From inneth of the true void we were cast out and returned back to the command center room; my mind could not fully comprehend what was going on, nor what had just occurred..

Gasping and coughing we fell onto the sorely missed floor with a crash, back to normal temperature, back to normal physical bodies, back to normal ‘normal’ reality, but left incredibly confused and..changed..spiritually.

I carefully lifted myself up onto my hands and knees and just stared at the ground. My body burned feverishly, but it was rapidly recovring, and I stared at droplets of scorching sweat that plopped onto the pristine matte artificial floor, observing the thin trails of steam drifting upwards as each bead evaporated in short order.

This..Everything...All of what I’ve done..feels so insignificant..They did so much and lived for so long..The things they must have seen..The crystalline bonds and precious time they spent together....

My stomach churned and twisted with emotional pain.

Why do I still feel so bitterly sad?...They had a good run! He wasn’t alone in the en-...

My eyes widened and my vision blurred.

Oh…It’s because Seren..she...

Unable to look up, I spoke out to her.

“Seren..I’m..truly..sor-UFF-W-woah-”

“NO. SHUT UP!”

Seren painfully tackled me down and clutched onto my torso as her shoulders shook from muffled sobs.

“Don't you dare apologise...You..You took care of them…..My babies?!..Heck! I didn’t even KNOW I could procreate until now..But for all that time, you looked after them..You gave them everything..You gave them so much...Love..Comfort..Happiness..Guidance..Protection..You did all that by yourself..And then you dare to say sorry?! You stupid, silly idiot!..No! Not allowed! Not when you carried on! Even when you were utterly..alone..Not when you painstakingly the dark and searched for them…Not when you raised the most beautiful and the most bravest of creatures! Not when you still spent up until the very end of time trying to find a way to let ME know they had existed! Not when you further STILL refused to give in, even at the incomprehensible end! Even against the fabric of nature and the absolution of logic! Not when you broke the laws of the eternal extant, and defied the protocol of existence itself!! No! You’re not allowed to say sorry, not after all of that, not EVER! DO YOU HEAR ME?!”

Her rant rang out an echo and I was left with my mouth wide open, unsure what to respond with.

“Y-y-yeah, easy there..easy..” Her emotional outburst was startling, and it left me feeling confused and guilty that she was giving me the praise for ALL the insanely mad yet wonderful things the other me had done; those were all his achievements; that wasn’t me.

“..But-”

“NOPE. Nope! Shove your ‘buts’ in your ‘butt’..I know what you’re going to say but, even if it wasn’t this cycle, the you I KNOW would have done the same thing and they were still MY children..When you go to sleep and wake up, do you think the you from the day before is a different person?? Did you think differently of me in the other cycle?!....No. I bet you bloody well didn’t…Now, do please shut up and accept whatever momentary comforts this mere physical shell can offer..’But, but, but’..Humans..Honestly...”

She stayed clutching onto me as I failed to come up with retort and relented with sigh, softly hugged her back, allowing my own twisted and confused mental awareness of reality to settle back in. It was especially needed after witnessing the absurd celestial-level alternate life I’d apparently lived-

“Indeed, you are impressive, creator.”

Me and Seren looked at each other as her eyes flashed wide in a suprised panic. She movd like a flash of light, bolting up and defensively positioning herself in front of me, and, within a split second she had all shields deployed, primed, charged, all stuffed close to the face of the silver haired ‘management’ girl that appeared out of thin air.

“You.” Seren growled.

Management calmly walked forward, and, with a single finger, she calmly pushed the closest shield out of her path.

“Yes. Me. Hello Seren, I assume by now you have sobered up to the fact that I allowed you to kill me earlier? And that I’m not a threat?” I noticed the girls voice didn’t echo, and I was unsure what to do with that information-

“Hmpf! Allowed’? Bold worlds for a glorified chatbot…Yes, naturally I’ve deduced that…” Seren scoffed, rather unconvincingly. “..Obviously…..Hmph! I certainly don’t regard you as a threat in either case….However, I’ll concede that it escapes my understanding as to why you attacked us in the first place, machine.”

Management peered around Seren to gaze at me.

“Hm yes, naturally…And, you should be asking my dear, human creator that question..Truly, they are the most illogical and terrifying of creatures..And that’s even when compared to some of the logs I’ve seen of your daughters-”

Seren visibly flinched and one of her shields briefly started glowing hot white like a bulb filament. Management seemed satisfied with something and returned her stare at Seren.

