A vast void, empty of even the concept of matter, let alone the real thing, stretched out all around him as he drifted there without his mortal form. Somehow, Asher knew that the void stretched on forever and always. That there was no true end to the space he found himself in, and that he could spend the rest of all eternity drifting forward and never truly go anywhere. Just like the last time he’d been here, he felt the attention of something on him. Something that lived on a grander scale than his human mind could even hope to comprehend. The entity, whatever it was, gazed both upon him and through him, seeing both what he was and what he had the potential to be. The last time, Asher had somehow understood that the impossible entity he drifted before had looked upon him with curiosity. This time, he was able to pick up a new emotion from the speechless being.

  Familiarity.

  Asher woke from his sixth death screaming at the top of his lungs as he jerked upward. His scream was quickly cut short, however, when Moxy reflexively punched him in the face. Even as his head snapped back, he realized he was lying in the grassy field where they’d been shot down from Owl’s arrow. Moxy was on his left, wincing at what she’d just done, and Samantha held his hand on his right.

  “Crap!” Moxy shouted, grumbling to herself as she immediately pressed a hand against his broken nose and began using her Life element. “I’d say I was sorry, but I feel like you can’t fault me for that when you were dead just a second ago!”

  “Asher!” Samantha said, squeezing his hand all the harder and giving him a warm smile. “Thank the realms you’re okay!”

  “I’m okay,” he said, almost asking it more as a question as his heart beat against his chest like it was trying to escape. That… vision, or whatever it was that he’d just experienced, had been far scarier than the first time he’d had it. Having an entity that dwarfed planets express curiosity in him was one thing, but having it express familiarity, like it had been waiting for him to return, was harrowing in a way he’d never felt before. It made it seem as though such a being had an actual vested interest in him, which boggled the mind.

  “Want to tell us why the hell you were screaming?” Moxy demanded, finishing up with his nose before going back to his other injuries. Only then did Asher realize she and Samantha must have spent the last couple of minutes giving his mangled body a once over with their respective healing skills. Soothing Spring wasn’t nearly as powerful as Moxy’s Life element, but based on the fact that he was soaking wet, that hadn’t stopped Samantha from doing her best.

  “Just… surprised,” he managed, doing his best to smile like he was embarrassed. It wasn’t hard, as he genuinely was embarrassed. Just not at how he’d woken up screaming.

  At this point, after everything they’d been through together, there wasn’t a single secret kept between him and Samantha. The two of them told the other everything, with no exceptions.

  Everything but this.

  Half the reason was because Asher literally couldn’t even figure out how to put his visions of this being into words. It was almost similar to the strange sensation of weight that the greater demons gave off, albeit on a far more galactic scale. The other half was because he didn’t want to scare her. If his deaths were randomly tossing him in front of this thing, and it took an actual interest in him beyond just a passing one, who was to say the next time he died he wouldn’t just stay dead for real? He felt like that shouldn’t be a concern, seeing as his skill promised to bring him back provided his body was intact, but there was never any guarantee when it came to things like magic and skills.

  Hell, what if this thing he kept finding himself floating before was the one who powered the skills themselves?

  Shuddering at the thought that he may have inadvertently just trespassed on God’s lawn twice in a row, Asher tried to put the whole thing out of mind. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it beyond doing his best not to die any more than he absolutely had to, so no sense worrying about it.

  If only it were that easy.

  A quick look at her face told him that Samantha could tell he wasn’t telling them everything, but she didn’t seem to mind. Brushing her hair behind her ear, she leaned down and gave him a warm kiss on the lips, getting a snort from Moxy as the warrior continued working to repair the damage to his less-important organs. While her Life element was capable of working with Eternal Regeneration to bring him back to life much faster than he could manage on his own, he came back far from fully healed.

  “Are the Knuckles gone?” Samantha asked, sparing a quick look over her shoulder as if expecting Owl to rise up from the shadows and attack at any moment.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Yeah,” he said, moving to sit up before a stab of pain told him that probably wasn’t the smartest idea. “I dragged them all into the astral realm with me. I’d hoped the skill would just fail entirely when they were severed from the Head, but I didn’t get quite that lucky. Still, with their entire bodies being made out of tritessence, they ended up erasing themselves while beating the hell out of me.”

  “You’re no bard, that’s for sure,” Moxy laughed, finally finishing up with his torso and moving on to the chunks of flesh still missing from his limbs. “You know neither of us can see you in there. No reason not to embellish at least a little bit.”

  “They ended up erasing themselves while I let them beat the hell out of me,” Asher corrected, grinning as he tried sitting up again and actually pulled it off this time. “I did manage to have something I’d almost call a conversation with Owl before it faded. I mean, the Knuckle didn’t actually say a word, but at least I managed to get my point across. Or I think I did. I was sort of bleeding out at the time. It’s all a bit hazy.”

