I love the scent of failure in the mid-afternoon. Heart failure.

The rock hand around me turned to dust and I collapsed to the ground. The sharp sand grains on the arena ground cushioned my face. Great job gravity! JUUUUST what I needed, a SOFT pillow of razor sand.

Turning my heart back on didn't immediately fix the carbon dioxide buildup and overall buildup of toxins in my muscles and organs; aiding to the collapse. The old woman tried casting some magic on me, but my just-about-almost-functioning hand waved her off.

The fatigue would go away in a few hours; none of the symptoms were permanent. I had prior experience; I knew what I was doing. The next thing to come back to me was eyelid function, allowing me to get a bunch of sharp sand bits in my eyes.

Sand is about to go on my hit list if it doesn't suddenly get softer.

The finely crushed rocks ignored my threat, continuing to be sharp little shitstains. I haven't killed anything in a few days, that must be why the sand doesn't listen. I knew that was crazy, but I was just trying to think about ANYTHING if it kept my mind off the tearing sensation.

Worse than the tearing was the tingling, the feeling you get when your foot falls asleep, but over my entire body. I would have writhed on the ground if my body was functioning. The lady just continued to watch over me, hands glowing. She looked like a pit crew member, ready to jump out in front of moving race cars to change the tires.

Why doesn't she just use the magic on me? It's not like I can stop her.

The next functioning body part returning to my control was my neck. This allowed me to jelly neck around and get the razor sand out of my face and eyes. Like most sand, it didn't all shake out. The grains left behind were ones that had dug deep into my skin; I'd need to get those out personally.

The neck lead to the lower back, and then the arms; the legs coming up last. I could finally stand, a full ten minutes later. Strange healing for the win. My feet stood ATOP the razor sand. Victory over the agonizing rock bits. I was artificially happy from the adrenaline running through my body, eyes dilated to hell. Almost dying does that I guess.

The old woman continued to look at me carefully. Her mind was clearly trying to adjust to my turtle-loving greatness. Flip-flopping between anger and concern. I loved making her squirm; she clearly put me on some pedestal, needing me for some grander scheme.

Too bad I never cared for schemes. They always assume that all the actors are reasonable and pragmatic. HA!

I smiled, "Exit please!"

The old woman grumbled, obliging. She waved her hand, making the pendant vibrate and glow. The same blue door from the ravine appeared in the arena and sucked me into it before I could get one more tease out.

Good little bag of bones; It can learn.

I showed up in the same spot I was sucked up from. The sunlight was a bit bright, completely blinding me for my first few steps. This lead to tripping on a rock and falling to the ground. Damn sun, being all bright and such. Why did it have to light up the sky? Couldn't we just turn it off for a bit?

While I contemplated on how to turn off the sun, the ravine started to shudder. A particular section of wall was shaking the most, revealing a strange drawing of sorts. The thing was damned intricate, two squares overlapped with a dozen circles inside it. The circles all had dense lines of strange script around them; very much like the circles around me when I was thrown into a space tunnel.

The sigil tried to pry itself off the wall, leading to even more violent shaking. I could feel the air starting to protest as it was whipped into a frenzy; howling in pain. The glowing lines on the blue rock shine bright and pulsed in a non-repetitive fashion. It kinda felt like sonar pulses.

The wall finally gave way, disintegrating it instantly. A dozen meters of ravine rock above it crashed to the ground, blocking a good portion of the ravine. Destructive little sigil. The air around its glowing lines were collapsing in on itself, like looking at the air over hot asphalt.

I guess it has a tiny bit of power in it.

The sigil flew into my pendant, turning it scalding hot. The metal on it rapidly reached 10 thousand degrees C, vaporizing the flesh it was touching and setting the skin around it on fire. It hurt, just a tad.

The worst part was that it was in front of my face, making the air around it just as hot. My lungs got a nice incinerating, complementary to the already grievous bodily harm. I didn't complain. There wasn't anything to complain about, it was fucking MAGIC; what could I do?

The pain receded after what felt like minutes, only to have been a few seconds. Annhialated lungs do tend to make time seem longer. The wound immediately began to heal, showing off my strange regeneration again. I was starting to suspect the necklace for this strange phenomenon, but I didn't care too much about it. Healing fast was awesome and all, but If I needed to save the world for it, I would throw it away immediately.

When I could get a good look around me, I quickly found Jane and Turtley sitting in the shade of a tree. They were waiting for me, both perfectly healthy. Jane's acute sickness was just a memory now, and Turtley, he was just as cute as always.

Jane noticed me and ran over, embracing me in a tight hug. The wound on my sternum was still healing, so I had to hug her despite the pain. It was the least I could do for such a fragile little follower. Her eyes didn't tear up this time, remaining steadfast and strong.

She had resolve in her voice, "I knew you would come back."

I patted her head, like one pet a big dog, "Of course I would. We have turtles to find!"

Jane let go of me and stood tall, ready to follow me as we continued our journey. The map said onward, and so we did. The road once again turned to a maintained dirt path, flush with flora on either side. We walked for quite a bit before I realize an important fact.

They kinda look like poppies...

The sudden onset of drowsiness overtook the both of us. We wobbled and waned as we continued our way on the clearly marked dirt path; leading to our glorious destination; our goal.

Wait one goddamned second...

I scoffed at the sudden realization of the parallels. I've read classics before. The urge to sleep was broken immediately by my racing mind. I grabbed Jane and Turtley, once again carrying them to safety. I retraced our path, knowing how far it was instead of charging into the unknown death fields.

