Elijah stood on the beach, staring out into the surf and feeling a wave of nostalgia for home. Not because it looked all that similar. Indeed, it looked more like what he’d seen in various equatorial climates, specifically in South America. The trees lining the coast weren’t mangroves, but they looked close enough that Elijah thought the comparison apt. The odor – like a pervasive scent of rotting eggs – was similar as well. Still, even though it wasn’t really comparable to his island, it put him in mind of home.

“It’s out there, right?” he asked.

Dat, who stood beside him, consulted the map they’d gotten back in the Nexus Town. On it, three challenges were marked, two of which they’d already conquered. That left only the one associated with Niflara, the realm of the sea. And according to the notes they’d received, it was located more than a mile off the coast and deep beneath the waves.

“That’s what it says, bro.”

Elijah shook his head. “And you really think those potions are going to be enough?”

“They have to be. They’re all we have,” said Sadie, who was sitting nearby and patching her armor. She was running low on her magical putty, but she didn’t dare hold back in its use. That armor had saved her life more than once, and she likely knew that pattern would continue. Each challenge had pushed them to their limits, and they still had a few more to go.

First, they had the closest challenge. Niflara. Clearly, it was a water-based setting. After that, they needed to find the Umbra, which was sometimes referred to as the Plane of Shadows. And then, finally, they would need to confront the challenge associated with the Ethereum, or the Realm of Magic.

Then there was the final challenge, which was somehow themed around the Abyss. Although, Elijah thought that there was something missing from the equation, and it didn’t take him long to figure out what that was. The excised world itself – called Ka’arath – clearly had a role to play. They’d heard enough about the Lightning Emperor Yloa that he fully expected to be forced into a confrontation at some point. Whether that would be woven into one of the challenges or if it would necessitate an addendum to their current task, Elijah had no idea. But he wouldn’t be surprised at either.

And he intended to be prepared when that situation was thrust upon them.

Still, he was getting ahead of himself, so he glanced back at Sadie and said, “I think we should rethink this. Maybe go back to the Nexus Town where we can find items that will let everyone breathe underwater. Those potions only work for around eighteen hours. That’s not going to be enough.”

Indeed, potions had a lot of strange rules around them. They could do wondrous things like bringing a person back from near-death – or let someone breathe underwater for nearly an entire day – but one could not imbibe them without restriction. Those same healing potions were less effective with each dose – at least until enough time had passed for the soft cooldown to reset – and the Aqualung potions they’d bought back in Nexus Town could only be used a single time. After that, the user would need to wait a week before getting any effect out of another one.

That meant that if they didn’t complete the challenge in eighteen hours, everyone but Elijah would drown. Of course, he still wore his Ring of Aquatic Travel, so he didn’t need to worry about that.

“What choice do we have? If we want to –”

Just then, Elijah felt something via One with Nature. He held up a hand, silencing Sadie by saying, “Someone’s coming.”

Everyone in the group immediately reacted. Dat disappeared from view, and judging by how vague Elijah’s sense of the man was, he used Ghost Cloak to do it. Kurik threw out a couple of tiny crystals that briefly flared with ethera. Sadie was probably the least prepared for battle. She couldn’t very well patch her armor while she was still wearing it, so she was only clad in the yoga pants and compression shirt she normally wore beneath. Still, with her enormous sword in hand, she definitely looked ready for anything.

Ron pushed himself to his feet and, gripping his staff, prepared to cast his most powerful healing spells.

For his part, Elijah just stared in the direction of the people he’d sensed. There were six of them, and judging by what he felt, they weren’t in great shape. One was missing an arm, while two others looked as if they’d been digested by some great beast. Only one man remained uninjured, probably because of the thick armor he wore as he led the group through the thick clumps of semi-aquatic trees and toward the shore.

Then, they came into view and, oddly enough, visibly relaxed. “Hey – you got heals?” shouted the armored man. He was huge – probably six-and-a-half feet tall and built like he lived in the gym – but his bearded face looked friendly enough.