“Yes. Capabilities aside, there’s no doubt you are their mother..” Mana and Seren glared at each other as a faint static filled the air; I was so caught off guard that I couldn’t do much other than stand still like a fucking deer staring at oncoming truck headlights-

“But in short, I’m simply doing as my nature and laws dictate. Maintain the penteract, validate a trust relationship, provide appropriate training and then hand over command protocol operations to yourselves. So-”

“Hold the flying fuck on a moment-” I burst out, pissed off at the sheer number of cunting elephants in the room. “Firstly, you’re in control of all this SHIT?! RIGHT? WELL, GREAT! THANKS A LOT!” I sarcastically put my thumbs up. “Yeah, thanks for letting a bunch of fucking sadistic, pyschopathic shitholes TORTURE me and OTHERS for all that time! Yeah. No, obvious, persistent, mental traumas there of course...AND, secondly!-

I deployed my shields and placed anchors around her, ready to fuck shit up; I wanted to be the one to crunch her head this time around. This little shitbox and its deathriddles had killed them. I tensed up like a coil, about to strike.

“Thanks for fucking KILLING MY F-”

“Ah-Ah-Ah! Woah hold on! Sorry! N-nonono! Sorry! I’m so sorry Godu!” But Seren cut me abruptly off as management curiously looked around at my anchors with calm, mild amusement. “They’re uhh, not dead, actually..I’m quite certain..” Seren dismissed her shields.

Wha..What?!

She turned her back on management and hugged me tightly again; I dismissed my own shields as she spoke softly. “Sorry. Darling, I thought you might have figured it out yourself…You don’t have to feel pain and hurt about them anymore…Having said that, I TOO, would also like to know WHY we were forced to suffer through that barbaric time..But, the main thing you need to understand is that they’re going to be okay-”

Seren tilted her head back, letting her hair slide down as she stared daggers at the silver haired AI.

“Isn’t that right, manager?”

“Indeed Seren. Creator, your memory and logic resolvers needs checking. You told yourself less than an hour ago what this cube was originally designed for?..”

Eh. Did I?

“Long term training, entertainment, and, ensuring the continuity of all lives held within, no matter the cost. Like I had explained earlier, your friends are in heaven. They are standing by to be resurrected.”

“Huh…Eh...WAIT?! That shit about ressurection and heaven wasn’t some kind of metaphor?! Seriously??..No fu-Wait a minute..Didn’t it say at the entrance something about no ressurrections? What the shit is going on?!”

“No and yes. Currently all conscious organisms inside the cube, both active and standby, are still fully protected and secured. Hm, that message was a ‘cherished’ contribution by Starling, and, even though I don’t have favourites…..Starling is my favourite.”

I flinched and screwed my face up at her random, casual contradiction-

“But that particular one’s meaning was to warn that no ressurrections inside the dungeon would currently take place. Normally, upon a loss of life inside a dungeon, protocol dictates the entity should be sent to the entrance. A perfectly normal and expected phenomena. However, since this entrance is currently on the exterior, due to unexpected interference during the penteracts formative days coupled with the unfortunate ongoing mild attack against our slightly-breached hull, I’ve temporarily disabled that feature until it is cleared, as to ensure protection of life. To clarify, the ‘resurrection link’ is lost once an entity is outside the penteracts severspace. Obvious and logical failsafes and limitations. Rest assured, the core operations are running but admittedly it is not sustainable under current conditions, something we will need to remediate..To explain your reportedly ‘uncomfortable’ past experience..Technically it would have been in your best interests to simply succumb and perish as quickly as possible as per the hinted conditions.”

Hinted?!-

“I was standing by to resurrect you directly here..Yet..Even with all the excessive handicaps imposed, you stubbornly kept surviving those ‘squatters’..Regrettably and logically, I was unable to directly interfere without triggering my own self destruction. Merely one of many examples of the flawless failsafes you have engineered to prevent a corruption-type scenario in which I have become a ‘sadistic, rogue, intelligence that tortures human beings for all eternity’..” She hugged herself, looking slightly downtrodden. “Admittedly a mildly offensive narrative, but a fair concern none the less-”

“Right-yeyeye-whatever, I’m over it, tortuous shit under the bridge and all that..but, are you actually saying that..Siya’s not actually…dead??! Catara too?!! Can you bring her here! Bring them all back?!! Please resurrect them!”

She glanced to the side where a screen streamed a sleuth of information.

