Perhaps the worst thing about infinite oblivion was that it didn’t seem to end. There might be a conceivable end to the darkness, and to the lack of… everything, but it wasn’t something the mortal mind could comprehend. Overwhelming. Or at least it would be, if anything existed in the expanse beyond worlds.

The second worst thing was that Sally was no longer a mere mortal, and could comprehend it, albeit briefly. It was dizzying, and tasted like rotten apples.

Vertigo stretched her body until it was just a line of sequential atoms. Following a stream not unlike her threads.

Yet, despite the endless trying to tear her apart, she persisted.

She was stubborn like that; she thought to herself.

A bright light flashed, illuminating everything, before it switched to blue and then white again. Vertigo had her dipping and striking something flat and material, the particles of her reality slamming into each other to giving her form once more.

She stumbled to the floor onto her knees, hands clutching at her eyes to block out the light as she threw up. Body twitched and convulsed before something grabbed at her. Too weak to fight back, she opened her eyes to glare at the void creature grasping at her shoulders.

The void creature looked suspiciously like Dent.

Her ears rang as sound started to filter in. The swordsman looked terrible, stressed, and exhausted. She went to stand, but her legs were jelly.

“Home?” she asked, her voice dull even to herself.

Dent nodded, but she couldn’t pick on what he was saying. Her eyes went past him and saw Chuck’s dead body lying on the floor. Breath caught in her lungs.

“Theo?” she managed, feeling as though everything was slipping away.

A pained expression on the swordman’s face. No response. Panic gave her the energy to push herself up, turning to step over to the next machine where he should be.

She stopped, eyes wide at a glowing blue figure, part wireframe and standing beside the tube.

“Chuck?” she asked, the hum of reality finally clearing her hearing.

“Affirmative. I have finally taken the step of shedding my mortal form to become one with the System.” His mouth moved open and closed, but was out of sync from his words, which actually seemed to go straight into her brain.

“Theo?” she repeated, not quite fully functional enough to deal with the Architect.

“He hasn’t returned.”

Sally’s hands balled up, and she glared at the glowing contraption. How dare he go off and leave her, right after they got married too? Her anger was a decent enough mask to stop any sadness start up.

“You have two minutes to come back to me, pup,” she growled through clenched teeth, “otherwise I’m coming back out there to find you.”

She raised her arms up and crossed them. Foot started tapping on the floor, despite how much her body ached.

“Sally, I…”

She shook her head at Chuck. “I don’t want to hear anything until Theo returns.” Her jaw worked as she returned her glare to the place he was meant to be. He had to be.

Dent placed his metal hand gently on her shoulder. “All the living Players made it here. They’re on the new starter island.”

Sally turned her head to him, her eyes welling up. “Ass, I said no news. Now you broke me.” Her foot stopped tapping, and she sighed deeply, the first tears running down her face quietly.

“Your return was… unconventional,” Chuck offered. “Without me doing this, you both were likely to die.”

“Ten seconds,” she murmured under her breath.

The machine cracked with energy. Lights started to flicker along the panels. With a burst of expelled power, the magic glow evaporated, revealing the vampire standing within the cage.

Sally rushed to open it, the bars moving across with a hiss.

Theo opened his eyes, blinking away the shock of his arrival - before immediately tipping forward into the grasp of the zombie. She fell over with her exhausted legs, and they both collapsed to the floor.

“Can you hear me, pup?”

He nodded, but his eyes were glazed over. Paler than usual, with a sickened and withdrawn look as if he had spent too long out in the void.

Chuck’s form shrunk down to be Archie-sized, so that he was at eye-level with the piled undead. “Did you go back to the past again?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

The vampire tilted his head, brow furrowing at the blue figure. Tongue licked his dry lips as his brain got caught up to speed. “Would you be able to tell if I were lying?”

“No…”

“I did not travel to the past,” Theo confirmed, maintaining an unblinking stare with the Architect.

Doors burst open, and the Outsiders rushed in, the Death Knight picking the pair up with the assistance of a few bandages. Hugs and noise between everyone, shock over the change for Chuck, and joyous relief for the return of the two Dangers. Sally enjoyed the attention, but she couldn’t focus, her gaze falling to the vampire every so often.

His eyes still looked distant, full of the reflection of the void.

----------------------------------------

A butterfly flew across the meadow, landing on a bright blue flower for a moment before being carried away by the soft breeze.

“You know,” Theo said, “the ears suit you. Very cute.”

Sally put her plate down on the picnic blanket so she could show them off. They were pointed now - small elven ears that this world forced on them both. “You think? Chuck said I might be able to get them as like a toggleable option.”

“Makes sense, since this world doesn’t really have any skills to take.” He wrinkled his face up and looked out at the island. Something small, in a state of perpetual springtime. Blooming with flowers, soft clover, and blossom-laden cherry trees.

“Not that it matters for us now, being beta testers of his new Class System stuff. Although I think he is mad that you almost immediately broke it.” She leaned back on her palms and grinned.

