Within the arena where the final battle between God and Xander is taking place. Xander is restrained in God’s chains, completely at his mercy. God intended to make a show out of his death in front of those watching. He was only able to cut into Xander’s face before Drakthar intervened, hurling his axe into the arena and severing God’s arm.

As his arm regenerates, God looks to the side, he seeing Drakthar, Kali, and Fore jump down into the Pits as Kayde and Lunette hold their rifles aimed at him. Behind all of them stands Gwendolyn surrounded by Klara, Francine, and Maximus.

“You fools, you brought her to me,” God grins as he sees all of them. The smirk is wiped off his face as a bullet passes right through his brain, Kayde wasting no time in trying to inflict as much pain to this man as possible.

In the second it takes for God to regenerate, Drakthar pulls Xander out of the chains.

“Thanks,” Xander tells him as he readies his sword to join his friends in this fight.

“So you couldn’t fight me one on one, that is fine. I have an army of my own. Men, attack the intruders!” God calls for his men’s help.

He turns as none of them listen to his orders, all quivering in the face of the mighty warriors they watched compete in this very stadium.

“Fine, run cowards. I will deal with you when I am done with them,” God frustratedly declares, setting his sights back on the pests before him.

“You said we were similar and you might be right, I’m not nearly as good a man as history makes me out to be. But there is one big difference between us. In the very end, my friends came to save me but you are alone, not a single true believer in sight. Funny isn’t it?” Xander points out, this being the final note in their war of ideology.

“They will fall back in line when I am through with them. But first, I think I should squash the insects that dare think they can stand up to me!” God screeches as he summons every weapon in his arsenal, preparing for all of them to rain down upon those left in the coliseum, observer or foe.

God lowers his arms, preparing to skewer each and every person including himself. Drakthar quickly turns so his back is pointed in the air, he pulls Kali below him in hopes his weapons will be unable to pierce his power armor.

The rest start running towards the insides of the arena, but they cannot outrun God’s attack, they all look up, assuming that in seconds they will all be dead. Some close their eyes, waiting for their lives to end, they keep on waiting until their eyes open, curious as to why they are still alive.

Above them, they see a wall of dirt, God’s weapons stuck within it. It creates a veil of darkness, unable for those at the edges of the arena to see the figure standing in the middle of it.

God looks on in shock as he sees someone he hasn’t in centuries, his own sister, Koralia with her arms raised above her head, her eyes just as red as his.

“Now now Gudea, I have heard you have let these powers of yours go to your head but I did not think you could become this deranged,” Koralia addresses her brother by his given name.

“Koralia? Why are you here? Leave me be, I am merely dealing with some miscreants. We can catch up after,” God, or Gudea, responds, not seeing her as his enemy.

“No Gudea, I have heard tales of you calling yourself a God. Interesting that you would use their names since they are the ones who cursed us,” Koralia mentions, not approving of such a title.

“You are the only one that sees this as a curse, I do not have the same weak heart that you do. I have made the most of these gifts, now do not interfere, I need to get back to living a life you chose to abandon,” Gudea requests in irritation.

“I will not, I am here to set things right,” Koralia declares, strongly refusing his demands.

“Then dear sister I will have to make sure you fall as well,” Gudea decides, lifting his arms as his weapons start to wiggle free from Koralia’s defense.

“No brother, it is you who will fall,” Koralia declares, holding out an open hand before closing it into a tight fist. As she does so, a stone wall erupts from the ground around Gudea, encasing him in a prison he will be unable to escape.

“He cannot control his weapons without seeing them, you will all be safe. I will bring him back with me and watch over him. It is all I can do to atone for the pain I have caused,” Koralia informs those around her.

She summons a couple of Golems who pick up God, ready to bring him to the place he will remain forever.

Kayde and Lunette jump down into the arena, joining the others at the center now that the fighting is over.

“You feeling okay buddy? Seemed like kind of a gruesome fight before we stepped in,” Kayde greets Xander for the first time in nearly a month.

“Good to see you too Kayde, and it wasn’t too bad. Other than this cut, I’m fine,” Xander notes, wiping the blood away from his face.

