#jukkerbaut

Here’s a line-up of pretty much all of my characters (minus two because one has been missing for a while now, and the other doesn’t exist in canon yet)

From top to bottom: T.K, Dorty, Trytamer and Drakus, Sajessia, Dyeeaka, Lord Metaveil, Jukkerbaut MK II, Zaxaxx, L3SSA, and Wholly Charrmoth.

I saw @skulkin-synergetics do this, so I thought “WHY NOT?!” Here's my characters described with emojis!

T.K: 😜🛠💣

Dorty: 😕💎⚔️

Trytamer:😄🐊🏹

Ryagan: 😡🔫🔐

Sajessia: 😊🌟🛡

Jukkerbaut: 🔩🔌🗡

Dyeeaka: 😏🔫💊

When Dorty and Sajessia had agreed to take the submarine back to Lion's Arch, they never expected it to go so quickly, much less smoothly. The ride wasn't the most comfortable, because the space was indeed cramped, but they made no complaints while the charr driving it steered them back to the pirate city.

The first order of business upon returning to mainland was getting Sajessia a new coat, since her last one was left behind where Metaveil and Jukkerbaut found them. Once her new coat was found (which was heavier than her last one), the next thing they needed were more supplies, which the market easily provided.

Once all was good and ready, they set out again, going through Gendarran Fields once again for the second time in their adventure. Going east, they followed the same path they originally took through the region, but once they had reached Wayfarer Foothills, they turned north instead of south. This took them straight into Frostgorge Sound, where temperatures were already dropping, and an increase in dragon minions was apparent.

Twice they were ambushed by Icebrood, before they had even made it halfway through the region. Grawl had also grown aggressive, attacking any and all travelers through the region, but hardly put a scratch on the two asura. Dorty fell down into an icy labyrinth, and was forced to fend off many trolls while Sajessia helped guide him through, whilst blasting the attackers from above with her magic.

The two caught their breath under a Pact turret that had been set up near the outside of the maze, aimed skyward for obvious reasons. The size of it helped cover them from the chilling breeze, and make the creatures who tried to follow them out confused as to where they went.

"Doing alright so far, Sej?" Dorty panted, laying back on the cannon.

Sajessia was visibly shivering, hands inside her coat to keep them warm. "I'm... alright..." She stuttered, breathing out a breath which both of them could see.

"Ya sure? Is that coat working for ya?"

She nodded, tucking her head into the coat for more warmth.

"Well, it's just gonna get colder and colder, so better hope it does work where we're going. Well, wherever we're going, I'm not too keen on all the details."

A faint glow shown out from the neckline of the coat, where inside she had wrapped her wings around herself for extra warmth.

"Here's an idea, how about I carry you around while you're tucked away in there?" He snickered.

"Sure." She replied, poking her head out a little in a smile.

"Uhh-" He looked down at here, mildly surprised. "I was kinda kidding but... okay."

Shrugging, he helped her get the rest of her exposed limbs into the coat. Once she was tucked away inside, he hoisted her up in her arms. The coat obstructed part of his vision, but he could still see where he was going.

He carried her off of the tiny hill the cannon was on over to the path ahead of them, which went east towards some kind of camp, honestly not much concern. What -was- concerning was the number of ice wurms that were next to the trail. Even though they had fought of plenty of enemies in the past, such as White Mantle, Inquest, other dragon minions, and local wildlife to name a few, wurms were a different case here. It didn't matter how big they were, one could still swallow them whole with ease, so rather than travel along the path, he took them further north from the path to the edge of the water, where from there they went east around the path of wurms.

Yet another issue soon became apparent: the water. They had expected to find some kind of bridge or boat they could use to travel across the icy water, but it seemed like the entire direction they needed to go was blocked by a tiny sea of chilling water. Dorty wasn't too concerned about this, since he was already familiar with water that cold, but as for Sajessia...

"Hey uhh, Sej?" He poked the side of the coat he was holding with her inside.

She popped her head out of the neckline, "Hmm?"

"We -might- have a problem. Well, okay, less me and more you." He pointed at the large expanse of water.

Her ears drooped as she turned to look at all of the water ahead of them, as well as the chunks of ice floating along the surface of the water. Sighing, she popped her arms and legs out from inside her coat, rolling out of Dorty's arms onto the snow below them. She sat up, shaking the snow off her wings, then shuffling through the snow over to the water.

"Hope you know how to keep toasty." Dorty exclaimed, walking over with her. "If we need to go north from here, only way to go is across the water."

Sajessia slipped her shoes off, setting them aside in the snow, before scooting over to the very edge of the water. Slowly, she lowered her foot down to dip her toe in the water.

"Meep!"

She jerked back, shaking her foot a little. The water was absolutely freezing, and it was like she had stuck her toe into a pail of ice. "That is... really cold." She stuttered.

"Well, for you, yeah." He nodded his head at her, scooting over to the edge. "Can't say the same about me probably, but one way to find out."

She watched him smile before he slid down entirely into the water, going beneath the surface for a few seconds before resurfacing, spitting some chilled water out to the side from his mouth.

"Yeah, it's a little cold, but not too much for me." He swam up to the edge and pulled himself up out of the water, his clothes weighing him down only a little.

Sajessia laughed a little looking at him, his hair had flopped down and covered part of his face.

"Right, hair..." He rolled his eyes, pushing his hair up out of his face. "Well, ideas?"

"Well, I dunno really, I can't walk on water you know." She looked back down at the freezing water, then back at Dorty, an idea flickering in her mind. "What if you swim on the surface and I ride on top of you?"

"That's-" He raised a finger in protest, but after he actually considered the concept, he nodded. "-could work, maybe. No guarantees, but it's safer for you. Just try not to fall off. I know you weigh nothing, but I can't say the same about your clothes when they're wet."

"Okay, let's try this then." She grabbed her shoes to pull them back on.

Nodding, Dorty slid back into the water, quickly resurfacing close to where she was on the ledge. He backed up to it so when she slid down, she would land on his back.

Carefully, she edged down the tiny slope to the water, placing a foot on his head, then the other on his shoulder. She climbed down until she was about able to hang her legs over his shoulders. "Okay, ready?"

"Don't fall off, okay?" He looked up at her, not so much of a fan of the whole idea now that it was in motion.

"Will try not to." She nodded.

Taking a quick breath, he let go of the edge, kicking off under the surface of the water with his legs. Sajessia fell back a little, the backside of her dipping into the freezing water, as well as her legs, which she quickly pulled out, shivering.

Dorty kept with long strokes through the water, most of his face submerged beneath the surface. He didn't really tell anyone this, but he was able to breath underwater thanks to the draconic powers he had. That being said, he still preferred breathing fresh air. He kept his eyes down in the water, peeled for anything below that might try and mess him up, be it a fish or Icebrood that might be in the water below them.

Meanwhile, Sajessia had wrapped her wings around herself, mostly for the warmth it provided in an attempt to thaw the chill on her spine. She kept a firm grip on his hair, so she wouldn't fall off, at least not backward. However, there was just one flaw to her idea, and that was that part of her was still in the water. She felt the water cling to her pants and shoes, making those parts colder and colder by the minute.

At the very least, it was the best idea she could come up with. Dorty had taken sight of land that led them further north along the water, so once there, they wouldn't have to swim anymore. She lifted an arm to pull her coat up higher up her head, covering her neck.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the best idea at that exact moment. Dorty suddenly turned to the left, and with only one hand on his wet hair, her grip slipped and she fell over to the right into the icy water.

If sticking her toe into the water felt like sticking it into a box of ice, then this was hundreds of times worse. The deathly chill of the water around her felt like it was seeping slowly into her, freezing her from the inside out. She panicked, thrashing around in the water in hopes of grabbing something to pull herself out with, but she was still in the middle of the water, and the nearest chunk of land was dozens of meters away.

A horrid memory came back to her, of being trapped in a cold slumber for over a century. Was this how she was going to die? Trapped in a freezing body of water, or worse, what if she didn't? What if she was frozen and put back to sleep, with nobody to save her? What if this time, she was truly left to rot and die over the painfully slow course of years?

This was all she was thinking of at the moment, as things were getting darker, darker, while she was quickly losing her strength and willpower. She didn't realize Dorty had pulled her away from the Icebrood shark that had swam up to them, causing him to turn in the first place. She didn't see him have to juggle between pushing her up to the surface of the water to breath, and combat the shark at the same time.

A sudden burst of cold suddenly hit her, she felt almost unable to move as she was helplessly dragged down, down, deeper into the water. She closed her eyes, expecting the end of everything she knew over the year of her existence without being in stasis.

...or was she going up, not down?

Just when she had lost hope, light was suddenly in her vision again. She felt the cling of the water upon her slowly let go, but not entirely. She could breath again, but it was in gasps for air as she coughed up water, and it was made only more difficult with the amount of shivering she was doing. She tried to look up, although she already was, but more precisely look up at where she was.

Her stiff neck only managed to catch a glimpse of the dead shark, which had been dragged onto the shore shortly after her. Before she could react, although she couldn't really react much, Dorty pulled her back up to eye-level with him. He looked scared, but that was slowly starting to fade into a smile. She didn't hear what he said, but he hugged her, pushing her up over his shoulder to gently hit her on the back, making her cough up more water out of her. All she felt was the cold, and the incredibly numbed contact with her friend, except for two sources of warmth, the two of them.

Dorty pulled the wet coat off of her, relieving her of much of the weight she was under, slinging it over his other shoulder. Everything he felt was wet in one way or another, so the cold breeze made it even colder. He wasn't concerned for himself, he was concerned for her. If he didn't find warmth for her somewhere soon, be it a bonfire or a den or anything away from the cold, she would probably pass out.

Thankfully, luck was on their side today. Not only by pure chance did an icicle fall onto the shark when they were in the water, but now in the distance, he saw a trail of smoke rising over a small incline. The only issue was there were more Icebrood standing between them and their necessity, but darn it if he had to run over a whole ice flow full of Icebrood to get her to a fire, then so be it.

He broke into a run, throwing the coat back over them both, leaving a hole so he could see where he was running; he didn't want to risk running headfirst into a dragon minion, or fall back into the water with her. Some bits of ice stuck to the coat as he ran them through the small hoard of dragon minions, ice being thrown at them. He threw a crystal share of his own back at the wolf that was pursuing them, which made it give up chase with a well-placed hit to the hind-leg.

Finally, he out-ran the hoard, and his prize was in sight; a tall beacon of sorts which bore a roaring fire on top of it, surrounded by torches with the same fire on them. There was one kodan on duty over the brazier, who so happened to glance their way as he staggered over, finally dropping Sajessia next to the beacon. He tossed the coat to the side, threw his arms up in victory, then proceeded to flop over face-first into the snow, the warmth of the magical fire warming them up.

Slowly, Sajessia felt herself again, with the heat of the fire ridding the chill of the water that was on her. Breathing became easier as she coughed up more water, which soon would be all out of her. The warmth the beacon was providing her was like a little blanket of fire, which slowly spread itself over her, drying her off and restoring her vision, magic seeping into her.

It felt like the magic even had an effect on her soul, which was the source of all her magic. Like a flickering flame becoming a campfire, she felt her strength come back to her, washing over her and urging her to get back on her feet. She curled up, wrapping her wings around herself to get the full dosage of heat within herself.

By now, Dorty had also fully dried off. Sitting back up, he scooted over to Sajessia, patting her on the head. "...you alright?" He whispered to her.

Sajessia's only response was a sound that might have been a "Mhmm", as she kept herself curled up for a little longer, before rolling over to hug Dorty's leg.

Sighing, Dorty leaned over to grab the dry coat from the size of the beacon, pulling it over both of them while he snuggled up next to her. Sajessia moved from hugging his leg to hugging the rest of him, warmth from all sides rejuvenating her.

"Sej, we still need to get going, remember?" He poked her nose to try and wake her up.

"...I don't wanna leave." She whined softly, hugging him tighter, but she did know they did indeed have to go, so she couldn't stay in this state of comfort forever.

Dorty peered up at the kodan who was slowly looming over them, and he frowned a little. "Hey, mind giving us a little space here?"

Nodding, they took a few steps back, but rather than stay there, they picked up one of the torches with the fire in it, offering it to the asura.

"So, what you want us to take this and go north with it?" He asked.

"Yes, it's the most valuable thing to take if you're going north." She spoke in a deep tone. "Koda's warmth will protect you from the frigid cold that lies ahead."

"Good to know your god is looking after everyone and not just yourselves." He lifted the coat off of him and Sajessia, getting up to take the torch, which was pretty tall, requiring both hands to carry it around.

Sajessia finally rolled back up onto her feet, standing up with the coat in hand, pulling it over herself again. "We don't need to go through freezing water again, do we?"

"The only water you will need to worry about, little one, is from cracks in the ice. Other than that, you will be fine." They moved to poke the torch Dorty was now carrying. "Oh, also, that fire is good for more than just warmth. It's a tool, so use it as it should be used."

"Thank you so much." Sajessia shuffled over through the snow to give the bear a hug.

"I with you little ones luck, with whatever it is you want in the north." She subtly moved the leg that was being hugged, in an attempt to get Sajessia to stop hugging them now.

Letting go, Sajessia shuffled back over to Dorty, turning back to give a quick little bow to the kodan. "It's complicated, but it's life-altering for me. Keep doing what you're doing here, please. I'm sure people will want to warm up here after swimming through all that."

"Yeaahhh let's try and stay out of the water from now on in the Shiverpeaks." He gently tapped her on the side.

Sajessia gave Dorty a little push from behind to urge him forward, and so with torch in hand, they continued onward on their quest. They only stopped brevity due to a wall of ice that was in the way, but the magical fire made short work of it. Confidence and strength restored, they marched into the coldest parts of the Shiverpeaks.

Though, they didn't know what was to come, they didn't know what dangers awaited them in this new land.

They didn't see the destroyed caravan on the other side of Frostgorge Sound.

They didn't know of the embellished cart that was demolished.

-and they didn't know that cart was originally loaded with "Triple-Luck Tonics" and a bloodstone shard.

- - -

What was the coldest and windiest parts of the Shiverpeaks that was currently inhabited, Bitterfrost Frontier was a small region north of Frostgorge Sound, but definitely more dangerous than that. The Icebrood and the Sons of Svanir had been struggling to gain a foothold against an alliance between Kodan and Quaggans (who which seemed to be a different breed of Quaggan), who had been holding the area against them for years. The whole place was like a struggle for dominance of the area, Icebrood attacking similar beacons like the one that was back in Frostgorge Sound, and the alliance fighting back to hold their ground.

Even though Dorty and Sajessia had just got there, they could already tell there was much action going on. People from the south were running around fighting the Icebrood with all sorts of weaponry, including the torch Dorty was carrying. Turrets were set up, minions of all kinds were set loose, and whole groups of people were fending off attacks on the beacons across the ice.

That was another thing that quickly became apparent. Dorty quickly slipped and fell on his back from stepping on the ice, while Sajessia kept a firm balance on it like it was anything else. She watched as he tried to keep his balance, but every time he tried to stand up, he would slip again.

"You, uhm, need some help?" She asked, kneeling down next to him.

"Nah, I got this-" He responded, shortly before slipping again. Cursing, he grabbed his sword and held the tip of the blade to the bottom of his boots. He then started to gently carve at different areas of the bottom of one of them, before moving on to the next. Finally, he stood up again, for real this time, the new adjustment helping. "Huh, not sure why I hadn't tried this before." He perked a brow.

"Maybe you just hadn't slipped on enough ice?" She snickered.

"Maybe, but just remember I'm not used to slipping on stuff in general." He kicked at the ice beneath them a few times, making sure his boots had a firm grip.

Sajessia was shivering again, the cold here was definitely worse than Frostgorge. If she fell into the water here for too long, she might end up dying, the cold was that bad.

"Anyways, you know what we're here for." He motioned for her to move. "Lead the way."

"Right, it's almost over." She nodded, taking some steps towards the direction she -felt- was right, like a compass pointing her in the desired direction. "So, it's like what, the homestretch?"

"Yeah, like my sister said." He lowered the torch over next to her, warming her up a little.

Sajessia nuzzled up next to the head of the torch, letting the warmth of the magic it held seep into her again. The effect was lasting, so they wouldn't need to stop and do this much. "Okay, let's go."

The trek across the frozen landscape started out simple as they kept to the beacons for warmth, yet it was slowly getting more difficult as a literal storm was brewing, and after passing the first two beacons, Dorty found himself having to re-light his torch at every beacon they went by.

Additionally, most of the assistance from the larger groups was more at the western side of the region where they came from, so as they went west along the winding line of beacons, less and less people were around to help. There was at least one Kodan at every beacon, so that it would not go out, but that still left it vulnerable to attack.

At the very center of the place was a Kodan sanctuary, built over an underwater Quaggan village. This was essentially the heart of the foothold in the region, so naturally they would want to pass through it. Quaggans and Kodan alike patrolled outside, and kept watch from inside for any threats. The storm was starting to get worse, meanwhile, and was almost rallying the Icebrood to organize attacks around the entire region.

Taking shelter under the sanctuary, they sat down next to a bonfire which some people had put together under the place; it wasn't like it was going to melt it or anything.

"So, are we getting closer?" Dorty asked, picking at the loose bits on his boots he failed to chop off earlier.

"Yeah, we are." Sajessia nodded, pointing north-east. "If we keep going that way... I feel up the mountainside there, we'll be there. It's a bit of a climb though, by the looks of it."

Even though the storm was obstructing most of their vision of what was above them, the mountain was fairly steep, with plenty of edges to walk on, yet also plenty of areas to fall down from. It was almost impossible to see the top, or at least where Sajessia needed to go, but at the very least Dorty could tell it was going to be quite the climb.

"You realize that if the higher up we go, the colder it's gonna get, right?" He perked an ear up.

