The void is an easy concept to grasp. Nothing but black for as far as one can see. In reality, and
      in my personal experience, it's a lot trippier than the concept might suggest. What's up? What's
      down? How the hell do I get out? Where the fuck am I? What am I standing on? Can I jump? Is
      anybody else here? Have a few seconds passed? Maybe a year has passed? Maybe a
      century? An eternity possibly? What will happen if I take a piss?
      
      I pondered all of these pointless questions and thoughts because I have an infinitely more
      important question weighing on my mind that I can't find an answer to. And because of that I'd
      rather not think of it even though I need an answer soon. I purposefully walked into here (not
      sure if that's an accurate way of putting it) in order to think about my dumb question because I
      find the unending nothingness to be peaceful in a weird way.
      
      Without warning a giant white mass descended (ascended? leftscended? rightscended? I have
      no clue how to describe their movement but descended sounds about right) right in front of me.
      This big fucking thing was about 99 meters long and 78 meters wide and looked like a hump
      that was about 25 meters tall. Eyes and other appendages that I didn't understand peppered it's
      entire back while nine tentacles (?) fell from it's underside (or belly I guess). The front four
      tentacles and back tentacle stretched far enough to touch the ground (or whatever you want to
      call the whatever I'm standing on) while the other four kinda just hovered in place.
      
      'Hello Dr. Alexandria Fritz.' The beast said to me in a calm and passive demeanor.
      
      'Oh' hello'' I whimpered out in return. Even after death, I still can't wrap my head around this
      whole conversation thing.
      
      'You sound uncomfortable. What weight bears on your conscience.' The translator in my brain
      says to me, which is off because it spoke just a second ago. I've always been trying to be more
      thoughtful of my responses, but unfortunately for me I spent too much time being thoughtful and
      now the moment was awkward (for me at least).
      
      'Well' have you heard of The Old Man's Game? It's an opportunity for anyone who completes
      the challenge to talk with the soul of anyone in existence for about five minutes... I've been
      thinking about using the opportunity to talk with a loved one.' The beast took barely a second to
      respond, which somehow made my awkward silence from earlier hurt more.
      
      'And may I ask who may these loved ones be?' He said in a manner that was completely
      unaware of how private the question was.
      
      I replied, 'Well one of them is my uncle who raised me and helped me become the woman I am
      now' And the other is my girlfriend who made the time I spent with her some of the best years
      of my life'' Again, a rapid response came out making me want to burrow into a hole and die.
      
      'And why can't you see one then the other.'
      
      'The challenge can only be taken every 100 years and I'm not sure who I'll be when that time
      comes around'' He actually took a moment to ponder this, relieving me from my earlier
      suffering but only for a second. I guess this creature is only sophisticated to a point and doesn't
      have a goddamn supercomputer in their head.
      
      'That does sound like a predicament' have you ever thought about changing the way you think
      about this decision?' These questions might seem strange to whoever is reading this
      cacophony of words but I've interacted with and slain things like this before and weird stuff like
      this is par for the course. They're probably reading my goddamn mind anyway, all of these
      questions were probably just meant to satiate some unknowable thirst for knowledge or
      something. Or maybe they genuinely care about me which has a very small chance of being
      true but it's still there.
      
      'Well I hadn't thought of that before'' I say before tossing the idea around in my noggin which
      does help clear up the decision a little more. 'Yeah' that helped somewhat' I think I can make
      a decision now.'
      
      The beast, now having satiated whatever strange desire they had stated, 'Good, then I'll be on
      my way.' After that they simply scatter into dust, flowing towards whatever direction their whimsy
      needs them to go.
      
      While the advice did help, I couldn't help but be pissed off by the encounter. Some random dude
      came floating out of the sky(?) and gave me life advice while I was just minding my business. I
      genuinely don't know what mechanism caused me to be angry but in that anger, I punted a
      pebble (how did that get there?) and grunted a little. Maybe I don't like my train of thought being
      interrupted.. Maybe it's because some douchebag came along and slapped the label 'social
      creatures' on us humans that others think they can just walk up to us and start talking to us. It
      certainly made my quiet life a bit more of a pain so thanks to nobody.
      
      Regardless, I needed to get my thoughts back on track to the challenge. Originally, I had been
      of the mind that I should be thinking about who I want to see, but their words made me rethink
      that. Instead I thought about who wouldn't want to see me spending my time after our final
      (kinda) goodbyes thinking about them. I had finally come to a (semi)substantial decision that I
      was satisfied with and would help me choose when the time came. Now, just like the grave
      beast that spoke to me before, I was fat with the satisfaction of a well thought out decision and
      as such made my way to my destination.
      
      On my way back to the gateway that led me to this peaceful realm I pondered other pointless
      questions to avoid the important things in my life before finally arriving at my destination. I
      arrived more by thinking about it then by actually knowing where I was going and the length of
      time didn't matter either. After all these capabilities were built into me a long time ago, without
      them I'd just be the same mortals I once was. Anyway, gateway is a too generous term for the
      place I needed to go, it was a hole of some sort but had strange edges, points, and curves
      carved into nearly every facet of the gateway. Not an uncommon sight in the multiverse. I could
      enter from any angle but a small itch at the back of my neck told me to be careful of where I
      entered least it fuck me up when I reach my destination which I knowingly and recklessly
      ignored. But before approaching it I noticed a black gooey mass with purple hues off to the side.
      I can't really describe its shape since it slithered, bent, and retracted in strange patterns that
      were hard to pin down. The way it writhed baffled my mind and understanding of physics. A part
      of me figured out that she was living, which meant that she could talk to me, which meant I
      should avoid her at all cost. But she's just one amorphous blob so I figured I could just step over
      her. Up until an old instinct fired off in my mind, the one that tells me stay the fuck away from
      that thing or I'll die.
  

  
      Before I could react the egregious mass expanded horizontally (or at least from my perspective
      it did). But strangely it didn’t shrink vertically, which I would’ve had more time to ponder on if the
      goo wasn’t so close to me. I stepped away with my right leg and simultaneously put it in an
      adjacent Layer but I was too late to do the same with my left leg. As soon as the goo touched
      that leg three sparks jumped up my leg at a surprising speed.
  
      Quick little side note the sparks felt like what a normal person would probably describe as the
      sting of a thousand dying stars, and for me it was a sensation I would describe simply as,
      ‘unpleasant.’ The perks of a carefully trained and maintained nervous system designed to
      minimize the shock factor from pain without taking away it’s primary purpose are wonderful.
  
      Luckily I was able to put that leg into an adjacent Layer just as it was touched which stowed it
      away from the rest of the goo. Luckily, (again) the pain from the sparks shot up my leg which
      made me acutely aware of where they were, I just had to cordon them off to another adjacent
      Layer to get rid of them with little trouble. After stepping away from the goo to a safe distance,
      the top(?) of the goo started forming into a humanoid shape, which might’ve been odd if it
      weren’t vaguely reflective of my body shape. The shape looked like the top half of a human, had
      a bulky build like me, and had few features like a mouth and nose. Her body was slick and was
      dripping constantly, she also had several small tendrils poking out from various parts of her
      torso that seemed to be more defensive than an actual part of her body.
  
      “Wait, did you just touch me?” She said in a surprisingly soft voice, it was so cute that it
      disarmed me a bit.
  
      “I…” she squeaked out weakly before trying to slither off away from the gateway.
  
      “Wait!” I shouted before grabbing her hand. I reached out to her to inquire about whatever it was
      that was inside my body in case it was dangerous but almost got sidetracked by how soft her
      hand was. Being a lesbian is a wonderfully positive part of my life that acts as a bright light
      amongst the darkness that constantly surrounds me but it can really fucking inconvenient at
      times, such as when I’m trying to ask a basic question. That thought was interrupted by another
      three sparks shooting up from my hand to my arm. I dealt with that problem the same way as
      last time by shoving them into a nearby Layer and kept my grip tight. She looked back at me
      and I gathered from what few features she had that she was shocked to see me holding on.
      “H-how are you still alive?” She asked me meekly.
  
      “I’m not too keen on being killed again.” I said as I let go of her hand. To some that might sound
      cheesy but to me it’s how I honestly felt, the momentary darkness between swapping bodies
      after being killed even as a Fixer still terrifies me to this day.
  
      “So you're one of the Angels?” To some species who know of our existence they might call us
      by various names if communication is poor or if our original name is lost to time.. Angels is
      surprisingly uncommon, so it was strange hearing it from an eldritch thing like her. I figured that
      was an accurate descriptor since I was still trying to wrap my head around how her physical
      form worked.
  
      “Yeah, been with them for about three and a half centuries. Now can you answer the question?”
      I wanted to get along with the conversation so I can get to my destination quicker.
  
      “Oh sorry.” She said with what I assume was a soft unnatural smile. “My body is covered with a
      poison that injects itself into anybody who touches me… I thought you would be another one of
      my victims.” Her smile quickly turned sour.
  
      I tried to immediately push down the thought that that was cool as fuck because it was pretty
      obvious that it caused her nothing but pain seeing how uncomfortable she was. “Actually.” She
      spoke up again. “Your the first person my affliction hasn’t killed in my entire life.” She said with a
      bit of hope in her voice that made me feel something I was too preoccupied at the time to
      understand. I guess it was fuzziness in my chest if I recall. She spoke to me again, “May I ask
      for your name?” I figured she should give me her name first since she already poisoned me
      twice but I didn’t want to upset her so I kept my mouth shut.
  
      “Dr. Alexandria Fritz, but you can call me Dr. Alex. What’s your name?” She responded in a way
      that my translator gave back as just a low creepy rumble which was likely how her language
      actually sounded when the human ear is able to comprehend it without melting. “Fuck this shit.”
      I mumble to myself quietly. The translator isn’t always reliable, especially when it comes to the
      names of higher beings. “Hey, it seems my translator can’t translate your name, anything else I
      can call you?” She didn’t seem to mind the mistake, and seemed to be warming up to me, it
      tempted me somewhat to stick around a little longer. As she opened her mouth to answer I felt
      tendrils stick into the back of my mind. Her’s likely, which I strangely didn’t mind and not
      because of whatever calming fluids were being injected and extinguished in me.
  
      “Oh, my apologies, in that case you can call me Luna.” I made sure to remember that name
      since I’m terrible with those in ordinary circumstances. As much as I wanted to learn more about
      her there was something I needed to do that withdrew me from the conversation and any more
      discussions.
  
      “Alright thanks, although I have to get going now, there's something important I have to do.” It
      really was about time for me to go since the task ahead weighed heavily on my mind.
  
      “Oh, sorry for taking up your time. Will I see you again!” She happily replied.
  
      “Yeah I’m sure we will…” we said our goodbyes and I stepped into the gateway hoping I would
      see her soon.
  
      As I stepped through and away from a person who strangely drew me in I saw a giant library (or
      at least that’s the best word for it) that seemed to stretch on to infinity in all directions while
      having shelves in shapes that defied logic likely for the sake of saving space. This library was a
      familiar place for me, but it changed often, this time the library was in varying shades of black,
      white, and grey. I stepped forward to the reception desk where an upright spider creature sat. It
      had five legs on the lower half of its body, three arms and a head slightly off from the top(?) of
      the creature. A giant tablet floated above its head with a crown-like attachment that fitted neatly
      onto its skull. It was chatting with who I assume were some of its friends happily with the tablet (I
      think at least) up until I approached. It let out the most exasperated sigh possible before telling
      its compatriots that it would call back later, which it then promptly placed the whole tablet on the
      floor face down. I noticed that the tablet was mostly composed of stone which made me wonder
      what the inside was made of.
  
      “Hi and welcome to the Library of All. How may I help you.” It said in its ‘I’m a happy customer
      service worker’ voice.
  
      “I want to take the Old Man’s Challenge.” I said a bit hesitant. It groaned over the fact that this
      conversation would take more than five seconds before taking out a chart and quickly explaining
      the rules. I was too nervous to say that I already knew the rules and besides a refresher is good
      once in a while I told myself to not feel as guilty.
  
      Rule #1: The objective is to place your entrance note before making your way to the exit.
  
      Rule #2: You must avoid The Old Man by never looking him directly in the eye.
  
      Rule #2.5: You must not be found by The Old Man’s retainers.
  
      Rule #5: No smoking outside of designated areas. (It’s rude to the dead)
  
      Rule #4: You only have five minutes to talk to your deceased loved one.
  
      “Now do you have any questions?” It said in an exhausted tone hoping to wrap this up quickly
      which I more than understood.
  
      “Nope.” I said in as formal of a manner as possible.
  
      “Good, now step into the portal to begin your journey.” He said exaggeratedly.
  
      I was fully ready for what was to come, I had done all the research possible, I had thought hard
      about who I would see and what I would say along with many backup scenarios. By all accounts
      I was as ready to go as possible. I stepped into the portal and was surrounded by kilometers
      and kilometers of endless wilderness and the distinct lack of civilization. This was going to get
      complicated.
  

  
      As a scientist I am well aware of how to conduct research, I talked to people about the Old
      Man’s Game and their experiences. I had also read numerous accounts of it and other people’s
      research on it. As a result, when I stepped through the portal I expected to be in a building or
      some kind of infrastructure as everyone else's account of the game told me that was where it
      usually takes place. So I guess I blacked out and had some major winnings from some lucky
      poker night that vanished by next morning because I needed the shittiest luck to land in the one
      place I hadn’t learned about.
  
      I took a step back and took some deep breaths. While calming myself I noticed that the tree life
      was very thin and gangly, often dropping into other trees and wildlife. There were occasional
      thick trees that were isolated from other trees and could flatten an entire person if they were
      dropped on them. The atmosphere also had a uniquely colored hue to it, which was due to the
      two moons in the sky, one an average green and the other a sickly yellow. The grass itself was
      very thick and spread out and dirt was much easier to observe through the grass then it
      normally would be from the universe I came from. The ground was also somewhat slippery
      which I needed to take into account if I wanted to win the game. The portal must have sent me
      to a random universe somewhere in the multiverse where the game is active, or at least that’s
      my theory for how I ended up here. The game presents several universal exceptions, the first
      being the one year cooldown on participation for all involved (not counting the winner of course),
      the other being that it always works if it can and does exist.
  