“You know, I said we should have stepped in sooner but Drakthar made us wait until it was definitely over,” Lunette mentions, not wanting Xander to think they wanted him to suffer through that.

“He could have won, we had to at least give him that chance,” Drakthar explains as he has repeated to the group many times in their planning for this moment.

“I think everyone is just glad you’re okay,” Kali tells him, trying to get the others to stop their arguing when this should be a celebration.

At the edge of their reunion is Koralia, awkwardly trying to approach them, her eyes glued to Xander, knowing he is the one Kayde told her about. Xander turns around to look at her, making sure his eyes stay on her face instead of traveling down as she still refused to wear clothes for this occasion.

“She is really the one I should be thanking, isn’t she? My name is Xander, thank you for helping out my friends,” he reaches out a hand to shake hands with her. He is caught off guard as she completely ignores his hand and embraces him.

“This is a little weird, my wife is in the stands behind you,” Xander tells her awkwardly as she continues her tender embrace.

“You… you have redeemed me. I thought all I ever did was make mistakes but without them I would have never gotten you,” Koralia starts to cry as she tells him, feeling like she is once again holding one of her children for the first time in an eternity.

“Umm… I don’t know what you’re referring to,” Xander responds, everything about this making him extremely uncomfortable.

“Hug her back dude that is like your great to the trillionth grandmother… which I guess makes God like your weird really old uncle but eh that’s less important,” Kayde is the one to finally inform him what is going on.

“I am so confused... what are you talking about?” Xander still doesn’t fully get it.

“It’s simple man, she banged a dude created a kid that kid banged someone else created another kid until eventually your parents did it and made you. You’re like in her family tree and everything,” Kayde makes it obvious for him.

“Oh... I guess nice to meet you then,” Xander awkwardly wraps his arms around her, still finding this situation rather odd.

“Alright, I have allowed myself this moment, now I must bring Gudea back with me. Goodbye Xander, I apologize for everything my brother has done to you and your friends,” Koralia states as she lets go of him, she kisses him on his non-bloody cheek before taking her leave, the two golems carrying God’s stone imprisoned body following behind.

Once she leaves Xander falls to the ground, the adrenaline from the fight finally having worn off.

“I guess that took more out of me than I thought,” Xander notes as he looks up at the others.

Kali helps him up as Maximus comes rushing down from the stands.

“That was glorious Mister Xander, I will write the most heroic of tales about this. You stared death in the face and did not even flinch!” Maximus recaps, already crafting a melody in his head to accompany the story.

“Yeah,” Xander lets out unenthusiastically, not caring in the slightest about Maximus’s song.

“Well, what are we waiting for, let’s all go out and party!” Lunette declares, thinking they all deserve it after what they’ve been through.

“Oh yes, it will give me a chance to try out some of my early drafts,” Maximus immediately agrees, eager to test out his songs on a captive audience.

“You guys go, I’ll catch up to you after,” Xander tells them, his bodyweight still being supported by Kali.

Kayde, Lunette, Maximus, and Fore all run off, leaving Xander with Drakthar and Kali.

“So you really thought I could win?” Xander asks Drakthar.

“No, but if I were in your situation I wouldn’t have wanted you to intervene until it was over,” Drakthar explains his reasoning.

“Maybe it really should have been you down there. I did terribly,” Xander notes, realizing he never really came close to defeating God on his own.

“No, you won, you deserved to be there,” Drakthar disagrees, not wanting to be handed a victory when he should have earned it.

Xander looks up to the stands where Gwendolyn is sitting with Klara and Francine.

“I think it’s about time you saw her,” Drakthar notes, his tone solemn as he knows Xander won’t be happy with how she is.

Kali helps Xander into the stands, the two of them slowly approaching Gwendolyn and the others. Klara and Francine both look at Xander with sad eyes as he gets nearer.

“The others are having a party to celebrate, why don’t you two catch up to them?” Kali suggests, so Xander has some privacy.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

Kali helps Xander down onto the bench right beside Gwendolyn who has been staring straight ahead of her this entire time, still unable to register what is going on around her.

“Hey, I… uh…” Xander starts to talk to her, stopping when he notices she clearly cannot hear him.

