Arden, Sya, and Vera sat on the ground in a circle. It had been an hour since the doppelganger left, and they were all hungry and tired from the events of the day. They were all cross-legged and held their cans of rations. Arden was finishing off his days worth of beef and Sya was doing the same. Vera had traded Arden another can of beef for his leftover soup and was eating that instead.

  “I can’t believe that bastard,” Arden said.

  “I know,” Sya said with a nod. “Actual gods exist? It sounds crazy.”

  “So does his existence,” Vera added, still confused about her emotions from earlier.

  “Yeah, that's weird, but that's not what I meant.” Arden said. “Who the hell breaks into someone’s house, sends a few people to the shadow realm, breaks a table, and then leaves? That’s a total dick move.”

  They all glanced at the splintered mess of plywood at their side. Only the piece that Arden had by his side was any larger than 30 centimeters. The majority of it was reduced to splinters and sawdust.

  “I mean, it's not like panels of plywood like that are hard to find,” Vera countered. “Plus, it's not like there aren't other things that can’t be used the same way.”

  “You’re right, but it's more about the message it sends. If he thinks he can get away with this, then he’s got another thing coming.”

  Sya raised an eyebrow

  “Arden, he’s a version of you that survived universal annihilation. You struggled to do push ups. I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think you can do anything to him.”

  “Harsh,” he said. “But also fair.”

  Vera swallowed the rest of her soup and had a cleansing breath before speaking to Arden.

  “She raises a good point. I don’t think he’s going to stop anytime soon. What are you going to do if he comes back here?”

  Arden shrugged.

  “Play to his humanity, probably. He didn’t want to get us involved.”

  “But he did,” Sya countered.

  “He doesn't want to hurt you two. I can probably use that. He also doesn't want to just steal my Legacy Ability. He knows what it's like to live like whatever he is. Stealing it from me will turn me into one of those things.”

  “You’re not great at making plans,” Sya said.

  “What do you want from me? He’s a paradox. He shouldn’t exist. Figuring out a counter for something like that isn’t easy. I might as well pray.”

  “I’d hold back on praying until we find out what we are actually praying to,” Vera said.

  An unnerving silence followed Vera’s words. There was a strange fear in knowing that something like a god existed, but not knowing what it was doing or what its purpose was. It made them feel incredibly small. They weren't even a speck of dust compared to a being like an Archon.

  “Well,” Arden began. “On the bright side, if anyone asks us if we are religious, we can say we found god.”

  *****

  A couple hours later, all three residents were asleep in their rooms. Arden on his mattress, Sya on her covered bed, and Vera on her couch satellite. It had been a grueling day, both physically and mentally. There was something about realizing your place in the universe that was incredibly taxing.

  After their meal, Vera instructed them to get some sleep. There was nothing they could do about Other-Arden right now. Their best bet was to just get stronger. And the first step towards that goal was a restful night's sleep.

  Arden was doubtful that he’d be able to get much sleep. The words of his other self kept repeating over and over in his mind. The forbidden knowledge offered by his other self made it hard to focus on anything else. He thought he’d be up all night, but he was wrong. Maybe it was the exercise, or maybe it was the burden of knowledge, but Arden was out cold in seconds. He didn’t even take off his shirt like he normally did when he slept.

  Sya was much the same in her room. She was always exhausted, so it wasn’t hard for her to be whisked away to dreamland. She slept soundly to the sound of the storm raging in the skies above the house.

  Vera was the only one who wasn’t able to fall asleep. Lying across the couch with her head resting on its arm, she wasn’t able to shut down. She could hear the soft breathing of her friends in the nearby rooms, and found it ironic that she was the only one to not sleep despite taking the super couch.

  She knew the source of her insomnia that night.

  Other-Arden had done something to her. She didn’t know what, or why it was only her that was affected, but she couldn’t deny that there was something odd with her after seeing him again today.

  When she saw him a few days ago on the day she had first met Arden, she only thought that the doppelganger was a little off. She could tell that he wasn’t normal, and even when she learned that it wasn’t her Arden, she didn’t feel strange thinking about him.

  No. It was the events of tonight that brought about this profound change in her psyche.

