"Please, just give it to me, okay?," Leon muttered, not really in the mood for jokes right now. Dear god, it felt like his arm was on fire or something - which, by the way, could not possibly be a good thing. Was it just because of the pressure he'd put on it a couple of seconds ago, or... was it something worse? On one side, he didn't even want to think about it, but on the other... It wasn't like there was any real hospital around here either. If it really was getting infected, what was he going to do?

Just when he was about to take the water and painkiller pills from Rose, someone decided to yell for whatever reason, this in turn surprising Rose so much that she dropped the pills -- and more importantly, the water bottle too, which of course had to land right on top of his right arm, sending a paralyzing jolt of pain through his body. This time he couldn't manage to surpress some more... colorful vocabulary from escaping from his lips.
"Yeah, go ahead and complain about things like that!," Leon exclaimed when Rose said that she looked like she wetted herself. Granted, she was right, but still! You'd figure that she would care a little bit less about herself and a little bit more about the guy tortured by agonizing pain right in front of her. Well, at least she helped him take the painkillers after that...

While Leon was trying to get back his composure a bit, Rose had decided to take a look at who had shouted like that. It... was Euclid? How did he manage to follow them? Oh, wait, of course, the blood trail. But if Euclid could find and follow it, then...
"...'Alright' might be a bit of a stretch, but I'm not dead. Yet," Leon answered, not bothering to get back to his feet just yet. He raised his healthy arm to greet Euclid as he was climbing up the ladder, while letting his wounded one rest on his undershirt -- which, by now, was both soaked in water and had crimson on it, transmitted onto it from the bandage.

John sighed as uncertainty filled the air, questions being thrown about discussing ideas of their current scenario. He sat now, waiting for the next move, when Muse started leading everyone off. He stood and followed, admittedly glad to get away from that door. He had fallen silent, deciding to focus on whatever 'power' he had. He pictured a small ball in his hand, trying to make it real. What became was a small crumbling ball, almost as if made of hardened sand. He frowned, unsure what it meant to be creating things like he was. He flicked it onto the ground, trying to continue his focus.

Bellua closed the distance between himself and the person rather quickly, grabbing them by the collar of their shirt and pulling them close. He drew in a long inhale, taking in the person's scent. Breathing out, he groaned. "You are not he," the demon spat, letting go of the person's shirt. "But, you serve a purpose to me. After that, you will no longer be needed."

He turned and pointed to the floating island in the clouds. "I require passage to the skyborne earth, and you will help me get there."

---

Euclid continued to climb, still mulling over the thought of having gotten to Leon and Rose so quickly. There were several or more minutes between them disappearing and him finding his way to this point. Some kind of temporal distortion?, he thought, putting hand over hand as he pulled himself up. He was getting tired, but the fact he saw them now means they weren't being chased, or it was the highest hope he had for now.

Eventually surfacing from the ladder below, he crawled out of the hole and took a seat on the ground, a couple feet away from the others so as to catch his breath.

"I saw what happened to that thing back there," he spoke, looking at Leon's arm. "Better it than you, right?"

Callum flinched as the, Callum was just going to just call it a demon because it seemed evil. Grabbed him, He closed his eyes and waited for the worse. every second seemed like it might his last. oh please don't be oh please don't be . after a couple of seconds Callum allowed his eyes to open once again.
"You are not he" The demon seemed annoyed by that. However at that very second Callum didn't care because finally the demon let him go. A tiny victory of not being dead in a world that was probably not real.
"But you serve a purpose to me, after that you will no longer be needed " Callum frowned at the last bit. That what mastermind villains said to their minions, it was never good.
The Demon pointed upwards, Callum was about to ask what was up there when he saw what was up there when he saw it. He couldn't help but mutter "wow". This Demon wanted his help to get up there.

