Gregg and Lori woke up on Prospit and found each other again, ready to make the most of their time together.
"You ready?", asked Lori as she grabbed the makeshift weapons they had from last night.
"Yes, but before we start, I wanted to tell you that this might be our last night of training together. I'm pretty sure I'll be god tiering tomorrow.", Gregg informed.
"We'll just have to make the most of it, then. I want you to go all out. Use your breath powers. I need experience fighting people with more power than me.", Lori requested.
"Are you sure? I feel like that would make the fight one-sided."
"That's what I want. Is our fight with Eide or the black king going to be even? No, it's not. Now, give me everything you've got." Lori was sweating nervously. She didn't want this but she knew she needed it.
Gregg held out his hand and forcefully drained the breath from Lori. Her mind became clouded, her ideas, plans, and options fading away. Was this what it felt like to have the breath aspect taken from you? Lori ran at Gregg in an attempt to get him to stop but she had become predictable. It was almost as if Gregg knew what she would do before she did it.
Lori was trapped in a pointless cycle of swinging recklessly and Gregg blocked every shot with minimal effort. Despite her efforts, Lori couldn't break out of it. She felt she needed to keep swinging even if it was making things worse. Slowly but surely, Lori was worn out. Gregg was surprised by her stamina. All of this energy from a teenage mouse. She seemed so desperate to win.
"Come on, what happened to all of that training? What about your aspect? Don't you have any powers?", Gregg questioned.
Lori stopped to catch her breath, "I don't know how to use my power. I wish I could. I'm supposed to be the strongest of our team by the end, right? Then, why can't I use my powers? I only want to be strong. I want to be there and I want to make a difference but I can't because I'm a horrible page."
Gregg saw in Lori what he had seen in himself only a few days prior. Gregg went up to Lori and sat her down.
"Look, I understand what it's like to feel like you're not good enough. Like, I locked myself in the Snack Falcon only a few days ago and my friends had to come and help me. They helped me understand that we all matter to each other, even if we make mistakes. No matter how much we screw up, we're all here for each other. You may not have powers yet but I think you're doing a fine job being a heart player. The lengths you'll go to secure a victory are amazing. The fact that you try so hard is all we want from you and I'm sure you'll learn to use your powers eventually. For now, let's keep training so we can be the best we can be, alright?"
"Yeah, let's do it." Lori stood and readied herself again, "I still want no holding back!"
"Got it!" Gregg held out his arm again.
Lori ran again. The draining sensation hadn't started, yet. Gregg was standing there. What was he doing? Suddenly, he seemed scared and he blocked.
"What happened?", asked Lori.
"What are you doing?", Gregg asked in return.
"What do you mean?"
"You're glowing pink!"
"Huh?" Lori looked down to see herself covered in a pink aura. It was only barely visible but somehow, it was still enough to stop Gregg's power.
"It's your powers! It's like you created a barrier out of your soul! Does it protect against physical attacks?" Gregg swung and it still hit Lori.
"Ow!"
"Sorry! I probably shouldn't have swung so hard."
The aura dissipated. "What was that?", Lori wondered.
"Do you know how you did that?"
"No. I only remember feeling… powerful.", the aura began to return, "Like I was finally enough.", it grew larger and more radiant, "Like I might be able to make the change I want to see in the world."
"Woah, I didn't think my little pep talk would do so much."
"I want everyone to feel like this! We all deserve to feel like this!" An aura began to form around Gregg as well and he knew what Lori meant. The aura empowered him. Slowly, his ambitions grew. The soul was like a flame. One spark had the potential to destroy entire forests. Gregg had given Lori that spark and Lori cultivated it so that it could grow into a blazing inferno. They both felt like they could do anything.
Suddenly, the aura dispersed and Lori fell to her knees, panting.
"Woah, are you okay, dude?", asked Gregg.
"Yeah, I think I pushed it too far. That felt amazing."
"Yeah, it did! You're amazing, dude! When you god tier, I bet you could rally entire armies with that power!"