As I ran, I thought about how the whole scene seemed engineered. The ravine, the poppy fields, the door thing. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew something was up. The only explanation for regular poppies suddenly becoming drugs is through magic.

What is it leading to?

Jane was starting to look loopy, so I slapped her some. It didn't work, the morphine gasses had already started to take effect as the efficient painkillers they were known to be. I attributed my resistance to sheer force of will, but I guess that maybe some of it came from the pendant.

Healing fast is just too useful.

It took some time, but I made it out of the poppy-filled forest to the collapsed ravine. The path forward was dangerous, as was the rest of the journey. I would have a few more treacherous landscapes to weave my way through to attain the turtles I so desperately desired.

"Fuck this! If the well is poisoned, dig another."

I carefully placed Jane on the ground and sat Turtley down onto a rock. I deposited myself right next to him and started to rummage through the pack.

I looked at the map and planned out a new route. This one was off the well-groomed dirt path, through massive forests and spikey mountains. I analyzed this new path, taking in the details. I decided to scrap it; forests were a no-go now. The forest just now proved that. We would only stick to areas without elements of death.

My newest path was over the mountain to our left, head to the sea, walk along the coastline for 400 kilometers, then turn right and head north through 'The Bone Plains.' I was expecting to see some bones from The Bone Plains. Maybe I could use one as a nice addon for Mr. Axe.

I picked up Jane, who was high as a kite, and readjusted her on my back. After finding the most comfortable position, I set off with my two companions. Our new course was plotted and my determination unwavering. The previous disastrous path was left behind entirely, forgotten nearly instantly.

---------

From its location in the deepest underwater trench, Uilo the serpent felt a twitch from the path of fate. It was like a reaper's scythe had cut the delicate future paths she had planned for. Reality was changing, ever so slightly. Max fucked with fate.

It isn't a major accomplishment, but I thought I was able to read him well. He is a lunatic and a madman; as well as an egocentric person who only holds turtles above him. His disregard for killing, paired with his status as an Otherworlder, was the reason I picked that psycho. He fills the requirements for the alternate prophecy, but I guess that all went to shit. Shit...

Max had no idea that he had destroyed a hundred years' worth of divination analysis with a single action. His modicum of care for Jane had made him turn back and flee. Without shame, he abandoned the path set before him to forge a new one.

In Uilo's eyes, he was a pain to manipulate. Her fate-sensing abilities only had so much fidelity as the process itself was already near impossible. A minor event like this could propagate into something larger. She now needed to re-check fate to make sure everything was still in order.

Her eyes closed. No flashy lights, no sounds, no chants or drawings or grand weavings. This was fate, something that required the utmost respect and focus. Wasting energy on lights was not possible as even with her nigh-infinite mana, the process was taxing.

Inside her dark mind space, where ideas turned into realities, she stood there silently. This was the first step in the process; preparing to receive the information. Fate dumped everything at once, so she needed to be ready to catch it. There would be no time to consider things or pry deeper while the ritual was being done.

The process would leave her weaker, but it was entirely worth it. Being able to attempt her plans was invaluable compared to the minor inconvenience it caused her. These thoughts dove through her mind before she was able to fully empty it; prepared to receive.

Uilo opened up her mind to the energies of the world. Mana started to burn up like it was an event horizon, passing an invisible barrier which it was immediately sucked away. The barrier became thinner and thinner as she did this, allowing her access to only the surface level of the fabric of reality.

It reached the breaking point, opening up a circular portal. The edges of the portal were a deep shade of purple that reminded her of carnations. The hole the portal opened up in her mind was still a veil of black, though now she could pass through it. The manifestation of her mind made her way through the portal very fast; time was of the essence.

The image beyond the portal was unlike any other. Thin tendrils of thread wove themselves through everything in the world. They connected every rock, mountain, person, animal, plant, and more. Anything that existed on the planet had a tendril connected to it. Along each thin tendril, there were small glowing orbs of light like Christmas tree ornaments. These orbs contained past, present, and future events in them.

Uilo moved herself around this mental plain of wonder and plucked off the growing ornaments. The moment they were removed, they flew into her mind and rested in a big pile. This pile was alright for now, but without Uilo's intense focus the orbs would explode and release all the condensed information. Peering at fate was never safe.

After a minute of flying around the small world, she had collected every single orb. Instead of waiting around, she immediately moved her mind through the portal again and closed it behind her. The walls of the world once again became extraordinarily solid and unavailable for almost everyone.

Uilo mind manifestation was starting to get a bit blurry, but that didn't matter. The ritual was complete and she had succeeded. She let her mind regain its natural state, dissipating her manifestation. All that was left now was a mountain of orbs to sift through. Every single one had to be viewed carefully and independently.

That was another major drawback to Fate magic. It was so insanely complex that there was little use in using it. Usually, when one accessed the fabric of reality to divine fate, they would have to gather orbs for their planet and every planet around them until they ran out of mana.

The planet, being situated in the void, was a tremendous help in controlling the variables and creating a clearer fate. Uilo was worried; there was ONLY one mountain of orbs this time. Fate was converging, faster than she had predicted a few centuries ago. Certain futures were becoming more and more concrete. This would happen until only one possible future existed.

Uilo already knew what the concrete future was and was scared. The branches in fate were rapidly being pruned, sacrificed for this inevitable timeline. She needed to find any possible path that could become just as strong, if not stronger than this inevitability.

And unfortunately, that psycho is the only variable right now that creates new futures.

Even concrete took some time to set. Uilo prayed that she could find a single clue as to how they would proceed. The planet needed to be saved. If this planet fell, the last hope for salvation would disappear.

Max...please just continue being...you.