Alice slowly woke up, and she walked over to the kitchen. The sink seemed to work, and she put some water in her glass. After drinking some water, she saw Paul get out of his room.

He smiled and stretched, “What is our plan for today?”

Alice looked at him as she put her glass down, “We need to continue towards Brickton. Finding Steve and Abby is our priority. I have the feeling, that if we do not stop Steve from doing something stupid, then things are not going to end well.”

Paul looked at her with a confusing glance, “You are a mysterious woman, Alice.”

She smiled at him, “Thanks for the compliment. Do you think, Steve will be into me?”

Paul scratched his head, “How should I know?”

Alice sighed, “You know him, right? Am I his type?”

Paul nodded, “You look a lot like his ex-wife, the resemblance is just, uncanny. If you push yourself towards him, he will most likely not think with his brain. Now, if we are done talking about your love life, can we go on?” Alice nodded, clearly satisfied with that answer.

Alice and Paul walked outside and looked at the path heading towards Brickton. They started walking towards Brickton, Paul looked at Alice, “This reality is your home?”

Alice nodded, “I grew up in Poluma. A place where people go for training. There is this woman, she has green hair, but I do not know her name. She brought me to your reality, but I feel as if something is not right. There is a something inside me, that is ready to explode.”

Paul shook his head, “What do you mean?”

Alice seemed to be thinking, “It is as if something is locked inside of me. And for some reason, I think Steve has something to do with it. I did not get time to talk to him yet, as in, one peaceful conversation.”

Paul nodded, “Then we just need to find him, our first quest should be to find the exit of these woods.”

They just kept on walking, making sure to check whether the trees were alive or not. Luckily, it seemed calm. Alice looked around, “There are no monsters, I think something is wrong. It is like the calm before a massive storm is going to hit us.”

Paul looked at her, “You can be very gloom and doom, do you know that?”

“Yes, I know, it is fun, don’t you think?”

Paul ignored her and pointed, “There is the exit of these woods.”

Alice walked forward and looked at the outstretched grass plains in front of them, “These grass plains look much too calm. There is barely any wind.”

They both looked back at the woods, a gigantic portal opened up above the woods. Alice drew her sword, then a huge black slime came out, it crashed down on the woods, breaking trees while making a giant crater as it fell on the ground. It looked more like a giant blob that seemed to shift and turn in mysterious ways, as if pitch-black darkness will consume you if you were to touch here, and the worst part, it came right for them.

Alice looked at Paul in horror, “That thing has an immense energy building inside of it, and it is going to blow, I think it is coming right for us!”

Paul pointed towards the distance, “Please tell me that is Brickton; otherwise we are completely fucked, I cannot even comprehend fully how that thing is supposed to look.”

Alice looked at the city and nodded, “I think so, we need to warn them, or many people will day.”

Alice heard more cracking, the huge black slime rolled their way. As she looked at Brickton, Alice grunted, “We should have traveled through the night, even with the dangerous monsters. Run, we cannot even hurt that thing, it has some kind of energy shield that we cannot penetrate.”

Paul nodded, having to believe Alice, she is more experienced with this reality after all. Together, they started running towards Brickton, it did not take long before Paul started panting, “I am just a human, I cannot keep running, Alice.”

She looked at him, heaving and panting, she yelled at him, “We cannot stop now, keep running!”

“But, I am old.”

Alice grunted in frustration, “There is no time for that, I don’t care if you break your bones or if all your skin falls off, we need to warn Brickton.”

Paul nodded while pushing himself to the limit and ran after her, while they heard the huge black slime rolling over the woods and onto the grass plains, a weird crackling sound could be heard coming from it.

They had been running for a long hour, Paul bent forward, he huffed and puffed. “I just, I, I, I can’t anymore. I have already pushed myself over the limit, and beyond.”

Alice looked at him and sighed, “The entrance is just over there. She helped Paul by letting him lean on her shoulder, come on, you old man.”

Alice walked over to the guards with Paul leaning on her, “We have a huge problem. There is a giant black slime heading for Brickton, it is immensely powerful.”

The guards nodded, one of them spoke up. “We will start evacuating!”

The other one spoke up, “I am going to find some heroes.”

Alice nodded, “I am searching for a friend of mine, his name is Steve. He would have a woman with him as well.”

One of the guards looked around, “Check the guild hall, then take them to safety.” Alice nodded and started walking.

Paul put up his hand and spoke up, “I can walk the rest of the way. Thanks for helping me, where can we find this big building?”

Alice pointed at a guild hall with two crossed swords.

Paul nodded, “That is kind of obvious.”

They made their way to the guild hall, but when they arrived and walked inside, they did not find anyone. Paul looked around, “There is no one here, did they leave already?”

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Alice pointed at a hallway, “I don’t think they will mind if we check over there.”

Paul sighed, “That is violating the trust of the guild-master. I assume that he owns this house? I am not well-versed in video games, but that seems like a logical conclusion.”

