FMH: Everything ~ Two

Zed, Andre, Taylor, and Luke stood together in person for the first time in nearly three months. They had grown comfortable with each other and were aware of each other's presence in a way that eliminated the necessity for constant interaction. Luke, especially, was not one for extravagant or idle chatting for the sake of being social.

The Bard looked around, his unfettered joy showing on his face at all times. “This is nice. Isn't this nice? How are you all doing? I know that we've all-”

“I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think this is a bad idea, and I don’t want to lose a friend over his desire to subject himself to a Mana Baptism that will cause his body to shatter and melt away like an icicle,” Taylor burst out, cutting off Zed's flow of words and glaring at Luke the entire time.

“Well,” Luke paused for an uncomfortably long duration, then shrugged. “If you don't like it, force us not to do it.”

“Stop throwing that in my face,” Taylor hissed at the smirking trio of men. “We have all determined that our minds were not our own and agreed to let the past stay in the past. We have all grown and changed. Yes, this is your decision, but I'm not going to let you do it… without at least reminding you how much you mean to us and that losing you would devastate our team.”

“Aww. Taylor, I had no idea you cared so much!” Zed attempted to pull her in for a hug when a small arc of lightning forced him to leap away from her with a yelp. “Well, that was rude. Still, I'm going. Thank you for your concern, but we both know the kingdom never gave you instructions on keeping me safe or alive. Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't give you direct orders to off me at the first opportunity.”

Taylor winced visibly, and Zed's mouth dropped open. His finger shot out to point at her accusingly. “They did! I knew it!”

“No, they didn't. I flinched at the fact that you have such low trust in the people in power.” Taylor waved him down with a long sigh. “But… you're correct. If you can get in there, I can't stop you. Something tells me you won't be able to, because your Sigil knows it is almost certain death for you. I think you're going to take a single step and lose control of your legs.”

“Oh right, I forgot about that. Abyss. Still, I'm going to do what I can to make it happen.” Zed’s expression had shifted through a half dozen emotions during the conversation, but it finally settled on confidence and grim determination. “Luke, whenever you're ready, I am as well.”

“To be clear, you want to go into Murder World no matter what happens, right?” Luke’s eyes seemed to be boring a hole directly into Zed's skull, so the Bard simply gulped and nodded. “Great.”

*Wham.*

Without any further warning or notice, Luke's fist lashed out and sent a cascading reverberation through the air as he dumped mana into the space in front of him. His other fist followed, echoing the sound and enhancing it as the world seemed to bend and warp. Faster and faster his fists went flying, impacting nothing… as well as reality itself. With a final strike, the world gave way, tearing open a portal between the two dimensions. As far as the eye could see, only blue landscapes and minor variations of the same monochrome hue could be found.

The Murderhobo was heaving for breath, not from exhaustion or any form of feeling tired, but from the sheer mental fortitude it took for him not to dive in and let the portal close behind him. “If you want to come, you’d better move now.”

Zed sprang toward the opening as rapidly as he could, only for his legs and body to collapse like a puppet with its strings cut. He slammed his fists on the ground in a tantrum. “No! It won't let me! I want—*uup*!”

Luke scooped up the caterwauling Bard in passing and chucked him into the portal just ahead of himself. He followed through the Scar and let it close behind him, cutting off the shocked expressions on the faces of the other half of their team. “Congratulations. You made it. Try not to die.”

“Yeah. About that. Any recommendations?” Zed was sweating and chuckled nervously as he glanced around. “Honestly… I didn't expect to make it this far. I have no plan from this point forward.”

“I told you your plan. Try not to die.” Luke set off, paying the Bard no further attention. “Don’t breathe too hard; don't drink any of the water. It'll make you explode. Same with the pearls. I don't recommend trying any of the food from this place, either. It's delicious, but again… it will make you explode.”

“You know, I have my proof of concept now. I'm able to walk around and am not on fire or actively dying, so I should be able to come back another time, right? My Sigil will just let me walk in?” Zed’s rambling wasn't drawing any response from the Murderhobo, so he tried a new tactic. “Any chance that you could let me out of here? You know, now that I have my proof-”

“I can't open the way out from here,” Luke informed the Bard without a backward glance. “After Zone fifteen, things changed a little bit. Now I get an exit portal every five Zones, but an entrance portal every three. We’re going to need to make it to the end of Zone twenty or backtrack to fifteen for you to get out.”

