Yeah. Finally going to write part six. Go me. ^-^;; Sorry it’s so late, got delayed legitimately for two days, and then my computer crashed and burned, and that’s why it got delayed two MORE days really sorry. This one is a doozy, so I’m going to try and keep it to a reasonable length. But it will, and I mean WILL be VERY long. If you can’t handle the whole thing in one shot, take a break and come back later, but please make an effort to read the whole thing. Bear with me here… Summary thus far: CrossSlash having finished his business with King Slime leaves Blast and Riella to go defeat the incrementally tougher Alishar, and of course you can expect the XDarkStriders to make trouble as well.

—
Sprawled out on a couple of cargo crates below deck, a bored BlastMage eyed his companion, pacing worriedly. She pushed strands of long purple hair out of her eyes and shifted uncomfortably in her repeat linear path.
“Don’t fret so much, I’d think you were his mother!” Blast tried to reason. There’d been no word from CrossSlash since the transmission had cut off just two minutes before, but Riella had been a whirlwind of impatience ever since.
“It’s going to take them a little while to kill King Slime with the DarkStriders interfering, he’ll call back as soon as he’s done. I strongly doubt that a handful of guildmates and a giant homicidal jello can overwhelm Cross slash AND everyone waiting for Kerning party quest to boot.” She stopped pacing to smile slightly at his comparison.
“I suppose so, maybe I am worrying to much. It hasn’t been so long since I was at his level.” she agreed, walking over again to wait by Blast.

Indeed, they weren’t disappointed, the com buzzed five minutes later, startling a dosing BlastMage awake, knocking the device off his lap to the floor.
“Clumsy mage.. never one for dexterity, eh?” Riella chastised, as they both reached for the dropped communicator. Blast, not expecting that, went a little red as her hand covered his, and snatched up the comm to frown at her before flipping it on.
“BM buddy,” the thief on the other end paused to cough, “your man CrossSlash just bagged the King Slime, how ‘bout them apples?”
“Really, nice.. how’d you do tha- and what’s wrong with your voice?” Blast asked.
“Oh, don’t mind me… I just swallowed about half of the nasty beastie. I’ll be coughing up slime chunks for weeks if I don’t miss my guess.” Cross replied sardonically. “But, the big guy definitely wasn’t a match for the almighty shwankyness that is me. Yes.”
“Okay, whatever,” Blast continued, “what about the time barrier, did Grendel’s medallion work?”
“Yeah, everything is smooth, Lakelis says the barrier is stronger than ever, and she doesn’t think the XDarkStriders, or anyone else for that matter, will be able to disrupt it again anytime soon.” the rouge assured him.
“What about the DarkStriders? Did you figure out how they’re disrupting the barriers?” Blast inquired, indeed that information would be key in stopping them at Ludibrium.
“No, but I saw Erik glowing red. He did it with some freaky magic mumbo jumbo. I was actually going to go ask Grendel about it now.” Cross told him, as the ship’s horn sounded, and Blast stood up.

“Okay Cross, good luck with that, I’ve got to go, we’re transferring to the Ludi boat now.”
“No problem man, I’ll head over to Ossyria when I’m done here.”
“Yeah, hopefully we’ll be done with Alishar by then.” Blast said, flicking off his comm. “I told you he could handle it, Riella.” he added smugly. Stepping out into the huge Orbis station, neither adventurer paused long to look over the high arches and ceilings, or the elaborately tiled floors of the cloud city. The two hurried to the ticket vendor, and bought two passes before rushing off across the platform. Riella pulled her red whip from her pack and sped up.
“Move it mage boy, if we have to sit around here for the next boat, I will most definitely be pissed at you.” Riella shouted back to Blast, as he checked his eyes at shoulder level again and teleported to catch up.
“Yeah, yeah, we’ve got nearly four minutes. No big.” he said, appearing beside her in a blue flash, and teleporting again as she pulled ahead. “We just have to beat the DarkStriders there anyway, and last anybody saw of them, they were in Kerning City. We have a nice head start I’m sure.” Glancing down her back again, the magician swallowed and looked away. She certainly wasn’t plain, and in good shape to show for all the training she did.
“Why had Riella chased him in the first place?” Blast mulled over, “boredom…” he supposed. But, if she were actually interested in him… it might be something to look into. Was he interested in her? He hadn’t thought of that, and he frowned at the prospect that if he was, she might have noticed it before he did.