"Will it?" She asked, shivering still, looking at the coat she had which even now was only a little helpful.

"Probably, if I get altitude and cold right." He shrugged, lowering the ear he had perked up.

"Dorty, if that's the case," She sounded slightly depressed, probably due to knowing the cold would effect her even more. She didn't notice the one Kodan who turned his scarred head over at them. "-keep that torch close to us, okay?"

"Yeah, I will, otherwise we're gonna be ice cubes." He snorted.

"I thought you said you weren't affected by the cold." She questioned.

"I'm not, well, hardly." He stuck the torch in the ground, while the Kodan slowly padded up to them. "That doesn't mean some person or creature can't turn me into a block of ice, though."

"Point taken." She sighed, before suddenly looking up at the Kodan who had approached, perking her ears.

"Who are you two?" He asked, disgruntled.

"Am I obliged to answer? I think-" Dorty started, before a low growl came from the bear, making him smile awkwardly. "-yeah. Dorty."

"Sajessia." She responded, without being asked.

The Kodan looked back and forth between the two asura for a few moments, before padding off up a ramp to the top of the sanctuary.

"Okay, just what was that about?" Dorty asked after moments of awkward silence, clearly confused.

"Honestly, I have no-" Sajessia was about to say, before she saw the same Kodan coming back, holding a box in his hands.

They walked back up to them, setting the box down in front of them, glaring at them for a few moments before turning and leaving yet again.

More silence, apart from the howling wind and the distant fights, then after yet another period of awkward proportions, Dorty scooted over to the box to get a better look at it.

It was left open on the top, and inside were multiple bottles of some kind of elixir that neither was familiar with. There was also a small gyro inside as well, with a slip of parchment wrapped around it neatly. Dorty lifted the little black gyro out from the box, sliding out the paper from it.

"What's IT say?" Sajessia asked, scooting over to look into the box.

Dorty slapped the parchment down on the snow beneath them, so that they could both read it. In the slightly-messy handwriting, it read:

TO: DORTY, SAJESSIA, DYEEAKA, TRYTAMER, ANY OF MY BUDDIES REALLY, AND ME (IF AYEZ COME BACK).

FROM: T.K (YE SHALL NEVER KNOW MY REAL NAME, HA!)

THIS IS E VERY BOX OF E VERY MANY THINGS. OKAY, IT'S TWO THINGS REALLY BUT AYES DUN'T CARE! DRINK THE STUFF AND YE WON'T TURN INTO ICE CUBES. ALSO IF YE WANNA SNEAK, USE THE SNEAK. HAS FUN!

-T.K

P.S: AYEZ DIDN'T LIST RYAGAN CAUSE HE'LL NEVER COME UP HERE!

P.P.S: AYEZ WRITE THIS WHEN EVERYONE JUST STARTED COMING HERE, SO THIS STUFF MIGHT BE HERE FOR WEEKS, AYEZ DUNNO. HEY IF NOBODY ON THE LIST SHOWS UP, BEARS, CAN YEH AT LEAST PUT THE THAW ELIXIRS TO GOOD USE?

"Well..." Dorty snickered, shaking his head in minor disbelief. "Sounds like T.K, writes like T.K, leaves post-scripts like T.K, so I guess it's safe to assume T.K was here."

"Is that 'was' with an 'S' or a 'Z'?" She laughed, taking an elixir out for each of them.

"Heck if I know." He snorted a laugh, taking the elixir from her. "Bottoms up, I guess."

"Ehm, alright, I hope this isn't alcohol." She stuttered, maybe from the cold, before taking a drink of it, Dorty doing the same.

A funny, warm sensation suddenly filled both of them as they drank. It was like someone lit a match inside of them and left it there. Once both of them had downed their bottles, the cold was seemingly starting to go away, at least for them.

"Hey, is it just me, or did it just get warmer?" Dorty asked, rubbing his head.

"I feel warmer too." Sajessia patted her cheeks and her legs, feeling them suddenly warmer than before. "What -is- this stuff?"

"Says 'Thaw Elixir'. Huh." He shrugged, throwing the bottle aside after peeping at the note. "Oh hey, missed the post-post-post-script on this thing: 'Tell the Svanir I walked right up to their leader disguised as one of them and said 'Stuff' and he gave me free stuff.'"

"T.K did that?" She perked her ears again, "How did he get the outfit to look like one of them?"

"Looks? I'm more concerned why the Svanir thought a tiny Svanir was even a norn!"

Sajessia squeaked like she was laughing, falling over and rolling in the snow.

"Yeah, funny." He set the paper back into the box, picking up the lifeless gizmo. "He left us a gyro to get us past everything. Wanna use it?"

"Well, I'm ready, more ready then I'll ever be, so let's go." She stood up, almost valiantly in a way.

"Okay then, little guy, get us through this stupid place." He pulled on a tiny chain on the side of the gyro, and it whirled to life, flying up over their heads by a few feet.

Once it was over them, the bottom of it opened up, and it started spraying out stealth-dust from it, covering up the two asura in a blanket of invisibility. Obviously, the gyro only lasted so long, as did the invisibility, so as soon as they were invisible, they held hands and started running, the gyro following after, keeping the stealth on them. The hand-holding was so they wouldn't lose each other, because they couldn't really see each other either.

Dorty had left the torch by mistake next to the fire, but it wasn't an issue since as soon as they reached the next beacon, he grabbed another one and they kept going. On to the next beacon, and he re-lit the torch so it was still burning strong.

Following the line of beacons, Sajessia led them eastward, until about the eleventh or twelfth beacon, where she suddenly steered them north, towards the bottom of the mountain. Even though there were Icebrood here, none of them took notice of the little whirling helicopter that was flying through their ranks, and the two asura easily slipped by.

Finally, they reached the edge of the wall of the mountain, and in a good time as well; the gyro had just ran out of fuel, falling lifelessly into the snow. It whirled its routers for a few more seconds, before it ceased movement, the little machine falling asleep in the soft blanket that would probably rust itself.

While the gyro had fell, the invisibility did not, so they still had time to get out of sight of the dragon minions. With some quick climbing and a little of Sajessia's magic, they scaled up to a large foothold on the side of the mountain, high enough to stay away from the Icebrood. After a few seconds upon reaching this point, the invisibility fell from them, revealing themselves for all nearby to see, if anyone or anything ever even looked up.

"Up we go?" Dorty asked.

"Yup." Sajessia nodded, still holding his hand.

"You can let go now, by the way, we're not invisible anymore." He snickered.

"It's not because I can't see you I'm still holding your hand." She tilted her head to the side, hair flopping with the tilt.

Dorty practically blushed, turning away from her in minor embarrassment. Looking up, there was another ledge they could reach, with some more climbing of course. "Want me to lead from here, or do you have it?"

"You're more of a climber yourself, so, yeah, I guess lead on. I'll just let you know when we need to change course."

He nodded, still holding the torch in his hands, though he set it down next to her, offering her it. "It's not too heavy, trust me."

"So, what do you want me to do?" She picked it up with one hand, examining it.

"You hold it -and- hold on to my back, and I climb up this excuse of a wall." He thumbed at the rocky surface behind them. "Kind of like a sloth."

Sajessia laughed a little, but nodded in agreement. She scooted over on the ledge with the staff in hand, grabbing Dorty's shoulder with her other hand, and then his other shoulder with the one that was holding the torch.

With a nod of approval, Dorty started the ascent, being careful not to go too fast, lest Sajessia fall off. Sure, she could glide, but the wind of the storm was really starting to pick up, and even though he held his ground, she was much too light to be much resistance to it. She clung to him to keep from sailing off.

With crystalline corruption for hands, it made definitely climbing easier. The tipped claws easily dug into the side of the mountain, as he pulled them up, higher and higher. It wasn't long before they reached the second ledge, which he pulled them up and on to. Still climbing, he looked down from where they were, seeing the tiny Icebrood and not-so-small sanctuary in the distance and below them.

"Sej, do not fall, whatever you do, okay?" He urged her.

"Got it." She nodded, still holding on with relative ease.

While the progress was slow, Sajessia felt them getting closer and closer to their destination. At this rate, by the end of the day, maybe they would make it and be finally done with it all.

One hand over the other, Dorty clambered up, slowly but surely. The snow was getting in his hair and ears, but he didn't care. He had one job right now; getting the asura on his back to a part on the mountain where she needed to go.

Glancing up, Dorty saw a sight for sore eyes, which was a large ledge with tons of room to move around on, enough for more than ten people even, almost as if it was a path. Speaking of path, there appeared to be a small path winding up from that spot, going across the cliff to the east.

"Hey Sej," He had to tell her, his voice echoing from the mountainside.

"Huh?" She looked up at him, still gripping onto his shoulders.

"There's a big cliff up above us, if I can get us there, getting up is gonna be a whole lot easier!"

"Okay, get there!"

Grinning, he hastened his ascent, breaking off a few rocks from the wall in the progress as he clambered up faster. The cliff was definitely close now, and by the looks of things even bigger than he originally thought. He kept climbing up, until he was a few feet under the edge.

"Okay, I'm gonna jump up the rest of the way to it, it's only a foot or two, okay?" He loosened his grip on one of his hands, holding it out to the side whilst keeping the grip in his other hand firm.

"Alright..." She nervously replied.

"Okay, ready? One, two-"

He suddenly jumped up from the wall to the cliffs edge, barely able to grab onto it by just the tips of his fingers. He let out a sigh of relief, then proceeded to swing his other arm up and over the edge onto the ground above, and from there reinforce the grip in the first hand.

"See? Told ya it-"

Dorty suddenly interrupted himself mid-sentence with a cry of pain as something suddenly stabbed him through his arm. Normally, it wouldn't do much other than get his attention, but this case was different, and as they was about to find out, much, much worse.

"Oh, why hello there again you two. Thought the stupid caravan was gonna trick us?!"

Metaveil stood a few feet away from them on the cliffside, slowly looming over them. Bits of bloodstone shards were visible on his garments, and his eyes practicallyglowed a sickening red from it. Sure enough, he threw one of those shards at Dorty, anchoring his arm to the ground there. On his back was a series of shards sticking out, which he had possibly stuck there himself.

"Well?" Metaveil turned to the side, glaring down at Dorty. He didn't see Sajessia firming her grip on Dorty's shoulders. "How do I look? Better than last time?"

"Honestly-" Dorty winced in pain, trying to make a grab for the bloodstone that was lodged in his arm. "-it sucks. I got a question though, how they heck did you get -HIM- up here?"

Looking behind himself, Jukkerbaut leaned casually against the wall of the cliff, the lifeless helmet starring them down.

"Oh trust me you do -not- want to know how I manag-"

Just as Metaveil was turning back around, Sajessia lunged out from behind Dorty to try and smack Metaveil with the torch. Sure, his magical and physical power was much, much stronger, but his reaction time was about the same. He took a blast of fire from the torch as he staggered backwards, brushing off the flames before angrily charging at her.

Sajessia stuck the torch into the ground next to her and Dorty, before whipping out her glaive and taking a defensive stance as Metaveil swung both daggers of his overhead down on the poor asura. She managed to block it, though his physical strength was out-matching hers, and as he slowly managed to push his daggers closer and closer to her, she had to come up with an idea fast.

Thinking of ways to help Dorty out of his current situation, and considering Metaveil's thirst for bloodstone magic, she came up with the only good idea she could come up in the short period of time. She suddenly dodged back a few steps, watching Metaveil stumble forward. Before he knew what was happening, she ducked under him, shoving the pole part of her weapon upward into him, launching him up and over her, and as she had hoped, right onto the shard in Dorty's hand.

Landing on said shard, Metaveil gasped and coughed a few times, before he began absorbing the magic in it without really trying to. The extra strength let him push himself back up, ripping the spend shard out of Dorty's arm. The wound he had, meanwhile, quickly healed itself.

"Oh, you made a poor, poor choice, little girl." He scowled, marching towards her.

Unfortunately, everything from her idea had gone out according to plan. Before Metaveil took more than five steps towards her, Dorty had climbed back up, freed from the shard anchoring him to the ground, and grabbed the sylvari's leg out from under them, making Metaveil fall flat on his face.

"Thanks Sej!" Dorty exclaimed as he pulled back on Metaveil, then swinging overhead, smashing the sylvari into the ground. After that, he spun around once with Metaveil flailing around, before throwing him on a direct course for Jukkerbaut's head.

Metaveil spun madly as he bonked Jukkerbaut exactly where Dorty wanted to throw him, sliding down the large helmet. Now, Jukkerbaut was pretty annoyed by having his 'friend' thrown at him, so naturally he wasn't gonna lug around anymore, waiting for the right moment to attack. Pulling out their greatsword, Jukkerbaut slowly approached the two asura.

"Well, if we keep climbing, Jukkerbaut can't really follow us at least!" Dorty yelled, running for the path that winded upward.

Sajessia grabbed the torch and quickly followed, sensing it was the right path, but once again they were running from Metaveil and Jukkerbaut, and being more focused on out-running them by focusing on the path ahead of them left them more vulnerable from behind.

Jukkerbaut appeared to have learned some new moves, as while the two asura ran up the cliffside, Jukkerbaut grabbed the side of the cliff, slowly heaving themselves up. He was moving at the same pace as Dorty was earlier, but the sheer size of him make it all the more faster for climbing. He quickly caught up on the two asura ascending the cliff, and with one hand anchoring into the cliff-face, he swung his greatsword with the other into the ground ahead of them.

Sajessia stopped quickly enough to only get a blast of rocks and dust in her face as the weight of the greatsword shattered the path ahead of them. Seeing Jukkerbaut pull back to ready another swing, she tried to tackle Dorty out of the way, but her light weight only let her awkwardly glomp him.

Dorty got the idea though, and he quickly dodged to the left towards the wall as Jukkerbaut swung again, shattering the path beneath them. He grabbed the side of the cliff and started climbing, faster than before. He hated the fact the adrenaline boost was from the magic of the bloodstone that stabbed through his arm, because too much of it was either going to kill him or make him crazy, or make him crazy and then kill him.

"Hey, you stupid lug!"

Jukkerbaut glanced down at a shouting Metaveil, shaking his fist at the mechanical charr.

"You forgot me! Climb back down and-"

Jukkerbaut let out a mechanized roar, which probably translated to "Do it yourself, weed!". The roar echoed around the entire upper part of the mountains, causing a minor avalanche which quickly came upon them.

Sajessia quickly tried to manipulate a rock large enough to shelter them from the falling snow over their heads, and while it did block the incoming snow, it weighed down the rock, weakening the grip of her magic on it. Once it got too heavy, though by that time most of the snow had passed, she heaved it at Jukkerbaut. The rock hit Jukkerbaut in the head, scratching the helmet, before falling down more and almost hitting Metaveil as well while he was climbing up after them, before falling down the mountainside, impacts echoing all around.

The storm was suddenly picking up, howling loudly across the landscape. Dorty threw Sajessia up the rest of the way to a massive outcrop on the side of the mountain. She barely managed to grip onto the side of the ledge, anchoring the torch into the ground there to pull herself up. With the weight of the torch no longer weighing him down, Dorty quickly ascended the rest of the climb, using the torch to also pull himself up.

Looking up to the east, Sajessia finally saw the cave that she saw in her vision, though it was frozen over by the ice. "It's up there!" She pointed at it for Dorty to see.

"Huh, need me to throw you up or-" He blurted out, the howl of the storm making it harder to hear things, but before he could finish his sentence, a heavy scraping of metal shattered the rest of the noise, and Jukkerbaut heaved himself up a massive distance with a huge leap, landing on the outcrop. Metaveil shortly launched up after, landing to the side of him.

"Sorry, Dorty, but this is where you both die!" Metaveil laughed menacingly.

Jukkerbaut let out another metallic roar, causing another mini avalanche that missed them this time.

"Do that again, Jukkerbaut." Dorty snickered. "I dare ya."

Jukkerbaut threw his head back again, but this time a more chilling screech came from all around them. It was enough for Dorty's ears to perk and Sajessia's to droop in fear.

"Ooooo, nice one." Metaveil laughed, elbowing the charr.

"Uhh... Metaveil..?" Sajessia whimpered, edging away slowly from them.

"...that... was definitely not Jukkerbaut." Dorty finished her sentence, then turned to bolt with her for the cave, getting the torch from her.

"Hey! Get back he-" Metaveil started stomping towards them, but he only made it so far before a blast of ice showered from overhead, forcing him to turn around.

Dorty was definitely right when he said it wasn't Jukkerbaut; it was a Claw of Jormag that had heard the first roar of the charr, and flew over to attack. Poised to attack again, it reared its head back.

"-nopenopenopeNOPENOPENOPENOPE!" Metaveil actually panicked, fleeing with his arms in the air with Jukkerbaut following shortly after him as the breath of the dragon came down upon them. It missed Metaveil, but it stuck to the back of Jukkerbaut, messing up a few circuits inside him.

Due to the presence of the Claw, Icebrood were suddenly appearing around them, attempting to hunt them down. Unfortunately, the sheer altitude of the cliff made it hard for most of the Icebrood to keep up, if not lethal. The Claw summoned corrupted wolves from above to attack, but they bounced off the cliff to their death. The real threat came from the griffons that it summoned, which flew around them and shot chunks of ice at them.

Most the commotion was against Jukkerbaut and Metaveil, but a few griffons flew after Dorty and Sajessia. Dorty hurled a crystal at one, hitting it spot-on and knocking it out of the sky, while one coming in from ahead dive-bombed them, only to blasted through by Sajessia's magic. A third one flew down from behind however, talons out and open as it dove towards them.

"Sej watch-!" He didn't finish his sentence before it grabbed her by the shoulders, digging claws in her while she cried out in pain, going into her celestial form wouldn't help her here; it didn't protect her from direct contact with creatures. Dorty was quick enough to grab the griffon by one of its rear legs, but he was jerked up into the air with it as it flew.