“Eh.” The vampire shrugged. “If he didn’t want me to construct a room full of automated wooden spears so that I could level up my [Dodge] in a fraction of the time, then he would tell me.”

Sally rolled her eyes. “Pretty amusing when you accidentally staked yourself, though. Imagine you couldn’t come back from that?”

“Pretty sure someone rigged the mechanism to be slightly off.” He scowled toward the distant shoreline. “And I have a good idea who.”

“I know Poppy and Edward aren’t like that, but they’ve been like mischevious children ever since they met. Keeps them out of our hair, at least. Now that we’re… too powerful to act in our Monster roles.”

Theo closed his eyes and smiled. “Fastest raid wipe ever.”

“You didn’t have to leave the healers till last, though. That was disrespectful. Sometimes you take the Aspect of Death thing a little too seriously.”

Chuck had managed to filter all their unlocked powers in. He wasn’t entirely sure how, but she was happy enough to have survived the process. New Class System was still in the works, but he was trying to make things more… normal?

Like an actual world, rather than the cardboard facsimile of a video game they were used to. Some more natural or innate ways of getting experience and skills. More of a research tree built up on base levels of core magics and martial traits.

She still had [Eat Brains] so she was rather fine with whatever he decided.

Could still use all the skills from Sanctuary, in fact, as well as summon sunflower-zombies at will and mend things using life energy. Being an Aspect felt like a universal unlock, where her level, stats, or location didn’t matter - she had everything from her prior life.

She spent a week wandering Sanctuary, healing up adventurers or Monsters she came across who were injured. Visited each of the Thrimble refugees, some of which she couldn’t help because their injuries were part of who they were according to the System - like Dent’s arm - but she sat and spoke with each of them all the same.

It was cathartic, in a way. Comforting. They’d bitten off a little more than they could chew in trying to save people they didn’t know, so it was nice to see what it had all been for.

Virgil had recovered back to full health. Kenny had taken up a position in a Party and was doing fine. Kristov decided to hang around Jackie’s tavern and provide entertainment instead of adventuring. Claude had basically retired and had joined Borin in gardening and farming. Poppy had her house with two cats, and often went unarmored, no longer worried about losing her powers.

Cross... had been forgiven by most previous residents of Thrimble. Some still had a grudge, but he had now moved into the goblin village. Chuck mentioned that the fact he had transferred into a zombie goblin body and didn't retain his previous role was one of the only ways he was able to save everyone. Using their power of violence and smooches, things had worked out just fine.

It was a great feeling, dampened only with the knowledge that there were possibly uncountable other worlds just like theirs.

Chuck had given them a forced holiday, and they’d only barely been able to twist his arm into allowing them to drop into this small world. The Architect didn’t trust Theo to have a pleasant return, as he had two instances of complications.

But things had improved - with Chuck becoming part of the System itself, he had greater control. Closer to what the Creator themself had. It had always been an option, apparently, but he had eschewed it, as there didn’t seem to be a way back into his body.

Something that had saddened Dent for a while until they both realized that Chuck could essentially possess a System-created Monster. The less she thought about that, the better.

“When we going on our honeymoon, fangs?” She gave him a light kick with the side of her foot. “Sanctuary eating is nice, but I want some horror show shit. All naked and writhing in a pool of fresh blood from our victims.”

The vampire blinked a couple of times. “Oh. Yeah, that sounds good. For starters, anyway.” His grin exposed his fangs, which caught the pleasant sunlight. “Just have to convince Chuck to allow us somewhere dangerous.”

“Eh. The dork is making it so our Sanctuary STAR System works on other worlds. I was falling asleep while he was trying to explain it, but it’s like we have… more permissions than a Player should have? “

“He wants the spaceship up and working as well.” Theo sighed. “I understand these things take time. I’m just… antsy about the invasion coming.”

She shuffled around the blanket so that she could snuggle up to him. “Same, pup. We have months to worry about it… and I’m not sure what to expect. Once we have the ship and the new System configured, we’ll take the fight to the bastards, alright?”

“Alright, I’ll try to chill for five minutes.” He grinned before leaning close to her to share a kiss.

“Impossible,” she whispered as they parted. “And... you need to tell me what happened to you, now that I have you alone.”

His eyes dulled slightly. “I keep telling you it was nothing.”

“Theo Danger.” She placed a hand on the side of his face. “We’re married now, and possibly close to immortal. I need to know the full truth of you, inside and out. No matter if it’s good or bad. You know how this works, pup.”

He deflated, before nodding slowly. “If you’re sure. This will be quite the way to end the day.”

“There’s plenty of better days ahead. I’m here for you.”

“I did go back in time again.” Theo winced and frowned down at the checkered pattern of the blanket. “And I… displaced someone when I arrived.”

Sally raised her eyebrows. “What… are you saying?”

“Sally...” His crimson eyes raised up to hers. “I replaced the Creator and became the first Architect.”