Bursting through the tall sweeping gates of the Ludibrium platform, Blast and Riella ran side by side, the Cleric cackling and the warrior looking at him somewhat worriedly.
“What’s so funny Blast, you nutter?” she asked.
“Oh, just that you ran all the way here and I’m still going to get to the boat first.” he laughed, and then teleported up the steps, and platform to platform, as Riella was left to scramble and jump up on her own. Blast landed beside the ticketer and cackled, jumping up and down, to proclaim; “See, I win!”
“Only because you didn’t even run all the way.” Riella grumbled, handing her ticket in as well, as they climbed aboard the brightly colored toy boat. She stumbled as she stepped off the ramp, and he caught her by the arm before she could fall on her face.
“Dexterity, eh?” he cackled, and she growled deep in her throat, waving the whip in front of his face, but didn’t go so far as to berate him for keeping her on her feet.
“Don’t test me mage boy.” stepping away from her, he held his hands up defensively, and said with an attitude of mock fear;
“I’m sorry dearie, don’t hurt me?” and he laughed as she chased him off across the deck.

—
Pausing briefly to heal the boisterous young thief before shoving him off of her, she said;
“I’m Leul, if you must know. Now go wash up, you’re slimy.”
“Aww, just like that?” Cross asked, “won’t I ever see you again!” he asked in faked desperation as she turned to leave. Fumbling for something to say before she could walk off, he blurt out;
“Uh, I’m headed to Ellinia in a bit, I need to talk to Grendel, and then go join my friends in Ludi. They’re trying to stop that guild from freeing Alishar too!” she frowned as she turned around, interested now, he could tell from the wry little smile on her face. “And we might-”
“-need another cleric.” she finished for him. “Fine, it sounds like an adventure to me, my training has become long and boring, so I’ll come with you.” she said, readjusting the red matty to better cover locks of orange hair. “But you’re not going anywhere until you have a shower.”

—
Blast laughed and teleported out of the way as Riella snapped the red whip at him again.
“I warned you cleric, I’ll get you now!” she grumbled, raising an arm to crack the whip again, still missing.
“Oh, c’mon Riella, your aim isn’t any good when you can’t corner your target?” he said, teleporting again, and flipping over a box to land behind it, cackling.
“You just wait BlastMage!” she said, jumping on top of the crate to follow him. She snapped the whip at him below, and he rolled out of the way to turn and stick his tongue out at her. Suddenly the ship lurched to a stop, and she was thrown from the box to land with a crash on top of him.
“Ouch, that one hit.” he groaned, and the warrior gave him that ever prominent viper-grin-through-her-teeth again. The magician realized all at once that she was indeed on top of him, and laughed nervously. She let the whip slide across his neck and arms as she re-coiled it again, and deposited it in a pocket.
“Uh.. uh..” Blast stammered, until the boat’s horn brought him to his senses. “Oh yes, time to go!” he said hurriedly, and flicked his wand before it could occur to the warrior that he still had it this time. Teleporting into a crouch behind her, he stood to rub a sore shoulder blade. “You ready to go? I’m ready to go!” he said, and ran off to disembark. Stepping onto the ramp, he skittered to the stop as he was hit by the shock wave of a great roaring sound.
“Blast! That’s the same noise we heard when King Slime attacked CrossSlash!” Riella shouted, running up behind him to place a hand by his arm. He paused to consider that lately she HAD been standing closer to him than strictly necessary, but diverted his thoughts from the notion for more serious matters.
“Yeah, a portal just opened, we have to hurry.”

