Jay appeared in the sky, leaves and branches greeting his plummeting face. Amon thankfully generated a face shield for him, but the rest of his body was unprotected. Amon's armor wasn't very good either, and after falling for a while he started feeling it in the face again.

  Then he noticed a larger branch. Directly below him. Amon launched a tendril, dissipating his face mask to make him avoid it. The tendril latched on to the branch, causing him to swing under it, ending his fall. He jerked to a stop, Amon's tendril coiled around his body instead of simply being attached to a single piece of skin.

  Jay heard a scream and looked over in the direction it came from, seeing glimpses of Striaster falling in much the same way he did. Sighing, he climbed down the trees, slowly getting himself to the ground. Striaster was a little ways off, stuck in a Zarlan-shaped hole.

  Jay dragged him out, getting a nod of thanks. "So, where are we?"

  Striaster shrugged. "I put in the coordinates for this world. I didn't have time to put anything like an exact location in."

  Jay shook his head. "Well, this is better than dying to Astaroth. So, where do we go?"

  "I don't know. At night, I can navigate using the stars, but I have no idea right now."

  "Do you need food and water, or is that just a human thing?"

  Striaster shook his head. "All species we knhow of need some kind of food and water. For me, since I'm one of the few Vampire-type Zarlans, I can drink blood to substitute for food and water. It will also increase my stats, depending on how strong the donor is."

  Jay thought for a moment. "I don't know how I feel on giving you blood. I'll think about it."

  Striaster seemed surprised. "You'll... think about giving me blood? Most people don't think twice and simply say no."

  Jay shook his head. "We're a team. Giving you a little blood won't kill me."

  "Okay. So, we need food and water. Given that this is a forest, you can assume that monsters you don't want to see come out at night. I'm confident against a level one hundred, but there'll be more than one, and the commotion from a battle will draw more. Lots more."

  Jay nodded. "So hunt during the day, and do nothing during the night. Got it."

  "I can teach you how to wield Dominion safely during the night."

  Jay took a step back, surprised. "So, this is your revenge for the blood comment?"

  "Yep! Meet back in an hour or so."

  Jay waved and walked into the forest, alone. They both knew how to handle themselves, and were confident splitting up. Amon's tendrils waved lazily around him, ready for anything. Sorry for earlier.

  Amon didn't respond for a moment, and Jay almost thought she wouldn't. You were... out of it from the chain breaking. I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry.

  You can't take fault for my mistakes.

  What if it's partially my mistake? I should have never revealed the ability, or used it.

  We both want to take responsibility for this mistake. What if we simply put it aside?

  Definitely.

  Do you remember doing things before I was a baby?

  What?

  Do you remember forging chains like the one I created connecting my soul and consciousness?

  Amon's mental response hitched. Uh, I- wait! there's a monkey!

  Jay immediately looked around, finding the monkey in question. Amon had been saved by the bell. He used his Collector's Eyes on it.

  Monkey. Level 12.

  Abilities: Unknown.

  Stats: Unknown.

  Amon stabbed the monkey, pulling it off the branch. Jay eyed it with a critical look, using another Collector's Eye.

  Properties: Nutritious. Poisonous.

  Jay tossed it to the side. No monkeys, then. He continued into the forest. The underbrush grew thicker until Amon's tendrils weren't being so lazy, and grew sharp edges to cut through it. Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind. Wasn't he supposed to ask Amon something? He strained, but couldn't remember. Jay shrugged, continuing. It probably wasn't important anyways. He activated his Flowering Domain, creating small sensory flowers everywhere. Immediately, he sensed something that was decidedly not a monkey, directly to his right.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Turning, he walked towards it, Amon immediately spearing it as well. It was some kind of bird with color-changing feathers. It had been brown when it was hiding next to a tree, and now it was golden, the camoflauge coming undone. It was tiny, almost the size of a small rat. He Eyed its body.

Properties: Nutritious, Magical. Safe.

  Jay nodded to himself. A hundred more of those, and they'd have food for the night.

  In the end, he only found three more birds before the hour came up, but he had also found a large lizard which came up as 'safe'. There were no other animals he had gone after, but he felt their existence and had only avoided them due to easier prey near him.

  Reaching the area where they had met up after falling, Jay found Striaster, holding a pile of corpses in a basket-like tail. His body was normal, except for that portion. Jay raised an eyebrow, but Striaster merely shrugged in response. Jay set his corpses in the tail, each carried by a single tendril. Striaster curled it around himself, and Jay moved so it was between them.

  "This should be enough," Striaster said, looking at the assortment of animals.

  Jay grabbed a few monkeys he noticed in the pile and tossed them out. Striaster looked over questioningly, and Jay answered. "The monkeys are poisonous."

  Striaster shrugged. "I just dumped whatever I found in here. Other than the monkeys, I only found it worth it to go after the occasional lizard and those birds."

  Jay nodded. "So, how are we going to cook them?"

  Striaster waved his hand, and it turned into fire. "I can shift into a fire elemental."

