GM smiled pleasantly at the sight of how easily his new pets took the roleplayer down. He was almost disappointed that he didn’t get a good chance to test out their flight or regeneration abilities, but those were tests for another day. “Good girls.” He spoke to the wolves, and they immediately backed away from the corpse, their demeanors becoming much less frightening as they idled at GM’s side. Stepping up off his chair, he kicked the book aside as he approached Leon, watching him for a moment as if waiting for something. “Any minute now…” he mused, glancing at his own bare wrist, before finally he’d gotten the result he’d wanted. Right beside the corpse, the air seemed to ripple for a moment before another being materialized just like the wolves and all his other creatures had – except this time the only thing that appeared was Leon, not only alive once again but also healed of all injuries, including those he’d received earlier that morning.

GM grinned. “Welcome back!” he chirped. “The wolves work great! Almost better than my old pal Wai! Although, Wai was a security measure, but these guys make a better all-purpose army.” With another flicker of his eye, all but one of the wolf pack disappeared, the last of them perched calmly beside her creator as she continued licking the blood from her chops. “Told ya they’re under my control.” He told Leon, petting the lone wolf as if it were a loving black lab. “Now then… what to do next…”

---

Before the others could follow Muse down the hallway, the void reared its ugly head again. Except this time, it wasn’t just a flicker from the floor or the walls. Instead, the void completely engulfed them, and upon feeling a chill run down his spine, the shapeshifter realized that he’d lost sight of the entire party. “Aw, shit!” he cursed. “Nautilus! Books! Bellua! Where’d you guys go?!” he shouted as his body turned around uselessly in space, wondering if the sound of his voice would even travel past his own face. 

A second later, though, light returned. A blue sky could be seen above them, a sandy desert below, and a sense of gravity slowly returning to assure them of which way was up and which way was down. Instinctively, Muse shifted instantaneously into his dragon form and, diving after the others, he swooped down and caught all the falling figures he could spot before quickly finding them a landing spot on the ground. He allowed the players to step off and then transformed back to his usual human self, and quickly realized that not everyone he was with before was still with him. Bellua was the first he’d noticed was gone, and while he did feel a small amount of pity he couldn’t say he was too surprised. As for the roleplayers, well, he’d met so many of them so recently that he wasn’t completely sure who or how many of them were left. He took a moment to do a head count, trying to silently identify each one in his head as he went, but he stopped as soon as he encountered a completely unfamiliar face – a roleplayer who’d been hanging out in the desert prior to their arrival. “…Oh. Hello.” He greeted awkwardly. “Who are you?”