Rushing down the streets of the Ludibrium commercial area, the two zipped through town using conveniently placed warp pads and subsequently teleported across Ludi village, and then ran in the direction of the looming Eos Tower, a monstrous pillar that held Ludibrium up in the sky. From a distance, it could be told whom was which by the way one ran significantly slower, but jumped from place to place in flashes of blue. Darting between brightly colored block houses, and similarly toy-like inhabitants, Blast and Riella shouted to another between strained breaths.
“I don’t see… how they beat us… here!” Blast said teleporting from bench to ground to platform.
“Those scrolls… they must have some way of… zipping around like that!” Riella concluded.
“Yeah, and it sounds like… they already disrupted… the Abandoned Tower’s dimensional barrier!” Blast said, as they came to a halt before Eos tower’s tall plastic door. “After you…” he said, frowning, as he pushed it open.

Jumping (or teleporting) up the huge screws protruding from the tower’s central support beam, Blast and Riella came to a stop before another set of doors, leading to the one hundred and first floor. She raised a hand to push aside the heavy plastic, but Blast caught hold of it instead. She turned to frown at him, but he spoke before she could get a word in edgewise.
“Whatever happens in there, I don’t want to see you hurt.” she frowned at him, but he continued, “And I don’t know where we’re going with this,” he said, squeezing the hand he was holding slightly, “but no matter what happens, I do care about you. You’re a friend, maybe more than that to me, just to let you know.” and he smirked. “However violent you are in some of your playful moods.” Riella grinned, but there wasn’t much left to say, she leaned in to kiss him again, and this time, nobody was trying to run.

Blast and Riella burst through the doors to find the usual crowd was shouting in panic, pushed back against the walls, and the red sign, hopping irritably up above, shouting at the intruders as he tried to calm the masses.
“Get out of here! You’re disrupting my operation! HEY! ONLY SIX!” it demanded, shouting itself hoarse as a neat file of DarkStiders piled into the hole they’d ripped in the dimensional barrier. Standing beside the portal was none other than Eric, hustling them inside, Blast’s medallion pulsed violently to see him.
“Move move move, get inside now, those buffoons will be here any moment! FASTER!” The lightning wizard urged them impatiently, and shoving one last thief inside, stepped into the portal himself.
“It’s about to close!” Blast said, grabbing Riella around the waist. “We’ve got to go NOW!” He teleported up one screw, to another, and then to the platform beside the portal, and just as it snapped shut, teleported through the pinprick opening left just before their chance had passed.

Landing softly inside the Abandoned Tower, Blast and Riella pressed back against the wall behind them, as the XDarkStriders shoved a bundle of protesting balloons out of the way, and Eric raised his staff to tear open another portal. Riella moved to attack them from behind, but Blast caught her by the wrist. She whipped around to glare at him, fire in her eyes. “Stay here, we can’t handle all that. We have to wait until Alishar appears, then you can be as disruptive as you want.” he whispered, and though she frowned at his advice, nodded and the two scurried off after the end of the troops moving through the portal.

—
Pushing open the intricately carved oak door to Grendel’s study, Cross led Leul into the tall room, and among dusty tomes and scrolls, they found Grendel himself, floating above to a soft white glow.
“Grendel, I’ve defeated King Slime, but Blast and Riella are still out there,” CrossSlash began to explain as Grendel pushed his hat back on his head and floated to the ground. “Anything you could tell us about these medallions would help.” he said, pulling the necklace from around his neck.
“Indeed,” the wizard said, turning the medallion in question over in his hands “this stone is no longer magically charged, so it has obviously been used to seal a monster recently.” his hand glowed briefly, and touching the cool blue disk, it pulsed again, and retained some of the glow. “In case you need it again.” he said, handing it back to the thief. “These medallions are dimensional stabilizers, they are used to create dimensional barriers and thus seal off dangerous monsters. When the DarkStriders disrupted the first barrier, did you see anything… strange?”

