Quill puts a hand infront of Aria upon seeing the figure. Aria, who is focused on the figure enough to not realize the hand of Quill, doesn't interfere him. She makes a sword and waits at a defensive stance. Quill sees this and makes an energy ball in his free hand before getting to defensive stance like Aria. Both tensed up, see the figure getting out of the flames with a visible smile. He seems like a human, but with an eye mask.

He slowly approaches them and stops at a reasonable distance before talking: "Hello you two. That girl seemed to be in trouble so I told to myself that I should help her."

Aria waits a bit before starting to talk: "T-thank you but who are you? You seem like a human but no human I saw can walk in flames. I think you made those flames? Well, no human can make flames either."

The figure starts laughing softly before replying with a laid-back look and voice: "My real name is Retfar but everyone I know calls me 'Masked Elements' because I can control and absorb elements with the help of this mask. Very cool, right? I know, I know..."

Aria gets excited and replies: "You can control elements? That's very cool! But... there is no water here. You can't use water here?"

Retfar replies with a chuckle: "Of course I can. I can make elements as I wish."

Quill stays silent, trying to give a meaning to the 'infinite' feeling he gets from Retfar. Is it because of the mask? It must be that. It's the same feeling he gets from Aria. Is this mask boundless too?

Retfar continues: "I have trained myself so I am pretty good at controlling elements."

He stays silent for a bit before continuing: *What's that armor girl... You don't seem to be burning of those flames. Don't you think it's a bit odd?"

Aria snaps back and answers: "Oh yes... This armor makes me able to control and absorb energy. I'm pretty new at this, but it's cool right?"

Retfar replies: "To test that, we should have a fight, don't you think?"

Aria looks puzzled for a bit but then nods her head hesitantly while saying : "O-ok... Why not?"

Retfar starts going back, saying: "Perfect! Let's see what you've got!" before stopping in a small distance.

Aria nods and walks back too.

Retfar starts counting down: "5, 4, 1! Start!"

Aria gets puzzled a bit but after seeing Retfar has disappeared, she quickly makes a sword and dashes back. Meanwhile, Quill watches in a distance, making sure nothing goes off-hand. Aria sees Retfar at her right, quickly blocking his punch with her hands which sends her flying a bit but she lands on her feet. She decides to start running towards Retfar to make sure he doesn't surprise attack her. She starts running and catches up to Retfars dashing. She quickly delivers a punch as Retfar dodges by jumping to air.

He lands on his feet before saying: "Not bad, I'll give you that. You are pretty fast. But you should calculate your attacks and analyze the situation. You just punched me, hoping it will hit me. But let's get serious, shall we?"

He dashes to Aria to deliver a punch. Just as Aria dodges it, she sees that flames start forming at the ground as the flames take up a big place Aria can land. Aria starts absorbing the heat around her as she lands. Just as she gets distracted by absorbing heat, Retfar punches her from behind. Just as she gets close to landing, Retfar traps her in a big ice mass. Aria uses the heat she just absorbed to melt the ice. She gets curious if she can only used absorbed energy or can control the energy around her too. She tries to manipulate the flames around her to shoot them to Retfar, and it works! Retfar gets surprised by that but jumps to the air and makes water to extunguish the flames.

Retfar lands on the ground gracefully and says: "Well... That was pretty good. I see you can control the heat around you huh? That's pretty good I guess. That means I should start trying harder, doesn't it?"

He chuckles darkly and disappears before reappearing behind Aria. Aria sees this and jumps to the air. Seeing this, Retfar stopms on the ground as some small volcanoes appear, forcing Aria to get defensive at air. When she lands, she gets punched by Retfar. Retfar quickly get behind Aria who is flying with the force of the punch to make a big beam of flames. Aria absorbs the energy and lands on the ground before making a beam from the energy she has in her armor which gets dodged by Retfar, who is smirking. Aria gets a bit annoyed but controls herself not to get angry. She quickly dashes to him to give him a punch, which gets dodged by Retfar at the last time. Aria decides to make an explosion from her fist using the energy in her armor, as she does so. The explosion knocks Retfar down as Aria approaches him, towering over him with a smirk.

Aria asks Retfar: "Give up or continue?"

Retfar replies with a chuckle: "What does giving up mean?"

Aria replies with a bigger smirk: "Playing rough huh?"

Retfar replies: "If you don't go for the kill, you can't win against me."

After saying this, he makes a big explosion of fire that makes them both fly up into the air. Both of them land gracefully, both filled with confidence. They both disappear and clash at the air one time, before Aria holds Retfars arm and throws him to the ground hardly. Retfar lands on his body but Aria lands on her feet. Retfar quickly recovers with a frown and makes a fire tornado around Aria. Aria quickly absorbs the heat and makes an explosion to destroy the tornado as she succeeds to do so. She lands, a determined look with a smirk on her face. It's obvious she wants to win this spar, but who wouldn't? Retfar looks with a determined face too. Retfar decides to finish this and jumps up to make a giant dragon from flames. He starts falling, carrying the dragon with himself. When she lands, Aria gets caught to the dragon because of the size of it. She quickly absorbs the heat and sees Retfar in distance.

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She dashes to him, appearing behind him and giving him no time to escape before pinning him down with her elbow on his back: "I win! Haha! I knew I would win!"

Retfar chuckles, turning his head slightly to look up at Aria who is preventing him from using elements attacks by automatically absorbing the energy around her.

