The rest of the day, we spent mourning. I tried talking with the deaths, but none of them seemed to care about what I had to say. Even White ignored me. She just sat nearby, crying, while the rest of them just stared at their dead comrade. It wasn't easy to kill death, but in this world, anything was possible. Eventually, Beast approached me. The mask on his face changed into a painted version of a crying emoji. To this day, I wonder whether these changes were subconscious, or whether he was doing it on purpose to show others that he was mourning as well.

"Do you know who did this?" he asked me with a voice that did not match the depiction on his mask at all.

"I think I do." He didn't respond to that and quickly returned to take another look at his fallen friend.

"No wounds, marks, cuts... Nothing. It's as if he simply went and died," Beast eventually muttered.

"We need to move out. The heat could harm us. There are some caves up in the hills. We can hide there," Garry took the initiative.

"But what about Uni? We can't leave him like this. The people from the town would cut the body into pieces and sell it like some trophy. He doesn't deserve such fate!" Tears were running down White's face and the tone of her voice kept on jumping up and down.

"I'm sorry, White, but Garry's got a point. We knew the risks when we came here. We must move on. We'll come back for him when the sun goes down and the heat subsides. If we stay, we're putting Eddie at risk." It seemed that Beast's words had at least some effect on her. White wiped her tears off her face and together, we walked into the hills.

The heat was terrible. Each step felt like another mile. Sweat was pouring down my face in streams and no matter how far we got, it still didn't seem like we were any closer to a cave. We all walked silently, thinking about what happened in the last hour. We lost, and we had to deal with it.

"Eddie?" White broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"What kind of cave would you like to find?"

"What?"

"I mean, what would the cave we're looking for look like? Big? Small? Fancy?" I didn't know why she asked or how exactly could a cave be fancy, but I was glad somebody was talking to me, so I didn't want to complain about the subject.

"I don't care at this point. Just give me a cave. Any cave. With enough space for all of us."

"You mean, like that one?" Garry pointed to the stone wall in front of us. There was a dark entrance into a cave. It wasn't very big, but as long as it protected us from the heat of the sun, none of us would object.

"Wow, a nice coincidence," I mumbled, almost completely out of breath.

"That's no coincidence. I knew you'd be able to create one with your divine creativity. I just had to make you imagine it," White explained her intentions to me. I was kind of fascinated by the fact that it actually worked.

"You have a lot of power over this world, you just have to learn how to use it." White's optimism was slowly returning. The deaths truly didn't mourn for long. It was part of their nature. They had to deal with the dead every day, so stopping to grieve over someone was an alien concept for them. There was simply no time for that. Death can't take a moment to cry over someone. It must move on and carry other souls to the afterlife. That's simply how it is.

We hid in the caves for the day. When the sun started setting and the heat finally subsided, we headed down towards the town to pick up Uni's body. It took us nearly an hour just to get it to a place where no one from Sunwalley could see us. We set Uni down on a little bit of dry land and surrounded him with flammables. It was time for a proper funeral. A.J. never got one, because we were constantly in a rush. The other Deaths agreed that it would be best to just leave Uni be and focus solely on our goal, but I couldn't just keep moving on, knowing that my presence in this world has taken another victim. So, I proposed the idea of burning him and saying our last goodbyes. The others didn't exactly agree with me, but in their voices, I could feel that they secretly wanted to do the same thing. They could've simply outvoted me and left, and yet they chose to stay. We gathered as many flammables as possible. White even tore off bits of her ever-restoring dress and put them over Uni. She didn't have enough fabric to cover his whole massive body, but the eyes were sufficient. Then we proceeded to say our final goodbyes. The deaths were remembering their best moments with Uni. White told us a story about how he once forgot how to return things from the dimension inside his stomach, which resulted in a massive lack of food and supplies for the whole Council. Beast told us a story about how Uni once tried to persuade him to get him a mask such as the one he's wearing. Obviously, Beast didn't know where the mask came from, so he couldn't help him, but that didn't prevent the overgrown death from trying out various items he could wear on his face. Eventually, he went back to his normal self and forgot all about it. But since then, Beast kept teasing him about his "mask phase."

