Zack woke up with Bayei still sleeping on his chest. He laid his head back with a smile in rememberence of the night before. Damn did this woman knows how to squeeze. He'd been with plenty of nerdy fangirls in the past, but none of them could put on so much pressure.

'Captain Kirk I could totally adopt your lifestyle' He stroked her hair in order to gently wake her. Instantly she woke up, took a sharp breath and restrapped her clothes together. Zack reached out to squeeze her ass but only got his hand smacked away.

"Ow! What was that for?" he said as his wrist momentarily stung.

Bayei stoically said "I did not give you free reign with my body." and climbed out of their bed between the two leaves.

"Okay." then he got up 'So she used me? Well...I suppose that's not something to be mad about.'

The dew of the morning made the air crisp and Bayei closed her eyes as she breathed in deeply "I've never breathed in air so fresh before."

Zack frowned in thought. The Dirske were packed into their mountain cities, fearfully knowing that they aren't the apex predators of the world. Zack could only hope that they wouldn't run into any of the reasons why.

Bayei said "My foot is stuck." Zack did a double check on the puddle she had stepped into and saw that it was a bit too blue to be morning dew.

"Take off your boot. Sometimes plants that make adhesives are known to be carnivorous."

Bayei unlaced her foot and backed up "Now what? We can't go forward this way.

"Then we will have to go down" and so they descended through the levels of foliage, the light growing dimmer until their feet hit the dirt at the bottom of the jungle.

Zack made his claws glow using a partial activation of Hroyd's Ether Swipe skill, the green light illuminating a ten foot area around them. Then he cautiously peeled back a leafy membrane that barred the way. Anything can have a stinger.

But as he looked into the new area, he found that the specimens of this level had the ability to create their own luminescance much like the sea creatures of the deep on Earth. Pink ferns were scattered across the floor. As he approached they parted in the same way a mouth would, revealing a crimson red interior. A few latched onto Zack's pant leggings as he passed but they weren't strong enough to hold him. Yellow and blue flowers with hundreds of thin petals bloomed out of the bottom of the trees. Green vines covered in spines hung sporadically around the clearing, letting off a faint bioluminescant light. A tannish rat-like crature peered its head up out of the ferns as they passed, it spun it's head a full 360 degrees looking at them with every one of it's eyes that covered every side of it's head. As they made their way, a red worm spewed a gross looking squiggly appendage out of it's mouth and rapell itself down a tree.

Zack suddenly held up his hand to stop then moved in the direction of the noise he heard "Something very large is breathing about two hundred feet in that direction." he peeled back a wall of white spiney vines.

Bayei asked "Don't you think it might try to eat us?"

"It won't be able to get through this dense underbrush even if it does spot us."

All they could see from their position so far away was a few rolls of tannish flesh, but Zack estimated it to be twice the size of an elephant. Then it reared it's eyeless head, that was more of a snout with crooked teeth than anything. It shot out a red tongue like appendage out of it's mouth. It traveled for hundreds of feet before being pulled back. In the distance an animal screeched in alarm. They caught a glimpse of a white furry creature enter it's maw and a loud crunch came from it as it instantly crushed whatever prey it had snatched from hundreds of feet away.

Bayei said "I know what it is, and we need to get out of here."

Zack nodded as they backed away.

After a few minutes of getting deeper into the jungle, Bayei said "That was an adolescent terror worm. The guardsmen used to be snatched away by the adult versions of the beasts regularly. Now they have anchor drill devices on them at all times when they go outside the mountain."

Zack asked "Do you think it's related to that red worm we saw repelling down that tree?"

"If it is then the infant form of the species is a thousand times smaller than the adult version."

They made their way through the jungle, whispering so that any predators would not hear them. But the Akma network did pass messages between them.

Bayei asked "What is your world like?"

Zack hung his head "My world has so many problems that at one point in my life I was screaming at the top of my lungs over it because nobody else could see it. The technology level has stagnated. We have been burning coal and oil for two hundred years even though there are extremely better alternatives. The people are primitive savages living in a modern world, actually that's not fair to the savage, because at least they do something to advance themselves. Very few like myself have discovered the joy of learning."

Bayei said "Aren't you being just a bit harsh on them? I mean there's many different types of people and they're all going to live their lives differently."

"That doesn't mean they have the right to throw away the gift of intelligence by smoking drugs that contain mercury."

Bayei asked "Did you know someone who destroyed their life in that way?"

"No."

"Then why are you mad about it?"

"Because whenever I see injustice, evil or just a general wrongness in the world. It eats away at me, and all I can really do is look away by diving head first into a piece of fiction due to my own powerlessness. At least, that's how I was before Akmadouric's arrival."

Bayei let out a short laugh "Is that why you chose to save me? Because you have some insane desire to fix all wrongs."

"That's not the only reason why I did it."

Bayei waited for him to elaborate a bit more as they walked but when he didn't she stopped after thinking for a bit.

Zack also stopped and turned to look at her "Something the matter?"

"It's nothing. I guess I was just deluding myself that there was some kind of paradise beyond that portal." then continued walking.

"Somewhere there is a paradise. Maybe someday I'll find it. Or maybe I'll create one." then he went after her

Five minutes later Zack stopped and said "Hroyd has discovered a disturbance in the spiritual ether."

"Meaning?"