"You really think so?"
"Of course!"
"Y'know, I'm actually kinda sad that you won't be here tomorrow. I hope I reach god tier soon."
"I'm sure you will. That was a huge step in the right direction. You'll be there in no time."
They both sat there for a while, staring at the black sky and talking.
"You wanna have one last showdown?", asked Gregg.
"Let's go.", Lori replied.
They both stood. Lori created the aura once more, on a much smaller scale and Gregg, knowing he couldn't penetrate Lori's soul with his rogue powers, began taking breath in small amounts from the people that were still on Prospit. It wasn't much but he would take anything he could get. They steeled themselves and ran together to fight, one last time.
Mae awoke in her room again. She went downstairs and saw Mae lying on the couch.
"It's about time you woke up.", said dead Mae.
"Well, a lot happened today."
"I can tell. You have your god tier costume. Now the only way people can tell us apart is our eyes."
"I'm still not used to seeing that. It's so weird only seeing the whites of your eyes. It makes you look evil or possessed or something."
"I was both of those things so I guess you're not too far off."
"I know, I was, too."
"Everyone except for me has plans, right now. Wanna go do something?"
"What did you have in mind?"
"Come on, I'll show you." The dead Mae stood and motioned for Mae to come outside with her. They both climbed up the tree Mae uses to get on the powerlines. When they were both up, dead Mae said, "I'll race ya to the other side of town."
"Oh, you're on!" They both took a separate cord and prepared to race.
"Hey, Mae!" It was Bea.
"Hi, Bea!"
"What're you doing?"
"We're gonna race across the rooftops!"
"Don't fall. It'd be embarrassing if that's how you died."
"What would even happen if we died here?", Mae asked.
"Let's not find out, okay?", Bea requested.
"Don't worry, I won't fall. Besides, if I do fall, the snow will cushion my fall."
"Just don't fall."
"Got it!"
The other Mae began a countdown, "3, 2, 1, Go!"
Both Maes speed-walked across the power lines as fast as they could. Neither one could get ahead. They reached the first roof together and started running. They manage to stay side-by-side for a good while until they reach the Snack Falcon. They both jumped to try to reach it but dead Mae slipped and fell to the ground. The fall wasn't too bad but it left her behind normal Mae. Normal Mae runs all the way to the fence where she first chased Eide with the other Mae right on her tail but she still won.
"What was that jump? I thought you were supposed to be me. Stop giving me a bad name.", said Mae when she won.
"In my defense, I haven't had a good run in a while. I have been dead for a while."
"You're the one who wanted to race."
Bea caught up with them and asked, "So, who won?"
Mae began to gloat, "Of course, it was me. I am the superior Mae, clearly."
The other Mae simply crossed her arms and pouted. Germ then appeared from the woods beyond the fence.
"Hi, Germ.", Mae greeted.
"Hi."
Mae turned to her other self, "Do you know where your Germ is?"
"Not really.", she replied.
"He's at our house.", said Germ.
"You already met him?", asked Mae.
"Yeah. He's cool."
"I was kinda hoping you would have more of a reaction to seeing a version of yourself that died."
"I died. That's why I have this outfit."
"Yeah, but he died and didn't come back. Doesn't that freak you out even a little?"
Germ shrugged. Angus arrived with Selmers.
"Hey, Angus. Hey, Selmers. How did you know we were here?", Mae questioned.
"We saw you running along the rooftops. Then, one of you fell so we came to make sure you were okay.", Angus answered.
"We're fine. So, now that we're all here, what's the plan for tonight? Are we doing anything important or are we just messing around until we get tired?"
"There's not a whole lot of important stuff to do here so I guess we just mess around for the night."
"I actually have a question for my other self.", said Mae.
"Ask away."
"Do you sleep, like, at all?"
"None of us need to sleep anymore. Why do you think we let you sleep in our beds?"
"Hospitality?"
"No. We let you sleep in our beds because we don't need them."
"I find it sad that I'm immortal yet I still need sleep. What's up with that?"