Sajessia kicked around in hopes she would hit it, but in the end Dorty managed to stab it and save her. She was grabbed around the waist as she was pulled out of the grip of the talons, watching the thing fall lifelessly down the side of the mountain. With some relief, she found that Dorty had managed to land them right outside the cave, the door in sight behind the wall of ice.

"Okay, gimmi a sec, this'll help ya..." Dorty dragged her over to set her down against the wall, then held the torch up to her shoulders. The fire started melting part of the ice behind her, but more importantly it was melting the ice that was in her shoulders, and the magic slowed the bleeding enough to where it was just a tiny dribble of blood. "There, better?"

Sajessia nodded, trying to hug him, but there was no time for that. Still crying from the quickly-fading pain, she scooted over to the side so Dorty could start melting the ice.

Dorty wasn't sure how to melt a wall of ice with the torch, other than holding it up to it, but he needed to get rid of the wall quick before Metaveil and Jukkerbaut caught up, or more Icebrood. After a few moments, he simply jabbed the wall with the torch, getting thrown back from a sudden explosion from the head of the torch as the wall of ice was absolutely obliterated. He slid back a few feet, thankfully stopping before he would have fallen off into the darkness below. The only bad part there, was that the torch had burnt out from the burst, leaving them with little to no source of warmth. It was a good thing they had the Thaw Elixirs, otherwise they would soon become frozen.

Sajessia quickly shuffled over to the door once she saw Dorty was alright. She pulled the medallion out from under her shirt, looking for the imprint that matched it on the door.

"Sej, hurry up and get that thing open, they're getting kinda close!" Dorty yelled over at her.

Sure enough, despite having to deal with a hoard of Icebrood and even a Claw, the two hunters were getting progressively closer to them by the minute. Metaveil glared their way when he had the chance, before cutting down another minion.

Finally finding the imprint in the door, Sajessia pressed the metal part of the medallion up to it. Patterns on the door began to light up from that spot, melting off some ice that Dorty had missed. After a few seconds, the door was starting to slide upwards into the ceiling, and she quickly pulled the medallion out. "Come on, it's open!" She motioned him to follow.

Charging into the cave, Dorty narrowly avoided a blast of bloodstone shards from a Metaveil, who was almost right on top of them. Sajessia pulled a lever once Dorty had got in under the door, and it quickly started to slide shut.

"Oh no you don't!" Metaveil shouted, throwing more shards at the door, one landing below where it was closing. As soon as he reached it, however, it closed, crushing the shards that Metaveil tried to use to prop the door open.

Dorty was practically panting from exhaustion, looking over at Sajessia, who shared a similar look with him. "Heh... uh... hehe..." He laughed a little.

Sajessia nodded back, giggling a little herself. "Well, I guess that's that." She stepped over to him to try and give him a hug.

Gladly accepting said hug, Dorty shook his fist at the door. "Take that, Meta-!"

The cavern shook as bits of rock came off of the door, a small crack now visible on the surface on their side. Stopping the hug was pretty easy as the took a few steps back, glancing at each other.

"Okay, so, you probably know what I'm gonna ask, right?" She nervously nodded her head.

"...oh heck yeah I do." He grumbled, turning towards the door and pulling his sword out. "Just get done with this quick, kay?"

"No guarantees, but, I'll try my best." She ran over to Dorty, giving him one last hug before bolting for the altar.

Outside, Jukkerbaut smashed into the heavy stone door yet again, very slowly but surely breaking it down. Unfortunately, both him and Metaveil were under constant assault from the Claw and its minions. Metaveil threw a few fireballs at the door as well, but they were almost absorbed by a strange force-field, proving to be ineffective, requiring purely Jukkerbaut's brute force to open.

Inside, Dorty's eyes shifted between the breaking door and the asura running up the little stairs on the side of the structure in the middle. He kept his sword pointed at the door, ready for Jukkerbaut to breach the thing.

Sajessia slid to a halt in the very center of the altar, medallion hanging on her neck as she quickly sat down, this time on her knees rather than crossing her legs. It wasn't as comfortable, but she didn't have time to do that anyways, so she quickly went to meditating on the spot she sat at, the last part of her journey she needed to do. She relaxed, despite the pain she was in, her wings went limp and flopping to either side as she started.

Dorty took his gaze off of the door for a moment, watching Sajessia go into meditation. All he needed to do was hold off a bloodstone-crazed sylvari, a mechanical charr, and a hoard of Icebrood with Claw included long enough for her to finish whatever she needed to do, and keep them from touching her. He paced over to the center of the room, ignoring the next bash against the door as he looked around the cavern, admiring it. He looked up at Sajessia, who looked so calm despite what was going on, making him smile a little. Looking back at the door, he narrowed his eyes, grinning a little.

"Alright then, Metaveil, so we're gonna play the corruption game then, huh? Two can play at that game."

Dorty conjured up a few corrupted shards of his own, looking around the cavern, he threw them at the side of the wall close to the entrance, out of initial sight.

- - -

Sajessia found herself standing, rather than floating, on something in space. What she stood on was a faint outline of all of the details and such of the altar she was on in the real world. In her celestial form again, she looked around the place she stood on, unsure what to expect.

After a few moments, a large star came down from above, hovering above the platform. She ran over to the center of the platform, not exactly underneath it, but close enough. The star began to fade, beams of light shooting out from it, until it turned into many wisps of light which flew down in front of her, before combining together, glowing brightly.

She watched the light grow, brighter and brighter, noticing -something- was forming inside it. Two feet, talons included, a pair of wings, tail feathers, and a head were all she needed to see to know it. The light finished glowing with one final bright burst before fading to reveal the thing that was there. It was a bird, only it was made of pure starlight, with miniature stars inside it like a constellation, two for the eyes. They were perhaps a little larger than Trytamer, so they still towered over her, obviously.

"Hai Jii p..." She awkwardly waved at the Phoenix. "So... this is it? The end?"

"Yes, it is the end of your journey." He spoke, pacing over to the side of her. "It is where your fate is determined. Though I don't mean that in a 'I am going to kill you' way."

"I assumed that much." Sajessia bowed before him, looking up at the Celestial. "I'm... going to guess I need to fight you?"

"Yes, you know it wasn't going to be as simple as walking up to me and asking if I could fully restore your powers. Yes, we will fight, but first..."

Hai Jii suddenly spread his wings out, sending out strands of light all around, forming a dome around them. Meanwhile, in the real world, while Dorty was still preparing for Jukkerbaut to breach the door, the same dome (only smaller) appeared, protecting Sajessia from harm.

"There, now there will be no interruptions." Hai looked down at the little asura calmly, taking a battle stance, or at least as much of one as a bird could do.

"Just, one question before we start?" Sajessia held her hands behind her back.

"Anything, child."

"What happens if I lose?"

"Losing is an option here, but it will get you nowhere." Hai looked up at the endless space above them. "If you lose, you may try again, and again, until you finally beat me. Take your time, maybe even another year if need be to prepare. You're free to leave this vision, you know."

"Well, we're a tad short on time, and even if I'm safe in this dome, Dorty isn't." She made a grab for her glaive, only to realize she didn't have it. It was magic-only what they were about to do. "So... I will do my best to win. Just do me a favor when I do, and restore my magic as soon as you can. I'm allowed to ask questions later, yes?"

"Any time you need, I'm there."

"Okay." She took a step back, pacing in the direction opposite the way Hai was pacing before, then stood up straight and conjured up a little star in her hands.

"Time to end this." She declared.

- - -

Dorty took a few steps back from the altar, admiring the work he had done to the place. On the front side, he had scarred corrupted crystals all over, from the wall to the ceiling, to a few parts of the floor, leaving space to maneuver. On the side with the altar and Sajessia, he simply left unchanged to make sure cleaning up afterward was easier.

Another loud crash was heard as a crack now appeared in the door, light shining through as Jukkerbaut delivered another blow. The door was almost down, at least enough for Metaveil and maybe a few dragon minions to fit through. Jukkerbaut, however, was just too massive to fit, so he would be stuck outside with the rest of the minions and the Claw.

Deep down, despite hating both of them much, Dorty felt sorry for Jukkerbaut. It sounded strange, really, but it was easy to tell they weren't in control, they never were when they were like this. He was just a charr who probably had a bad life, then got roasted, and was reanimated by the asura who actually wanted to kill Dorty. So in reality, Jukkerbaut was just mindlessly following orders, unable to retaliate or anything mentally.

One final bash was all that was needed to punch down the door, and Jukkerbaut delivered that punch. The side of the door crumbled, leaving a gap wide enough for Metaveil to finally squeeze though. It took him a few moments to rush over to the entrance, dodging under the mechanical charr. He got between the gap just as Jukkerbaut was pinned down by an icebrood ogre, greatsword out of reach for reasons unknown.

"Hehe, sorry 'friend', but you're on your own." Metaveil laughed as he squeezed the rest of the way in. "Oh don't worry, I'll kill Dorty for you!" He let out one more laugh before trotting inside, leaving the charr for dead to the hands of the Icebrood.

"Finally!" He said as he stepped into the center of the short hallway that was connected to the central chamber. He fired off bloodstone shards into the walls around him, sprouting crystals of bloodstones that, after a few moments, turned into elementals of that kind. He didn't even know he could do that, yet he just did.

Dorty stood at the end of the hallway, right near the center of the place. Looking up, Metaveil could see Sajessia inside some kind of golden dome, eyes closed. Dorty's head was lowered before he got there, and he was staying like that as Metaveil approached.

"So, about time you showed up." He didn't bother looking up, he knew what was there.

"Dorty, Dorty, Dorty. Dirty Dorty? Ahem, whatever. Anyways, you're time has come. I hope you accept death with open arms, cause I'm him!"

Dorty slowly drew his sword out, tapping the tip of it on the cavern floor. "Ey, Meta, I know you're pretty lousy for a baddie, and even still you fail to realize some things."

"Ha! Like what, that you have a trap? You got nothing here, Dort, nothing."

"You forgot the 'Y'."

"I know what I said!"

"Well, listen here, Meta. Like you, I don't know everything you can do." He finally raised his head a little, pulling out a piece of fabric from his pocket.

"So, what's your point, that you're a loser?" Metaveil took a few more steps forward.

Little did he know, that while he himself had bloodstone elementals as minions, he forgot one detail that was the most obvious: Dorty was part-dragon in terms of corruption. Likewise, he had the abilities of a dragon, and as Metaveil had his small group of elementals to fight with him, he didn't see the minions that Dorty had hidden behind the corners while he was waiting, all poised to strike as soon as their master willed it.

"My point is, you don't know everything -I- can do, either." He held up the fabric for the sylvari to see, a glowing emblem on the center of it which Metaveil wasn't familiar with. Dorty swung it around for a few moments, before putting it over his face, tying it behind his head; a blindfold.

Metaveil nearly gagged in laughter, lifting a finger in questioning. "Wh-what? You want to fight me -BLIND-!?" He stuttered, still cracking up.

"Did I stutter like you just did there?" He lowered his brows in unamusement, the emblem on the front, resembling an eye (it was a Revenant symbol, after all), mimicked this action.

Metaveil started cracking up even more, before he realize there was magic at play. He straightened up, and took one more step towards the asura, and at the same time willing his elementals to attack.

That was all Dorty needed to start. With the elementals and Metaveil charging straight at him, he willed his own minions to attack. First, a scorpion lunged at Metaveil, striking him in the leg only to be thrown off in his surprise. Before he could react, the other minions were already on top of his elementals. Fighting his heavy ones were crystalline goliaths and the scorpion, and fighting the flying elementals were some snakes and hawks, all corrupted of course.

"What is this!?" Metaveil demanded, staring down Dorty.

"Eh, well it doesn't seem fair if you bring an army and I don't, so I made my own while you guys were hammering away at the door, so now we're even." He held his sword up at Metaveil, knowing he was there despite not seeing him. "Wanna dance?"

"Wh- I came here to kill you, not get in a dance-off!"

"That's not what I meant." He ducked a little as one of his minions threw a bloodstone elemental over his head.

"Oh. Well, today I learned dance has more than one meaning. Fine then, Dorty, let us quote-on-quote 'dance'.

Metaveil lunged forward, a bit too overconfident in himself as Dorty dodged around to land a swipe on the sylvari's leg. Turning around, he lunged again, going for the side this time rather than the head, but Dorty easily parried it. He quickly retaliated with a kick that aimed for the best place to hit Metaveil, which was right between his legs, based on past evidence.

A metallic 'clang' was only heard as his boot made contact with the pants there, so Dorty didn't have to guess what Metaveil had done.

"Yeah, I got my pants reinforced. Like it?" Metaveil snorted, building up a fireball to throw at him.

"Meh, could be better, that's just iron there." He flicked his wrist and fired out a shard which hit the oncoming fireball, causing an explosion between them. Before the smoke could settle, Dorty was already on top of Metaveil, ready to throw another few blows his way.

Metaveil tried his best, but only managed to block a single blow, Dorty lacerating his arms in the process. The bloodstone shards in him, however, quickly healed them up, leaving him in the same condition, if not just slightly worse than before.

"You do realize you can't kill me, right? I'm invincible, you're not." Metaveil cackled.

"Not really, just hard to kill." He glanced over at Sajessia, the back at the sylvari. "Besides, I just gotta hold off long enough until it's a two-v-one against you."

- - -

While Dorty and Metaveil fought in the real world, and Jukkerbaut was continuously pummeled by the Icebrood, Sajessia and Hai Jii were finally battling it out in the astral realm. Their battle consisted more of throwing the very heavens at each other, as both hurled stars, miniature black holes, and beams of light at each other.

Hai Jii was much bigger than Sajessia, so he was more durable, but also an easier target to hit, while Sajessia herself was physically weak, but her size made her all the more difficult to fight against. Twice already she had rolled under the Phoenix to deliver a blow, but only once during the whole fight up to this point did Hai manage to land a blow against her via talons. Nothing here would carry over to reality, however.

Sajessia charged up another beam of light, which shot out from her palm at Hai Jii, who dodged it and retaliated with his own beam. The Phoenix threw out a spread of feathers in an attack that was difficult to avoid. Sajessia was struck through the torso by one, but she grabbed the rest with her magic, hurling them back through Hai Jii, who staggered back from the blows.

Sajessia panted, though there wasn't much to breath here, she still did anyways. Hai Jii held a wing over his injured form, glaring at her. She glared back, nodding in understanding what came next.

Hai Jii started to concentrate his magic into his wings and tail feathers, which visually glowed brighter as he did so. At the same time, Sajessia did the same thing, only with her hands instead of a tail, because while she did have wings, asura just didn't have tails. She took a deep breath, holding it in, the slowly exhaling as her arms and wings lit up, looking up at Hai Jii, who was poised to make their move. She was also ready, all she was doing was waiting for the perfect moment.

Suddenly, both of them fired out continuous beams of light at each other, Sajessia's slightly brighter, and Hai's more golden in color. Both could practically feel the magic in the other while the beams connected, trying to assert dominance over the others. Three lines of energy, one from each tip of Hai's wings, and one from the tip of his tail, connected in front of them forming his laser. Meanwhile, Sajessia had four strands of magic fueling into the beam coming from her magic, though with almost the same amount of power Hai had.

With less power than Hai, although that was to be expected, she found herself being overpowered by his magic, as his beam was pushing hers back. At the current rate, if she didn't come up with an idea soon, she would get blasted and lose. She had already used most of, if not all of her known abilities, so what was she missing? Did she just need to let go and catch Hai off-guard, or was it something else?

With time being the essence and the opposing beam quickly getting closer, Sajessia looked down while struggling to hold it at bay. While doing this, she got a look at her own soul, which was also a star, which was glowing brighter and brighter as she kept up during the fight. She glanced back up at her opponent, then back down, suddenly having an idea flicker in her head, one that she never tried before, but would it work? It was either she risk letting out against the beam and try to dodge it, possibly getting injured enough to lose, or run out of time to retaliate, leaving her with having to try her plan, since now was the perfect moment to strike back.

She lowered one of her hands down to her torso, weakening her beam further as Hai's grew closer much faster now. She felt the heat of her soul continuing to grow hotter, and she tried to take hold of that. With a magical grasp and a tug, and what might have been a small explosion...

...Sajessia pulled her own soul out of herself, which pulsated powerfully enough for even Hai Jii to feel from his angle. She quickly held it up between her two hands and wings, which not only restored the strength of her beam in time before Hai's would hit her, but also further strengthened it, and now she was pushing his beam back.

All she needed was that last, final push, and she was about to deliver that. Once she had his beam far back enough, she suddenly pulled her arms and wings back, severely weakening her beam, but not for long. Before the Phoenix could get his beam back at her, Sajessia suddenly brought everything she had, arms, legs and wings, forward upon her soul-star, crying out from the powerful sensation that hit her as her beam suddenly grew absolutely massive, obliterating the one Hai Jii was attacking with, and striking him into the wall of the dome, pinning him there during the all-mighty finishing move. She practically felt own strength, memories, and willpower washing over herself in numerous pulses as she finished the fight. Her beam quickly began to shrink, her hold on her beam leaving her as in her vision she suddenly reverted back to her original asuran form, falling to the ground backwards, her soul-star floating down to softly land atop her chest. She closed her eyes as she relaxed in victory.

Hai Jii was bested, and although he was greatly beaten by the attack, he quickly regained all of his strength, mostly due to being a god, after all. He flew over to where Sajessia was laying, watching her pant in exhaustion.

"Sssshhhhhhh... you've done well, you should be proud of yourself." He held the tip of his wing up to her mouth, making her stop panting heavily, breathing through her nose instead. He then moved his wing down, over to the little soul on top of her, brushing over it and infusing it with more of his magic. "When you wake up, you'll be reborn, and you'll be among the many shielding the innocent from the horrors that lay in wait in Tyria, do you understand?"

