13. Sorting Things Out

Arganan was sure that he had a brilliant idea for how to figure out how to get back to Lazulis: Go through every book in the Smash Dimension's library and see if they could find a way to travel between worlds!

It seemed like a good idea in theory, but after about three hours of searching through books and finding nothing, Zepha was starting to get a bit…annoyed, by the whole ordeal.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Of course it is!" Arganan insisted, looking up at Zepha. "the faster we sort out this damn library, the easier it'll be for everyone to find possibly useful information on how we can all enter our own world and beat the shit out of Zangurak."

"That's a phrase I never thought I'd ever hear my uncle say," Zepha overheard Calista comment, a chuckle leaving her.

"Bad habit," Arganan muttered, but didn't apologize for swearing as he was too occupied with sorting through a pile of books. Zepha noticed Calista smile, blue eyes twinkling amusedly as she looked toward the books.

"Really though, there are quite a few books here." She looked toward Isabelle, who was reading through a book at a nearby desk. "Isabelle, do you know if there's any way to make the sorting process go faster?'

"Other than getting everyone in the mansion to help sort through the library books?" Isabelle frowned. "I'm not so sure."

"We have all these Smashers here," Arganan grumbled, "And not one of them thought about inventing some sort of machine that could sort all the books here?"

"Apparently not." Zepha muttered flatly. "Now stop complaining and get to sorting, especially since this was your idea!"

They'd also roped Therius, Syrenne, Lowell, and most of the other Smashers into helping sort things. Arganan was sure that the process would speed along with more hands, and Isabelle agreed.

But – there were many worlds that each of the Smashers came from, or traveled through, and that was a lot to record.

More than what any normal person would normally ever be able to sort in a library, let alone the library of lore. With every book sorted by author in alphabetical order, categorized by which world and/or smasher they were affiliated with, only made the process harder.

"Are you sure we have to go through every book?" Syrenne frowned. "We can't just keep sorting 'em forever!"

"What alternative do you have?" Arganan shot back.

"Just findin' the books with info relevant to our situation?'

The former Count paused, before a heavy sigh left him. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?"

Cue most people dropping the books in their hands and trying to find books that had relevant world-jumping information. Calista sighed lightly, just before Asthar spoke up.

"I was thinking of the whole situation, and…" He glanced toward Isabelle, "You said that we couldn't enter our own world from the Smash Dimension, correct? What if we went to a completely different world and tried to enter our own from there?"

A bit tedious, having to stop at another place before getting back to where they belonged, but it could work.

Isabelle's eyes widened. "Why didn't I think of that!?" A yelp left her as she scrambled to her feet. "That's a brilliant idea, Asthar!"

"But where would we even go?" Zepha asked, frowning.

"Uh.." The entire party faltered, and Bayonette cleared her throat.

"That's…a bit harder to figure out when you consider what all of us Smashers have been through. My world, for instance, wouldn't be a good idea to just have 'pit stop' in."

Given all the dangers involved in going to Bayonetta's world? Probably not.

"Uh…" Isabelle frowned, tilting her head to the side. "I'd ask Mr. Nook back in my world if it's okay for you guys to take a pit stop at one of the islands he owns, but I'm a little concerned that he'd charge all of you for travel fees."

"Mr. Nook?" Calista frowned. "Is he your boss?"

"More like business partner, but yeah." Isabelle scratched the side of her head a bit. "We recently got into the business of buying up islands and selling them as places for new residents to have new homes. It's been going really well, but we've got a lot to catch up on in terms of managing all the islands still."

"Probably not a good idea, then." Dagran shook his head. "I don't think any of us want to pay for travel fees."

"What about Kirby's world, then?"

Everyone turned toward Asthar, who'd spoken up. "Kirby's world?"

Asthar nodded. "The lad told me about it a few times. I'm not sure if it's technically his world per se, but it's where the Waddle Dees are mostly residing because of various other matters. But things should be pretty peaceful there -they even have a town."

"Oh, Waddle Dee Town! I know what you're talking about!" A smile spread across Isabelle's face. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind us traveling there for a short while. We can head there now."

"Now?" Arganan repeated, putting his book down. "Shouldn't we at least be prepared first? In case?"

"Right…"

After everyone got ready to travel to Kirby's world, or rather, the Forgotten Land, a group of Arganan, Zepha, Dagran, Asthar, Therius, Calista, Sonic, Bayonetta, and Zepha soon arrived. But...

"Oh, no."

That was what Asthar heard Arganan murmur, just before the General got a good look around the area.

If this was Waddle Dee Town, the place was absolutely wrecked. Chairs were broken and knocked over, some part of a building stuck out of the small lake in the area, and the place just felt –

Empty.

"Kirby said this place was supposed to be filled with Waddle Dees."

"Then," Zael looked around, frowning, "Where are they?"

Asthar noticed Bayonetta take out her guns. "Stay alert. I don't sense anything friendly here."

Asthar took out his sword – and familiar enemies walked into view. They wore all armor, were humanoid and taller, but their visages reminded him exactly who they were.

"Gurak? Here…?!"

There was a shout from one of the Gurak, and several of the Gurak soldiers came forward, brandishing weapons.

"Looks like we're not getting out of this without a fight!" Dagran's hand glowed red as he took out his sword.

Zepha frowned, stepping forward, effectively getting between the group of Gurak soldiers and the group he came here with. "How did you get here?" He asked the group, frowning. "And why are you here?"

One of the Gurak, presumably the one leading the other soldiers, snarled at him. "Wouldn't you like to know, traitor."

The fight began almost immediately. Arrows were flung, shots fired, and Arganan found himself hiding in the corner and casting healing spells while everyone else was doing the actual combat. In his defense, he was still terrible at battles – he didn't make it onto the roster for no reason, after all!

And he didn't want to risk using his mark of the Outsider's powers – especially when the last attempt nearly killed him. Better safe than sorry.

"Hey! Arganan! A little help!?" Sonic had gotten hit with a few fiery spells from some of the Gurak mages. Arganan hastily sent a healing circle in Sonic's direction, healing him up. "Thanks!'

"You're welcome!"

Cue more ducking from enemies, listening out for anyone that needed help and/or watching for anyone that needed quick healing, and soon the battle was over.

To be fair, it was a team of Gurak soldiers up against several Smashers, plus Zepha, Dagran, Asthar, and Arganan himself – and their team was much more powerful than said soldiers.

Arganan emerged from his hiding place the moment the battle was over, looking around to see if there were any soldiers, but there were none.

Zepha held one of his swords to the the Gurak captain's throat, looking him in the eye. "How did you get here?" He rasped.

"Lord Zangurak…used his powers to send us here. Said that we could start conquering the area."

"This area is vast, and you have an incredibly small team." Asthar frowned, looking toward the captain. "Unless there's more of you spread out that we're not aware of?"

"As if I'd tell you!" The captain snapped, just before Zepha pressed the blade up against his throat.

"Try again. Why would he want you conquering here, to begin with? Why not Lazulis?"

"His Lordship made an ally with one of you," The captain rasped, paling slightly from the increased threat to his life. "A one-winged human…"

"Wait." Dagran spoke up, and Arganan turned to see him the others' golden eyes light up in recognition. "A one-winged human? The only one among us would be…"

"Sephiroth," Bayonetta managed, brows furrowing. "But why?"

Arganan swallowed. "Er, given what I've read about him, and based on what I know of him from Cloud, I can think of a few reasons…"