Everything became much more imminent. It flashed through Apexus’ mind that they had already lost just by the over-levelled sniper’s appearance. Even if they got off the leaf, wouldn’t he just chase them that little bit onto wherever the Stem led them?

“Keep on going!” Aclysia nevertheless shouted out. She knew things that Apexus didn’t about the space they needed to reach and thusly her voice was hopeful. That tone was enough for the slime to continue its effort to crawl as quickly as he could. Ignoring the hunger, he continued to grow out his wings, flapping them desperately.

They were still too small to lift him off the ground, but at least they provided a bit of a boost.

Near to the gate, a medic of the city guard was helping Mehily and Berholdt recover. They extended their offer to help to Evmeria, but the Inquisitor was ignoring all of them, already back on her feet, if swaying, and stumbling after the trio.

Reysha grabbed her last throwing knife and just blindly tossed it in the direction of the approaching guard. It bounced off a raised shield without any meaningful result. Desperate, the tiger girl threw any and all remaining weaponry she had at their pursuers, just to give Apexus more time.

The sky had turned into a dark blue at this point. The world behind the trio seemed less and less like a place they were at and more like at a cut-out of a landscape viewed through a looking glass. Indeed, it slowly seemed to shatter, individual fragments showing different parts of the world, all separated by silver veins. The name leaf hadn’t just been chosen because of the branching nature of the Omniverse, it seemed.

Apexus had no time to marvel at any of this as the Hunter broke the border fortress’ arching gateway. The speed at which he moved caused nearby guards to almost fall when he cut closely by them. In one fluid motion, the Sharpshooter stopped his run, readied his bow and pulled an arrow from his quiver.

From previous encounters, Apexus knew very well that he was in the range of the Hunter’s strikes. He was also a much slower and less defended target than ever before. This constant checking of what was behind him caused the slime to get slightly off course. A shocking revelation hit him in time: there was no border barrier to this narrowing path. He was hanging a slight bit above the nothing and retracted in time.

Under other circumstances, a tactical fall may have been possible, but Apexus would need at least another minute before his wings reached flying size. There was no telling where he could fall in that time.

While he recovered from that shock, he realized that not a single arrow had flown his direction yet. Instead, the Hunter had gotten to running, with the arrow ready and the bow lowered. While this bought them more time, it wasn’t exactly a reason to relax.

The guards formed a corridor and just let the Hunter pass. Even if it was their official duty to act here, none of them was foolish enough to make a stand where they could be catapulted into the Abyss. Same could not be said for Evmeria, who shouted something unintelligible when the Hunter passed her.

Gabrame, just slowed down for a moment to give her a toothy grin. “This is my prize, Inquisitor,” he mocked, then eyed the slime in the distance again. Sure, it was ever shrinking, but he really shouldn’t stop to boast like this. Once they were off the leaf, he would have to try to drag that thing back by purely physical means or risk something else showing up and complicating the entire ordeal. Possible, but unneeded and difficult.

The slime occasionally leapt with his wings beating at this point, so Gabrame knew he had to hurry. “…Fine!” there was a sudden outcry from behind him. “Better your prize than escaped!” An ice blue energy bolt suddenly flew by Gabrame, quicker even than he could run.

Apexus saw it coming as well, its straight trajectory was bound to hit him. The sky was basically black at this point, the world behind him nothing more than a leaf-shaped assortment of landscape images. The path was at its narrowest point now, broadening in front of him again. Connected to something massive, silver like the veins and the Stem, but with many shades to it. It’s fissured appearance seemed to be massive bark and powers of all colours pulsated under the semi-translucent surface.

A branch of the Omniverse, it was right in front of Apexus and his allies.

“We are upon freedom, my darling!” Aclysia exclaimed with a huge smile on her face, spending as much of her magic as she could dare without falling into a passive state in order to obstruct the Hunter’s path.

“Finally, off this awful fucking place!” Reysha exclaimed with insane enthusiasm.

Indeed, all Apexus had to do was leap one more time. Dodge that spell and jump into freedom at the same time. The three of them would escape, side by side. His wings raised, then moved down with immense force. It propelled him up and forwards. The spell would sail right under him.