      Having finished looking around I calmed myself down especially since I can still scout out the
      area before the game would be under way. For reference the game has some unspoken rules
      that can be vital to winning the game and are kept secret from participants, the first is that
      contestants are allowed to tap in and out within a twenty-four hour time period before the
      midnight when the game starts. After that the first contestant to reach the exit is the winner with
      seemingly no time limit, meaning the game ends when someone reaches the exit. Checking the
      time with all the gizmos and gadgets the Fixers put in my head I saw that I had an hour to check
      out the area and maybe check out my fellow contestants. But first, I needed to survey the area
      which was much easier to do considering the hill I was on gave me a good view of the area, I
      figured hopping over to a Layer with less tree life would be my best bet, which I might find in a
      Layer with reduced oxygen in the atmosphere. The first Layer I landed in had an empty military
      base that stretched on for miles with dead infrastructure and gave me the feeling that I was
      being watched. Oopsie daisy.
  
      The second Layer had significantly fewer tree-life due to the decreased oxygen levels from
      various atmospheric conditions present here which provided for an amazing view. Looking
      around I saw one small stone structure, a large cluster of buildings resembling a military base,
      and a small altar-like structure. Warping the space between me and the small structure, I found
      that it was similar to some sort of cabin with the exception being the giant metallic and stone
      triangle that popped out of the apex of the roof for some reason.
  
      Noting my previous locations and the locations of the structures, I took a look inside and it held
      nothing beyond some rafters filled with bats and a giant skeleton in the corner along with a
      massive pitch black hole in the center of its floor. Throwing a rock in to measure the bottom I
      didn’t hear it actually hit said bottom. While listening for said bottom, I saw unknown characters
      etched below the inside rim of the hole. My translator barfed it out as ‘exit’ guess my money was
      right on the mark about it being related to the structures I heard about in my research. Before
      leaving to investigate the other structure I saw a table with a paper on it which quickly atomized
      any excitement I had when I saw that it was just a to-do/grocery list. I was about to file it away
      until I realized that the table and paper weren’t in here when I first entered. Oh well, the dumb
      Dr. Alex said to herself, I guess that doesn’t have any foreshadowing whatsoever I say now,
      writing about this experience in this forsaken diary.
  
      Looking at my watch I saw that I wouldn’t have enough time to investigate the military base so I
      cut my losses and headed for the altar. I decided not to bend space for the place, instead taking
      a walk there in the Origin Layer of the universe in order to conserve energy seeing as bending
      space can cause way too much mental strain ordinarily. It would also help me scout out the
      pathing of this forest better. Along the way, I heard some signs of life off to my seven o’clock
      which I pivoted towards and listened for. Sound is a force meaning I can amplify it to detect it
      more easily. Whoever made that noise must’ve realized I heard them because I didn’t hear
      anything after. Which was also strange.
  
      I made it to the structure which, from what I had read, was where one would register for the
      game and with just ten minutes to spare, I had some spare time to get a good look at the place.
      The first thing I noticed was all of the military crates off to the side along with some helicopter
      tracks which would imply that some other competitor(s) were already here and packing a lot of
      heat. Next I noticed the shrine that composed the structure I saw from a distance which appears
      in all of the stories of the game. I inspected the altar and saw that it had a marble staircase up to
      a steel-like platform with the altar and the rest of the structure was covered by a fancy roof that
      looked like an architect's pride and joy seeing the wondrous and deadly carvings across it. One
      of the railings on the four corners was also partially melted but also looked like it had been
      heated back up to be resolidified by some outside force. The altar itself seemed to be built for
      both prayer and sacrifice considering the many comfortable looking kneeling pads along with
      the countless chains of varying sizes and (what I assume are) blood splatters that the altar had
      on its top. The rafters above the altar were also filled with all kinds of insects and creatures that
      got a wonderful view of all the blood and emotions spilled during the altars used lifetime. Now it
      stands as a testament to these peoples’ sometimes evil pasts. I stood before the altar and saw
      fifteen folded papers each likely with a different name on them. I didn’t peek, seeing as my
      competitors' names meant very little to me since I didn’t plan on killing any of them, which
      looking back I do somewhat regret. Taking a moment, I took a deep breath and placed my paper
      onto the altar at the last minute knowing that I very well could be launched into hell yet again.
  
      I turned around to head back to the cabin and to get this all over with and was met with a face
      full of demon spawn. The beast was covered in a faded pink that oddly gave it cover in the
      strange alien moonlight. It had eight legs that carried a flat round body with a hump on top. The
      top of it was covered in clawed arms of varying lengths, the nearest one of which had what
      appeared to be a head with a single eye and mouth stretched across the front half of it. Three
      arms grabbed me and took me close to the beast’s face where it shrieked like a banshee in my
      face. It appears my good luck truly had taken its course seeing as I entered the game at the last
      minute when, what I assume to be the individual who checks contestant entries, had arrived.
      Unless, I’m getting down on myself again.
  
      Aside from being a bit put off from the creature's sudden appearance, I wasn’t phased much.
      Before it could close its mouth during its screech I gave it a swift kick to the jaw creating a
      cracking sound that reverberated all the way to the top of the trees. Not happy (well not happy is
      an understatement, I was pissed) about being in its grip I gave it a few rough headbutts after
      grabbing its head, shattering the deadly things skull even further before it suddenly dropped me
      to the ground. It probably wasn’t used to having victims who were stronger than it. I noticed that
      it’s head emitted a viscous gray ooze, blood probably (no it didn’t look like the blood on the
      altar). While it was still dazed I yanked two of its massive legs toppling the creature. Taking
      advantage of the situation, I pulled the two legs I was holding onto until the cracking sound
      came to an end, tearing both of the legs I held off completely. Anger had already taken hold of
      me as I always let it, forcing me to take one more crack at the retainer (now that I’m thinking
      about it, I have no clue why these creatures are called that, probably some universal perception
      of mine). I grabbed the creature's neck along with the sharpest arm I could find and started
      scratching the creature's face, tearing away at the eye and opening up its gums. After about a
      minute while I had blocked out the beast's wailing I decided that I didn’t have the time to keep
      torturing it so I swiftly pulled out a semi-automatic from my vast arsenal amongst the Layers.
      The pistol clicked with the same noise any empty gun makes and I clicked my tongue in
      annoyance. The revolver I whipped out from my holster finished the job after two taps of the
      trigger which from my research seems to be a necessity when dealing with the retainers.
  
      Many people get upset over my anger, it’s not a sign of a healthy mind and it causes some
      others to commit deeds they regret. But I live across the entire multiverse now and the evil in it
      just makes my blood boil. I’ve heard a lot of people talk about morals and ideology and throw
      out nonsense like, “if we stoop to their level we’ll be just as bad as them,” without really
      understanding the heavy consequences these ideas can bring with them. While I believe in
      second chances, I also believe that the only way I can live my life is to ensure that I drag as
      many of those people down to hell with me.
  
      Before I can change my mind on torturing the creature’s corpse, I march onward back to the
      structure that marks my destination. Checking my button up, cargo pants, and combat boots I
      saw minimal blood on them. I noted internally that I would need to ask Dan for some help
      washing out the blood. He’s a lot better at cleaning blood off clothes then I am currently and I
      would need all the help I could get since I was sure that I would meet more retainers along the
      way.
  
      Moving on I didn’t pay too much attention to my surroundings, only insofar that nobody
      ambushes me. I used to be terrified of the darkness of the woods, not knowing what was out
      there is a hell of a lot scarier than knowing what's out there. As time went on forests got less
      scary as I started to understand the beasts that lay within. It also wasn’t helped by the moon’s
      unusually brighter glow giving slightly more light to the area. The fear I had of the forest started
      to disappear when I ran into a cryptid when I was still alive and on a long road trip. The
      encounter wasn’t that exciting, it was just me running around the woods for an hour,
      occasionally stabbing it with my hunting knife before I broke into some homestead to steal their
      shotgun.
  
      My well-timed ruminating caused me to not pay attention to the presence behind me. Before I
      could fully turn around, I had been kicked in the back of the lower legs and was sent to my
      knees. I guess my internal troubles have been really bothering me if I let someone sneak up on
      me. As my knees hit the ground I heard the familiar whir of some kind of gun from the person
      who just kicked me. A contestant, one who wasn’t going to let another contestant get in the way
      of their prize. Having faced this exact scenario a million times I knew exactly what to do. After
      counting for half a second the moment my knees hit the ground, I threw my head to the ground
      and my arms in the air. I swiftly dodged the kill shot, the bullet whizzing through my hair like a
      heavy breeze. I grabbed just like I had a million times before and grabbed the gun's hot barrel.
      With my weight shifted downward and my frustration increasing, I yanked the barrel downward.
      At the least it would throw them off balance and allow me to shift my position. It turned out the
      best outcome occurred as the woman who had just tried to execute me tumbled to the floor
      below me along with her pistol. Seizing the short moment I mounted her and began throwing
      down blows on her face. It didn’t take long before she was out cold and I had to stop myself
      after the fifth punch as blood spewed from her shattered jaw along with broken teeth scattered
      everywhere along the ground. Sorry lady, this boon is mine for the taking.
  
      As I got up I noticed how gorgeous she was overall aside from the torn face from my recent
      blows. That along with her whitish blonde hair made me stop for a moment to appreciate her
      beauty. Although my appreciation was short-lived when I noticed that she actually had no jaw,
      one and a half snake eyes, and sickly green skin along with the rest of her species. As I tore
      myself away, it made specific parts of my brain fire off on all cylinders and particularly the
      clearest of those thoughts were of Luna possibly just because I was thinking about pretty
      women. I shook those thoughts off as I continued onward, one contestant down with fourteen to
      go.
  
      Carrying on, as I finally recollected my thoughts and calmed my anger down to have my normal
      thought process, I heard something sinister coming from the woods. It was the whirring sound of
      a motherfucking minigun.
  

  
      I always try to use the Layers sparingly since it drains my mental energy fast in a lot of
      circumstances. This time I dove straight in there and ran behind a massive rock. Well, a rock is
      about the closest approximation I can think of. It’s about 60% rock, 30% tree, and 10% mud (or
      their closest approximation in this universe) and was as hard as steel. It was also partially
      covered in a dark yellow substance.
      
      “Fuck.” I muttered as I slumped my back against it, it felt like I had just put my back in sugar
      water. It reminded me of how surprised I was to see familiar patterns like these across the
      multiverse. Which was also tinged with disappointment because I guess I was expecting
      something new and inhuman.
      
      When I popped back into the Origin Layer I found myself under shelter from a storm of metal
      bringing hot death to the surrounding woods. Their callous disregard for the beauty of the woods
      pissed me the hell off, this asshole was going to get it. After about five seconds the searing
      spread of metal stopped and I heard someone speaking in an unidentified language with a bit of
      mania to their tone. They gave orders to some others meaning that more than one contestant
      was present. This person might’ve been the owner of the crates I recognized earlier.
      
      I stood behind a nearby tree grabbing a rifle filled with tranqs from a nearby Layer. I also
      grabbed my revolver and held it in my non-trigger hand just in case something goes tits up.
      From my shitty memory of military tactics it was pretty obvious that he was going to send some
      soldiers ahead to find me while he safely provided cover, assuming that the gunfire was
      because he had found me. I waited in the shadows of my tree until two soldiers emerged. I shot
      about seven shots from 20 meters away and hit four times, two for each soldier knocking them
      out instantly with how carefully curated the dosage was. As soon as the fourth shot hit I dove
      into the Layers leaving only my hearing organs behind so I could pick up on what was
      happening. Panic arose amongst the soldiers as two of their men mysteriously fell, and I
      managed to find some sole soldier on his own on the outside of the group.
      
      As I popped back out, I saw the owner of the chaingun standing in the clearing I was originally
      shot at. He had a mad grin of glee etched across his face. I was behind the poor soldier and in a
      single movement I put him in a chokehold while covering his mouth, before dragging him behind
      some big tree. Fortunately, I’m much taller than him so his sudden increase in elevation gave
      him enough panic to drop the rifle. As he uselessly screamed for his comrades, I found myself
      appreciating the alien design of his rifle which upon closer inspection looks like a weird
      bastardization of a rifle, shotgun, and a square device I can’t describe the look of with just
      words. I’m pulled out of these thoughts by tears on my right hand that’s covering his mouth, the
      poor kid is terrified of something and I don’t know whether or not it’s me. I hasten the process
      and put him to sleep just as I hear a name being called in my direction. Back to the shadows I
      guess.
      
      Popping back in, my translator began to actually spit out the unknown language back to me in
      English as it finished processing the entire language.
      
      “Where the fuck is Yulriaq?” One of them says with a brave tone.
      
      “I have no idea, I just think we should get the fuck out of here.” Says another, a bit more scared.
      
      I slowly began to climb one of the thicker trees as the soldiers regroup, preparing to return to the
      minigun user but for some reason seeming too scared to go back. They were probably terrified
      that they’d get shot by the madman.
      
      The tree I chose to climb was actually a massive clump of trees, melding into each other at the
      base and spreading out into four different trees like a flower at the top, but interestingly each of
      them seemed to be at different stages of their lives.
      
      As I reached the top of one I popped back out and slowly started popping shots off at one of
      them. Just as he fell I popped back in ignoring the yelps of the poor men and hopped onto
      another thinner tree. I then popped out briefly, taking down five of the men who were now
      manically shooting into the trees hoping that their powerful guns would bring down their
      assailant, when they were too panicked to figure out my actual location.
      
      Just as I popped back out to take down one of the remaining four I noticed that they started
      running. Taking in my surroundings I saw a retainer charging towards them. While I was upset at
      their leader just trying to mow me down without so much as a heads up, I didn’t want to take
      anything out on his men by getting them killed. So I hopped down in front of the retainer and
      stretched out my arms as the grunts behind me sprinted away for their lives. Quickly as it
      charged, our arms locked as we tried to overpower each other. A banshee wail came out from
      this one, a lot deeper than the previous one. Despite that I pushed and pushed, ignoring my
      own growling as I tore my muscles to shreds in an attempt to overpower the beast. While our
      clash lasted about five seconds it felt like it was five hours long and the reality of that time gap
      took hold as I shoved the retainer to the ground, causing it to lose all of its strength. Before I can
      smash its skull like a grape, I hear the whirring of his chaingun which I responded to by hopping
      into a nearby Layer.
      
