of those guys so I can be next to Drakthar,” Kali tugs on his arm, causing him to rise from the table.

“Okay, fine, let me get a good line of sight,” Xander agrees, taking a second to eye the man who would be the closest to Drakthar.

Once he does, Kali and the man directly in front of Drakthar switch places. The drunken fellow finds himself next to Xander, immediately losing his dinner due to the displacement that Xander caused. Xander takes a couple steps back from him, not wanting any to end up on his clothes.

Drakthar’s eyes widen as Kali, from out of nowhere, jumps into his arms. She positions herself in his lap, her jealousy from seeing him earlier with Aura causing her to greedily kiss him, not bothered by all of those around them, who were eager to talk to Drakthar.

The crowd starts to holler at the display, egging Kali on to extend the kiss even longer, despite this being the second time their lips had ever met. All this attention on Drakthar had made Kali territorial; the many women in the tavern eyeing Drakthar did not escape her notice.

She continued to sit on his lap, her hands finding themselves all over him as to signal to those watching that Drakthar was hers and hers alone.

“Perhaps you would like to take that woman back to a room?” The barkeep asks Drakthar, handing him a key to his most lavish room upstairs.

Drakthar lets out one last irritated grunt before taking the key, hoisting Kali up so she is over his shoulder, and walking through the crowd, up the stairs, and into the room. A fanfare of cheering and spilled drinks echoing in the background as he does so.

“Well, that was a little much,” Kayde comments as he slides next to Xander.

“It makes me jealous,” Xander admits, wishing more than anything he could share that kind of moment with Gwendolyn.

“Don’t tell me you had a thing for Kali this whole time?” Kayde jokes, purposely misinterpreting what Xander meant to get a reaction out of him.

“Grow up Kayde, you know what I meant,” Xander doesn’t take it so well.

“Calm down buddy, I know. And don’t worry I’ll make sure you are the one carrying your woman up there in a couple of days. I’ll get her back for you,” Kayde assures him, passing him another drink.

“I’ll drink to that,” Xander lifts his drink, lightly touching it to Kayde’s before the two of them take a sip.

“So, are you going to try to win this thing or what?” Kayde asks, curious to see if he will try to win or just let Drakthar.

“If you get Gwendolyn back safely then I don’t see a reason to even fight. I’ll withdraw from this thing or just forfeit to Drakthar when the time comes. But if he still has her then I want to be the one to kill him myself,” Xander confides in Kayde, not having told Drakthar his thoughts on this.

“Alright cool, just wanted to know. I think I’ll get some sleep, looks like this place has died down since Drakthar went upstairs,” Kayde waves goodnight to Xander before going upstairs.

Xander looks around, what Kayde said is true, only a couple of really drunk people were left in the tavern, along with Maximus, who was packing up his instruments, and Lunette, who now has a curious cone-shaped device next to her.

“Hey you, you’ll need to clear out soon,” the innkeeper warns Xander.

“Do you not know who this man is good sir?” Maximus intervenes on Xander’s behalf.

“I don’t,” the innkeeper responds, exhausted after the hectic night in his tavern.

“This is Xander, the same one who slew the tyrant king Alexandros over in the Sacrosanct Empire. He is a travel companion of the mighty Drakthar,” Maximus gives Xander a grand introduction.

“I am so sorry, let me apologize for my rudeness. Here, take a room for yourself, you’ll be staying here just like your friend for the tournament,” the barkeep apologizes, handing him a key to a room upstairs.

“Thank you for your generosity, and it isn’t a problem. I appreciate your hospitality,” Xander thanks the man.

“It is an honor Xander, stay up as long as you like,” the innkeeper tells him before going back to cleaning up around the tavern.

As Maximus leaves the tavern for the night to return to his own room at a different inn, Xander takes a seat next to the only other person in the place, Lunette.

“What does that thing do?” He asks her, pointing towards what looks like a metal cone.

“This? Hold on, one second,” Lunette quickly flips a couple of switches and turns a knob, causing a sound to start to play from a speaker in the back of the cone. Xander hears moaning noises coming from it and recoils.

“Is that?” He asks, realizing whose moans those are.

“Yup, it’s Kali. She really is loud today,” Lunette notes, listening intently as they continue.

“Wha… how?” Xander isn’t quite sure what is going on or what the odd device does.

“Oh, it’s simple, this device focuses on far off noises in whatever direction it is pointed in. I was recording them to listen to later but because you wanted a demonstration,” Lunette explains the basics of the device.

“And listening to them... that’s like a hobby of yours?” Xander asks, trying to joke to ease the awkwardness of the two of them talking as the sounds of Drakthar and Kali’s lovemaking play in the background.

“Oh, I try to record as many of my friends’ sexual encounters as I can. It’s never a bad idea to know what makes each of you tick… not to mention it gives me ideas of what to try,” Lunette unabashedly explains herself.

Lunette takes this opportunity to try and go further, “You for example…”

“No, I am not doing this… no way,” Xander interrupts her, getting up and walking away before she can go there.

“No really, I can help you… and he’s gone. Well, it’s his loss,” Lunette comments before going back to brainstorming how to deal with God.