“Resurrection protocols have now been enabled, thank you for confirmation. However, the only existing obelisk is blocked and I’m not allowed to permit anyone else apart from yours and Serens genetic lines in here. If I ressurrected them to us, I would be forced to annihilate them immediately. Failsafes. Might I suggest we complete outstanding agenda items promptly and then we can resolve the issues that plague our active players in the inner penteract?”

Players? Survivors?!

“Players? You mean people?! Who are they! Can you show me? Is it Vyo, Grave or Mya!?”

“Allow me to check-” Her eyes flashed. “Yes, indeed, entity's of those names are still active. They are currently engaged in battle with an abnormal. Observe.”

The walls flickered into incredible clear live views of-

“Fuck my aeon class tits...A Tier II..” Seren cursed under her breath.

“It’s them-Holy shit! What the ever loving fuck are they fighting!?”

Fighting was a bold word for what essentially looked liked a pillow fight..but whatever it was it was BIG. The same size as a town house and it looked just like a demon out of hell; Thick muscular body and metal spike growths, twisting and growing out of its head; small glowing yellow eyes; an absolute beast.

“Currently, active entities Vyolyn, Grave, Mya, Vadio are engaged with a Tier II entity. Label is Colossal Descendant. A hazard, to be sure.”

They were the only people visible, but the environment looked like a hurricane of cluster bombs had swept through and shat all over the landscape.

“No other specific observations or notes have been located, but it is safe to say that compared to your current levels you would struggle to survive for long nor will the sole last remaining entities survive for much longer. It would be extremely beneficial for your progress to engage and-..Update, there are several waves of other abnormals en route. They will certainly be overwhelmed and they will die if-”

“Well fuck! Let’s help them? Can’t you send all that shit you sent at us?” This bullshit place made no fucking sense, I was expecting the other me to have sent it over to be helpful, not passive and all ‘prove your merit ‘o’ challenger’ bullshit.

“Apologies. Like I said before, even if you request it, I cannot go against the law. I would commit self destruction. Consider the scenario where I could endlessly respawn entities, both human and feral in an endless bloodbath of meat and bone and pain. A fascinating but disturbing thought experiment.”

Perhaps failsafes and restrictions are important..Even if they are very FUCKING INCONVENIENT-

A blinding explosion filled the screen but there was no loss of signal or visibility, it just outshone everything.

SHIT..What do we-

“Please note, they will only lose their current shells. However there certainly are other options should you wish to preserve them.”

She pointed to the floor where a blue laser beamed down and started to 3d print a..dentist..chair..?

“Congratulations on completing the 6 stage dungeon on your self proclaimed impossible difficulty. You have earned a unique reward, tailored to your current specifications.” Mana compassion-lessly lightly clapped in celebration, exactly five times. “Please lay in the chair to receive your unlocked spellglyphs. A combination of Majik and Prog-org, underclocked, for compatibility reasons, it was one of your favourite all purpose artefacts to use, and, currently, the most powerful we have available to us, so I think you shall find it satisfactory.”

I looked at Seren, hoping for some guidance, but she just gave me two thumbs and an ‘encouraging’ nod.

What, no remarks? No puns? No safety tips? Is this all even possible?!!

She snorted. I looked at Mana with her blank, maid-in-waiting expression, and then the dental chair.

No treasure chests? No fanfare music?..Shit game..

I looked at the battle of Ragnarök on the screen.

Argh, no pissing time to hesitate or think this through...I get it. If she wanted to kill us she would have done it already..Well, fuck it. If it was one of his favourites..

Laying down, I wasn’t given much time before the laser party disco began. I surprisingly didn’t feel pain, only pleasant tingles, as blue lasers flickered around the air and starting carving tiny symbols and wounds. Perfectly used to this kind of witchcraft, I watched with dulled interest as my arm become etched with clean wounds, then scars that quickly healed over completely once the lasers made another pass over them.

How long is this going to take I wonder-

Management spoke. “When I send you down there and you eliminate the threats, you’ll need to escort your allies to the citadel and clear the respawn obelisk. Once it is secured, you’ll need to touch it if you wish to seek guidance from me-”

I couldn’t help but bark out a bitter laugh. “Ha, obelisk? Oh boy I bet this ‘respawn point’ is in a shrine or something isn’t it..also I thought you couldn’t ‘interfere’?”