"I see" Callum added. He was going to help this Demon, he seemed to have no other choice

Muse sighed, shrugging in response to Jacklyn's question. "I really don't know." he answered. "I mean, everything in this world is made up of thought, so it makes sense that you would be, too. But then, you seem a bit more... stable, than the characters and other things native to here, so it's not too hard to imagine that your physical bodies made it here, too, thus making you something completely different." he explained. Or rather, tried to.

After a bit of walking, he led the group around to a different building, one that looked considerably more promising. "I doubt this one's locked." he spoke up, before grabbing the doorhandle and confirming his suspicions. Muse then welcomed the group inside and into an academy hallway not far from the cafeteria.

"So basically we're in SAO... Well that's just great, isn't it...?" He sighed. "Just saying 'n' all but the quality dropped around the Alfheim portion of the series. They're making Gun Gale now too..." He continued following Muse, having been silent almost the entire trip, he'd been in awe of the academy and it's grand scale. They reached a door, to which Muse opened. A pleasant smell filled his nostrils with delight. "I smell something REALLY good..." he almost immediately took off at a ran. He stopped at the first corner. "Follow yer' noses" he tapped his nose, and continued at a run. A left... a right, through this door I think, no, wait, backwards, smell, yes, this way... he opened a door. He was met with concrete blocks. I was certain, I... he turned around. "Dead end guys-" to his surprise, or maybe not, no one followed him. Which way did I come again... right? No, right's not... right... I took a left... right? No wait... The hallways seemed never ending to him. He called out: "Hey, anyone there?" but all he heard was an echo.

Jacklyn sighed and rubbed her eyes, Mom and Dad are going to be worried... they'll probably figure I slept walked away and was kidnapped or something like that... she thought, gravitating away from the group and clutching her rabbit close. The entire ordeal was really starting to sink in now, and it made her skin crawl.... well if this was even her real skin away... Would she grow? Would she age? Was there even a point in asking?

If this was anything like the rps she often participated in the teen figured she would be dead soon anyways.... dead.

If she died in this game would she be dead... forever?

"Yeah... better him than me," Leon softly spoke, his eyes drifting to his own arm. Aside from a placebo effect, the painkillers likely wouldn't do anything to subdue the constant throbbing pain for quie some time. Not to mention the fact that the blood loss, although hopefully not life-threatening, caused him to feel somewhat light-headed. "To be honest, I'm more worried about the jerk who sicced it onto Rose and me. Who nows where he's now? For all we know, he... ." Leon's voice trailed off, a very problematic scenario appearing in his head. If Euclid found them that easily, then...
"Oh shit!," he exclaimed, trying to get up far too quickly -- and as a result sank right back to the ground. "The trail of blood..." he muttered, forcing himself back upright. "You followed it here, right, Euclid? That means that anyone can follow it, including... him. Which means that we shouldn't stay here. We have to move... ." With that, Leon followed his own advice -- only to sink back to his knees a few steps later, shivering all over and his face white as a sheet. "We have to... get away... before he finds us... . ," he said, his voice soft as a whisper. If the world could stop spinning, that would be really helpful.

"I see," the boy spoke as Bellua eyed the floating land, arms crossed. In his mind raced the various thoughts of how to ascend to the skies. He saw no physical way of reaching it, and he had no ability of flight to call his own, and so he started walking, nudging the other person to follow suit as he embarked on a journey toward Kalmaysia.

---

Euclid got up, moving over to Leon to make sure he was alright. "Just sit a moment," he said, supporting Leon's body with his arms so that the light-headed one wouldn't collapse and become hurt. "It makes no sense moving when you don't have the strength."

Taking a look around, he queried to Rose. "You seem to know this place more than we do - or more than I do, nonetheless," he deduced, looking toward the girl. "Is there some sort of location you guys were trying to get to? The sun's setting and I don't know if we can survive the night out here."

She turned to look at Leon as he freaked out about the trail. No shit... She sighed, watching him try to get up too quickly and had to suppress a chuckle. Life or death situation or not, she found it find of funny. She'd been in that kind of situation before. He really just needed to rest, give his body time to heal and produce more blood. Either that or that needed to find a way to give him more blood.

