*POOF*

  .........

  Silence."Huh?" John said, opening his eyes and looking around. He had closed them so the fshing lights didn't hurt as badly, but for this return, it appeared to have been an unnecessary precaution.

  He was on the DEN stage, seated in his chair as per normal, with a gss of Westria beside him. The doors were there, and across from him sat Alec's chair, but the sarcastic gameshow host was nowhere to be seen.

  "Hello?" He said, but was met with silence. He came here pnning on asking which worlds had resurrection magic he could learn, even to offer up all his gatcha points to pay for that sliver of knowledge, but he didn't expect to arrive here and be all alone.

  He looked down at his body. He was wearing a bck suit with a white shirt, with a pair of bck shoes that were lightly shone. Folded neatly beside his chair were his leathers, and The Sword of Truth resting against the arm of the chair. His bag was nowhere in sight, meaning it was still back on board the Phoenix Hawk.

  Whoops. Well, there is nothing I can do about that now. Now what?

  He stood up, grabbed the drink, and decided to explore the stage a bit. He never really looked around before; most pces were hidden behind bck curtains that John couldn't even tell existed unless he touched them. He took a few sips of the beverage, the divine alcohol moving through his system rapidly, soothing his agitation caused by the recent trials he had gone through.

  He walked around the doors, which, for all intents and purposes, were just freely standing without supports along the edge of the stage. He flipped a few of the curtains back, eventually finding a weird-looking device that might have been a camera. If a camera had a weird green gemstone in pce of its lens, anyway.

  Behind another curtain, he found a DJ booth that looked like it was from the 70s, with fake wood paneling and a shag carpet on the floor. It was messy, with shelves full of vinyl records, a couple of record pyers, an 8-Track, and a couple of microphones. There were several posters on the walls, pictures of what appeared to be 70s and 80s Hair Bands that he didn't recognize. Not that he could have, since they appeared to be from other worlds.

  He chuckled a bit at one of them. The poster showed four dwarves standing in a line with long braided beards, arms crossed, and wearing bck leather jackets and shades. Kneeling in front of them were four women in leather outfits, positioned to suggest they were giving the dwarves a blowjob. The words 'Rock Me By The Stones, Baby!' were scrawled along the bottom in cursive. He assumed this was where Elvis worked normally.

  He went to pick out a record from the shelf to examine the cover when a voice spoke behind him, startling him. "I wouldn't touch those if I were you, he is very protective of his vynels."

  John turned around and met Xiaolin’s gaze. The tiger woman was wearing a golden backless dress with a plunging neckline all the way down to her naval, showing off her tiger-stripe vitiligo and exposing her generous cleavage to the air. Her fiery orange hair was pulled back in a rge bun, with several golden hair picks sticking out of it. He didn't notice this all right away; his attention was on her face, her golden eyes in particur. It was like he was looking into the depths of the universe, and he lost himself there for a moment, or an eternity, before snapping himself out of the trance.

  "Then I'd better leave them alone. I wouldn't want him to get angry and come take back his old clothes; I am growing rather fond of those. How are you, Xiaolin?" He asked her, attempting to recover from his indiscretion.

  How long was I staring at her?

  "Oh, he wouldn't do that. He might force you to take a few music lessons, though he has turned out to be a rather intense instructor in some of the worlds he visited during his time as a contestant." She replied, smiling up at him. She was just a bit taller than Niki, so he had to look down on her when she was this close. She continued. "But unless you really want to discuss The King's time here, let's talk about something else. Come, walk with me." She said, taking hold of his arm and guiding him out of the DJ booth.

  "Of course, lead on." He replied, not sure what was going on here, but was more than willing to follow her for now.

  They moved across the stage in a comfortable silence, then behind yet another curtain was a hallway that wouldn't have been out of pce in his old apartment complex on Earth. At the end of the hall was a door, a nondescript white door that didn't seem like anything special.

  Being the gentleman he was, he opened it for her, allowing her to enter first, then stepped through. He stopped, his eyes widening at the sight unfolding before him.

  The door led to a semi-circur grey stone patio, about twenty feet at its widest, with a waist-high railing. Near the railing was a small round dining table with seating for two, a couple of wine gsses pced on top. Beside it was a small stand holding a bucket filled with ice, a bottle of what appeared to be rose wine nestled in it.

  Though that was not what caused him to pause at the doorway. It was the view.

  They appeared to be floating in bckness, with thousands of balls of light floating around them in the void. Millions of balls, almost like soap bubbles, all twinkling dimly.

  "What is this pce?" He asked. It reminded him of that time in his mind when he was reliving his memories, before meeting the God of Fate in The Great Cleric.

  "This is the Omniverse." She replied, then beckoned him over to the railing where she had moved to. "These globes are all physical representations of all the multiverses, each one holding a near infinite number of universes."

  "Incredible." He said, moving to the railing. Indeed, there seemed to be no end to the number of bubbles, the vast void having no end he could see. He looked down and noticed something slightly different below them, a bubble that was rger and had a bunch of blue rings that reminded him of mana. "What is that?"