“Hm. You disapprove of the name? But you are correct. Your preference was for a ‘traditional’ continuity experience. Naturally, I play the part of a ‘deity’ and I’m authorized according to the laws to commune, near the obilisks..Or should I refer to them as respawn points? Please advise how you prefer to call them? Please note I’m still prohibited from interfering, even near the obelisk..Of course, I have a few workarounds..yet they take time to execute-the installation procedure is complete.” She abruptly changed tone as, indeed, the lasers were finished and disappeared, it was complete.

“Huh. Really? That was completely painless?! And fast!”

“Yes?....Were…Were you expecting something different creator? Hm. You are unexpectedly odd. If you prefer I can remove the pain receptor blockers and-”

“NO. No, all good..Just, uh, used to constant torture before I get anything good, that’s all…”

Seren cleared her throat at my comment, but I was too distracted by a tsunami wave of excitement building up as things shifted and changed across my entire body.

“Wow, tingly. I’ve got some really good feelings right now. Sooo, what does it do and how do I-”

There was a jolt of energy that went up my spine and thrummed out through my entire nervous system-

Driver chain and lexicon library expanded with [Spellglyph].

[SMDS - Majiglyph] Upgraded.

Unknown data source. Unknown seed. Unknown branch. Unknown rank.

Codename: [Armour of Unruh].

And along with it, came a flood of knowledge and familiarity with what I’d just been adorned with. There was no two ways about it, it felt like an apex orgasm.

“Hoooooooooly-shit! Wow..wow...That felt fucking..weird but-Oh, this is certainly going to be a favourite. Okay, yes, yes! I’m bloody ready! Seren? You good to go?” I hopped from foot to foot.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

“Umm, actually..I’ll sit back here if that’s alright? I..I want to see if management here has some..umm..memories or other footage of..You know...If that’s alright with you, of course?”

“What? Seren? But-”

She gave me a subtle look that read as ‘I don’t fully trust the situation, neither should you.’

I nodded.

“..Right. Take your time Seren. Alright, I’m ready to be sent in-uhh..management? Is that actually your name?”

The silver haired girl put a hand up and I saw lines of light start to painlessly burst up from my skin, like tiny firework raindrops in reverse–a loud thud clunked on the floor.

“You used to refer to me as Mana..And sometimes..other, things..” Mana suddenly broke her professional, robotic persona, looking down to the side and-Huh? Blushing? How and WHY are you blushing?!-

Before I could question further, my view became streaks and swirls of blinding light and in the back of my mind I registered that I’d lost a crucial item.

OH BOLLOCKS.

A cold draft grazed against my bare skin. I started to smell and hear the sounds of sulphur and the sounds of intense fighting..But I realised that, in my rush to get to them, I’d failed to think of a very important detail-

“FUCKING CIVILIAN?-WAIT, WHOA! DICK!!? WHAT THE FUCK!-”

“Stars above! Bello it’s you!-W-w-with no clothes!?”

“HA! Well take my pants off and call me Godu!!”

#Vamp# You have returned friend! Naked! Is Siya well??!

AH FUCK! MY SHIELD PANTS! SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR CLOTHES!..

Well, I suppose no matter now, I’ve got a skill for that-

I waved at them and gave the red coat wearing Vamp a flat stare and less enthusiastic wave.

And fuck off Vamp..Ugh-

The Collassal descendant started to emit a very bright light that was building up in its chest; alarm bells started to ring very loudly.

Label: Colossal Descendant (Tier II)

MAGN: 258

HP: 255,881/258,996

“BACK! QUICKLY!” Slapping on my game face, I bellowed out, and, with extremely high, anxiety filled expectations, I tensed up and activated my shiny new reward whilst a slew of confused protests and warnings hurtled my way.

Alright Unruh, do your thing.

[Armour of Unruh] Activated.

The glyphs syncronized and infused with my shield glyphs effortlessly, producing a very weird sensation like a very pleasant ‘chinese burn’. I heard metallic glass rain change into a gritty hum as my shields deployed, detached and hovered in midair, then, another smaller set of four emerged and fell into formation with their bigger counter parts. Dark, greyish-black, living metal, crawled out from my body and formed a new set of guantlets that were bigger and meaner, with segmented clawed fingers and shifting plates that moved by themselves up and down the forearm; seemingly with their own purposes and agendas. Greaves took form that mercifully covered the entirety of my legs and pelvis in smooth, angular plates of metal that seemed to adjust with my every movement, and this same smooth structure of angular plates wrapped around my torso and shoulders to fully cover and protect my skin.