  Now, whenever she thought of him, she felt like her heart would be torn to pieces. Some part of her was telling her that he needed saving.

  Strangely, it was only when she actively thought of him that she felt this way. When she was talking with Arden and Sya, or when she was just spacing out, the heartache vanished like it wasn’t ever there.

  “What the hell is wrong with me?” she muttered.

  After another hour of tossing and turning but never sleeping, she groaned and got off of the couch. The constant hum of the storm which would normally feel comforting and relaxing had the opposite effect tonight.

  She didn’t know why, but she was nervous.

  Normally, she’d turn to training of her own to fight off anxiety, but that wouldn’t make it any easier to sleep for a while. It would just further wake her body.

  She sighed and slowly got off the couch. Maybe checking in on her friends would give her some modicum of comfort.

  She began with Sya. She peeked her head into her room and saw her sleeping soundly wrapped in her blanket. There was a faint silver glow coming from her hair and the veins that weren't covered.

  Vera didn't know what to expect from Sya when she brought her here. Despite not having any prejudices against Blight Walkers, she honestly thought that she would just be another mouth to feed. She didn't think that Sya would be a burden, but she also didn't think she would have any pros.

  Vera couldn't be more wrong.

  In the week of waiting for Arden to wake up, Sya had proven to be worth it, even if Vera ignored her strangely strong power of observation.

  Sya was something that Vera wanted for so long. Something that was denied to her by her family as they believed that having one was a sign of weakness.

  A friend.

  As they both waited for Arden to wake up after their first encounter with his doppelganger, Sya had been there the entire time, eager to share anecdotes about their childhood, her favorite books, or even just a joke. In that aspect, Vera could see the resemblance between the pair. Vera now considered Arden a friend, but she would always consider his sister to be her first.

  She smiled and left her friend's room. She stifled a yawn as she walked through the quiet, empty house that she managed to find. Happy that her plan to ease her mind was working, she continued to Arden’s room.

  She briefly wondered what he or his sister would say if they saw her going into his room in the dead of the night. She chuckled quietly and looked in on him.

  He, like his sister, was asleep. Actually, it looked more like he was in a coma with how deep into sleep he was.

  Vera chuckled to herself again, seeing that half of him was hanging off the naked mattress.

  She hadn't known him for long. It had only been a little more than a week since they first met, and he had spent the majority of that time unconscious, but in that short time he had proven to be irreplaceable to her.

  It was because of him that she was able to enjoy her exiled life. If he never agreed to help her, then she would have struggled to survive in the slums without resorting to theft. She would never have decided to run to Arden’s aid. Sya would have likely been killed in the week that Arden was passed out.

  But because he decided to help Vera, a newcomer to the slums, all three of them had survived and gotten embroiled in a much larger plot. They stuck together and wanted to get stronger together.

  Despite his misgivings in the beginning of the training this morning, he had proven his resolve by training until his biology failed him. That was enough to endear him to her as a worthy disciple.

  But he was much more than that.

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  Like his sister, he was a friend. One of the only two that she had. Their words earlier about how they wouldn't ever be able to hate her warmed her heart in a way she thought she wouldn't ever feel.

  Feeling much more at ease, Vera believed that she would be able to finally catch some shut eye. She turned away from Arden’s room when she heard a feminine voice from right behind her that sounded like an ethereal whisper.

  “You need to protect him.”

  Vera immediately rotated her body and threw a fist towards the sound, but she only struck air.

  There was no one there.

  Cold sweat rolled down her face as she tried and failed to find what it was that spoke to her.

  “What was that?” she whispered, her words laced with an ominous dread.

  Apparently, Arden wasn't sleeping as deeply as she thought, because moments after she spoke the words, he woke up.

  With bleary eyes he sat up and scratched the back of his head. The mattress had not been merciful to his hair, but in his half-asleep state, he didn't care.

  When he saw the monument to beauty that was Vera standing in his room, lucidity returned all at once. His eyes that were formerly unfocused sharpened like a knife.

  “How does she look that good in the middle of the night?”

  She raised an eyebrow.

  “What was that?”