She looked up to Euclid when he asked her where they were headed. "Well, to be honest, we just wanted to get away. But, I know there's a clearing in this forest where one of my character's actually slept. Then again, she'd been living in the forests of Ireland for nearly a century, so yeah. She was pretty used to it already. We're actually not that far off from the school still. If memory recalls, we're very near the boys' dorm. I could take us to Ethan's room. Another one of my characters. I'm pretty sure his room was a lot like Lily's. At least Leon could get some rest there. There should be plenty of food and even TV to watch to let us take our mind off things. I can take care of Leon." She explained, looking over to Leon, who was slowly growing unconscious. "Here. Carry this." She said, handing Euclid the rather heavy bag of provisions. She pulled at Leon, getting him to rest on her shoulder. "C'mon. I think if that had honestly wanted to get to us, he'd have found us by now. We weren't exactly going that fast. I'll help you to the Boys' Dorm." She told Leon, already making way for the building.

For the most part, Leon didn't fight Euclid's and Rose's actions. How would he? He could barely stand on his feet at the moment, let alone go against two healthy human beings. Not to mention the fact that he had no real reason to fight them to begin with; as dazed as his brain was starting to get due to a combination of fatigue, injury and painkillers, he still knew that they were trying to help him. They seemed to be talking to eachother about something. What, exactly, Leon didn't know. Something about the forests of Ireland and a TV? What was that supposed to mean?

"Wait...Why back?," Leon muttered as Rose walked off with him, reacting to the one bit of Rose's rant his brain managed to process. "What if he's there?"
It didn't make sense. Why go back to the school after they had ran away from it, possibly walking straight back into GM's hands? Still, he was in no state to resist; if Rose and Euclid were going there, he would pretty much just be dragged along.

Having been handed a heavy bag of provisions, Euclid looked to Rose as she carried Leon off toward the Boys' Dormitory. He was surprised that the weight didn't cause any discomfort to the previously aggravated injuries he acquired in his rather abrupt entrance into the academy. In fact, he felt alright, mobile, able. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he followed Rose and Leon, being behind them by only a few feet as he started to wonder about this realm's paradoxical state. The timeframe in which he arrived was distorted, as well as the locations; patches of multiple realities existing together on one plane, his own creations linking with those of other people. It was enough to give him a headache, but he had no time to think of it now. Leon's assumptions could be correct. If he were able to easily find them, there was no doubt that GM could but, for some reason, the man was nowhere to be found. It was odd, and the thought lingered as Euclid brought up the rear of the group on their way to the dormitory.

It was a bit difficult with Leon's state of being but Rose managed to carry him over to the entrance and... mostly up the stairs. He wasn't all that much help so she felt like she was literally carrying him, which she really wasn't strong enough for. They had to take a lot of breaks along the way. All the while, Leon's words echoing in her head. "What if he's there?" She couldn't stop the sinking feeling in her chest. She'd convinced herself that this was the best course of action. They were all tired, Leon was hurt, they needed somewhere to rest and Rose didn't know anywhere else to go. She hated new things, they scared her even more than GM did. She almost felt irritated he was in her space, probably doing things to it. Still, she couldn't shake the paranoia.

As they reached the door, Rose suddenly stopped, staring at the door, her heart sinking once again. "How am I suppose to get in?! I don't have Ethan's key." She yelled, visibly shaken now. She could feel tears coming on, the paranoia suddenly getting to her. She couldn't take this, this not knowing. She wanted everything to be clear cut and understandable. She didn't like not knowing what would happen to them in the next second. She could already tell that time in this place was warped as she could see the light of day suddenly creeping up into the dark of night., the sun slowly rising. She felt rushed, she felt panicked. She knew she shouldn't and they she should stay calm, but it was suddenly out of her control. She turned to Euclid, her eyes watery and her lip quivering and with a shaking voice, she asked, "How are we supposed to get inside?"