"...Yes..." She said weakly, but in much understanding. The last move had taken most of the strength out of her, but that would quickly change soon enough.

Once Hai had finished restoring her powers, he gently pressed on her soul until it phased back inside her. All at once, a new warmth was filling her, one she was not familiar with as new magic coursed through her. "-oh..." She winced a little from the sensations all throughout her as she started lighting up in the same, if not similar, glow that Hai Jii was always in.

Back in the real world, after some moments of the medallion around her neck glowing, it would suddenly burst into a dozen of wisps of light, which spread out within the dome. Sajessia herself would slowly start floating upwards a yard or two, before stopping as the wisps of light circled around her. Soon though, the bright floating lights changed their course in unison, gradually approaching the asura to the point where they started fusing with her, spinning her around with them as their light spread across her entire form, until she was completely engulfed in the blinding glows, causing her body to turn a blinding-glowing white. For a brief moment, she remained like that arms outstretched a little to her sides, palms facing outwards from her, shortly before beams of the heavenly light pierced from her very body and flooded the entire room in the magical light!

Too caught up in the fight to see it coming, Metaveil yelled in confusion and pain as the light bounced around under his mask, making it near impossible to see. Dorty could still see the light even through his blindfold, and felt the immense heat coming from her as well. He lifted up his blindfold and turned to look her way, while Metaveil was still dazed and recovering.

When the light faded, or at least enough to the point the chamber was back to its normal brightness almost, Sajessia was left floating in the center, maintaining the same pose she was in when she was floating upwards initially, only now one of her legs hung down while the other was held up a little. That was the least important detail, however, as she had completely changed almost. Her golden, starlight form (much like Hai Jii's) shown brightly all over the chamber, her eyes literal stars when she finally opened them again, beholding the world from a new point of view. On top of all of that, her wings had finally grown to maximum length, sharing the same translucency and glow as the rest of her form, though that would probably change soon enough. Even her hair had grown in length from the transformation.

Dorty was mildly dumbfounded by all of this, though before he had the moment to congratulate her, Metaveil finally broke out of his dazed state, glaring up at Sajessia.

"Oh- come o- what even -is- this?!" Metaveil threw his hands in the air, unsure what to make of the floating asura.

"Well..." Sajessia wondered in a slightly wispy voice that reflected her current form, "...it's a long story, but I was born so many years ago, a lot longer than you have been around, and I already had this magic. I just wasn't trained into using it, so after I woke up again a... has it been a year already? Wow, time flies... hey are you two even listening to me?"

Metaveil had lunged at Dorty and reengaged their previous duel, swinging his daggers at the asura. "Does it look like I care, faker?"

Sajessia raised a brow a little, "Faker?"

"Yeah, you heard me! You're not a god, I am! You think with your wimpy little light-body that you're automatically as good as I am, well you are wrong!" Metaveil leapt back away from Dorty, and threw a fireball at her.

Sajessia didn't even bother getting out of the way; the fireball passed right through her like she wasn't there, which only made Metaveil gap in utter confusion. He fired again, this time for her to roll out of the way through the air, and suddenly retaliate with a thrown star.

As soon as the star hit the ground, it exploded in a brilliant flash, throwing Metaveil back into the opposing wall. It also pushed Dorty back as well, in the opposite direction, but he stuck the landing unlike the sylvari.

Sajessia flew down to hover next to Dorty, smiling at him, and giving him a small wave.

"Yeah, hi." He smiled a little himself. "Uhh, should we leave thanks for later or..?"

"Yeah, maybe later." She flicked her wrist, shooting out a beam of light, purposefully missing just so Metaveil could see the power of it as it burnt a large hole into the wall next to him.

"Oh, you just made me mad." Metaveil held his hands close together as he started to channel up all of his magic into a giant, bloodstone-infused fireball. It started out small between them, but as he extended his arms upward and out, the fireball grew more and more in size until it was about the size of the altar nearby.

"Hey Dorty, wanna see me embarrass him?" Sajessia giggled.

Dorty's eyes shifted between her and the massive fireball being made. "Sure."

Nodding, she stepped over in front of him, poised and ready to retaliate. She spread her wings out to the maximum length, arms to one side as she prepared her next move.

After a few more moments of Metaveil's consistent shouting as he built his attack up, he finally got it as big as he needed it to be, and heaving it back over his head, threw it at the two asura.

Dorty legitimately hid behind Sajessia as the giant fireball rolled towards them through the air in an arc, though it moved rather slowly. Suddenly, at the top of the arc, Sajessia flashed over in front of it... and slapped it. Rather than having it explode in her face, the force of her attack sent it hurling back at Metaveil, whose only response was a weak "What-" before the fireball hit him, exploding in a massive blast that filled the entire other side of the cavern.

While the smoke was clearing, she hovered back down next to Dorty, shrugging at him.

"Sej... wow uhh..." He had no clue what to say, only laughing out loud after a few moments of registering what had just happened.

"Was that cool or what?" She asked, perking her ears, smiling.

"Heck yeah, it was! Hey if you can get the chance to do it again, do it again, I just like watching him freak out."

Metaveil slowly got up, quickly healing as he glared at the two asura, moaning. "...how... in the world did you do that..?"

"Well, okay I'm going to clarify two things, Metaveil." She held up a finger while she talked. "One, you're right about me being a god, because I'm not a god, I'm a deity. It's... kind of a lesser god or something. Speaking of, two, you're not a god or even a deity like myself."

"Oh- just die already!" Metaveil leapt into the air, landing to shatter the ground around him, lifting up the rocks as he was about to hurl them at Sajessia.

"Not happening."

A small, concentration of light suddenly appeared in front of her. Right as Metaveil threw the rocks their way, she pulled off the same massive beam attack she used on Hai Jii, piercing through the rocks and blasting through Metaveil, pinning him against the cavern wall for the whole duration, burning his clothes and part of his skin. It would have normally obliterated him, but she hadn't pumped out -all- of her power into that one attack, so she meant for it to be weaker.

"Okay, forget what I said earlier, -THAT- was way cooler." Dorty whistled, leaning on his sword.

Metaveil was pushed so hard into the wall by the beam that it left an indentation of his pinned form on it. A few moments later, he flopped down onto the floor face-first, moaning in pain that was quickly healing. The beam had burnt off his cloak, hood, and part of his pants, leaving him looking very ragged. His mask was still on his face, though it was visibly burnt to a crisp and almost about to crack apart, and sitting on top of his head, initially hidden under his hood, was the bloodstone crown empowering him.

"Mmm..." Sajessia looked herself over, brushing her arms and wings off from the attack.

"Something wrong?" Dorty tilted his head.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just kind of thinking I spent long enough in this form." She pointed at herself, "I'm gonna turn back, okay?"

"Eh, sure, Metaveil's still a wimp either way." He shrugged, then finger-gunned the sylvari staggering back onto his feet, wobbling off balance still.

With a simple nod, Sajessia hovered back down, until she touched the ground with one of her feet, followed by the other. As soon as she did this, her normal self began to reform back, starting at her feet and going up her form. She didn't even get halfway to changing back before Dorty realized she was already looking different, even like this. Her pants were replaced with part of a light coat that hung down to her knees, which had gold trimmings on the bottom edges. Her shirt was instead something that a battle-mage would wear, which left protection for her shoulders and the rest of her torso, though leaving her belly exposed (which shown her soul-star in a small, space-like area within her, so her belly looked like space). She wasn't wearing shoes now, but had some wrist guards on her arms, the one on her left arm slightly bigger for reasons to soon be unveiled, and white stardust covered her fingertips and the bottom of her feet.

Once her head returned to normal, followed by her wings, she completely changed back, and was still definitely a sight to behold. Unlike the rest of her, the only changes on her head were the bits of stardust that were in her hair, now glowing a golden glow, and her eyes, which also glowed the same way. She wore a simple, ornate mask that sat on her face, though it honestly wasn't much. As for her wings, aside from already reaching as big as they would go, the feathers had mostly, if not all of them, turned golden and translucent, glowing radiantly. The feathers that were white, pink, or purple were left unchanged closest to the ridges of her wings.

She pulled out her glaive, and even that had underwent a transformation as well. The edge and tip of the blade glowed with her magic, and a small space was cut through the blade in line with the pole, so that it was more one flat-backed blade followed by a smaller, actually curved blade behind it. A white star shown in a little chamber in her glaive, maybe for use in attacks. The rest of the glaive had become more ornate than previously, but retained most of its functionality.

"Soooo..." She was pretty much bugging Metaveil now as he got the strength back to glare at them. "Blade-fight?"

"Oh, definitely yes." Metaveil drew out both daggers, holding them out to the side, cracking his neck for a moment to relieve himself of the stress on it.

Dorty stood side-by-side with Sajessia, both pointing their weapons at him, then, he lowered his a little, perking a brow. "...heeeeeeey... what's that bloodstone thingy in your head?"

"Nothin'-!" Metaveil pulled his mask up just a little, to better cover the crown on his head.

"Oh no, it's definitely something." Dorty shook his head, though he let Sajessia attack first.

Teleporting over to the sylvari, she swung with her glaive right through the remains of his mask, watching it crumble under the streak she made, and revealing the crown on his head.

"It's nothing, honestly!" Metaveil pleaded, obviously lying as he kept a hand on his treasure while he tried his best to parry her attacks, yet she had the distance advantage with her pole-arm.

While Metaveil was busy with her, Dorty quietly crept up behind to try and tackle him to the ground, but it was a whole lot less easy than what he assumed. As soon as he clasped onto the sylvari, they started flailing around in an attempt to throw him off, accidentally stabbing himself once.

"GET. OFF. OF. ME." Metaveil shook, punching the asura in the face.

"Huh well then..." Dorty finally took hold of the crown on his head, poking the little lever that was on the side of it. "-nice knowing ya, ya stupid jerk."

Dorty pulled the lever, the bloodstone shards in Metaveil's head retracting back as the asura ripped the thing right off of their head. Golden sap tinged red with the magic of the shards bled out from the sylvari's head as he let out an unholy cry, staggering backward. He desperately grabbed for the holes in his head in an attempt to recover lost magic, but it was no use. He slipped over to the tunnel that led back outside.

Dorty jumped off of him, landing in the center of the chamber, then dashed into Metaveil in a blast of corrupted electricity as he tackled him straight through the door that led them inside in the first place. They rolled over each other a few times, until they were at the very edge of the small outcrop. Dorty grabbed the sylvari by the throat, and pinned him down with his head hanging over the ledge.

"Well wadaya know, this is a change of fate!" Dorty shrugged, before punching him in the face.

Metaveil couldn't retaliate, and he was left at the mercy of the asura on top of him, despite how hard he tried to get up, the loss of magic prevented him from retaliating. "You... suck..."

"Nah, you're the sucker. Hey, you looking for this?" Dorty held up the bloodstone crown in his free hand, keeping it in sight of the sylvari.

"-yes... give it to... me..." He tried to reach up and grab it, but Dorty stood up on him, holding it up just out of reach.

"Lemme make a suggestion that's bound to inspire plenty of people around Tyria -and- be an important life lesson you can relate to." He chuckled, then viciously glared at Metaveil, shortly before a 'crunch' was heard as his grip on the crown strengthened, shattering it. "Don't do bloodstones."

"Dorty dodge!"

Sajessia's warning was heard too late as Jukkerbaut swiped at him with his plated hand, grabbing the asura in his grasp. Try as he might, he wasn't going to wiggle out, and Jukkerbaut brought him up to eye-level.

"...uhmm.... well..." Dorty gave an awkward smile at Jukkerbaut's emotionless head. "...okay, I'll admit, this is the first time this has ever happened."

Dorty wasn't alone, however. As soon as Metaveil struggled back up, and tried to grab for the crown, Jukkerbaut used his other hand to grab around the sylvari. He kicked and thrashed as he was held up next to the asura.

"Hey, let me go! We're friends, remember?" He nervously grinned up at the charr, feeling a sense of guilt. "Eheh, ehm... I was- I was just kidding about leaving you for dead, yaknow?"

That was obviously not going to work. The dagger that was originally stuck in his helmet was gone, and he was dented all over by the assault. In the end, the light from Sajessia's transformation scared the Icebrood off, effectively saving the charr from his demise.

Jukkerbaut turned his head toward the asura; the target, the one he was supposed to kill. In his other hand was the salad; the 'friend' who wanted to kill the asura as well. He shifted his gaze between the two, and suddenly, for the first time since forever had something he hadn't had for a long time: a thought. Sure, Dorty had dealt plenary of blows to him, but it was Zaxaxx who had ordered Jukkerbaut to attack them in the first place. This asura kept going good deeds, and Jukkerbaut's creator was a bad person with little care for life. Then there was the sylvari, who took over control from his creator over Jukkerbaut using the bloodstone shard, and then left him for dead.

With the crown out of Metaveil's head, however, he lost control over Jukkerbaut, which only left one person left: Jukkerbaut himself. The littlest bit of sense left in him was coming back to him, he stared at Dorty, who swallowed in slight nervousness.

Before Jukkerbaut could do anything else, Sajessia fired out another beam of light, which pierced clean through his armored form, missing all of the vital organs, but taking out a lot of decayed flesh with it, leaving a gaping hole straight through him. He staggered one foot to the right, stabilizing himself, then slowly turning to face the other asura.

"Uhh, Sej? I think you made him aannnng-?" Dorty started talking, but suddenly Jukkerbaut lowered the hand holding the asura hostage, and slid him back onto the ground. "...-gry?"

Jukkerbaut stood back up to full height, then shifted his head to stare at Metaveil, who now was struggling even more. "Hey, lemme go lemme go!" He wiggled around in his grasp, unable to escape, his fate essentially sealed.

Jukkerbaut turned to look off from the edge of the outcrop, down at the calming storm and retreating dots in the distance. He stood like that as Metaveil continued to thrash and curse in his hand, which he held closer to the massive torso he had, unable to feel the life fading away from himself.

After a few more moments, Jukkerbaut turned to glance back at the two asura behind him, looking up at him with curiosity. Lifting his free hand, Jukkerbaut legitimately did the slowest of waves at them, before turning to face off the ledge again.

Peering down at the sylvari and the sheer distance below, Jukkerbaut held their head up high, and then sparked a few times, entering power-saving mode. The lights on his armor dimmed, he sulked down, his whole form went limp as he stood on the ledge, his grasp the only thing not going limp as he powered off.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Metaveil stuttered, glancing around desperately looking for a means of escape, but this was it for them.

Very slowly, gravity took its toll on Jukkerbaut, and he slowly lurched forward, until...

"Jukkerbaut- WAKE UP WAKE UUUAAAAAAAAaaaaa-" Metaveil's scream trailed off as the massive charr holding him tilted off the cliffs edge, throwing them both down to a seemingly guarantee death. Dorty and Sajessia ran up to the ledge to watch them fall, and they watched until they had lost sight of them.

Even still, they kept looking down at where they fell, then slowly looked back up at each other, then back down. "Wow... that was a climatic end for them." Sajessia exclaimed.

"At least they won't be a problem anymore." Dorty sighed, smiling a little.

"Why does it sound like you didn't want this to happen?" She perked a brow.

"Oh, nah I'm totally fine with what just happened." He turned and shuffled away from the cliffs edge. "Just... Jukkerbaut could've easily taken me with them, and he didn't. I guess messing up Metaveil fixed him up as well."

"So... you're happy knowing Jukkerbaut doesn't have to forcefully try and kill us anymore?"

"That's one thing, I guess."

Sajessia skipped over to him, putting a hand on his shoulder, warmth spreading from the touch. "So, now what?"

"Eh, I kinda wanna take a nap, get some well-deserved rest, yaknow?" He smiled a little at her, then looked over to the left of the cave entrance at a small path going along the edge of the mountain. "Random walk because why not?"

"Sure, I guess I need to relax a little too." She kept next to Dorty while he took the first few steps forward on the trail.

They didn't talk much while they walked, simply admiring the view, though Dorty was more admiring Sajessia herself in a way he didn't realize before. The storm had finally cleared up, replaced with a calm breeze as the snowfall stopped. Sajessia heat her hand on his shoulder, leaning on it gently.

At the very end of the path was what might have been the nicest spot in the Shiverpeaks, which was a neatly constructed vista of sorts with rocks set up all around, and two sakura trees, one in the center and another on the edge on the other side. The wind brew the pink petals off of the trees, as they drifted off into the air.

Dorty sat in front of a rock that was right next to the base of the tree in the center, scooting over a few inches so Sajessia could sit next to him, sighing with relief. She wrapped her right wing around him, sighing again as she leaned on him. He leaned back on her a little himself, wrapping an arm around to pull themselves closer together.

"So... this is it, huh? The end of this little journey of ours." Dorty spoke.

"Yeah, it is." She replied, smiling.

"Hey, just so you know, I actually -was- listening earlier, unlike a certain lousy sylvari." He chuckled.

"I was... kind of caught up in the moment there, it's just... wow, I'm still comprehending all of this, just so much to take in..."

"Hmm, not sure if I wanna say something or not now..."

"Huh? You can say it, I'm listening."

"Pf- nah, it- it's stupid." He glanced away, blushing.

"Why did you bring it up then?"

Dorty let out a tired sigh, glancing over at the asura cuddled up with him. "Just... don't kill me when I say it, alright?"

Sajessia's ears drooped, expecting something bad, but she nodded. "Go on..."

Dorty took a long breath, before suddenly blurting out really fast "Okay I think you're really pretty and I may or may not be in love with you okay there I said it-!" He gasped for breath, tensing up a little.

Sajessia's ears perked all the way up, her eyes widening while she registered what he just said. Love? Did he really care for her that much, more than just a friend then? It was quick to comprehend; she realized she also shared this love without really realizing it, for what might have been months, even before starting their trip.