"Don't ask me. If anything, you should ask John."
"What do you think happened to your John?"
"He's probably continuing to live life in his new universe and helping other universes get through their sessions. They have, like, a whole department dedicated to helping people not screw up their sessions."
"Woah, that's crazy! How many sessions are there?"
"Infinite universes, infinite SBURB sessions. They're only trying to help as many people as possible. We should be incredibly grateful that we were one of the almost zero percent of universes that are receiving his help. Without him, we'd all have died before the game started because we didn't get physical copies of the game."
"Wow."
"Make sure you don't waste this opportunity like we did, okay?"
"We won't."
Bombshell woke up inside Derse again and sighed. She didn't know what to do. It was boring being stuck in the center of a planet every night. That was when she felt a wave of distortion in spacetime. She dug up to the surface as fast as she could and looked into the furthest ring. Eide was there next to an unconscious Selmers. He had broken out of her time travel before they reached their destination.
Eide was preparing to kill Selmers but Bombshell wouldn't let him. She still had a real self to go back to. She tore a metal pole from one of the fences in front of her house and flew to help Selmers.
"What was that?", asked Mae.
"Oh no.", Selmers muttered before flying off.
Everyone else followed to see what was happening. They reached the edge of the dream bubble and looked out to see Eide about to kill the Selmers that had come back to take him to the future.
Selmers was panicking and trying to break through the bubble, "We can't let her die! If she dies, the loop won't be complete! We'll be screwed! We'd be in a doomed timeline! No!"
Everyone was horrified to hear this. Selmers was all alone out there and she was unconscious. She couldn't even fight back. Then, out of nowhere, Bombshell flew in and attempted to hit Eide with a metal pole.
"Yes, Bombshell!", Mae cheered!
"What? There's no way she can fight Eide!", yelled Selmers.
Angus stepped in, "Selmers, can't you just have more time clones come in to help?"
"Using time clones in a fight against someone like Eide is extremely risky. If one of them dies, it'll cause all sorts of problems. I only used it that one time out of desperation and look where that got us."
"Still, we need to protect the one that's unconscious. What if you sent one to get her out of there until she wakes up. If Bombshell dies, she'll just wake up. It's best if we don't risk losing the session over that.", Angus recommended.
"We can't just let her die!", Mae yelled.
"If Bombshell went into that fight actually thinking she could win, she's just ignorant. She probably knew she would die and only did it because she understood the implications of Selmers dying."
"Damn it! I wish we could do something!" A time clone came and took the unconscious Selmers away, leaving Bombshell to fight Eide.
"Wait, what if we used our god powers? We might be able to bring Eide into submission if we steal his rage!", dead Mae suggested.
"If you do that, I might be able to stall him for a little while. I could consume him with the void if he doesn't fight back. He would break out eventually, though.", added Germ.
"Let's do it!", said Mae as she began to slowly drain Eide's rage. Soon, the other Mae joined in, too while Germ waited for the opportune moment to strike. Bea also added to the Maes' power by strengthening the bond they shared.
Eide laughed at Bombshell's attempt to attack him, "Really? You thought you could stop me, a god, with some pole you found lying on the ground? That's actually pretty sad."
"Yeah, I'm not exactly proud of myself, either. I just came to stop you from ruining our session."
"Well, I guess that's understandable. You know what? I'll make your first death quick but first, I'm gonna kill Selmers."
"I thought you said you needed us alive."
"Nice try, this is a time clone."
"If you kill her, this session will be doomed!"
"That doesn't concern me. I won't be in this session when it dies and you won't, either.
"What do you mean you won't be in this session. You're immortal and there's no way you can travel through the furthest ring by yourself."
"That's where you're wrong but let's not go into too much more detail. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
"I'm still not letting you kill Selmers."
Then, another time clone appeared and flew away with Selmers.
"Wait!", yelled Eide as he flew after them.
Bombshell cut him off, "I'm sorry, I can't let you leave."
