The amorphous bodies of the Ing shuddered under the blows, causing them to scream as others closed in. Rays of focused light ripped through tiny holes between dimensions, while one intrepid monster flew across the crystalline surface like a buzz-saw in an attempt to possess their assailant.

"By all means, kill him if its necessary," Re-Tuul said with a dismissive wave of his hand. The ragged hole in his chest began to regenerate; soon he'd be whole again. "Just keep him alive if that option isn't available to you. Daemonus has something planned for him, apparently."

The Khaglessi patriarch didn't sound too pleased about it, either. He'd prefer his nemesis to be dead, at his hand or anyone else's, but not even he dared to stand up to Daemonus. To go against him was to risk the wrath of Ziatoch Himself, and Re-Tuul was no fool.

Malvettix caught on easily, as was his nature. "Since you don't want that to happen, I'll kill him if I'm in the mood."

The figure turned on the approaching Ing. He chambered his hands briefly, then thrust them out, curling his fingers. A ball of violent purple flame launched from his palms at the monster.

The last of Re-Tuul's wounds regenerated, the gaps in his body piecing together just as the violet flames down below burned through the Warrior Ing, melting it into puddles of inky blackness that faded from sight.

"So, he'll be their next opponent?" Re-Tuul finally asked, watching as the cloaked figure made short work of the shadowy monsters that inhabited what was left of Khalis.

The figure pulled back his hood. His face was stern and chiseled, his white hair gathered in a ragged and short ponytail. He glanced up at Malvettix and Re-Tuul with eyes red like the grim end of sunlight.

"I have no idea who he is," Malvettix said. He turned away from the scene and slinked towards the opposite edge, hands swinging idly. "I have business to attend to first, but don't worry - I'll be meeting him and the others soon enough."

Re-Tuul began to grin as he recognized the man down below. How interesting for him to have appeared here, on the dead world of Khalis.

But the Multiverse was a strange place, and full of its own twists.

"Well then, may your business go well," the demon bid Malvettix farewell.

Malvettix swished the air with a lazy wave before sinking into his shadow, which collapsed on itself when he had fully submerged.

Their arrival had kicked up a large cloud of dust that sent everyone into a coughing fit, making them hack and wheeze as they tried to disperse the dust in the air. When it finally cleared, R.D. took his first look at the world they had arrived in. An arid, dry land stretched out as far as they could see, dotted with tiny bits of dying vegetation and various plateaus off in the distance. Wind was blowing lightly over the dusty expanse, causing an occasional dirt devil to wisp over the land before disappearing. The sun was setting, casting an eerie glow on the world as an orange sky streaked with purple hung over the world like some sort of ceiling.

"Oh, this place looks like a real winner," R.D. muttered, running his ungloved hand through his hair, ignoring how the symbol on the back of it had changed again.

"This world ALREADY sucks!" Matt interjected. He was busy dusting his jacket off after landing in the sand face-first. Par for the course, really.

At least he didn't have to shield his eyes. He glanced over at Helena, who was staring at a far-off mountain - practically a little dash against the horizon. "Well," he said, "might as well see what we can find."

"This is going to screw with our sleeping habits," R.D. said, examining their surroundings. "Ileyna, do you sense anything?"

"No," came the reply, as Ileyna opened her senses to no visible effect. Something that was getting more and more commonplace for them.

"That's just great," R.D. muttered.

"Do we... just pick a direction and go?" Alasea asked, sounding a bit hesitant as she leaned on her crutch.

"I don't have any other ideas," Hugo said. "I'm not picking up any life signals."

"Does the Firebird still work?" Helena asked Matt.

Good question. He reached into his jacket and pulled out the panel, unfolding it with a flick. It landed on the ground with a dusty clatter.

"No way in hell is that going to run," Hugo said. Matt ignored him and made his way to the front seat.

"I'll try and fix what I can," R.D. said, grasping hold of Lumiya's power and channeling Earth energy as he approached the wrecked car.

Alasea dusted off a nearby rock and set herself down on it, watching as the boys went to work.

They tinkered and tinked. Matt enthusiastically did all he could to rev the engine. No way in hell he knew how to fix it. And it showed - for all of Matt's effort, the Firebird simply refused to jump to life.

"Well, shit." He slid out of the car and slapped the door shut. "Looks like we're hoofin' it."

Helena rolled her eyes. "Tch. Great."

"Well, look at the bright side," Alasea said, looking off towards the sunset before getting up from her seat. "At least we won't be walking long."

"That's not a very good bright side," Matt said.

"Better than nothing," R.D. pointed out. "We should get moving. There might not be anything alive around right now, but I don't want to test our luck with that."

Matt slid his finger in his mouth, then pulled it out and held it up. Now that it was wet, he could tell which way the wind was blowing, and he pointed in that direction. "Let's head that way. Keep an eye out for any towns."

"Matt, the way this place looks, finding a tree might be cause for notification," R.D. remarked, gesturing flippantly with his gloved right hand. "This place looks dead."

"At least it only looks dead," Alasea said somberly. "We should feel lucky that it doesn't feel dead, too. This place... its not like Khalis."