What she did next was enough to confuse Dorty: She turned him around to face her, and completely hugged him, arms and wings holding him close. He slowly relaxed, understanding what she was implying, letting out a breath.

"...I love you too, Dorty." She leaned up and pecked a kiss on his cheek, which make him fluster red in embarrassment, though he was okay with it. He smirked a little from the affection, and Sajessia had a silly smile on her face as she hugged him.

After a few more moments of this exchange, Dorty's expression went more neutral, his ears perking back up while he looked down at his friend, or was it girlfriend now that they had basically confessed love for each other? He carefully put a hand on her shoulder, glancing nervously around, mostly at her though.

Sajessia figured out what he was trying to ask, since the first one hardly did them justice. She scooted up into his lap, putting her hands on his own shoulders and wrapping her wings around his back, so leaning up would be easier.

"...I... never really got to try this before..." Dorty blushed, "Then again, I'm not really worth loving-"

"No, you're perfectly fine, don't listen to what others say about you, I mean, if it's bad." She tilted her head a little to the side, cheeks flustered as well. Almost forgetting, she reached up and pulled her mask off of her face, showing off the rest of her beauty that it hid.

She pulled herself up a little, Dorty leaning down a little himself, and they shared their first kiss with anyone else. Surprised by the feeling, he closed his eyes a little, calmly accepting what was transpiring right now. Sajessia hugged a little tighter, closing her eyes as well, and booped his nose with hers. They kept this up for a few seconds, before finally breaking the kiss.

Scooting back a little, Sajessia loosening her grip around him while they resumed their previous positions sitting next to each other, except now they were both blushing immensely. She leaned back on him, wrapping her wing back around him, and tried to grab his hand.

Dorty already guessed what she was trying to do, so before she could grab his hand, he move it for her, holding hers and entwining his fingers with hers, smiling down at her.

Looking down at the hand-thing they were doing, she looked back up at him, truly happy about everything right now. She rested her head on his shoulder, wiggling her ear a little to pat him with it. "Thank you."

Dorty looked out over the horizon from their little vista point. Everything was so nice, yet sooner or later they would have to go home, but that was the easy part. Watching the petals fall from above, he used his spare hand to pick some off from the ground, and then run said hand through her hair, leaving the petals in it, then just to make it even, threw a few on top of himself.

"Anytime, Sej."

One week seemed like too much time to rest in the lodges, though neither of the two asura cared. The warmth within the massive structures was more than enough to convince them to stay for a good while. What more seemed to keep them around was the delicious food that seemed to never end, as there was usually at least one moot going on somewhere around the city.

Finally, after stuffing themselves full of food (and taking some for the road), a good nights rest, and a quick bath afterward, Dorty and Sajessia were finally ready to head out again. There was no need to say goodbye to anyone, because nobody they knew was around. They made sure all of their things were packed before continuing their quest.

Going south was simple enough, sticking to the main road seemed like the best choice, but after a few ambushes from local dredge, they decided to take a detour across the uncharted wilderness to the east, at least on their maps. While they were met with almost no enemies, trouble arose when they suddenly found themselves lower on food than they had expected. They pressed onward, taking breaks when snowstorms hit, then resting up under cover before continuing.

As for the food problem, Dorty had it covered. Whenever they were low on food again, he would head out and find something for them, either herbs, a wild animal, or if they were really lucky, find a lodge for them to stay in. Most of what he found though was mostly meat, because he wasn't familiar with most of the plant life, and the area they were in seemed to have much less lodges than elsewhere in the region. At least they were met with no dredge or Icebrood, which was welcome for them.

At the current moment in time, daytime was breaking over the horizon, and the two had holed themselves up in an abandoned cave, both fast asleep. Their belongings were somewhat scattered around the cavern floor, and in the center was a little crackling fire that had almost burnt out, as well as a dead lizard Dorty had killed and stuck on a stick to cook over the fire as a snack, though by now it was too cold to have the rest eaten.

A low growl slowly woke Dorty up, just a little bit. Without moving, he looked around the cave for the source of the growl, but once he heard it again, he sighed and looked down. His stomach was growling, so obviously he was hungry, as well as Sajessia, if not less.

He also realized she had wrapped her wings around him while they were sleeping, and he was bound by the softness and magical warmth that radiated from them. Meanwhile, she had also wrapped her arms around him under his own arms, so aside from using force, he was pretty much stuck.

"Uhh... Sej, can you let me go?" He asked, trying to slowly squirm out from her hold.

Looking over at her, Sajessia actually looked rather peaceful, a little smile on her face, still half asleep. One ear was perked up, so she probably heard him, but instead of letting him go, she held onto him just slightly tighter.

To be honest, he wasn't against this entirely. On the contrary, Dorty was actually enjoying the affection he got so little of in his life. If neither of them were hungry right now, he could probably imagine the two of them spending the entire morning cuddled up like this.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be the case. Once again he made an attempt to scoot out from her, but she still clung to him dearly, almost like someone would if their life depended on it.

At this point he was suddenly having some serious deja vu of the time they first met. Down in Rata Novus, Trytamer hit a button and incidentally released her from her long slumber. Being the only asura in the vicinity, Sajessia clung to him in hopes he knew how to fix everything that had happened there. Unfortunately for her, what was in the past couldn't be changed, and the most they could do was take their new friend out of that forsaken city.

That was all before she even had wings, which was, to be honest, the least surprising thing. When she came back to their home one day with little wings coming out from her back, T.K went hyper and almost threw her trying to see if she could fly with them. Over time, her wings did actually grow, and the more her magic developed, the bigger they became. At this point, each wing was almost as big as she was, and the feathers that grew down from the bottom ridges of her wings went from a glowing white, to pink, to purple along the length of her wings. As they went down, they went from those colors to a translucent golden glow, effectively eye catching for anyone passing by. He wasn't even sure what they would look like once they were done with this journey.

"Sej, can you pleeease let me go?" He tried asking again, "I'm gonna get some food for us."

Sajessia sighed and kept herself clung to him.

"Sej... you're hungry too, right?"

She sighed once more, opening her sleepy eyes, both looking at each other for a few moments, before she finally gave in, folding her wings back from around him and loosening her grip from him.

"Hey, I'll admit that was starting to feel nice, but first food, okay?"

"Mhmm..." She nodded.

"Stay here, I'll grab something."

He rolled over away from her before pushing himself up on his feet, grabbing his sword and using it to steady himself, for his legs had fallen asleep while he was resting. He picked up the lizard on a stick, giving it a lick before spitting out the little bits his tongue had picked up from the bad flavor the snack had developed overnight.

The chilling air hit Dorty as he stepped outside into the snow. The area they were in was a small valley which, while boasting many trees and other plants, had an unusual lack of wildlife for the most part. He remembered spotting a few deer off in the distance the night before, so the place wasn't completely barren.

Behind the hill housing the cave they were staying in was a stream he hadn't noticed until now. Sure enough, the deer he had seen were drinking from the flow of water, but the bloated corpse of a dolyak nearby gave Dorty the idea that the animals didn't know what they were getting themselves into, and for good reason.

A long, white fin slowly began to come out from the water, moving towards the deer that was the closest to it in the stream. The poor animals had no clue what was coming their way, and before they had time to react, an ice drake had breached the surface of the water and grabbed its target, dragging it down the stream. Despite the efforts the prey made, the venom of the drake was starting to get to it. Dorty knew after a minute or two, the deer would be too cold to fight on, and give in to death.

"Hopefully you leave some for us!" He shouted across the water, though he didn't care if the drake heard him or not, it couldn't even understand him.

While it was busy chowing down on breakfast, Dorty sneaked across the water after the rest of the herd. They were most likely going to be tired from escaping, leaving Dorty for an easy kill. The snow made it more than easy to follow them, and soon he spotted them in a small clearing, grazing on some tall grass that was sprouting out from the deep snow.

"Welp," He thought to himself, "time to see what it's like being a dredge."

He started digging down into the snow, being careful not to make too much noise, lest the herd might be alerted. Once he was under the surface of the snow, he began digging his way through the snow over to the herd, slowing down once he was close. If he was lucky, maybe the deer would think he was just a small mouse, or a squirrel looking for nuts. He stopped as soon as he could hear the munching of grass right in front of him, staying motionless for a minute, waiting for the perfect moment.

As soon as he thought it was distracted, he lunged out of the snow, swinging his blade at the legs. While the rest of the herd ran off in terror, the one he struck he incapacitated, because it's rather hard to run when your lower front legs are cut off. Dorty swung again, this time killing it by decapitating the head.

Slumping down next to his kill, Dorty took the moment to warm himself up after digging through the snow. Blood trickled out from the carcass, staining the white snow into a red color.

"Alright," He thought, admiring the area around him now that he had the chance to take a break, "now how am I supposed to get this back to the cave?"

While the front lets Dorty had cut clean off, the back legs were still intact. Therefor, he started dragging the dead deer back to the cave by them. Dragging a dead animal around was hard enough, but even harder through snow. Even though the drake was still distracted with his meal, getting the animal through the stream started to log it with water, making it even heavier, and thus even more difficult to pull along with him. He did consider cutting off a large chunk of flesh from it and take that back instead, but then if he were to come back for more, some other predator might have already found it.

He finally made it back to the hill that the cave was dug into. Even though he wasn't back at the cave itself, it was close enough to be easy to reach. He let go of the legs and sat on top of the kill, tired from all the dragging he was doing.

"Maybe I should cut a chunk out, seems safe now."

Flicking his sword out again, he jabbed it into the hide of the deer, then started carving out a nice square chunk of meat, at least enough to split between him and Sajessia. Once he had finished cutting a square in it, he changed the angle and began cutting beneath the flesh until the part he was cutting popped out just a little. From here, he simply grabbed the hide and tore the chunk out, some more blood leaking out, though not as much due to the temperature.

Before turning to go back to the cave, he took one last moment to scan for anything else in the vicinity. Nothing in sight, to his relief. He carried the chunk of meat in one hand, sword in the other as he jumped the rest of the way back, for the snow was extra deep on the side he came around on.

"Hey Sej, I'm back." Dorty declared as he stepped back inside. "Got us some deer meat, all I could find."

Sajessia had been meditating since he had left, and stopped as soon as he called out for her. "Oh, alright, I guess anything works." She scooted over towards the pile of sticks that was used for their fire, but it had burned out completely.

"Alright, fire's out. Not too big of a problem, just gotta re-light it." Dorty set the chunk down next to the pile and went for his bag, digging through it in hopes he could find the small blowtorch T.K gave him, but to his surprise, it wasn't there. It wasn't even on the cavern floor. "Uhh, Sej, you got the blowtorch?"

She shook her head, "Never touched it, but maybe you put it in my bag by mistake, lemme see..." She started pulling things out of her backpack, including the coat, which she promptly put on, a small crystal, a little asuran device with a speaker on it, and most importantly her glaive, which was modified to compress like a telescope from the hilt of the blade to the little hilt at the bottom of her polearm, but yet no blowtorch.

"Great, don't tell me we lost it." Dorty face-palmed himself. "How are we supposed to cook this now?"

"It's alright," She scooted over to the pile of sticks, "I can try lighting it."

"It won't blow us up, will it?"

"I don't think fire works that way."

Sajessia knelt in front of the fire pit, and began channeling her magic, glowing faintly. The intensity of the glow began to grow around her arms, fading from the rest of her. She normally did this when she was about to shoot a column of light from her hands, but this time she extended a hand into the pile, a thin string of light floating up from her hand. It touched one of the sticks and began wrapping around it, lighting it up with a similar glow. She had control over how warm it would be now, and she made the entire part of the stick that was wrapped up burst into flames, the little thread of light returning to her.

Dorty just stared at the fire she just lit, then back up to her, then down at the fire, then back to her again. "How long were you able to do that?"

"Ever since we passed through Wayfarer." She replied, the thread of light passing through her palm back into her where it came from.

"So, I guess we did need the blowtorch up to that point."

"Yup." She giggled.

The two watched the little flames dance up the pile of sticks until the whole thing was ablaze. Sajessia cut off the hide part that was still on the meat, then extended her glaive to sick the food on it like a marshmallow, holding it over the fire and turning it slowly.

"Okay okay," Dorty held a finger up, "now ya got me thinking."

"Hmm?" Sajessia perked her ears up, looking at him.

"If you can light the fire like that, couldn't you just, I dunno, cook the meat with your magic too?"

"That was the first time I did something like that, so I'm not sure." She checked the meat to see how it was cooking. "How about after we eat, you get some more and I can try it?"

"Yeah, sure. Still got plenty of meat outside. Hey, is that done yet? It looks like it to me."

Sajessia took a whiff of their meal, "Yeah, I think so. Here, hold your sword up."

Holding his sword up, Dorty watched her hold the cooked meat over it, then thrust upward and pulled back quick enough to make the morsel fly off of the blade. She swung it in the same moment through the meat to cut it in half, one piece falling onto his sword, the other she caught on the flat side of her glaive. "Nice one." He smiled.

"I thank the lessons you gave me. Really, you're a great teacher. You can do something like that and get a better reputation, no?" She licked her slice to taste the flavor, before biting a small chunk off, nibbling it.

"I'll just... keep to myself for now. Recognition isn't really in my favor most of the time." Dorty just ate off the meat like it was a part of a chicken leg.

"So, no to being a teacher then." She continued nibbling away at her meal.

"Yeah, pretty much." He bit off another chunk, "Is this why you wanted me to come along? Apart from all the foraging and stuff I mean."

"Hmm?" She looked up at him while she was still nibbling on her food.

"If I wasn't around, you'd be bored out of your mind, wouldn't ya? Dorty snickered.

Sajessia went quiet for a few moments, just chewing, then nodded. "Okay, maybe that is a big reason."

"Heh, don't deny it Sej, it is." He laughed, barely keeping himself from choking on his food.

"You're just..." She was almost done with her meal, taking another bite and swallowing before continuing, "...someone I really trust, a lot. On levels I can't even begin to describe."

"Well hey, I'm a friend who's got your back. If you need someone to run to for cover, I'm your guy." He smiled, biting off the last of his meat and tucking his sword back into the sheath.

"Mhmm, thank you." She returned the smile, perking her ears up as well. "So, wanna try and cook the meat by itself, with just my magic?"

"Why the heck not?? I'll go cut some more off, be right back."

He stepped outside back into the frigid landscape once more, edging along the steep side of the hill away from the deep end of the snow. To his disappointment though, the drake had found the dead deer and had ravaged it, leaving most of it a blood-bath of a corpse. The good news was that it had left some meat left over, which was all that was needed.

Standing on top of the dead deer again, Dorty stabbed his sword into a small chunk of flesh hanging loose from the rest of the meat. Though it was mostly fat this was, he dragged his blade forwards to carve the rest of this piece off.

Something caught his attention while he was midway into cutting it. A glimmer that just felt out of place in a animal like this. A small, shiny object, no, dozens of extremely tiny objects, shimmered in the flesh of the deer. They blended in almost perfectly, and were almost unnoticeable.

Snap

Dorty's ears perked up. If there was one thing that always got him alert, it was hearing the sound of nature being trodden upon. He kept alert, but went back to examining the meat. Little tiny crystals had been dumped in the gaping wound, matching the same color almost. Whoever did this had ruined any future meals from this animal, and the one to blame was definitely not the drake.

He leaned down to get a better look at them, but didn't even get close to start putting things together before a swinging sound and the sound of rock-against-rock flew over his head, striking the hill in front of him. He looked up in surprise at the crystal lodged in the side of the earth, equally red.

This wasn't an ordinary crystal. This was a bloodstone shard.

"WHY DID YOU DUCK, DANG IT!?!?"

Dorty swung around to look at his attacker, a person wearing a dark, metallic cloak, his gauntlets fused together by some kind of solid flames, and below the mask under his hood, two blood-red eyes could be seen, staring angrily at him.

Rather than pick up his sword, Dorty just started laughing, as if it was a joke. The sylvari who had just tried to kill him had failed horribly, and was now probably vulnurable to be attacked.

"Seriously?" He snorted. "You want to kill me so bad, and yet this is your worst failure yet, Metaveil!"

"I do want you dead!" He shouted, stomping through the snow towards him, rolling up a sleeve, "Besides, I was just getting warmed up!"

"Oooo, warming up? I'm soooooo scared! What'll it be, a warm wave of heat to the face or a cold, hard rock?" Dorty spat back at Metaveil, who he assumed was going to yet again be an easy match.

"How about you try something different on the menu this time?" Metaveil said as he fished out a slip of paper from under him garments. "How does a nice, cool batch of bloodstone crystals to the face sound!?" He swung his arm through the air, firing out multiple shards of bloodstone from it.

That was one of the last things Dorty was expecting, but also the worst at the same time. He quickly took cover behind the carcass while the sylvari, formerly terrible at being a bad guy, now too good at it, bombarded the hillside and body with crystals. It wasn't Metaveil himself he was afraid of, it was those cursed bloodstone shards he was throwing at him. Even if he did survive, and maybe even gain some power from getting hit by a bunch, the risks of losing himself to his own corruption would be even greater then if he was starting to get hit by these.

"Well, huh, two can play at that game!" Dorty flicked his wrist and shot out a few corrupted crystals back at Metaveil. Sure, they were less deadly than his, but it was the most he could get at the moment.

He had no clue what to do at this point. Metaveil had him stuck behind a dead animal, which was decaying faster due to the constant amount of crystals getting stuck into it, he himself was not sure how to fight back against these new abilities Metaveil somehow got, and what about Sajessia? She was in danger from Metaveil as well, so even if he had to risk getting hit by a shard, he still had to-

"DORTY!" She shrieked from the other side of the hill, followed by a massive, and all-too familiar heavy clang of metal hitting the ground.

Dorty clenched his fists, praying she was still alive, which she was by the flash of light that emitted from around the corner, but she was also in trouble, if not more than he was. Risks needed to be taken.