Alice looked at him, “Did anyone ever tell you, that you talk too much?”

Paul chuckled, “Did anyone ever tell you, you are not very talkative.”

Alice smirked at him, “All the time.”

They made their way through the hallway, and they found a smaller room with an inactive portal. Paul looked at a corpse in the middle of the room. He kneeled beside her, “It seems as if she has been murdered. Her throat is slit, by claws, and, I think, someone pulled on her hair, you can see some of her hairs have been pulled out with force.”

Alice crossed her arms while speaking up, “Did you just turn into a detective, Sherlock?”

Paul looked at her, “I am an old man, this is not the first dead body I have seen up close, you don't seem to be phased much by it yourself.”

Alice remained silent for a few moments, seemingly gathering her thoughts, but she decided not to share her thoughts with Paul, “I don't think this dead woman will be of any assistance to us.”

A man in a cloak appeared, he crossed his arms while hiding his face, “I think you need to use your ability, Alice.”

She looked at the man, “I am unsure how to use it properly.”

The man sighed, “That black slime is not supposed to be there, we had another plan, but this works too. I fear one of the, never mind that, just find out what happened to Jenny, touch her hand, and think about who murdered her. There is a safe place nearby, make it there in time. We would rather not see you get hurt, or worse, die.”

Before either Paul or Alice could answer, the man vanished in thin air. Paul looked at Alice, “Just do what he says.”

She nodded and touched the hand that Jenny still had. Images flashed in her mind, Alice’s nose started to bleed. Paul grabbed her shoulder, “Are you alright?”

She looked up, “Steve is fine. Abby too.”

Paul smiled, “That is good.”

Alice let out a melancholic smile, “I am afraid not, Steve helped murder this woman.”

Paul shook his head, “How can that be right?”

Alice shook her head while trying to make sense of the images she had seen, “They had this insect with them, I think an Insectine. There was also some kind of human, but she had a lot of fur, and a tail. She resembled some kind of humanoid wolf female. She walked on two legs, I have never seen anything like her in this reality.”

Paul sat down against the wall, “Just tell me, you have a place where we can hide from that huge black slime thing; otherwise, we will be toast, and not the good kind.”

Alice nodded and took the decapitated hand. She wiped away the blood from her nose. “There is a bunker nearby, it will be able to save us.”

Paul got up and started walking, “Come on then, show me the way.”

Alice nodded and started running, as they came outside, they saw the black slime coming closer and even crushing buildings. The train made a lot of noise and left. Alice kept running through the streets. She pointed forward, “There is the hatch, it is a decommissioned training bunker with tunnels that lead to other cities.” Alice slid over the ground and used Jenny’s hand to open it.

Paul looked over his shoulder, “Alice, hurry, that thing is growing bigger and bigger as it rolls over buildings!”

Alice opened up the hatch and jumped down, then everything rumbled and Paul got launched inside with a loud thud. Alice entered the hatch and grunted in pain as she tried to close the hatch. When Alice managed to close the hatch, she got launched back. She slowly got up and looked at Paul, “Are you alright?”

He muttered curse words under his breath, clearly he was in pain, it took a moment before he spoke up, “There is something stuck in my back. That thing blew up and hit me with something.”

Alice slowly walked over and looked at his back, “There is some kind of black shard in your back. I think it is safe if I pull it out.”

Paul grunted, “Just do it, that thing hurts.” Alice pulled it out and Paul let out a sigh of relief. He rolled on his back, “What about you, are you alright, Alice?”

“Yeah, some minor wounds and cuts but nothing major, we should be safe here until the explosion is done destroying Brickton. Steve is probably in that portal, so he should be safe.”

Paul nodded, “I am not feeling so well. I need to close my eyes for a moment.”

Alice shook him, “Paul?”

She looked at his shredded sleeves, something black streamed through his veins. Alice sighed, “That thing must have been filled with magical life force, it must have leaked into his system. Alice leaned backwards against the wall as she looked at the magical light in the bunker. Sorry, Paul, you will not be a human for much longer if you survive this.”

Alice sat down and on the ground while leaning against the wall, she thought back about the man she once loved. The one that died, because of her, she tried to save him, but he ended up in a coma and died soon after that. Alice let out a very long and deep sigh as she pushed away thoughts and memories about Billy.

With her magical life force, Alice drifted off slowly into a light slumber, she failed to push away how horribly Billy died, screaming in pain as he burned to a crisp with purple fire. That plump woman must have tricked her, and she got Paul here. Is she connected to everything? Or is she just another pawn of whatever is going on?

The explosions woke Alice up, she looked at Paul, he seemed to be sleeping, it did not seem like he was going to die, How strange. His breathing seems to have turned to normal and his wounds are healed. Did he, just, survive a magic explosion and absorb the magic nutrients without exploding? That is highly unusual.