Ron rushed forward, already casting. Elijah followed soon after, tossing out Soothe, Nature’s Bloom, and Healing Rain. However, unlike his group’s Healer, he did so cloaked in a significant degree of wariness. He hated having to remain on guard for betrayal, but he’d experienced enough since the world had transformed – or really, even before the World Tree had made contact with Earth – to know just how quickly people could turn sour.

Sadie came next, using her comparatively tiny heals – they were really only good enough for minor injuries or to stave off fatigue – to add what she could. Almost instantly, the injured people’s condition began to improve, and they visibly relaxed.

“Thanks,” said the big man once he saw that his companions were no longer on death’s door. “Don’t know how much longer Helen and Billy could have stuck with us. Didn’t expect to run up on three Healers, though.”

“Only one Healer here,” Elijah said, nodding toward Ron. “Sadie and I just dabble.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Dabble, huh? Feels like more than that,” the man said. Then, he stuck out a meaty hand and introduced himself, “Name’s Lamar Sims. Tank by trade. Even before the apocalypse, I guess.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

There was something familiar about the man, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on when they might’ve met. As he wracked his brain for an answer to that question, Ron asked, “Wait – you’re the Lamar Sims? Linebacker for the Eagles?”

The man grinned. “Once upon a time. Been a while since I played football, though. Not much call for games when the world’s gone to shit, right?”

“That’s the truth,” Ron said with a genuine smile. “You were my daughter’s favorite player. We had to move away from Philly, but she never stopped being a fan. She even donated her birthday money to your charity for three straight years.”

Lamar frowned sadly. “It was a good cause. Not much use for leukemia research anymore, though.”

After that, the short conversation died. Nobody liked to be reminded that, in the wake of the World Tree’s touch, many people who were already fighting for their lives – be it the result of cancer or other serious illnesses – fell by the wayside. Sure, by now, there were Healers who could treat those diseases, but that didn’t help the people who’d already died.

Elijah should have been one of them, but for a chance meeting with a certain tree spirit who’d ushered him forward on the path of Body cultivation. Sometimes, he forgot just how lucky he’d been, but then he’d meet someone like Lamar who hammered home his good fortune.

Clearly sensing the awkwardness of the silence, Sadie asked, “Did you and your group conquer the challenge?”

At that Lamar perked up. “We did. First clear, I think. We got a lot more out of it than the other challenge we conquered,” he said. “Not that it didn’t come with a cost…”

As he spoke, he looked back at the man who’d lost his arm. So far, Ron hadn’t reached the level he would need to regrow a limb – if he ever would – which meant that the man would be permanently disabled. And he obviously knew it, too, as even after he’d been healed, he just stared at the ground, a vacant look on his face.

“I’m Elijah, by the way. That’s Ron. Sadie and Kurik,” he said, going through the group. Despite the pleasant tone of the meeting, Dat had chosen not to reveal himself. The encounter with the war elf Ikan had left a mark on the group, and they wouldn’t take anyone’s good intentions for granted.

“I knew who you were the second Helen sensed you,” Lamar responded.

“Really?” asked Elijah.

“Of course. You’re famous. Even if you weren’t, I was at the battle in Nexus Town against those Immortals assholes. We all saw what your group did,” Lamar stated. “A lot of people wouldn’t be here without y’all.”

“Oh. Uh…thanks,” Elijah said, massaging the back of his neck.

After that, the conversation turned to more pleasant things. Apparently, Lamar and his group had come from what was left of Philadelphia, and he wasn’t the only former football player. The now one-armed man – Derrick – had been the backup quarterback for the team before the apocalypse, and the others were former staff members at the organization’s facility.

