Sally waved off the Party as they started to fade out of sight. The knight was especially enigmatic about returning the gesture. With a deep breath, the zombie sighed.

“Worried, my queen?” Theo put his arm around her and she leaned her head into him.

“It’s difficult when you get attached, and there’s a chance this could all go wrong… I don’t know.” She sighed again. “It feels like it is out of my control, and there’s not really anything I can punch or kill to fix it.”

“Hmm.” The vampire moved her away and gave her a pat on the head. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any sacrificial lambs to provide you. All the Players we know of we want to save and they are headed to the fortress. Killing Monsters would do nothing either way.”

Sally wrinkled up her face. “We can’t beat the space creature?”

Theo looked over at the darkness. “It was less of a Monster, and more of just… a void.”

“One that had enough finesse to cut your arm off?”

He shrugged. “It used a void sword, I guess.”

She fought the urge to sigh again. At least if it was an actual monster they could try to fight it - at least run a distraction while Chuck finished things off on his end. Knowing it was just a mass of darkness that could attack but take no damage was… unfortunate.

“Alright, next plan then.” She clicked her fingers. “We need to help Sanctuary with making this easier, right?”

The vampire nodded. “I’m sure our new titles are both a boon and a curse for Chuck trying to squeeze everyone back. We might not fit the exact shape we left as…”

Sally winced. They were kinda different now, but surely that wouldn’t stop the Architect reeling the fishing line back in to bring them home? She didn’t really understand how it all worked enough to be too worried, but also not comforted either.

“Either way, fangs. We need to get as powerful as possible in the shortest amount of time possible.”

He pushed his glasses up and grinned; the light catching his fangs. “Well then, my dear. You came to the right man.”

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“How are things looking, Chuck?” The swordsman was still typing away, his brow furrowed.

The Architect huffed. “It’s embarrassingly convoluted. We thought that power was enough to make this a simple process, but if anything, it’s the nuance of their personal data that it is causing the hangups.” He shook his head. “Classes were meant to be a temporary thing on new worlds, not a permanent change to their actual being.”

Dent nodded slowly. “So, will they have similar powers to you?”

“No, not at all. That would be terrible.” Chuck glanced at him before back to the screens. “That’s part of what I’m doing here. They will essentially be the beta testers for the new Class and skill part of the System… I think.”

“Love the confidence.”

“I will get them home. In one piece.” The alternative wasn’t worth thinking about.

He watched as the power level of the pair slowly increased. That would be helpful, hopefully. Normally that was the goal - enough strength in the new world and they could reach out and take it for their own. Taking specific parts of the System - even just the Players - was a lot more difficult that just absorbing it wholesale.

While he could wrench the undead pair back to Sanctuary, it wasn’t equipped to accept their Aspect roles. It could just erase that and leave them as they used to be. It could reject them and sent their data out into the endless ocean.

It was all very frustrating how much of their System he still couldn’t access or change. Digging through the creator’s work had been tough, and he yearned to delve into the background information on how things even existed, not just played administrator in the pre-built world.

If he could somehow get into the data itself. Become the System, then…

He eyed up the swordsman. No, it wasn’t the right time to get distracted by this.

Hand hovered away from a certain button. Day wasn’t dire enough just yet.

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Sally growled and crossed her arms. “Why are you telling me this only now?”

The vampire shrugged. “Wasn’t sure you were in the dark. I assume they didn’t tell you about the alien invasion because you’d get worried and want to come home.”

“It is worrying.” Her scowl went out over the horde of zombies she was accumulating.

She probably would have wanted to go back if she really knew what had been going on back in Sanctuary. Even if the attack was months away, she needed to prepare. How could they even prepare? If the bugs attacked, wouldn’t everyone just respawn until they won anyway?

Too many questions and distraction from current proceedings.

The pair of them had walked and killed any monsters, all the while Sally raised zombies. In fact, it didn’t seem to matter what they did - she could summon a small group of them on cooldown. If this was a permanent power… if Chuck could allow her this… then taking the next world would be even easier.

She imagined dropping down somewhere and just immediately spawning in undead. Just standing in place and doing it all day long until she had an army of hundreds, which she’d then… well, she wouldn’t even need to attack anyone, surely. Enough power gained and they could steal Systems without even having a basic tutorial conversation.

A chilling thought, and not very delicious.