Eide growled for a moment before calming down, "Fine, you can have her. It won't matter in the long run. Now it's just you and me. I could let you go on one condition. Tell me where the other ring is."
"That's not happening."
"Then, I guess you're going to need to die." He prepared to kill Bombshell but something was off. He felt strange. He almost didn't feel like fighting. He shoved those feelings aside and fired a beam at Bombshell, which she dodged. Eide wasn't at the top of his game. He kept attacking and missing. He was slowing down.
"What's going on? Why do I feel unmotivated? I should want to kill her, right?"
Look behind you, at the bubble.
"Wha-" He then saw it. Two Maes stealing his anger from him.
A new wave of rage washed over Eide, "How dare you?!" He flew towards the bubble. He saw Germ say something and just as he was about to enter the bubble, a large tentacle wrapped around him. Germ had commanded one of the horrorterrors to trap him.
Now that Eide was closer, the Maes were able to steal his rage at a much faster rate. Soon, Eide became despondent. Germ then waved the horrorterror away and let the void blanket over Eide, trapping him, at least for now.
Bombshell flew up to the bubble, "Wow, is this the dream bubble?"
"Yeah, can you get in?", asked Mae.
Bombshell was able to enter the bubble without resistance.
"So, this is what Possum Springs is like." She looked down at the town. "It's not exactly high-class but it seems nice."
"Please, any town without abandoned buildings everywhere looks nice. We only have a few abandoned buildings. Trust me, it was a dying town before SBURB.", said Mae.
"Now it's really dead.", added the other Mae. No one laughed.
"Would it be possible for me to stay here as my dream-self? Derse is so boring now that I'm all alone.", Bombshell requested.
"I don't see why not. We have extra beds.", answered dead Mae.
"Cool."
"We still have a few hours before we wake up. We should all go do something fun.", Mae suggested.
"And what would that be?", asked Bea.
"Let's go see if we can't get all of the others to join us before we decide."
Lori made a quick jab with her weapon which Gregg parried with his left dagger and he thrust with his right. Lori dodged to the side and again backward. She tried to keep out of Gregg's range while staying within range so that she could attack. Gregg saw this and became more aggressive, pushing Lori back with a flurry of blows. At the end, he blasted Lori with a gust of wind before lunging forward and thrusting with both daggers. Lori flew over the attack and flew down with a downward swing. Gregg pushed her back with more wind.
Soon, Gregg had joined Lori in the air and they traded blows back and forth. Lori knew she could make this a battle of stamina. Lori could create her aspect and empower herself with it while Gregg had to get his power from others. In most battles, that wouldn't matter but with Lori, her soul had enough strength to resist Gregg's rogue powers. He had managed to steal some from the prospitans that were left on Prospit but that would run out while Lori could always supply her soul with power. Of course, Gregg's power could be used to attack while Lori's could only be used to buff herself or teammates so it balanced itself out.
As the fight drew on, Lori began to feel more and more exhilarated. Her aura began to grow and her attacks became more relentless. Gregg was being overwhelmed and forced to use his wind powers to avoid being struck down multiple times. Lori's sword fighting skills had improved drastically since she started training and it showed.
Gregg suddenly had an idea. He only had a little bit of breath left to use so he had to make this count. When he got the chance, he gave the breath to Lori. Lori felt her spirits lift and was confused. Gregg took the chance and struck while she was caught off guard. He touched the tip of his weapon to Lori's throat before she could react.
"You're dead.", declared Gregg pridefully.
Lori's aura dispersed, "What? How did I let that happen?"
"Pretty smart, right? I gave you the last of my breath to confuse you and I attacked. That was still a great fight, dude. Definitely worthy of our final fight together. Keep going and god tier. Maybe when we enter the new universe, we can do this again. For now, let's go to sleep."
"Yeah, goodbye. I guess the next time I'll see you will either be in a dream bubble after I god tier or on Skaia. Either way, I'll look forward to it."
