In the expanse of nothing tangible an electric voice modulator sparked to life again.

“Are we there yet?” Edward asked.

“Waaah waaah shhh big baby,” Mule mocked, rocking him in the fetal position between two tentacles, and silencing him with a third.

The grumpy zombie head with nobody was cradled in an air bubble. This shrunken head was held by a 7 armed octopus swimming through a void. The colors pulsed while rings formed into a techno tunnel around them. Mule, and Edward had entered this zone from below the surface of a moon.

In order to escape the Elementals they found themselves somewhere more terrifying because you couldn't reach out and touch anything tangible. While they drifted through the nothingness the sound was absent, and so was the air. It was like they were in outer space. Mule blew bubbles from his beak that fed air to Edward while he swam as fast as he could using five arms. Behind the pair water splashed into the area forming a waterfall falling away to nowhere. It was a distant speck before disappearing.

Edward stuck looking at the rearview. How his captor must have been some kind of ultra concentrated magic somehow managing to not explode from overload. Who knew how the being thought, but he doubted he was its first priority. Nope he was most likely seen as an insect to play with. It was smart too so he was going to have to pick the perfect time to break free. If only he could become a flying head and figure out his own independent way to freedom to escape this space.

Edward knew that whatever the latest experiments done to him by the mysterious Elementals had granted many hidden ways to level up, but so far he only had knowledge of two paths. First surviving 10 explosions would make him bombproof, and second that if he continued using his tongue it would increase in length. So if he could somehow manage to escape this slimy tentacle monster carrying him he could figure it out, and become more powerful than he ever had been. Maybe some of the other paths he had not yet discovered would grant him arms and legs again, or even fire breathing. For now he had to rely on being carried, flying, rolling, or using his mouth on the long journey to destroy.

“I’m hungry,” Edward said, smiling like razor sharp shark teeth.

“Shh '' said Mule, placing a silencing suction cup over Edwards mouth who tried to bite but only hurt himself in the process. “You don’t even know where we're going, human, it's time you learn some patience, because not everything is now, now, now”.

Edward tried desperately to talk back, but only growled, and grumbled muffled. Mule chuckled until the tip of a moist tung tickled his suction cup and he let go. The bite was delivered immediately with no mercy.

“Yoooow!” screamed the creature throwing the head in the air while the end of one of its arms fell away severed.

The blood floated in the review with pools of red spreading thin as blocks punched holes in the mist until eventually disappearing. Edward had long ago spotted the Elemental logs pursuing their route. The logs flew in close, zipping by and overtaking them speeding off further into the void with too much speed to stop. Mule dodged them with split second reactions like a smooth criminal. It was as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

He grabbed onto Edward again, and cuffed him with dark matter flowing into his ears and mouth for good measure.

“Behave or else,” Mule telepathically showed him how he would be subjected to 100 years of solitary confinement he could be subjected to on a whim.

“If I still had balls I'd say you had me truly gripped,” he communicated back through their connection.

While the pair had been fighting a dozen blocks had connected into a machine. A floating satellite complete with extended antenna already beginning to charge. Edward’s panicking eyes reflected the bolts of energy humming off the growing device. Mule angled the head back like a pitcher and threw a fastball straight for the target.

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“AAAAAAA screw you” screamed Edward traveling forwards with too much momentum to stop.

A force field popped far before he hit and deflected him right back to Mule who caught him. The satellite sparked and hummed shooting flares into space.

“We need to run,” said Mule, changing shape as a beam that melted matter shot right through where his massive form had just been.

Mule accelerated rapidly forward while the satellite recharged for another hit. They flew through the digital tunnel carrying his used friend on his back. The sensation of travel on this insane current was too much to handle. Edward was knocked out at the speed of light while the surroundings became plaid. There was a twinkling delight in Mule’s eye’s matching the surrounding stars. He vibed through space and time engulfed in the rainbow spiral that traveled outside the transparent moon slowly orbiting Tenare into a highway out of the galaxy. He was in the shape of a turtle and hid from the cosmic horrors in the safety of his shell.

Meanwhile on the surface of Tenare the forest burned into the night behind the pair struggling to keep going. Bessie limped behind, struggling to get through the thick snow to sit on a log. Jed had taken a break from carrying her weight to drink from his canteen. A crude metal leaking cold water that tasted metallic sweet. His teeth chattered while escaping drops froze midair before his white beard. As he chugged the winds whistled through the wasteland hardly illuminated by his flickering lantern. There was a lack of moonlight tonight, a windchill enough to kill. The stars twinkled in the dark night. It was like the moons had been removed from their usual position. Everything in the dark tundra looked similar. The only thing keeping their progress the deep tracks left behind in the snow.

Jed charged forward through the drifts first clearing a path. His legs broke the ground ahead while she followed.

Jed’s body burned while his mind wandered on autopilot to more memories he never sorted between good, and bad. Perhaps the mixture of both is what called him to recall times gone past. He had been a soldier, but never a knight. It had always been his goal as a kid to wear the suit of shining armor, but he had ended up a grimy outlaw. In his memories he wasn’t yet a broken man, but a boy not even a pawn yet fresh out of the first phase of training. With his bonus burning a hot wad in his pocket he set out to spend it on anything but lottery, or drink. Instead he went inside a little shop next to a tattoo parlor, and billiards off base.

In the open window of “Predatory Pawn!” establishment wafted the commingling scents of burger joints, and pizza parlors. He held his many purchased objects in a paper bag. Who knows if there would be candy where he was going so he had bought a surplus. A laser stone lighter was a special mixture making a fire starting laser, purchased from a very expensive canteen and engraved DIY with the current company with a playing card, the four leaf. It lit under his helmet a light engraving of a rose to manifest love, and finally a lunchbox that was plain blue hue he also marked up with the laser beam. He was somehow 16 again, and getting tattoos with his squadmates. The items fell as the needle inked his skin.

“Dang,” Jed said to himself, the cold eating away at his soul.

He raised a glove melded to his sleeve to shake the snow off the dropped weapon.

“You know you can leave me behind anytime, I can take care of myself,” Bessie said, adjusting her identical model lever action rifle.

She had finally caught up to where he had stopped; she braced against a fur for support.

“We’ve talked about this. I don’t leave friends behind,” said Jed, unsuccessfully trying to cover his ears with a snow crusted cowboy hat. “Finding good people is a rare thing indeed, and with my steed gone I can’t leave you to die out here in good conscience,”.

He shivered involuntarily a split second before covering it up with a brave face. She had seen the real him, but didn’t seem to mind steadying the rifle on the other hand that threatened to throw off her balance. Then she leaned on him for support long enough to transfer the warmth of her earmuff to his ears that had turned blue.

“Thank you,”

“Can you carry yourself a little longer before needing to lean on me again to continue?” he shouted.

She let go of her support structure and grimaced.

“Yes, let's go”.

The pair continued on into the frozen forest with wind pushing against their backs the smell of wet wood smoldering dissipated. There were no howls of the wolves that had previously harassed them. Nothing but the branches they broke. The light had drastically increased with a full moon taking up half the sky. The danger facing them ahead is nothing but the cold hard elements.

"On the bright side at least the moon will guide us tonight," said Bessie.

"Yeah we will make it," said Jed.

"BOOM!"

The sky turned red as the moon exploded into a fireball.