I still sat on Lory’s back as we made our way through the mountain pass. Funk and Abby seemed to be fine, they did not like dinosaurs, though.

I leaned forward and looked at Lory, “How are you doing?”

“I am fine, Steve, you can stop checking in on me.”

“You know, I don’t think that I will.”

Lory giggled, “At least you are a caring person.”

Abby pointed somewhere, “Look, there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

I laughed, and Lory joined me. Funk sighed, “You guys are just a bunch of idiots.”

We both replied at the same time, “Thank you.”

We made our way out of the blood path and light shone upon us. I looked around, “Where to now?”

Lory pointed her paw at something, it was a gigantic arrow that said, Ebony Mines. “I did not ask anything.”

Funk shook his head and started walking. Abby followed him, “He never thinks before asking something.”

Lory followed them and I looked around, this was indeed a perfect place to mine ores. Everywhere I looked, I saw rough rocks, the roads seemed to be for true hikers. There were no trees at all. Sand seemed to flow over the ground. Funk called out, “There is a cave over here, very close to the mines. Are you guys ready?”

Lory nodded, “I am.”

Abby looked at Lory, “I am still jealous.”

I sighed, “It is not the same as a werewolf, Abby. I still don’t get your obsession with werewolves.”

She sighed, “They are just spectacular.”

Lory looked at her, “Do you want to lose control? Turn into a monster at random intervals? When the full moon hits the sky?”

Abby shook her head, “I will be strong enough to control it.”

Lory sighed, “That is what everyone says, and no one can make it come true. At least, not bitten werewolves, maybe if you were born one. Still, you would need to be an alpha for some control. And if you lead a pack of at least nine alpha werewolves, you can become a Sigma, but only if you have the genes.”

I was kind of confused, I never heard that word before, “What?”

“Yes, they are rare, imagine nine alphas together, with a Sigma to lead them. An almost unstoppable wolf pack.” Instead of fear, I saw glee in Abby’s eyes but also in Lory's eyes.

Lory sighed, “I am trying to scare you, Abby, not entice you. The chances of becoming a Sigma is so small, it only occurs once in a millennium, maybe two times.”

When I bent forward and looked at Lory, I noticed that look again, the one that says, I am hiding a very big secret, but I am not going to tell anyone what it is.

The voice in my head spoke up, “Oh she is definitely hiding something, I just wonder if it is something juicy, something evil, or perhaps a good deed.”

Funk called out, “Are you guys done talking, this cave is waiting.”

I nodded and looked at Abby, “Abby?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t even think about becoming a werewolf. Unless it is to save yourself or something.”

Abby nodded, “Alright, but no promises.”

Lory and I sighed as we walked over to Funk. He smiled, “Finally.” He took the lead and walked inside.

Lory followed him, I love to have a ride. The walls slowly started turning purple, the torches had purple light. It did not take long for us to find a clearing. It started to look more like ruins at this point, with broken columns and hieroglyphics of some kind. “Lory, take me to the wall, please.”

She did so and chose a wall at random. Once I got close enough that I could touch the wall, she stopped. “Can you reach it, Steve?”

“Yes, thanks Lory.” I traced my hand over the wall. These hieroglyphics seemed to be different from the ones I knew from Egypt. “Can anyone read this?”

The room stayed awkwardly silent.

I shook my head, “These things do not make me any wiser, but it does make me think that we are in the right place. With the purple lighting and all. For some reason, it feels like this is set up for us. Or anyone to find it.”

Abby nodded, “Indeed, it is suspicious. There is, however, only one path, and that is straight ahead.”

Lory walked over to the next hallway. Funk stood still in the hallway and looked at a painting of some kind of octopus, I spoke up, “Do you have any idea what, or who, that is Funk?”

“No, I have no clue, but it looks intriguing.”

Abby chuckled, “It looks like Cthulhu.”

Funk looked at her, “What did you say?”

Abby scratched her head, where Square was sitting, so she scratched Square, he did not mind. “I mean, you know the giant octopus, Cthulhu, thing of doom?”

I shook my head, “That is just a video game thing, Abby.”

She shrugged, “Fine, if you say so.”

Funk continued walking, ignoring our antics. Lory followed him and I brushed her fur with my hand. I could see a smile form on her face. Abby sighed, “Please don’t tell me you are a furry, Steve.”

“What!?”

Lory looked at her, “What is a furry?”

I laughed, “Good luck explaining that.”

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She raised her hands, “I am going to shut up now.” She quickly walked towards Funk as we kept trudging through the weird hallway.