“Well, other than the giant gelatin attacking Kerning City, this one wizard Erik was glowing red.”
“Troublesome,” Grendel said, rubbing his chin. “did you… feel… anything strange?” he asked.
“Yes,” Cross piped up, “the medallion went cold, and pulsed, like a heartbeat or something.”
“This is very troublesome indeed. I suspect that this wizard, Erik you said, was carrying a dimensional disruptor.” Gesturing to the medallion Cross held, he continued. “Another medallion, like that, except red, and with the opposite purpose. To break down dimensional barriers and free dangerous monsters.”
“But, why is this so troublesome?” Cross inquired, “We already knew they were going to do that.” Leul shifted uncomfortably behind him, she’d been quiet until now, but she knew what was going on, and how serious their situation was. Grendel looked at her, and nodded when she spoke.
“Because CrossSlash,” the cleric said delicately, taking the medallion from him, and turning it over in her hands, as her eyes caught its light and glowed slightly. “When the medallions come together, the lawful magic of a dimensional stabilizer, and the chaotic magic of a dimensional disruptor…” she closed her eyes and looked to the floor, “a far more dangerous, third ‘purpose’ is revealed.”

—
The crowds on the one hundred and first floor of Eos tower gathered in a wide circle on the large platform around where the portal had disappeared.
“Keep on your toes people, they can’t stay in there forever!” the red sign shouted nearby. “And when they exit?” The crowd shouted in varied responses, but the overall consensus was
“We make them sorry for messing up our party quest! Yeah!” Soon after, the portal roared again, and the crowds were knocked back as the XDarkStriders piled out of the portal, lead by Erik, Imlye, Shard, Achoss, and Cerusk on the front line. The crowds rushed in to attack, but stumbled and drew back to see the giant Alishar float from the ever widening portal. The keys at his belt clanked back and fourth, as the huge whale like entity loosed a monstrous roar comparable to that of a tearing dimensional barrier. Slipping out of the portal behind them, Blast and Riella joined the crowds. Blast raised his wand and his voice, and shouted above the panic and clamor
“For the fate of Ludibrium, for the fate of the world, for the sake of EVER getting into a good party quest, FORWARD AND ATTACK!” Shouting agreement, the crowds rushed forward, and their lines met, Blast teleported away from the mass, to land on the platform above, shared by not only the Red Sign, but also Erik himself.

“Erik.” He said, ignoring the shouts of battle below.
“BlastMage. I knew you’d arrive. Where’s your little friend? I would think she’d still stepping on your heels.” the wizard said with a smirk.
“For your information, she’s down there, leading a crowd that will inevitably kick the crap out of your new friend.” Blast replied sharply, and winced as the monster roared again, flipping upside-down and opening its great cavern of a mouth to attack the mobs magically. Fighters fell back as master chronos, eerie time ghosts, appeared in a puff of smoke to strike out with additional magic bursts. Turning from the battle again, the magicians locked eyes and raised their wands.
“Hey, hey, HEY! Hang on you two! Don’t I get a say in this? What’s going on here!?” the Red Sign demanded. “I want ANSWERS!”

Both the magicians turned to face it briefly, before saying together;
“NOT NOW Red Sign.” Erik lunged forward then, slashing with the crystal blade of his arc staff, and Blast dodged backwards to a swish of the pointed object just beyond his nose. He moved forward as Erik tried to bring his staff back up, but Blast got in close to uppercut him under the chin, and press his wand against the stumbling wizard’s neck. Gritting his teeth from the blow, Erik flashed blue and disappeared, Blast whirled around to face him again behind him, to be met by a magic attack. Blast sensed the attack and raised his wand just in time to send the invisible claws pinging off his guard, then rushed forward again to kick Erik in the chest. The lightning wizard, sidestepping, grabbed Blast’s foot instead, and the room was a whirl of colors as he was swung around and around, and then sent sprawling out above the crowd below, then, as if that weren’t enough, a lightning bolt struck out from above, electrocuting him.

