He felt cold and hot at the same time. If there was ever a time where he was at his most uncomfortable, this was definitely it.

Even worse, his head was swimming in his sleep. He was conscious, yet he was not. It was extremely bad because he could recall the feeling of being lost in his head again. Just like how he was in the past when the disorder took hold of his life.

He wasn’t sure what happened. One moment he was fighting for his life, then another he felt a blinding flash of hot light, then he felt horribly cold again. It was as though he was inside the core of the sun, then pushed back down into a torrential blizzard. The whiplash was agonizingly painful.

His mind swished back and forth between his memories and his newfound pain. The memories of being ordered around by his mother, punished by not following it precisely to the letter, then abandoned by her when he couldn’t fulfill her orders. He didn’t know why he felt that way, but his current mood made him reflect those times.

It has been a long time since he felt that way. Ever since his self-proclaimed ‘awakening’, he tried to put away those memories, burying deep within himself while engulfed in media and entertainment, something to escape to when his mind was too much to bear and the reality too cruel to live in.

But now it felt as though he returned back in time during those days, now adding in the extremely uncomfortable hot and cold feeling.

Then that cold feeling dispersed. It only made the uncomfortable hotness worse, but soon even that started to disperse. His burning heat swiveled and became balanced, his mind finally recovering.

Slowly, ever so slowly, almost agonizingly so. But it recovered.

Soon, he felt… fine. Fine enough that he wanted to get away from the darkness.

With just one flick of thought, he opened his eyes. It blurred slightly, and he groaned at the sudden light from somewhere nearby. It looked like a crystal pillar, and soon memories started filling into his head.

Memories of being in another world, with fantasy like creatures and superpowered people. Having his own super powers and magic skills as he tried to help others.

Then as his vision cleared, he finally spotted someone he was so familiar with–even compared to the time in the old world. A little girl, with short black hair that was messy in places. It reached to her shoulders as she looked down at him with teary eyes. Once his eyes opened fully, he raised his head at her.

“...Clara…?” He spoke groggily, as though he had been screaming this entire time.

“Bobo!”

The little girl charged at him, hugging him directly on his face with her whole body. More pain ensued, mostly from the constant headache he was facing the moment his eyes gained clarity.

Now that he thought about it, he felt something on his face that pressed onto him more than Clara’s body. It was nearly metallic, and there was a clunking sound that ruffled his feathers the more Clara screamed in joy.

“H-Hold up, Clara, I’m hurting a little…” He spoke softly, his throat almost like it was burnt up.

She quickly apologized and let go, leaving Zeke to just barely sit cross-legged. Now that he got a better look at himself, he was actually half-naked, his pants the only thing leaving his dignity intact.

Then he felt his face, quickly realizing what he was wearing. Glasses. He took them off, just realizing that his vision didn’t change at all despite wearing them. Hell, it didn’t even feel like he had them on even by wearing them. The only difference was the clear sound they emitted when they were being shuffled. There was clearly something impressive about these glasses, and when he Identified them, his eyes widened in alarm.

“The hell?” He remarked. “How’d I get these glasses?”

“That super big guy gave them to me to give it to you!” Clara shouted, mostly more in relief as she pointed in another direction.

That got Zeke to pause and turned to where she pointed. When he saw the other person near them, he froze and almost had his heart stop.

He tried to stand, but pain wracked his body, the strange blue scars burning him intensely that he never saw before. They did feel similar, as though constant attacks were poured onto him while he was unconscious.

He only managed to kneel, but he still glared at the figure just sitting with the same cross-legged stance as he was.

“Zyler…” He said, his tone turning into a growl. “Why the hell are you here?”

Zyler only stared back in silence, showing neither that annoying grin or a frightening frown. Instead, it was just a placid thin line on his lips as he studied the two. Zeke stared daggers at him, but despite the dangerous man in front of him, he turned slightly to Clara.

“Clara, stay back. This man is dangerous,” He whispered.

“No, he’s not!” Clara claimed, surprising Zeke as she continued. “He helped me put those glasses on you!”

“Actually, I just gave her the glasses,” Zyler finally said. “I stayed right here, as I promised her.”

That got Zeke to look back at him now in confusion. Now that he thought about it, how long has Zyler been there? And why hasn’t he done anything to Clara? Actually, did he really promise her?

What in god’s name is going on?

“I see that you’re confused there,” Zyler held up his hands. “I get it. So let me recap for you.”

Strangely enough, rather than being Clara or even his friends, it was the heir of the enemy nation explaining to him what happened after their fight. Right when Zyler was about to finish him off, he screamed Clara’s name, then transformed into a giant figure of pure mana.