Garry then told us how he once spent several days inside Uni's stomach. Back then, they were on a scouting mission, looking for me in the world of thousand islands, which, as the name suggests, is a place with one thousand little floating islands. They got caught in a massive storm, and in order to save Garry's life, Uni ate him and spat him out again after the storm blew over. Meanwhile, he buried himself under the ground and stayed there, keeping them both safe. According to Garry, nothing brings two people closer as being eaten. I knew what he meant by that, but I wasn't sure if he knew how twisted it would sound without the context.

When the turn finally came to me, I remained quiet. There weren't many moments I could spend with that guy, so logically, I didn't have any story to tell. But the deaths didn't mind. They seemed to be happy we agreed to do this funeral. Although only for a short moment, the memories of their friend seemed to wipe away the sadness from their face and returned them to a happier moment in the past.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

When the flames finally started biting away at Uni, they changed color into bright green, and once they reached his stomach, the entire dimension he kept inside him leaked out into the sky like a massive, dark blue beacon. It could’ve attracted some attention to us, but we didn't care. It was the last light of our friend. We wanted to pay our respects to him. The clouds have parted and allowed the faintly shining beam to reach the stars, joining them on their endless journey around this world.

We'd spend the night in the cave, taking shifts guarding and tending to the fire, making sure it wouldn't go out. With the barrier between worlds broken, the creatures of Darkness could attack anywhere. Our only luck was that this world had a moon. Its glow may have not been warm or especially bright, but it was just about enough to prevent the Darkness from running rampant outside. White offered to escort me back to the town and into a hotel, but I refused. The feeling of sharing a place to stay with that "Jack" filled me with a very uneasy feeling. White argued that I'd still have to stay there, to have it easier when finding the crystal. I knew that, but the shock from what happened was still far too fresh.

In the morning, I headed back into the town. The night was everything but a pleasant one. Sleeping on hard rocks could barely be called sleeping at all, and with my guard shift being placed too close to the morning, I did not manage to get many hours of proper rest.

"Be careful, and don't forget the secret phrase if you need us," White told me before I left.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I'll be fine. You guys stay here and wait for me to find the crystal. And, umm... stay safe."

"Don't worry, we will watch each other's back from now on," Garry said as we waved at each other.

I had a very troubled feeling about this. There were so many things I didn't tell them. The entire incident with Jack was something I kept to myself, in order to keep them safe. The less they know, the better. That person managed to block out our communications AND kill one of us. Not to mention that there were no signs of struggle, fight, or even anything that would identify how exactly Uni died. He was strong, just like the other Deaths. Killing someone like him would require incredible power, comparable to that of Marley. No, maybe even something much stronger than that. There was no way somebody could just assassinate him. I had to get answers and to do that, I had to find Jack. Something about him still seemed odd to me. On one hand, he was definitely a foe, but instead of killing me right away, he chose to give me what I assumed was a warning, along with a few gold coins.

As I approached the town, I saw people gathering in the street. I pulled my stetson lower into my face, to look less suspicious, and with a very heavy western accent, I asked the first person I could find about what was going on here.

"Don't ya know? Tomi's having a duel with tha Gunslinger." I raised my eyebrow.

"The Gunslinger?"

