The first sound was the rattling of a chain flying through the air. The second was a rock elemental shattering into pieces. The third was a trio of adventurers rushing into a room.
"Leave no survivors!" Min-Tul shouted as he picked up a rock elemental and threw it across the room. Part of its body broke, but it still managed to get up. It slowly got its bearing, then charged towards the intruders.
"Xul, prioritize the prisoners!" Garrett shouted as he flung the Chain Ball again towards the rock elementals. Xul nodded and made their way to the prison cell. Rock elementals charged at Xul, but Min-Tul and Garrett both covered Xul's advances.
The prisoners all seemed to perk up once Xul made their way to the cage. "We're here to save you," Xul said as they began to fiddle with the lock. "Ugh, what is this?"
"There's a special rock one of the guards have," one of the prisoners said.
"But we don't know who has it," another one piped up.
"Got it," Xul said with a nod. As they began to turn around, they got pinned against the cell bars by a rock elemental. "Ack! Garrett! Min-Tul! Little help?"
"Little busy!" Min-Tul shouted as he struggled to fight off three rock elementals at the same time. His brass knuckles were covered in his blood, but he kept swinging through the pain. "Garrett, what about you?"
"I'll try!" Garrett shouted back, preparing the Chain Ball. He attempted to throw the ball towards the rock elemental that was restraining Xul, but he missed and hit the bars of the cell instead. "My bad!"
"Ack! Hurry!" Xul said as the rock elemental pressed them further into the bars. They groaned as the rock elemental began to twist their arm. "Hey, come on! I just got these!"
Garrett pulled back the chain ball, but before he could toss it again, a rock elemental charged into his side. He shouted in pain as it pushed its weight on him. "Min-Tul!" However, Min-Tul didn't respond. He was being piled on by at least five rock elemental. "Xul! Anything you can do?"
"Not exactly a combatant!" Xul groaned as they were pushed further against the bars. "Stop! STOP!" The air was beginning to be filled with the sound of bones breaking, from all three of the adventurers.
Feeling few options, Garrett shouted out towards the prison cell. "Lyman! I know you're there!" Immediately, the lizard wearing flashy and gaudy clothing perked up. "You have some kind of powerful voice thing! Come on! We need it!" He shouted out in pain as another rock elemental held him down.
The lizard looked around, surprised at Garrett's words. He looked down at himself before shaking his head, cowering in the corner.
Garrett breathed heavily before every bone in his body cracked and everything went dark.
The next thing Garrett knew, he was surrounded by an endless white void as he took in an airless breath. He quickly checked his arms and legs before taking a sigh of relief.
"Ah, so you've perished once again," Otris said, across the desk and sliding a cup of math over to Garrett. "I hope you've brought a decent amount of Helioxene this time."
Garrett took a sip, still tasting the bitter aftertaste of the square root of 17, before talking. "I did get a good haul," he said as he put the pouch down on the desk. "And I would have gotten farther if it wasn't for this lizard man again."
"Lizard man again?" Otris asked as he took the pouch and began to count the Helioxene orbs. "Do explain."
"He wears these fancy clothes," Garrett began to explain, "and he has some sort of power. He can create these powerful shockwaves from his mouth by shouting. And yet, he didn't use it when we needed him to. This is now twice that Lyman has gotten me and others killed."
"Lyman, huh?" Otris said as he finished.
"Yeah, that's what he called himself when he introduced himself to me in the previous timeline," Garrett explained. "You wouldn't happen to be able to know anything about him, being the Duken of Asuria, would you?"
Otris chuckled at Garrett. "I would, normally." He sat up straighter in his chair. "However, due to the current unstable nature of Asuria, I cannot." Otris took a sip of math and sighed.
"What about Dilun, the World Feaster?"
He looked at Garrett for a bit, confused. "And who, or what, is that?"
"I was hoping that you could answer that for me," Garrett said, leaning in. "In a previous timeline, one of my companions, Iadre, brought up his name. She said that it was a 'greater being that exist beyond us.' If he is left unsated for a day, he would consume Asuria."
Otris chuckled at the story. "Well, there is and isn't truth to that." He brought up the universe that contained Asuria and gestured for Garrett to lean closer. "There aren't any Duken named Dilun, nor are there any that fit that name. We Duken rely on these worlds to provide us Helioxene, so there's no point in consuming these Worlds." He leaned back and pointed to a dark part of the universe. "However, due to this unstable nature, it is possible that some creature that is large enough to consume planets may spawn. We do not know enough, nor has Asuria been stabilized enough to determine it."
Garrett leaned back and sighed. "So, Asuria's unstable nature is due to some powerful being destabilizing the, Lospil, was it?" Otris nodded. "Are you able to tell me anything about who it is?" Otris shook his head. "I figured." Garrett looked down at the bracelet he got. "Can you at least tell me how to use this?"
"Ah, I knew I forgot something last time you were here," Otris said, taking hold of Garrett's wrist. "These represent how many times you have left before it needs to recharge. Each glowing stone is 1 use."
"How do they recharge?"
"In every World, there is some ambient energy around. Call it things like magic, mana, aura, chi."
"Xir?" Garrett asked, looking at the bracelet.
"Sure." Otris shrugged. "Now, this bracelet has three gems of basic flames. To use this, you have to use the specific code phrase to activate it: Flariseo."
Garrett stared at Otris in disbelief. "There was a specific phrase I had to use!? How was I supposed to figure that out?"
"It's written right there." Otris pointed to the center of one of the jewels, where, upon staring at it, the code phrase appeared in glowing letters.
"Of course it was that easy to figure it out," Garrett groaned. "So, what new Helioxene thing can you give me?"
"Ah, well, the sword bow is still available to you," Otris said, putting Asuria away and putting three boxes onto the table. The first had the upgrade to Garrett's sword. "This second box has a ring of basic identification." Garrett's eyes went wide before Otris put his hand up. "Very basic. This will allow you to identify written languages, but it won't translate them for you."
"So, I'd be able to tell that something is, say, dwarven, but not what it says?"
"Correct," Otris said. "Finally, this third one has a very minor pouch of currency. When you start in Asuria, you'll begin with 10 coins of whatever the lowest currency in Asuria is."
Garrett mulled over the options before settling on the minor pouch of currency. With a confident nod, he walked into the portal Otris opened behind him, armed with new knowledge and a bit of money.