He beat the boss, became the king of the biodome, then helped defeat his ‘pops’, the literal Master-stage lord. He wasn’t sure what happened after him since then, but considering that he had the Master’s glasses on hand as told by Zyler, he could make a guess.

The part about Zeke being a king of all things was also true as explained by the quest prompt he had on hand.

> Quest Completed!

>

> You have defeated the king that lies within the fortress. You are now the new king of Elemental Prison. You and your allies will now receive the rewards.

>

> You have received the following rewards:

>

> 500 Gold Coins

>

> 4 Levels

>

> 20 Free Points

>

> If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Putting all that into consideration, and seeing that he had plenty of notifications practically screaming at him to look, he put that to the side. There was only one thing that was prominent in his mind, and that was the fact that Zyler saw his dad die, then just happened to take his glasses.

There were just too many things wrong there.

“Why did you help me?” Zeke asked, then he held a hand out to Clara as she ran up to him. Even if Zyler wasn’t the type to target children, he wouldn’t trust anyone at this point. “Why do this for me and Clara?”

“Well, I figured you would know by now, but…” Zyler let out a heavy breath as he spoke. “We’re kinda screwed here. After all this, it’s kinda obvious that Bastion lost. And honestly, I had enough of my old man mucking it up. So I figured I would… step up to the plate and do the one thing he wouldn’t dare do.”

“And that is?” Zeke raised a brow.

“An alliance. Bastion and your town, working together. Hell, I wouldn’t mind signing on for the kingdom while we’re at it. The Federation is pretty cool and all, but they’re starting to get a little… grabby, if you catch my drift. My dear old pops kept trying to put them at ease, telling them that we’re gonna pay them back and do what we can and all that bullshit. But seriously? It’s too much. We’re practically swimming in debt. Getting this biodome was the last thing we had on hand that could help us get out of the red. And with it gone, well…”

Zeke nodded slowly, understanding just a bit of their circumstances. He didn’t think this sort of guy cared about those kinds of matters, especially when it was his soldiers that tried to take over their town and kill their citizens.

But he put all of that aside for a moment and thought about it in a more logical, slightly colder perspective. They were running out of resources, so they had to do whatever they could to appease their great overlord. The Aetheric Federation, the one that Bastion belonged to, was making too many requests that Bastion can’t handle. The leader, his dear old pops, tried to meet those requests at the costs of his citizens.

Putting all of that into perspective, he can only think of one thing–reality is a bitch. Even in a fantasy world, you can’t get away from major powers working their people to the bone and making crazy demands. Especially when it came to stuff like the biodome that was, using the perfect analogy, a giant goldmine.

So now, the heir, who took on the role of leader after his father’s ‘demise’, decided to ask him for an alliance. Even as a Lord, he was still in-name only. He had no right to make a decision this big. But… he did leave him and Clara alone, and it was thanks to his glasses that Zeke managed to get out of his situation that would have otherwise killed him.

Even now, his headache was constantly pounding, and his body still felt cold in some places. Actually, the glasses were working wonders for him, mostly like a tourniquet that kept applying medicine to his soul. It was a blessing, and if Zyler was willing to give those glasses away, he can’t exactly say no.

But then he remembered what he did to him and Mikella, and he glowered at him.

“You know I have no say when it comes to making an alliance, right?” Zeke said, still glaring at him. “There’s also how you treated my partner…”

“Oh, the lightning girl?” Zyler widened his eyes, then snapped his fingers in realization. “Ooh! Right, right, I did say shit like that. Yeah, I was totally bullshitting you. She just surprised me and all and got away from me. Sure we fought, but that was about it.”

Zeke raised a single brow so high it would’ve flown. Zyler was being honest with him, like he just made a prank on him. He sort of knew he was just bullshitting him, but to directly hear it from the guy knocked him out of his anger for a moment.

“Then why did you say it like that?”

“To get you amped up!” Zyler screamed as though it was the obvious thing to do. “I know guys like you get all defensive when your lover is in danger, so I wanted to have a good fight and antagonize you. Man, that worked wonders!”

His face brightened up to a peach red at the mention of that, and Clara unfortunately noticed that and tilted her head at him.

“Bobo, you okay?”

“I-I’m okay,” Zeke cleared his throat, quite loudly, and returned back to the topic at hand. “Okay, I get it. But I still can’t agree to that. That’s not my decision to say.”

“I know, but considering how important you were to those folks, I figured you can give a good word. Say I did what I did, and not tried to kill you even when you became king. I got nothing to gain from doing that anyways. With my body the way it is, and you still having that army of yours that is way stronger than anyone has any right to be–I know that even after becoming king myself, I won’t get out of this alive. I didn’t exactly have an entrance to get out from, you know.”