"Ye! He's tha new star of the town. His aim is fuckin' legendary!" I pushed my way through the people to get a good look at the two men facing each other. Tomi was a local farmer, who practiced sharpshooting as a hobby. The other man was a complete mystery to me. He wore a dark brown poncho and a large hat, which cast a shadow on his face, so I couldn't see it properly. Something about him seemed wrong. On the other side of the street, I saw Jack. He was standing there, leaning very lightly against his cane. While all the people were pushing each other since there wasn't enough room to see the duel properly, Jack had plenty of space around him. I assume it was because of his reputation. The townsfolk just stayed a good meter away from him at least. After I saw Timothy, the feared gunslinger of Sunwalley, cower before this guy, I immediately knew he had the whole city wrapped around his finger. I had to be especially careful around him. Not only was there the fact that he most likely possessed a shard of Divine Creativity, but he was also damn skilled in using it, judging by the jukebox coin trick. He was staring at me from across the street with confidence in his eyes. Despite all the citizens around, he still managed to pinpoint my exact location. I didn't like him, but if he wanted me dead, he would have already killed me. Why was he waiting? Perhaps he needed me for something. One way or another, he was someone I wanted to keep in my sight, at least for now.

The giant clock on the tower started ticking off the last minute until noon. Duels would always happen around this time and the clocktower worked as a kind of a countdown. The last few seconds remained. Both gunslingers were ready with their hands placed near their holsters.

3

2

1

Only one gunshot was heard, but at that moment, I didn't quite pay attention to that nor the metal cling that came along with it. What shocked me more was the sound of splintering wood, that came from right behind my ear. I quickly turned around and saw a bullet dug deeply into the wooden wall behind me. When I looked back, Tomi was lying on the ground, his head bleeding into the sand. Upon a closer look, I realized that he didn't even draw his weapon. The Gunslinger seemed satisfied with his victory.

I couldn't move at all. The bullet bounced off of something, killed Tomi, and nearly managed to hit me as well. A part of me wanted to think that it was an accident, but seeing Jack smiling and approaching me, the truth became clear. This was a warning. A showcase of extreme skill. I was an ant dancing at the feet of giants. And they knew far too well about it.

"Oh my, are you alright Mr. Wright? That was such a close call. You nearly got killed by that shot. You are quite fortunate luck was on your side this time." It was no accident and this very conversation proved it. "Oh, have you met my co-worker?" He waved to the winner of the duel to come closer. "Mr. Wright, please, let me introduce to you, as your people call him, The Gunslinger." The man walked closer and shook my hand. This was the first time I could see his face. It was filled with scars and a few bits of stray hair. It seemed that he was quite unsuccessful in his attempts to grow a beard, yet he was trying. His stature was also nothing to scoff at. The nearly-two-meters-tall mountain of muscles towered over me and as he squeezed my hand to shake it, I could swear I felt all the bones from my wrist down shift and crack.

"Mr. Gunslinger, this is Eddie Wright. I believe you two have already met at... What was that city again? Oh yes, at Nordan. Near Marley's house. He's been there regarding a business trip." The massive colossus let go of my hand, and yet I was not able to move it back closer to my body. Every single muscle of mine froze in place. It all came back to me. The mysterious gunshot that killed A. J. It was him. This was the killer. Every ounce of blood in my body started to boil, but I knew that against him and Jack, I would never stand a chance.

"Pleased to meet you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go." I left the location of the duel very quickly and disappeared into the nearby hotel almost immediately.

"Ya wanna rent a room?" the lady at the reception asked.

"Y-Yeah... Will this be enough for at least a week?" Even though I didn't like it, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a few golden coins I got from Jack. Why would he give me money? What did he want from me? There were too many unanswered questions.

"Alright! Ya've got ten days in there. Then ya gotta leave. Got it?"

"Yes, thank you." I took the keys from the receptionist and swiftly went to my newly rented room, locking the door behind me and throwing myself onto the bed. Thoughts were flying through my head. What will I do now? How will I get rid of Jack? And what about the Gunslinger? There was no way I could get the Deaths involved. That would lead to casualties. I had to solve this on my own, find the gemstone, and retreat with the Council's help as fast as possible.

I dug my face into the pillow and tried to get some sleep, hoping that I wouldn't get killed if I just rest for a while.