They waved to each other as they left to go to sleep. Lori was glad she'd gotten the chance to fight with Gregg. She had finally gotten control of her power thanks to him and she was eternally grateful. Gregg had also obtained some good battle experience with an opponent who forced him to do more than swing randomly and dodge or block. He needed to strategize while still keeping on his toes. It was a hard but necessary skill to learn. In the end, this had greatly benefitted both of them.
"Snowball fight!", Mae yelled. She had gathered everyone up for a fun group activity. She made a snowball and threw it at the other Mae.
"It's on!", she replied as she prepared her own snowball to throw back.
"Woohoo!", cheered Gregg. He threw his first snowball at one of the Beas.
"What the hell?!", responded Bea.
The other Bea walked up to her, "We're not gonna let him get away with that, are we?" She held a snowball in her hand.
"No, no we aren't." They both had snowballs ready to throw.
Gregg ran and hid behind his Angus, "Protect me, cap'n!"
"You got it, bug.", he made his own snowball and threw it, hitting the living Bea in the face.
That Bea laughed, "You little shit. You're going down first." She threw her snowball and hit Angus in the chest followed by the other Bea throwing hers and hitting him in the stomach.
"Oh, no. They got me. Avenge me, bug.", Angus acted as he fell back.
Gregg went along with his act, "Nooooo! I'll avenge you, cap'n!" He had been making snowballs while he hid and he began throwing them at the Beas. The living Angus joined in to help.
While they were fighting, both Maes were raining frozen fury down upon each other. Both Bombshells began helping their respective Maes. The Selmers' were teaming up to take on everyone. They didn't care who they hit as long as they were hitting someone. Lori went to help her Mae in her fight against the living Mae.
The Germs got together and came up with an idea. They created a giant snowball while everyone else was preoccupied. One of them flew it over the battlefield and dropped on the other, who punched it, causing it to explode and drop snow on everyone.
Everyone looked up to see where the snowfall had come from and when they saw the Germs, they all banded together to take them both down. They all brought snowballs up with them and started bombarding them with snow. Bombshell took a snowball and threw it, increasing its size as it flew. When it hit one of the Germs, it was almost as big as him and it knocked him down onto one of the nearby buildings. The other Germ attempted an escape but Selmers held him down with her time powers. Everyone threw snowballs at him at the same time and both Germs surrendered.
After that, the fighting calmed down. Everyone had their fun but it was nearing time for the those who were still alive to go to sleep.
Mae yawned, "I think it's about time we got to sleep. We're getting close. Only three more gates and the final battle of Skaia. That means we're about half-way done!"
"Yeah but I feel like Eide's going to be a problem again and I bet he knows we're getting close, too. He'll probably start trying harder.", said Bea.
"We have three god tiers now, we'll be fine."
"Just remember you're only semi-immortal and you can still die. I'm saying this mostly to you because you tend to be impulsive and spontaneous like that time you thought it was a good idea to fly directly into the Derse royal castle without a plan and you died."
"I'll be fine. Don't worry about it."
"I thought I was the mom of the group, isn't it my job to worry about it?"
"Yeah, whatever, let's just go to sleep."
Everyone agreed and went their separate ways. Soon, they were all awake.
MB: That was one heck of a night!
GL: What happened?
MB: Eide's back.
GL: What?! What happened to Selmers?
SF: That bastard broke out of my time travel. He almost ruined our timeline by trying to kill the time clone. What sucks is now, I know that has to happen to me in order for the loop to be complete.
GL: Where is he now?
MB: Germ trapped him in the void. It's only temporary but it'll work for now.
GW: We should make a plan. The void will only keep someone as powerful as him trapped for a short period of time. I'd say we have until tonight to prepare.
GT: Is there enough time for a gate?
GW: No. If we do a gate, we won't have enough time to make it back to the furthest ring to confront him.
BS: Why are we confronting him, exactly?
GT: The longer he's allowed to roam freely in the session, the more chance there is of him screwing up everything.
BS: How would we even kill him?
GT: We can't, at least not to my knowledge but we can steal the ring.
BS: Last time we tried that, it didn't go so well. What will be different this time?