Kali, seeing Gwendolyn not moving, goes over and repositions her head so she is at least looking at Xander. When his face comes into her view Xander could almost swear he saw her smile but when he examines her face closer it hasn’t changed at all.

He embraces her as he is brought to tears.

“I’m so sorry. I should have been here, I should have been stronger. If I had just come through that portal with you none of this would have happened. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” he repeats as he continues to weep.

Throughout all of this, Gwendolyn stays still, her expression unchanging as he holds onto her.

“Please stop! It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault,” Kali tells him as she watches, unable to stop herself from crying as well. But Xander doesn’t hear her, too busy apologizing for everything that’s happened to Gwendolyn.

Kali grabs a hold of Xander trying to repeat what she just told him but she can’t hold it together anymore either, falling down onto the bench as she sobs. Gwendolyn's head is empty, her eyes trained off into space as the two next to her continue to sob, unable to hear their cries. Eventually, Xander and Kali don’t have the energy to continue, both falling asleep, exhausted from the days’ events.

Drakthar looks up at them, wondering what is going on. He makes his way up there to find both Xander and Kali asleep, their eyes swollen and their faces wet. He looks over at Gwendolyn before shifting his eyes back over to those sleeping.

“They are both too soft,” he comments as he hoists them onto each of his shoulders.

He grabs Gwendolyn’s hand telling her, “Okay, let’s go”. Drakthar carries the two of them to the edge of the city, having a specific destination in mind.

He knocks on a familiar door, hearing a voice complain from inside as he waits for it to be opened, “I already know he’s been defeated. I don’t need to hear it from every single person on this island”.

The doctor opens the door and sees Drakthar standing there with both Kali and Xander strung over his shoulders.

“Oh shit, what did you do this time?” The doctor complains, having told them he doesn’t want to ever see them again.

“He just fought God, she’s just asleep. But the one I really want you to look at is her,” Drakthar gestures to Gwendolyn standing to the side of him.

“Alright, bring them in. Lay those two down in beds I’ll take a look,” the doctor agrees, not able to turn them away.

“I’ll stitch up that one’s face first, looks like it needs the most immediate attention,” the doctor notes, referring to Xander. As he works on Xander’s face he realizes that Gwendolyn has been staring off at nothing the entire time.

“So what happened to her?” The doctor inquires, trying to get some information before he looks at her.

“She isn’t all there in the head anymore. Your former ruler tortured her by holding her head underwater,” Drakthar gives him a brief explanation.

“Dammit, okay, let me take a look,” the doctor exclaims just as he finishes up putting the stitches in Xander’s face. Drakthar watches as the doctor checks Gwendolyn’s vitals. After he is finished he backs up and lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Can you do anything to help her?” Drakthar asks bluntly, trying to hide the concern in his voice.

“Sorry, not my specialty. If her chest was ripped open or she couldn’t see out of one eye I’d be the guy to go to. But it’s like you said, it's her head that’s bad. It’s not going to be easy to find a doctor that works on mental conditions like this,” the doctor breaks the bad news to him.

“If there was a person who specializes in it where would they be? I need to find them,” Xander asks, having woken up midway through their conversation.

“Your best bet would be the Sacrosanct Empire. They’re the most advanced civilization, odds are they’d have someone who has looked into this sort of thing,” the doctor figures, not entirely sure they even have someone like that.

“Okay, then that is where we will go. Thank you for your help, I feel fine, we will be on our way now,” Xander thanks the doctor, trying to get them all to leave seeing as how they are all physically fine.

“Hey, don’t be so hasty kid. Believe it or not, I was in the audience for your fight, I saw what happened, you are in a lot of pain, you can’t fool me. You’ll spend at least a night here and I’ll reevaluate you in the morning. Now get some sleep and don’t cause me any trouble,” the doctor orders, leaving the room.

Both Xander and Drakthar sit quietly in the room for a while before Xander asks, “Does she sleep?” Referring to Gwendolyn.

“Of course, even if she is like this she still sleeps,” Drakthar replies, having seen it himself when they were hiding out with Koralia.

“Yeah, sorry, that was a ridiculous question to ask,” Xander apologizes, not knowing what he was thinking.