Lory looked up, “What is she talking about.”

“Oh, nothing, just a little thing from our reality.”

Lory nodded, “Alright, it sounded bad.”

“I think that depends on your perspective on furry’s. We are not furry’s.”

Lory nodded, “Alright, if you say so. If she is talking about you and me, if I am in this form, I don’t see a problem with that.”

I coughed a few times as I suddenly realized she was fucking with me and knew exactly what I was talking about that. “Perhaps, we should keep that kind of talk in the bedroom.”

Luckily, Lory agreed with me to keep that topic for later. We soon came into a new clearing, this one looks just like the previous one, except for a few different columns. “Guys?”

They all looked at me. “Are we walking in squares? Get it?”

Abby sighed, “Very funny, Steve. But, I had the same weird gut feeling. As if we are being led somewhere.”

Funk looked at us, “We just need to push on. This unease may be why this cave has not been found yet.”

Lory nodded, “We will just press on.” Lory started walking and I tried reading the hieroglyphics. However, I just saw funny pictures. They did remind me of the weird pharaoh like pictures.

After walking through another hallway, we ended up in another clearing, and this one had a mural. We all walked towards it. It depicted a woman channeling void energy. There were no clear signs as to who this woman was, or what she looked like. I shook my head, “What are we supposed to do with this?”

Lory barked.

“What is it, Lory?”

“We now know, there is indeed a person behind the void, meaning that if we find and stop her, then the void will vanish.”

“Yeah, alright, but how do we fight someone that can sweep magic through a whole reality?”

“Is she the one that flattened the earth?” Abby and Funk started walking around for clues.

I put my hand on my chin, we need to find the woman who controls the void. She needs to have a weakness. Lory started walking around as I just kept thinking to myself. Our first task is uncovering her identity. Once we know who is controlling the void, we can learn more about her, and find a gap in her armor. Everything has a weakness, like those extinct demon races. Some of them were strong, but somehow they got wiped out. Sometimes in massive wars. If Alice teams up with us, maybe even Paul, then it would be six against one. Bella also seems to be a fighter. That way, it would be possible, hard, and insane, yes, but possible. Suddenly, I heard creaking around us. The voice screamed in my head, “Trap!”

Funk and Abby were on the other side of the room, I felt a breeze coming from a crack, and not the good kind. There is a portal under this room, the trap the voice mentioned. “Funk, Abby!”

They looked at me, I grunted, “I am sorry for this.” I had to do this, no matter how risky it is. I stretched both my hands and created a portal behind them, the thing in my head helped me. This portal would hopefully lead to Brickton, then I shot a minor beam at them, launching them through. The floor shot open at insane speed, and before I could do anything else, Lory and I fell down through a portal. I landed on a purple floor and all around me, I saw purple transparent walls.

Lory had transformed back, and she had been knocked out by the fall. I saw a demon of some kind hidden in purple shadows. I drew my sword with my left hand while throwing Lory over my right shoulder and holding her close to me.

Purple tentacles flew over towards us and I tried slashing them away. They were too powerful, I had to infuse myself with energy. I looked at Lory, I can’t. If I lose control, like when that plant ate me. If I lose control, then I will harm Lory. More tentacles flew my way, I failed to block a tentacle, and it soared through the sky with full force, chopping off my left arm in one fell swoop. Blood flew everywhere as I saw my left arm roll away. I fell down on one knee while blood gushed out of my wound. I was shocked, and in horror, I saw my arm there, the pain slowly came as the realization dawned upon me, the most intense pain I ever felt. While picking up the sword with my right hand and trying to keep Lory safely on my shoulder, I screamed in agonizing pain and slashed a purple tentacle away.

The pain started to crush me, I needed to get up, I needed to fight. As another tentacle came for me, I turned my back and got hit, protecting Lory. More tentacles swarmed around me and I tried chopping them away, but one of them grabbed my right hand while another pulled my sword away. I had no free hand to fight, and slowly the intense pain started to build up more on the place where my left arm got chopped off, blood streamed out of my wound.

My vision even got blurry, I was about to faint from the pain. The tentacles hit me a few times, I did the only thing I could think of currently as I knew I had lost, I rolled up into a ball around Lory, to protect her. It is all that I could do at this moment. The tentacles shoved us somewhere, leaving a blood trail from my wound. They completely covered us and mist covered the ball we had been put in, the purple ball. It did not take long before I blacked out, I had no idea where I fainted from, the mist, the pain, I had no idea.