“AAAH!” Blast shouted, landing with a thud on one of the screws attached to the tower’s main support, and healing as he pushed himself up, threw himself in a teleport back at the ledge, to land by Erik’s side, grabbing him by the neck and slamming him into the wall with his carried momentum. He coughed, then growled through gritted teeth, “You’ll pay for that.” His medallion pulsed faster, and Blast struck the man across the face with a closed fist. Erik, dazed from the cleric’s hasty recovery, nonetheless pushed back against the wall, to kick Blast in the chest with both feet, before sliding to the floor.
“This isn’t over yet BlastMage.”

—
Below, Riella struggled to make sense of the flailing crowd of limbs and blades and arrows and magic. Jumping one way, she slashed at a man with a guild tag, pushing off him as he fell, she stabbed and slashed through several chronos and platoon chronos. As she hit the ground, she stumbled and rolled, to smash her sword into the giant dimensional guard Alishar with a fierce uppercut, before jumping back to avoid the blades of more guildsmen. Nobody knew who was where, and the tides of battle were no sooner deciphered, maybe the defenders were winning, maybe the DarkStriders were, for all she knew, there was a giant bagel named Earl winning! That’s how confused it was getting.

Knocked back by a great blast of magic from the legendary beast, Riella slid across the floor, guarded by her trusty tower shield, the force knocking her against a screw on the support beam. Glancing above, she saw Blast and Erik smashing each other one way or another, a block here, a spell there, but they were no concern of hers now, she thought, as she rolled to the side to avoid a slash from another sword. This wasn’t working at all!

“Get organized NOW people!” She grabbed a few archers and scolding, shoved them further back in the lines, behind the hesitant warriors and bandits she shoved forward.
“Clerics, get forward! We have hurt melee attackers up here!” She gestured, as several said casters moved forward into place. She pointed in turn to a handful of assassins and another two warriors. “You, you and you. Darksight and take out their clerics. You two with me.” She darted off around the side of the mass, and they rushed for the healers flanking Alishar, those turned to raise their wands to attack her and the warriors, but were struck across the back of the head as assassins appeared behind.

“Go, again! Their other flank!” Riella shouted, as Alishar began to turn to face the disturbance in his healing teams, but the group rushed off behind him, away from the crowds, and the warriors and assassins struck remaining DarkStrider clerics from behind. The XDarkStriders were in trouble now, and jumping platform to platform, Riella lunged from above to catch hold of one long horizontal beam on Alishar’s tall clock hat. The beast lashed too and fro, but could not get her loose as she shouted to the crowds. “All healers are down! Physicals forward to attack! Magic fall back to defend our flanks! GO!” Shouting together, the mob rushed forward to finish another great beast.

—
Jumping forward again to clash weapons, Blast held his wand horizontally between both hands, blocking a hard blow from Erik’s staff. The blade inches from his face, Blast slid his wand along the staff’s length and tangled the blade, wrenching the staff down and to the side, he kicked Erik in the chest before the wizard could react. Knocking him over and dropping him to the floor, BlastMage slammed a fist against his neck and held him there, leaning over the man to hold him choking to the floor. Below, Alishar could be heard in fits of death, bashing against one wall or another, frantically summoning more chronos (all of which were promptly eliminated as well), and slamming against the walls, trapped.