  She looked down at what he was gazing at and smiled. "That is the Prime. That is where you, I, and every other being who has come to DEN are from. Every other multiverse was birthed from the Prime, from people's creations, their dreams, their desires. That is also where Earth is, our Earth, one of many worlds in that multiverse that provide the energy to create the Omni. Watch, another multiverse is about to be birthed."

  John did, and sure enough, the bubble expanded, and another spherical bubble calved off of it. One of the blue rings tched onto it, then pushed itself away from the Prime, joining the other bubbles in this great expanse. John wasn’t sure what to expect when watching a multiverse being born, but something as calm as watching a child blow soap bubbles was not it. Didn't universes explode into existence in fire and heat?

  Still, the simplicity of the event had a certain elegance to it that John could appreciate.

  "It is beautiful." He said after some time passed. He then posed a question to her. "What are the rings? Is that mana?"

  "No. That is the life stream, where the souls of every creature in the omniverse go when they die, to be reborn elsewhere. That is where you were headed after the truck hit you, before the director had intervened and brought you here. I suppose he wasn't really paying attention as it was supposed to be that brother and sister, but he has never made a mistake before, just happy little accidents as he likes to call them." Xiaolin expined.

  Where have I heard that line before? That is going to bother me now.

  "Are you saying my coming here wasn't a mistake, but a happy little accident. Hah, well, I wasn't sure at first, but I am gd I got a chance to live again. I just wish these worlds were not so painful." He replied, looking back out over the vast sea of the Omni. He tried not to think of Ash dying on a table right then.

  "She hasn't joined the Lifestream yet, John. You can still save her. Your CPR actually pulled her back from the brink, and she is currently resting, waiting for something to happen. Would you like to see?" She asked him.

  "You can do that?" He asked, unable to fathom what she meant for a moment.

  "Just watch." She said, and extended her arm, beckoning towards one of the bubbles not too far away from the patio. It drifted towards her, then nded on her hand, the bubble no bigger than a Cantaloupe. She then took his hand and pced it on the surface of the bubble. He had an irrational fear that he was about to pop it, but it turned out to be hard, almost like he was touching a gss orb and not a soap bubble. He let out a sigh of relief.

  "Now rex, there will be some disorientation, but no worse than when you travel between DEN and these other worlds." She said calmly, then activated a magic he was unfamiliar with.

  His vision twisted, then he somehow folded himself into the bubble.

  John opened his eyes and found himself standing on top of a hill, overlooking a valley that seemed to run on to the horizon in both directions. The hill itself was covered in a thick carpet of grass, with a nearby path leading to the valley below. A river flowed through the valley, meandering zily, with a small bridge connecting the path to the other side. Following the path led to the base of a gigantic tree, taller than any building John had ever seen, its trunk disappearing into the clouds.

  Beside him, sitting and leaning back on a stone that jutted up from the ground, was Ash. She was barefoot, wearing only an emerald green dress with a leaf pattern that exposed more of her skin than hid. Her eyes were closed, and she was looking upwards and smiling.

  "Ash! Ash! Can you hear me?" He called out to her. He tried to sit down beside her, but was unable to move his body. She turned her head and looked his way, her smile becoming a little sad-looking.

  "Did you die too, John? Did you come to join me in the afterlife?" She asked, then her expression changed a little. "At least, I think that is what that is down there. I have always cursed by the World Tree, but I never believed it was a real thing."

  "Well, it appears real to me, though I don't know for sure. Listen, I am trying to save you. I had to leave your world, and am going to travel around to find the magic I need to bring you back. You just need to wait here, okay. It shouldn't be too long," He said, hoping time would stop again for her once he left.

  "I wasn't pnning on it. Someone was calling to me, so I decided to pause my journey here instead of continuing down that path. I guess that was you calling out my name, wasn't it... You sounded so desperate... I am sorry I couldn't return, but as you can see, the path is closed." She said, gesturing behind her.

  He looked, and indeed, the path ran back for a few feet then dropped off a cliff, with nothing in that direction but clouds. It was almost like this world did not exist in that direction.

  "I will come for you, Ash. Next time I call your name, you'd better come running." He said.

  "Or what? You are going to spank my ass again?" She replied.

  "You and I both know you are into that, so yes, I will spank you again if that is what it takes for you to come back to me." He said with a ugh.

  "Mmm, looking forward to it."

  John felt a pull, something trying to draw him away, telling him his time was up. "I need to go now, but remember no leaving this spot until I call, okay? Love you."

  "Okay. See you soon. I lo-" She started to say, but he was ripped away from the hillside before she finished, his mind twisted and folded like it was an origami swan.

  Once John returned to the patio at DEN, he was disoriented, so Xiaolin led him over to the table to sit down. A meal appeared before them consisting of steak, potatoes, and carrots. The smell of the food brought him out of his stupor, and he realised he was actually starving. He reached over and grabbed the bottle of wine, pouring them both a gss while he was collecting his thoughts from that experience.