      When I popped back out behind a tree behind the chaingun user, I saw the beast laying in a
      giant puddle of blood and gore with only a few pieces remaining amongst the carnage. I felt like
      it would have looked that way if I actually had time to do with it as I pleased.
      
      “Show yourself you motherfucking coward, and I hope the rest of you sputs get eaten alive while
      out there!” He shouted probably just horny from all the violence.
      
      Popping back into the nearby Layer I made sure my eye remained in the Origin Layer so I could
      keep track of his movements. I quickly went around to his backside and approached from
      behind and fucked up badly. Just as I popped out he quickly stepped back, bumping right into
      me by complete accident. The surprise sent me off balance instantly causing me to fall on my
      ass while dropping my weapons. As he noticed and turned around a wicked grin stretched
      across his face. Seeing as he was in close quarters now, he dropped the minigun and pulled out
      a pistol from one of his shoulder holsters and aimed it right at my head. “Ah, if it isn’t the witch
      who’s been downing my soldiers,” he says menacingly.
      
      I smile and shoot back “Well they weren’t very good soldiers if they got scared of me.” I pivot my
      body slightly so my back is pointing somewhat right and start pushing myself back. He takes a
      step closer with each push I make. Anger starts to prick at my insides, the multiple
      inconveniences throughout the day were starting to piss me off and I just wanted to take it all out
      on him.
      
      He laughed maniacally, “Well seems like you're the scared one no-“ I felt the cold metal of my
      handgun under my hands and immediately whipped it around and fired off four shots. The gun
      clicked for the fifth shot indicating it was empty. I reminded myself for the 4,589,120,673 time to
      restock my arsenal during my downtime. It also occurred to me at that moment that he was
      definitely high off of some good shit since his only reaction was to stumble a step and drop his
      gun. All in one instant he tries to reach for his other shoulder holster. I respond by reaching
      behind my back and throwing my hunting knife at him.
      
      Olga had gotten it for me as a final gift that she left me with her will. For it to be the thing to save
      my life on my journey to see her after hundreds of years felt right. The sudden knife in his upper
      chest shocked him enough to make him fall on his back. I stood up and over him as he coughed
      up blood between hateful words all while reaching for his chest in some desperate hope to
      revitalize himself.
      
      The anger inside me still needed to be let out and he seemed the perfect punching bag. I
      grasped his minigun and lifted it over my head. Just a moment ago, he held so much power in
      his hands, now all he has left is the terror in his eyes right before I drop the heavy ass minigun
      on his chest. Not only did it crush his spine but it made his bones and gore spurt out into the air
      like a fountain. As I was reaching down to grab my girlfriend’s knife I noticed that some of his
      soldiers had returned with horrified looks on all of their faces. One of them was shaking more
      than the others while pointing their rifle at me. I tell them in as grave a tone as I can manage
      “Go home, or you’ll end up like him. Not like any of you have any reason to stay.” They all look
      at each other then back at me and slowly back away before sprinting deep into the forest
      knowing that they’ll walk away from this night with nothing but nightmares.
      
      With yet another slaughter finished I casually make my way to the cabin, again. Along the way I
      opportunistically killed a retainer by using the Layers to reach inside and grab a few organs after
      I broke half its legs. I’ve always been naturally curious, and since not a lot of people took the
      time to research these cryptids, I figured now would be as good a time as any to get an idea of
      how they squirm. One of them was oddly octagonal and was mainly white while, another one
      melted the second I pulled it out, and the third one initially resembled an eye before I noticed the
      top half try to blink causing me to drop it and smash it with my legs. Pretty peculiar, but I couldn’t
      really discern much about the creature so I left the beast writhing in agony, hoping its cries
      would put me in a bit of a better mood and maybe get me focused again. Just before I finished
      the last stretch of my walk I was abruptly interrupted by a glint in my eye. I quickly dove behind
      another strange rock right before a sniper shot rings by my head's previous location.
      
      I peek out of the rock for a look but am forced to withdraw my head when another shot rings out.
      Instead of tempting fate again, I took a look at the bullet hole near my head and did some rough
      calculations of the sniper's location. They seem to be about 5-12 meters high and around
      100-125 meters away, the caliber was also definitely high enough to destroy half of my skull.
      Assuming my trigonometry is correct my best bet would be to snipe back. I reach back into a
      specific part of the Layers for my railgun. Well, railgun is a bit too generous, I really just modified
      an anti-material rifle to take all kinds of ammo types including explosive slugs and other wacky
      shit. The rifle itself was from an assassin who came for me when I was the head researcher of
      the Infinite Green project. I had a lot of respect for the asshole who shot me in the stomach at
      point blank range with a 50 caliber round. I still have no idea how I survived that, other than the
      fact that the only thing I wanted to do was to live another day, to see the end of the project.
      
      I rolled away from the rock and aimed my scope at where I guessed they were only for my
      guess to be completely wrong. I snapped myself into the Layers a quarter of a second before
      the bullet landed. I shuffled myself over behind a nearby tree, one that looked a lot darker than
      the other trees in the area, I guess it was another species or something not that it particularly
      mattered. Regardless, it looked sturdier and it had a hole amongst the branches for me to spy
      on my opponent with. After I stacked up against the tree and popped back out I pulled out a pair
      of binoculars to look for them. I surveyed the area for about five seconds before I saw a glint out
      of the corner of my vision. I had about half a second to get a better view of where they were and
      pull myself under the tree before the bullet whizzed by my head. My guess (and my hope) is that
      my spotting them would make them decide to reposition. This would (should) give me an
      opportunity to move closer without wasting too much mental energy since I still have no idea
      how many retainers stand between me and that cabin.
      
      I took a deep breath and immediately went around the tree to sprint through the woods. Bobbing
      through the weirdly gnarled trees that seem to get progressively more menacing as I get closer
      to the cabin, I close about half of the distance before I slam into another tree to put something
      between the two of us. Immediately I swing my railgun around the tree ready to fire. Using my
      memory of what I saw in the binoculars I took a guess as to where they were most likely to
      reposition and aimed my railgun in that direction. I fired off a shot near them, perforating a giant
      hole in a nearby tree along with some shrubbery(?). The adrenaline in my system and my
      emotional crisis must have been adding up at this point because I hadn’t taken into account that
      my actions would cause at least a little harm to the goddamn wildlife, which was something I
      chided my last opponent for doing. Whoops. Another of my many flaws is that my brain is
      primed for survival rather than trying to finish my fights optimally. I just get too caught up in the
      moment sometimes to change I guess. I silently apologized to the nearby greenery before using
      the chaos to approach my target. I slumped to the ground below the hill where the sniper was
      and crawled towards their position.
      
      My advance was going well until I was sorely interrupted by the landmine I saw pointed directly
      at me. I took a second to pop into the Layers to sneak past it but by the time I had snuck past it
      and popped back out, I heard and saw the sniper scuffling away. I would’ve sworn crudely and
      then given chase if another landmine hadn’t been two feet away from my face. Holding in my
      frustration, I slip in again and sneak past this landmine before getting up and giving chase after
      popping out.
      
      I heard their footsteps get louder and louder as I got closer and closer. This pattern repeated
      until I tripped suddenly. A tripwire had been spread across the trees which I hadn’t noticed. I
      managed to combat roll before I hit the ground and before I recovered a thought entered my
      mind. “What if they set up more traps?” Stopping to take a quick look, I found my assumption to
      be right. While my survival instinct was a bit of a pain at times it also did keep me alive and alert
      (most of the time).
      
      I slowly traversed the minefield of tripwires, some of which might have had explosives attached
      but I’d rather not find out. I was starting to gain some confidence in my navigational skills before
      my instincts kicked in, sensing some change in the environment before the other parts of my
      brain noticed. I tugged my head slightly to the left causing searing hot metal to miss my head by
      about two centimeters. “Fuck this,” I thought to myself before flying behind a nearby tree and
      popping into the Layers. I immediately ran to about the only position a sniper could take and
      popped back out about the location where I thought I would be right behind said sniper. I was off
      by a few meters but I was still behind them. I noticed that they had long hair the same color as
      the first girl I fought in these damn woods. They were also rather muscular with broad
      shoulders. I tried not to stare at the curve in the center of their upper back for too long before
      approaching her. Before I can approach them to knock them out, they quickly swivel and point
      their rifle at my chest, probably some silent alarm that I tripped without noticing. At the same
      time I pull out a pistol (one that’s actually loaded this time luckily) and point it at their head.
      
      Before I can speak, they address me angrily, “Did you kill my sister?”.
      
      I figured confirming my suspicions would be a decent place to start, “Does she have the same
      hair color as you?” I notice the new language my translator is using sounds slightly metallic now
      that my adrenaline has died down a little.
      
      “What does that matter to you anyway?” The defensive response implies that they are either
      very protective of themselves and their sister or that I was right on the money.
      
      “Relax, I only knocked her out, she’s perfectly fi-“ It then occurred to me that the retainers out
      there might’ve found her unconscious body and found themselves a nice snack. I also hoped
      that the other soldiers collected their comrades before running and were armed enough to save
      themselves and maybe the little girl I kicked the shit out of. It was all just another regret to add
      to the pile. Another mistake that I could never take back. Yet another lesson for me to brutally
      etch into my ragged skin. My body was already covered with enough scars to kill many things
      bigger than me but at this point it was just a constant reminder of my regrets and mistakes.
      
      “That’s all I needed to hear.” They say angrily before firing square at my chest. I let the shot hit,
      to let the reminder sink in. I responded with five shots, one of which hit their right knee before
      the slide of my gun exploded causing the entire gun to fall apart while they slid to the ground in
      agony. I walked away before they could grab their gun and fire again.
      
      When I was confident that I was far enough away from them to not be shot and was about as
      close to being back on track to the cabin as I could, I sat down to treat myself. I grabbed some
      basic medical supplies from the Layers to start treating the wound. First, I used a magnetic rod
      to suck out the bullet before disinfecting it with the R&D guys' weird ass bug spray. All it took
      was some bandaging before I was as good as new.
      
      Finishing up the bandaging, I decide to shove this regret down so I can deal with the actual
      regret I’m about to face before I notice a message in my internal computer. It was from a Javery,
      which sounds similar to the name of a member of the Intelligence Division I worked with on a
      mission a while back. The message read:
      
      “Hey, I noticed that you had some rotten luck on landing the location for your Old Man’s
      Challenge. Those dang teenagers carelessly sending you off to wherever they feel! My
      condolences go out to you… To make up for it, I booted up some old nearby nanodroids to
      survey the area. I know you're a pretty good tracker and likely already found the cabin where
      your destination is, but I figured this would help if you ever run into trouble. You did tell me that
      one time that Plan A never works so I figured this would provide at least a little assistance.
      Anyway don’t worry about this little Favor, just make sure to take care of yourself and I hope
      your personal journey is successful.”
      
      Ze gave an annoying little wave before the message ended. I groaned, I always felt bad enough
      to return someone’s Favor whenever they ask me to do so unless I’m doing something urgent.
      Jevar even went out of zer way to go through all the procedures of turning on old nanodroids
      even while they were likely charging for an actual mission. I also worried that Javery was putting
      on a friendly face to make asking for a Favor less upsetting. Oh well, while I’m sure my
      competition was gone, I didn’t really want to stay in this forest any longer than I had to. I
      followed along the path my new internal map displayed to me and found the familiar cabin soon.
      
      Exhaustion, both physical and (mostly) mental, nearly made me drop my guard. However,
      despite the exhaustion, I quickly noticed the two retainers quickly approaching my position. One
      from my 8 o’clock and one a little further from my 4 o’clock. They were both approaching fast. I
      went into a full on sprint for the cabin. Time to end this.
  

  
      I slammed through the door like a bat out of hell, making a mad dash for the exit pit. Just before
      I could jump in, a piano, yes a goddamn piano, fell on me. I back rolled out of the way just in
      time to not be crushed and looked around the cabin for what or whoever did this.
  
      As I scanned the room and briefly gazed at the back left corner of the rafters, I was certain
      nothing was there, until something was. As my eyes rolled over that area, I whipped my head
      back towards the thing that had just appeared, it was a tall dark-gray humanoid with only a few
      fleeting strands of colorless hair, its eye sockets were empty and nose and lips were sunken into
      its face. I could hardly hear its ragged breathing. The rest of the body was equally deformed
      with long appendages that made it way bigger than me along with giant clawed hands and feet.
      It tried to screech at me but only strained coughs came out. I had found the owner of the
      challenge, and according to my research, it didn’t appreciate any outcome other than the
      contestants preying on each other until his hungry retainers finished them off. I also just
      happened to break Rule #2, meaning this was going to get more complicated for me. Probably.
      After his failed screech he lunged directly at me.
  
      A rough fight was in my immediate future and I needed a little more firepower. Thick and dark
      wires exited The Layers and wrapped around my body, using the gateways between reality to
      perfectly cover most of my forearms and ankles. As they finalized their contours around my
      body they tightened, giving me a protective shield and a deadly blunt force object, those being
      my two bare hands.
  
      As The Old Man lunged at me, I pulled my arms up in a defensive stance. Suddenly the
      direction of his lunge along with the hand he used to thrust changed from my front to my right
      and his left arm was outstretched. Luckily my instinct from centuries of near death encounters
      kicked in and I ducked low. Using The Layers, The Wireframe, and some basic physics
      calculations I charged my right arm with electricity and jabbed him clean in the lower chest
      sending him flying across the room.
  
      A well-documented fact about physics is that there are four natural forces throughout most of
      existence. One of those being gravity which exists as a pulling motion between every two pieces
      of mass in existence. It’s a bit more complicated than that but the point I’m trying to make is that
      I can freely manipulate gravity with The Layers as well. Which certainly helps when you're
      throwing down with things that are twice your size. The only other problem is the sudden
      increase in energy shattering most of my body whenever I use it, although I can easily
      compensate for it by sending that energy elsewhere. Those decades of brutalizing myself with
      The Layers really do come in handy.
  
