With so many Integrated charging into the fight, things didn't look great at first glance. More and more opponents closed in, and it was as if a chasm filled with Integrated stood between Luke and Alan. Meanwhile, the jumpers had spotted their boss and were doing their best to get away from Hannah, who'd wrapped them up in tentacles, holding them for the moment while Integrated beat on her until she was little more than a puddle of shadows on the floor.

  Rather than despair, Luke knew what was coming and prepared. Rather than fight his way forward, Weavestep took him past the first line of defenders, and he threw himself through the air as large cracks rocked through the floor in an instant. With a deafening roar, the ground beneath their feet gave way. Curtis had made his way up through a different path than the stairs. People cried out in surprise and fear as they fell, crashing not to the floor below, but the one below that. Curtis was not one for half measures.

  Even Alan hadn't seen this one coming. Luke was sure they'd tapped into the phones as well, but the messages they'd exchanged were harmless at first glance. Expecting to be listened in on, they'd texted with short references to time spent together in dungeons. While not a hundred percent certain they'd understood his instructions, Luke had believed in his friends, and they'd come through. Unfortunately, Alan hadn't been close enough for Luke to reach him before the floor gave way, but he followed, throwing himself after. He had saved Alan's life. Now, it was time to end it.

  With threads of mana extending toward Alan as they both fell among most of the Integrated on the floor, Luke was almost able to reach, but a force slammed into him, a spell of kinetic force from someone, pushing him to the side. It tore the front of the robe apart and crunched into his chest, but Luke found himself able to ignore it. Putting all those points into Vitality allowed him to shrug off far more damage than before. Weavestep let him dodge another spell and land feet first on the floor, two stories below.

  Many Integrated remained on the floor, groaning from broken bones or just out cold, knocked unconscious by the fall. Not so with Alan, who was up and active, looking this way and that, searching for his jumpers. Before Luke reached him, the man equipped a futuristic-looking armor in white that gave off strong Stormtrooper vibes. Rather than go straight through, like with most other armors, Luke's threads of mana stopped dead, unable to penetrate the material.

  Alan twisted his hip and crouched forward as a device he'd pulled out of his inventory whirred to life. Before Luke was able to strike again, his former boss held the item up, and it blasted out a shockwave. It grabbed hold of Luke and would've thrown him straight into the wall several feet back, if not for Weavestep. The skill pulled him in the opposite direction, canceling out the directional force almost right away. It had still pushed Luke far enough away that Alan was out of reach, and the leader of Integrated Solutions Group stood up tall to bellow, his words thrumming through the weave as if the orders were passed down by the system itself.

  DEFEND ME. STAND AND FIGHT. KILL LUKE QUINN.

  The commands could not touch Luke, not after he resisted them last time. Now he knew what he would be dealing with. As even the most injured Integrated got to their feet, Curtis appeared by Luke's side, much to Alan's satisfaction. The smirk on that asshole's face didn't last long, however, and melted away as Curtis swung his large sword of darkness straight at Alan's chest, hitting him with tremendous force, throwing him back toward the far wall, half crumbled by the falling ceiling. Blood ran from Curtis's ears. Having dealt with a creature that could command through sound before, Luke's friends were ready for it.

  Luke pointed to direct Curtis's attention to the jumpers before charging toward Alan. The armor had taken Curtis's blow without breaking, but the material would not be without imperfections. Nothing was. A churning mass of Integrated threw themselves toward Luke, the jumpers included, but Weavestep gave him a way through the enemies without taking more than a few glancing blows. Slicing through two separate spellweaves, he leapt forward, landing in a crouch right near Alan's position, but the bastard must've given up on rescue from the jumpers, because he fled through the hole in the wall, disappearing from sight.

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  "Alan!" Luke shouted, following after at a dead run.

  Catching sight of the older man's back just before he disappeared around a corner, Luke followed. Having shed the excess weight after becoming Integrated, Alan was quick for someone in his fifties, but it still did not compare to Luke's speed, and he closed in after no more than a few seconds. Another step or two, and he would be within reach of Threads of Mana. At that point, The Healer's Moment would give enough time to burrow through that stupid armor.

  But, just as he was about to close in, Alan used the skill that emitted light, the one he'd used against Hannah. Blinding light threw Luke off enough to slow his steps for a brief moment, and when his vision returned, Alan was gone. Not into thin air, but through a portal.

  It stood there, right in front of Luke, reaching from the ceiling down to the floor. While it was much smaller than all other portals he'd seen, it looked in every other way like the usual paths that took Integrated through and into dungeons. This one being smaller made Luke think of the ones the guild managed to create in The Gauntlet. It was how Nash and the others had been able to grind away without going into dungeons. Was this the same thing? Either way, Alan had escaped through this one. The man's echo, having dropped away from Weaver's Perception, told him as much. Luke would not allow it. Unsure of what to expect, he stepped through before it closed.

  Alan: "Wrong move, Luke."

  It was strange. Rather than emerge in some open field or cave, Luke found himself in that same building, as if he hadn't been transported at all. But he knew better. There were signs of this being somewhere different. The blue emergency light was gone, but the normal office lighting wasn't there either. Instead, the space was filled with a grayish haze of light, almost like mist. The wall they'd both run through was back up. Or more precisely, had never been destroyed. Luke's senses caught no hint of the man he was after.

  Luke: "Is this a different dimension or something?"

  This time, the communication gem allowed him to send messages.

  Alan: "We're not sure. There are no people here, but no monsters either. Before our Architect managed to find places with monsters, his machines generated many portals to places like this. Close to ours but not quite."

  Luke: "And you use them as your private vacation worlds?"

  For a little while, Alan didn't answer. Luke kept going through the haze, straining with Weaver's Perception to pick up something, anything at all. The quiet was unnatural.

  Alan: "Perhaps they would be able to serve that purpose, but there are challenges to overcome for that to be a viable alternative. The Integrated Shop does not function, and from our initial tests, plants will not grow. At least not in this particular world. That, along with some interesting time dilation effects, makes it suitable for my intended purpose."

  A weight was forming in Luke's chest.

  Luke: "And what is that?"

  Alan: "You must have figured it out by now."

  Luke: "..."

  Luke: "You're not here anymore."

  Outgoing messages are not possible at this time.

  Luke let his hands fall to his sides, and he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. Breathing in deep, he searched for a word to describe the emotions bubbling to the surface in that very moment. After another breath, he filled his lungs, closed his eyes, and bellowed. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"

  Letting out that cry of frustration did little to stabilize the absolute clusterfuck of a situation he found himself in, but it still felt good. To that end, Luke punched the wall, his fist going right through the plaster to hit a pipe. It dented, bulging outward, but didn't break. Good thing that, or he'd get a spray of mist-water right in his face. Rather than continue the useless display of anger, Luke sat down on the floor and closed his eyes, breathing through his nose. Rage and frustration would not get him out of this bind. If there was a way out, he'd find it, but to do so, he needed focus. This world was part of the system, just like Earth, part of the same weave. That thread connected them, and, as a Lifeweaver, that thread would be there. All he needed was to find a way to reach out and let it guide him back.

  Before any of that, he needed calm. He needed to breathe, to relax, and let inspiration come. A moment later, he breathed in as much air as his lungs would hold. Rather than exhale through his nose, Luke let out a single muttered word. "Fuck."