Lum used Imagination to open a gap in the story, a sort of tunnel that led directly to the Platonic Sea. Of course, because of Noir's blockage, she was not able to pass through it directly, so she Imagined for a long time until finally managing to create a "disguise" that would make her appear as a character for the Sea Platonic.
Now she just had to enter the tunnel, remove her disguise, and use Imagination to escape before her disguise was revealed. Only, for that, she would have to react more quickly than the Platonic Sea, otherwise she would be stuck forever in the void between the latter and the story.
"Being forced to achieve something impossible or risk being stuck forever where no one will ever find me, I love the idea" Lum said ironically, even though she knew no one heard her.
Without further hesitation, she entered the tunnel through the gap she had just created. She could clearly see the exit but if she tried to cross it by walking, running or flying without removing her disguise, the Platonic Sea would see her as a character and she would simply be erased. Reacting faster was therefore the only option.
"Here we go!"
She removed her disguise and used Imagination as best she could, using all of this old and new knowledge and all of her energy to increase her flight speed. His wings took on a white color as his flight speed increased, becoming almost infinite, or even just infinite.
But even then it was not enough, the Platonic Sea reacted more quickly and the exit disappeared, thus trapping Lum in the void forever. Or at least that's what should have happened, but Lum's speed continued to increase again and again even though it was already infinite, reaching values in km/s beyond countable infinity.
But it kept accelerating, continuing even beyond uncountable values until, finally, it became faster than the concept of Time itself. Thus, against all logic, she manages to escape from the story to finally return to the Platonic Sea.
But Lum didn't stop, nor did he slow down. On the contrary, she even accelerated, and began to travel the entire Platonic Sea in the hope of finding Frey and Mike. The chances were that at least one of them was where the Platonic Sea was high, enough for her to bother flying across the entirety of the Platonic Sea, covering every nook and cranny.
During this crossing, she saw several dozen, even several hundred Travelers, finally becoming aware of the number of characters who could have emerged from their stories. There was almost no doubt that, without Noir's influence, she would have met at least one by now. In that case, her life as a Traveler could have been different, she might not have had to stay alone and, perhaps...
'No, now is not the time to think about it' she corrected herself.
In truth, thanks to his new speed, even a second, or even zero, was more than enough time to think about it. But she didn't want to risk breaking her concentration on the Imagination and losing control of her speed, condemning herself to certain death.
Even without it, she no longer wanted to think about the past, but instead wanted to think about the future. So, she continued her search until she came across not one of her friends but an interesting scene: near a collapsing story, a man of Western appearance wearing white and red clothes was swimming quietly, looking at a man wide that floated between the stories, unconscious.
The latter appeared to be injured in the leg and was wearing remnants of armor. Observing him, the man in red and white sighed:
"Of course, that was to be expected" he sighed. "The chances that a third Traveler would be born from the same story and that it would be precisely him, were lower than the chances of winning the lottery ten times in a row but, obviously, Mike's ally could not have died as well simply. It must be believed that Master Noir did not predict my defeat for nothing, everything really seems set in stone to make me lose. In that case, let's destroy the marble!"
The man, who was obviously Shinki, reached out his hand towards Clarc and squeezed it to crush Clarc with his telekinesis but, at that moment, the former captain of his guard disappeared from his field of vision.
'Ah, I had a feeling it couldn't end so easily" Shinki sighed.
"Are you looking for someone?" Lum asked, holding Clarc in his arms.
Hearing Shinki pronounce the names of Mike and Noir, Lum was immediately interested in the scene, and was therefore able to react in time to save Clarc.
"Yes, actually, this man you are holding in your arms is my fiancé" Shinki lied shamelessly. "It turns out that we decided to get married once we became Travelers, but he fainted from the emotion. As he's too big for me to move it with my little arms, I was thinking about using my telekinesis to gently bring it back but it seems that it has gone wrong because we are in the Platonic Sea .
Sorry to ask, but could you help me bring it back to our story, please? I'm too afraid of hurting him using my own powers and I'm not yet good with Imagination, so... please?"
Asking this, Shinki pointed to one of the stories around him most naturally. Lum didn't know what bothered her more, that he could come out with such a big lie, so naturally or that, if she hadn't heard the names Mike and Noir, she really might have been convinced by his sincere tone. .
"Oh really? Because you see, you said this guy is an ally of Mike and Mike is my friend" Lum replied. "And you call Noir, our enemy, your master, so following this logic, I don't believe that a marriage was on the agenda"
Shinki looked at her, more bored than annoyed:
"Ah, obviously an ally of Mike's shows up with a new power, just right here at the right time to save the day" he sighed again. "I'm not even surprised anymore"
But Lum had stopped listening to her, because the man she was holding had started to regain consciousness:
Sir, sir, you have to wake up, it's urgent, Lum urged him. I know you're not in the best shape because you just became a Traveler but please tell me where Mike is.
