Another night has passed. Or at least I believed so. In a world with constant light and no sun, it was hard to tell how time went by. I kept thinking about the words Anci told me. There was something about them that wouldn't give me a moment of peace. Back in my old world, I was just an artist. I spent my days writing, drawing, and publishing. Never have I thought that a person who had never seen danger would one day be capable of winning a gunfight in some old western town. Perhaps he was right. Maybe my death turned me into a different, much stronger person after all.

I slowly got out of my bed and checked my injuries. They were healing very quickly. Just like before, my Divine Creativity was most likely speeding up my regeneration. After a quick inspection, I turned my attention to the new clothes Anci made for me. They looked nice, but far too... medieval for my taste. The material wasn't as soft as my usual shirts, and the plated parts around shoulders, elbows, and knees, were hard to get used to. The entire process of putting my new apparel on, however, was more taxing than I had anticipated. Due to the wound on my shoulder, I had trouble moving my arm. Putting on the pants was still manageable, but the tunic caused me probably more trouble than Jack. I successfully managed to pull one arm through the sleeve, but the other was more complicated, and on top of that, my head got stuck in it. Like this, I've spent a solid ten minutes jumping around the room, trying to free myself from the woolen prison without causing myself even more pain.

"What the fuck are you doing?" A voice suddenly came from the entrance to the bedroom. It sounded oddly familiar, but I couldn't identify who it belonged to.

"I'm... stuck," I admitted with a great deal of embarrassment. The other person sighed and started helping me into my new shirt. Thanks to them, I was very quickly done.

"Seriously, how can you be our god?" Finally, I got a good look at my visitor. However, it was someone I'd never expected.

"Vin... Chester?"

"Yes, Winchester. Remember that name? I used it when we first met." He sat down on my bed and gestured to me to do the same.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him. The last time we've seen each other, he was trying to kill me. But for some reason, now I felt a different aura around him. As if he was a completely new person.

"I... Well, I've been thinking a lot. The power you have, I still want it. More than anything. But you have... powerful allies now. That is something I don't have. Not to mention that the other half of your power is in the hands of Ifrit, who is a person I could never defeat on my own. So I came here to make a deal with you." I didn't like how he looked me dead in the eyes. His seemed to be the darkest natural color of black I've ever seen.

"A deal? What deal?"

"You need help with Ifrit. I will provide that help. But in return, I want you to duel me for the Divine Creativity once this is all over."

"Duel you?"

"Yes. When the world is no longer burning, I will fight you for it. And who knows, perhaps it will be mine. All I want is a fair chance. You'll have your half of the power, and I will take Ifrit's. We'll have a battle to the death. No sparing this time. I will either claim what you have or die trying."

"But... why not just take it? If you kill me right here and now, you could claim it before the Deaths notice anything." I wasn't sure why I was giving him tips that contained the idea of my death.

"Because I believe that you will be able to defeat Ifrit. He is a threat, unlike anything I've ever seen. His henchmen have wreaked havoc upon this world in order to find the fragments. And now, he has them. We can fight later. For now, it's important to save this world."

I didn't want to argue with him. It seemed like a wise thing to do, and if he'd still be able to take this power from me after all this, I'd happily leave the world in his hands. However, there was one thing his speech reminded me of.

"You mentioned Ifrit's henchmen, right? Do you... know them?"

"Know them? HA! I killed three of them. Some tall blokes. Don't even know who they were. They came to Nordan to clean up after your... mess. Caused some more trouble, so I killed them."

"There were more?"

"More? More than Jack and Gunslinger? Definitely! But I'd say that the Jack dude was by far the strongest of them."

"What about the one with long claws? Did you see him?"

"Claws? Hmm... none of them used claws as far as I know. What does the guy look like?"

"I... I don't know. You see, I think Jack pulled me into his memories when he died. I was like a... ghost. I could watch, but not interact with anything. Nobody could even see me. Except for Ifrit though. And then... there were his servants. Jack, the Gunslinger, Marley, and... one more. I couldn't see his face. Or even any of his body, to be specific. He was slouching though, and... I think he could also see me."

"Really? I've never seen a slouching guy that would be so covered up. Do you think he's something like Ifrit's secret general?"

"I don't know. But... there was more. I saw Ifrit talking to someone. I assume it was his ally. He was like... I don't even know. He was just talking to random doors in the middle of the room. And they talked back. But then I got thrown out of the memory. That was the end."

"Talking doors? Dude, I think the spell was just failing, so you were seeing nonsense. You know, like a fever dream. Don't worry about it. If Ifrit had more powerful allies, he would've used them against you already." He slapped me cheerfully on the back. I had to hold back not to scream out in pain. All the little injuries were once again letting me know they were still there.

"Thanks, Chester. For coming here to help us."

"Don't mention it. I'm not your friend or anything. I'm still here because of my own motives. And thanks to the dark blood you gave me, I'll make sure the Divine Creativity will be mine." I grinned at him. At that point, I had a great desire to duel him right there and then. He felt more like my rival than an enemy. "But, enough of that. The others want to see you for some mission briefing. I was supposed to go and fetch you. So come on, get moving. We haven't got all day."

