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Corvayne stumbled onto concrete. He turned around, and was confused for a moment. No monk, no spaceport. It was sunny out. He turned in a circle. He was standing at the end of the road, or the start of it. He saw empty highland desert behind him, with the single steel guard rail with red reflective diamonds on it suggesting that the road was over. There was the distortion of heat above the guard rail.

He fell to the ground. Why was he alive? What was the point? His friends were dead. Wick was dead. The last thing he saw before he fell over was her murder. Hari too. He fucked up. He should have told the elf he loved her. He should have gone drinking with Mosh. Even his new sparring partner died too. While he didn't care for Nyxion, he felt bad watching Lady Blood Claw die trying to avenge him.

What was he left with? His pack, his spear, his cloak, and a shadowy hand that snaked out, pointing down the road. He stood. A spear pointed forward. No time to rest on shattered goals. He'd go into the tower, arm himself with artifacts, then hunt the monk down and kill him. Or just go grab the other nuclear bomb from the mine. His shadowy hand started slapping his side. Of course. High tech weapons failed. He needed another magma knife. If it could melt a dragon, he just needed to land one hit on the monk.

Corvayne stood up, burying everything as he started down the road. He took a step. He'd recruit Grunt first. He needed help. He took another step. What would Grunt...

What was he going to do when he learned Wick was dead?

Corvayne imagined the big man looking confused, then falling to his knees. He'd weep for his friends. What about Hari? Or little Mosh? They both were so... upbeat even after being dragged away from home.

He had failed them. He never got Mosh home. He never got Hari home. He wasn't able to protect Wick. The watchers had been right, he was a failure. He was no warrior. He had nowhere to go back to. Maybe he'd head down into the valley there, and dive off a bridge into the rocks. Better then ruining a new set of lives. His shadow hand jabbed him in the side.

“What the hell? That hurt!” What kind of stupid power hurt yourself? Ok. He owed them. He would have vengeance. He'd find out who the monk is, who Wick was. He'd finish their fight. The shadowy hand was poking his side, he swatted at it and it fled into him then popped out of his belly, pointed down the road.

He picked himself up off his knees, and wiped his tears away. He pulled his spear out. He started walking back to town. Even if there was nothing left for him there. Slap slap slap. He could work for Dawn to get contacts. Probably kill a few people. Slap Slap slap. Even if Grunt wasn't willing to engage in a suicidal attack with him, he knew his friend would help in any way he could. Slap slap slap.

“WHAT?” He shouted at the shadowy hand. It shifted to his hair and flicked his forehead then pointed forward. “I'm going plenty damn fast. What, do I need to get there by tonight to tell all Wick's fans that I failed her? Tell Dawn to get the peeler out because Wick's dead? Let Mister I know he can stop thinking about the next move Mosh is never going to make on the chess board?”

The hand actually made a little shaking it's head motion using it's thumb and pointer finger, then kept pointing forward.

“Oh you don't like that I'm angry? Or sad? Or that I'm getting ready to wipe out a whole damn civilization to pay them back for what they did to Wick? Why don't you tell me?”

He slapped the shadowy hand then winced as it was him slapping himself.

“What the hell is wrong with the universe, huh? Why do I have to GUESS about everything? Why did my family kick me out?! Huh!? Do you know that hand?”

It made a little face with its thumb and a fist then actually nodded.

“Huh?”

It nodded again. Another hand joined it, then formed a box.

“Wait, what, your trying to mime something?”

It made a pointer finger and went up and down, as if pointing to a list.

“Can you TALK? You and Grunt, just spit it out! Fuck, I'm going crazy right?”

The thing shook itself off, then both hands made something like a face with a hand shading it and it looked around, then... a magnifying glass.

“Investigate?”

Yes! The hand gave him a thumbs up.

“Investigate... myself?”

The hands clapped. He could feel it draining stamina. Then it pointed him forward. It was a much longer walk when you knew what was at the end of it, and didn't want to go back to it. But he looked down at the hand still pointing forward.

“Fine. I'll mourn my friends later. No suicide either.”

The hand gave him a thumbs up and then snapped back into him, finally leaving him alone to walk up and down the mountains into Cascadia.

This time down the hill he didn't bother stopping to rest. He could see well enough at night that following a road was not a challenge, even as he dipped under the clouds. Previously he had felt joy at each new turn, but now it was torture. Not to mention when he got really mad or sad his hand would come out and goad him to keep going.