Callum gazed at the floating land for a small while, until the demon started to move. "Oh..." Callum made a small hidden frown as he started to follow him. He kept his head down, keeping himself busy with kicking the sand and such. A few times he would look at the demon, or at the landscape. Just how weird it was, a desert with a sky that was pitch black, and a giant tornado ripping through the sands. surely he would never see something like that ever again. He looked back and tilted his head.

"You wouldn't mind, for the time we are...in each other's company that I get to know your name? If you want to know, My name is Callum. Even if it doesn't really matter" Callum shrugged as he talked. The only point of this was to know his name and not just call him "demon"

"How are we supposed to get inside?"

Why was she asking him? He knew less about this place than she, and yet she turned to him for help, the evidence of panic clear in her face. He wasn't used to this at all, this type of interaction. Closing his eyes, he set the bag on the floor and took to his knees, rubbing the temples of his head as he tried to come up with a solution. What could he use from his experiences in order to make the passage easier?

---

"I dare you to break into the backyard."

Euclid, then twelve years old at the time, stood doe-eyed against a group of less than reputable kids, each with a distinctive smirk on their faces. He was too young to know any better during those days, but he was a malleable sort when he was younger; always impressionable, always persuaded. "How do I do that?" he asked. One of the older kids handed him a paperclip. "Figure it out," they said as they turned and left with the rest of them, walking out to the edge of the sidewalk and waiting. The house was abandoned long ago and all the kids knew it. It was only recently that they'd gotten bolder and decided to do something with it, so they sent a mild-mannered kid who was only eager to please into a world of trouble with a paperclip as a means of appealing to a greater society, at least to him.

He stood before the gate, eyeing the lock and trying to figure out what to do. The calls from the sidewalk were distracting, so he tried to block them out, running his fingers over the paperclip. Before long, he had an idea, unbending the clip and slipping it into the lock. After a few minutes of wriggling the long, thin piece of metal, he heard a click and the previously locked gate swung open. The other kids rushed past him, one of them thanking him before offering a low snicker. Euclid smiled. He made someone happy.

Over the years, he honed his ability to pick locks, picking more dangerous and risky places to test his prowess and speed. After he picked locks, he'd leave and let things be. Throughout his time sharpening the skill, he had acquired various and more challenging locks; some of them with hard mechanisms and tumblers, others with combinations and codes. He spent his time ironically locked away in his room, working the inner mechanisms of both the locks in his hands and locks of his mind.

---

"The lock!" Euclid exclaimed, opening his eyes and placing his palms against the door. Looking toward Rose, he stood up and helped her to lower Leon to the ground as comfortably as he could. "I need you to search for something sturdy. It has to be small and thin and long enough, like a paperclip or a, um, a bobby pin or something!"

---

The demon moved forward, hearing the words Callum spoke and inwardly groaning. He wasn't much for conversation, but he'd be venturing with this kid for quite some time. "My name is Bellua," he answered. "I am a Voidwalker and I seek my creator." His muscles tensed, eyes watching the looming chunk of earth getting closer. He could feel it now. Fate was bringing him closer. Soon, he would have his vengeance and his liberator would have his wish fulfilled.

"What do you know of the one they call Muse?" he asked, stopping and turning toward Callum. His eyes showed no life in them as he stared, waiting for an answer.

Void walker? That sounds dramatic. But, I think I should keep that to myself Callum looked up when Bellua looked up. Callum wondered what was up there that Bellua wanted. Well, of course it was probably something about this "Creator". He wondered what this creator was like, was he nice, evil? Callum felt a bit uneasy being caught basically in the middle of this. Bellua suddenly turned around and looked at him with those eyes that gave him the chills.

"What do you know of the one they call muse?" Callum tilted his head. He thought for a second, trying to remember if he knew anyone called muse.