R.D. stilled at that. "Yeah," he finally said softly. "At least its not like Khalis."

Edited by RisingDragon on November 3, 2009 at 13:25:44.

Well, that sure helped out the current mood. "Come on, let's go," Matt said.

As they began their trek, Ileyna grew curious. "What was so bad about Khalis?" she asked.

"Think of a world that's been frozen in time, Ileyna," R.D. started as he continued examining the area, looking out for possible threats. "Now suck out everything that makes it feel alive and fill it with bugs, giant spiders, and screaming creatures of darkness."

"... oh," Ileyna said, her voice small.

"Yeah. Khalis wasn't a fun place to be. It set off Helena's mutation like nothing else, got me seriously injured, and left all of us pretty traumatized for a while," he said, thinking back to that psychic onslaught that the World Eater had unleashed against them. "Me, Matt, and Alasea are pretty much always worried about running into another world just like it."

"R.D., you're really not helping," Matt said, keeping his eyes towards the sunset. "I'd rather keep this a pleasant, if lonely, trek across the desert."

"We might as well tell her, Matt." Hugo had deployed his platformed boots to keep traction. "She's seen war. She can handle what's coming up."

He'd rather not dispense all the darkness of the world to a little girl, if he could help it. But Hugo was right. Ileyna was already subjected to a lot of tragedy that no kid should go through. You were supposed to enjoy childhood, not grow up right now and skip it altogether.

"Maybe so," Matt said, and fell quiet.

"Relax, Matt," R.D. said. "I don't plan on telling her everything about Khalis."

Hell, he didn't want to even remember everything about Khalis.

They kept walking without volunteering many words. This didn't make a lot of sense, Matt figured. Wasn't the Scale supposed to dump them near the Essence? Where was it now? How long would it take to find it? How would things go wrong when it finds them? Would they even be alive then?

Now Matt's paranoid mind reeled with unpleasant possible futures, and futilely he worked on staying in the present moment and keeping his focus. But he was plenty worried, like usual.

The old man was tough, no question about that. He seemed to have planned for every contingency. He snapped his fingers, sporting a taunting grin.

Wedo smiled, an opening! From behind, he lunged at the man, swinging his scythe. It connected. Wedo was shocked at the lack of blood. Something was wrong. He gave his scythe a tug. It was stuck.

"Oh shi-"

The explosion was deafening, Dearg-due had just enough time to jump out of the way. A burned and battered Wedo came stumbling out, his robe in tatters again. He panted a bit, but sure enough every wound on him regenerated.

"Oh," the old man cheerfully remarked from behind Wedo. "A regenerator!" Wedo tried to spin around but the man blasted him with a fireball before he could react.

Night fell fairly quickly on the group, though none of them were tired, having only been awake for a few hours before jumping.

"We better stop," Alasea said worriedly, looking around as their surroundings grew darker and darker. "We'll risk hurting ourselves if we keep moving through this."

"You're right," R.D. reluctantly agreed. "We might as well set up camp for now."

Some wood from Matt and a spark of flame from R.D. created a fire. The group laid out sleeping bags while Helena skewered some of their fresh meat on metal kabob sticks, aiming them at the fire. Meanwhile, Hugo poured drinks, and a bit of icy flair from Matt plopped ice cubes into cups.

Alasea was kneeling on her sleeping bag, humming a little tune as she examined Helena's new purse, subtle flows of power sweeping from her fingers through it as she attempted to create a pocket dimension within it. Ileyna sat next to her, knees drawn up to her chest as she watched the older girl work, utterly fascinated by the feat.

Sitting on the only rock near their camp, R.D. stared up at the night sky, seemingly lost in thought. Up above, the clear skies easily allowed anyone to see the thousands of stars in the distance, and the bright glowing moon hanging among them. R.D. had never seen a sky that was so clear before.

This was ALREADY a drag! Time to liven things up. "Hey!" Matt said, standing up with kabob in hand. "Who wants to see a stupid party trick?"

"No," Hugo said, sitting on Alasea's bag and examining his files.

"Someone needs to watch or I ain't gonna do it."

Helena bookmarked her novel with her thumb. "I'll watch." She laid the novel on her lap.

R.D. also glanced over, looking concerned. "You're not going to blow yourself up again, are you?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. Matt may not have the Omega Core anymore, but was still perfectly capable of causing explosions.

"Nooooooo...maybe. Just watch."

Dramatically clearing his throat, he held his kabob aloft. Then, with a loud burp, he released a short gust of flame from his mouth that set the meat on fire.

Helena laughed. "Okay, I've got to try that now." She took her kabob from beside the fire and held it out in front of her, aiming at a lone plateau in the night distance. Her mouth clenched shut and her cheeks swelled with pressure before she released it.

It was like raking leaves with a flamethrower. Helena's massive flame breath completely engulfed the kabob, torching it to a crisp.

"Aaahh!"
"Gyaahh!"
"Eeeek!"

R.D., Alasea, and Ileyna all fell back in surprise at the sudden wave of fire that tore through the air from Helena's mouth, the intense heat washing over them in an instant.