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“Yeah I get it. You like being alive. Think happy thoughts. The whole reason I left the damn village was because I can't do it forever. I got tired of it already. So I'm going to think about that monk bleeding out and you can't stop me.”

There was a sound behind him and he remembered the orange trucks that used the road. He wasn't too far past where he had slept last time. He waited for the last truck and hopped on, hitching a ride down hill. He hadn't realized that it was a shipment out of Tel-Star, or at least another mine out along the mountain path. Well, the trucks had Brines Brothers on them.

At the turn in for the facility, he hopped off as they turned in and kept walking. Funny, it was the exact same weather as the last time. He got a little hungry, so he decided to kill the first rabbit he saw.

Which was in the same spot as last time. Ok. They liked that bush. His shadow hand, however, kept pointing at the rabbit.

“Right.” He skinned and cooked it, then kept going. At about the same point as the walk down the last time, the line of trucks came past again and he hitched another ride to the station where they all pulled in. He kept going. He knew this road would get him into town. So he was ready to walk a few more hours downhill.

What he didn't expect is to see Mister I's beat up pickup truck speeding down the highway the other direction. He heard loud braking as it shot past him and the squealing ended as the car turned around to pull up next to him. He mentally composed himself to deal with Mister I as the rust covered truck pulled up next to him. The passenger-side door popped open before the truck had fully stopped.

Corvayne saw Wick nearly trip as she lept out. He dropped his spear and ran to her. “Wick! WICK!”

His mind was empty besides getting to her and hugging her and she started crying and wrapped her arms around him too and even kissed him back and there was no denying he was crying as he held her.

It took him a a few moments to get back to reality. “How... did we make it?”

Wick's expression fell a little.

“Well, uh... we didn't make it. We both died.”

Wick had settled in his arms. She had been crying too it looked like.

Mister I cheerfully added “You both look like hell warmed over! Good matching expressions!”

Wick added “He doesn't remember everything, Grunt sort of does, and say, Brines and Dawn don't remember you at all. We are headed to the park.”

Corvayne frowned. “What about the monk?”

Mister I pointed at himself. Corvayne shook his head and added. “Murder monk. You're meat monk.”

Wick dug in her pocket. “No clue about where he is but... look at my phone.”

“What am I looking at? You didn't unlock it.” He squeezed her as he spoke. Tough luck Wick, you're never getting away again.

She waved it in his face. “The date stupid! Sorry, I mean, take a look at that!”

He looked. April 9th... wait, wasn't it the next month, and the fifth?

“Did we lose a month?”

“Yes. This happened to me before. Not this conversation, I mean I'm pretty sure I've died and come back before. I wasn't sure before today, I thought I might just be crazy. But it's more clear this time.” She closed her eyes. “Sorry, I know you wanna talk, but I'm glad you remember me... I need to sleep.”

“Sleep?”

“It feels like... you know how magic weapons tire you out? It's like that. Mister I is going to take us to the tower. When I wake up, we'll see if we can clear the way for Hari and Mosh to show up safely.”

“You think they'll be there?”

She elbowed him. “Let me sleep!”

After three hours of willingly serving as Wick's pillow, they arrived at the Cascadia National Forest. The parking lot actually had a bunch of other cars parked there. Corvayne could see why as it looked a lot nicer during the day, even with a little rain. Granted, everything was nice to Corvayne right now.

Mister I brought his bow and rifle, and Wick had a different plastic wand then the one she had bought last time. She swung it and disrupt came out, blasting a small branch off a tree.

“The one Mosh made for me was nicer...”

They passed a pair of hikers walking out of the woods. It was odd seeing other people on the trails. The views off the hills were nice though. Even with a little rain he could see bluffs and waterfalls off in the distance.

“Hey Wick, some time let's walk around here in the day.”

She was still groggy and leaned on him. “Sure.”

Corvayne smiled. He was going to count that as a date. They walked up the bark lined trails, through pine forests with a few other trees mixed in. They followed the same path they used the previous two times, with the last trail leading up to the clearing not being blocked with a sign as it had been before.

Corvayne event commented. “Huh. Trail's open. That's different.”

Wick shrugged. “The people probably didn't disappear yet...”

Corvayne thought about that, then handed Wick to Mister I. “There were bodies in the entrance... Catch up to me!”