“The end of Zone twenty? Wait, haven't you been telling us that you’ve been stuck in Zone nineteen for something like… four years?” Zed hurried to catch up, eventually resorting to a flying tackle to grab onto Luke's shoulders as the Fitness-focused Ascender accelerated to a sprint.

“Yes.”

“Would you care to expand on that answer at all?” Zed was doing his best impression of a cape, clinging to Luke's neck and shoulders for dear life as the man sprinted ahead at speeds an avalanche couldn't hope to rival.

“It is a very long distance, and I have a very specific amount of time before I'm forced to turn around.” The last detail was practically growled; the maximum amount of time that Luke could spend in his world was thirty days of subjective time. That translated into approximately two days in the outside world, which made it nearly impossible to cross the vast distances required while maintaining effective combat readiness.

Zed decided against nodding or performing any other movement that might impact his stability on his ride. Still, he had long since mastered the art of being able to continue a conversation, no matter the circumstances. “You say it’s a long distance to Zone twenty; what does that look like? I feel like you've explained this before but, frankly, I never thought it would be pertinent to me.”

“System notifications have a measuring function,” Luke begrudgingly offered after a few minutes of silence. “The size of each chunk of land increased by half all the way until I got to Zone sixteen. After that, it only increased by one tenth. Probably a limitation on physical land, as there is no shortage of mana.”

“Mmkayy…” Zed tried to draw out more information but remembered exactly who he was talking with. “Could you give me an exact measurement for how long until we reach… what, Zone nineteen? We are in eighteen right now, yes?”

“You're not getting any of my world's direct information. That is fine. We should be reaching Zone nineteen in the next few hours,” Luke told the Bard in a crystal-clear voice.

Zed blinked a few times as he realized that he was hearing the Murderhobo speak through a smile, and it was impacting the tones of his normally flat and slightly angry voice. “Are you… is this you being happy? Also, I don't know how fast you're moving right now, but a few hours seems like a long time, since you're… I want to say running a mile every minute or so? Maybe a little bit farther?”

“I have Cookie, I'm in my world, and I'm going to get stronger. Why would I not be happy?” Luke nodded solemnly, nearly dislodging his uninvited jockey. “If the distance calculations are correct, Zone one was ten miles long and half a mile wide. By Zone five, that was fifty miles in length and two miles wide. At Zone fifteen-”

“Hold on; wait, wait, wait.” The Bard had a spectacular mind, and he tried to formulate the statistical increase of Luke’s claims. “That means at Zone fifteen, we were looking at… you don't mean to tell me that we have to run nearly one thousand, four hundred miles before we reach the edge of the next area?”

“Zone,” Luke corrected him blandly. “Yes. This Zone is one thousand, three hundred sixty-three miles long, one hundred and one miles wide. Zone nineteen is a little bit longer, but Zone twenty is the real problem.”

“If you don't mind me asking, where are all of the monsters?” Zed had heard so many horror stories about this place, though they were delivered in a nonchalant and slightly annoyed tone. He had remained tense from the moment he knew he would be able to survive the air until right now.

“I cleared them perfectly on previous runs. The ones that respawn while I'm out of this world are trying to gather together to launch sneak attacks on me once they get strong enough again. There were only fifty thousand of them… or so. Nothing like Zone twenty,” Luke elaborated only out of great consideration for his guest.

“Well, now I'm properly concerned about our destination. Seeing as you brought it up a couple of times, and even called it an issue for you, what’s going on?” Zed was starting to be drawn into the excitement that his friend was exuding despite himself; he felt a wide smile growing across his own face as his body literally *thrummed* with power. His Mana Channels were Pristine, allowing for a cycle of power to flow through him and into his cells, which he had previously considered to be utterly saturated.

“Most of the issue is the fact that I need to return to the base world in a timely manner.” Luke let out a long, uncharacteristic sigh of annoyance. “I haven't been able to figure out the trick to the next Zone yet. I'm hoping that, this time, I can get into the Zone to understand what the issue is.”

“You don't even know what the problem is? Wait, you haven't been into the next Zone yet? I’m confused.”

“Just wait until we get there, and you'll see the problem for yourself,” Luke explained with a grunt that signaled the end of the conversation. No matter how the Bard wheedled him from that point forward, he simply kept his mouth shut and kept running.