      The beast folded as he hit the wall and to make the situation more complicated the nearest
      retainer entered the cabin. I quickly sidestepped it as it charged at me, and used its shifted
      weight to shove it toward the wall which caused most of its legs to trip. I charged and slammed
      the creature into the wall and atomized its head with my elbow. Experience made me unable to
      acknowledge the blood seeping through my bandages into my scars as well as the bones that
      pierced my arm. Just as I thought I had found a reprieve, the second closest retainer was
      already on top of me swiping at my upper half. I blocked it with The Wireframe and tried circling
      back to the center of the room for some space. Unfortunately, the Old Man jumped onto its
      retainers back uncomfortably shifting some of its arms out of their joints.
  
      The writhing of the retainer was already erratic but its new rider made it about as balanced as
      an alcoholic on a Friday evening. It wiggled and waggled its way towards me before the multiple
      gangly appendages were wailed at me. All while The Old Man rather tactically lunged to push
      me into the corner. Before I could let them, I made a big leap over the awkward pair. But instead
      of going to the center of the room as I originally planned to, I hung in the rafters by my arms.
      The dastardly duo turned upward toward me and with the pull of its rider on the mount’s head
      they leaped toward me. Using their newfound momentum I let go and used The Layers to speed
      up my descent giving me a wonderful view of the mountain's stomach, as The Old Man pulled
      back on it’s retainers’ neck too hard. Using my weight, I was able to instantly smash the retainer.
      Now being airborne mounted on a corpse The Old Man took a spectacular fall along with the
      force from my botched surgery.
  
      Just before I’m able to finish him while he’s been injured from some of his newly shattered
      bones tearing away at his flesh. A third retainer appears behind me. Honestly, this cabin might
      as well just be magic at this point. Looking back, the second one had been summoned in this
      strange cabin and the third one just happened to be the second one I saw outside now
      becoming the hero to save his master.
  
      My survival instincts kicked in again trying to shove my head to the side so it wouldn’t bite my
      head off and he squarely landed his teeth on my right shoulder. In another time the pain
      would’ve been so unbearable that I would’ve passed out on the spot and been eaten. Instead I
      grabbed the creature's long neck and swung him into the wall above The Old Man. The Old Man
      still had some fight left in him because he also tried to lunge his sharp claws into my chest but I
      had much more time to react so I was able to block him with The Wireframe by wrapping my
      chest up tightly with it. Both screamed a wailing duo of the damned that made the veins inside
      and around my eye sockets glow.
  
      In response I slammed the retainer on his master causing it’s neck to snap with a deep crunch. I
      felt some of the blood from its neck bones fall through my bandages. The Old Man was far more
      fucked up because his lower jaw pierced the back of his upper jaw causing some of his tongue
      and brain matter to leak out of his head. As the two corpses slumped over, my translator kicked
      on taking in a language similar to the minigun user’s. The Old Man croaked out “Alexan-'' before
      cutting off, the dank light in his eyes fading one more time.
  
      Another unspoken rule for The Old Man’s challenge (because all The Old Men are fucking
      sadistic bastards apparently) is that the owner is always watching over these games. When an
      owner dies the strongest retainer becomes the new owner. It made me wonder if The Old Man I
      had killed was even the first one for this iteration of the game, if they were all stuck to some
      eternity of taking each other’s places until they all died like dogs. Hell takes on many different
      interpretations across all different civilizations. The idea or rather fear of eternal suffering is a
      constant across the beauty of existence. I wondered if this was just another version of hell.
  
      I pushed all of that aside, as well as my attempt to compare myself to them. As I approached
      the hole, my heart was racing at a quadrillion kilometers per hour as way too many thoughts
      entered my head.
  
      “Will she even want to see me?”
  
      “Was this a mistake?”
  
      “Do I even have the right to interrupt whatever life she’s enjoying now?”
  
      “Should I drag the past back for her?”
  
      “Is five minutes even enough?”
  
      “I should just go home and save us the trouble.”
  
      “What if this makes her hate me?”
  
      “Will I be able to say what I need to say in the time I have?”
  
      “Am I being a burden to her?”
  
      “Is this right?”
  
      “What if I say something wrong?”
  
      “I can’t breathe.”
  
      “What’s wrong with me?”
  
      “What if she didn’t stop in The Waiting Area for a good reason?”
  
      “Should I see my Uncle?”
  
      “Will he be pissed if I saw her first?”
  
      “I’m gonna throw up.”
  
      “Maybe things are the way they are for a reason.”
  
      “I’m gonna pass out.”
  
      “Please let this go right.”
  
      As I was stewing in my anxieties like a moron, two guns clicked to life behind me. The siblings
      were there, damaged but otherwise okay, with full intent of taking my reward from me.
  
      “Back away from the hole.” The one who tried to sneak up on me said with a semi-automatic
      pointed at my head.
  
      “We just want to see our father.” The one with the sniper said with their rifle pointed at my head.
      My thoughts of how pretty they were were now completely gone, replaced instead by a knowing
      dread that my choice had just been hastened. With no time left, any hesitation about seeing my
      Uncle or Olga was gone, with my feelings towards the girl who made the latter half of my life
      complete winning over. I turned toward them with a small smile on my face, “So you're here to
      see a loved one too?”
  
      They both chuckled then they spoke up “Loved one? Yeah… right.” I wondered what that meant
      for a moment but ultimately decided that didn’t matter.
  
      I stretched my arms out with my palms up in a relaxed gesture and spoke up. “Well… there's
      always next time…”
  
      As I started to fall back three bullets ripped into me, two in my chest and one sliding through the
      side of my face as it grazes me. As I fall through the hole it closes as if I had just fallen into the
      mouth of a beast, and I’m suddenly free falling into darkness right back where I started. It’s
      actually kind of soothing as I feel nothing touching or pressuring my body. I’m enveloped in a
      complete and total bliss for but a mere moment, the feeling was similar to a sensory deprivation
      chamber. All of that ends when I suddenly and clumsily land on my feet (even though I was
      falling backwards?) and am greeted by a voice so deep that my ‘mouth of a beast’ allegory
      wasn’t too far off the mark.
  
      “Doctor Alexandra Fritz as you are now and The Devil Himself as you always will be. It seems
      you are our first victor in seventeen cycles, congratulations.” It rumbled. “Whomst would you like
      to meet?”
  
      That nickname was an old one I wished to bury deep into the dredges of my memory. One day
      an entire battalion of soldiers listening to the orders from a country who didn’t like Project Infinite
      Green captured me, shredded my body, and stuffed me in a cage half that size before marching
      me around for hours. By the end of the day the only survivor of theirs was their commander who
      was attempting to drag himself away from all the carnage I single-handedly made. His final
      words filled with fear before I put a bullet between his eyes were, “Your The Devil Himself.”
  
      I had swiveled that fight around in my head so much that I barely even reacted to that name
      anymore. Even therapy wasn’t and hasn’t been enough to help me completely get over that time
      of my life.
  
      I took a deep breath before speaking up with a whimper I wish I had stifled. “I would like to see
      Olga Petrenko if possible.”
  
      “If that is your wish then so be it.” It growled, before she popped up in front of me just like that,
      as I once knew her. She was wearing a long dress covered by a purple flannel shirt. My favorite
      one. With that our timer began.
  
      “Hey there Ale.” Oh god. How did I almost forget her smile?
  
      In that moment I wanted more than anything to just casually start talking, and slowly work my
      way up to the one and only thing I wanted to ask her at the end of our five minutes. But the dam
      holding back my tears broke down immediately on contact. I didn’t even get a single word in
      before I was sobbing violently.
  
      “Hey, hey what’s wrong Ale.” She said quietly after closing the distance between us and
      embracing me. I reluctantly hugged her back, not really feeling like I should have this.
  
      We met back when I was finishing up my service in the army, during a battle where I had been
      shot nearly twenty times putting me in a coma for half a week. She dragged me off the
      battlefield and nursed me back to health. Her soft Russian accent was the first thing I heard
      when the darkness ended and since then it’s been a comfort. It’s been so long since I’ve heard
      it.
  
      I needed to get my words out now or all of my time here will be wasted and when I see my uncle
      in the next century he’s gonna be fucking pissed if I just wasted this opportunity crying.
      After a minute of sobbing I choked out, “Wh-why didn’t you stop between lives and see me? I
      didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye when we were alive and now you won’t even stop to
      see me. Do you hate me?” The last sentence wasn’t something I intended to say when I started
      speaking. I didn’t want to trouble or anger her and I knew those were the words that would make
      her feel that way.
  
      After I said that her eyes widened for a moment and in that moment I convinced myself that I
      was right, I could actually feel my heart stop when I came to that conclusion.
      But instead of her pulling away she smiled and held me closer. I had almost forgotten what fear
      had felt like until that moment.
  
      “I could never hate you Ale. When I came to in The Waiting Room, I thought you’d be upset if I
      stayed and delayed my existence just to see you one more time so I just moved on, I believe
      your uncle did the same.” Even though those words brought me more comfort than I could’ve
      hoped for as I was still violently sobbing. After that we spent a minute embracing while she
      waited for me to spurt out my next words.
  
      “Can you stop by the Waiting Room when you can?” I asked her when I calmed down enough to
      make a coherent sentence.
  
      “I’d be more than happy to. I always knew you liked to be alone so I thought that with you having
      spent a few years without me when I passed first you would want to enjoy that solace. I guess
      the time just escaped me, and I’m sorry for that, I’ll be sure to see you once in a while from now
      on.” If I hadn’t known her for over half a century I would have told myself she was lying, but I
      knew, just knew, that she wasn’t.
  
      I spit out “thank you” after “thank you” until I was done crying. By then we had about a minute
      left on the clock and we had stopped embracing.
  
      “Soooo, how’s your current life?” I asked hoping to at least gain a brief glimpse into the life of
      one of the most important people I know and maybe to properly use some of this time to just
      chat.
  
      She perks up immediately having mostly forgotten how upset we both were moments ago, “Oh,
      I’m currently working as the xxxiarch of a cult dedicated to bringing about the will of a kind
      benevolent elder god.” She leans in closer to my ear and whispers. “They are actually really
      kind, I hope we can bring about their will soon.” She says with a bit too much enthusiasm and
      excitement.
  
      “What about you, how has your life as a Fixer affected you?” She asked as if she hadn’t just told
      me about her cult.
  
      “Well I’ve been slaying gods, fist fighting cryptids, and making bad people wish they had never
      crawled out of their spawns.” I said as cockily as I could without trying. I do appreciate my
      isolation as she said earlier but nothing is better than just being able to speak your mind to
      someone you know well.
  
      She laughed, “I see not much has changed for both of us. Although maybe that isn’t such a bad
      thing, especially with where we’ve been able to go.” Her smile made all of my previous pain
      wash away completely.
  
      Then she started to fade away, “I see, our time is at an end, I can’t wait to finally see you again
      Ale, I’m gonna miss you.” She said, holding her own tears back.
  
      “Thanks, and I’m glad I get to say goodbye this time.” I can still hear her last words even to this
      day along with the tears I was choking back.
  
      “I can’t wait to see all the amazing friends you’ve made.” And then she vanished back into
      whatever distant existence she had just been in.
  
      I joined the Fixers because not joining them wasn’t much of an option for me in the end. Joining
      them has been a wonderful opportunity to see and do so many things I couldn’t in my normal
      human life. I don’t regret my joining them at all but I do know that this will all come to and end
      someday. And when that day comes, time and space’s vastness will eventually reunite me with
      Olga and my only wish in that regard is that we reunite after I’ve improved as a person. Not
      often has that involved other people and while I do believe that one of the joys of life is in the
      people we meet it’s been rare for me to invest in other people. I silently wondered if I ever would
      have anyone for her to meet. Then I started internally beating myself up because I knew I never
      would.
  
      Regardless, I popped back into that same cabin with the siblings still shooting, although this
      time I just popped into the Layers and walked out before they could harm me again. Walking out
      of the cabin with one of my many burdens lifted I felt much more at ease and although a very
      important presence in my life is gone again I could still feel her warmth even if she wasn’t
      physically there.
  
      I looked back up at the bright sky along with its two moons, pushing down the new insecurity I
      had earned, and enjoyed the most peaceful stroll back home that I’ve had in centuries.
  

  
      Giant mountains(?) of ash and copper (or at least facsimiles of copper) surround me as I hang
      from the edge of a massive abyss in a sea of endless holes. Exactly where I am matters very
      little to me. All I know is that the land is inhabitable and crawling with tiny beasts that will eat you
      whole from the foot up. Just my kinda place where nobody is around to bother my endless
      stream of thoughts.
  
      It’s been two and a half weeks since I met with Olga again and I went through another 76
      missions between now and then. I’ve also gained another 37 scars between now and then.
      Despite the time and mundane tasks for my mind to wander away with I still haven’t quite found
      a solution to what she had asked of me. Building a particle accelerator, beating someone up,
      hitting a combo in a fighting game. These are all concrete things with a definitive end goal, one
      that’s easy for me to wrap my head around. Making friends is abstract and difficult for me to
      wrap my head around and even having lived for so long hasn’t helped me figure it out. I quietly
      curse Olga under my breath (jokingly) while pushing down any thoughts that I might be
      overthinking this whole thing. No, it’s me who’s in the wrong as I always am, I thought to myself
      with an astonishing lack of self-awareness unusual to my thought processes.
  
      She always knew I wasn’t too fond of people and I thought that sentiment was shared between
      us. Maybe it is or maybe we share it in different ways or maybe her collective soul is more
      complicated than a single opinion? Maybe she thought I already had people to show off and
      they just wanted to remind me? Or maybe she just wanted to open the door to new
      conversations when she came back? Which would be kinda stupid since that may be centuries
      from now. I cursed Olga again and myself for overthinking this because I could be doing
      something a lot less stressful like considering my research into the Negative Layers or
      theorizing combo routes or twiddling my thumbs or really anything else besides catastrophizing.
  
      All of these thoughts penetrated my mind so rapidly that I barely noticed the creature that took a
      seat about ten meters from my left. He was tall, lanky, and thin with the exception being all the
      fat in his stomach while also having skin that perfectly camouflaged him with the terrain. His
      hands and feet had their skin torn while also sporting massive janky spikes. The most
      discerning feature of the beast was in its complete lack of a head. As if only blank space existed
      where his head should. Meaning the filter The Fixers jammed into my head was keeping my
      mind intact by preventing me from perceiving it.
  
