-Tali-

  Tali opens her eyes to see nothing but an empty room, made of only metal, with a door in front of her. She noticed that she was tied to a chair, she tried to move it only to find the chair was bolted to the floor. So she tried Blazing it, only for nothing to happen, she did the same with Fabrication and again nothing happened. Where the hell was this? Did those Circus Lights kidnap her? Is this what happened to Kaelen? And-

  Tali, scared: Ela?! Ela! Elara where are you?!

  Lord Nerve: You won't be seeing her.

  Lord Nerve had entered the room from the door in front of her.

  Tali: Where is she?

  Lord Nerve: In another room, talking with Sister Mirror.

  Tali: What do you want with me? Where am I?

  Lord Nerve: You're at the Perimeter.

  Tali: Perimeter of what?

  Lord Nerve: That's not important.

  Tali: Tell me.

  Lord Nerve: I see no reason to tell you, Talyndra. You're just here to get Kaelen here. Where we will Blaze both you, him, and your sister.

  Tali: Don't you dare touch her!

  Lord Nerve: You should've cooperated. Now. Be good and wait.

  Lord Nerve left the room, leaving her alone.

  Tali, angry: GET BACK HERE! LET ME SEE HER!

  Nobody replied to her. She was alone again in a metal room. Waiting for death. On the upside now she knew Kaelen was still alive. Would he even come help her? She really hoped so, her life was on the line. She did trust Kaelen on normal days, but this was life and death, she had no way to know what he would do in this kind of situation. She just had to wait and hope he came and was able to free both her and Ela.

  Tali: Please... Hurry up Kaelen.

  -Abel-

  He had saved his game, now when he died he would be sent back to this very moment. Alongside that he was finally safe, having escape the sun and the Event known as "Zenith". All was well.

  "It's weird, isn't it? I'm half expecting my house to explode forcing us to be stuck in a few seconds long time loop."

  Same. Hey, what is there to do on days where you have free time?

  "Well, I don't have a job anymore so I usually stay home. Though I have been hunting down a new job for a while now."

  Tell me about it.

  "It's bad in your world too then?"

  Yup.

  He entered Kaelen's house and saw a letter on the floor.

  Abel: Huh? What's this?

  He picked it up and began to read:

  "To Kaelen Calder,

  Greetings, if you're reading this then you still have a chance to save your friend Talyndra Vaelric, and her sister, Elara Vaelric. You, Kaelen, are responsible for the deaths of two of our members. Sister Spark and Brother Shade. A Crier and a Grinner. We of the Circus Lights cannot allow such insults to go without punishment. So we took your little friends to the Perimeter. If you do not return within two days of writing this, then they will serve as fine Blazing material in place of what we lost. We wish to see you there.

  From, The Circus Lights"

  Abel: ... Ah. Why did you have to jinx it?

  -? Kaelen? Are you there?

  "-! How dare they- You want me there? Oh boy, I'll be there. Just you wait!"

  Kaelen. We don't know where they are aside from the Perimeter. Last time we tried to get to the Perimeter from the city we died, you know that.

  "Don't care. You're giving me my body and I'm going to go save them."

  Kaelen, please. We need to make a plan first, the only reason we survived this time was because we had a plan.

  "We can make a plan on the way. Give me my body Abel."

  I-

  "Please... Abel."

  Kaelen, I hope you know what you're doing more than you did last time.

  "I do."

  -Kaelen-

  The world around him shifted, his mind splintered, before reattaching to his own body, scrunching up the letter as he did so. He had work to do. It didn’t take him long after having fully read the letter to have Blazed all of his possessions to do it, including chunks of his house.

  "What are you doing?"

  It doesn't work that well but you're able to use Lux to fuel your muscles a bit, I'm trying to get enough to sprint the whole way to the Perimeter.

  "What? Really? Why didn't you try this last time?"

  I'm desperate this time.

  He had obtained enough Lux to fuel his legs and lungs enough to sprint the entire way back to the Perimeter, trying to keep the same angle and path that they had taken to get from there back to the city itself.

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  "Can I ask you something Kael?"

  Kael? Really? Am I a food to you?

  "It's just a nickname, relax."

  I know. But my name is pretty short, why bother with one?