I followed him out of my little temporary house and back into the fields of this odd world. It felt like ages since I'd last seen it, but it didn't change much. There was still this odd, shadeless glow to this whole place. We walked down a long road from atop a small hill. It seemed odd to me that we'd be this far from the meeting point, but before I could ask Chester about it, he started explaining on his own.

"It'll take a while before we get there. You see, when we carried you here, the Deaths wanted some comfortable place for you, so that you could rest and heal. But... well, you've seen this place. It's a hellhole. Very few buildings here still have a roof or walls. Yours does, surprisingly, but it took a while to find it. Hence why it's so far."

It seemed oddly sweet that the Deaths would go through so much trouble just to find me a comfortable bed. They really did care about me, even though I was just a simple human. I couldn't help but smile at the idea that all my current friends are reapers of the old world.

After about ten minutes of walking, we finally reached the meeting point. All the Deaths were standing around a big stone table, waving at us as soon as we approached them.

"So, how do we kill that bastard?" I asked when we arrived. Something inside me really couldn't wait to finally punch Ifrit in that almost perfect face.

"We? Oh no, my friend, that will be YOUR job." Soul immediately turned his attention to me and his smokey hand turned into an arrow pointing my way.

"My job? What about you guys?"

White looked me directly in the eyes. Her usual smile was gone and replaced by a much more serious expression.

"Look at us, Eddie. Just fighting Jack, two of us died and Beast got weakened by overusing his magic. Ifrit might be alone now, but he's stronger than anyone we've faced before. The only one who'd be able to face him is you."

"But... I'm not as strong as you."

"That's not true. You have Divine Creativity. You are a god Eddie. You just need to believe in your own power." Beast's words seemed to be at least somehow comforting. The blushing emoji on his mask, however, had quite the opposite effect.

"Anyway!" Chester clapped to get everyone's attention. "We should at least figure out what our plan would be."

"Well, that will be difficult. From what we know, Ifrit is hiding somewhere in the ruins of Everstar. But we don't know his exact position." Anci threw a map of the city on the table and waved his hand over it. His words reminded me of something. In the vision I got from Jack, there was all the information we needed.

"He's here!" I pointed to the warehouse where I saw the creepy creature with long claws and the mysterious doors.

"What?! How do you know that?" Judging from Soul's raise of voice, he didn't trust my instinct all that much.

"Well... after I made my way to Jack, I... I saw his memories. This was the place where he joined Ifrit's group. Plus I believe that there is something Dear to Ifrit located there. He will want to guard it. That's how I know he'll be there."

A moment of silence followed, where each of the Deaths looked at one another, exchanging concerned expressions.

"Well, if that's the case, that's really unfortunate." Beast was the first one to speak.

"Why? What's wrong with that place?"

"You see, Eddie, that city was the first one hit by your... cataclysm. The flames of destruction have burned down the whole place and are creating a lot of interference for our portals. Plus, we can only teleport outside of the shield created by Ifrit. This means that we have to approach from the eastern entrance, the closest available one, but the place you pointed to is still quite a few blocks away. We'll have to walk through quite a large part of the city."

"So? Is that a problem? He shouldn't have any more people to send against us, no? We should be able to just approach him."

Soul leaned over the table and started drawing something on it. "Well... not exactly. You see, there are a... very few details we haven't mentioned."

I didn't like the way he said it. It seemed that our trip would be hiding a lot of danger. My eyes landed on his drawings. It showed circled areas marked with poorly drawn skulls.

"The creatures of Darkness. They... well, had nowhere to run. When the fire came, it burned them, but it seemed that they have some... natural resistance to it. It changed them, instead of killing them. Now they are no longer restricted to darkness."

"Hold on! That means..." I couldn't believe what he was saying.

"Yeah. The city is crawling with these new creatures. The Burned, as we call them. They are significantly weaker and slower than Darkness since the fire hurt them a lot, but they are still a threat. Not to mention that their numbers won't allow us to just fight through them."

"Then we'll sneak through?" I offered a solution.

"That is not so simple either," White joined the conversation.

"The big ball of fire in the sky above the city is the source of the Cataclysm. It releases these waves of heat and flames every ten minutes. This means that we need to take cover in the buildings, withstand the heat of that city, avoid the creatures, AND make it to Ifrit."

All of this sounded nearly impossible. Judging by the looks of the Deaths, neither of them had a plan that would get us through this safely.

"Umm... maybe I could help?" A squeaky, childlike voice came from somewhere behind us. In an instant, all of us turned around, reaching for anything to use as a weapon. "Was our hideout compromised?" was the first thing that came to my mind. What we found standing nearby, however, was something we didn't expect. There was a tiny lizard-like creature, not more than a meter tall. It was wearing a long brown robe. Only the tips of his toes and a spiky tail were sticking out of it. The cloak's sleeves were rolled up a lot, and they still seemed far too long for the creature's little hands. Their head was shaped like that of a dragon, with little spikes on the side of the skull. Instead of skin, their body was covered in scales of ashen color. I remembered him. The small dragon was there in Sunwalley. He was hiding from Jack. But his presence here made no sense.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Soul was the first to talk to him.

"I'm sorry for startling you. I... I didn't know where else to go. My name is Foof, and I am a traitor."