A quick breath was all he needed before he bolted out from his hiding place, a stream of crystals being shot at him from the side, following him as he made it to the corner and around. Thankfully, Metaveil didn't know what trajectory was, or he would have easily tracked the asura's movement and pelted him with a lethal dose of magic.

Sajessia was hiding behind a large rock, and on the other side what just what Dorty had feared. A hulking behemoth of a charr stood up at least fifteen feet high, plated head to toe in golem parts. In its hands was a greatsword, which it momentarily brought down upon Sajessia's hiding spot, missing her just barely, but splitting the rock in half. She ran for her friend, while he did the same, scooping her up before purposefully sliding forward to avoid the arcing swing of Jukkerbaut's massive weapon. He caught a glimpse of something in his helmet, but that was the least of his troubles right now. Both of them needed to get out of there, and quickly.

He pushed himself back up to his feet after the slide, and turned to run in the direction of the more densely packed forest area. Even if it was hard to move there, Jukkerbaut would certainly have a hard time getting through, but Metaveil...

"Wait!" Sajessia looked over Dorty's shoulder as he carried her, back at the cave. "Our stuff is still in there, shouldn't we-"

"Sej, there is one thing that is certain right now, and that's life is greater than stuff!"

"Point made..." She whined, clinging on tight.

Tree roots and branches were his main obstacle at the moment, and while it wasn't the main threat, getting stuck or slowed on them could be their downfall, so he tried his best to avoid unnecessary impact with them. Now nature was working against them, the wind was blowing in their faces, and the slope began to grow steeper as he ran.

Once they reached the top of the incline, Dorty made a right turn only a little, before sharply turning to the left. A few fallen trees covered by snow was the perfect hiding spot for them, and he slid underneath for the temporary safety.

He set Sajessia down beside him while they waited for the danger to pass, which would be a while most likely. "You alright?" He asked.

Sajessia was shuddering a little, partially from shock, partially from the cold, though she stopped at soon as she looked up at him. "Uhh... Dorty?"

"What- grr..!" He growled, a stinging pain coursing through his leg. Looking down, he saw a bloodstone shard lodged in his calf, which he hadn't quite noticed until now. "Just... great..."

Sajessia tried her best to soothe him while he was in pain. "Shhh... easy, we need to be quiet..."

"I'll be alright... just a little..." He shook his head, vision starting to grow red from the magic. "...this'll definitely affect me for a bit, but I'll live sane." He moaned in pain, with minor aggression from the influence of the shards in him.

Sajessia covered his mouth to keep him quiet, both of them growing still as they hid from their pursuers. While she used one hand to keep him quiet, she used the other to try and remove the shard from his leg, removing the energies keeping it existing and taking it in herself. She was only able to get only a little before it was starting to hurt her as well, but she had caused the part of the shard under his skin to mostly vanish, so he could get it out easier with less damage.

No sound was made by them for the moment while Metaveil and Jukkerbaut were around. The sound from Jukkerbaut's heavy feat crushing the snow beneath him grew louder and louder as he grew closer and closer to their hiding spot. Dorty tensed up when the heavy thump rattled the branches over them, then relaxed as they started to grow fainter, but only a little. Metaveil paced around the area, looking with his eyes for footprints, or maybe a dropped belonging.

"Have you tried looking for your damage?" The sylvari said to himself, in a more twisted voice. He closed his eyes, sensing his magic, and finally finding a shard he launched himself.

"There we are."

He threw a bloodstone-infused fireball from his hand to the bunch of fallen wood, an explosion searing the blast radius with crystals and petrifying the wood. The bonus affect being the best one of this, another shriek followed by both targets rushing out away from the spot. "Jukkerbaut, you big brute! You're oblivious, after them!"

Now it was Sajessia's turn to support Dorty while they ran from the duo. Arm slung over her shoulder, she kept him from falling over while he hobbled alongside her. Another fireball flew past them, striking the cliff face to their left, making them dart away from it up the slope. Metaveil's next projectile he aimed in front of them too far, which while blowing up in front of them, they ran through after the explosion itself was gone.

The weather itself was starting to get more extreme as time went on. Another blizzard was forming, and snow rained down from the heavens, pelting everything with cold, white flakes. The wind blew in a tailwind as they all ascended the mountain, which was only good for Metaveil as his fireballs flew further and faster, forcing the two asura to constantly dodge about.

The top of the mountain was barren, but hosted a marvelous view of the land south of it: Timberline Falls. If there wasn't a blizzard, or if nobody was in danger, one could sit here and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, a good view also meant a dead end for Dorty and Sajessia in the form of a sharp cliff that spiraled downwards. Normally, Dorty wasn't afraid of cliffs, but most cliffs he came across usually had water at the bottom of them, and this wasn't the case. He screeched to a halt just in time for Sajessia to also stop, knocking some rocks off of the ledge down into the valley below them.

"Oh... great this is even worse..." Dorty growled again, checking behind them, only to see Metaveil and Jukkerbaut finally caught up with them.

Dorty exchanged a few looks between Jukkerbaut and Metaveil. Metaveil only seemed slightly different somehow, aside from the obvious magic, but Jukkerbaut had changed much since the last time they met. His usual yellow and black color scheme was revered over by the same bloodstone shards Metaveil was using, and in the mechanical charr's head was a dagger of some kind. He had no idea why Jukkerbaut didn't just take it out.

"Hey, fatso," Dorty shouted at him, "ya got something in your head!"

Jukkerbaut didn't even respond.

Sajessia looked down from the cliff at the landscape below, then back behind her at their pursuers. Their only normal way out of this situation was to fight, but Dorty wasn't in good shape for that due to the shard in his leg, and Sajessia had never fought either of the two before...

...leaving her with only one good, but rather crazy idea.

"Dorty..." She muttered.

"What?" He looked back at her, eyes slightly strained from the snow and bloodstone magic hurting him.

"Turn around..."

Dorty stayed quiet, keeping himself fixated on the other two, while Metaveil began to prepare a massive fireball behind his back.

"...trust me..."

Something about the way she spoke there somehow calmed him, if not fully then enough to get him able to reason again. Taking a slow breath he slowly turned his back to the sylvari and charr, so they were now looking across the landscape.

Sajessia, meanwhile, slipped her coat off, unfolding her wings from underneath, while Metaveil was just finishing up his attacked. Looking at them with determination, he spoke aloud, "Any last words?", to which she replied, "These aren't my last words."

Before Dorty was able to react, Sajessia had suddenly tackled him and herself off the ledge, where up on top a massive explosion lit up, which they thankfully avoided just in time, but that wouldn't help, because now they were falling to their supposed doom.

"Sej, what the heck!?" Dorty yelled.

"Hold still, I'll get us out of this!" She climbed onto his back and wrapped her arms around his chest, and her legs around his torso. She spread her wings out as they kept falling, stopping themselves from spinning around as they fell.

Then, the fall began to slow, and the ground was starting to come up to them slower and slower, until it stopped, then beginning to get further away. Dorty tried his best to look over his shoulders to see what in the world she was doing, seeing her cling to him as she carried them aloft in the air, gliding with her wings. Meanwhile, she was having a difficult time holding onto him, straining herself not to let go. Now they were close to the height of the cliff they were on just moments ago, and soaring further and further away by the minute. Dorty looked back at the cliffside they were on, seeing Metaveil and Jukkerbaut in the distance, turning to leave down the mountainside.

Now that they were out of the clear, Dorty took the current moment just to enjoy the view, soaring through the air like a bird would.

"So this is what it's like to be a bird..." He sighed, smiling.

Sajessia tried her best to smile as well, equally amazed, but the strain was becoming too much. "Dorty, I need to land, I can't hold onto you for much longer."

"If it's gonna be a crash landing, at least make it hit the water, would ya?" He pointed down at the river beneath them that they were now flying over.

"Mmmm-kay-!" She said, swooping straight down almost now.

Sajessia kept her hold on Dorty as they plummeted into the water, fish scattering, and riverside critters looking up in surprise at the splash. She struggled to hold her breath from the impact, and just as she was about to burst, Dorty kicked through the water with her, breaking the surface. Sajessia coughed out water in need of fresh air that wasn't freezing, and a few moments later blacked out.

- - -

The fire in the cave was now merely flickering, almost out, by the time Metaveil and Jukkerbaut made it back. Most of the belongings the two asura brought along had been left scattered around the cave, leaving it all ripe for the picking for anyone who came in, in this case the villainous duo. Jukkerbaut went over to Dorty's stuff, but simply looked the pack over before motioning for Metaveil to come over.

"Alright, alright, give me a moment, I'm enjoying a morsel." He replied, eating Sajessia's unfinished deer meat.

Once Metaveil was done with that, he walked over to the backpack Jukkerbaut needed to look at, and flipped it upside down. The contents spilled out over the surface of the cave, various tools and uneaten snacks. There was also an asuran gizmo, a journal, and some yellow corrupted crystals.

Jukkerbaut carefully picked up the device, scanning it with a light beam that moved up and down the surface of the thing, which came from a little node that poked out of his helmet, gathering data on the object. Once he had fully analyzed it, he began registering the data he was getting. It was a communication device, but despite being in Dorty's pack, it was last used by the 'secondary target'. Next he grabbed the journal, which clearly belonged to Dorty, and scanned the light over the open book while he flipped quickly through the pages, recording all of the words.

"What's with the light?" Metaveil asked as he curiously touched the node that poked out from Jukkerbaut's helmet.

"SCANNING-ITEMS." He replied. "OBTAINING-USEFUL-DATA-FOR-FUTURE-USES."

"Oh really?" Metaveil glared at the journal in the metallic clutches, "What sort of uses?"

"CLASSIFIED."

"Care to tell me?"

"CLASSIFIED."

"Come on, spit it out."

Jukkerbaut didn't say anything, merely moved his hand down to flick Metaveil in the head. Normally, such an act would merely annoy someone, but in the case of a giant charr, especially a mechanical one, the action knocked the sylvari off balance, making him tumble onto the ground.

"Oh, real funny." He said sarcastically. "Are you underestimating my power again? Don't you remember how we met on the Ring of Fire?"

Jukkerbaut sparked a little in the neck, before suddenly shutting off, hunching over as the lights on his armor one by one flickered off.

Metaveil snorted, getting up to walk over to the giant in the chamber, before pushing on him hard enough to make him slowly fall over. The impact shook the whole cavern, making a few loose rocks fall from the ceiling. "There." He spat at the fallen beast, "Now we're even. Again."

He swooped over back to the cracking embers of the dead fire, grabbing Sajessia's dinner, only to find it was already eaten, by himself of course. Metaveil sat down with his legs crossed, slouching over and grumbling to himself, annoyed how he didn't kill Dorty right then and there. Despite the power flowing through himself, he still failed to destroy him even with his barrages. At the very least now it would be easier to track him, for the one bloodstone shard that hit was all Metaveil needed to feel where the two asura were. All he needed to do was keep up with them, lest they get out of range of his senses.

Now, however, Metaveil was having a hard time staying awake. His eyes drooped every now and then, only for him to quickly shake himself back to awareness. The sleepiness soon made it harder to keep his footing, so he was swaying back and forth as he was seated next to the pile of sticks. The area began to grow darker, and darker, and darker, until he finally succumbed to sleep, flopping backwards as he snoozed off.

- - -

Quiet.

Calm.

Those were at least two things that were summing up Sajessia at the moment. She felt her heart beat and pulse silently every second while she floated in space. Nothing else was around for her, just herself and the lit void. She sighed from comfort of just having the moment for herself.

Yet, something was missing.

Sure, she was dreaming, she knew that much. If she wasn't, she would be much colder, and not breathing, but still alive. Thoughts went in and out of her mind, some her own, others given to her to help her when she woke up.

Still, something was bothering her. It wasn't the usual environment she dreamt with that was the problem, nor the thoughts she was having. It wasn't Hai either, because she knew where in her dream he was, but that wasn't the thing bothering her either. No, it was the absence of something that had her wondering, but what it was was left a mystery for now.

A slight tightness began growing in her chest, which concentrated somewhere there, no, two places. The tightness then began to travel upward through her, as she breathed out, making it quickly harder to breath. Her breaths began to hasten, until the sensation came to her throat, and then...

...she jolted upright, coughing out water that she had swallowed by mistake, each cough also getting some stardust out from there as well, but how that itself got in her lungs was a mystery. Her breathing slowed, a few more coughs coming out, until she felt the sensations subside. One more, deep breath was what she needed to reassure herself, the cool mountainous air tickling her nose, making her sneeze and cause a small explosion of stardust around herself, as well as clearing her nose of any water that was there.

Apart from the water going down the wrong way, she was pretty fine. Her clothes were logged with water, and anything she had stored away in her pockets was probably washed away. A few bandages were put over a few wounds she got when she was jumped by Jukkerbaut back at the cave.

It reminded her of a wound she got when the White Mantle had attacked their home a couple months back, one across her belly. The wound itself had healed, but although no magic was involved with the weapon, her own magic was affecting the spot where the wound had been dealt. It had covered up the wound with a sort of window into space, at least in terms of looks, filled with many little stars in the background, and one larger yellow star in the center, which from what she found out was her own representation of her soul. The whole thing was nothing more really than an illusion, but she couldn't help but keep a close eye on it all the while. She pulled her shirt up to see that it had grown from below her rib cage to above her pelvis, though it was like that a couple of weeks ago as well. Maybe it had stopped growing?

"Sup."

Sajessia looked up to see Dorty sitting over a couple yards away on a small ledge, looking over his shoulder back over to her. "Feeling better?" He asked.

"Oh, uhm..." She rubbed the back of her head out of minor discomfort, before trying to get up. She wobbled a little on her legs, still a little dazed from the impact on the water. "...fine, I think. What about you?"

Dorty pushed himself away from the ledge and scooted over to her, a makeshift bandage wrapped around his leg where the bloodstone shards had hit him. "Doing better, gotta give thanks to your magic for making it easier for me to just rip the shard out."

"Didn't it hurt??" Her ears perked in surprise.

"Ya think? It hurt terribly, yeah, but thanks to whatever you did, there wasn't much to take out since you did most of the work."

"What about the shard itself? Metaveil's probably using it to follow us, I mean, how else would he know where we were hiding back there?"

"I would say it was a random lucky guess, but that doesn't matter now. I might have gotten rid of the shard, and killed two birds with a stone at the same time." He snickered.

"How'd you do that?"

"A while ago, me and T.K were clearing stuff out in some centaur infested region, and we came across some lady who was selling some so called 'Triple-Luck Tonics'. You can guess what happened."

"Fake?"

"Yup, T.K beat up the mesmer pretty good, but she got away. I ran into her again an hour ago, only get this, she disguised herself as a quaggan. Same scheme, different presentation."

"How does this relate to the shard exactly?"

"I sold the shard to her for like fifty copper. She also said she was going to go north to Lornar's Pass. So if I gave her the shard, not only will Metaveil and Jukkerbaut follow her thinking it's us, but also-"

"Right, I guess if she's been scamming people for a while now, she deserves it." She looked up at the sky above them, rather foggy. "How long was I out for?"

"Ehhh... at least a few hours. Glad to see you aren't dead."

"Where are we exactly? I know it's Timberline but-"

"Some little island in the middle of the river, loaded with crabs. Don't ask, I have no idea why it's got so many."

"Oh, not so bad I guess." She stood up and scanned the tiny island. Sure enough, there were crabs, lots of them, as well as a quaggan (not the mesmer), but the least to say was that they were safe on this little rock. A small waterfall rolled over the cliff face some dozens of yards away, not the source of the river obviously, but a small contribution.

Apart from the ground and the cool air, Sajessia felt... something. Some minor pull, as if someone was gently tugging on her shirt, either trying to get her attention or lead her. It was the same feeling she had when they were in Wayfarer, like a magnet pulling her to her destination. This time, it was close, very close, almost as if it was right behind her.

She turned around to peer up a rocky formation in the center of the island, nothing more than something to jump around on, at least in terms of looks. Something about it was what she needed. Something was there that she needed to get.

"I guess out of all the places you could have taken me while I was unconscious," She started walking around the small formation to the other side, Dorty following her, "you  took me to where I needed to go basically." The other side of the formation was easy to walk right up, and a nice little flat surface was there. She looked back to him, "Thanks. How did you know anyways?"

"Wild guess?" He shrugged, "Does that count as an answer?"

Sajessia giggled, sitting down and crossing her legs one over the other. "Keep watch?" She asked.

"Eh, not like I have anything better to do." He gazed up the river where the water was coming from. "Don't you need some kinda rock or whatever? Like the last time?"

"No, it was just that one time." She explained, closing her eyes and relaxing. "I won't need anything like that this time." Her breath slowed a little, humming very quietly to herself.

After a few moments, she once again felt herself whisked away in her mind. It felt cold, strangely, unlike the warmth from before. She was definitely floating again, and there was nothing she was touching, so she was definitely in the astral realm, again. Once she was confident, she opened her eyes, in her vision, not in reality.

Nothing.

Instead of seeing stars or, well, anything relating to space, there was nothing. All she was greeted with was a cold, heartless, dark void that took up the expanse of space she was in. Pitch black, nothing to see almost.

For a moment, she started to panic, horrible memories she put behind long ago resurfacing. She almost had the urge to cry out for help, but then she realized that unlike when she was left in stasis, she was still able to move freely, and even more so, she could look at herself, which soothed her fear. Her celestial form was a reflection of space around her, but since there was pretty much nothing to reflect, all she looked like was a thin, wispy outline of herself. The only light that was in the abyss was her little soul-star in herself, gleaming brightly.

"What am I supposed to do?" She thought to herself.

The big issue here was vision, which the darkness effectively prevented. It was hard to see where exactly she was, her being the only source of light.

"Maybe I need to light this up myself..?"