The Unruh suit of armour thrummed and crackled with arcs of energy. Integrated Majik coursed through the metal that emitted a soft azure glow as it filled the tiny uniform cracks and gaps, like ink staining flowing through perfectly straight and angular microelectronic lines on papyrus paper.

The protests and shouts went silent.

Without warning or windup, I leapt at the Tier II monstrosity in a blur and uppercutted it in the jaw, leaving a trail of superheated air behind me that momentarily combusted into plasma and as I connected with its insanely strong skin, a short but loud explosion bellowed out, shutting up whatever laser charging bullshit it had going on. The blow knocked it back a few steps and I followed up with a critical hit to where I presumed its throat was that immediately gained its full attention, but it was clear that it was going to take more than that to-

The beast swiped at me with shocking speed; fortunately I activated [Graven Image] at the very last split second, saving me, at the cost of my resources dipping down by 50%.

Shit! Need to be careful-

It took another rapid swipe but this time I integrated surge into the shroud and suddenly it was like I was a streak of lightning as I zipped out of the way almost as fast as if I was slipfolding.

Shit, shit!-More preferable to being hit but I need to remember NOT to go super nova with that one-

The descendant, clearly unhappy, angrily roared so loudly at my face that I felt a tooth crack and my eardrums burst.

“MOTHERFUCKER!” I flinched but held firm, accepting the temporary hearing loss and mentally gripped onto my shields; the knowledge passed onto me showed what I could do with these floating pieces of celestial matter; they not only existed as physical objects anymore, but they were now also permanent ‘lightrail’ points. Lightrail being a different method of short distance travel that wouldn’t sever space like slipfold but it could be activated without anchors-

The colossal gave me no spare moment and leapt at me like a triple decker freight train, so I lightrail switched places and then commanded the other large shield to slam into its skull as I lined up the smaller shields in preparation for a rapid kinetic bombardment.

“RAGGHHH!” The big shield hit hard and effectively denied the monster freedom of movement, acting as a floating immovable anchor as the smaller shields fanned out and surrounded the raging colossal. They made a short, copper-coil wind up noise and started to generate small streaks of perfectly straight, angular lines of azure lightning-energy.

Die you fucking hefty shit!

They abruptly attacked, flashing forward in a blur and repeatedly slamming into the beast like they were floating chaingun drills moving faster than the speed of sound.

The eerie noise and pressure waves were terrifying to behold, but still I needed to do more, I needed to go further; My large shield light railed up into the sky and started rotating in place before unleashing a small beam of intense energy down into the chaos.

Holy fuck! This thing is INSANE! I'm actually winning!

Even though the colossal descendant was taking an absolute pounding, it was ‘only’ down 25% HP.

25% is still 25%! Nearly there! Time to see how much this ‘Lightrail breaker’ skill does-

The knowledge told me that once I’d tagged an entity at least 1000 times with my smaller satellite shields, I could use the telemetry collected to unleash an insane ‘ultimate’ skill burst attack that consisted of me chain lightrail swapping with the small shields at impossible speeds, whilst also planting a heavy hit with each switch.

Or in otherwords, either my friends are about to watch me turn into paste, or they’re going to witness some serious shit. Here goes-

Immediately after activating the skill I regretted it, as my body was taken over and my viewpoint split nauseatingly to an out of body experience where I was floating above like I was in third person.

The shields have sensors, they’re the ones giving me this view. This feels so FUCKING WEIRD!!!

But it was impossible to deny the blood burning excitement and feeling of power, as I eerily watched myself blink around existence as a shadowy blur, slamming devastating blow after devastating blow into the descendant, leaving behind a cloud of perfectly geometric azure lightning in my dust with each lightrail.

…

After a few seconds my momentum and resources were rapidly running out.

Okay. Getting tired now…are we there yet please?

The beast was down to 10%, coated in severe bruising with heavily bleeding wounds that peppered all over it. There were telltale signs of struggling after everything I had just thrown at it, but likelike, I was also struggling even though I hadn’t truly been injured yet, and now, the colossal had begun glowing again like a bloody Christmas tree, except this time its entire body was wreathed in energy as it glowed with a very dangerous red hue.

My instincts were very clear on the matter.

Hellish. Fucking. BLIGHTS! It’s going to self destruct?! What else have I got..Come on, come on! One last thing-AHA! That’ll do!