“You must be able to do more than just kill Monsters, pup.” She tilted her head to the vampire, who had mostly been tagging along with her. “I can probably do more than create infinite zombies and put your arm back on too. I wish we had a better clue.”

“Oh.” He stopped in place and smiled. “I can do this too.”

She watched as he turned to face a Dungeon in the near distance. The vampire held up his hand, which flickered with red and black light. A giant fist bust from the area around the far structure, knocking it into the air before the hand made of darkness opened and then closed around it, erasing it from existence. As the summon faded away, only a few errant bricks fell down to the grass.

“That’s cool, I guess.” She grinned. “Can you only fist Dungeons?”

He pursed his lips and shrugged. “I haven’t tried using it on anything else.”

“Can… you use your normal skills alongside it?”

Theo raised an eyebrow, and they continued walking toward the void. “Hmm. I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Using [Novice Strike] or my ultimate with it might wreak more damage than what the oblivion ahead of us is doing.”

“Nah.” Sally summoned another group of sunflower-zombies. “What if you go punch the endless sea with your cool attacks?”

He smiled. “That’s how I almost lost my arm.”

A bad guy that they could punch was a lot more fun, in Sally’s opinion. That said, there was a certain something about an inevitable end of things. They had escaped death many times since being stolen into the System, and had overcome the ability to die in Sanctuary. Having endless oblivion dangling right in front of them was exciting, in a way.

“Actual stakes,” she murmured.

“And pancakes too, I bet. I miss a lot of things about home.”

“No, you goofball.” Sally scowled at him. “I’m talking about the fact that not only could we die and not find our way back to Sanctuary - but all that we’ve fought for here could be lost. Or even we’d invite the struggling world into ours and suffer the same fate.”

“Could even go back in time,” Theo agreed.

She rolled her eyes. “If we go back and end up being the cause of our word’s original Architect swapping with someone from Earth, I would be so annoyed.”

“Would be amusing in a way, right? Set Sanctuary up for disaster, then have to deal with it, leading up to this point. We’d probably die and come back to the present so that it’s a perfect loop and closed off nice and tightly, though.”

“If that was the case, I would have left some clues for myself.” She narrowed her eyes at the vampire, his unnatural foresight coming into question once again.

“Oh, like that item called [Death of the Party]? Remember that from the start of our adventure? Wonder what that was.”

“Firstly, fangs, shut up. Secondly I wouldn’t do something so cliche as to write a story about how we defeated the Architect over three parts and name it after the point at the end where we no longer had to party together.”

“It’s a good name, though. Since we’re all undead and it’s almost a play on words how you’re so energetic and the life of the party.”

“Theo.” She placed a finger against his arm. “No more talking. I checked that item out and it was some boring historical text about a supposed political party that ran the Forest area at some point in the past.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Said party didn’t happen to have a blonde cutie at the helm, did it?”

“The only reason I’m not having to stitch your head back on right now is because of the sly compliment.” She looped her arm around his. “Let’s talk honeymoon. You think we can do it off-world, rather than somewhere in Sanctuary?”

“I already have three potential worlds in my back pocket.” He grinned and looked up at the sky. “Chuck is constantly annoyed with me.”

Sally smiled and followed his gaze. Tendrils of darkness cracked through the sky, reaching out to draw the rest of the world into the abyss. If this was truly it… then it would be quite a way to go. Calming almost, to be erased and become one with nothing.

Maybe one day.

Living infinite lives on Sanctuary sounded nice, but eventually the brain must tire of constant existence. It’s why everyone had access to a therapist to keep tabs on their well-being. Why there was so much to do that didn’t involve fighting Monsters. No children and no aging wasn’t terrible, but how long could they tolerate it?

She was at least glad to have the constant ambition driving her to fix things. Probably would go insane sitting idle while every adventurer pulped her head in every so often. Going off-world was troublesome, but scratched an itch.

Sanctuary didn’t necessarily need her anymore.

Well, maybe after the space-cockroach invasion. Her brow furrowed.

“We have like a spaceship now, right?”

Theo nodded. “Something similar, yeah. Haven’t seen it myself, but apparently it should make this whole process less dangerous and we could arrive with a full Party.”

“I’d like that.” She pulled him closer as they walked.

Mostly because she wanted to intercept their attackers and chew through them before they had the chance to step up to Sanctuary.