  "So, do we want to be on the forest floor when night comes?"

  "Probably not. Let's get climbing."

  Striaster turned into one of the small birds, casually flying upwards, while Amon flung Jay along the same path. After they got to a height Striaster deemed reasonable, they stopped, sitting on branches not too far away from each other. Amon created a small plane of silver, and Striaster turned into a fire elemental, creating what looked like a campfire upon it. Jay managed to create a Hook of Thought between each corpse and a branch above, suspending them in midair. They let the corpses cook, Striaster somehow burning the fur off without affecting the flesh inside, slowly cooking it to a pink.

  They ate in silence as the day turned to night, watching the sun set through the small holes in the canopy. When darkness fell, they immediately started to hear screeches and howls from the forest floor. Striaster nodded. "We don't want to fight those," he said in a low voice.

  Jay nodded, knowing they could both see each other. Striaster pointed upwards, and they started to climb. Eventually, the escaped the canopy, and Striaster looked at the stars above. Jay felt something watching him and smiled. Night had power here as well. After a few minutes, Striaster shook his head. "We're nowhere near any place I know the stars of."

  Jay sighed. "Then we go that way," he said, pointing towards a column of smoke in the distance.

  "That's our best bet, yeah."

  Jay and Striaster climbed back down a ways, not daring to go to sleep lest they be ambushed. Morning arrived, slowly, and the howls and screeches died down. After the last of them were gone, they got up, climbing back down. They left the food they had not eaten behind-they couldn't carry it for any long distance. It would go bad quickly, especially in a humid place like this. They walked towards the place they had seen the column of smoke, making quick progress. Nothing attacked them, all the creatures of the forest being at a low level. They could sense the power that Jay and Striaster held, not attacking them for fear of death.

  They arrived at the smoke about halfway through the day, finding a campsite that had been left behind. Tracks led into the forest. "Do we follow them?," Striaster asked. "We don't know if they're friendly or not."

  "We follow them. We don't know where we are, and if they aren't friendly, we can shove them into a wall and interrogate them."

  They followed the tracks for a good while, finding multiple pools of blood with monsters in them. This all but proved whomever they were following's relative power to them, and they started progressing with more confidence. Soon, they found him.

  The person wasn't fighting anything or setting up camp, but simply walking away from them. Jay and Striaster caught up to the man, who seemed to be surprised that they were there. He also seemed to be suspicious, pulling out a knife hidden in his sleeve and brandishing it. "Changeling. I know their language," Striaster told Jay before turning to the man. "Zon χ̄ʕonnuth."

  The changeling replied before Striaster continued, speaking to it once again. They went at a back-and-forth conversation, Striaster eventually seeming to get what he wanted. "Civilization is that way," he said, pointing in what looked like an arbitrary direction. He walked off without giving the changeling a second look, so Jay followed him.

  "What else did it tell you?"

  "It wanted me to pay it and I threatened it. A lot."

  Jay nodded. "How do you know it wasn't lying?"

  Striaster suddenly grew perfectly white wings. "Angels have truth detection."

  "Aren't angels supposed to be holy and stuff?"

  "I don't really care. I use them for the truth detection. There are better wings, and their light affinity? Should I choose their light affinity, or a light dragon's affinity? The form's not very useful."

  Jay continued to walk, pushing aside a snake pretending to be a vine. "How do you have so many forms?"

  "I collected them, one by one, by using Domination. Those were times I'd rather not talk about."

  Jay didn't press on the matter, and silence grew between them. Then he remembered what he needed to ask Amon. Do you remember being with me before?

  What do you mean? Amon said.

  I had memories appear in my head. Of forging chains between my mind and soul with you helping me.

  I-Hey, what's that?

  Jay obligingly paid attention to his vision and realized what Amon was pointing out. The tree in front of him had a face. You're saved by something interesting, once again.

  The tree moved. Or it might be something deadly, Jay corrected, as it pulled itself out of the ground, its roots acting as legs.

  Astaroth charged the Capital, confident in his own prowess.

  Or he was, until a flaming spear appeared in front of him. A man wearing a Diamond stood next to it, radiating an aura the spear copied.

  Pure death.

  Astaroth froze, unwilling to face the spear. "So, you're the one who forced those two into the other world."

  Astaroth gulped. "Maybe?"

  The man nodded. "So, I'm going to torture its coordinates out of you. If you want to live, I suggest giving them to me right now."

  Astaroth coughed up the coordinates immediately, the fear within him forcing him to. The man nodded. "Leave."

  Diamond watched Astaroth fly away. He hadn't expected the fool to rush blatantly at the Capital. Now there was a chance of recovering the two kids, since he had the coordinates. They weren't dead just yet. The black speck that Astaroth was finally disappeared on the horizon, and Diamond turned back to the Capital. His duty was to the king, and he couldn't leave, though going a little ways to make the demon run away was probably fine.

  "Live, Jay. Live, other kid. I'm coming for you."