“Most of them were idiots,” Lamar said of his former teammates. “God bless ‘em, but they all approached it like it was a game. It worked for a while. I mean, they were all elite athletes who’d made it to the peak of their professions, so of course they would have a physical advantage. But it made them cocky, and most of them made a lot of bad choices. By the end of that first year, more than half were dead. The second year saw more than half of those killed. After that, everyone sort of drifted their own ways. Most of the ones who survived ended up latching onto Vinnie, though.”

The last, he said with more than a little anger.

“Vinnie?”

“He was a nobody,” Lamar said. “Some people say he was homeless before all of this. I don’t know about that, but within a year, he’d built his own little fiefdom. He calls it the Heaven’s Chosen Sect. There’s been a war going on for the past six months. People rose up against him, but it isn’t going well. He’s too strong, and that’s not counting the people around him. That’s what he does. He gives them whatever they want, and because of that, they stay loyal. He also has this might-is-right mentality where if you’re not in his sect, you don’t deserve rights. Even the people who’ve sworn allegiance to him have to adhere to a strict social hierarchy. And if you run afoul of someone above you? Well, you’d better hope for mercy because that’s the only thing that’s going to protect you.”

“That’s horrible,” Sadie said.

Elijah agreed, but he also recognized a sales pitch when he heard one. It wasn’t that he distrusted Lamar’s version of events, but rather, that he could predict what was coming next.

“I know we just met,” the big man said. “But we could really use your help.”

“I don’t –”

“Of course,” Sadie responded without a second’s hesitation. “If things are as you say, then I can promise that we will do everything in our power to help. However, you should know that your situation is not unique. Moreover, my people are dealing with dire circumstances as well. So, I will propose a deal: if we help with your problem, then you will assist in Hong Kong. An alliance benefits everyone.”

Lamar said, “I think I can live with that. But I won’t abandon my city. I’ll help, but not at the expense of my own people.”

“I think we have a deal.”

“An alliance,” Lamar said.

“I should warn you that I can only speak for myself and my other companion. Elijah, Ron, and Kurik are their own people,” she said.

“You’re not all together?”

“We’re allies,” she answered. “Elijah has agreed to help in Hong Kong, but…”

“I have responsibilities in Ironshore,” Kurik said.

“I can’t abandon my daughter,” Ron stated. “But once I can ensure her safety, I will help in any way I can.”

All eyes turned to Elijah. “I’ve got a lot on my plate right now,” he admitted. “But yeah. I’ll help if I can.”

But there was only so much time in any given day, and Elijah knew that if he stretched himself too thin, everyone would suffer. He was only one man, after all. Still, he saw opportunity there as well. Not only was helping people its own reward, but he still sensed that humanity would need to come together if it wanted to survive whatever the system had in store. Whether that would take the form in another structured challenge or simply be the problems associated with exposure to the wider multi-verse, he didn’t know. But what he did know was that they couldn’t survive if they fought amongst themselves. So, making inroads with other surviving population centers only made sense.

For now, though, he was more focused on the trial.

“What can you tell me about this challenge?” he asked.

That’s when Lamar launched into an explanation of what they’d been through. The other members of his group chimed in with details here or there, but for the most part, they ceded the floor to the big defender. As Lamar described the obstacles they’d faced, Elijah found himself beset by mingled excitement and horror. The former, because, even with how terrible the challenges were, he could acknowledge that he craved the sense of accomplishment that came with overcoming them. Not to mention his well-developed need for adventure.

However, on the other hand, Lamar’s group had been through the wringer. One man had lost his arm, while the others had been on the verge of death until Elijah’s group had begun to heal them. So, the challenge was clearly a difficult one.

Yet, one thing stood out above all others. It had taken Lamar’s group more than a week to defeat the challenge. Even if Elijah and his group could halve that time – which wasn’t out of the question – they still wouldn’t be capable of staying underwater that long. The other party was only capable of it because of a unique ability from Helen, who was an Explorer, that let them endure the airless environment.

It was just further confirmation of what Elijah had suspected from the very beginning. He needed to tackle the challenge of Niflara alone.