      A few quiet moments pass before his spine creaks upward as he turns toward me and hits me
      with a “How do you do, old chap?” He says in a voice that swaps pitch and tone with each
      syllable. The translator also seemed to try and replicate his dialect with the most similar one to
      my language. I was more thrown off by him speaking in the first place rather than his strange
      dialect so I figured I’d throw out an ordinary response.
  
      “Well I’m- uh… doing fine.” I say in the desperate hope that he has nothing else to say.
  
      “Ah that’s good to hear, young’n.” He says back, although I can’t discern if that response had
      any meaning due to his garbled speech. We sat there for a moment, all topics of interest
      apparently having died with his last words. Thank god.
  
      “How is the atmosphere on this fine day?” This shithead says.
  
      “It’s… fine I guess.” I say hoping he’ll shut the fuck up and leave. My train of thought being the
      only thing on my mind.
  
      “Ah, well that’s simply lovely!” He says as the conversation dies faster than I did on September
      21, 2074.
  
      We sit there for a few more minutes and I’m offered enough reprieve from his bad attempts at
      conversation to think about my situation a little more. I also realize that it’s possible this guy may
      have something of use to say.
  
      We both open our, well, mouths (at least I think he was from his body language) to speak and
      before he can close his to gesture me to say what I want to say I go on. “Have you ever
      struggled with connecting to people?”
  
      “What?” He says somewhat questioningly, seemingly going through the entire emotional
      spectrum in a single word.
  
      I was kinda thrown off by my own earnestness. “Well…it’s just that I’ve been kind of keeping to
      myself for the past few centuries and I… figured I should try branching out.” I wasn’t really sure
      if I was bullshitting or being honest. I don’t even really know what I was saying, I just wanted to
      see if he had anything worth saying that might give me some better perspective. I guess.
  
      He solemnly sat for a moment longer than I expected, pondering the question or at least
      conjuring a response. “Yes… I’ve struggled with that for a long time for… personal reasons.” I
      can get an inkling of what those reasons are just from looking at him. Especially since he looks
      like he sat in the microwave for way too long. “So, I don’t think I’m the best gentleman to answer
      your question.” He says solemnly as if he can squirm his way out of this uncomfortable thought
      I’ve been stuck with for the last eighteen days.
  
      “Well that means you're perfect for my next question. Do you know how to overcome those
      struggles” I say, trying to pry even the smallest of genuine responses. While ignoring how the
      inquiring scientist in me is trying to come out of the closet yet again.
  
      He ponders this for yet another moment before responding succinctly. “I believe the best way to
      make connections is by being honest to yourself and embracing who you are. Even if who you
      are is someone who would always rather be alone, people who don’t want to be alone will just
      flock to you over time, because if people like us were different we would do the same.” He
      pauses for an uncomfortable moment before responding with a bit of a tremor in his voice. “… at
      least that’s what worked for me one time…”
  
      Those words had always been scratching at the back of my mind but now they’ve been freed.
      Maybe it’s because the truth of who I am hurts me more than I’d care to admit because I truly do
      want to share my life with at the least one other person. To at least have some kind of external
      validation that isn’t just from my coworkers. A connection more personal than professional. Is
      this because Olga was a constant factor throughout most of my life? Did I just get used to this
      external validation and her sudden absence has hurt me? Will I ever be able to go back to a life
      without it? Does asking these questions even matter?
  
      I noticed that the beast was looking my way, I didn’t know if he was concerned or upset. “What’s
      your name?” I figured I could at least be courteous to the man for answering a bit of an
      unreasonable question.
  
      “Jopenary, at least it once was… you're the first person to ask me that. May I ask something in
      return?” He asked gently.
  
      “Sure.” I figured I could at least make it up to him in a way, no matter how small.
  
      “Why did you ask me that question, my friend?” I probably could’ve predicted that but hey, it’s
      kind to hear out an old man or something like that.
  
      “A woman who I love asked me if she could meet some friends of mine once I return to her. I
      figured I could at least try for her sake.” I didn’t see any reason not to be honest.
  
      “Haha, that’s understandable, well I hope you find some people for your lady’s sake…” He
      looked like he had something else to say so I answered him without forcing him to open up
      more than he was comfortable.
  
      “I’d be glad to visit you every once in a while when I have the time.” I said without many
      expectations for his reaction.
  
      He looked up at me, the absence of his head made it hard for me to see his reaction and his
      response only helped a little. “I look forward to seeing you again then.”
  
      As I walked back towards the nearest Crack I decided to drop the whole issue. Well that might
      be a bit of an exaggeration, it’s more that I decided that I would just put it in the back of my
      mind. If she loved me as she said she did then she’d get upset if she saw me going through this
      much turmoil over it.
  
      So I put my mind to other things and since ADHD makes my mind bounce around a million
      different directions, I thought back to making friends (thanks brain) and that thought process
      eventually led to Luna. I had thought about her a bit since I got back on Reserves but now my
      thoughts were more in-depth. I wondered more about her species and why she wanted to see
      me again. Most likely because I could live through her poison. There were so many questions
      her existence formed in me that they were a welcome reprieve from the constant anxiety. I also
      thought about how attractive I found her humanoid form, but that made me wonder why her form
      was vaguely humanoid in the first place. It isn’t the most efficient form a living being could take,
      especially since her species was likely better at survival then mine. Maybe it’s all just a
      confirmation bias. A thousand thoughts blazed across my mind, the mental gymnastics from one
      thought to another would’ve required the smartest psychologist in existence to piece together.
  
      The Cracks is a place between realities that looks, feels, tastes, and smells like if time and
      space itself was warped in such a manner that you could do whatever you wanted with them
      once you were in one with even the snap of a finger. They made convenient use for long (and I
      do mean LONG) distance travel across the multiverse and were an ordinary part of any Fixers’
      life.
  
      It was such an ordinary part of my life that it barely made me register that I had passed right by
      Luna.
      

  
      I had done research on Luna’s species after all of this, and found that they were a group of
      eldritch abominations that traveled the stars in search of civilizations to feast on, as you do.
      They were called Welburthils and unfortunately, they ran into hard times a few eons ago and
      found themselves starving with no hopes of survival, due to the surrounding planets drying up in
      terms of sustenance.
  
      Their luck turned around when they ran into a humanoid species named Zel (this is the best way
      to pronounce the two species’ language in English) who had already spread their influence
      across three whole planets. The difference this time is that the Zel had already dealt with other
      eldritch abominations in the past. Once the Welburthils had been feared, capable of consuming
      entire galaxies in mere moments, but now their numbers had been thinned and all the Zel saw
      were a bunch of weak invaders who thought they had weight to throw around.
  
      While you would expect them to utterly destroy the abominations they instead offered a helping
      hand. Together the two species slowly formed a symbiotic relationship over generations, where
      the weaknesses of the Zel were covered while the Welburthils were fed with Zel’s curated
      engineering. As for what that engineering was, it was pretty much just Adenosine Triphosphate
      (ATP) or basically energy in cells. So, in essence it consumes all life.
  
      The Welburthils’ main body was simply a portal that led into a small pocket dimension where
      said ATP were converted into a strange goo-like substance that would make up their external
      bodies, so I can’t explain how they engineered their sustenance well since it’s not a part of my
      expertise. Over time the symbiotic relationship became more entrenched in both societies, the
      Welburthils took on some of the appearances of the Zel’s humanoid features, while the Zel
      would use the Welburthils’ external bodies to enhance their own bodies.
  
      Luna was also a particularly tragic case of this relationship, seeing as she came from a long line
      of people who were genetically engineered for assassinations by powerful people. Genetic
      engineering amongst the Welburthils wasn’t uncommon even before they met the Zel; however,
      this was a particularly cruel case of that practice in these newfound peaceful times.
  
      Unfortunately, this symbiotic relationship came to an abrupt end when a mining incident led to
      the release of a plague that was found way too late for anyone to do anything about it. It
      completely wiped out the advanced Zel, save for a few who had melded with certain Welburthils.
      It’s been a little over two centuries now and with the Zel being almost extinct and the Welburthils
      being forced to search for food elsewhere for the first time in a long time, both species are on
      the clock, wandering the multiverse in hopes of something to save them.
  
      Luckily, none of that weighed down on my consciousness at the time since I didn’t know any of
      it, which made it remarkably easy to just mindlessly float right past her as if I had never seen her
      in my entire life. That became even harder when she yanked me by the collar and tugged me
      back to her despite being about 20 or 100 meters away, damn these stupid lab coats that I
      specifically chose to wear.
  
      I was immediately tugged to face Luna who greeted me with a smile so full of warmth that I felt
      significantly less worse about trying to run from her after a day full of interacting with other
      people. “Well it’s nice to see you again!” She said beaming so brightly that she threatened to
      blind me with her existence (in the good way). And uh I decided to stick around because her
      goo had nearly enveloped me and was about to touch me.
  
      We jumped out of the second hole we could find in The Cracks (the first one was in a war torn
      area in the middle of some legendary battle or other) and Luna allowed me to take some rest in
      a field of various rocks that stretched onward into infinity as far as my eye could see in what
      looked like an another inverted planet. I sat down on the nearest rock that looked like it wasn’t
      jagged enough to give me a new asshole and asked, “So may I ask what brings you out to this
      little corner of existence?” I say trying to sound charming but instead coming across as nervous.
      Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to notice.
  
      “Oh well, I was visiting some others for…” she pauses for much longer than I thought she would.
      “Something important!” She says trying to shove the issue off her shoulders like you would if you
      were carrying something wayyyy too heavy. “What about you? What are you doing here?”
  
      I gladly answer the question, hoping to put the issue aside or at least to get her mind off of
      things. “Well I like to come out to places like this for some peace and quiet so I can think.”
  
      “Ah, to think about what?” She asks probably a little too inquistively for someone like her, but I
      happily respond because being around her makes me feel soothed.
  
      “Well I had just visited my girlfriend a few weeks ago, and she said something to me at the end
      of our conversation that’s been on my mind since then. When I died three and a half centuries
      ago, I was given the opportunity to become a Fixer, what you call an Angel, and accepted it
      while she didn’t have the opportunity. So now we’re apart for the time being… I met you then
      because I was on my way to take part in a ritual to meet her again after not seeing her since her
      death.” I said not realizing how somber my voice had gotten by the end of it.
  
      She suddenly had a serious look on her few features and said, “So that’s why you were so upset
      when we met two months ago.” Time passes differently across the multiverse as is its nature,
      but hearing the extensive time gap did kinda cut a bit deep. I didn’t know why at the time. “I’m
      sorry it must’ve been painful.”
  
      I hadn’t really thought about how she knew what a girlfriend was at the time, but it turns out the
      Zel have gender identities just like us (explaining her gender as well I guess) and also
      traditionally have 5-8 partners at a time. There was a distinct possibility that pity was amongst
      the emotions she felt towards me after hearing that.
  
      “It was, but it was the good kind of pain, the one that allows me to move on.” The smile I didn’t
      notice I had from talking to her faded. “She asked me if I could show her some of my friends
      when we saw each other again, but I don’t have anyone to show her.”
  
      She giggles softly, “Well I’m sure you have at least a few! You seem to be pretty smart after all.”
  
      “Oh I’m not very smart.” Says the Quantum Physicist. The terrible rebuttal was unfortunately
      overshadowed by her suddenly frowning and looking down, so instead I tried to change the
      subject.
  
      “So you never did answer me on what that shock was when you first touched me?” I said trying
      and easily managing to get into my questioning-scientist routine in an attempt to disarm her
      which doesn’t seem to work too much.
  
      “Well, my body was engineered to house a deadly poison that would immediately kill those I
      touched. Well not my body specifically, I inherited this… condition… from a distant ancestor and
      now I’m the only one left with it.” She takes what I think is approximately a deep breath before a
      smile begins to show on her mouth which quickly fades afterwards. “You were open to me, so I
      should be open to you. It’s because of this condition that I wanted to see you again. You were
      the first person who I couldn’t kill, and the first person who didn’t run from me… that meant a lot
      to me.” Now all the pain she’s shown makes a lot more sense.
  
      “Well I’m glad I could be there for you then. I survived because an experiment I conducted a
      long time ago allowed me to access The Layers, a reflection of whatever reality I'm in that
      changes the laws of physics of that reality. So all I had to do was put the poison elsewhere and
      all was well. I am a pretty stubborn bastard after all and that’s nothing compared to what I’ve
      been through before.” She didn’t seem to be cheered up too much so figured another approach
      might work. “Do you want to hear about my girlfriend?”
  
      She seems to perk up a little again, “I’d love to.”
  
      “Well her name is Olga Petrenko. She was just a nurse when we met, when I was just another
      nameless soldier in a pointless war who happened to survive being shot seventeen times and
      went into a coma for half a week. After that we just kept bumping into each other, we saw each
      other right before she went back home, we went back to the same college, and we even ended
      up on the same big project. After we knew each other for twelve years, I asked her to be with
      me and we lived together for forty years. She was pretty amazing, she helped me to relearn my
      love of the outdoors, made me feel safe, and made my solitary life a little brighter. She loved
      knives, making alcohol, and showed me so many wonderful things that I can barely keep count.
      I definitely wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t met her and if she wasn’t happy to be a part of my
      life. And because of that, I don’t really know how to make it up to her so in its place I’ve been
      trying to live my life as best as I could. I really do hope you get to meet her someday…” I was
      getting too into my speech to actually notice that she didn’t seem to cheer up. I thought about
      steering the conversation elsewhere before she spoke up.
  
      “She sounds lovely. I wish I had someone like that in my life…” She sounds even worse than
      before.
  
      “Hey are you alright. You didn’t even seem curious when I mentioned college?” I ask, chuckling
      a bit and hoping to alleviate whatever else is bothering her. She finally has some companionship
      in me now that she knows someone she can’t kill, so why is she still upset? I just couldn’t see
      past whatever shield she had up at the time and I wasn’t able to break it down no matter what.
  
      She took her strange deep breath, again, before saying, “I really like making music. Someone
      like you shouldn’t be able to hear it, but I make it with my body, it soothes me and helps me to
      control my emotions.” She paused for a moment, I held my breath during that moment. “My…
      family (closest proximity for the translator)… has put me forth as a candidate to put together the
      ultimate warrior between my species and the one we are bound to. I am to help regain the
      power of our people by joining with this ultimate warrior.”
  
