The next morning, Drakthar wakes up in the most lavish room at this small inn on God’s island, Kali still on top of him from their exhausting activities the previous night. He, slightly roughly, pushes her off of him and puts on a pair of pants before heading downstairs.

He sees only two people amongst the tables and bar that was so crowded the previous night. Lunette sits with her ear up against an odd device, failing to suppress her giggling, and in the corner sits Xander, drinking a single glass of water as he stares at the wooden floor beneath the table.

“You look like hell,” Drakthar tells Xander as he sits down next to him.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Xander responds lifelessly. Drakthar notices the hand Xander is using to pick up his cup of water is shaking. He contemplates saying something about it but doesn’t.

“Did you ever see it? What they are doing to her?” Xander asks Drakthar out of nowhere.

“No,” Drakthar answers directly, knowing he is talking about Gwendolyn.

“I can’t stop seeing it… every time I close my eyes I see her in that room… It’s probably happening right now,” Xander goes on, his eyes narrowing on the cup he is holding.

Drakthar realizes his friend’s trembling is out of anger, watching as Xander crushes the wooden cup full of water so it spills out past his hand onto the table. Xander snaps out of it as he feels a broken piece of the wood start to dig into his skin.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, getting up to clean the watery mess.

Before he can leave the table to grab a towel from over on the bar, Drakthar grabs his wrist, “Hey, she’s strong. Tomorrow she’ll be away from it”. Xander nods, appreciating Drakthar’s unconventional method of showing his support.

Xander grabs a towel, drying off the area before wiping the wood chips into his hands to throw out. Just as he discards the wood into a bin, the door of the tavern opens, in walking Maximus looking as fresh and rested as he was the previous day.

“Good morning heroes!” He greets the others as he notices they are awake. Drakthar and Xander both groan and head upstairs in an attempt to avoid the irksome bard.

“Good morning, what was your name again? Maximus?” Lunette is all too happy to return his greeting while the others escape.

“Yes, miss… who are you?” Maximus pauses to ask, not sure who the quirky woman before him is.

“I’m Lunette,” she responds in a chipper tone, an amazing feat given she kept working through the night.

“Ah, yes I have heard of you miss Lunette, hero of the Sacrosanct Empire. Although I must admit your deeds are not as… celebrated by history as much as your friends,” Maximus tries to find the correct way to say he has no clue what her involvement was in overthrowing the old regime in the Sacrosanct Empire.

“I would imagine that to be the case, history mostly looks at flashy battles or those in power, not those like me who are shaping history from behind the scenes,” Lunette takes a second away from working to explain.

“Please, enlighten me. I would love to compose a melody of Miss Lunette, shaper of history,” Maximus proposes, readying his quill and parchment to take notes.

“Okay, I myself am an inventor, that is the word others use for me but I see myself as more of a practical theorist. Which I know sounds like an oxymoron but you see when it comes to technology, a lot of people like to make grand statements and theories about how something would work given certain conditions. I like to actually test the theories I come up with which leads to all my toys,” Lunette explains as she starts grabbing what looks like different shaped metal objects from her bag.

Maximus nods along with a blank expression, every word she is uttering completely going over his head. Lunette prattles on for the better part of the morning, overwhelming the songwriter into a catatonic state.

“What happened to him?” Kayde asks once he comes downstairs, noticing Maximus staring blankly at a piece of parchment with nothing written on it.

“Oh I was just explaining a recent theory I had involving different types of tree sap and how they could be used to improve bone strength,” Lunette is all too happy to explain, starting to go into it with Kayde. He listens along intently, used to doing so many times in the past unlike the unresponsive bard beside him.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Kali wakes up noticing Drakthar’s shoulder at the table around the corner in the room they were given at the tavern. She gets up, not thinking to fix herself up before turning the corner, intending to wrap her arms around him and beckon him back to bed.

Instead, she is met by not only Drakthar but also Xander, both of whom came upstairs to avoid Maximus. Her eyes widen as she sees him, darting back around the corner towards the bed to put something on.

“So what are your plans for today?” Xander asks, continuing their conversation as if he didn’t catch a glimpse of Kali before she ran away.

“Train,” Drakthar puts it simply, stating the only thing he would do if he had a tournament the following day.

“Before you go off and do that, can I ask you more about God’s capabilities? I want to make sure I know as much as I can about what he can do,” Xander asks, hoping to create a plan of attack based around the information.

“Fine, he can read minds so you cannot make a move without him knowing. He controls things without touching them; he wrapped me up in this chain with only his mind, or that’s what it looked like. That’s the one that confuses me the most. And the last thing is he’s immortal, which you would know better than I do,” Drakthar recaps all he can about what God can do.

“Okay…” Xander mumbles as he starts to ponder how to defeat such a man.

“Good morning,” Kali greets them as she approaches, this time completely dressed. Xander ignores her, too wrapped up in his own thoughts as he stands and exits the room without a word.

“What was that?” Kali asks, her tone slightly frustrated.

