It had been a long time, and Degritone was bad with names on the best of days, so he couldn't remember exactly who it was, but he recognized the over sized white armadillo. He thought they met at the tournament for a bit. As Degritone's wish was granted and he began to get ejected from the white space, the person mobilized some Stavch. Degritone wasn't certain exactly what it did specifically, but it definitely resulted in the system shunting him out into the void.

After rewatching the moment about 80 times, Degritone though he understood the general idea about what happened. His now-definite enemy had used some sort of Stavch structure to interfere with the coordinates that the system would have teleported him to. They probably thought that the effect of what they did was to simply erase someone from existence, as maybe they had done it before. Degritone didn't feel like checking, since that would extend his unwanted visit to the void even further.

Instead, he spent some time studying the flow of Stavch that the system created to move him around. Looking further back in the timeline, he had definitely not existed in that timeline while in the tournament, meaning whatever the system was doing with that Stavch was moving him between timelines. The flow of the Stavch alone was complicated, let alone whatever must have been used to make it.

He couldn't imagine what structure was needed to create flows like that. What he could do, however, was reverse engineer what his enemy had done. After a few days of rewatching the clip in order to make sure he was getting the correct result, he'd finally reproduced the effect. It did not, however, have any real effect on him where he was

He wasn't certain how to modify the resulting structure in order to properly modify the system's teleport coordinates to an arbitrary point in space and timeline. Looking through the flows created by the system, he was able to identify a similar-looking pattern and he got to work fiddling with his structure in order to copy the flow of what he assumed to be teleport coordinates.

Having already figured out his enemy's coordinate structure, it only took him a day to figure out how to replicate the system's. He still had no insight on how to go to arbitrary timelines, but he did figure out what parts of the structure needed to change to change the coordinates themselves, which would be useful in the future. For now, he decided to simply use the ones provided by the system itself when the time came.

Finally, the next invasion ship appeared and he used his structure to see through portions of Stavch to see the inner workings of the ship. Inside, he saw that it had flows to heavily expand space inside to hold thousands of monsters. Additionally, he saw what he was looking for: Non-matter Stavch flows. He used everything he could to study them as intently as he could.

In the few seconds the ship was there, subjectively multiplied by the still-working Exotic Nervous System, Degritone used Chuuni's paranormal insight and Music's second thought thread to quickly create a physical memory packet that, when looked at, would make Degritone recall a memory of the exact flow of Stavch inside the ship. When it left, he had already completed three copies of the memory packet. The extras were in case anything happened to one of the others.

And so, he spent the next few months figuring out the structures needed to replicate the effect. His first success came when he was able to send a small ball of iron to the main timeline by replacing the coordinates of the ship's flows with the coordinates he'd recorded from the system. At this point, a few more months had passed in the timeline due to Degritone needing to view it in order to confirm his tests.

Another two weeks of making certain he wouldn't be turned into atom soup upon arrival, Degritone was finally ready to take the plunge, almost a year of in-universe time that he had sacrificed to get back. One year of sadness that that white armadillo had caused Melena. Just to know what their motivations were, Degritone rewound the view of the timeline and followed them until they spoke.

"Melena should be confused right about now," they said in a smooth, calm, male voice. "Once she realizes that her first and only protege has gone missing and it's not just an error with the camera, she'll message me. In her vulnerable state, it shouldn't be too hard to get her to finally become mine. Thank you, Degritone. While I hated watching you be so close to the one I love, your untimely death will be the final stepping stone on the road to claiming Melena's heart."

Not long after, Melena did send them a message and Degritone returned the timeline view to the villain's speech. He then made a memory packet of the speech in order to reproduce it in front of Melena. Packing three copies of it close to the front of his mental space, Degritone finally jumped back into reality.

Bidding concluded!

Choose the winner and collect your payment

A long, long list appeared in front of Degritone, but he ignored the high bids at the top and scrolled all the way down to Melena's, near the bottom of what the system believed to be valuable bids, and picked hers. Instantly, he saw Stavch around him begin to flow and very, very soon after, he was in Melena's garden. Degritone saw Melena, her head face down on her table, and she didn't react.

He gently floated himself over, making sure he didn't so much as cause a single particle of air to hit Melena that wouldn't have without him there. Once he was behind her, he knelt down, landed himself, and hugged her from behind. She elbowed him in the face and he was sent back a few feet, landing on his butt. He smirked as he looked at her shocked face. Neither of them moved for a long while and Degritone was wondering why she wasn't responding to a question he'd asked. It was because he forgot he had to actually verbalize now.