“Game over, Erik.” Blast said, but something caught Erik’s eye, and he smiled weakly. He coughed, rasping for breathe, and struggled to speak.
“This isn’t over yet, Blast… Mage.” and with one free arm, tugged at the collar of his starlight, tearing the soft fabric to reveal a blood red medallion, flashing and pulsating with light. Surprised, Blast realized that his medallion was hanging out his starlight as well, that must’ve happened when he’d pinned Erik to the floor. Everything stopped, seeming to move in slow motion, as the two medallions began to pulse in unison, and a portal tore open beside them with an agonizing roar. Not a portal to a party quest, or even another land he knew, a swirling vortex into darkness, the ethers inside writhing and raging. Erik’s entire body tensed, and with the last of his energy, kicked Blast off of him, and onto the ground beside the portal. Blast clawed at the colorful blocks below him, but could feel himself slipping nonetheless as the vortex tugged at him and the world seemed to explode. Alishar shrieked and there was a great crash, as the blocks of Eos tower creaked and seemed to explode with force.
“Curse you Erik! I’ll KILL you!” he said, raging, trying to pull himself back to the man amongst the chaos and rumblings, but Erik, laughing weakly, had only one thing to say before he pulled open the scroll he’d drawn from his pocket.
“Game over, BlastMage.” The last thing Blast saw was Erik disappear in a flash of light, and a panicked Riella visible beyond him, to far away to help now, then the vortex overcame him, and the cleric was swallowed by darkness, the portal snapping shut over him.

—
Thrashing around, the dying Alishar smashed into another wall, Eos tower creaking uneasily. Riella’s arms felt like jelly, she couldn’t hold on much longer, but this beast couldn’t either.
“For Perion and Victoria! For Ossyria and Ludi!” she shouted, and glancing to the wizards fighting on the platform above, added quietly, “for you, Blast.” and then with a roar to rival that of a Crusader, dropped from Alishar’s great hat to stab her Traus into the beast convoluting below. It shrieked again, half-roar, half-dying animal, as she twisted her blade and tore it out, jumping from the corpse of the great creature at it fell against the wall with an earth shattering crash. All of Ludibrium shook as the force of the giant monster literally smashed through the wall, and the tower was thus one floor shorter. The ceiling tore off and fell away, following the ripped and scarred blocks of the smashed walls, pulling with it a sizeable hunk of the main support pillar, and sunlight shone into the newly exposed hundred and first floor. The XDarkStriders were retreating, each flash of light indicating a newly incinerated scroll, as yet another guildsmember disappeared.
“BlastMage!” she said aloud, remembering, and scrambled up the screws of the main pillar.

She arrived just in time, to see him dragged painfully across the blocks by a swirling portal, their eyes meeting only briefly before he lost contact with the floor and was sucked into the empty abyss, and the dimensional rift slammed shut behind him.
“No..” she mouthed, staggering towards the place she’d last seen him, and covered her face with one hand, miserably falling against the wall. “NO!” Riella shouted, but then sliding down into the corner, sobbed silently as her comm crackled to life. Cross’ panicked voice burst through it’s tiny speakers, and wiping her tears she brought it out of her pocket to listen more carefully as he went on.
“Riella, I don’t know if you guys can hear me, I couldn’t even reach BM! The medallions, Erik has a red one! A dimensional disruptor! Do not let that near your medallions, the reaction can tear dimensional rifts to other worlds! GUYS?! Those could drop you anywhere! Do not cross the medallion-” he was cut off.
“Cross, I hear you. BlastMage already fell through a portal. Lucky us, eh?” she sniffed, “Ask Grendel, what we have to do to get him back.” There was a long silence, and then Cross said,
“Okay Riella. Will do.” before comm line clicked off entirely.

—
Blast shielded his eyes as a bright globe rose over a strange and alien landscape. He stood up shakily, his frame beaten and battered, from the trip he presumed. His clothes were torn and destroyed, he was only thankful he hadn’t been similarily maimed.
“Where… am I?” he said in a daze, looking over rolling red hills, a purple sky, and in the distance a huge industrial structure, looking like a factory grown out of control, churned out smoke and the noise of grating metal. He was startled by a voice behind him.
“Perhaps, I can tell you.”