Tiffany scowled at the setting sun, glancing towards where Tori had disappeared four days ago, though it was getting closer to four and a half. “She better not be dead.” She grumbled, her hope slowly eroding as the light began to fade, knowing that if anything had happened to Tori, Jocelyn would make her life hell. Tiffany was trying to figure out the best way to disappear when in a flash Tori appeared. “Fuck- Where have you been?!? You said four days, not four and half!” Tiffany exclaimed.

Tori just stared at her blankly for a moment before letting out a grunt. “I took some break time. One moment.”

“Some br-” Tiffany froze as Tori raised her hand and swung it down, an invisible blade shearing through the ground and the platform beneath, the casual display of power immediately putting Tiffany on edge. “You-” Tiffany gulped. “That- That trial was pretty effective, huh?”

“Hm.” Tori agreed with another grunt. “I'm going to head back to town now.”

“You- it's- a bit late, don't you think?” Tiffany commented tentatively. “You don't want to get some sleep before you go?”

“No.” Tori replied simply, reaching out with her Spirit threads. “I'll see you there.” She added, before flinging herself into the sky.

A sinking feeling came over Tiffany as she watched Tori fly away, wondering if this was better or worse than her being dead. “I'm so fucked.” Tiffany groaned.

*

“I'm not sure I thought this through.” Tori frowned as she began to fall. “Hope I can catch myself. Or… points?” She cocked her head, sending out some points to wrap around her. “Huh. Guess I can fly.” She muttered as she swooped down to fly low over the trees, moving fast enough that she wasn't particularly worried about anything jumping out at her.

As she flew, a praying mantis emerged from her forehead, flitting around for a moment before landing on her shoulder. “I'm free.” The trial Avatar sighed in relief, spreading its arms as it basked in its liberation.

“Mhmm.” Tori nodded. “Any big plans?”

The Avatar paused, glancing at her. “I'm not sure you understand how this works. I am bound to you. My plans are your plans.”

Tori raised an eyebrow. “Does that mean you can't want things? And since we are bound, if you do want to do something, I kind of need to know. Otherwise how are you going to do it?”

The Avatar blinked. “You- would do that?”

“Maybe.” Tori shrugged. “As long as it doesn't interfere with my own plans. Or my morality. If you want to go around murdering people, I'm going to have issues. Unless they deserve it, of course.”

“I- see.” The Avatar muttered, falling silent for a moment. “I- think I want to see the world. I was barely born before I was ripped from my originator and tied to the trial. I was never even given a name. The only thing I've ever experienced is the trial.”

“No name, huh?” Tori frowned. “What's your Rune?”

“Achievement.” The Avatar replied.

Tori considered it for a moment. “What do you think of Archie? Or Eve if you'd prefer something more feminine? Maybe Vem for something neutral?”

The Avatar looked taken aback. “I- would need to think about it.”

“Sure.” Tori agreed. “Just let me know. And feel free to come up with your own too. I'm not exactly great with names.”

“I will… Thank you.” The Avatar bowed its head gratefully.

*

It took Tori a little over an hour to get back to town and by the time she got there she was starting to feel a weird… strain coming from her points, but she quickly dismissed it as she made her way through the gates, ignoring the nervous looking guards. She rushed through the streets, almost knocking some dude over when he stepped in front of her with a smile, only to go pale and jump out of her way when he saw the look on her face. She did end up breaking down the door of their residence, forcing her way through when she found the door locked. She practically stormed up the stairs, ripping open the door to her bedroom only to freeze as she finally saw her. “Beatrice…”

“Victoria!” Beatrice exclaimed, rushing into her arms and squeezing her tight.

Tori hesitated for a moment before letting out a shuddering breath as she returned the embrace. “I- missed you.” She whispered, tightening her hold on her as if she was scared somehow she'd disappear again.

“Vic- tor- ia.” Beatrice let out a pained gasp and Tori quickly let her go.

“Shit! Sorry, I- I'm a bit stronger than I used to be.” Tori explained nervously as she looked her over. “Are- are you okay?”

“Are you okay?” Beatrice asked, giving her a concerned look. “I- your messages- I can't even imagine- is- is there anything I can do to help?”

Tori smiled slightly. “Just- keep being you. I'll recover. At some point.”

Beatrice gave her a wary look before letting out a groan and giving her another hug. “This sucks! I feel so useless! I just- why can't I help you?”

Tori sighed as she hugged her back. “You can help me. Now. But before… no matter how hard you tried, you couldn't be there for me while I was in there. I just spent four hundred and forty-four days without you. Without anyone. I just- I need time okay?”

“O-okay.” Beatrice nodded hesitantly, squeezing Tori harder.

Tori smiled, just indulging in the hug, in the feeling of being with Beatrice again, already feeling the numbness that had plagued her for most of the trial beginning to fade. Feeling like she could care about something again. Suddenly she froze, pulling away from Beatrice and snarling as she whirled around, stomping towards the stairs. “Who's there!?!”

“Guild Security!” A voice called back. “We were alerted that this location had been broken into!”

Tori paused. “Oh…”

*

They quickly cleared everything up with Guild Security, Tori simply confirming she was one of the residents with her Hunter token. They were then given a temporary room at the Guild for the night and someone would come by to fix the door in the morning, all of which they'd be charged for, since Tori was at fault. Thankfully it wasn't that expensive, a total bill of just four silver, so Tori paid it easily. Unfortunately, she had a much larger issue to deal with because in order to check her token, she needed to see an examiner, which meant she now had to figure out how to explain her jump from the peak of Energy Gathering to the peak of Core Strengthening in a week. Or at least, getting them to believe her explanation.