He ran ahead, under bent logs and into the grassy opening. Two people in completely clean outdoors-man gear were taking pictures of the strange staircase, admiring out loud the wood and lush red carpet. Corvayne was focused on a girl in an expensive looking coat with lots of fur accents who was standing at the top of the stairway taking a selfie.

She had turned and held her hand out, then stepped forward to take a picture off the edge of the stairs. Of course this pushed her hand out past the edge of the stairs and with a little pop she got dragged into the tower, the motion looking a little like slipping into an invisible pool of water. Corvayne didn't wait for the two people in front of him to react and instead charged through them up the stairs two at a time, drawing his spear to be ready.

“What the FUCK is your problem bro?” One of them called after him.

Corvayne didn't bother responded, instead leaping past the edge of the stairs. The world blurred as he nearly ran over the very confused woman who had just passed the threshold. Three other people in bright outdoors clothes were there as well. All around them were the blue rocks and teal plants that defined most of the color in the tower.

“Try to hold the door open! We're stuck!” One man, a pretty woodsy type with flannel with a thick beard, stood up.

Corvayne ignored them and jogged the perimeter bushes around the clearing. No monsters yet.

“Was there anyone else?” Corvayne asked the man.

“No we've been here an hour... what the hell... is that a spear?”

Corvayne took a moment to catch his breath. “Crud. I should have told those guys to NOT let anyone else up the stairs and to call a ranger.” He looked at everyone, who were all focused on him. Might as well establish leadership now. “Okay. When my friends get here, I want you four to follow me. My group is going to kill monsters and help you get out. This place is very dangerous. Get your knives ready, or grab a branch. We'll find you weapons while in here, but my main goal is to make it so you don't need to fight.”

“Oh the sky is all messed up! Someone put E in my water bottle!” The woman was looking up at the yellow sky. She stopped and looked at Corvayne. “Wait did you say monsters?”

“Yeah. You guys ever read books about fighting goblins?” He looked at them to see if they recognized anything he was saying.

The girl of all people raised her hand. “My parents sent me to a Gygaxian private school! Though, I always thought goblin stories were really gross.” Corvayne nodded at her. There were bad goblins in books who were like the ones here and were looking to eat people. Then there were the REALLY bad goblins. Most of the books featuring them were by all the gladiator novels in the library.

“Oh. OH! YES!” One of the guys, the flabby one, gestured frantically at the teal rocks, blue dirt, and red and blue trees, yellow sky. “We just got transferred to another world!? Like one of those novels?!”

Corvayne's shoulders relaxed. “Oh good. You guys get it. I didn't want to have to explain that to you.” He laughed a little. “Yeah. Try to remember the tactics and ideas in those books. Stuff like being careful when opening unknown chests, no splitting off... and so on.”

“You think there's monsters in here, and you were worried about just trying to tell us about it?” One of the other hikers says, a bald guy who looked like he was going to throw up.

He was about to confirm that when Wick appeared at his side, with Mister I stepping in behind her. Wick seemed pleased.

“Oh shit. Glad we didn't find their bodies this time.” She said.

The three guys reacted the same way. “Bodies?”

The girl caught the other part. “Wait, this time?”

Mister I smiled when he looked around. “Ah ha! It's coming back! I remember meat world! That and something about... Lythandies? Mosh?”

Corvayne was distracted by a clicking noise. The girl was pointing her phone at him taking pictures.

“Uh, can I help you?” Corvayne asked her.

“Dude! You're buff as shit. A real life Krangor.” Corvayne had no idea who she was talking about. “You ever consider wearing animal fur briefs?”

No? Who would do that?

Wick waved at Corvayne and he turned his attention to her. “We convinced the two picture takers to warn people away and call for a ranger to block the path off. So you don't gotta worry about other people getting in here. We'll just have to protect these guys.”

Corvayne was already thinking about how to route them. They had a rifle for the trees this time, so perhaps it would be better then fighting swarms of birds on floor four or going anywhere near the death-trap trains that ran between islands on the pillar version of floor five.

He took his spear in hand and turned to the path that would lead to the top of the cube. He could decide that later. “Okay. Let's hunt.”

As he walked on the packed dirt path through the brush he glanced back at the four new members as well as his two friends. It couldn't be that bad herding four hikers through with Wick and Mister I to help him. This would be even easier then the first time!

Only as he started uphill did Corvayne remember that even thinking something like that was asking for trouble.