Zeke realized what he meant, nodding. Zyler looked absolutely casual about it, but his words carried a lot of meaning. Despite his looks, he thought a lot about his circumstances, and the best way forward despite everything that happened.

Honestly, it kinda grated on him that Zyler can just say such things outright, but he got to give it to the man that’s willing to spit out facts like it’s nothing. And right now, he was just too damn tired to even bother fighting. Forget about his resources and the pain–the mental exhaustion was too much for him.

He sat back down again, leaving Clara to sit near him and making sure she stayed far away from Zyler. While they already had a good dozen feet or so away from the guy, Zeke was still too leery of him to be anywhere near Clara.

He looked back at the glasses again. These were really high quality. If this was a game (and this world kept reminding him of that every single chance it got) this would be an extremely rare drop from a boss. Considering their opponent, it might as well be.

But still, it didn’t feel right. Even after everything, he felt that just this wasn’t enough to get Zyler on his side. Sure, everything he said was right and proper, but how can he know for sure Zyler can even be trusted? For all he knew, Zyler can just backstab him the same way he did to his own father. Right now, this was just a temporary circumstantial team up.

Then he thought of something that nobody would ever dare give up on. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Honestly, it sounded extremely stupid in his mind and to every one of his comrades. But if things continued this way, he feared what might happen.

If he added this tiny little element, how much would it change other than for the good? And also… Clara was there. If she saw Zyler do something good for Zeke, what kind of big brother would he be to just treat him like he was a scumbag? He wanted to be a good role model.

There were a lot of issues with this idea. So many factors that could go wrong, and if he was honest, it was too idealistic for his taste. He likes the idea, and it made him feel like the world isn’t so horrible. But he also saw the death and despair done to the people around them, and the harsh reality that awaited them outside of the biodome.

However, in the end, his feelings came out the winner. Putting aside the many doubts and probably all kinds of chastisement from everyone around him, he stood up. It was difficult, his body riddled with all kinds of pain, but he told Clara to stay down and walked towards the sitting Zyler. As promised, he remained seated.

But he wasn’t an idiot. He got tense when Zeke got closer, and his hands flexed a little. He was ready to strike back if Zeke went and attacked. But instead of that, Zeke instead rummaged through his storage pack, still completely fine despite all of this, and pulled out something he would have never offered to Zyler just a while ago.

The enhanced attribute fruit he had left over with the others after giving them to the retinue.

Zyler’s eyes popped wide open, the color of his irises actually glowing bright red at the sight. It was as though Zeke pulled out everything he had ever dreamed of from the side of his pants. Now that he thought about it, these storage packs he had were pretty damn durable to hold on to life after all this time.

Ignoring his clear greed, Zeke spoke up. “I have a lot of things to say, but I just wanna be clear–I want to thank you for not attacking me, and more importantly, making sure Clara was fine. This is a personal gift from me.”

“That’s… how–”

“Just take it.”

Zeke said, not wanting to explain anything further and just handed the fruit to Zyler’s open hand. Zyler took it eagerly, but his face was still frozen in shock while still staring at Zeke. He just couldn’t handle standing anymore, and he sat back down. His head hurt too much to keep going.

For a long, long, minute, Zyler studied the fruit, then slowly took a chunk of the enhanced fruit. There was longing in those eyes, and his face scrunched up in pure ecstasy as the juices of the fruit streamed down his chin. After a moment, Zyler’s eyes widened as they turned distant. He must have gotten a notification.

Then, he screamed so loudly, Zeke worried and immediately stood in front of Clara, prepared for a fight. What he didn’t expect was Zyler standing upright and embracing Zeke full on with a hearty hug, his roar nearly at his ears and… crying?

This grown ass man, who could beat the entire army and give the Journeymen lords a run for their money, was literally crying as he felt his shoulder being wet with something from his face. It wasn’t saliva–it was actual tears running down his face.

“Zeke, you… you… Haaaah!” He screamed harshly. “I just gained all my points back from the time my stat got blocked! And all my stat blocks rose up a ton! I don’t know what this is, but thank you! Thank you so much, haaaah!”

Zeke now regretted every moment as the tall, very muscular and very nearly naked man hugged his own naked self in a bear hug that might as well be between bros that have known each other for years. He was squeezed to the point where he felt the same way that Val did when she received the enhanced fruits.

All the while, Clara just clapped her hands behind him with a big smile on her face. “Bobo’s the best!”

He just wasn’t sure what to say about that.