She took some stardust from her wings and clasped it between her hands, squeezing until she felt it pop, turning into a tiny star. She casually tossed it upward, where it continued to fly for a distance before stopping. It wasn't enough to do much help, but it was a start. She flew up to position herself next to it, getting minor warmth, but not enough to make her comfortable.

She was starting to get more worried about staying warm then what she was supposed to do. Considering the only star she had wasn't giving her enough warmth, maybe she could make it bigger? She let some strands of light leave her and imbue the star, expecting it to grow bigger, and make it warmer, but instead it swelled up, then exploded, throwing her back some and scattering stardust all over.

Sajessia looked up from her briefly-dazed state to see one of the light strands touch some of the stardust, and watched as it almost sucked up the stardust, before turning into another star, different color this time. Still, now she had more stardust to work with...

The answer quickly hit home for her. She flew back over to the stardust the old star made, then sent out more strands of light to make more stars. Once she used all of the stardust up, she imbued those new stars and flew back away from the blast radius. It wasn't like they hurt her, but they still dazed her at point-blank range. Once those stars exploded, there was even more stardust than before, and it was warmer and brighter, but she wasn't letting up yet. She kept repeating the process again and again, until she was essentially surrounded by stars, which as that number grew, her form lit up more with reflections of them.

In the middle of the black void, Sajessia had made new light in the darkness. She wasn't going to stop though, until all of it was filled. She relaxed, then slowly started spinning around, just a slow rotation, closing her eyes and outstretching her arms. As she spun, she let out a steady stream of light strands from her hands, which all found their way to either the stars or stardust.

A few moments later, the void was lit up greatly by the masses of stars forming and dying again and again, and this cascade of light continued to grow, filling the emptiness and cold that was previously there. It went onward, further through the darkness, until after what might have been merely a few minutes, Sajessia felt as though the empty spot in space that she was in was completely filled, by her magic and willpower alone.

She sighed and admired her handiwork, hundreds upon hundreds of little stars, lighting up what used to be nothing, an it all started with just one. She basked in the immense warmed that radiated not just around her, but within as well. What she had done was like filling a gap in her life that she feared for a long time, and would no longer have to worry about.

Right when she thought her work was done, however, a slight shimmer caught her attention. It was off in the distance, and if it was not for the many stars that she made, the light would have never revealed whatever this was. Tired from the exhaustion of using that much magic, she slowly flew towards the object, taking her sweet time to soak up any light she had used to rejuvenate herself.

She was preoccupied with this enough that it took her by surprise when she bumped into the small object. It's shimmer was caused by all of the stars around her, and as far as looks, it was a round object with something coming off of it. Slowly, she reached out and grabbed it, and suddenly, uncontrollably started pouring some of her magic into it, the mesmer portion of her magic, rather than the celestial side. Her surprise began to quickly fade as she watched her magic reveal the thing, or was it bringing it into existence? An iron surface with some intricate writing, and a creature of some kind was printed on both sides of the thing as it began to form from her magic, and once it was done, began to reveal a ribbon that had both sides attached, a medallion of some kind.

She examined it closer, looking at the small details upon its surface. The creature on it was, without much surprise to her, a phoenix, and the text was written in Canthan script, which read something along the lines of "Light of the night sky". It looked rather old, and radiated with some celestial magic, but that was probably there for a reason.

She held it close to her, practically hugging it, and wrapping her wings around herself. In the real world, she mimicked the same actions, but there wasn't a medallion she was holding, in fact, nothing was really in her hands, for the moment. She began to glow faintly both in and outside of reality, which grew in intensity until she flashed brightly, like when one of those stars exploded. The next instant, she was fully back in reality, now clutching the medallion, which she somehow brought from her vision.

Dorty had definitely taken attention of this, and shuffled over to her from behind, looking over her to get a glimpse of the item she was now in possession on. Sajessia looked up at him at the same time, then held up the medallion for him to see.

"So now you've got a not-so-shiny trinket?" He asked, poking it.

"Yup," She held it close to herself again, "and I'm going to make it shiny... somehow..."

"Lemme guess, more traveling?"

"Obviously, yes!" She giggled. "We're still going south from here, but to the west as well."

"Wanna rest up first, or..?"

"Didn't we already get enough rest?"

"There was something called 'two baddies teamed up' and that was pretty exhausting for the both of us."

"It's not like there's a settlement anywhere nearby, is there?"

"Well, if you're okay with frogs, there's hylek over that ridge. They're friendly, trust me."

"I guess, but, will we be safe there?" She got up from her sitting position, turning to face him, spying a tall, rugged wood structure sticking out from the water. "Is... is that a krait tower?"

"Oh, that?" He thumbed in the general direction of the construction.

"Y-yeah, that."

"Eh, don't worry, while I left you here for the quaggan to keep an eye on, I uhhh..." He snorted a laugh, "I -might- have swam over there and murdered a ton of them. Doubt they'll attack the quaggans or the hylek any time soon."

Sajessia sighed with relief, they were already attacked once, she didn't want to be attacked again while they were resting. "Yeah, I guess in that case we should take another break."

"So, where exactly are we going next, lemme see..." He had a small case with a strap slung around his back, where he kept a map he was using for reference. The cap was closed over, so when he pulled it out, he was thankful the map wasn't ruined by the water. He unfolded it and found where they were, in the southern area of Timberline Falls.

"Okay so, little bit south..." He traced his finger down from where they were, past a big volcano on the map, "...and then some ways to the weeee..." He trailed off after his finger went over a very certain landmass on the map.

Sajessia perked her ears, "Something wrong?"

Dorty looked up at her, then down at the map, then back up to her again. "Uhh... you -do- realize where we're going, right?"

She shook her head, "Not exactly."

He let out a sigh similar to what he did when he was unamused, and showed her the map. His finger was on the coastline of the Straits of Devastation, which in other words, meant they were heading to the home turf of the elder dragon Zhaitan, Orr.

Sajessia's ears drooped upon realizing this, looking down at the medallion in her hands.

"Well, least we can look at the bright side of all this." Dorty explained as he paced around. "Sure, we're going to a forsaken land that was underwater for years, and now overrun by masses of undead monsters..."

"That doesn't sound like a good thing..."

"Well of course it's not! The good thing is though, is that, well, Zhaitan is very, very dead. No big bad dragon to keep making zombies means less zombies, right?"

"Well, how less are we talking about here?"

"I dunno, how many risen do you think the Pact there have killed since four years ago?"

"A lot."

"Yup, my guess too. So let's just say we'll find ourselves with a lot less enemies to deal with than if we were doing this while Zhaitan was still alive."

Sajessia took a slow breath, "I guess it'll be easier then, hopefully."

"Yeah, hopefully." He looked towards the hylek village that was some distance away, "So, wanna go take a nap over there?"

"Sure, but let's not stay as long as we did in Hoelbrak."

"Right, I mean, I did kind of throw Metaveil and Jukkerbaut off course of us, so we need this time. I have no idea how much ground they can cover in how much tim, so better safe than sorry." He slid the map back into the case and closed the lid, motioning for Sajessia to follow with a simple tilt of his head.

She followed after him all right, but once she was close enough, she hopped up and held onto his back, hitching a little ride. Luckily for him, she weighed almost nothing, quite literally, but that didn't mean he didn't take notice.

"Sej, what are you doing..?"

She didn't say anything, she just kept holding onto his back like a sloth, nuzzling the back of his neck.

"Welp, I guess I'll carry you around then, over to the village." He rolled his eyes, but snickered to himself from how cute this was. The medallion swung around a little from him walking, Sajessia still holding onto it.

"Ey! Ey wake up dude, we're he- oomph!"

Metaveil's first reflex upon being woken up was to punch the thing that did it, which just so happened to be one of the crewmen aboard with him. His next movement was pushing them away before getting his things together from where he was sleeping. The only thing he didn't have to worry about was the crown under his hood, which at this point he needed to keep his immense power in him, lest someone would try and take it for themselves.

As soon as he started walking up the stairs to the main deck, he could already notice a difference in where they were. The air was polluted with ash and soot, with a tinge of fire in it, good for him. Finally stepping outside, he was greeted with towering black rock that stretched high above them, and lava pouring down from the cracks like a waterfall. Strangest of all was the fact that there appeared to be skulls carved from the rocks, that only made this infamous chain of islands even more intimidating. Whoever or whatever caused this to occurs clearly possessed some immense power.

"Well, is this your stop?"

Metaveil looked down at the little captain of the ship, and nodded in response. "It is, but tell me, how will I get back to mainland from here?"

"Uhhh... I saw a few other boats around here, maybe catch a ride on one of those?"

"Hmph... Very well then." He walked towards the edge of the boat, which was almost touching the land before them. "I'm not paying you, you know." He said before leaping off of the ship and onto the new land. The captain didn't care, he just wanted this guy off of his ship.

Metaveil began his search along the beach, which was littered with dead animals and rocky spires. All around this area there were strange crab-like creatures, mutants of sorts in his eyes, that seemed like spiders almost with their nests scattered about under the rocks. One of the beasts tried to attack him, but he easily retaliated and put it to rest.

Going east across the island, he got away from the crustaceans and was able to start exploring the rest of the island. Large creatures that stood on two legs, and arms with stubby arms and massive heads, attempted to charge down local earth elementals. There appeared to also be asura researchers scattered around the island, looking into the quakes that rattled the landscape. One of the most absurd things he saw was a small colony of skritt, who had declared themselves pirates of the island.

As he passed along one of the ledges, he took a look back at where he started, over near the beach, mildly surprised to see that suddenly some of the massive Karka were dead, dying, or running away. He didn't do it himself, obviously, something else was here on this island with him. Whatever it was, it was probably big, and could gash deep cuts that pierced through the shells of these tough sea creatures, tough enough to-

He was interrupted mid-thought by a burning lash to his calves, which pulled him down to the solid earth. Normally this would provoke him to cry out in agony, but with the empowerment of the bloodstone surging through him, all this did was make him angrier, turning to face the thing they chose to attack him.

It was a rocky, burning thing, with talons made of solid magma and a mass of vines that pultruded out from behind its back, if he could call it that. Rather than the fire being, well, normal fire, it was a deep green hue rather than orange or yellow, hinting at some other power at the works here. It let out a screech before rushing at him.

Metaveil threw a fireball at it, lighting it ablaze, but that hardly seemed to do anything as it rushed him, forcing him to jump out of the way to avoid getting run over. His next move was multiple arcs of lightning that lashed out, which seemed to do a little more damage than the fire, but that wasn't saying much. As it turned around to charge at him again, he simply thrust his hand into the air to conjure a spike out from the ground, impaling the monster. Even yet, it still struggled to reach him, desperate to free itself from the rock that stuck through it, but of course Metaveil refused to let it go; it did try to kill him after all. With one last move, he brought a bolder down to crush the dragon minion to death, which let out one last screech before ceasing movement.

Metaveil shook his hands out, spilling out a bit of fire from his fingertips as he took the moment to catch his breath. For some reason, the bloodstone was starting to become a little too much for him to handle. It was that or he needed to get rid of some of the magic within him.

He passed through quite a few more of the evolved Destroyers during this little trek, as well as the rest of the local wildlife. For whatever reason, a shipwrecked carnival was making the most vain attempts at attracting customers in this environment. The only customer satisfaction he received was laughing as he burnt down part of the tent containing their latest work. The only person who actually applauded him was a charr with a very short temper, who had just had his money stolen by one of the workers as a "magic trick", and pulled the same thing on Metaveil, who promptly incinerated them.

Going north along the eastern side of the island he found himself in a sort of death maze, loaded with raptors of all sorts. Further still was a clearing where a humongous, furry creature slept. For the fun of things, he lit it on fire and watched as it attacked it's handlers in rage, laughing as he trotted off.

At the very corner of the island he was at stood a fortress of sorts, guarded by numerous Jade Armors, the same he saw back in Bloodstone Fen, only smaller and a little less deadly. The fortress itself was a towering structure, with large spires composing walls and such, strange turrets of some kind, and lava pouring down to a pool in the center.

Metaveil made a wide arc around the heavily guarded castle, going around the north side of the island now, which unlike the rest of the terrain was a steep wall that seemed  like it made it impossible to get up from that side. Eventually he came across a path he had missed when he first made landfall, which lead up towards one of the highest points in the region, and of course he took that path.

The top of the island housed a massive caldera, which to him seemed like a broken area from ancient times, at least to him. Huge, splintered walls and spikes composed a towering barrier around the crater, and in the center was a pit of lava with a large, flaming wurm resting inside it. Overall, it was a nice place to look at from the inside. He began climbing up the many nooks and crannies of the sides of the caldera, finding himself facing a few imps on the way up towards the highest point of the area, to try and get the best view over the entire island.

"Have you ever thought you were going mad?"

Metaveil stopped and spun around, expecting to see someone there, but there was nobody.

"Who's there? Show yourself!"

"Aren't I already?"

Metaveil turned around again, looking all around him to try and find the source of the voice he was hearing.

"You're mad. Mad with power. Not as much as ol' Mad King Thorn, but mad nevertheless."

He suddenly realized this "voice" he was hearing was coming from his own mouth, against his own will. Was he truly going mad?

Even if he was, he was starting to like going mad.

"You know what I think will happen? If you don't calm down?"

"Heheheeeh... Really? Enlighten me then. What will happen if I don't calm down?"

"If you don't calm down, then you'll end up getting-"

"DOOT!"

Metaveil was puzzled. "Doot? What is doot? You better answer me now or..."

He suddenly realized, the voice he thought said it didn't say it.

Metaveil spun around yet again just in time to barely dodge an ear-rattling shot that grazed his shoulder, burning him just a little. He staggered backward, unable to keep his balance before clumsily falling backward, almost over the cliff. He knew who is attacker was, and he glared up at where the shot came from.

Very slowly, someone stuck their foot out from behind one of those cracks in the structure, followed by a long, pointed stick that was hallowed out inside, and a flat blade fixed into the top as a sort of bayonet. Then they stuck their head out from the shadows, and the silhouette of a hat and something wrapped around the mouth were more than recognizable.

T.K finally hopped out from his hiding place before trotting over to Metaveil, dragging his charrzooka behind him. He leaned over the dazed sylvari before snorting a laugh. "Sup, moit!"

Metaveil growled at him, "You're dead, kiddie, so very much dead."

"Dude, fight me, ayez just gonna wreck you again. And again. And the next day and the next day and the next-"

"Grraaaaaaaagh!" Metaveil shouted and ran at T.K, who rather than point his weapon at him, aimed it at his feet and flicked the trigger, launching him up even higher. Metaveil flashed up after him, only to see him fly away yet again.

He gave chase, but T.K spun in a full circle, and midway fired his weapon back at Metaveil, hitting him square in the chest, strangely not hurting the evolved sylvari. He retaliated with a fireball that struck T.K in the arm, but his natural resistance to explosions easily shrugged it off.

This hot pursue continued all across the caldera, explosions echoing all over, and Ley energy shooting out from some cracks the cascading destruction caused. At this point they had reached a steep cliffside that seemed like a deadly fall, and T.K seemed stuck there now with nowhere to go, but regardless he turned to face his pursuer, who was catching up from behind.

"Aye, why ya still trying to put me in da slaughter box anywayas? Ya do realize ayez not always gonna be around to-"

Metaveil lashed out at T.K with a dagger mid-babbling, but he leapt backwards and spun around to aim another shot at Metaveil, who flashed away just as he fired, blowing the spot where he formerly was to chunks. Metaveil dove down from above, dagger raised over his head, as he prepared to jab it into his skull.

Unfortunately, he forgot he had tried this before, and just as before, got the same result. T.K lifted his charrzooka up, and waited until Metaveil fell into the hollow gun, trapping himself in it yet again.

"Ha!" T.K burst out laughing, and then took aim across the caldera.

Metaveil wasn't ready to have yet another case of deja vu. He charged up the magic inside him until he burst, blowing up the charrzooka that had him trapped, and sending T.K flying back into the wall, while Metaveil brushed himself off before charging T.K with a flaming dash.

T.K lifted up his left hand just in time for the heated dagger to pierce through the steel composing what was left of his hand after a previous encounter with the White Mantle. With his other good hand, he began to viciously slap Metaveil across his mask before kicking him backwards with his rocket boots.

"Yah yah blah blah blah, does it look like ayez defenseless, shuxah?" He said leaping back onto his feet. He reached behind his back and pulled out what at first seemed like a small mallet, but after he pulled a chain on the side of it, it suddenly began to transform, getting bigger until it had turned into a hammer as big as he was, with the front lined with holes that burned like the coals under a grill, and on the back were multiple rockets. In fact, the whole thing seemed to be made out of a heavily-modified grill. He flicked his hat up a little, revealing a smaller metal helmet hidden underneath, which he pulled down on to show it off as a welding mask. "Because ayez not!" He shouted at him, the welding mask modifying his voice to make it sound more metallic, before he charged after Metaveil.

Metaveil shot arc after arc of lightning at T.K, but the most it seemed to do in this state was overcharge his already overdriven hammer. T.K swung it at him, but he ducked under it and swung his dagger at the kid, who's welding mask shrugged off the blow, though now it had a pretty nice scratch on it.

T.K leapt back, and activating the boosters on the back of his hammer, swung it overhead into the ground, shattering all of the rock beneath them. The two fell downward to the rocky floor underneath, which T.K did the same to, sending them both spiraling downward in an avalanche of shattered rock and flames.

At last, his hammer smashed solid earth, not a platform, and seared multiple cracks of fire into the area around them. Meanwhile, Metaveil landed on a surprisingly stable bolder, and conjured a few spiked rocks around himself, poised to shoot at T.K.

"Aww yeeehhh, ye 'bout to get blown off this side o' da pla-"

He looked up towards Metaveil, then suddenly stiffened up in a little shock, misinterpreting a visually convincing danger standing before him. Even the feathers on his hat stood up in fear, and his only response was a simple...

