Inside of the Bastion of Gwai-Mon a few Earth days prior to the arrival of Professor Atkinson and Dolores, Dave, Xyankor and Fubei Li, one of Jianmen’s more independent avatars were standing near a gate that was made of some kind of metal that was translucent and also had the ability to create holographic “reflections” if any sentient being came close to it from certain angles.

“So we’re here to wait for the deputy of Tamura? I figured we’d need their help to reach the realm of Fog Dwellers.” Fubei Li asked while twiddling his thumbs and appearing bored: “I don’t really get it - why is he so unfriendly to you? I get it - you Depth Dwellers and Fog Dwellers have a complicated history, but a new direct descendent of the void, a new actual voidborn and not just by name. It should be big for everyone, whether they still call themselves voidborns or not. I can barely understand the apathy from the elementals.”

“It’s a long story, about the history of the void.” Xyankor looked at Dave, who was sitting on the ground reading a small comic book the size of a human’s fingernail: “It’s quite tragic, if you think about it.”

“Okay, so do tell.” Fubei Li peeked at the comic book on Dave’s hand: “I mean, if we’re going to wait here indefinitely for someone who’s probably going to be intentionally late to piss you off, we might as well hear a story about why they are doing so.”

“So, the first thing is that there was a great catastrophe a long while back.” Xyankor said: “The Rupture, I think you have heard of it.”

“Yes. But not much other than the fact that it happened.” Fubei Li shrugged: “And I happened to know some other random information regarding some other circumstances around it. I am not at liberty to discuss it, but I would like to learn more.”

“Eons ago, all voidborns lived in the void. And it was THE void, not the void it is today.” Xyankor sighed like a human and said: “The rupture was like an earthquake, per mortal lingo. It not only tore the edgelands apart and destroyed the absolute majority of it leaving what’s left of it as you are seeing today - it also broke the void, it shattered the void and broke the entire void down, to millions and millions of pieces.”

The entire bastion shook, the lights flickered and shifted from dim to blindingly bright and then from bright to dim. Fubeil Li coughed at the hearing of this information and he had to take a step back and laid his back on the wall behind him.

“Geez, Mr. Yu are you alright?” Dave immediately rushed to Fubei Li’s side to hold him up: “This is the first time I see you affected by weighted knowledge.”

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“I’m sorry, I’m just in a weaker state. ” Fubei Li cast a simple spell on himself to relieve him of the pain and unease: “Yeah, yeah, no worries, my own fault. Sorry to have asked and then have to cut you off Xyankor. But I’m afraid I’m going to take a rain check on the story.”

“Worry not.” Xyankor nodded: “It’s not the best time for this story anyway. Our Fog Dweller friend is here, and I don’t want to get into a debate about history right when we are about to head out.”

“What? Because you are afraid you will lose?” here came a gentle female voice, a humanoid creature with a human woman torso, four arms with two hawk hands and two six fingered human hands, two horse legs and four wings that looked like curved swords with sawtooth edges behind her back, and whose entire body was made of solidified fog came from a pathway on their side.

“No Depth Dweller is afraid of losing a historical debate.” Xyankor said: “And you are?”

“Perketta. That’s my - mortal name.” the female creature made of fog said: “I am the first deputy of Lord Tamura, leader of the Transcendental Spear Squad. Here to assist you on your quest to find the next voidborn.”

“And you are only about two Earth hours late. So you did way better than Tamura.” Fubeil Li stood up and chuckled: “I guess, for a bunch of potential immortals that counts as being mostly punctual.”

“Oh, I’m not immortal.” Perketta said: “Unfortunately.”

“What? How? I thought all elementals are ...”

“That means she’s born post-rupture.” Dave frowned and said.

“Oh...” Fubei Li noticed that both Dave and Xyankor became silent, and said: “I’m sorry, but that makes two of us.”

“It won’t be long though.” Perketta looked at Dave and Xyankor with side eyes with a smile: “With what they are giving us, a lot of us who are worthy might just be the first ones to regain immortality.”

“Well, it’s not as fun as you’d hoped. That I can guarantee you.” Dave shrugged.

“Spoken like a truly unappreciative immortal.” Perkatta shook her head then turned to the metal gate: “I will open the door now. A word of warning, the bridges are no longer as safe as they used to be. Creatures from the gaps roam and linger, we need to fight our way through. Please let me know that you’ve not left your fighting skills behind in your little meaningless cycles.”

“Fuck.” Dave sighed and put the small comic book back to his personal pouch: “My guy and my gal hadn’t had their first kiss yet - and it’s already time for that to become meaningless.”

Dave closed his eyes and looked up, the bastion shook, and the lights flickered again. A thin beam of luminescent energy descended from the space above and landed on his forehead. Fubei Li recognized this kind of energy beam - it was a beam of information and knowledge, he experienced something similar when his main body, Jianmen Yu, came to this world.

Dave completed absorbing the beam moments before the metal gate was completely open, and Fubei Li could feel that his personality and temperament changed due to the new knowledge.

“How’d you feel? Dave?” Fubei Li asked.

“Joyless and grim. Feels like I want to start talking in riddles.” Dave smiled, then moved to Fubei Li’s side in a blink of an eye: “My god, Mr. Yu. I just understood your trauma - if we ever made it back, I will do my best to help you heal.”

“Thank you Dave, you’re a good friend.”