After a few seconds of staring, he remembered that fact and said, "It that how you greet someone you thought was dead?"

That knocked Melena out of her shock and she barreled into Degritone's stomach and began crying loudly. He hugged her and smiled while trying to comfort her, roles now reversed from the tournament. Hours later, after she'd calmed down enough to stop crying, Degritone said, "I'm not great at comforting people. The best I can do is try to distract them from- from- FROM! FROM!"

Pause, deep breath, "I wish I'd fixed that while I was away. Anyway, I can only try to get your mind off it. I have amazing news, decent news, kinda bad news, and very bad news. Which would you prefer to hear first?"

"How about you tell me where you've been!" Melena said, wetting her eyes then drying them.

Degritone created 2 cloths, one already with a wet patch on it, and handed them to Melena. She accepted them. "That's the very bad news. Are you sure you want to start with that?"

Melena nodded.

Degritone sighed. "So, I was in the void between multiverses. For almost 4 years, from my perspective. I really missed you, but by the time I figured out how to view you, I found out that doing so would cause time to continue inside the multiverse, meaning more sadness for you. I could really use some cuddles, but you come first. Anyway, I also learned who did it. I thought you might not believe me, so I made a recording of it. With me so far?"

Melena nodded.

Degritone nodded and said, "Mm. So, the white armadillo guy that I've forgotten the name of did it, and here's the most proof I can actually provide." With that, he recreated the speech with light structures for the visuals and kinetic structures for the sound.

They were silent for a long while. "If you need time to process that, I can go wait somewhere else for a while or something."

Melena nodded and shakily said, "I'll message you when I feel I've... yes, please."

Degritone picked her up, sat her in her chair, and went off to explore the garden. He was originally going to clarify the language Melena used, as "object" meant a thing that could be touched, among other things. If she'd confirmed that she used the word correctly, he'd choose her, since humans are, by definition, objects. However, he wasn't sure that was a good idea, given her mental state. Might tell her about that plan, anyway, but not go through with it unless she says that was also the idea on her side and what she still wants.

After almost two hours of looking at various strange plants, Degritone was finally messaged by Melena. He quickly made his way over to her. First thing she said was, "Are you going to get dressed, or should I also lose some clothes?"

Degritone looked down at his still nude body, then back at her and, as his brain broke, said, "Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." She snapped and Degritone said, "I'd prefer the latter, though while I'm not a psychologist, sex may not be the most healthy coping mechanism, if that's what you were offering."

Melena laughed and said, "Maybe Honesty would have been a better Patron for you."

"Heck no," Degritone said before Melena's "you" could even finish reaching his ears. "I literally spent almost four years with getting back to you being my primary driving factor. Anyway, do you actually want me to get dressed?"

She shrugged and said, "Regardless, it's nice to finally see you again. Do you actually want me to strip?"

"I would love very few things more, but if you're more comfortable in clothes, you don't have to. If you'd be more comfortable with me in clothes, I can dress."

After a few more back and forths of the same nature, Melena said, "Look, this is going in circles. If neither of us do anything, we're never going to get down to business," then her clothes disappeared. She gestured to the chair opposite her. "So, come, sit. I hope you don't care that I won't be sitting on you, this time."

Degritone swallowed and nodded before moving to the chair opposite her. "Do you want to talk about your feelings or whatever conclusions you came to after thinking, or learn the other newses, if that's even a word. Is news already plural?"

"Let's hear the 'newses,'" she said with some humor in her voice, "first. Start with the best and go to the worst."

Degritone nodded. "So, I now know how to control what the system called Stavch, at least sort of. It does exist. I'm not sure if this'll work, but I'm going to try sending you all the information the system gave on it to you, as well as my own notes." It took him a bit of fiddling, but he was successful in sending Melena all he knew about Stavch. "Should I continue, or do you want to look over it?"

"Continue, please. I will have time to read it later. You're here, finally, after I thought you'd been dead. You have my full attention, now that I've settled myself."

"You're a little more casual than at the tournament, so I assume you're not feeling 100%, but yeah. So, the kinda ok news is that I learned what the invasions are, and have a theory on their actual origin. They aren't evil or anything, they're basically just a force of nature: It will happen, regardless of what we think about the consequences." He then explained, in detail, the invasion ships and what he believes to be their origin: This pocket of creation's Gatiel.

Gatiel was a character from the old RP who was tasked with making sure every multiverse ended exactly as it should, whether that be self-destruction, an infinite cycle of any sort, or simply existing until a near-peak multiverse hopper came and destroyed it. Once someone became a multiverse hopper, what they did was no longer Gatiel's purview, and they were 100% allowed to destroy multiverses, according to his job, they simply weren't allowed to alter the course of any multiverse in a non-destructive way.

