Zan came to right away. The many blaring systems and not to mention the Wardens voices in his earpiece made unconsciousness impossible. Though even Zan knew, intellectually, that was not how unconsciousness worked in traumatic situations.

"Zan! Zan!" the Screen Master said while in his other ear Jiehong shook him. Or was attempting to grab ahold of his head. One of the two.

His vision gradually came back to him. Coming to, Zan saw triples of everything and couldn't keep his balance. He was walking but only at the behest of Jiehong; who, though looked banged up himself and even wavering while on his feet, kept himself upright. Zan's headset gave him notifications. None of the notifications were positive and Zan swished them out of his mind.

Flames spiked around them as pieces of the crashed airship settled and explosions burst. What was exploding? Zan wondered as he and Jiehong slowly made their way up and over pieces of the ship lodged deep within the earth; climbing over their tippy points which stuck from the ground, Zan's vision came back to him like normal once he had followed Jiehong for some time.

While navigating their way, Zan's headsets continued to give them notifications. [Auto-Detection Mode Activated] the headset said at a point. Once activated, it seemed to Zan what its purpose was, was to alert him to dangerous bits of his walking path which required dodging or careful footing to overcome. It seemed mostly a stability reader for when Zan walked on unstable flooring. The feature was helpful, and assisted Zan as he barely knew up from down on his way out of the ship.

"What... happened?" Zan asked as they reached a part of the airship which used to belong to the observation deck.

With Jiehong busy trying to find them a path from the wreckage, Sigma-Prime took over to give him the lowdown on what happened: "The Screen Master and I determined your fighting destroyed enough of the navigator golems to preclude safely operating the airship. Thus, with their pilots destroyed, the ship crashed. Upon impact, the ship broke into thousands of parts."

While Sigma-Prime talked, Zan saw what she talked of: on the observation deck, Zan glanced down to see a drop-off. The piece of the observation deck which they had come up on had dislodged into a hill. The ground must have been a hundred feet or more. The large hull piece not helping the height. "I take it climbing down isn't an option," Zan huffed. He felt like puking. So, he did. Feeling better, he turned to see Jiehong. He wasn't looking at the far way down. Rather, he was looking at Mentality's fallen body.

"Is he dead?" Zan asked, fearful of the answer.

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"No," Jiehong said. "He still has a pulse. Why?"

Zan looked weirdly at Jiehong. "What do you mean 'why'? Cause he is a person, like you and me?"

"A person who tried to cause our deaths by crashing an airship. Yeah."

"An airship which he was on and... I don't know. Do you really think he would have been able to intentionally crash the ship to get at us? Seems like a huge risk. And a violation of holy law, right? Impossible, I mean. Plus, Sigma-Prime just said we were why the ship crashed."

"I don't know how the whole 'you can't kill thing' works, Zan. I'm not a theologian. But I do know we should get a move back to our allies. His life doesn't matter in the same way ours do. He is fine anyway. I felt a pulse."

"Fine. Let's go," Zan said, leaving the ethical debate for another time.

Leaning on Jiehong, Zan and he found another way down the observation deck piece, then down the hill. Once they found their way to semi-solid earth not effected by the impact, their travel down became smoother, especially as they relied upon gravity to slid them down most of the hill. What else should they have done with a large metal -- and sled-like piece of slab -- from the airship? Take the long way down on battered bones?

While descending the slope, Zan got a good look at where they were... much closer to the woods than the ruins, which appeared as a weathered skyline against an abode of natural beauty. If one could ignore the impact site and the debris.

"Which forest is this?" Zan asked.

"Like I know," was Jiehong sarcastic response. "Our country is mostly forest. Does it matter? We just need to find our way to the city. Or the Wizard Tower. Then we can use the tower as a marker, go north to the city. I think it was north..."

Zan had no clue where the city was... or what its name was... had anyone even told them the name of their destination? "We can just return to the command center, right?"

"I guess? But that is a long way away. It makes more sense to find that city where the others are at. Besides, Whiskey needs to go with us to the command center if we are going to induct her into the order," Jiehong replied.

"Very good point. Let's search here and-- argh!" Zan said before pain became his world. "My head! It's throbbing! Like it's going to explode."

Falling to his knees, Zan grabbed hold of his head, and squeezed where he felt pain hoping to alleviate the pressure somehow by touching it. Zan panted as he fought the pain. He felt the Shining bubble within his belly. He then felt himself growing hot as the Shining gained more energy.

"Simulacrum!" Zan gasped. "What is this? Why is the Shining coming alive now? I don't want it! It's hurting me!"

"It is an extreme reaction, Zan. Shining is more than a strong, albeit temporary, attack boost. In certain situations, it can provide emergency defensive measures. But these measures come at a cost. I think the Crystalline creature within you is under immense stress. It is attempting to use your core essence to heal your body, but since you have no magic, its drain is taxing you too greatly and triggering an early on-set mana sickness" the Screen Master explained.

"What?!" Zan snapped.

"Calm yourself, Zan. Becoming agitated is only going to exacerbate the symbiote's attempt at saving you. Calm yourself and convince the symbiote your need only to rest. If you enter your Shining state in your condition, you will likely die."