      My response to that was simple, I had met millions who thought they were truly bound to
      something meaningless across my entire existence, even I had nearly been trapped by those
      thoughts millions of times before.
  
      “Why?” I asked, knowing exactly what kind of response I would get.
  
      “Because… that’s what my people need.” And just like that history repeats itself.
  
      “No, why are you obligated to them, as a being imbued with free will you are obligated to
      nobody and nothing.” I had read this script a million times and had recited it a million times. But
      the smile that creased across her face had thrown that script off course.
  
      “I’m sorry Dr. Alex, you seem amazing through and through. I wanted to learn more and more
      about you. I can’t really stress enough how much I want to know you, but now I know that’s not
      possible.” Just as I stood to keep her from doing something reckless, several sparks shot up my
      legs. She was faster and smarter than I had thought it seemed. I shoved my entire body into the
      Layers and dove at her, but she was too fast and had already turned her back on me and was
      walking into The Crack. By the time I had popped back out the Layers I only had the time to do
      one thing.
  
      I shouted, “I want to hear your music!” She looked back this time with her smile trembling. And
      then it was over, she was gone.
  
      I stepped into the Crack after her but she was obviously already gone. I swore multiple times
      loudly and slammed my head into the nearest blunt object in frustration before calming down.
      As soon as my breathing steadied I looked up her file with our Internal Database, while it wasn’t
      something I liked to do often it might be an emergency this time. Looking through her file a few
      things stood out, first is her name and how it temporarily emulsified my mind and the three
      empty slots for her relatives all of which are blank due to the filter. I might meet them down the
      road. Next is her age, she is approximately 27 billion years old and all of that time was spent
      with nobody else in her life most likely, I thought feeling more invigorated and angry than before.
      Finally, was her current location the designation of which was impossibly long but gave me a
      precise location as to her whereabouts.
  
      I felt lucky that she was an eldritch being of a strong sort of people, it meant that she was often
      tracked and monitored so we could easily find her in case they did something that could throw
      the universe into too much chaos. As soon as I knew her location I sought it out and found it
      immediately.
      
      It had been a long time since I had fought for something that I and only I had wanted. I thought
      that meant I would have a lot more trepidation as I washed toward her location. But instead all I
      felt was a warm sort of comforting feeling I hadn’t known in a long time
  

  
      When I popped into the dimension I found my boots and pants immediately soaked by knee
      high water. What a brilliant start to my evening. The cave I found myself in was incredibly large
      and had a hint of fog around me in all directions that made it hard for me to see any of the walls.
      I couldn’t even spot any holes to leave the cave from my location. But the thing that caught my
      attention first was the chains covered in a familiar viscous goo. They hung from a structure built
      deep into the ceiling which brought my attention to the surfaces of the cave, which was covered
      in jagged grayish-purple perfectly square but natural metals that I couldn’t identify. The
      structure, from the floor of the cave, looked like a giant amalgamation of the same strange metal
      covering the ceiling turned into cylindrical shapes with humps across the edges of each shape.
      The structure was also made of sharp rocks of varying shapes along with iron of a color that
      doesn’t have a word for it in my language yet. The structure was dripping with the purple-ish
      black goo I had become familiar with over the past few years.
  
      The site reminded me of something my uncle said once. Johann said, and I quote, “Alex, your
      rampant lesbianism is bringing you to places that I wouldn’t go to with an entire army backing
      me up.” Although he also told me to not listen to everything he says so whatever.
  
      In the past, I always made decisions for the greater good, dedicating my life to the beautiful
      world I lived in rather than for myself. The one time I made a selfish decision I was able to save
      Olga’s life at the cost of another important person to me. Now that I stand here having made the
      decision entirely of my own volition I felt awkward and out of place. I break many taboos simply
      by existing, as we all do I suppose, but this line felt both natural and unnatural to cross.
  
      Regardless, I already made my decision and in my mind I know that means there's no turning
      back as I start to grab the nearest chain and begin my ascent.
  
      Although I have to use The Layers to reduce the friction of the chain, the climb ends up
      becoming a good workout with it being about 500 meters high. As soon as I reach the top, I
      hoist myself up and onto the landing with only one knee while my other leg awkwardly hangs
      there.
  
      It would have been a lot less awkward if, what I assume was a guard, didn’t stroll in on my
      ascent. The guard appeared to be of the same species as Luna, but somehow smaller and
      slightly darker, it also had a stranger collection of features than Luna like arms, ears, and pits
      where eyes should go. Immediately, almost half of the room was filled with dark spikes that
      emerged from the upper part of the guard’s body. As soon as I saw this, I triggered a small
      explosion beneath the foot of my planted leg, causing me to slide along the floor toward my
      target on my back and just under the spikes. The physics calcs for this maneuver were frankly a
      lot on the spot, but I was well practiced and as a result, nothing but steam and excess gasses
      were left in my wake as I got close. The guard tried to shift its assault to hit me, but I was way
      too fast and was under it in mere milliseconds. As soon as I touched the mass that
      encompassed the guard, I put my all-to-quickly made theory to the test and used The Layers to
      slow the speed of molecules in the surrounding air, freezing the guard in place in an instant. The
      fight took all of one second and was the equivalent of swatting a fly for me.
  
      Although I hadn’t confirmed my hypothesis yet, I popped my arm into The Layers and reached
      deep into the creature’s liquid body. I always make a point to quickly review the anatomy of
      whatever enemy I’m fighting, since it helps me fight better in close quarters which is just how I
      like my fights. While looking into them, I noticed that the main body of these creatures was
      composed of a small circular portal (which I mentioned before) that contained all of the spare
      goo that they didn’t have deployed at any given moment. This would explain Luna’s strange
      movements as well as the spikes that I instinctively dodged. Regardless, I was able to fully
      confirm my hypothesis when I grabbed onto the portal with very delicate movements in The
      Layers.
  
      I started tugging on the creature, pulling its heavy frozen mass along with me to the biggest
      door the room offered. The door was shaped like a triangle, as if to accentuate the most
      important (and possibly biggest) person entering the room. I didn’t really have anything to go on
      about Luna’s location, but I knew from her unique ability that she was somehow someone
      important to her kind. Especially to the powerful people of her kind. So I simply followed where
      power seemed to simply exude, from opulence and pointless artistry that only functioned to put
      those that are othered down while putting the lucky few higher. It turns out that I was right on the
      mark since I found three more guards after a few rooms. One held a rod with strange
      attachments on each end that could definitely be weaponized, another was unarmed, and the
      other only held a singular disk with strange carvings and curved edges with an unknown
      purpose. It seems that the hard times of the Welburthils had forced them all to resort to
      rudimentary weaponry possibly. All three had the same features as the guard that I was now
      effortlessly dragging along the ground. The most surprising part of the encounter was their
      immediate refusal to fight me, the two carrying weapons immediately put them down and all
      three raised their arms in surrender as soon as they saw my unwilling captive.
  
      “You three can’t fool me this easily.” I said with more than a little exhaustion in my voice than I
      thought would be there.
  
      “We wouldn’t risk one of our own kind, if you let us all go without hurting us then we’ll do
      whatever you please.” The largest one said pleadingly.
  
      “Take me to Luna.”
  
      Suddenly, the room got really quiet and hesitancy filled my three enemies. They all looked at
      each other confused and unsure of what to do.
  
      The smallest of the three looks as if he just had a revelation before speaking up. “Do you
      promise not to hurt anyone even if they fight back?” Shorty asked with his voice full of fear.
  
      “I promise.” I said not sure if my words would be the truth or if the situation would deteriorate it
      into another one of the many lies I told to the people I fought.
  
      After some pointless negotiations, They took me through rooms composed of even grander
      designs as we walked the strange halls, some of which were coated with victorious memorabilia,
      while others looked like an architect's wet dream. The doors were each composed of bigger and
      bigger sizes and new carvings that seemed to stretch across the entire doors surface and
      across my mind and were composed of a language I could never hope to understand unless I
      threw away every last shred of my sanity. I have felled monarchs and other powerful people
      throughout my long existence but even these rooms felt like they dwarfed my life, even more so
      than if I were out on the surface of a planet looking off into the unending stars. We encountered
      more guards along the way, all of whom hesitantly complied after a brief explanation of the
      situation followed by their observations of the singular life I held. I only saw four new guards
      each in pairs of two along the way, the small number of which puzzled me deeply at the time
      because I didn’t know how desperate their species’ situation was at the time. Eventually after
      several weeks they led me to doors so big that they might have been the size of a small planet
      in more familiar locales. After a couple of flicks of a switch, a small me-sized cavity in the door
      hissed open and I dragged only myself and my unwilling frozen companion into the room. My
      ears, tail, and every last strand of hair stood on end as I crossed the threshold of the great
      abyss. It was a familiar feeling that told me the good shit was coming up.
  
      As I entered the room, I scanned the entire massive, planet sized room. The room was ovular
      with walls composed of a cracked, dark white that seemed to be similar to an egg and styrofoam
      texture-wise. It also seemed to be completely covered in variously sized and shaped doors that
      coated almost the entire wall, although my entrance was a ground level fortunately. The floor
      was covered in a thin, ankle-high layer of the same gooey mass that makes up the Welburthils. I
      saw that seven blobs and three humanoids surrounded a giant triangular altar that was instead
      soaked with a light red substance resembling blood with the complete opposite viscosity of the
      blood in my body. The first thing I noticed were the humanoids, who’s eyes weren’t in the same
      place as mine, instead they were spread across their arms and occasionally their chest. Their
      chests and appendages were occasionally concave in spots in a way that made them slightly
      harder to approach physically and emotionally. They also lacked any hair whatsoever, only
      being covered by taut bright flesh, and two of them were even sprouting a short stumpy arm
      from their upper back. They all exclusively wore baggy pants and nothing else, even those with
      breasts didn’t wear a top, much to my enjoyment. I guess the third one was just young.
  
      I then drew my eyes towards the altar which radiated a dark purple light that encapsulated the
      altar in a bubble seemingly from nowhere. But what drew my attention mostly was the subjects
      of the altar, one was another blob who appeared to be the biggest one amongst those I’ve seen
      while also wearing a light high-collared coat (which was weird seeing one wearing any clothes),
      another was Luna looking as gorgeous as ever, while the third was like the other humanoids,
      except he was taller, more complete, and his third arm seemed to be fully grown.
  
      What ticked me off the most from the whole view was that his eyes were totally and utterly
      fixated on Luna, they bore right into her soul making me want to atomize the man instantly for
      some reason. I could feel all of the veins in my face and eye glow a bright red instantly as soon
      as I saw him.
  
      As soon as I walked in, the entire room turned towards me although they all paused when they
      saw my hostage, save the hideous creature standing in front of Luna who kept staring at her.
  
      The coated blob spoke up with exhaustion seeping into every syllable, “Who are you?”
  
      “I’m Dr. Alex, and I came here to keep Luna from making a mistake.” Situations like these
      always gave me way more confidence than actual conversations, it’s way easier to spill your
      heart out when you're about to fight for something you care for than to just casually chat, which
      is bullshit.
  
      He sighed heavily and said, “Nobody is here against their will, Luna is a willing participant in the
      Savage Feast project and-” My instinct screamed at me that something was behind me and a
      split second survey told me that the room was missing three people. I immediately squished the
      portal in my hands, sending it to The Layers, causing all of the goo to join and meld into the
      liquid at our feet.
  
      Immediately all conversation died out. The three Welburthils behind me stopped and were
      suddenly filled with fear just as they were about to pounce me. The three had features that
      reminded me of Luna and myself.
  
      “This isn’t a request, it’s a demand, and you all can comply with it or be burned where you
      stand.” I say turning to the three behind me that were trying to hold onto the last vestiges of
      bravery that their minds allowed them to.
  
      Welburthils also have the capacity to communicate to those they are close with without any
      verbal or physical communication by some method that is unknown to our biologists as of now.
      The three used this to make a coordinated assault, one attacking low, another at my standing
      level, and the last jumped at me. I quickly noted that the jumping one had less momentum than
      the other two so I quickly summoned the Wireframe around my whole body and sidestepped to
      attack the one on top. Charging my left elbow with electricity, I hit the jumping one center mass
      before they could smash me with the giant, solidified goo that looked vaguely like a hammer
      they held above their body.
  
      Here’s a tiny physics lesson, electricity is composed of mass, meaning that if you do what is
      nearly impossible under normal circumstances, you can manipulate objects with giant searing
      hot clumps of electricity. I gathered enough electricity to send the creature flying into the wall,
      with seemingly little to no pain.
  
      I noticed everyone else in the room below the altar began to converge on my location before I
      quickly closed the gap by stepping into a Layer where time progressed slower. As I got close to
      the one I thrust into the wall, I reached into them like my last victim and pushed their portal
      elsewhere, one down nine to go. As I was finishing them off, the other two from before lashed
      out at me, all fear replaced by an uncontrollable anger.
  
      Anger and whatever I drank out of that off-off-off brand coffee machine were the only things
      fueling me now and luckily, I tend to get a bit smarter and calmer whenever I get angrier and this
      cocky fuck caressing Luna with his creepy ass smile got me pretty pissed.
  
      As the two from before approached I used an explosion below my feet to lift me high off the
      ground, giving me enough air to control my descent so I could smash one with my legs before
      he could react, putting him away for good. I also used the proximity of my feet to suck him into
      the Layers.
  
      The last one, at such a close range, lobbed a small angular device, who’s proportions didn’t
      make sense, at me which started to actually suck me in. She just threw a fucking black hole at
      me. Time slows down as adrenaline courses through every vein in my body. I quickly yank out a
      revolver and put a hole in the device with two shots, instantly shutting down the portal. The
      adrenaline really helped my aim. After this, while still holding the revolver, I quickly assimilate
      her into the abyss after dashing through her at inhuman speed with the Layers assistance.
      Three down, seven to go.
  