  “Truly an inspiration to warriors everywhere,” Moxy drawled, finishing up with the last of his missing flesh and giving him a clap on the back. “Alright, good enough for Wings’ healing to finish the rest. My skill is already capped out level-wise, so we should let her train hers.”

  “I know you like nicknames, but why is it you call her something cool like ‘Wings,’ yet you call me ‘Runt?’” Asher asked. “Why not call me ‘Daggers,’ if you have to keep it that simple?”

  “You get Runt because you’re a runt,” Moxy said, laughing at the sour look on his face. “Anyway, nice work you two. We really held our own as a team against Owl and Wolf before things got weird. Though while we did a few things well, there were definitely spots for improvement.”

  “Oh, God, are you really about to put us through a post-battle debrief?” Asher asked, letting Samantha pull him to his feet. “I just died! Didn’t I earn a breather for that? I haven’t even gotten a chance to look at my skill improvements yet!”

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Samantha said, giving him an apologetic look. “We want to be able to fight together as best we can, right? Moxy’s definitely the most experienced one here. We should hear her thoughts.”

  “And that right there is why she gets a cooler nickname,” Moxy grinned. “Now, let’s start with a classic. Where do you guys think we did well?”

  “I feel like we covered for each other pretty well,” Samantha started. “When you took that spear through the chest, Asher had the idea to pull you into his rift to give you time to heal, which also saved you from the follow up attack. And when he did that, I stopped him from getting shot by one of Owl’s arrows. So we covered for one another without even thinking about it.”

  “Good answer. Runt?”

  “It felt like we were all on the same page,” he said, rolling his eyes as he joined in on the debrief. He knew it was a smart thing to do, but his mind was itching to pull up the levels he’d received. He could feel the notifications waiting for him, begging him to open them. But he also knew if he went glassy-eyed, Moxy would probably knock his lights out, and might even heal him back up just to knock him out again. “When I pulled you out of my rift, you landed a punch on Wolf as if you’d known precisely what I was hoping would happen. How did you do that anyway?”

  “I figured you’d try something stupid like that, so I was ready to hit the very first thing I saw when I came out,” she explained. “But yes, you’re both right. Honestly, our silent communication as a team is pretty impressive for how little we’ve actually trained with one another. Part of that is probably Asher and I having a similar mindset, and the trust you two inherently have with each other. It’ll take some time for Wings and I to be on the same page, but we’ll get there. What about what we could have done better?”

  “I mean, you could have not gotten stabbed through the chest,” Asher pointed out. He prepared himself to slip into the astral and dodge an incoming air blast, but to his surprise, Moxy merely nodded.

  “True. Letting my guard down was definitely a big mistake.”

  “The Knuckles are master assassins!” Samantha argued, before hesitating. “Or at least are skills of a master assassin, pretending to be other ones… I feel like you can’t blame yourself for getting caught off guard like you did. I mean, you even managed to dodge at the last second!”

  “Thanks to Wind Warning,” Moxy said. “Still, Asher’s right, that was my biggest mistake, and I’ll keep that in mind and focus on not repeating it. What were yours?”

  “When Asher first tried to split the fight into individual one-on-ones, I tried to match Owl arrow for arrow,” Samantha admitted, looking sheepish. “I knew he was a stronger fighter than me, and I was functionally two elements down, but I wanted to do my best. Instead, I just ended up taking a number of injuries I didn’t need to. I should have focused solely on dodging until Asher got back.”

  “Good, that’s some impressive insight,” Moxy said, giving her a warm smile. “Runt?”

  “I know you were just praising our silent communication, but I think I could have done better letting my intentions be known,” he admitted. “Samantha’s blaming herself for trying to go toe-to-toe with Owl, but I should have told her to just try and dodge when I went after Wolf. I just expected her to know exactly what I was thinking, which isn’t very fair. Especially not in the heat of battle.”

  “Well damn, I was really expecting something stupid,” Moxy said, looking impressed. “But you’re absolutely right. There is one additional advantage we have over other people trying to work together, and that’s your weird memory skill. For example, I missed a chunk of the fight while healing myself inside your rift, but you can show me exactly what it is I missed. Wings and I will also be able to see precisely where your eyes went and get a better understanding of what you were thinking during the battle. I think it will be something of a shortcut for us, helping us learn to fight together even faster.”

  “Thanks, coach,” Asher drawled. “Can I look at my levels now, or do we need to hit the showers?”

  “I think Wings took care of that already,” Moxy laughed, nodding toward Asher’s still soaking-wet clothing. “And what’s the rush, anyway? Are you forgetting we only got shot down ten minutes out from the capital? We’ve got a whole day of flying ahead of us you can spend going over your skills!”

  Discord