Simulacrum telling him he might die did nothing useful for his state-of-affairs. He panicked -- of course -- but pulled himself back once he felt the agony within his stomach. He sharpened down an intake of air and released it. Again, he breathed deeply, then released. He closed his eyes and Zan talked to the entity within him, the same entity he willing inserted into his stomach not so long ago when he inducted himself into the order.

'Entity... crystal buddy,' Zan talked to the crystalline creature inside of him. 'Calm down. Or I am going to die. Okay? Simple matter. Please chill and let me live!'

While speaking to the entity, Zan's heartrate spiked, slowed, spiked. He felt incapable of getting a hold on himself. Every time he slowed himself, his rate picked up again when he heard nothing from the entity. 'What does Simulacrum expect from me?! I don't speak Crystal-Beast!' Zan wailed against himself as he continued to speak to the entity and plead with it to calm down. Yet, Zan only felt himself get warmer.

"What can I do to help?" Jiehong asked.

Zan looked at his friend with wide eyes. "Nothing," he said, loss of hope.

He sank down to his knees again after trying to stand, but with his skin overheating again and Zan feeling the weight of the biological light within himself start to burn all the brighter, he couldn't keep his stance and fell to the ground. Tears slid down his face as he felt he was on the verge of death.

Punching himself in the stomach in a last-ditch attempt to slow the creature's churning, Zan used his remaining strength to roll over. "Punch it for me. Please." Zan asked of his friend. Not wanting to let his best friend down, Jiehong began to hit Zan in the same zone his own crystal entity was located. Abdomen-stomach area. What a sight it must've seemed for anyone who happened upon them, Zan thought, even though they were alone. One large youth violently assaulting another at their behest. One doesn't come across that every day.

While Jiehong kept his assault, Zan let himself go.

Though his friend's fists kept their assault both firmly and relentlessly Zan felt little of the attack. Maybe it was the crystal creature absorbing the blows. Maybe it was his nearing death rendering pain mute. Whatever it was, darkness came and surrounded him, darkness which wasn't merely the black of his closed eyes.

Continuing to plead with the entity, Zan swallowed his pride as he reasoned with the entity and said, 'I don't want to die, you freaking, fecking, idiotic parasite! If I die you die too, so WAKE UP!'

And what happened then was something Zan only could describe as he felt it: collapse.

Suddenly, the intensity faded.

A cold wind seemingly blew over his body and his soul. His 'core essence,' as Simulacrum had explained it. Then the heat vanished, like it had never been chewing on his muscles and skin in the first place. 'How am I so chilled? A moment ago, I was ready to combust!' Zan thought this as another part of him addressed the crystalline entity within him: 'Did you do that?' Zan asked it. 'Are you finally understanding?'

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Zan did not receive a response. Though the darkness of death did creep back from his body, leaving only the regular black of his closed eyes.

Opening his eyes, Zan saw his friend and his fists which continued to pummel him. Gently holding up his hand -- a stopping motion -- Jiehong pulled back. Watching for a moment, he saw his friend, weak, offer him a small smile.

"You okay now?" Jiehong asked.

"I dunno...?" Zan said, not knowing what he should say. Or if he could say it... he was very weak. He felt himself grow weaker.

"How are you feeling?" Jiehong's attention was affixed only to Zan. Though he did notice somewhere in the sky the fading of the Slipstream.

"Like sawdust. And I feel the thing inside me getting warm again. Not out of the woods yet--!" Zan said weakly as he felt the entity within sputter and churn and make him worry once more.

Jiehong grabbed hold of Zan. He gently laid him across part of his exo-suit's cage, letting his limbs curl inward and hang onto the cage. Zan barely could maintain his consciousness as he once again pleaded with the entity to calm down. 'I can't go into my Shining state right now, Crystal Beast. Please understand. If I start to Shine, it will kill me. You will kill me and by extension kill yourself!' Willing himself to live, Zan repeated mantras and chanting he learned growing up. He knew not what the words meant, however, and so their effectiveness was questionable. Yet he clung to such mantras now as a frightened child on the verge of death.

Zan focused only on himself as he chanted. He kept his eyes shut. He attempted to grow closer to the strange entity within his belly. He blocked out the outside world focusing only on him and the entity. His sense of reality wavered. The black splotches within his closed field of vision danced with light. Fading in and out like a mosaic. He could almost hear a hymn. But what hymn and for who he could not say. Undoubtedly a half-remembered song the village priest had sung one day.

Feeling his belly slow in its gradual warming, Zan did feel hope. But the heat of Shining slowing down did not mean it was stopping, per se. It only meant Zan had a moment to reflect before, potentially, falling prey to the ignorant will of a parasite. In another way, Zan felt even more hopeless; he felt as though nothing he did could or would stop the creature inside of him. He wanted to sleep. But he couldn't as every time he was close to unconsciousness, he slipped from the cage and his reflexes woke him, causing him to hold on again. Too many times this happened before Zan opened his eyes and again talked to Jiehong.

"Do you know where we are?" Zan asked.

"No. I thought I was on my way back to the Wizard's Tower. Somehow, I've gotten turned around. I don't know how that happened. I had the tower in my sight. Maybe what I thought was the tower was something else? I don't know. It's getting to me," Jiehong replied, under immense stress himself.

"Let's find a place to rest," Zan offered. "We both should sleep."

Jiehong didn't argue with him. He found a small clearing next to the forest's ridge and plopped himself down.

Releasing his grip on Jiehong, Zan detached from the cage and plopped onto the earth himself. He laid down and closed his eyes, continuing the hopeless and one-sided dialogue with the parasite. Jiehong, by unlatching several straps and unlocking several more bounds and locks, unbuckled his SPIDER exo-suit. He let the cage fall way to his sides; Jiehong breathed easier without the immense weight of the cage of the equally immense weight of his friend. Zan heard the change in demeanor simply from Jiehong's breathing.

Before Zan lost consciousness, he heard in his ear the voice of the Screen Master. But what he was saying was lost.