(Under editing) STILL

STILL

The masked merchant, Zacharie, looked across the light yellow plastic of Joas. The Judge soon climbed to the roof of the empty warehouse and hopped on the edge of the building. The feline licked his paw and looked up at Zacharie.

"What are you looking at, my cryptic friend?" He asked after a moment. Zacharie looked at his cat friend and back into the direction he was looking previously.

"Have you ever noticed that blue area in the distance?" Asked Zacharie. "I have no memory of visiting it before."

The Judge squinted his eyes and noticed something faintly blue where the plastic met the smoky sky. He had no idea it was there. He had never noticed it and probably never would have if it wasn't for the sharp eyesight of the merchant.

"In fact, my friend, I haven't visited it either. Why do you ask?"

"You know I'm the curious kind of person. How about we go and inspect it? It's getting somewhat boring around here, in this empty Zone without any customers to serve or credits to earn", Zacharie said. "If we face dangers, which is unlikely, I think, I have my sword and you have your claws."

The Judge stretched, making his whole body tremble. Then he sat back down and wrapped his tail around his paws.

"I'm not so certain if it's a good idea. It might be merely a warehouse of Dedan's. Maybe an abandoned project of the Queen's."

Zacharie dropped his backpack, his sword too. He was feeling confident.

"If you wish to not come along, feel free to stay here in Zone 0. As a last attempt to change your mind, it'd get boring here. That brother of yours is in Bismark and Sugar-"

"Fine, my friend", the Judge gave in. "I will come along."

Due to the mask over Zacharie's face the Judge couldn't read his emotions, but he was sure that there was a smirk on his face. Zacharie suddenly picked up the cat and set him on his shoulders. It caught the cat off-guard. His fur stood up and his claws gripped onto Zacharie's arm.

"Warn me next time you decide to do that, please."

"Heh heh, of course. Apologies for that."

They descended down to ground level and walked towards the red cube in north Joas. Zacharie touched it and they found themselves in the Nothingness.

"Hmm. It appears we have a problem. There is no passageway to the place through this abyss", the merchant said, his voice echoing in the dark space.

"We should walk a bit further. The entrance to my Zone is quite far away too, as you can see."

Zacharie obeyed the cat and continued walking into the distance. The yellow, green, magenta and orange passageways to the other Zones were left far behind.

After a while they finally they found a light blue entrance, which was very different from the other ones. Usually they would've been teleported straight to the first block of the Zone, but as soon as Zacharie touched the entrance, they were violently pulled out of the darkness into a white vortex instead. It stirred around faster and faster and soon they were thrown in different directions.

Soon the Judge realized that he was at the Queen's high platform. She turned around to find the cat, still a bit dizzy from the vortex. He stumbled to get on his feet.

"What brings you here, my guardian?" Vader Eloha asked in her soft, almost whisper-like voice. Delta, Sigma and Ipsilon floated behind her, casing a faint white light around them.

"I am truly apologetic for bothering you, my Queen", the Judge said and bowed. "I was trying to find my way to a mysterious blue space in the distance, but was thrown here instead."