      As I count my next victory, one of the Zel leaps onto my back and despite struggling to get a
      proper grip due to my height she starts to stab me in the left shoulder since I kept avoiding her
      attempts to stab me in the head. Unfortunately for her, that spot is reserved for my girlfriend, so I
      quickly grabbed her knife arm (although now that I’ve touched and felt it I don’t know if that’s the
      right word) and tossed her off in front of me before she could stab me a third time. I was about
      to crush her skull with a curb stomp but I noticed her two friends behind her, both with big
      chunks of metal that reminded me of guns. They REALLY started to remind me of guns when
      bright long lasers extended out of their, what I assume are barrels. I quickly rolled out of the way
      of the beam, which acted like a whip, and tossed an impact grenade from my pocket at them.
      One was instantly shredded to pieces while the other was injured. Using the opportunity I
      quickly curb stomped the first girl for the crime of sitting on my shoulders before finishing off the
      third with the gun from before. Six down, four to go.
  
      All four then charged directly at me, one was throwing whatever parts of itself they could at me,
      whether that be goo that was solidified into rock, or transformed into a spike, or whatever deadly
      shape they could take. Another was spread out into the wet floor so thin that jagged shapes
      popped out of the ground threatening to impale me and turn me into a trophy. Another was
      gathering up the gooey mass from the room itself and from its fallen comrades to form a giant
      mass. The fourth impressed me by forming a massive tsunami of the same goo that had
      drenched my entire day, or rather the last few weeks.
  
      By the time I assessed the situation, I had to dodge a few projectiles, one of the spikes even hit
      me in the right shoulder before I could freeze the entire floor with some quick math and The
      Layers. I was hoping to keep that as a last resort since I didn’t want to hold it for too long out of
      fear of the mental strain breaking me down. Although at this point, I knew I wouldn’t be able to
      handle the barrage without running out of gas before I could face the actual threat of the room.
      Luckily, my autistic obsession with physics helped me to easily glide across the ice stealing
      away all four of their portals in quick succession, taking the last one with a mighty leap through
      the heart of the goo (more like two or three leaps since I had to find the portal amongst all of
      that goo first). Finally, with all of the inhabitants of the room down, I approach the altar.
  
      In hindsight, I do regret my slaughter here, now that I know they were two desperate species
      holding out for one last hope I really shouldn’t have killed as many as I did. But the deed was
      done, and regardless of what happened, it still doesn’t excuse their attempts to use someone’s
      life for power.
  
      As I approached the altar, the first thing I noticed was the look on Luna’s face, it wasn’t the kind
      of fear that was directed at me as I thought it would be, but rather the situation in general. I
      didn’t have long to ponder what that could mean before getting distracted by the big one who I
      assumed was some kind of priest. He was just shaking his head and holding what I assume is
      his forehead in his second right palm. Finally, was the creepy fuck who slowly turned his dreary
      gaze to my eye.
  
      “So… this is to be the one who interrupts the happiest day of my life.” He says as he descends
      the long sharp steps away from the strange bubble, as he takes his first few steps my tail fluffed
      up and started shaking back and forth in trepidation meaning this was gonna be a good time for
      the both of us. “I was under the impression that our invader would be less… unkempt.” He said,
      trying to sound as mockingly as he could.
  
      “If you have no plans to give her up right now, then I’ll just have to rip your spine out through
      your mouth.” I said trying to make him flinch a little with my smile which he did not.
  
      “Iiiii am afraid I cannot do that. After all, we are all on the cusp of greatness once I finish my final
      joining… and besides you seem like you would enjoy a showdown just as much as I would
      judging from the look on your face.” He was right, a devilish grin had permanently etched itself
      onto my face and I could start to feel all the muscles in my body tense up in anticipation. As my
      euphoria began to boil along with my internal temperature, I took off my coat leaving just my bra
      to cover my chest and nothing else to cover the extensive scars over my body. I said just one
      thing with the deepest growl I could unconsciously muster before our fight began.
      
      “Make your mark.”
  

  
      Having complete and total access to The Layers is not a pathway to immediate immortality. It
      requires very smart usage and takes years of mental training just to reach a point where it’s
      usable in combat. As someone who enjoys a good fight every now and then, it’s these guys I
      have to look out for. The smart ones who can accept that I am capable of a lot, and have the
      tools to counter me. As much as I just wanted to rip and tear him into shreds, I needed to
      concentrate and put all of my effort into this moment.
  
      “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is-” Was what he said before I ran up to
      him (the ice had already melted at this point) and threw a haymaker with my right arm, putting
      my injured shoulder behind me. However, I didn’t actually know that he said that until later when
      Luna had told me so. This man, this creature, this thing below any living thing had no respect for
      those around him, he looked at Luna like an object and not like the living thing she actually was.
      He couldn’t care less if she enjoyed his presence or not, the only thing he cared about was what
      he gained from their time together. The depths of my rage, anger, and bloodlust had been dug
      so deep that even the darkest ocean bottoms couldn’t contain them. Every vision, thought, and
      idea was filled with his blood and gore washing out my entire vision in a sea of crimson red. I
      could barely even comprehend his physical form, every muscle and sense in my body was
      dedicated to the act of ending his existence.
  
      I wanted to immolate him.
  
      I wanted to flay every bit of flesh off his skin.
  
      I wanted to feel the snap of every single bone in his body.
  
      I wanted him to scream until he couldn’t scream anymore.
  
      I wanted to make him shit out his spine.
  
      I needed to make him tear his own heart out.
  
      I needed to beat him to death with his own arm.
  
      I needed to watch him swallow his own jaw.
  
      I needed to hear him beg as he slowly bled to death.
  
      I needed him to shatter his ribs with his own two hands.
  
      I needed to tear off every nail and make him eat them.
  
      I needed to end him in ways I couldn’t comprehend yet.
  
      More than anything I wanted him to know nothing in his final moments but all the suffering he
      caused with just his vile existence and for him to feel all of that suffering personally and as
      painfully as possible.
  
      As soon as I threw my haymaker his entire form shifted instantly and egregiously to the purplish
      goo that seemed to make up the rest of the Welburthils. In just a second, he was already behind
      me and brought his fist down on my left shoulder, right where my wound was (which I had
      patched up quickly with cauterization right before I threw my punch), although he missed by a
      few centimeters as I rolled out of the way. That haymaker wasn’t actually to hit him but was
      meant to gauge his capabilities. With a reaction speed of .079 milliseconds and how quickly he
      moved to make use of my injury, it meant he was dangerous. My grin only grew wider.
  
      I would love to write down whatever he said throughout the rest of the encounter but I genuinely
      can’t remember a single word. I was way too blinded by anger to actually put any effort into that.
  
      After he snarled something at me, he bisected himself horizontally, both portions turned into the
      familiar slime and one leapt in the air while the other slithered on the ground. I stepped away
      from the platform before realizing that my feet had been planted to the floor by some goo he had
      left on the floor. Good, now I can lure him in. Or at least that was the original plan before I
      noticed that some of the goo he had left in the air was floating above me which gave him some
      leeway in maneuverability. Possibly, depending on how this shit works. His goo didn’t seem to
      have any negative effects to me through contact so I figured that for now I wouldn’t have
      anything to worry about it unless he had his solid form engaged. I felt something come to form
      behind me on my left side and reached behind me to grab him by the stomach so I could toss
      him onto the ground in front of me. He landed face up which made my smile a little wider
      because he looked like an angry dumbass down there.
  
      A quiet voice far in the back of my head told me to just end him there. I didn’t listen to her.
  
      As I was going to lower my arm since I figured he would just slither away again, several spikes
      shot out of him and as I was jumping away, two pierced my left arm and another pierced my
      upper chest. I entirely forgot they could do that. Adrenaline and anger were not a nice cocktail.
  
      We both had backed off from each other knowing that any wrong move might get us killed.
  
      Fighting felt good to me, not because of the bloodshed, but because all of my emotions can be
      let out consequence-free. It felt good to just let loose even though I know this was always
      wrong. I pulled out a shotgun and started spam firing it in my emotional outburst, most of the
      shots missed as his body contorted itself back into the goo and into a giant humanoid creature.
      It seems he figured he could put me down with brute force rather than cunning, or it meant he
      didn’t take me seriously at first. He moved in quickly and erratically bending and breaking in
      unnatural ways, forcing me to quickly back off. I dropped some molotov cocktails as I ran
      backwards, hoping that they would at least slow him down. Much to nobody's surprise, it did not.
  
      He took his right fist and slung it at me, bending it back at an unnatural angle to put in as much
      force as possible. I charged my arm with a couple million volts and returned the punch, letting
      the electricity I had gathered surround and push back the arm, pushing me back as well. The
      liquid mixture that had permeated the entire floor made massive waves despite its strange
      viscosity as we continuously fought. Eventually after throwing and blocking several thunderous
      strikes I decided to capitalize on his weakness with his next punch, as his hit connected, I froze
      his arm in a mere instant causing it to violently thud to the ground as it fell off. As soon as the
      deed was done, I ran at him in an attempt to do to him what I did to the last guy who I put into
      The Layers, but he dissolved before I could reach him and after my jump.
  
      As I closed the gap, we started throwing punches, it seems I really did piss him off when I just
      started throwing punches unprompted. Despite how angry he was, he was still cold and
      calculated with his moves, meaning that somewhere deep under his own anger he also felt he
      was in control. It made me feel a tiny bit of respect toward him even though I hated his guts. He
      also strangely only shifted his flesh with the goo when using that part of his body to attack which
      I later figured out was due to something called “multi-body incongruence” from personal
      experience.
  
      The brawl was mostly shifted in my favor, especially when I started landing hit after hit, I was
      faster and meaner after all and with the Wireframe giving me a charge I was making quick work
      of him. He’d throw a punch at my stomach which I would respond to by popping into The Layers
      to dodge before knocking him on the head. He’d throw a high kick which I would grab and use
      the momentum of to toss him onto the floor and onto his ass. And back and forth we went for at
      least a half an hour. After bopping him around for a bit and feeling a bit better after seeing him
      limp around like a school bully who thought he had weight to throw around, I decided it was time
      to really begin to enjoy the night. As I reached around for my knife, a spike jabbed out of his
      chest and into mine. Right into the exact same spot that the sniper hit me a few weeks ago. Just
      another mistake to add onto the pile, another weight to pull me down.
  
      As he saw my hesitation he rapidly expanded hoping to likely swallow me whole to add to his
      collection. However, before he could do that dripping appendages shot out from behind him to
      hold him down. Luna had reached beyond the veil to help me.
  
      “Strike him down while I can sti-” she said before he broke free but it was more than enough. My
      instinct had already kicked into gear priming me to back away so I could live to fight another
      day, but now after positioning myself I had the perfect window. Winding up a punch, I slugged
      him in the mouth with a couple billion volts amped up to surge through his body to cause as
      much pain as possible. As he sailed through the air and away from me, he shifted back into his
      complete humanoid form which now looked tattered and broken. As I approached him with as
      much vile in my step as I could unconsciously muster, he begged and pleaded for mercy. He’d
      probably sell out his entire family and everything that meant anything to him to crawl away with
      just a small amount of life left.
  
      I got on top of him and hit him with blow after blow, all the anger and vengeance in me
      unleashing in an ugly spray of brutality and pent-up emotions. I felt my punches feel less solid
      as his few remaining ribs and weirdly shaped skull shattered under my hate-fueled attacks. His
      purple blood, mucus, and bits of his flesh splattered across my body and into the pool on the
      floor, creating a unique smell and color. He was already dying anyway from Luna’s touch so
      might as well add insult to injury.
  
      At the end of it all, I stood up and grabbed him by the collarbone so I could raise him to his feet.
      I quickly reached into his chest as he stood there dazed and pulled out what I needed. As I
      started to move past him he seemed to reach out with his right hand and a quiet mutter
      sputtered from his mouth. I understood exactly what he wanted and quietly placed his heart in
      his outstretched hand before letting him fall to the floor dead on spot. Now that the moment has
      passed I didn’t really want it anyway. I took a moment to relish the victory, even if it felt a little
      too easy, and walked on.
  
      As I approached the altar I tried to push away the dread that crept through every part of me.
      This was the part I hated, the part where I apologize to Luna for what I’ve done and get yelled
      out of the building, complex, cave, and maybe even universe. I’ve always been used to being
      hated but all of the pain doesn’t just go away, it still lingers and can feed on you if you let it. I
      was especially upset that I had angered someone as lovely as Luna. It’s hard to live with this,
      but I’ll survive, especially knowing she can go on.
  
      I could feel the bubble around it trying to push me away as I got closer, not on purpose,
      but because it is radiating something so powerful that normal people can’t even begin to fathom
      approaching it. I ignored the feeling and pushed through to speak to Luna.
  
      I expected her to look sad, but she looked strangely composed, calm, and… happy? Nah, I
      must’ve been imagining it. I still didn’t have an answer for why she intervened as well but I still
      had to apologize. “Luna I’m sorry for all of this, I coul-”
  
      “Yeah you should be sorry.” The coated figure interrupted angrily which was fair considering I
      just slaughtered some of his buddies. “Do you know how many of us you just killed!?! How few
      of us are left now!?!” After that, he took a deep breath, in and out, and recomposed himself.
  
      Luna spoke up in her lovely voice, “Calm down, Paciful, it’s not like much can be done about this
      anymore.”
  
      I stayed silent waiting for my turn to speak, or more likely dreading the time I will have to speak.
      Paciful responded with some bitterness in his tone, “Yes that’s true, it’s not like I had much faith
      that this plan would work… even then it’s not like it matters much for us…”
  
      “Why?” My curiosity took hold way too fast. Luna was the one to respond, much to my delight.
  
      “Well for starters, The Joining is a process whereby a Welburthils can combine our body into the
      body of another species, allowing us to live symbiotically, two organisms as one in certain ways.
      The joining needs a powerful force, pulling in gravity in order to keep the two bodies held
      together during the process so that both can meld together without any complications in the
      aftermath. Thus, the need for the Korpal Orb.” I made a mental note to research this afterwards
      since it sounded kind of interesting. “Unfortunately, that means that after the Korpal Orb is
      produced and activated, the joining must be complete since doing so without the joining would
      cause all those inside to implode from the force of the impact.”
  
      My first instinct was no longer about learning what the thing was but instead to find a way for her
      to get out of that dangerous bubble seeing as the process must be completed for her to be safe.
      “Then I’ll find you someone to complete the joining with right away.” As I turned to find said
      person really wanting to get out of the awkwardness of being around her after what I did, Luna
      called back out to me.
  