  “Oh. Uh, I didn't mean to say that out loud. Sorry,” he said, blushing in embarrassment.

  Vera softly laughed in the dark room. In an instant, any tension she felt from the mysterious voice disappeared. She walked a few steps closer to his bed.

  “If only you could pay attention to balls as well as you could to me.”

  “You're a lot more eye-catching than a few balls. Plus, I try not to look at balls. I don't swing that way.”

  Vera laughed again, and it sounded heavenly to Arden. He wanted to hear it more.

  “So, what are you doing in here?” Arden asked.

  As he asked the question, he took the moment to readjust himself so that he was all the way on the mattress.

  “I was just checking in on you two. I felt anxious and thought making sure you two were okay would give me some peace of mind.”

  “Ah, insomnia,” Arden nodded. “I used to do the same thing when Sya and I first came here.”

  “Did it work for you?” She asked, sitting down next to him on the mattress.

  “Mixed results,” he shrugged. “It's funny though. We both check in on people to make sure that they are okay, but we did it mainly out of the desire to fall asleep, not because of any perceived danger.”

  “Is that funny?”

  Arden thought about it for a moment before giving a small dry laugh.

  “I guess not,” he said with a smile. “But it makes you think.”

  He looked at Vera warmly. Even in the near perfect darkness, she still looked mesmerizing. The dim light reflected off of her icy blue hair streaks. Vera didn't mind the look he was giving her. She could feel that there wasn't anything perverse in his eyes. He was looking at her as he would his friend.

  For a few seconds only the comforting sound of the downpour was heard.

  “How is your body?” She asked him, breaking the silence.

  “A little sore, I'm not gonna lie. I'll probably feel it more in the morning, though. But if a little pain is the price I have to pay to get stronger, then it's worth it.”

  Vera nodded and smiled warmly back at him.

  “You're a little strange, you know that?”

  He chuckled again.

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “You just up and trusted me after only a short conversation a few days ago. Now you're training under me and eating actual food. We're even living together now.”

  “Do you think this relationship is moving too fast?” He joked.

  She smacked him lightly in the arm in response. He laughed again.

  “It's strange that you were able to adapt to this so quickly. And now there's an evil clone of you trying to take your ability, and still you don't seem all that bothered. It's like you're just entertained by the whole situation.”

  “That's not that far off the mark, actually.”

  She looked at him, surprised, and he explained.

  “Look, the past few years have been extremely formulaic for me and Sya. Wake up, get food, take my lumps, go to sleep and do it all again. Then this guy shows up and things are actually interesting. I don't think the situation is good, but I can't deny that ever since I met you and the doppelganger things have been a lot more fun for me. Sya probably agrees.”

  Vera looked back over the past few days. They had been filled with more smiles and joy than she had felt in years. And having heard snippets of Arden’s and Sya’s lives, she had no doubt that they felt the same way.

  “And what does she think of your evil twin?”

  “She thinks he needs an evil goatee.”

  Vera tried to hide her smirk but failed.

  “Anything else?” she asked after a moment.

  “I think she's worried about him. I’m the only person she’s been with in the last five years. I doubt that she likes the thought of an eternally suffering version of me who wants to end his life. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for him as well. What about you?”

  Vera paused as she thought about Other-Arden. Immediately, the heart wrenching pain returned. Her words were heavy when she spoke.

  “I don’t know. Something is wrong with me. After seeing him earlier, it feels like my heart is getting ripped out when I think about him. This wasn’t a problem a couple days ago.”

  “That’s why you were crying earlier,” Arden realized.

  She nodded.

  “But I don’t know why. You are both Arden, but you are the only one that I actually know. I don’t know why I feel so sad when I see him.”

  Arden didn’t have an answer either. He rubbed his chin in thought. Only one person would have that knowledge.

  “So everything ties back to him, huh?” he muttered. “I think we need to increase the training then, if I want to meet him face to face again.”

  Vera smiled and put her hand on top of Arden’s head.

  “That’s the enthusiasm I like to see. But rest is just as important to training as the training itself. We’ll resume in the morning. Until then, sleep tight.”

  Arden had never felt more comfortable than when Vera pat him on the head. Like she casted a sleep spell on him, he felt his eyelids grow heavier despite being wide awake seconds ago.