"Nope."

He spun around to turn away from Metaveil, and began to quickly shuffle away in the opposite direction, all while repeating the word "Nope" over and over again, which got fainter as he quickly got further away.

Metaveil was rather surprised by this sudden retreat. He didn't see anything behind him or around him that would possibly provoke T.K to run for the hills. Angered, he slid down from his perch and began to tromp after him.

"And -why- are you running you stupid little-"

The slashing of wind that suddenly ringed through the air saved Metaveil from losing his head as he ducked down to avoid the swing of a giant guillotine. It was swung around again, this time overhead as it was bared down onto the earth under Metveil, who rolled out of the way just in time to get a glimpse of the weapon. It was razor sharp, and sparking with red electricity that danced up the blade from the charged hilt.

He pushed himself back up into a standing position to behold what was either a marvel of technology or a nightmarish creature. It was charr-like, standing at around eighteen feet, covered head to toe to tail in electromagnetic plating. It's head was covered with a metallic visor that glowed a soft green where he assumed the thing was seeing from. It's broad shoulders were equipped with a kind of solar energy generator on one side, and a turret on the other, asura sized, but the kind one would stand on to view down from rather than the kind that would target enemies. A small panel was outlined on its torso, it's hands were lined with glowing modules, and a small blade was fixed into the tip of the tail, most likely for stabbing someone behind it.

Metaveil growled, assuming a battle stance and pulling out both of his weapons. He stared up at the metallic figure, threateningly, before speaking in a low, cold tone,

"And who might -you- be?"

- - -

Jukkerbaut was staring down at this little man, who was pulsating with powerful magic, according to the readings he was receiving. The heat around them was scorching his armor, roasting the mechanical charr inside.

"Come on, can't you talk?" The little sylvari spoke again.

"YOU-HAVE-VIOLATED-MULTIPLE-RULES-IN-RATA-SUM. I-HAVE-COME-TO-ELIMINATE-YOUR-THREAT." He said.

"A threat?" The sylvari looked around, "Do you even realize how much of a threat I am? I, Lord Metaveil, am stronger than you could ever imagine!"

"WELL-THEN, THE-STRONGER-YOU-ARE, THE-HARDER-YOU'LL-FALL!" The last few words were almost too hard to hear over the metallic shrieking of what Jukkerbaut would call a laugh.

"Funny, funny, I thought it was the bigger one, fool."

Before Jukkerbaut could respond, Metaveil fired the floating rocks he had around him at Jukkerbaut, which while only scratching the surface of his armored plating, was enough to piss him off. He swung the giant blade around and thrust it downward where Metaveil was standing, only for him to flash away. Jukkerbaut turned around, half-expecting the sylvari to be behind him. Instead, he was suddenly electrocuted from below, for Metaveil had flashed underneath him, and was now channeling multiple arcs of electricity into the wirings of him.

Jukkerbaut managed to take hold of Metaveil, and brought him up to eye-level with him, before winding up and throwing Metaveil into a wall, which broke upon impact. The sylvari's retaliation involved levitating the rocks upward, and bundling them together into a bolder, fusing them with bloodstone shards, before launching it at Jukkerbaut. All the charr did was a cold, firm punch to shatter the bolder, sending shards of rock everywhere, while one lodged in his shoulders.

Multiple function inside Jukkerbaut began to simultaneously short out, before the magic began seeping into him. A few seconds later, he seemed only stronger than before, and most importantly of all: he was faster. He charged at Metaveil with the actual equivalent of a charr his size, pinning Metaveil as he charged through wall after wall. A rumbling began to echo around the region as a part of the caldera began to collapse, the part Jukkerbaut was destroying.

Metaveil gasped for breath every time they smashed through a wall, as each time was another blow to his back. Thankfully, after a few more walls, they were finally in the clear as Jukkerbaut failed to stop himself from charging off the southern cliffside that lead down to the central part of the island. As they fell, Metaveil flashed to a nearby rock and teleported down rapidly after Jukkerbaut, watching him fall and flail helplessly until he hit the ground below them with a rattling thud, kicking up a fair amount of dust from the crater that was made.

Yet, Jukkerbaut still had the energy to fight on. Unfortunately for him, Metaveil had other plans. He reached for his weapons, before realizing he had lost them, and instead conjured up a new dagger made of bloodstone. He walked over to the mechanical monstrosity as he was still recovering from the fall, and climbed up on top of him. Despite Jukkerbaut's efforts, charr just weren't good at grabbing things that were on top of their backs, and Metaveil made his way to the head before thrusting the dagger into him through the top of the helmet.

The mechanical charr let out a cry of screeching metal and dry spit from the agony it was experiencing at that moment. Metaveil held the dagger firmly inside the helmet, until Jukkerbaut suddenly stopped struggling, slouching over in submission.

Metaveil began to feel something almost draining from him, like a cocoon releasing the butterfly from within. He suddenly watched as his magic from the bloodstone began swirling through his hands and through the dagger, into Jukkerbaut's skull. After a few moments of this, Jukkerbaut simply stood there, with no response other than a few red sparks from his head.

For a few moments, Metaveil sighed with relief of victory, but that victory was broken with the sound of that oh-so familiar voice spitting at him.

He looked upwards behind him to see T.K hanging his legs over the ledge he sat atop of, in his lap was a golden and blue bomb thing of sorts, which glowed faintly. Indeed, he was spitting at Metaveil, but before the sylvari could react, T.K nabbed the bomb from his lap, pulled the switch on it, and threw it over their heads into a nearby lava pool, before it exploded, making a burst of ley energy shoot out in multiple streams from beneath the surface. T.K took this distraction to his advantage, and sprinted away before the two could give chase.

A distant rumbling began to become apparent, and as Metaveil, as well as Jukkerbaut, turned to face the source, they beheld the sight of dozens upon dozens of Destroyers rushing towards them. The sylvari snorted, the charr was deadly silent, and Metaveil leapt off of Jukkerbaut to begin combating the dragon minions. Strangely enough, Jukkerbaut joined in on this, and together they began to hack and slash their way through the hoard with upmost efficiency. Fire was shot both ways, rocks were turned, the ground shattered all around the fight, and yet they all fought on, not stopping until one side was dead.

That losing side, without surprise, was the Destroyers, which retreated back underground upon sensing they would just lose, and left the absurd levels of magic for later consumption where it was.

As both took a moment to catch their breath, Metaveil looked up at Jukkerbaut again, and asked him a strange question.

"Why did you help me after you tried to kill me?"

Jukkerbaut didn't say anything, merely standing there, looking blindly in a random direction.

"Hello? Tyria to charr? Do you copy?"

"AFFIRMATIVE." He replied, though suddenly the deep, raspy metal tone he had was gone, replaced with a less deep, demented tone.

"Okay, because while you've been helpful, go ahead and screw yourself over, would you? I'm tired of you."

Jukkerbaut, for whatever reason, obliged by slapping himself across the faceplate, knocking off some loose screws.

Metaveil was strangely amused by this, and was curious to see if he responded to his next sentence: "Can you play dead?"

The mechanical monstrosity held still, then flopped backwards onto the earth, arms and legs outstretched.

Metaveil suddenly had the strange idea he was in control here. He peered down at Jukkerbaut, the noticed the dagger he had lodged into his skull.

"Hmmmm... Listen, tell me your name and pet me on the head."

Jukkerbaut responded, taking a few moments to lift himself back onto his feet before stepping over to rub the little sylvari on the head, while a small screen appeared on his torso which read:

I.D: JUKKERBAUT MK 2.0

"Jukkerbaut, eh?" He laughed, patting him on the arm. You and I are going to do lots of things, we're going to rule the world!"

Metaveil broke out into a progressively menacing laughter, and would have continued to the point of what might have sounded like insanity, if not for Jukkerbaut flicking him in the side of the head. "Okay fine, we'll discuss stuff later, I'm done with this island. How do we get off this piece of molten rock?"

- - -

After a few days of searching for a way off the island, discussing information regarding the group T.K was a part of (and thus Dorty), and passing the time obliterating local wildlife, the new duo finally found a ship that pulled up to the island, bearing the logo of the Consortium. Despite the organization aboard the ship not allowing them to hitch a ride without paying an even more insane sum than getting to the island, the two managed to "convince" them, in the form of killing a few of those who attempted to deny their ride. After some scouting made by those who were left, and declaring the island the worst place to put a resort, the ship turned back for Lions Arch.

The two villains sat below deck in the captains quarters, the captain being "hospitalized" allowing them to claim the expansive chamber for themselves.

"So," Metaveil started the conversation for the night, "you want that miserable crystallized asura dead, and I want to basically wipe out his entire group, right?"

Jukkerbaut nodded.

"Well, I suppose we can start with killing Dorty as soon as we get the chance to, wouldn't you say?"

"WHAT-IF-HE-IS-NOT-ALONE?"

"Well, we kill anyone else with him them, right? Bonus if it's one of his close friends." He snickered at his own remark. "So how's this? We start at landfall and then we start searching for them, or just him, if he's alone, which let's face it he probably is. Sound like a good plan?"

He held his hand out for a handshake, a slightly demented look under his mask.

"You and me, big guy, we're gonna go places."

Jukkerbaut stayed still for a few moments, then carefully shook his hand.

>INITIALIZING.

>SCANNING FOR UPDATES... >UPDATE 2.6 FOUND, DOWNLOADING...

Zaxaxx watched as a percentage bar appeared below that last line, slowly filling up, rubbing his hands menacingly. This new update would solve many problems with his creation, such as the power blades folding inward to allow movement through tighter area, or the improved hand-bow on the gauntlet. Perhaps though the greatest addition was the support of magical enhancements. He had allowed things such as his necrotic magic, or better yet, the currently popular magic held in shards of bloodstones, to be placed inside by it to further strengthen it.

>DOWNLOAD COMPLETE, INSTALLING...

The bar shot forward to full as he was about to enjoy some coffee.

>UPDATE INSTALLED, INITIALIZING START-UP, DETACHING...

Multiple cords detached from the hulking beast that stood in the corner of the chamber, as tiles began lighting up on the mechanical exoskeleton. After a few more cords detached, followed by a low pitched beep, the thing stepped forward, looking down at its creator.

"Jukkerbaut, version two-point-six."

"YES?" It replied, in a cold, metallic tone that sounded like metal scratching against metal.

"I have given you the ability to adapt. I was quite hesitant on this for multiple reasons, but I believe it is for your best. If you would, please open the new compartment I put in your chest plate."

Jukkerbaut looked down to its torso, at least as best as it could, then pushed an outlined panel offset from the middle, and it opened up to reveal a small space with a few extractors inside it.

"Good, good, now, hold still for a moment..."

Zaxaxx stepped forward and stuck his hand into the opening, channeling his dark magic into his arm, which the extractors began sucking up and distributing throughout the organic systems.

"There, I have used my magic to enhance your strength and resistances. You should find it much easier now to crush pesky bookahs."

Jukkerbaut opened and closed its fingers a few times, then punched through a pillar next to them, causing the machinery behind them to collapse.

"Tsk tsk... I never really liked that pole anyway."

"QUESTION."

"Hmm? Yes, Jukkerbaut?"

"WHAT-HAS-BECOME-OF-PROJECT-XAKAT?

"Ah, him? I'm afraid the attempt at turning the Inquest at Twilight Falls against that miserable excuse of an asura has unfortunately failed. All of the krewe there were destroyed in Xakat's self-destruct."

"WOULD-YOU-LET-ME-GO-AFTER-AND-ANNAHILATE-DORTY?"

"Normally, I would say yes, but your new gear needs testing before I can allow you to engage pursue. For now, I will let you patrol around the city and try to solve these... issues arising. I do believe myself, that it has something to do with that... boy... with the flaming hat."

"QUEORY: WHAT-IS-TO-BE-DONE?"

"Simple. For the moment, neutralize any disturbances caused by power outages."

"AFFIRMATIVE." Jukkerbaut began to lumber towards the door.

"Oh, and I have a communicator installed as well. I will update you on anything going on."

Jukkerbaut nodded and walked out through the doors.

- - -

Getting around Rata Sum was one of two things, either quick and easy, or slow and hard. For Jukkerbaut, it was an unusual mix of slow and easy. Slow because despite the upgrades to their systems, they were still only able to walk so fast. Easy because the hulking size warded crowds to scatter calmly away from it. Jukkerbaut came across some Inquest and peacemakers close to a fight, but slamming the length of the greatsword between the two factions like a barrier, they quickly ceased arguing and fled.

On the other side of the area was an asura who's golem had gone rogue, and he was running from the imbued creation. Jukkerbaut lurched forward until it was close enough to land a hit, and then it swung the greatsword over it's head and through the golem.

What happened next was a red explosion of magic erupting from the golem. It caused several surges of magic to power down numerous machines, but the most fatal damage it did was to Jukkerbaut. The machines powering the beast started shorting out, it was visually sparking all over. Thankfully, thanks to the new update it had, the magic was absorbed and processed, but just as it had occurred in the past, the thing happened again.

The glowing lights of Jukkerbaut dimmed until they were almost completely out, and it slouched over, unconscious, a bug that Zaxaxx could, no matter how hard he tried, not patch out. It was just natural for it to occur, at least it was what he assumed. Jukkerbaut stood there for a bit, unable to function, and yet...

- - -

"Daddy?"

...

"Daddy? What's that?"

"...a devourer."

"And that?"

"A deer. Watch, the devourer's gonna try to kill and eat it."

"Kay!"

...

...

"Pretty cool, 'eh?"

"Yah! I wanna be a devourer! Double-sting!"

"Heh... keep dreaming, cub. Keep on dreaming."

- - -

Jukkerbaut powered back up, staggering around for a few moments before stabilizing. Something echoed in his mind while he was offline, but now that he was powered back up, the normal overlay of his vision and mind had returned. Whenever that happened, Jukkerbaut was told to wipe the additions to the memory bank within the timespan of turning off and back on.

One asura was trying to vigorously open the plate on his leg, and the only response made was punting the poor person across the plaza.

>INCOMING MESSAGE.

>ZAXAXX: >>IT APPEARS AS THOUGH THE KID IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THESE OUTAGES, RATHER A MAN WHO IS DRESSED UP LIKE HE IS SOME KIND OF DARK OVERLORD. FIND AND SHOW HIM HE IS NOT WELCOME HERE.

>REPLY: AFFIRMATIVE.

Jukkerbaut's new task was to find someone who wasn't an asura or a charr, so he began his patrolling around the city. First he checked the lower floors, followed by the crafting stations, then the central plaza. After that, it was on to the asura gates. There was no sign of any suspicious figures in the Idea Incubation lab, nor in any other populated areas of the city. When Jukkerbaut stuck it's head through the gate into the Arcane Councils area, he was only greeted with a golem smacking his head, which he returned with a punch that sent the golem flying away.

It was just the docks now that needed to be checked out. Jukkerbaut proceeded through the portal to the north end of the port and examined the various cargo. Some of it contained parts for asura gates, others golem parts, or food.

The north end was clear, so it was on to the south end. Jukkerbaut proceeded up the staircase to the enclosed area where the Inquest were working. He got a few glares as he passed through, heading towards the doors on the other side.

"-you don't suppose that thing is a charr, do you?"

"At least they aren't part of that silly Molten Alliance, that thing died years ago."

"Pfft, dredge and Flame Legion, how would that ever work!?"

Jukkerbaut suddenly stopped right as he was about to step through, and once again shorted out, sparking, and temporarily going offline yet again.

- - -

"Dad, the bui-"

"Hide."

. . .

"Hehe... prepare to BURN!"

- - -

Jukkerbaut snapped back online again, just as one of the researchers tried to open up the new compartment added on him, which as a result caused Jukkerbaut to slap the poor asura away into a wall with the force of an explosion. It even sounded like one, but yet there was no smoke, unless...

His sound registers were picking up an explosion all right, but this was not where he was, it was behind him at the docks. He turned to see a distant figure sailing off into the distance, and a cloud of embers and ashes from a large explosion that probably killed them, at least from what he could process.

Though Jukkerbaut was not focused on the flying figure, no, he was focused on the man down at the docks who was holding an asura at knife point. They matched the description he was given, and so he started lumbering down there. He watched as they boarded one of the ships. He got closer, a bell was heard, closer, a plank was pulled up, closer, now the ship was setting off, leaving Jukkerbaut to stand on the edge of the docks staring at it as it began to sail away.

Another boat, a smaller one, was commanded by what seemed to be a few humans, but Jukkerbaut took a scan of them, and it revealed to him mysterious energies coming from their pockets. He approached what seemed to be the captain of the vessel, who in turn looked up and laughed.

"Heh, what do you want ya stupid charr?"

Jukkerbaut just thrust a hand towards the ship that was leaving.

"What, ya want to get on that ship?"

A nod came from the head.

"Gonna cost ya for a chase, at lea-"

Jukkerbaut suddenly grasped the captain by the throat, and lumbered over to the ship with him gasping and choking for breath, before smashing them through the floorboards, leaving them dazed there. He then walked over to a side of the ship that wasn't accused, and sat down there, as the now-recently-convinced crew quickly prepared to set off after the ship leaving port.

Everyone was deadly silent as the ship set sail. The only sounds came from the splashes of water on the sides of the ship, the occasional seagull, and of course the heavy metallic 'breathing' coming from their new passenger, not to mention the groans of the captain, who was still stuck in the floorboards from earlier.

So a few things have been happening lately. T.K tried putting ley energy into a cannon, that didn’t end well. The only things I can find that stuff useful for is gliding on and eating.

Case you don't know, Ley Energy tastes like mint. It’s good.

I turned down a bribe of 100 gold in a role play with Jukkerbaut because Jukkerbaut cannot be hacked, he is still technically fleshy and the asura who tried to hack him was kinda the one bribing me.