Soon the wasteland was transformed by thunderous booms, flying mushrooms, and burning blood flying in the air.
Each of his strides broke the sound barrier, burning the earth under his feet and the blood mist congealed in the air as Adrian bolted across the barren ashen lands.
His eyes scanned the wasteland as he rushed by only to find no hint of either target.
Not helping the matter was the fact that his eyes had to be constantly regenerated due to the dust, blood, and rapid air scratching them.
With each second that passed a throbbing sensation burrowed into Adrian's head as the crimson panel flashed before his eyes.
With less than seven days to not only find and conquer his nightmares but also find the pedestal that houses the shards so he can leave, Adrian's mind was thrown into overdrive.
Suddenly Sakura's excited voice could be heard saying, ~I think something is about… 182 miles to the west. I don't know if it's what we're looking for though.~
Hearing Sakura's voice made Adrian snap out of his thoughts and enthusiastically reply, "It's worth a try… and worse case my soul is obliterated with someone to comfort me in the end this time."
Sakura quickly snapped back, ~Stop it! Don't talk like that, we will make it. You literally have gods watching after you.~
"Oh. You mean the same gods that put me here… Yeah, I'll take my chances with devils before them…" Adrian quipped back
As he finished talking Sakura let out a soft high pitched laugh in response.
[Cursed Writer sponsors 50 fate value to say "I mean not all of us hate you…"]
"Man, you could have fooled me. Who was it that told me to and I quote [Go unalive myself off a tree] again…" Adrian scoffed as he took a sharp left turn and headed towards the thing in the west.
[…]
******
After 12 minutes of running Adrian arrived at an odd portal-like anomaly floating just above the ground.
When Adrian was close enough to see the anomaly he couldn't slow down in time the normal way so to force his stop he burrowed his feet into the ground while falling face forward.
Suffice it to say he stopped in a fraction of a second only meters away from the portal… but, in the process when his body made contact with the ground the sudden stop forced each cell and connecting tissue to explode into a cloak of dust and particles.
After a three-second delay, the particle's reattachment became big enough to form familiar blood tendrils navigating the dust and earth kicked up in the explosion to gather his body back into Adrian.
Astonished, Sakura worriedly said, ~That… was unnecessary, and how much damage did you take for endurance to take over three full seconds to 'respawn' you?~
Adrian could only be surprised at the exaggerated damage he had taken for the delay to be that long.
After multiple seconds of silence, Adrian said, "...I have no idea. Buuuuut, why is there a portal here?"
Disappointed in Adrian's terrible transition, Sakura helplessly commented, ~I don't know… Isn't it another nightmare, or maybe you have at least one hope here.~
Adrian could only vaguely agree as he scratched his head and examined the portal.
At around one meter in width and two in height, the portal seemed small compared to Adrian's hulking 2.8 meters in height and 1.2 meters in width.
Adrian's exaggerated size aside…
The portal seemed even odder when Adrian circled it at five meters away.
As it was similarly two-dimensional when looking at it everything inside seemed disorientating and with the other side showing the same picture.
As Adrian got closer he transformed into a smaller form to more easily travel through the portal.
This form was much thinner and shorter comparatively, coming in at 6 foot, 2 inches with a chiseled body.
Throwing caution to the wind, when the crimson panel reappeared with its timer ticking down, Adrian stepped through the portal in hopes of finding the final shard.
As he hoped he wouldn't have to track down the theater.
******
While Adrian panicked a small audience gathered under a universe-filled sky…
Seal, Demon, Eve, and an odd old man stood around the lake of causality discussing the crimson panel.
Seal complained about Adrian's wasted chance.
The old man spoke up in a solemn voice saying, "... You can't expect everyone to perfect their missions like you, Seal."
Demon jokingly added, "Tell 'em Gramps."
Hearing their conversation Eve smacked Demon over his head before reprimanding him.
Annoyed, Seal yelled, 'Focus!' trying to get the conversation back on track.
Under the heavy influence of their sealing mist, everyone else quieted down.
She quickly added, "Come on, even the readers are watching… act right."
Hearing Seal's words every person straightened their back and quieted down.
After surveying the group, Seal continued, "As I was saying before, why does he have almost nothing there… and what was shown to him in the theater for him to be disqualified?"
Both Demon & Eve spoke over each other saying, "Because he's special… Hey, don't copy me."
"Stop bickering!" yelled the old man before coughing and turning to Seal and saying, "This one is uncanny, we have no record of his existence before the island… besides the letter of course."
Suddenly Demon interrupted, "Gramps, Seal, it's fine, so what if he missed one growth stage… He's already stronger than most of us were at that stage."
Everyone could only look at Demon with dumbfounded expressions.
Confused, Eve asked, "Wait, why has he gained so much extra time? Seal, didn't you restart the cycle to fix the mistakes? Why are we forcing his movement to the center? The rest of us had to move on our own."
This time Gramps spoke out, "Don't you remember how many became useless on the first ring before we put up the shields?! We separated it into part this iteration to hopefully up the incarnations chances. You would know if you left your fucking garden!"
Hearing Gramps' angry voice, Seal quickly reminded him, "Weren't you the one who told her to leave the meeting…"
"I-..."
"Ok… Sorry reader, we seem to be having problems." With that said Seal cast a sheet of sealing mist around you forcing your view back to the island.
******
As your view settled Adrian hopped into the portal forcing your view to once again change.
******
As Adrian stepped through the portal Sakura felt dizzy as she returned to her viewing room in the void, except this time a similar strange portal had appeared within her room.
When she saw the portal she tried to call out to Adrian with little effect, but luckily she felt their connection was still strong.
Dumbfounded by the odd sensation, Sakura floated closer to the portal, but soon she saw a footstep out of the portal causing her to panic and hide behind the screen in the void.
Peaking out of the side of the screen Sakura quickly noticed Adrian had entered her room for the first time since he regained his form.
******
When Adrian stepped through the portal a strange light washed over his body leaving him with the same odd feeling that he had felt when he was stranded in the void for eons.
Except for this time a comforting warmth radiated from the void.
As Adrian stepped out he felt his connection with Sakura strengthen hundreds of times.