Zack dashed ahead "There's an Eidolan ahead and it sounds like there's a struggle"

The first thing they saw when they entered the fighting grounds was a black predator encircling a bleeding emerald green Eidolan. Clear blood still flowing from it's many wounds. It's flat reptilian head barely lifting off the ground as it lost it's strength. Attached to the head were several green tentacles crackling with electricity.

Zack jumped up on a branch and pounced on the black predator, as he did so he noted Hroyd's approval through their link. His claws sank into it's neck. It howled and dove it's head forward. Throwing Zack off it's back hard. He rolled twice and managed to get his feet planted on the ground. He looked up to see a very pissed looking creature with a rat face and bear's body charging at him. Four silver knives flew into the rat-bears back and a confused Zack heard a sizzling sound. Four consecutive explosions boomed and chunks of the creature blew in every direction but it was still mostly intact. It's blood showering Zack.

Finding himself to be drenched he shook himself "I wasn't told the Dirske had gunpowder"

Bayei jumped down and said "It has a name?"

Zack blinked and looked at her for three seconds before saying flatly "You figured out how to make gunpowder by yourself."

"Is it really that big of a deal? It's nothing compared to the weapons based on Taelon energy."

"Oh not really. It was just the basis of all military weaponry on my world for several hundred years." then he turned to the injured Eidolan on the ground.

The unknown Eidolan was a bright emerald green with the head of a lizard but that was where any semblance of a normal creature ended. It's body, or bodies consisted of almost a hundred tendrils that were twelve feet long, floating in the air like weightless hair. The occasional blue sparked arced off it's tendrils and a webbing could be faintly seen within the center mass.

The green creature shimmered slightly as it tried to enter the spiritual ether, but Hroyd was already on the other side creating disturbances so it couldn't cross over. Zack slowly reached his hand towards the bleeding green Eidolan and it hissed at him. He pulled his hand back momentarily and then inched it forward once more until he touched it.

Akma connected the emereld green Eidolan to the network. He couldn't communicate with the creature using language. So instead he sent the meanings of safety and revival over their newly formed link. After a minute of convincing it understood the concepts. Eventually accepting the contract.

Eidolan Symbiosis evolved into Eidolan Simbiosis: Hroyd, Eidolan Symbiosis: ??? ??? Description: This eidolan uses magnetic fields within the atmosphere to float through the air. It's main food source is iron and other various metals, which it turns to rust and expels through it's skin. It is also capable of using loud sounds to scare away other predators. Skills gained during symbiosis: Magnetic attraction and repulsion, enhanced voice volume Magnetic Attraction and repulsion Description: This ability allows the user to attract or push away metallic objects to them. If the metallic object in question has larger mass than the user, the user may attract or push themselves towards or away from it. Willpower cost: 22 per hour Requires: Eidolan Symbiosis: ??? Enhanced voice volume Description: This skill gives the user the ability to loud sounds out of their mouth Willpower cost: 5 per sound burst Requires: Eidolan Symbiosis: ???

Zack asked "How come it has these question marks where it's name should be?"

Akma said "It's kind has never been given a name before. Since you are the first sentient to ever discover it. Naming rights fall to you."

"I've never named anything, not even a pet." it was a creature unlike anything he had ever seen in real life and fantasy creatures always had...exuberant names "Well it has the head of a lizard and tentacles like an octopus, although it has no suckers so...Lizoctopus? No, I really don't think I'll be going with the pokemon method."

After giving it some thought he decided on how he was going to go about the process "Akma, can you bring up a random number generator? And give the minimum value of one and the maximum value of twenty six. Assign numbers one is 'A', two is 'B', etcetera."

This had to be the way that all these fantasy franchises named their monsters. Tarasque, Jotunn, Bulette? Clearly they picked letters out of a hat. Not that Zack's method was any more artful.

The name that came up was 'Poiuaraud', but that sounded horrible so he modified it a little to get the much better sounding name 'Poiraud'. And henceforth, the newly discovered eidolan species was named.

??? has been changed to Poiraud

Zack said "Now we got the name for the species but what about it's name?"

"Well it is kinda cute in a monstrous sort of way. So how about Lulu?"

Zack looked over at her with half lidded eyes.

She shrugged "I name my automatons all the time."

The Poiraud let out three high bayings and two more smaller ones came out.

Zack said "We got ourselves a family of three. Ah, Lulu here tells me that they are all sisters."

"What about their names?"

He chose to be lazy "Lili and Lala." then he forms contracts with them as well.

The eldest Poiraud reentered the spiritual ether, giving Zack the ability to use Eidolan Symbiosis: Poiraud for the first time. Small green tentacles formed on every inch of his skin from his neck down. His eyebrows, jawline, lips, and nose grew green ridges.

Zack said "This might take some getting used to. Especially with this mild electrical current running through me." his body wouldn't stop twitching slightly. Then he tried using the Magnetic attraction and repulsion ability. Waves of magnetism appeared all around him and he began to float in the air.

Bayei stared at the whole process "You can transform and fly? I thought you were human. What kind of a creature are you?"

"I am human, but I'm also a member of Akmadouric's army. Now lets go." he instructed the other two Poirauds to carry Bayei. One flew in between her legs while the other used it's magnetic powers to carry her by her mechanical backpack.

Zack veered off to the side as he learned to fly, but after a few minutes of practice he got the hang of it.

And so they began to fly towards the portal.