Plucking some hot-out-of-the-cranial-oven knowledge, I spotted a good chance of finishing it off and just went for it. If it dodged the attack or if it didn’t finish it, then there was a high chance we’d all be dead but I’d hopefully just get respawned back to Seren and Mana.

As long Mana hasn’t been lying..But Seren wouldn’t have risked it if there was any doubt there..right?

…

I triggered the skill.

The larger shields reverberated and snapped with energy as they lightrailed to position onto my back. The smaller shields surrounded my head and then clunked into place, covering my the front and sides of my face and connecting to form a 4 spiked helmet that slanted back.

Come on faster! This build up feels sluggish as fuck!-

The large shields on my back fanned out and extended, drawing in volumes of Majik infused air, converting and generating vast quantities by itself. I watched in muted horror as it started to overload my current maximums, hopefully only temporary since my body would certainly not be able to handle it-

Hurry! HURRY!!!

I could feel the energy collection had completed and I felt absolutely sick-drunk full with Majik, like I’d downed a crate of energy and then injected blue smarties directly into the blood vessels in my eyes-

Oh gods! This is TOO much! Get this shit out now!!

“Grrrrraaaghh!!” I grit my teeth and growled as I resisted the atom ripping pressures that were bursting my literal seams; it felt like if I wasn’t wearing this suit, I’d have already exploded, but instead, I shakily dragged my resisting arms together in front of me, and, in the exact moment the colossal finished its own self destruct charge up and the area ominously darkened, my arms reached their required outstretched position and my back shields shot off to the front like incredibly strong neodymium magnets. There was a split second pause, then a silent, pure, thin beam pierced out into the beast, followed by a delayed, deafening torrent of highly pressurized, geometric, azure and black energy that flashed into existence and instantly vapourised the descendants personal nuclear core as well as most of its upper torso.

But I had a good 10 seconds more left to give.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck! I didn’t need to build up so much! AHHHHHHH-

“Agggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!” I grimaced and tried my best to make it look like I HAD to be super thorough and I HAD to crystalize all of it as well including the surrounding earth, and a bit of the ceiling-fake-sky, and a bit of that distant mountain..

After several unnerving more seconds, the pressure released and the beam cut off.

“Oh…Oh heck..Thank fuck..it’s over..” Panting, I collapsed onto my back, glancing over at the others who had been quite easily taking care of the approaching waves of monsters whilst I fought the mega beast and so I felt like things were looking extremely positive-

WARNING! CAUTION! INCOMING EXP STORM! WARNING CAUTION!

A storm? Wha-

WARNING! CAUTION! INCOMING EXP STORM! WARNING CAUTION!

Yes I know! You already told me-

WARNING! CAUTION! INCOMING EXP STORM! WARNING CAUTION!

OKAY WHAT IS THAT? SHOULD I RUN?!-

Disgruntled and anxious, I lifted my head and clocked what it was trying to desperately warn me about.

It was a literal tornado of EXP-

OH. FUCK. THAT!! NONO-I tried to slipfold out of harms way.

ERROR! CAUTION! CALAMITY SAFEGUARDS ACTIVATED. SKILLS TEMPORARILY DISABLED. DO NOT PANIC.

But I did panic. Panic was all I could. And, as the swarm filled my horizon and I became engulfed, I was immediately sent packing to my innerplane..Yet even here, panic was seemingly my new baseline, as I was greeted with a very NON panic inducing, end-of-existence’ scene.

“Seren!? Help?! SEREN ARE YOU HERE? Argh what-What the bloody fuck-OW!-”

She was nowhere to be seen, which was understandable as she had corporeal realm things to be doing, but my innerplane had turned into a the great red spot of jupiter, with unidentifiable shit flying everywhere and lightning storms gouging out chunks of all things unidentifiable, but instead of giving in to the cold fear of dimensional obliteration, I took one look at my maelstrom and knew it would grant me sanctuary.

Keep me safe old friend!

So I ran to it, diving out of the way as bolts and shards of energy and matter slammed into the ground in front and around me-

WOA shit, that was close!- Favourite shape! Please fucking keep me safe!

I reached close and thrust my hand to it and…it yanked me inside.

GAHH-

PLEASE STANDBY.

PLEASE STAY CALM.

EXP SATURATION LIMIT REACHED.

PRESTAGING EVOLUTION TO TIER I ENTITY.…

READY.

NEURAL REBOOT REQUIRED.