GT: We'll have more god tiers, for one. Jack is also on our side. If we can convince him to fight Eide with the second ring, I think we've got a great chance to succeed.
BS: Fine, when should we leave?
GW: Everyone should be ready in about three hours.
GT: Alright, everyone, go do what you can in three hours. If anyone else thinks they can god tier, do it.
BS: I think I can god tier but I could only god tier on Derse.
GT: It'll have to wait until we go to sleep. There's not enough time for you to find your way to the center without Bombshell.
Bs: What if I went with her? I'm not gonna god tier today, anyway.
GT: Are you sure? You could spend this time powering yourself up.
Bs: Having Bea as a god tier would be more useful in my opinion. I doubt no one's getting injured during this fight. It'd be great if we had a god tier healer.
GT: Alright then, how close is Bea to the top of her echeladder?
BS: I think I can reach it in about half an hour.
GT: Good enough. Get started. Bombshell, you can grind or whatever for half an hour and then go straight to Bea's. You'll both go to Derse at top speed and Bea will god tier while Bombshell flies the ship back to Bea's. By then, three hours will have passed and everyone else will meet there to go and confront Eide.
GL: I'll be able to god tier, too.
GT: Good, every god tier helps. If that's all, everyone should get going.
Everyone went off to do whatever they felt they needed to be prepared to confront Eide again. This felt like déjà vu to them. They were going back to the furthest ring to steal Eide's ring again. They hoped it would go better than last time.
Bea rushed to kill things as fast as possible. She acted recklessly on purpose so that she would have more of her own injuries to heal. After about twenty minutes, she had finished. She messaged Bombshell that she was ready and went to where she kept the ship. Bombshell arrived soon after. They got in the airship and flew to Derse. It took about an hour with them coming close to overheating the engines several times.
Just like last time, guards were there to intercept the ship and Bea was forced to fight them off. Bae wished she had chosen something better than a knife as her weapon. She was still able to kill a few dozen soldiers before Bombshell reached the center of Derse. Hopefully, this would be the last time they had to come here. Bombshell could god tier normally and there were no longer any dream selves on the planet.
Bea flew to the center and asked Bombshell to kill her. Bombshell agreed and decapitated her with her laser sword. Soon, the body began to glow just like Mae's and it disappeared, leaving a large bloodstain on the slab. The glow from Skaia appeared again and Bea ascended to god tier.
Bea woke up and took the opportunity to regain her bearings. She noticed she had new clothes. It was a brown dress with a slash mark on her chest, symbolizing the blood aspect. Bea would've preferred if the dress wasn't brown but at least it wasn't a bard costume like Germ's. She found where her planet was and flew in its direction.
Gregg was taking longer to reach the top of his echeladder. He was further behind than Bea so he had to work harder to get there. At least he didn't need to go to Prospit so he could take longer if he needed to. It took Gregg about two hours to finally reach the top. He rushed to find his quest bed.
When Gregg reached his bed, Angus was there.
"What are you doing here?", asked Gregg.
"I came to grab your stuff and take it to Bea's. I want you to head straight there once you wake up. I also came to kill you. If I do it, it'll hurt less than if you stabbed yourself."
"Wow, thanks."
"No problem. Are you ready?"
"Aye aye, cap'n." Gregg saluted like a sailor to hide the fact that he was terrified and gave Angus his equipment. He hadn't died yet. It scared him to think of what it would be like. Angus brought out a new pair of wands he had made. This pair pulsated with Angus' magic in a vine-like pattern. Before Gregg could comment on them, Angus shot him through the head with a magic beam. It pained Angus to see Gregg lying dead on the floor but he knew this was a necessary evil. Gregg's body began to glow until it disappeared. Once more, a bright light shone from Skaia as Gregg was resurrected as a god tier.
Gregg looked down and examined his clothes. They were a vibrant blue with a light blue breath symbol on his chest. He had a mask covering his eyes and a hood, which he chose to keep down because it covered his ears. Overall, he liked his new look and they were very comfortable like Germ had said. After examining the god tier clothes, he flew toward Bea's planet.