  "Because I want to. We're friends, right?"

  More like acquaintances.

  "Ouch."

  My bad. What did you want to ask Abe?

  "... Are you mocking me?"

  Yes. Names like ours don't need shortenings.

  "And Talyndra doesn't?"

  She prefers Tali, I just don't call her that.

  "Why not?"

  That's none of your business.

  "It kind of is now that we're stuck together. Not even upon death do us part."

  Abel.

  "Yeah?"

  I'm straight. We're not getting married.

  "It was a joke, chill dude."

  Are any of these even your question or are you just getting distracted?

  "Heavily distracted."

  Then actually ask your question.

  "Do you like Tali?"

  Of course I do, she's great.

  "No, like- Do you love her?"

  What makes you ask that?

  "I just think she might love you, you know? She was fully willing to kill me to make sure you were okay. She also has this look whenever I or you talk to her."

  Can we change subject please?

  "Sure, how about-"

  The two of them managed to get there in only a few hours instead of a whole day. Kaelen stopped his sprint in front of a hole in the sky, where he stood face to face with a man in a teardrop mask.

  Kaelen: I see. So there are multiple of you with each mask. What's your name?

  ???: If you must know, I am Brother Green.

  Kaelen: ... Brother... Green? That- I am so sorry that you got such a shitty name.

  Brother Green: It is not a name, it is a title. The title which I will use to kill you.

  Kaelen: I don't think you can kill me with a title.

  Brother Green: The title is my Sigil. The Sigil of Greenery.

  Kaelen: In a desert? What kind of use could you get out of that?

  Brother Green: You only could've killed Brother Shade and Sister Spark if you had a Sigil, so you should be well aware that Sigils Fabricate things without using Lux.

  "So that applies to every Sigil?"

  Seems so. Let's see what else this man has for us.

  --{REDACTED} / Brother Green--

  [Level 15], [EXP to next Level: 671]

  [Health Points: 457/457], [Mana Points: 102/102], [Stamina Points: 1,239/1,239], [Lux: 1,301]

  [Attack: 200], [Defense: 200], [Dexterity: 1], [Speed: 1], [Intelligence: 1], [Wisdom: 1], [Adeptness: 1]

  --Skills--

  [Skill and Stat Conversion, Level 32], [Stat Steal, Level 12], [Plant Manipulation, Level 12]

  --Sigils--

  [The Sigil of Greenery]

  [Notice: Death imminent]

  "Huh. So it can always be worse."

  I am so dead.

  "Really? What gave you that idea? Was it, perchance, the 200 attack and defense?"

  You know? It was actually the 450-odd health.

  "Fair enough."

  Oh well, let's see how long I can survive. Who knows, maybe I'll win.

  Kaelen ducked as a large vine shot at where his head was, using his Sigil to summon a scythe and cut the vine before it could redirect. Several other vines shot at him as he ducked and weaved between them, swinging his scythe in large arcs cutting them. as a large tree root shut up from beneath him, he swung his scythe down, cutting it down the middle vertically as it rose. Kaelen refocused and Fabricated a crossbow and shot at Brother Green, only for it to be blocked by a large vine sprouting from the ground.

  Kaelen: Is that your only trick?

  Kaelen grows spears from the ground, they shoot up at Brother Green, only for him to jump and shatter them with what looked to be a tree bark shield. Yeah, that checks out all considered. It didn't matter, from the looks of it his Sigil worked best at medium range, while Kaelen's didn't care about that due to the many weapon options. So Kaelen tried to close the distance, but Brother Green realised what he was doing and summed a line of large, thick trees to block Kaelen. He dropped the scythe in his hand and summoned an extremely large axe, swinging it and cutting down all the trees. Jumping onto and from the stumps Kaelen threw himself at Brother Green and swung. The axe head shattered on Brother Green's new armour. Tree bark.

  Brother Green: Get away from me.

  Brother Green kicked Kaelen in the stomach, sending him flying before he hit the tree stumps and stopped, becoming embedded in them.

  [Health Points: 180/180 (-500) -> -320/180]

  He coughs up blood as his eyes shut. He had already died.

  [Notice: Skills leveled up]

  [Death Watcher, Level 6 (+1) -> Death Watcher, Level 7]