The sun continued to rise toward its peak in the sky as Mel entered the apartment she had made her own. When Domison left with Raze, the group had gone over their individual plans for the day before going their separate ways, planning on meeting up for dinner and a debrief. She sat at a small desk she had procured from the building next door, fingers thrumming along on the glass surface as she ruminated. Their leader's revelation had shocked her to the core and she was wracked with anxiety thinking about how she could initiate this conversation with Domison, let alone how he would react.

Domison hadn't come out and said it when he summarized his life before the advent of the system, but Mel got the feeling that the Twilight Market criminal organization wasn't the only people that he was after. Ever since he had mentioned that name, a memory like an inch that couldn't be scratched was lingering at the edge of her consciousness. When he opened up before leaving half an hour prior, it had clicked in Mel's mind and the memory became clear. That revelation is what led her to her current predicament.

Thin fingers stopped beating upon the glass surface of the desk and Mel let out a sigh, "What if he hates me… what if I tell him and he wants me to leave?" Mel buried her head in her hands and groaned. "Maybe I should go talk to Mike. He always helps me calm down in situations like this." Making her decision, Mel pushed herself away from the desk and stood, a new determination filling her as she turned to leave and track down Mike.

"AHHHH!"

Mel leaped into the air as she turned to face two golden globes as large as dinner plates. With a hand to her chest, she glared at the massive shadow dog. Pabu had stalked into her apartment completely silently and was currently sitting by her front door and staring at her. With a huff and a beckoning gesture with his huge head, the dog turned to leave. Grumbling to herself, Mel followed behind after a moment's hesitation.

‘He could have at least made some noise or something.’ She thought to herself before shuddering slightly, ‘How long was he sitting there… and why isn’t he with Dom?’

Increasing her pace to a light jog, Mel caught up with the horse-sized dog and shouted a question, “Pabu, why aren’t you with Domison? Is he back already?”

Pabu glanced over his shoulder slightly, making eye contact with her, before he looked back towards the street making a light chuffing noise. Mel just rolled her eyes, not really expecting a real answer, and followed the dog out into the street.

The garden was astounding to Mel and she couldn’t help but stare at the blooming cerulean and crimson patches of Manabloom as they walked past. Halfway across what used to be the street, Mel began to hear an almost droning noise. It increased in volume and pitch for a moment, before dropping off again, only to resume a second later. Puzzled, she picked up her pace and once she came closer to the source she realized what it was… Snoring. As she rounded the corner of the row of crops standing taller than her small frame, Mel arrived at the location Domison had departed only minutes before.

To Mel’s surprise, her leader was back. Though the state he was in almost sent her into a panic before she realized that he was the one snoring. The man was covered in a black ichor from head to toe, almost identical to the way she had met him weeks before. What panicked her at first, however, was the fact that he was sprawled out in the sun, completely unconscious. The only thing that had abated her immediate panic was the fact that he looked incredibly peaceful, and his chest was rising and falling at a steady rate.

While Mel stood there a moment, absorbing the scene in front of her, Pabu continued forward. The large dog pulled the leg she hadn’t noticed at first, of one of the many large carcasses they had processed, from between a few crops and proceeded to lay down behind Domison and start tearing at the meat. After a moment passed and Mel did not move, Pabu looked at her and let out a growling yip while dipping his head toward Domison repeatedly.

Mel snapped out of her reverie and dashed over to the slumbering man. He appeared to be completely unharmed, but upon closer inspection, she could make out the gaunt appearance of his face and the deep bags under his eyes.

“What the fu-” Mel muttered to herself as she started to wipe the drying liquid away from his face. When she cleared the first layer of ichor away, Mel audibly gasped. The skin of his face had black cracks running down the side of his jawline and cheekbone from his temple, an unnatural purple light faintly glowing through.

Stolen novel; please report.

A split second after she gasped, Domison’s eyes snapped open, black holes filled with glittering purple and red specks replacing the human eyes that she had seen just minutes before. A hand snaked out and wrapped around her wrist, and for a moment she saw fury in his eyes, a fury that she had only seen directed at their enemies. Then he slipped back into sleep without further event.