After Mae saw the second god tier, she decided to try and alchemize a new weapon, preferably one that wasn't a fire hazard. She took her Witchbane and a copy of her laptop to see if she could get some cool sci-fi bat or something. This combination created the Occultist's Thunder. Mae assumed that meant it shocked things, which it did. After about a half an hour of testing, she flew off to meet at Bea's house.
Lori did some more training with her mother. Her mother was pleasantly surprised with her recent developments of her heart powers. Now, Lori was able to last much longer in a fight against her. Lori even had her use her sprite powers against her so that she could practice fighting against them. As Lori prepared to leave, her mother stopped her and gave her the same medallion that Mae had. It could summon her from anywhere to help fight.
Selmers created a new gun by combining her laser rifle and Lunar Lance. This new weapon, called the Eclipse Cannon, fired a large, constant beam that devastated anything in its path. Selmers grinded for a bit to get used to the new weapon before leaving for Bea's.
Once everyone had gathered at Bea's house, they exchanged a few words, grabbed Jack, and got on the ship to leave. They began their journey to the furthest ring.
"Aw, man, Gregg and Bea are god tiers now!", Mae exclaimed.
"Hell yeah, dude! This costume is sick!", Gregg replied.
"Mine could be better.", said Bea.
"I do kind of miss my leather jacket, though."
"You'll get it back once we're in the new world. For now, just be happy with your awesome costume and Bea, your costume is cool, too.", Mae assured.
"Thanks. At least you think so.", Bea responded.
"I know so!"
Angus butted in, "So, what's the plan?"
"So far, the plan is just to take the ring back. We'll give Jack our ring…", Bea took out the ring, "…and he'll help us, at least I hope he will." Bea looked over to Jack and extended the ring out to him. He begrudgingly accepted it and agreed to help.
"Okay, what do we do after we have both rings?", Angus asked.
"We keep them from Eide until the end of the game.", Bea answered.
"What happens when we beat the game. No doubt he'll have access to the new world. He is technically Gregg's sprite, after all."
No one knew how to answer that.
Mae unsatisfyingly replied, "I guess we'll just have to figure it out when we get there."
Angus wasn't exactly happy with this response but he honestly didn't know what he was expecting. He knew none of them knew. His mind powers had made that clear. Part of him had hoped that asking would spark someone to realize an answer but it hadn't.
"We'll kill him. We have to… For Casey.", said Gregg.
Lori felt it was a good time to give everyone a morale boost. Suddenly, everyone felt a little happier. They noticed Lori's aura.
"Woah, you have powers, now?!", Mae questioned.
"Yeah. Everyone seemed a bit tense after that last question so I thought I'd lighten the mood a bit."
"So, that's what I felt just now.", said Angus.
"Oh, yeah, we didn't tell you guys yet. While me and Lori were training on Prospit, Lori discovered how to use her powers. It's not much now but she's a page so it'll get so much stronger when she god tiers!", Gregg explained.
"Is this the extent of your power or could you push it further?", asked Angus.
"At this level, I can keep it up for long periods of time but I can go higher, it'll just burn me out quicker."
"It felt amazing when she went all out! I felt like I could do anything and her aura was so much bigger than mine! I can only imagine what it felt like to be her!", Gregg added.
"I felt like I was on top of the world. I would give anything to feel that again but I know I can't right now. I need to be at the top of my game for this fight. I'll still give you what I can, though."
"We're almost there, get ready.", Bea announced.
Everyone began to mentally prepare themselves for the upcoming fight. A few minutes later, they were in the furthest ring. They could see the dream bubble they were in earlier and they waved to them. Turns out, they arrived just in time to see a rift open in the furthest ring as Eide crawled his way out of the void, filled with earth-shattering rage. For a moment, he and the group locked eyes. Everyone felt shivers run down their spines in the face of Eide's abhorrent expression. Suddenly, no one was sure they were truly ready for what would happen next.