“He wanted to know about God,” Drakthar notes plainly.

“No, I mean, why did I get dressed if he was going to just leave?” Kali elaborates, letting Drakthar know the root of her frustration.

Drakthar notices Kali start to move her hands to take them off again.

“Leave them on. Let’s go train,” he tells her as he throws her sheathed sword at her.

She catches it with a smile, “Okay, let’s go”.

As the two of them exit the tavern through the front, they notice Xander sit down with Lunette and Kayde.

“I need your help if you have time,” Xander tells Lunette after he is through muttering to himself.

“Well I didn’t sleep last night so I would say I’m already kind of busy… Nah, I’m just kidding, I don’t need sleep. What do you need?” Lunette jokes a little before asking.

“I don’t know… The thing is God reads people’s minds, so I was thinking of describing to you what I believe could work against him in a fight and you could develop something for me that could do that thing without me knowing how. Therefore if he reads my mind then he still won’t be able to see it coming. Does that make sense?” Xander stops himself, realizing it sounds kind of cryptic.

“No,” Kayde interjects as he returns to the table with another plate of breakfast to go along with the two he’s already eaten.

“Don’t listen to him. I get it. Tell me what you think and I’ll whip something up for you,” Lunette agrees, quite used to sporadic ways of communicating.

After Xander has finished explaining God’s abilities to her and how he believes he could counter them, Lunette goes upstairs to one of the rooms to start working.

“So… now that you’ve made Lunette busy for the rest of the day what am I supposed to do?” Kayde asks half-jokingly.

“We both know you can keep yourself entertained,” Xander retorts, knowing Kayde is never one to sit idly and wait.

“But if you want my suggestion, you should be scouting around this city. Noting patrol times if there are any, things you should know if you are going to break Gwendolyn out tomorrow,” Xander adds, answering Kayde’s question seriously.

“Okay, I’ll take Fore along with me,” Kayde agrees instantly, that already being his plan for the day.

“Good, I’ll come along too,” Xander informs him.

“Shouldn’t you be training like the others?” Kayde points out; knowing the event where they are going to whack each other with overgrown sticks is tomorrow.

“I care about this more than that, plus I do not intend to overdo it and be sore for tomorrow,” Xander explains before standing up, signaling he is ready to go. The three of them head out, moving towards the city to learn what they can to ensure an easy rescue tomorrow.

At the end of the day, they all return to the inn to find Maximus performing for a much larger crowd than the previous night, word of the great Drakthar and his friends staying at this tavern having spread around the city.

As the five of them enter, the crowd stops cheering for Maximus, instead, turning and whispering to each other as they eye the renowned group, wondering if it is truly them.

Maximus ends the speculation, playing to the crowd as he introduces them, “Everyone, the great Misters Drakthar, Xander, Kayde and Miss Kali have arrived!”

With this, the crowd’s inhibitions over bothering them are dropped; they quickly swarm the famous warriors. Just as they are about to be completely surrounded by those who wish to ask questions or even maybe spend a night with famed individuals such as themselves, Xander wraps his arms around the others and teleports them to the middle of the stairs across the tavern, causing confusion down below as they calmly finish walking up the steps before going into their rooms for the night.

The next morning is overcast, an oddity on a tropical island such as this. It doesn’t go unnoticed as those who have come to watch the tournament between the strongest warriors on earth take place start to make their way to the arena.

A certain songwriter even makes note of it as he, Fore, and Lunette make their way into the stands. They take their seats among the excited crowd, the voices from all around them drowning out any conversation they could seek to have with each other.

Fore gets up on Lunette’s lap so that he can see what everyone else is peering at, an empty arena, soon to be filled by those seeking to prove themselves. Suddenly everyone in the audience is silenced, watching intently as a man walks out into the middle. His black hair, fine gold clothing, and piercing red eyes making it clear that this is the man others refer to as God.

“Welcome, I’m glad to see that all of you were able to make it to my show. If these men and women are anywhere near as strong as they claim then it should prove to be an interesting one. Before we begin, let me take a moment to explain to you how the events will unfold. Shortly, all the potential challengers will come into this arena and square off against each other. The fighting will only stop when we have eight challengers left standing. Those eight will move onto the following rounds where they will face each other one on one until there is only one person left. That single person will have gained the honor to challenge me and in doing so ensured their death by my hands,” God grins wickedly as he finishes his explanation, quickly exiting the arena to take his seat on his usual balcony so things can get underway.

While all of this pageantry is occurring, Kayde takes his opportunity to sneak towards the tower where Gwendolyn is being held. He arrives along the back wall; the ring Lunette made him to mask his appearance already on as he turns invisible before approaching the front door.

The two guards don’t notice a thing as Kayde sneaks in behind the three figures that entered the tower before him. Once he’s inside he gets a better look at them, two hulking men that could almost rival the size of Drakthar were they a little taller, and a woman around Lunette’s height with an intimidating looking scar across her face.