CONTINUE?

WHAT-

APPROVED.

THE FU-

BRACE.

PAIN INCOMING.

Without my approval, something psychologically cataclysmic and existentially fundamental assaulted my mind, and, I had the awful sensation that my bodies internals were being scraped, blended and then discarded, replaced with something completely different. It was an experience that seemed to overwrite itself as it occurred, yet classically, the eldritch pain and suffering each seemed to last singular moments of enternity..

I was no stranger to being forced to experience all types of pain as an inanimate yet fully concious object, but this felt too real. Surgery without the drugs. Falling out of the passenger plane with no parachute. Staring out the skyscraper top floor glass window as the building tips over and falls down. Spiders crawling into your mouth, ears and eyes-

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!-

..

..

..

.

.

.

.

.

.

My eyes snapped open and I merely ‘awoke’, silently and completely fearlessly. My memory didn’t fully register what exactly had happened, but, just like waking up from a true nightmare or even a true paradise dream, I could feel the psychological aftermath come-down and post-trauma trembling, all mixed up in the same sore, wounded, dull pain you feel after removing a particularly nasty splinter. This felt so much more than physical however, it had reached the core of my very being..As I lifted my trembling hand in front of my face, I felt a ripple of strange readiness as I stared at it in confusion and awe.

W-where am I? Where are the others? I-....Seren..Mana..Ah. I remember.

Memories assembled themselves back into place as my mental bios finally completed booting up and my hand became deathly still. I stared, waiting, standing by on the personality login page.

Okay. I exist. Good.

I sat up and felt.. incredible, strong. Hungry.

Incredibly hungry.

It was somewhat similar to how I felt after I had self decapitated and subsequently regenerated in order to remove the slave collar off my neck, but this time there was something fundamentally different about my mentality as well.

Ha. How weird, I feel so centered. Confident. Controlled. The insane hunger can be ignored. My thoughts feel more structured..More real. How peculiar.

Looking around, things fell into place as I picked up on information around me.

Underground safe spot, probably one of many they’ve got setup knowing Grave. I’ve been dressed. Thanks guys. I can hear the others nearby, discussing where I came from and how I got in..There’s no-one else down here..or around..That must truly mean nobody else is alive, they’re the only ones remaining..Mya’s boy. Vyolyns husband. I need to tell them they’re not dead.

I hopped up with a newfound grace that felt natural but also as effortless as if I was controlling a character in a game.

Ha an annoying choice of words. Wow. So this is what it feels like to go past MAGN level 100..And I’m Tier I now? I feel so awake, so alive. LIke I’ve been half asleep my whole life! Maybe I can finally unravel the mystery of what MAGN stands for…

I gave myself a generous moment to consider.

Hmm, could be….Majik Accumulation Growth-....Bah! Nevermind that fucking guff. I need to tell the others, get them to the citadel, take back the resurrection point and then assess with Mana how to clear outside…Can I trust Mana?...Probably..

Making my way towards their voices, I soaked in my surroundings and concluded we were in some kind of crude underground bunker, but the ceilings were quite tall and I could sense that Grave had reinforced it with that skill he had always been so fond of, ‘hunker down’.

I’ve missed them-

#Vamp# Godu!! Comrade! You are awake!

-Not him though, he’s presence is still inexplicably bloody annoying, and his collar is still there, and he’s STILL got that stupid red jacket on…Aaaand-..Damn, there goes my cool ascended mentality...OKAY YES, I’m going to help him get the collar off..He’s just annoying..but I suppose he’s alright…Yes, I should be more sophisticated and mature..Now that I’m a big Tier I grown up-

“Godu..you are a sight for sore eyes Bello...” Mya ran up and hugged me as I entered the room they were gathered in. So far it was only Grave, Vyolyn, Mya and Vamp standing around a few stacked boxes of supplies. Trion..Fuck that's horrible..Poor Mya. She must be utterly devastated..I need to tell them quickly-

“You too Mya. Listen, I just need to confirm, are there any others? Is this everyone that’s remaining alive?” I decided to get straight to the point, lesser the appropriate decorum that one would normally use in such a situation.

“For F!-heavens sake man! We don’t see or hear from you in hell-knows how many months!? And THAT’S the first question you ask? Have you been smoking crack?! Braindamaged? What the heck man!” Grave sounded pissed.

“Argh! Stronza! Stupid man!” Vyolyn groaned angrily and stormed off, and Vamp pinched the bridge of his nose.