“So are you going to go out and find the others or just sleep here?” Xander asks, seeing that Drakthar is just sitting there.

“I don’t wish to deal with that musician, so I’ll stay here. Might as well try to sleep now, we travel tomorrow,” Drakthar notes, standing up and eyeing one of the open beds.

“Sounds like a plan,” Xander agrees, closing his eyes hoping to drift off to sleep.

Before that happens, he feels something large and soft placed on top of him. He opens his eyes to find Drakthar placing Gwendolyn in his bed.

“What? What are you doing?” Xander asks him, these beds only able to comfortably fit one person.

“I thought this would help. She would want to sleep with you so I thought it would be a good idea,” Drakthar notes as he backs away, thinking this could in some way help her return to normal.

Xander looks down at Gwendolyn’s tired expression, she is already starting to nod off now that she is lying down.

“Thanks, Drakthar, this was a good idea,” Xander tells him before wrapping his arm around Gwendolyn, settling into a comfortable position to finally drift off to sleep.

The next morning, Kali awakens to find herself back in the home of the doctor, she looks over to see Xander and Gwendolyn sharing the bed next to her. She sits up to see Drakthar at the table in the corner.

“Did we share a bed too?” Kali asks him, this being the first thing that comes to her mind after seeing Xander and Gwendolyn.

“No,” Drakthar responds, getting ready for a morning run.

“Why not?” Kali asks him, wanting that chance to cuddle.

“Because you were already asleep and these beds barely fit me by myself. Now enough pointless talk, I’m going for a run, did you want to come with me?” He offers, hoping she will join.

“Sure, give me a second to get ready,” Kali responds, getting out of bed to wash up a bit before heading out.

“So what happened? The last thing I remember was being up in the stands with Xander and Gwendolyn,” Kali asks midway through their run.

“You two fell asleep so I brought you to the doctor. He stitched up Xander’s face and looked at Gwendolyn,” Drakthar recaps for her.

Kali whips her head around, hopeful that the doctor did something for Gwendolyn.

“Did he fix her?” She asks excitedly.

“No, he can’t do anything for her. He told us to go find help in the Sacrosanct Empire, so that is where we plan to go next,” Drakthar informs her.

They make it back to find the doctor checking out Xander’s condition.

“Alright, I’d say you’re fine. You can leave but take it easy okay? And take care of this one,” the doctor gives Xander the good news.

“Yeah, no problem, thanks again for your help,” Xander thanks him as he notices Drakthar and Kali come back.

“Well, should we find the others?” Kali asks, having heard that the doctor has let him go.

“Probably a good idea if we are trying to finally leave this island,” Xander notes, a tad sarcastically.

The four of them walk to the tavern they were staying at before the tournament started, assuming that would be the place everyone would have ended up at. They walk inside to find a bunch of people passed out on the floor including the man who runs the establishment.

Their noses are filled with the smells of ale and not so fresh vomit from the festivities that went on the previous night. Looking around they notice none of their friends are amongst those lying on the floor.

“Oh, you guys are finally here, you should come last night. It was wild,” Lunette greets them as she, Kayde, and Fore come downstairs. They step over the bodies to get to their friends.

“We should go back to the ship we sailed here on, we need to get to the Sacrosanct Empire,” Xander tells them, now that they are all finally back together.

“Nah, I think we need to do some goodbyes first. There’s Maximus, Klara, Francine,” Kayde disagrees, starting to list people, thinking it would be wrong to leave without saying something.

“What about the hot blonde guy?” Lunette adds, referring to Alistar.

“Oh right, he told me to give Xander a message. He’s heading back to the Sacrosanct Empire. He said you should bring Gwendolyn to visit him once she is back to normal,” Kayde informs him, remembering what Alistar told him before he departed.

“As for the others, I think they are all staying at the inn Maximus has a room at. Should be easy we only need to make one trip,” Kayde notes, starting to walk through the city towards it.

When they get there, they find the three of them already eating breakfast, Maximus inquiring about their living conditions for his song featuring Gwendolyn.

“If it isn’t the heroes, what can I do for you? Would you like to hear my latest song?” Maximus asks, eager to play it for them.