      “That person could be you.” I froze immediately.
  
      “No, it can’t be me, I’ve already done so many terrible things to you, I’ve done terrible things in
      the past and I’ll keep doing them as long as I live… I’m a monster and you deserve much better
      than me.” I tried to get out of there before she could pull me in fully, before she could tell me that
      I deserved better because I didn’t, but I wasn’t fast enough.
  
      She grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to the altar and closer to facing her. “Dr. Alex,
      nobody else in this massive existence would have followed me down here and mercilessly
      slaughtered my own people in front of me, just to keep me from a destiny I didn’t want to face.
      You have done more for me than even my own family who were more than happy to throw me
      into this project once they were told about it. I may not know you very well, but I can tell that
      deep down you're a wonderful and vibrant person, and I want to know who that person is. I want
      to know who dragged me out of the darkness of my soul and into the blinding beauty of the
      world even if for just a few seconds.”
  
      I didn’t understand why she said any of this, we had barely interacted for just a few minutes, I
      know many who would be able to survive her toxic presence amongst the Fixers. All I could do
      was try to ask the most pertinent question. “But…” I tried to push through the tears that came
      from nowhere but was met with more of Luna’s speech.
  
      “I can see into the depths of your soul, all the pain and sorrow you’ve caused to others and
      yourself. You don’t need to let it consume you when it comes to matters concerning me, and you
      certainly don’t need to let it consume you when concerned with others and what they could’ve
      done in your place. You did what you did, and the simple act of being the first to show kindness
      to me was all I needed to be moved. I would gladly join with you and all you need to do is shake
      your head for yes or no.” I quickly shut my mouth because she answered my question before I
      could even enunciate it.
  
      It took me about a half an hour to shove my way through the tears, the ones I’ve been holding
      back for decades, but when I did, I immediately shook my head yes. She may be beyond my
      complete understanding and she may have probed my mind without consent but we shared a
      bond as gruesome outcasts that few had. I wouldn’t say I love her, no, I just found that it can be
      hard for a person like me to find any kind of connection and I’d gladly hold onto it if I can.
  
      Paciful sighed and shook his head as I brought myself up to the altar. In an exasperated voice,
      he said, “Do you have a spot to hold her?” I looked at him with a question mark carved into my
      face.
  
      He groaned, “You need some hole or cavity to hold her. Do you have one?”
  
      One quickly came to mind as I lifted the eyepatch covering the hole that used to hold my right
      eye. I lost both eyes at some point but that eye was the first major injury I remember, and with it,
      a looot of pain. As such, in my life filled with so much pain that I was becoming numb to pain in
      general, I figured that would be an excellent place for our relationship to truly begin.
  
      As he saw my empty eye socket he nodded and opened a book that emerged from his chest.
      The book was covered in black dust, garish skin, and the text seemed to only be on the fringes
      of the cover which was also impossible for me to read. As he opened to an unknown page, he
      started chanting in a language I couldn’t understand (it seemed to be similar to the time when
      Luna tried to tell me her true name) and quickly the process began as the pull from the Korpal
      Orb got so strong that even I was struggling to remain upright. Meanwhile Luna gently floated
      into the air and all of the goo that encompassed her external body started to flow into her portal
      which bent and stretched in ways my mind couldn’t imagine before that point in my life.
      Eventually it slowly shrunk and just as it got to the size of my eye, it suddenly shot into my
      socket. Endless pricks and needles shot into the surrounding part of my head and coursed
      throughout the rest of my body causing so much agony that I fell to the floor with a hard thud.
      What’s worse was the Korpal Orb collapsing onto me causing myself to curl up as I began to
      scream so loud that it shook the entire room, louder and louder and louder as my voice no
      longer became my own and then suddenly as I felt the darkness of death creep way too close
      for comfort, everything and I mean everything, stopped. All of it happened in 0.3 seconds
      according to my watch and I felt nothing but complete euphoria as I finally passed out from the
      pain.
  

  
      I have never before in my life been so happy to tear my eyelids open to a hellish landscape but
      this time it was different. As soon as I could register touch, I felt something writhing in my right
      eye socket. I tried to burst off of the ground, but the devastating headache originating from my
      missing eye that I had woken up to kept me grounded for the time being. As I sat there trying to
      collect my thoughts through the pain, Paciful poked his head over mine.
      
      “Ah, I see you lived?” He said more curiously than grateful.
      
      “Whar?” I said more groggily than I would’ve wished.
      
      He sighed and if he were human he would’ve definitely shaken his head, but instead he just
      stared at me. Although now I’m questioning that since he clearly facepalmed earlier. “I see it’s
      taken a toll. More than is usual which is to be expected for a lesser being. Don’t worry, I’ll watch
      over you until you’ve fully recovered.”
      
      I kinda wanted to punch him for insinuating that I was a little bitch but I didn’t have the energy
      for it. We sat there for about an hour before a voice crept along the base of my skull and
      slithered into my ears.
      
      “Are you okay Dr. Alex?” It was Luna’s voice and it felt a loooooooot more intimate. I also
      noticed that she wasn’t nearby for some reason.
      
      “Yeah, I’m doing fine.” I tried to speak with my mouth unsure where she was, but the words just
      stayed as thoughts. My mouth refusing to obey my commands.
      
      “That’s good! For now, just rest, and we can talk later.” She said now with a much chipper tune,
      again having read my mind, although looking back I don’t think I ever really minded that.
      
      I wanted to ask about the whole mouth thing and the whole, her voice being in my head, thing,
      but I knew now wasn’t the time so I just rested. All three (two?) of us sat there for another hour
      with me catching a little shut-eye before I was able to at least sit up.
      
      “Alright let me check your terip-” He said before awkwardly realizing that our, likely, vastly
      different anatomies would mean he couldn’t check whatever accursed body part he was hoping
      to inspect. “Nevermind, I’ve… never done a checkup on your species before.”
      
      “Just give me a moment doc and I’ll be back on my feet. I have other medical professionals I
      can consult.” I said moments before I rose to the ground. He seemed both amazed by my quick
      recovery and relieved. After that he seemed to have something on his mind that he really
      wanted to say. I didn’t actually register this myself but rather Luna had told me this fact. I still
      hadn’t quite fully grasped what that meant in my head but I still decided to use the knowledge
      for my advantage.
      
      “What is it man?” I asked.
      
      “Oh.” He was a bit taken aback and composed himself for a moment. “Well, you are an outsider
      of our cabal and so you probably don’t understand how desperate things are for both of our
      species… Just please keep Luna safe for however long she has left. I never agreed with the
      project in the first place so I guess this outcome isn’t all bad, but you still did kill a lot of people.”
      I kept my gaze as he said those words, a bit of venom in his look. “So you better make sure that
      you give her the best damn life she can have… Can you promise me you will?”
      
      “I will, I promise.” I can lie pretty easily, growing up autistic and gradually gaining better control
      of my emotions over the years has made my poker face a lot better. But this time, I was 100%
      honest.
      
      “Good… Good. Now. I hope I never have to set my eyes on your ugly face ever again.” He said
      before he blew off into the wind as if he were dust.
      
      “Pay him no mind, he’s just very dedicated and conflicted.” Luna said assuredly.
      
      “A lot of us tend to be.” I said with only my laugh that followed being audible.
      
      My enjoyment of the moment was ruined by my undying curiosity for the unknown, especially
      since I could feel Luna being here but didn’t see her being anywhere close to me.
      
      “So, uhhhh, may I ask a few questions?” I said.
      
      “Oh! Of course! You probably have a lot especially after the joining so ask away!” She said with
      her attitude from an hour ago not being lost.
      
      “So first, where are you? Second, why is it that everytime I try to talk to you, it’s with my mind?
      And third, what is in my eye socket?” We had started to walk along the vast dusty surface I
      found myself standing on top of. Nothing but rock, metal, and various kinds of sludge had
      surrounded me while the sky was filled with an angry red that felt like dead eyes were boring
      down on me.
      
      She was extremely happy to answer my questions but more so seemed to just be happy to be
      here with me, which I was too. “Alright, so first of all I’m inside you, specifically the portal that
      contains all of my mass is within your eye, which you designated as my location during the
      Joining.” I simply nodded and waited for her next answer.
      
      “The communication thing is just meant to ease communication between those in the Joining.
      When the process was first made several eons ago, the first people who underwent the process
      found that speaking aloud to a being that isn’t visible most of the time wasn’t the best for their
      public life so this part was added to all versions of the process after a few trials. You couldn’t
      hear it but my betrothed was also speaking to the others he had joined before my process. You’ll
      likely get used to it with time.” I nodded again as I asked her to continue.
      
      “And finally, that’s me! At least it’s where all of my mass is. You and I can both release my mass
      to certain extents, I would gladly teach you now but I-” My curiosity had peaked far too high and
      I slithered some of her purple goo down my arm, a tiny tentacle amongst the mass had coiled in
      response to my internal command. “Wow, you are far better at this than others I’ve seen. Would
      you like to practice some!”
      
      “No thanks, I think I’d just like to talk for now and enjoy the moment.” We then spent the next
      few hours just talking about ourselves, our vast experiences, and the history of our people. So
      many of my issues had washed away from my shoulders and while speaking with her I was able
      to fully relax just as I had done in my previous encounter with her. A small and cruel part of me
      had wished that the moment would last forever. Hours flew by, as we carried on under the dead
      sky, stepping over burned cities and corpses the size of those cities. Eventually; however, a new
      worry had burrowed its way into my mind and quickly she manifested herself, looking as she did
      before the Joining. She fully surrounded me, and while I would usually go into fight mode over
      this, she had me fully and completely relaxed. I do wonder if it was because of her mere
      presence or because of the something she released from her body, regardless I’m not too upset
      if it’s the latter.
      
      “Alright Dr. Alex.” She sighed. “While I do have a good idea of what’s going on in your head, I
      don’t know everything that’s happening in there, especially in your deeper subconscious. So
      please, tell me what’s troubling you.”
      
      I felt pretty pathetic for what I was about to say, “Are you sure you would enjoy your time with
      me, especially since I’m pretty strange to others.” She looked like she wanted to laugh, which I
      felt like she held back from doing so. “Look! I like a bunch of weird things and I tend to push
      others away, so can you at least take me a little seriously!”
      
      Luna couldn’t help but to not suppress her laughter this time, it was absolutely adorable as I
      settled into her gelatinous body. “I meant it when I said that I wanted to be around you Dr. Alex.
      Besides, I’m sure that what’s strange to you, is average to me.”
      
      “Touche.” I said feeling a little better. “Also you can call me Alex and just drop the Doctor part,
      as you may know I worked hard for it so I usually ask people to refer to me with it, but you're
      special so you can refer to me however you want in fact.”
      
      She seemed to clam up after I said she was special because she honestly didn’t think I thought
      that highly of her. That someone as strong as me would think she could actually mean a lot to
      me and not just because of her inherent ability to lure people into her thrall as a Welburthils. “Do
      you actually mean that?” She said unsure of herself for the first time today.
      
      “Yes, I am, you’ve helped me relax and enjoy myself for the first time in a long time, and not only
      that but you're one of the few people to take a genuine interest in me for a long time, so that
      means a lot to me as well. I know I’ve done a lot for you and you probably feel like you haven’t
      done much in return, but you really have.” It had also been a long time since I poured my
      emotions out like that to someone else, but it felt really good for me to just talk about myself. By
      then she had formed her face into a smile and was no longer surrounding me, only a few
      tendrils dripped off of me from my left hand. An ancient part of my brain told me to hold it for
      some reason..
      
      “Then in that case, I’d also like to learn about you more as well. Can you take me back to your
      home?”
      
      “Gladly.”
      
      We then walked back to the nearest Crack side-by-side, taking the time to enjoy the scenery
      and the unusual sight of a decaying world as we took our sweet old time in the process.
      
      As a reminder of the feelings I felt in these past few weeks, I decided to carve the words “Rock
      on” into my knuckles. It was probably pretty weird and Luna had wanted me not to. But this day
      was incredibly important for me, and I hadn’t really considered the sheer amount of time I would
      have left until I saw Olga again. So, this was to be a memento to my time with both Olga and
      Luna, as well as all the good times ahead and would serve as a reminder to enjoy all the good
      times I had left.
      
      As we got closer to the nearest Crack, I remembered something very important and asked to
      hear some of her music. She gently nodded and we both strolled back into the void as the
      cursed music descended (or ascended maybe) upon my ears.
  

  
      And so there you have it docs. My full recount of how Luna and I ended up sharing a body. I do
      respect all of you (mostly) greatly, but I must personally appeal to keeping Luna and I together.
      While I know the chances of the two of us being split are very slim, I still feel the need to ask for
      this. Luna means a lot to me and I will resort to violence to keep her safe. She means the world
      to me and I won’t let anything happen to her even if it means I bring the Fixers down with us.
      Yeah, I know that you usually receive threats worse than these on the daily but I still felt that it
      was needed. Welp, that’s all I have to say, and I hope for both of our sakes, you’ll let her stay.
  

  
      Welp, that’s it. My first story, it’s probably shit and boring and bad, but hey, I enjoyed writing it so
      that’s all that matters to me. I wish I could’ve done better describing the creatures and the fights
      but hey, I’m sure that with time and experience I can improve greatly and I hope I do. I also want
      to take the time to thank my close friends (you know who you are) who were willing to read my
      long shitty shlock because it meant so much to me and I really loved reading what you had to
      say. I also wanted to thank you for reading this shit, it means a lot to me to just have one person
      reach these author notes. I also wanted to thank the many horror story narrations I would listen
      to at work for the inspirations for some of my writing, since it really helps me to visualize the
      places I want to bring to life even with my minimal experience and vocabulary. And lastly, no,
      this was all not just an excuse to make some butch woman x eldritch woman stuff. Not at all.
  

  
      Damn it’s been nearly a year since I touched this story up and it has somewhat held the test of
      time. I’m still pretty proud I finally sat down to write this, to bring it to life in whatever kinda bad
      way I did. I’ve learned a lot since I sat down to write the first chapter and I’ve gained almost a
      lifetime of experiences since then, some good, some too painful to remember at times. But this
      is something I want to push forward with, I love writing and I hope I get to make more stories like
      this one.