The sounds of an ex-enemy approaching seemed oddly fitting to the place Metz found himself in. Not to say he didn’t immediately grow alarmed, his hand unclasping his weapon holster as he turned to face the street behind him. But that after taking this precautionary action he didn’t dive into conflict suggested that Metz himself saw something of an inevitability in the coming battle, and was in no hurry to engage in it. Whatever was to happen here would not be a speedy process, nor a pleasant one, so he would do well to delay it with whatever measure he could rather than embracing it straight away. Besides, where was the fun in that?

All that thinking culminated in Metz standing ready for Daniel as he closed to within earshot. The Mage’s hand strayed only a short distance from the handle of his gun and his eyes pierced the Icey creature with a steady glare. It had been just over a year since they had last met, but those events had not faded quickly from the mind of the mana-less mage. The Nexus of Worlds, where he sealed tight the prison of an entity that had doomed his world, Felenr. He had been tested by three, and bested them all in that Arena. One stood before him now.

“Daniel, wasn’t it?” Metz inquired politely, his mind racing. “It has been a year or so, I’d say.” He looked wistful, but inside there was hidden turmoil within the Mage. It was not every day an enemy he encountered through a portal to what he perceived was another dimension suddenly appeared on his home planet. He couldn’t let the obvious question go unasked.

“How did you… get here?”