“No thanks, you played it a lot last night. Don’t you remember?” Lunette tries to remind him, knowing he likely won’t recall his drunken antics.

“I cannot say that I do. Anyway, what sort of adventure awaits you great heroes next? Off to topple another great evil?” Maximus inquires, seeing if there is another great song to be written.

“No, we’re just going to the Sacrosanct to get Gwendolyn some help,” Kali responds before Drakthar or Xander can stop her in an attempt to stop him from following them.

“Ah, I see, then I shall accompany you. Sticking with you all should give me an opportunity for inspiration. It always helps to travel with the subjects of your works,” Maximus declares, much to Drakthar and Xander’s dismay.

“Great, it will be good to have you along,” Kayde tells him, not having any problems with their eccentric new friend.

“What about you two? Got any special plans now that you are free?” Kayde asks Klara and Francine.

“My husband Lorens is probably still here somewhere. I’m going to find him and then return home together,” Francine declares, eager to reunite with her husband after a year of separation.

“I’ll probably go back to the desert, see if my family still remembers who I am,” Klara chuckles a little.

“Before I leave you guys, I did want to tell you this,” Klara’s tone grows serious as she turns towards Xander.

“That woman loves you more than you can understand. She went through hell for you so you make sure to treat her the best you can. You hear me?”

“I will, you can rest assured of that. And thank you, I heard you were the one who looked over her while she was God’s prisoner. It means a lot that she had a friend with her,” Xander thanks Klara.

“I… sure. It was the least I could do. Anyway, if you guys find yourselves in the desert capital please visit,” Klara tells them, surprised to be thanked for something she considers normal decency.

“We will, I’m sure Xander will bring Gwendolyn to visit once she is all better,” Kayde agrees, smiling as they say their last goodbyes to Klara and Francine for now.

The eight of them make their way to the ship Xander, Kayde, and Lunette used to make their way here in the first place.

As they get to the harbor, Xander feels Gwendolyn’s hand start to tremble. He looks into her eyes and sees panic replace the blank expression that is usually there. He looks down her line of sight, realizing she is looking at the water.

“Guys, I think Gwendolyn is scared of going near the water,” Xander alerts the others to what is going on.

“I mean, that would make sense given how she was tortured,” Lunette points out, turning to take a closer look at Gwendolyn’s face.

As they take steps closer to the ship, Gwendolyn starts screaming, the water almost directly below her.

“Hey, it’s okay. You won’t be in the water, we are only sailing over it,” Xander tries to calm her down as he embraces her.

Gwendolyn doesn’t stop continuing to wail and break free of Xander’s arms.

“Okay, let’s get away from the water,” he decides, leading her away from the edge of the docks.

“What are we going to do? We can’t just have her screaming the whole time,” Kayde notes, eager to get on his way.

“I’ve got it. She only reacted when she saw the water, so we blindfolded her and bring her below deck before she sees any of it,” Lunette concludes, that being the easiest way to handle things.

“That’s… kind of fucked up,” Kali notes, knowing she wouldn’t want to be treated like that if she were in Gwendolyn’s situation.

“You have a better idea then?” Lunette asks, not seeing another option.

“No, I was just saying it was messed up,” Kali retorts, not disagreeing with her plan.

“Alright, time to say goodbye to the lights really quick,” Lunette tells Gwendolyn as she ties a blindfold around her head.

“Kind of kinky isn’t it?” She comments as she looks at Gwendolyn with her eyes covered.

“Really?” Xander asks, not finding that comment accurate at all.

“See, this is what I was trying to tell you before you walked off that one time. You don’t branch out enough,” Lunette brings up out of nowhere.

“Alright, get Gwendolyn on the ship. Got it,” Xander changes the subject, grabbing hold of Gwendolyn and guiding her forward. The others follow, leaving Kayde and Lunette at the back.

“So what was that about?” Kayde asks her, curious to know what she means and why Xander reacted the way he did.

“Sex pointers,” Lunette replies with a wry smile.

“Ah, of course,” Kayde grins back at her, managing to suppress his chuckle. The eight of them board the ship and set off back towards the Sacrosanct Empire.