“Go get the brain dead beauty and meet me down here,” Audra, the woman with the scar across her face, orders those with her. Kayde waits patiently, watching as the two men head up the stairs to go get who he can only assume is Gwendolyn.

“Tsk, why is God even having me still do this? It isn’t fun anymore if she can’t even react,” Kayde overhears Audra complain thinking she is alone. She silences herself as her men make it back down the stairs, guiding Gwendolyn along between them. She doesn’t put up much of a fight, her lifeless eyes staring at the ground as she unconsciously walks along with them.

As they pass by Kayde gets a good look into Gwendolyn’s eyes, he doesn’t see the confidence and spunk usually present within them, just emptiness. This is much worse than anything he could have expected, nonetheless, he makes sure to stay close behind the two men sneaking inside the next room before the door can be closed.

He stands in the corner surveying the room; it’s mostly empty save the single tub of water at the far end.

“You two know the drill, dunk her under,” Audra commands, as she leans up against a nearby wall, not amused enough to oversee the torture she normally enjoys.

Kayde watches as the men force Gwendolyn’s head into the tub, holding her down as her body starts to struggle at the loss of air. Kayde grits his teeth as he watches, realizing what Gwendolyn’s had to go through for all this time.

He doesn’t allow himself to wait any longer, taking out a needle and dipping it into a jar filled with a green liquid, a knockout agent also created by Lunette. He goes over to Audra first, deftly pricking her with the needle.

Kayde carefully catches her body as she loses consciousness, laying her down onto the floor as to not alert the two preoccupied with holding Gwendolyn’s head below water.

He brandishes his needle once again, this time forcing it into the neck of the closer of the two men. His body falls limp, his head dropping into the tub with a loud splash that catches the other off guard. He has just enough time to notice Audra also incapacitated in the corner before he feels a prick in his neck and he too ends up hanging over the tub.

Kayde drops his invisibility, quickly helping Gwendolyn out of the tub.

“Hey, it’s me. Kayde. Come on, let’s get out of here,” he tells her as he gets her up to her feet. There is no response, Gwendolyn just stands, staring at the ground with the same expression as the one Kayde noticed before.

“Fine, I guess I can’t be too offended if you don’t remember me. I am using one of Lunette’s rings. If you aren’t going to come along I guess I’ll have to carry you out of here myself,” Kayde notes as he starts to try and lift Gwendolyn over his shoulder. He feels something start to crack and he lets her down.

“Dammit, I guess you’re heavier than I thought. Not a fat joke, you’re just tall and have… well… you know,” Kayde keeps talking to her as if she could hear him.

“At least walk along with me,” he asks as he takes her hand and starts to walk towards the door. Gwendolyn takes the hint, her legs moving as she feels herself being tugged forward.

Just as the two of them are about to exit the room, Kayde looks back towards Gwendolyn’s incapacitated torturers. His eyes move from their bodies to Gwendolyn’s lifeless expression. He lets go of her hand, leaving her by the door as he draws a knife out of his bag of holding.

Kayde approaches the woman first, taking a look at her scarred face in anger as he slits her throat, watching in satisfaction as blood pours out from the wound, down her neck, and onto her torso. He drops the body, colliding with the ground with a loud thump as he moves on to those lying over the edge of the tub.

He viciously slashes through their throats as well, a menacing grin finding itself upon his face as he dispatches those who have put his friend in this state. Taking a few deep breaths to re-center himself, Kayde turns around his eyes widening as he sees who is behind him.

“Oh, did you think I would let my precious example get away from me that easily?” A man with deep red eyes asks him as he sees a sword fly through his left leg.

“Shit,” Kayde exclaims, not out of pain, his leg was mechanical, but because he wasted so much time killing these people that God was able to return and prevent him from helping Gwendolyn finally escape.

“How am I supposed to show the new girls what will happen if they do not obey? Interesting...You are a curious one, aren’t you? You don’t bleed?” God shifts his questioning, noticing the person before him, who is seemingly a regular man with brown hair, can stand with a sword embedded in his leg.

Kayde pulls the sword from his leg, feeling a few sparks from broken parts as he drops it to the floor.

“What is wrong with you?” God asks, perplexed, as he cannot read this curious man’s mind.

“Come on man, I’m not perfect but you don’t need to go around saying things are wrong with people, that’s pretty rude,” Kayde does his best to keep his usual calm in the presence of someone so intimidating.

“I will admit that was rather rude of me. But I am God so I have the right to address a mongrel such as yourself in such terms. But if you need the question to be addressed in a more civil way be my guest, who are you?” God asks again, the calmness of his words a thin veneer hiding wild curiosity.

“Just a guy, oh, see you later by the way,” Kayde waves at God before trying to become invisible. It works for a second before more sparks start to fly, the damage to his leg short-circuiting what powers his invisibility.

“Interesting trick, however, I think you will stay right where you are and the two of us are going to become very well acquainted,” God grins, the panic in Kayde’s face making it obvious that was the only plan he had to get away.