Retfar: "Good one, girl. You win. You can let me get up now. I didn't ask for your name did I?"

Aria lets him go and takes a step back: "You didn't ask, and I forgot to tell it. Sorry for that. My name is Aria."

Retfar gets up and dusts himself: "Yeah. Nice to meet you Aria. You are the first human I met since I wore this mask. Becomes pretty boring you know."

He then turns to Quill and approacher him, raising his hand for a shake with Quill: "Hello... Aria's friend I guess. Nice to meet you. Can I learn your name?"

Quill looks at the hand before gripping it for a shake: "My name is Quill. I have to admit, you caught my attention with that mask. An item... Is this the reason you appear in this realm?"

Retfar replies with a smirk, letting go of Quill's hand: "Oh yes! How did you know?"

Quill doesn't break eye contact: "That's the same way Aria got here. An item. I guess it's the only way of entering this realm unless you are written here originally."

Retfar nods like he understands what Quill says: "Yes, yes the thing you said. At first, I missed the world I used to live in. But now I rarely remember there."

Quill asks: "How long have you be-"

Aria cuts Quills sentence: "You came from the same place at me? That explains how you look like a human! You are a human!"

Retfar replies: "Well of course I am. And yes, we probably come from the same place."

Quill cuts the conversation: "Let's talk about this somewhere we can sit and relax."

Both Aria and Retfar nod as Quill makes a wormhole to a cliff at the same planet before saying: "We shouldn't exit this planet. We still have to go find the one that killed Omnix."

Retfar looks confused but just enters the wormhole, sitting at the edge of the cliff as both Aria and Quill do the same.

Quill continues to talk: "So. I have two questions. First is how long have you been here?"

Retfar replies: "I have been here for... a small pause at least 2 years. Next question?"

Aria listens carefully, her mind on the world she left behind. She feels something strange. She wants to go back but... she is living a fantasy life at "the lands beyond fiction".

As Aria is deeply in thought, Quill asks the second question he has: "When you first wore that mask, where did you appear to be? Can you explain the place you appeared to be in? Your surroundings?"

Retfar replies with his casual tone: "Very simple, a city. A very modern one at that. But not only that, the people there were really curious about my eye mask. After I learned to control my elemental powers, I joined their military. They were fighting some kinds of aliens across the universe, so was I. They were talking about some possibilities and infinities or something."

Just as Retfar opens his mouth to continue talking, Quill shuts him an says: "I got the info I needed to understand where were you."

Her curiousity piqued, Aria snaps out of her thoughts to listen to Quill as he continues: "I heard from the Power Council that we are in a giant structure called Tier 0. Well, let me explain what I know. Tier 0 is made of 2 layers. Layer 1 and Layer 2. We are supposed to be in Layer 2 right now. I think Retfar was at Layer 1 when he first came. That 'infinities' they were talking about was probably about the universe they were in. Considering they are not able to escape their universes, they were probably talking about the inside of the universe. Every idea and concept exists in each universe in Layer 1 as I heard from The Power Council."

Retfar nods his head, acting like he understands: "Yeah, yeah... What's your comment on this, Aria?"

Aria starts thinking before talking: "I think it's fascinating. But I have a question for you, Retfar."

Retfar seems curious: "Go on, I'm curious what can you ask."

Aria continues her question: "So... If the universe is infinite, how did you exit the universe?"

Retfar answers: "Well, I already told you that the city I was in was pretty modern, so was the nation behind it. They already had some space vehicles that crosses the universe in an instant, even if it's infinite. Their only problem was something they call 'access'. They said their vehicles and everything inside just completely disappears after they exit the universe."

Quill stands up: "Anyways, we have a mission with Aria. Are you coming, Retfar?"

Retfar jumps from where he was sitting before shouting: "Ha! What's the mission? Lead the way!"

Aria slowly gets up from the ground with a smile: "We need to find and defeat what killed Omnix."

Retfar gets curious: "Who is this Omnix you are talking about?"

Aria, showing her amulet, says: "It's the person who made this amulet."

Retfar nods as Quill starts thinking what to do first before a member of The Power Council, a glowing white figure with 4 arms and giant tentacles at his back, appears next to them before saying: "Who is this new person you are bringing to your mission with you?"

Quill calmly answers: "He is a strong asset that might help us in our mission."

The member of The Power Council disappears. Quill quickly explains the situation to Retfar to let him know what is watching them in the mission. Retfar understands and nods.

Aria, thinking she is being pushed to the side says: "Alright everyone, we need to make a plan to find what killed Omnix and defeat it ourselves. This won't be easy but I think I have a plan."

After making sure both Quill and Retfar are listening, Aria continues: "First, we need to understand what we're dealing with. If it killed Omnix, it must be fully sentient and should have a goal right? Otherwise, it would be one sided at Omnix's favor. We should think what could be his goal."

Quill stays silent before speaking up: "That's not a plan. A plan needs to have enough information to be fully formed. You are asking for us to gather information. But anyways, got the point. Whatever that was... It could have wanted two things. The Astrorune, or something Omnix had but we didn't know about."

Aria replies: "Now that's disturbing. Maybe Omnix sent The Astrorune to our world in a hurry? Maybe it was supposed to be here?"

Retfar jumps in: "Look everyone. If his goal was the amulet, it is probably searching for Aria right now. It should be smart, right? That means we need to be smarter. We should find it first, but without it understanding we found it."

Quill nods: "Retfar is right. We need to find it first."

Aria smiles: "Let's get this done then!"