“Poor guy must be tired… I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I assume that you,” Mel said and pointed to Pabu, “Want me to carry him in?”

Domison woke up in his bed an unknown amount of time later. He felt like a new man. Perfectly refreshed, with no muscle aches, no cricks in his neck, and a clear mind on top of it all. His memory of the events within the trial was still slightly hazy, but he remembered feeling vindicated. After he had fully cleared the first trial, he had a few words with Raze. What the guide had told him was still completely clear in his mind,

‘You didn’t respawn. There is no such thing in this world outside of resurrection magic and the way you were just throwing yourself into the dark it would have cost a fortune. It is just set to shift your body back to the starting point upon failure and regenerate your mana to full. The rest, you did yourself. Immortal flesh is a blessed thing, my boy, though it can get quite… Uncomfortable at times.’

Domison shuddered slightly, as the recall of that conversation brought back the horrific things he had put his body through in his initial rage. He could almost hear the sounds of the pieces of his body raining down on the stone at the edge of his hearing, even though he was sure that there was no way he would have been able to retain such a memory.

The man took a moment to recenter himself, taking a few minutes for a quick meditation session. After fifteen minutes of going over his gains internally and visualizing his multi-day-spanning battle in his mind, Domison went to wash his face. The splash of cold water brought a new energy to the man and he was ready to get back to work. Walking over to his bedroom door, Domison threw it open only to find Mike standing with his hand raised, poised to knock.

“Did you need something, Mike?” Domison asked with a raised eyebrow.

Mike’s face flushed slightly before he responded, seemingly embarrassed about something, “Umm… Actually…” Mike scratched the back of his head and stared into the heavens as those he was searching for the correct words. After several painful moments, the man pulled his other hand out from behind his back and presented Domison… A book, “Could I borrow this?”

Domison took a look at the novel and saw it was one of his old fantasy books, depicting magic and monsters. Domison raised an eyebrow, unsure as to why this would cause Mike to be so embarrassed. After a moment of assessing the man in front of him, Domison finally replied, “Why wouldn’t you be able to? Of course.”

Mike looked at the ground for a moment, “There’s just so much going on around here… I don’t want you to think I am slacking off and just reading stupid stories all day.”

“Well don’t read them all day,” Domison said with a laugh, “We do have a lot to do around here, and even more to do in the future.” He clapped a hand on Mike’s shoulder and gave the younger man a reassuring smile, “Everybody needs rest Mike, and they aren’t stupid stories. Anything that helps you get by each day is something to cherish.”

Mike nodded and beamed a grin like a student getting praise, but a shocked expression dominated his face when Domison’s stomach let out a monstrous growl. With a slightly pained expression, the man gestured for them to both leave, “Let’s gather everybody up and get some food. I’m starving. How long have I been out anyways?”

“Oh!” Mike exclaimed with a flustered expression, “That’s right. I didn’t come here to just borrow the book… Mel sent me to come check on you. It’s been two days since she found you sleeping in the road.”

“No wonder I’m so damn hungry,” Domison grumbled, frustrated that he had lost so much time to sleep. With a sigh born from the fact that there was nothing he could do to change it anyways Domison asked, “And how long since I had left with Raze?”

“You were only gone for about fifteen minutes.” Mike said after looking the man over again, a slightly concerned look on his face, “We were all pretty surprised that you were so drained in such a short amount of time. Pretty worried too.”

Domison started laughing, the sound coming from deep in his belly. His jovial outburst continued for long enough that Mike gave him a weird look, but soon Domison wiped away a tear and explained, “To me, it was longer. I was gone for days, Mike.”

Understanding dawned in Mike’s eyes and he whistled slightly, “Sign me up for some hyper training, boss.”

A shadow passed over Domison’s expression then, remembering the countless times he was wholly dismembered in excruciating detail. He hadn’t thought about the possibility of being able to bring his group, and he knew that at this moment there was no way they would be ready for it. He assumed it wasn’t something he could do now, but maybe…

“Someday we can test that out, right now though? Food.”