The man pointed toward the collapsing story:
There… you… save Mike… and Sora…
These simple words were enough to make the man fall back into unconsciousness, completely drained of his strength by his ascension from "character" to "Traveler". The mere fact that he could speak in this state was already impressive.
"It's understood" Lum said. "I'm going to go and save them right now"
"Um, actually, this guy is more or less the hero of the story, so no exit passage without him" Shinki said. "Too bad"
"Oh really? In that case, the next thing to do is clear"
She took Clarc in her arms and flew inside the collapsed story with him.
"Wow, did such a simple thing really work?" Shinki wondered. "Well, too bad for them"
He used the fourth ability of his unique trait, which he had kept secret, so that within the story, it became impossible to exit using the main character as a way out.
'Haha, I bet they believed me when I said I only had three main abilities' he laughed.
Lum arrived inside the story and traveled through almost all the universes that composed it before finally feeling the presence of a human from the Primary World.
"Phew, I just got this speed faster than time thing but I already can't live without it" she noted.
She joined Mike, as well as the child who was with him, and was then a little shocked when she saw him: all his fat was gone and, although it was not comparable to Frey and even less to the unconscious man that As she held on, he had become quite well built, and even a little attractive.
However, her shock was nothing compared to that of Mike, who saw her arrive as if nothing had happened, carrying Clarc, who he thought was dead:
"Lum!? But… you… wait, Clarc is alive, so… Traveler!?" he stammered.
"Haha, I'm happy to see you too, and I like your new look" Lum gently mocked, pointing to her now flat stomach.
Under the mockery, Mike forgot his astonishment for a moment:
"I like your new look too, it's a bit of a hermit" he mocked back, pointing to Lum's clothes.
These were covered in small burns and tears, the result of small mistakes made during its first flight at immeasurable speed.
"Yes, well, you'll excuse me for that, just imagine that going fast enough to surpass the concept of time is quite complicated when you try for the first time" Lum retorted.
Without paying attention to Mike's confused look, she turned to Sora:
"Hey, little guy, you must be Sora?" she asked.
She assumed it was him since he looked like the large man she had carried so far, and whom she had just delicately placed on the ground.
"Yes, that's my name ma'am, thank you for bringing my dad back" Sora said.
Once he finished his sentence, he went directly to his father and examined his condition. After a moment, he displays the smile of a child receiving a Christmas present:
"Dad is fine, he just passed out!" Sora shouted in relief.
"Oh, thank goodness Clarc is okay" Mike sighed.
Lum felt a little excluded from the moment, so she didn't have much remorse at interrupting them:
"Sorry if I'm disturbing, but we really should leave quickly" she said. "The space-time of this story has already begun to fracture. You have to use Imagination on this guy, Clarc, to get out"
"You're right" Mike replied, regaining awareness of the situation.
He tried, but no breach opened to return to the Platonic Sea.
"Eh? What is happening?" he wondered.
He had never tried but he was sure he hadn't made any mistakes, so why was nothing happening?
Sora and Lum also tried, but had no conclusive results.
"Darn it!" Lum sweared. "Looks like someone set up a blockade, like the one Noir created to keep me prisoner!"
Mike didn't know what she was talking about in the second part of her sentence but he had a pretty good understanding of the first:
"Shinki! He must have another ability that he has kept secret until now to prevent us from leaving! he exclaimed"
"So, are we really going to die here?" Sora asked, once again on the verge of tears.
But at that moment, Lum's face lit up:
"I get it now, it's not the same thing!" she exclaimed.
Under the questioning gaze of Mike and Sora, she developed:
"The blockade that Noir used to lock me away was directly based on the Platonic Sea. It was impossible for characters or even Travelers to destroy, you could just trick it into escaping and it would take too long to set up knowing that this story is on the verge of collapse. Fortunately, this Shinki's blockage is different, he created it and maintains it just by himself"
"And so?" Mike asked.
Lum linked him, Sora and Clarc with Imagination, and flew away again, taking them with her.
"And so, we can just ignore the blockage and directly smash the story to get through, since it is doomed to destruction anyway!" Lum replied.
She regained her speed faster than time, not even giving Sora and Mike time to protest. Under the effect of the force created by their movement, they passed through all the layers of the story, finishing reducing it to pieces and escaping at the same time, to return to the Platonic Sea.
"We're not even supposed to be able to handle speeds over 200 km/h, how did we survive that?" Mike asked, nauseous but intact.
"I too am curious to know how you survived, dear friends" Shinki said, arriving in front of them with a sinister smile.
"That means the problems continue..." Lum sighed.
Bingo, Shinki and Mike replied at the same time, but in different tones.