"Ummm, I don't know anything about him. I'm guessing he's around somewhere in this....land or whatever you call it. But I just got here, so I wouldn't know anything about him" Callum admitted as he looked at Bellua. But as he said that, he once again wondered how the hell he got here?

She blinked, the tears going away as Euclid suddenly had an idea. A bobby pin? Her heart sank as she thought about the bobby pin holding her unruly bangs up and out of the way. She sighed and moving Leon over in such a way that gave her a free hand, the pulled the bobby pin out, her bangs now falling into her face.

"There use that. But... I kind of... want it back later." She said, handing it over to him. It was the only one she had left and she hated her bangs. They were too long now and only got in the way. Besides, with how they'd been held into place, there was a big crease in the hair causing it to go every which way.

Once they arrived back at the Academy -- you know, the one they were running away from in a panic minutes earlier. It still didn't make sense to Leon to go back here of all places. Wasn't there any other location they could get some rest? Either way, as it turned out, the doors were locked, and obviously nobody had a key. Great. Just great. What were they going to do now, pick the lock with a hairpin?
.
.
.
Apparently that was exactly what they were going to do. Seriously, that thing only works in the movies. The sheer stupidity of it sort of made Leon want to facepalm, were it not for the fact that this would likely make him feel even worse than he already did and wouldn't really help any of them with anything. "I assume there's... no spare key lying... around somewhere?," Leon asked, a question mostly aimed at Rose.

"Hm."

It was the only reply Bellua could muster to Callum's statement. By now, he crossed a vast distance of the desert with the young one in tow, coming to rest at what looked like edge. There was a gap of darkness that cut off the land and on the other side was a seemingly different biome, if not a completely different location that didn't belong. He grimaced, turning back to Callum after a time.

"It seems that we will have to cross this gap in order to continue," he spoke. At the time, he wouldn't have known that it was as simple as walking, thinking the gap of darkness was ultimately an endless pit leading to nowhere. With this in mind, he stretched out his arm, his hand open. "Come. I shall throw you across."

---

Rose had handed Euclid a bobby pin as he watched her hair fall. He sighed quietly to himself, noting that she'd need it back. Unfortunately, that might not be the case, he thought. Besides, are you trying to look good, or are you trying to stay alive?

Without hesitation, he unfolded the bobby pin into a long and thin metal strip, folding the bulbous and wavy end upward so he'd have something with which to push up the tumblers of the lock. Only folding up the very end so as to have enough room to push the bobby pin through the keyhole, he placed his ear as close to the lock as he could, listening in case he found a tumbler to catch. He could hear Leon saying something in the background, but his focus was driven away from the conversation and more so towards finding a way inside. However, with tools as primitive as these, it would take a few minutes. It was his hope that they weren't caught and killed by then.

"Trying to find what time it is?" Ebil asked.

"Yes, I am," Nautilus said, his eyes looking at the sticks instead of Ebil. The shadow of the upright branch was longer than the branch that he used to measure the length. Having seen the sun at high noon before, this would mean that it was about 3.15 pm, assuming the day and night were of equal length. He did a prayer, again quicker than usual, and as soon as he finished doing so, the rest of the group started walking. "Ah, finally they're moving. Let's go!" he said, waving his hands to the direction the group was going, hoping Ebil would go up and walk as well.

After walking for a while, the group reached the proper entrance to the academy. "How can it take so long for us to do this?" he commented, saying to no one in particular but with a voice audible by everyone in the group. He then started counting the number of the group members in the hall way, and to his surprise it was one less than what it should have been. He counted it again in case he accidentally skipped anyone in the count, but indeed one man is missing. "Guys, sorry if this means we stop again," he started his sentence a bit nervously, "But I think one man is missing from us. The little one if I remembered it well". He looked around for a bit, but he didn't find the missing little one. Having your group member lost in a completely foreign land is a very bad nightmare. But it must be even worse for the man who get lost, he said to himself inside his own mind.