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“You found an ancient trial in the Dolvost Foothills with an extreme time dilation?” The Guild examiner summarized doubtfully.

“Is that really so hard to believe?” Tori sighed. “How else would you explain my jump in cultivation?”

The examiner frowned. It was the only reasonable explanation, except… “How did you find a trial that accepts mono-cores? I've never even heard of one that accepts dual-cores!”

Tori froze. “It- was broken? I don't know! The thing just grabbed me and forced me to cultivate!”

The examiner eyed her cautiously. “And you survived? Ancient trials that aren't broken are death traps, let alone ones that are.”

Tori glared at them. “Look, I don't know what to tell you. All I know is what happened. I don't know how to explain it.”

The examiner glared back. “Then you will need to lead a group of professionals to this trial so they can figure it out.”

Tori paused. “No.”

The examiner blinked. “Excuse me?”

“I said no.” Tori shrugged. “I won't lead you to the trial. What are you going to do about it?”

“You will be barred from the Guild!” The examiner growled.

“Will I?” Tori raised an eyebrow. “That seems counterproductive.”

“Ex- excuse me?!?” The examiner stammered.

Tori tapped the desk. “What is the purpose of the Hunters Guild? To control Cultivators, right? To keep them acting predictably. And the moment you kick me out, that control is gone. Maybe I'll hunt on my own, interfering with other Hunters. Or maybe I'll find that's too difficult and turn to banditry. Or maybe I'll open a pie shop. The options are endless. Do you really want me out there exploring those options? With my cultivation? Much better to have me working with you, don't you think?”

The examiner paled slightly, taking in the level of power coming from Tori's Spirit core. Even the Marquis would have trouble facing her! If she decided to go rogue… eventually someone would take her down, but not before she'd caused a lot of damage. The examiner gulped. “Y-yes, you're right, um… just- let me update your token.”

Tori smiled. “Of course.”

*

“Bleh!” Tori grunted, wrapping her arms around Beatrice and falling onto one of the beds with her as they arrived in their temporary room. “I forgot how annoying people could be.”

Beatrice hesitated. “I- think they were just doing their job? The way you described the trial, it sounded like it would be helpful for a lot of people… it'd be negligent for them to just ignore that, right?”

“Yeah, sure, but then they tried to force me to give them the information.” Tori grumbled. “That was the problem. I didn't care when they just asked.”

“I guess…” Beatrice agreed.

Tori sighed. “Never mind all that. Let's talk about something else… like the fact that Obo is an idiot.”

Beatrice groaned. “Victoria, why-”

“If I'm an idiot, then what are you?!?” Obanonos sneered as he wriggled out of Beatrice's forehead, Beatrice sighing defeatedly as she cuddled closer to Tori, settling in for the inevitable argument. “You are constantly begging for information from me!”

“First off, begging? In your dreams.” Tori snorted. “And secondly, only an idiot would disregard a valuable source of information just because that source happens to be an idiot. I'm not saying you don't know things, I'm saying you don't properly utilize the information you have. In this case, the fact that you've known about True Ascension but never actually pursued it.”

“That's because it's a myth!” Obanonos retorted.

“No, it isn't, and even if it was, why not at least try?” Tori countered. “There's no harm in at least attempting to meet the requirements for True Ascension. And if you fail, you just go on as normal. But at least you'd have tried. You- you just gave up on it. Which is idiotic.” She paused. “Though, if you hadn't, I might not have met Beatrice, so… thanks for being an idiot, I guess.”

Obanonos scowled at her. “It isn't idiotic to not waste time chasing after something that is impossible! Trying to pursue this ‘True Ascension’ would have either killed my hosts, or risked them ending up stuck as dual-cores! Possibly even mono-cores! I couldn't risk their life or future on a myth! I may be able to make as many attempts as I wish, but my hosts are not so lucky.” Obanonos finished bitterly.

Tori paused. “Huh… that's fair, actually. But I still think Beatrice should go for it. With the system, she doesn't have to risk anything.”

Obanonos blinked. “I- agree?”

Beatrice glanced between the two of them, stunned. “You both- agree?”

Tori grinned slightly. “There's a first time for everything, you know.”

*

Tori and Beatrice spent a few more hours just talking, Tori remaining latched onto Beatrice like a drowning man latched onto a life preserver. While she was starting to feel more and more like herself again, ironically more due to the annoying parts of being around people than the pleasant ones, she couldn't bear the thought of leaving Beatrice right now. Some paranoid part of her mind was convinced that the moment she let her out of her sight, she'd somehow disappear, or she'd end up in some timeless void again, and if that happened… Tori tightened her grip on Beatrice again. The greatest struggle she'd faced in the trial was not making herself another Beatrice, or a Jessica, or someone, especially as her pool of points grew. It got to the point where she had to sink her points into growing her point capacity, only keeping a reserve of four hundred, to remove the temptation. But if she lost Beatrice again… She wouldn't be able to avoid the temptation. She would be making someone… even if she wasn't quite sure who yet.

A part of Tori didn't even want to sleep, but Beatrice had been awake for the last four days, constantly worrying about Tori, and Tori… she didn't actually remember the last time she'd slept. It- wasn't recent. So, after Beatrice drifted off, Tori soon found her own eyelids growing heavy, and while a part of her was tempted to spend points to stay awake, another part of her knew she couldn't sustain any more time awake. Even with the points, she needed sleep. And so she inevitably drifted off as well, though only after ordering her Avatar to keep watch to make sure nothing happened. And then- she woke up. In a strange room. With two strange men standing over her.

“Hi there! I'm Greg and this is Chris.” Greg greeted her with a grin. “You wouldn't happen to know how to escape this timeless void, would you?”

Tori screamed.