  Such was the power of human warmth.

  Vera gently laid him back down on the mattress. She rubbed his head for a few more seconds. Arden looked like he was in bliss.

  “He’s like a cat,” she giggled. “Cute.”

  Her heart was now at ease. Just talking with Arden had done numbers on her anxiety. She felt her exhaustion belatedly catch up to her. She felt as if she could fall asleep immediately.

  But she didn’t want to leave.

  Arden was a comforting presence for her, and she didn’t want to leave it on a night where she was having trouble sleeping.

  She glanced at the empty spot on Arden’s mattress, but decided against it.

  They weren’t that close.

  She summoned the couch satellite, Usurper’s Throne, to the ground right next to the mattress. As soon as she laid down on it, she was asleep.

  An hour later, she was woken by the familiar sounds of air raid sirens from far away. At first it was only one, but they quickly multiplied into a cacophony that drowned out even the rain.

  Vera was already standing up with a serious expression on her face when Arden was roused from his slumber. The Usurper’s Throne was already back in her inventory, and she had replaced it with a slingshot.

  “One hell of an alarm clock…” Arden muttered groggily. “What’s happening?”

  Sya’s voice rang out from the other side of the house as she ran to them.

  “Guys, there’s something you need to see!”

  Just then, Sya burst into the room with a panicked expression that quickly turned into an entertained one instead.

  “Oh,” she grinned, looking at Vera standing beside Arden. “That didn’t take long.”

  Arden cleared the fog of sleep from his head and stood up, recognizing the sound of the sirens and what they represented.

  “Stargate rupture?” he asked, hoping to be wrong.

  “Sounds like it,” Vera said. “Come on, let's find a safe place.”

  “Uh, that will be a bit harder than you think,” Sya said. “I’ll show you.”

  They followed Sya out of Arden’s bedroom to find a swirling mass of red energy several meters in diameter. Space seemed to crack around it, and the air was humming with the foreign energy that it cast off.

  “A red stargate here!?” Arden yelled, surprised.

  “Not just here!” Sya responded. “The sirens are coming from all over the slums!”

  She carefully avoided the stargate that had taken up residence inside their new home and made it to the front door. Arden and Vera were right behind her when she swung the door open revealing the outside.

  It was a lightshow.

  Countless stargates colored both red and orange appeared swirling in midair all over the place. The lights were able to be seen even through the storm.

  This was no mere stargate rupture.

  This was a stargate cascade.

  “Oh,” Arden said.

  Other-Arden’s words slipped into his mind.

  ‘Something worse.’

  “Uh Vera? What is our best option?”

  “We might be able to make it to a shelter, but…” her words were caught in the air as she looked between her protegees.

  A Blight Walker, and a suspected killer. She doubted that they would be welcome.

  She gave her slingshot to Sya along with a pouch containing stones. She quickly grabbed a chair from where they ate several hours ago and smashed it into the wall. She grabbed two chunks of wood that were the size of a short sword and gave one to Arden.

  “It wasn’t my intention to begin practical lessons just yet, but here we are,” Vera said, holding her chair leg on her shoulder like a gangster would a baseball bat. “We’re going in. The stargate is going to be the safest place for us.”

  They heard the monstrous yell of a Celestial that was too far away to be an immediate danger, but too close for comfort.

  “We’ll be fighting red-tiers, which are barely stronger than a mundane. We can take them.”

  “Can we?” Sya asked.

  The Celestial roared again, but louder. It was coming closer.

  “Do you want to try your odds against that instead?”

  “No, I'm convinced.”

  “Let’s get a move on,” Arden said. “I don’t want to become Celestial food.”

  “Then hold my hands and follow me in,” Vera said.

  Arden and Sya each grabbed one of her hands and walked into the stargate. The feeling of being adrift at sea pervaded their existence for a moment before the sound of rain ceased, and they were whisked away from earth.

  The last thing all three of them saw before appearing on the other side of the stargate was a message from the Status that revealed itself to both Arden and Vera.

  Now entering red-tier stargate [Mausoleum of the Maverick.] Good luck, aspirants.