Ranryu

She sat up. "Lerac? Where are you?"

Snuffle began barking, but Wynn ignored her. NONONONONO. She didn't go closer, didn't inspect the body. Instead, she curled up in a ball and didn't move.

Wynn's arm was yanked as the rope went taut. She felt a bolt of panic, then began pulling Lerac back. Better safe than sorry.

Wynn wrapped the rope around her wrist a few times to make sure it wouldn't slip out. Another tear slid down her cheek. Eria...

"Just hallucinations. Faceless, scary- like last time." She put her hand on his shoulder. "Be careful in there."

Wynn took a breath and wiped a tear from her face. "I'm fine. Not hurt. I think we can go in- if we're prepared. We should do the same thing for you first though. Make sure it won't drive you insane or something."

The rope began to yank her backwards. She cried out, but the little girls didn't seem to hear her. Something told Wynn not to untie the rope. She was pulled three steps backward... ... And was yanked through the rip, landing gasping in the grass.

No, don't! Wynn tried to run and stop the green-haired girl from breaking the rule, but there was a rope stopping her. A rope? Yes, a rope. That rope was very important. But why?

Wynn looked around. Moss. Flowers. Gigantic trees, looming in the distance. Animals skittered about, and birdsong rang in the distance. Oh no. Nononononono. But she didn't go back to the rip. A sunny yellow path cut the landscape in two, the only noticeable mark of civilization in the forested paradise. A pair of young girls skipped along the path, one with green hair and one with blue. They laughed and spoke in a way that echoed so Wynn couldn't understand. She didn't need to. "Do it again!" The blue haired child's face was joyful. "No. We'll get in trouble." The green haired girl smiled mischievously, as if she enjoyed the thought of getting in trouble. "Please? I won't tell anyone!" Wynn turned away, fingering her dyed-gray hair. Eria...

She quickly stuck her head back into reality, the rip making it look like it wasn't attached to her body. "Three minutes. And I don't think I'll be able to hear you. Your voice was muffled when I was only inches away from the portal." She went back in.

"Nope. Let's go." Carefully, she walked forward and dissapeared suddenly, the rope seeming to float midair.

"No. If I die, I'll mostly be fine, but there's no getting you back if you die again. I'll yank three times on the rope if it's safe for you to come in too."

"Uhhh... Maybe? Getting into the Void has never been this easy before. I have no idea what to expect- I've only been there twice." I think. There are a couple of centuries missing...

"Long story. Here's what I'm thinking. I tie this rope to myself, and you hold one end. I'll go in to see if we can both go in, and if anything happens you can pull me out." She began tying the rope around herself.

"Probably not, which is why I should go." She rummaged around in her runner's storage compartment until she found a rope. "Yes! I knew there was a reason I saved my own execution rope!"

"All you have to do is walk through it. It's there, even if you can't see it. But wait a second. We need some rope or something, in case you are unable to get back on your own. Or I could go. You've had your share of danger recently."

She continued reading the data. "It means we'll have to enter the Void. This time should be easier, but once we get in, it will be difficult to actually do anything. See, there's a rip in the dimensional buffer right here." She indicated a perfectly normal-looked spot in front of them. "All we have to do is step through." What happened here to rip the buffer like this? I've never seen anything like it.

We will never know TPBM hasn't done anything productive all year. (Get it?)

Wynn laughed. "What a pair we are! A leveled-up human and a disowned fairy, neither of whom have any idea of what they're doing." The runner stopped in a flat grassy plain, like an infinite golf course in all directions. Snuffle barked and wagged her tail, then began spinning in circles. Wynn frowned and picked her up, reading data from her duel disk. "Dang it. The Stacis is in interdimensional space."

"Not nervous, exactly. Excited, maybe? I don't know. These emotion things are odd and unpredictable."

Hmm. Interesting. Wynn started up the runner, putting Snuffle on the control panel. "Lead the way, girl." And off they went.

"If any of it exists in the cosmos, Snuffle can find it." The mechanical canine barked. "Time to go, I guess." Wynn gestured to the duel runner.

She sighed. "I have no way to know if there actually is anything here that would help us, so we probably don't need to waste time." She pressed a button on her duel disk and Snuffle appeared. "Find the Stacis, girl." The puppy barked and began sniffing around.

"How about this?" She grabbed his hand.