"The final bit of news is that the system didn't work in a similar way to when I was in Flash Space: I couldn't level skills. However, unlike in Flash Space where I still had a working, albeit useless, messaging system, the messaging system was completely broken while in the void. I can use it again now that I'm here, but if I ever venture into the void again, we'll need to either update the system or create a messaging system of our own to communicate."

Melena nodded and Degritone spoke back up, saying, "Oh, right. An additional thing I just remembered. Music, Chuuni, and I merged. I can now think twice at the same time, and I'm significantly better at imagining things."

Melena nodded again. "What do you plan to do about So'ejan?"

"Well, I was planning on killing him. I still am, but won't if you tell me not to."

"You do remember he's the strongest person under the System, correct?"

Degritone shrugged. "I'll find a way. It may just be a very far off goal, rather than something to do right this instant. I have a few new tricks thanks to my knowledge of Stavch, but I'm not sure they'll be enough. I'll have to stay out of his sight regardless, since he- dealing with him before I'm prepared would be beyond annoying."

"'Annoying,' he says," She said, smirking, "not 'deadly' or 'impossible.'"

"Of course not. I've been told to not die, and I doubt he has my Regenerations. Even if it took years, I would defeat him as I am, assuming he didn't run away."

Melena nodded. "You are allowed to go after him, but I beg you to not do so until you feel you could defeat someone with millennia of experience, a Patron-level image dedicated to single combat, and enough knowledge about this new avenue of growing in power to interfere with the System directly in under one minute. That's not an order, simply a request. If he comes after you, defend yourself."

"I have a feeling he didn't fully understand what he was doing with launching me into the void, but yes, I will do so."

They sat in silence for a while, Degritone loving the sight before him, for almost an hour before Melena said, "Right, so. Shall we complete your test?"

"I'd love to stay here forever, as will always be the case, but yeah, we probably should."

"What do you want your second object to be?"

"Well, my original plan, which may seem majorly insensitive now that it's just been revealed that a long time friend views you basically as a thing to own, was to ask if you'd used the exact word you wanted, as, among other definitions, 'object' means something that can be touched, in my language. If you'd confirmed that you used the exact word you wanted, I would have said that you were my object of choice. However, that seems insensitive, given recent circumstances, and I did not mean it in an own you kind of way, but more of a...

"Man, the more I speak the worse it gets. Anyway, I meant it more in a 'companion' kind of way, maybe the system would have allowed me to summon you without the use of Summon Ally or something. Once I become a multiverse hopper, I can check the timelines where that happened. Anyway, what objects am I allowed to pick from, and what do they do?"

"Yes, it was a wise choice to not do that after what has happened. Before recent events, I probably would have accepted that as a valid choice. I do see the humor that we may have shared, should events not be what they are. Now, come," she said standing and turning her body sideways. "I'll give you a tour and describe all the plants." She fully turned around and walked to the vitalowers nearby.

As soon as Degritone saw her butt, his brain died. After seeing that Degritone hadn't followed and noticing his eyes were completely out of focus, she snapped and he didn't respond. She snapped a few more times while moving closer, but to no effect, even when snapping right in front of his face. She poked him a few times before gently slapping his face. No response.

It took a hard enough slap to get through Degritone's Knockback Resistance to snap him out of it. "Huh?"

"I said follow me, but you stayed sitting. It seems you seeing my body more fully was enough to knock a screw or eleven loose in your head."

"Your butt is great, and not something I expected or prepared myself to see any time soon."

She chopped his forehead weak enough to not do anything. "Get over it and follow me on a tour to see all your options."

Degritone nodded and the tour went flawlessly from that point on. Sadly for Degritone, while the vitalower was amazing, giving a permanent 60000 flat Health Regeneration and 100 Bonus Health Regeneration immediately and 10 Vitality per level upon consumption, it was also single-use. Eating multiples wouldn't grant any additional bonuses.

In the end, he settled for a carrot-like vegetable that granted +2 to all stats per level and +100 to all resources and Regenerations per level when eaten, again single-use. He ate them both at the same time.

Payment accepted!

You have accepted the Patron of Loyalty's offer of 1 vitalower + 1 object of your choice from her gardenTest of Loyalty passed!

Despite passing the test, your Patron did not deem you fit for reward at this time.

Neophyte of Loyalty 0/100

"You should probably clothe yourself before you leave here," Melena said.

"Good point," Degritone said.