It would have. Were he not the target of the Inquisition.

As it was, the mass of pale energy adjusted its course ever so slightly. Before either Reysha or Aclysia could react, it struck Apexus in the back. Just like the last spell of Evmeria, it dealt no damage but the terrorizing amount of pain caused Apexus wings to tense at the wrong time, ending even this little flight.

It was just a few seconds. However, the scope of the current happenings, it might as well have been several minutes. By the time Apexus came back to control over his senses. The Hunter was jumping over the trio and landing in front of them.

Against their better judgement, so close to the goal, the Reysha and Apexus prepared to attack the much higher levelled adventurer. Gabrame, with a self-assured smile, pulled on his bowstring.

Reysha was the quickest of them, but neutralized by the old Hunter without him even taking a hand off his bow. Two kicks, faster than Reysha could react to, sent the redhead flying back down the path they had come from.

While Aclysia was stunned, struck without magical power or a plan, she could only watch as Apexus rose into a wave of slime, about to crash onto their assailant and devour him whole. For a moment, it looked like that could be a winning strategy. Then Gabrame had pulled back the bow all the way and loosed the arrow in the same moment.

The arrow with the forked tip ripped a fist sized hole into Apexus body, which ceased moving immediately. Gabrame took a quick step back while he nonchalantly lowered his bow, while Aclysia felt a cold hand grip her heart and guts.

The large mass of slime slumped down. Slowly at first, then very suddenly, as slime was converted into water. Disconnected body parts were washed down into the void to the satisfied stretching of a Hunter whose retirement money was saved. “Job’s done!” he exclaimed and wandered off.

“Job’s…done?” Aclysia asked in a state of absolute disbelief. She landed in the puddle that had been her awakener moments ago and touched the quickly dispersing water. Grotesquely, a single wing laid on the floor, one of Apexus’ blue eyes rolling past it. It looked dull and lifeless, as if the sentience behind it had never existed. “Apexus… darling… awakener?” she asked while looking for any signs of life remaining.

“You got to be fucking kidding me…” Reysha growled as she saw the scene from her position further down. “That’s where it ends?! YOU COCKSUCKING PIECE O-!” she jumped at Gabrame but she was treated to the exact same treatment as last time, a shin slamming into the pit of her stomach and catapulting her even further down, right into the arms of the ready standing guard. It took three people to keep the thrashing tiger girl fixed on the floor. “WHY?!”

“Money,” Gabrame answered quite easily and strolled past her. Reysha had a much longer, extensive tirade of curses for the Hunter, but he didn’t listen. “It’s just a monster, calm down.”

“Monster…? Just A monster?” Reysha stated in a quiet tone, then began giggling. A giggle that quickly became a shrill laughter that made every last guard around here wish she would just continue struggling instead. They could deal with physical threats, but this unnatural display of amusement disturbed them deeply. It was like the redhead was scratching on their soul with her words. “I see enough monsters still here.”

Mehily looked at her former comrade from a distance, with more worry than she had ever felt. A feeling she couldn’t dwell on for too long, as Gabrame passed all of them. “The angel is still around,” the Hunter pointed out, pointing up the stem where Aclysia was still searching for life in the escaping water. “I guess she’ll be able to tell you enough of what you want to know. We all win.

“So, it seems,” Evmeria agreed and walked towards the metal fairy to take her into custody. That she was still around despite her quest being fulfilled and her awakener now defeated was its own mystery they needed to crack.

Mehily wasn’t quite as sure if this was a victory and she stood still, occupying herself with checking on Berholdth’s healed face for the third time. Just an excuse to look after Gabrame, trying to figure out what he had even wanted out of all of this.

Stuck to the fortress wall, between stone and the three-parted tip of the arrow that had killed the slime, she found the answer. The fist sized nucleus of the unique beast, a pearl the colour of midnight and unique in all records of the Omniverse. A trophy worth a lot of money to the right person.

Gabrame gave it a greedy smile as he held it up to inspect its status. Specialized arrows, only shooting at perfect angles, he had gone through a lot of pain to make sure he got this thing without a scratch. It was good to see it all paid off.

Without any further care, he threw it into his bag. It was time to get his payment and get drunk.