“Wh-” Hero’s not quite sure how to phrase how he feels about this. “Are we like, skipping stuff?”

“I’m not one for wasting time,” Kell says. “The sooner we get the Dragon Scythe, the sooner we can dispose of our pursuers.”

Hero raises an eye. “We have pursuers?”

Kell nods. “Right, and not the fun sort either. They’ll be at our necks faster than you can realize what’s happening.”

Hero scoffs. “So… like, not calling you dumb, or anything, but I’m pretty sure you and I can’t be beat.”

“Oh?”

“That’s right, my strength is at 1293 and climbing. I’m level five million!”

Kell shakes his head. “Enjoy the stats while you can, but you need to become heroic on the inside, as well as out.

“… I have over 1000 intelligence as well. I’m pretty smart.”

As they step through the final catacomb, Kell chuckles gently. “You do understand ‘INT’ stands for ‘Intuition’, yes?”

Hero raises a brow. “Really?”

Kell nods. “It operates closely to how intelligence would in most other games, but intuition also helps with tracking stealthed enemies and finding patterns in things. Intelligence is something that must be gained manually through reading or experience.”

“Where can I find that stat?”

“It’s not measured in the game,” Kell says, reaching the final door, looking like a very serious affair indeed.

The door is of a jagged obsidian finish, with a great, screaming skull carved out in the center.

Hero hums. “So, what do you mean, exactly, ‘not in the game’? Is game just another word for ‘world’ to you?”

Kell pauses at the door, looking to the floor in thought. His four-eyed mask gleams weakly against Hero’s hand-bound light. “Have you ever read a book, with characters and a story in it?”

Hero crosses his arms. “As in… a story that’s read, rather than told?”

“Yes.”

“I haven’t.”

Kell nods. “What if I told you that we were in the same world as characters that we ourselves would consider fictitious?”

“Like story characters and real people in the same world?”

“Something like that, yes.”

Hero shrugs. “Doesn’t seem all that hard to grasp.”

Kell chuckles. “No it doesn’t. Are you ready?”

Hero looks at the door. “Something feels wrong.”

“Must be all that INT speaking to you, eh?”

“Yeah,” Hero says, squinting at the large skull in the center of the door as if it held some grand secret. “What’s your INT at?”

“I actually don’t have a stat sheet. I’m not what you’d call a local here.”

“But you caused damage numbers to jump over that lich’s head when you hit it.”

“Thats because the… ‘system’, we’ll call it, automatically translates my actions into this world, like many of the other ones who aren’t from… well, either the story, or the world it was merged with.”

Hero sighs. “I’m sure this will all become clear in time.”

Kell nods. “Don’t worry about it too much. It’s not really such a big deal to me, though to you it should come as a bit of a shock once it fully hits home.”

“What’s the big twist?”

“I already told you. You just need a little bit of time to understand the vastness of its implications. Now let’s get our Dragon Scythe.”

“Let’s,” Hero affirms, as he steps forward and “selects” the door in his mind.

The skull-door’s eyes glow with sanguine dread before it looses a deathly scream that splits the passage open, shearing the ancient metal bands intended to prevent the doors’ opening.

“Scary,” Kell says in that plain, half-sarcastic mannerism that Hero’s starting to catch onto. “Let’s go.”

Hero nods as they enter the great holding cell of the dragon scythe.

“So once we get the dragon scythe, that’s all we need to defeat Exeranoth?” Hero asks the moment before he squints into the darkness of the oncoming tunnel.

Kell nods. “It’s a weapon worthy of your stats, and it’s required to continue the narrative of the game. So by all intents and purposes it should be you t-”

“Something’s weird,” Hero says in an uneven tone.

Kell scoffs. “Pretty sure one hundred percent of this is-” The second Hero drops his mystic light, shrouding them in the ether of darkness, Kell seriouses up. “What is it?”

Making good use of the huge perception bonuses from his INT and DEX, Hero peers blankly into the upcoming chamber. “Someone’s in there.”

Kell’s cloak riles in violent anticipation, as if it were an extension of its wearer.

“Bright-Solemn,” Kell addresses.

“Pipipiii!” The small, glowing figment of something over his shoulder beeps cheerfully in response.

“Check it out.”

At that order, the tiny and dutiful Bright-Solemn floats out into the opening of the final chamber with a whistling tune,

Hero and Kell waiting with bated breath.

Bright-Solemn looks around, flipping every which way to get a good look at its surroundings, but just as it finishes its recon, a piercing, sharp bang overtakes the room.