  "Thank you for that, Xiaolin. I was concerned that I was already too te for her, but this let me know I still have a chance to save her." He said, pcing the bottle back in the ice bucket.

  "It was my pleasure. My time as a contestant had rough patches as well, and I wasn't as lucky to be able to follow the path of a healer like you. I am just happy you have the chance to bring the people you care for back from the grave if their time is cut short." She said, taking a drink of her wine.

  "I would love to hear more about your experiences if you don't mind. Since coming here, I have only really talked with Alec, and that is in his role as a gameshow host." He ughed. "Today, arriving back at DEN with no fanfare really threw me off. Why...what was that about?"

  "When is the st time you had a break, John?" She asked him, but continued before he could reply. "The answer is over three months now. Every day, you have been working, fighting, studying, and dealing with intrigue. You have been assaulted, injured, and even killed. Alec talked to the director, and it was decided you would be given a couple of days off before you continued your journey. When I found out, I asked to be the one to pn and execute your short vacation." She said, swirling her wine in her gss and aerating it.

  A vacation? I mean... I probably could use a day or two off to just do nothing but rex... but it was Alec's idea? That sarcastic bastard?

  "Well, I will have to thank him for the break the next time I see him. And thank you for joining me, the company is splendid. To our vacation!" He said, then offered her a toast.

  "To our vacation." She replied, and they clinked their gsses together.

  They shared the meal and the wine, the two of them talking for the next couple of hours. She told him of her past, how she was originally a simple fishmonger's wife in a small vilge in the Eastern Wu region during the Three Kingdoms period of ancient China. She died in her twenties of a sickness and woke up on the DEN stage, Alec welcoming her as the first female contestant on their gameshow. It was super confusing, but after a little acclimation, she began to move through the doors like John was. She tried to be a simple wife in some worlds, but that never worked out for her; battles always forced her to take action. She ended up becoming a warrior of some renown, winning victories for her lord, something unheard of in a male-dominated society. In a few others, she studied magic extensively and built floating sky cities in all those worlds before she died of old age. In one world, she was turned into a tiger folk, which gave her the idea for her current look, and she ended up ruling the nation there.

  She experimented a lot sexually as well, since DEN seemed to force that on the contestants. In some worlds, she was a monogamist; in others, she would join a harem. She even built a reverse harem near the end of her time in DEN, but getting gangbanged every night was a tiring experience, even with all the extra stat points she had accumuted by then. When she entered her st world, she returned to her roots, found one man, and stayed with him until the day he died.

  Then the day came when she died in that st world, and upon her return to DEN, they crowned her a champion. Then the divinity flowed into her, turning her into one of the divine beings in the Omniverse. She floated around in the void for a while, knowing everything and having the power to do anything, but she had no direction for that power. Then the director offered her a job as a camerawoman for DEN, which is how John had met her a hundred years ter.

  John was enraptured by her story, of the pain and suffering she endured as a contestant and the joy she found as well. The wonders that were in some of these worlds went beyond his imagination, even though he had already lived through several of them.

  The food gone, their wine gsses emptied, they settled into a comfortable silence. Their eyes were locked together, her golden orbs to his steel blues, each lost in the other's gaze. After a time, she stood up and held her hand out to him. Soft music began to py, a tune that was both familiar and foreign to John; nevertheless, it was pleasing to the ears. "Would you care to dance with me?"

  He took her hand and stood up as well. "It would be my pleasure, darling."

  Magic flowed through them, and the pair stepped up into the void, their gazes never breaking. They held each other close, moving their bodies slowly to the tune in the air. The bubbles began to flow around them, glittering in the darkness as they danced a slow dance across the Omniverse.

  Time seemed to stand still for John, this dance through eternity lifting a weight he didn't even know he was carrying off his shoulders.

  The zombie hordes in High School of the Dead, trying to rescue survivors and escape before they became overwhelmed.

  The mercenaries that tried to kill him and capture his fiancé in The Great Cleric and a Pope of a Church that was full of human supremacists who wanted to have a meeting with him.

  A crew full of his friends is facing an alien invasion in Infinite Frontiers, with one of them being so close to death's door that only he had a chance to save her.

  StarCraft, another world that was facing imminent alien invasion, where creatures moved almost faster than his eyes could track.

  Finally, High School DxD. A world full of supernatural beings that he was somehow in charge of the school their children were attending, faced with the death of one of those students if he didn't do anything.

  None of that mattered right now. He released his worries into the void and lost himself in the eyes of his dance partner, a golden-eyed woman who had faced challenges like he had and pulled through to the other side.

  As the music came to its end, he dipped her down and kissed her, locking their lips together in a deep and passionate kiss. He held her there for a second, a minute, a decade. Time seemed to have no meaning for him. Finally, he pulled her back up and spoke. "Shall we continue our dance?"

  The music began again.