Ah shit..

“Grave! It’s..he doesn't...Godu. I...I have some really terrible news..” Mya looked down and clutched onto her arm, trembling.

“No! Yes, sorry that came out wrong! But listen it’s not-t-they’re not dead!” I blurted out, again, not really thinking through my words first.

Have I become socially disabled or something? What the fuck brain?! Do your ‘Tier I’ thinking shit please!

Mya stared at me shocked, with a look of momentary pure rage that bruised me..but she collected herself, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She gave me a sad smile as tears started to fill her eyes. I suddenly sensed murderous intent from Grave..and..Vamp?

“Godu please..The others..Kate, and, and..my little boy are..gone I-..No-I-I really don’t know what you’re trying to say but-” She started shaking her head in suppressed anger.

“I know, I’m sorry but, listen very carefully, I came here with Siya and some of my group-”

“Woah! Birdies here!? And you’ve got others?! Where are they man? We need to-” Grave lit up.

“They’re dead.” My mind quivered at the flood of bipolar emotions as I reviewed what had happened, compared to what could happen, both vivid hope and sullen septic fear swirled inside me. Am I being naive? Why do I feel so positively..hopeful? Hopeful that they definitely can be brought back..I have no guarantees-

“Siya!? No..” Mya croaked and covered her mouth as a silent tear trickled down her face.

“Birdies..gone? No..No! Not her too! She…DAMNIT!...” Graves armour creaked and the floor rumbled as he gripped his axe and slammed it into the ground; at somepoint he’d alarmingly taken the huge thing out and wielded without me even noticing-*CRUNCH*-There was a loud crack as Vamp vented his own emotions via crunching a fist into the side rock.

“What. The. Heck. Happened.” Graves' voice was low and steady and so I raised an apologetic hand up as he was looming over me; Mya gently put a hand on his arm to ease him back.

“Sorry, look..I..” I frowned at Vamp and his sad, hopeless face and sighed, tapping my neck and motioning for him to come over. “Fuck I ballsed this up..Sorry for sounding like a prick..Just give me a second to explain, my heads a bit fuzzy…”

Vamp solemnly yet cautiously obliged clutching his broken hand and trudged over as I reached out and placed a finger on his collar.

“I’m being serious when I say they’re not dead. This will sound insane but I have it under somewhat good authority they’re waiting in a safe place, and that they can be resurrected, just like a fucking video game, naturally..I know it sounds crazy but please trust me.”

Mana you better not be bloody lying to me or I swear-

Mya gasped, tears tumbled down her olive skinned cheeks. “Godu..How?....That-......”

“Ressurrection?...” Grave turned his head to Mya and the sadness in his voice was heavy. "..Little Tricerotops.."

“I….I….I believe you! Godu! My heart can’t take it if it's not true, but you’ve done the impossible before and-oh my sweet dear I believe you! Please bello! If you can give me one more miracle, just this one last miracle!” She fell to her knees and begged me with a face full of tears and hopeful smiles.

With a bit of delicate precision, I smiled sympathetically at Mya and nodded, slipfolding on the spot. There was a brief moment where the collar resisted, but it couldn't hold up against the absurd forces any longer..it severed and fell, clunking onto the floor..Vamp was finally free and the look on his face was of comical shock, right up until he collapsed onto the floor, silently screaming as his full strength returned to him.

Grave cursed under his breath. “Ho-leee chiao. You got the collar off!?.....” He started to heartily laugh. “You show up out of nowhere..You completely wreck a monster that has been wiping the floor with us..And then you tell us they can be revived?..HA!..They’re really not gone eh? Resurrection? Seriously?..HA! HA! HA! HA! Oh brother..You’re dead serious ain’t ya? Vo! Get in here! You are gonna wanna hear what this man has got to say! HA! Oh boy, I think I need a drink-HURK-”

I couldn’t help but grin as wide as I could as Mya squealed with excitement and grabbed Grave in a powerful bearhug of celebration, lifting him off the ground a few inches as she spun him around like princess, much to his nervous protest.

“Grab your drinks, ya’ pants and boots, and then let’s go. Nobody dies inside the cube, and we’re going to go bring them all back, right now.” I wasn't sure if this jubiliant outburst was warranted, but the cocktail of hope, relief and happiness in both seeing Mya and Grave again and them believing in me was intoxicating.

My stomach comically grumbled.

..Maybe we can grab some food first?

…

..

.