“Uwah…” Aziz groaned. After what felt like hours, he got up closely and looked around, wincing as a horrible, mind-splitting pain assaulted his head once more. For a moment, the world darkened, and the colonel nearly fainted once more, but the agony receded swiftly, leaving nothing behind.

His eyes narrowed a moment later, having regained use of his mental faculties. He was in a world of black that seemed oddly familiar, a never-ending stretch of shadows and darkness, filled with hundreds of thousands…millions of people, even. Most of them were engrossed in digging into the ground, heaping dirt and shiny stones into a pile as they sank deeper and deeper.

A moment later, Aziz himself understood why. There was this intrinsic attraction he had. His instincts were telling him that there was a secret, a treasure, hidden beneath his feet, and that he should claim it at all costs.

His head throbbed once more, and the world began to warp and twist around him. Something was yelling at him, calling out to him from a distant shore, and his mind began to truly clear. A fog of sorts vanished from his cognition, and Aziz, who was on the verge of digging at the ground, stood up slowly. In that very moment, hundreds of eyes fixed onto him, each of them staring at him quietly. A low, unpleasant drone shook the entire world, as they growled, and to Aziz’s shock, they began to take slow steps in his direction.

The world around him began to crack, and the lumbering people lurched to a halt. White and red light shone around him, leaking through the cracks that had manifested in the world and rippling through this dark place. He could sense another presence, one that was thousands of miles away, summoning him somehow.

With one last pulse, something yanked Aziz away from the darkness.

His eyes opened to see a red ceiling. A soft warmness enveloped him, a feeling that Aziz could only bask in for a moment or so before a horrible spike of pain smashed through his head. Rolling around, he screamed into the pillow beneath him, his legs flailing wildly as they smashed into the mattress over and over.

After screaming for what felt like an hour, the pain weakened enough for him to regain control. His pillow was soaked with saliva, sweat, tears and blood, and the colonel stared ruefully at it while enduring the pain. As for the mattress…well, it probably wasn’t faring any better. Thankfully, he didn’t lose control of his colon or his bladder, but that was the only saving grace he had.

He looked around the place slowly. Everything in the room was red, even the mattress he’d torn apart with his flailing legs alone. To his left, Marie was lying on a bed like his, although it was evident that she hadn’t destroyed the mattress she was lying on.

Wait. This colour scheme means that I can only be in a certain place. Aziz pulled himself up, and then rubbed his eyes twice.

“Looks like we’re indeed in the God of Fire’s Divine Kingdom,” Marie, who had been lying down on a bed beside his, finally spoke. Her voice was somewhat cracked, which was far better than Aziz, who made a croak when he tried to reply.

After a few more raspy croaks, the colonel gave up and simply nodded.

“We’ll have to wait, then. I’m not sure where we are, but no other place is this red, after all.” The marshal glanced at Aziz, who looked sadly back, before lying back down on her bed.

Aziz tried to speak again, but a sharp, red-hot flare in his throat informed him helpfully that he had probably injured a vocal cord or two while screaming his agony into the pillow. It wasn’t his fault, but he still felt rather bad about it. Flipping his soaked pillow over, Aziz gingerly laid down on the bed again and stared up at the ceiling lifelessly.

It wasn’t like he could do anything else, anyway.

After an indeterminate amount of time passed, the door to the room they were in swung open, and someone he knew strode inside. Instead of croaking, Aziz waved his hands at the newcomer.

“I was worried that the two of you weren’t going to wake up,” said Familiar Spirit Rene, “but I think I was being a bit too worried.”

“What happened to us?” Marie asked.

“We were doing our usual patrols at night, when we saw the two of you lying on the ground,” said the familiar spirit. “You two were sunburned rather badly, and more importantly, the two of you had sustained some mental injuries, so I brought you to my own dwellings.”

“Thank you for your assistance,” Marie said.

“My pleasure. What happened to the two of you?” Rene asked. “Did you see something in the Great Divide? Was a demon somehow able to attack you?”

“As a matter of fact, we did see something,” said Marie. “There was this person attacking the Great Divide. He or she was collapsing the spatial structures inside, but every movement that…thing made was enough to send the two of us into…”

Rene clicked her tongue twice. “I’m not sure if the two of you are lucky or just plain unlucky. That was most likely the Demon God’s doing. Probably one of his familiar spirits, if you ask me, but…”

“But?”

“It’s a problem we’ll have to face, eventually.” She grimaced. “The Demon God’s servants are probably stronger than us. It’s fortunate that we have the advantage of numbers, but a lot of us are still going to perish. And if we don’t keep this battle contained in World’s End, most of Orb will be ruined too.”

At Aziz’s uncomprehending gaze, she added, “Battles between Demigods are incredibly dangerous. Whether they fight through wills, or through energy, the result is the same — vast swathes of land ruined.”

She sighed. “Right, do the two of you want water?”

They nodded. Rene waved her hand, and a crimson jug of water appeared in front of her, with three cups orbiting it. “Finest water in all of Orb. Take a sip, and do it slowly.”

A cup floated over to Aziz, who sipped at it like he was told. A gentle caress ran down his throat, and he felt the scratchy heat there recede, like flames doused by water.

“Now that you’re able to speak,” said Rene, “I want to ask one thing. What were you two dreaming about?”