Wrong Time, Wrong Place

Distortion

An Island full of distortion and fire surrounds the Saviour, the black waters are the home to the more hostile bully bot subspecies that Mino mentioned. He takes a step into the sand, it was surprisingly cold unlike the warm atmosphere of the place.

"I've said it once and I can't stress it enough, who the stars lives in a world like this?"

He walks along the sand, heading forward to a spinning palm tree, he dodges it and noticed a sign that indicates spikes in the sand. He quickens his pace as a trail of spikes follow him from behind, he makes a run for it, heading to the direction where he could see the point that lived in such bizarre world, Ixol. The spikes stopped following him as he got closer to the black and white point.

"Hey there! Welcome to your worst nightmare! If you want your nightmare to get way worse, just collect some stars here and come talk to me again!"

"Sounds fun. I think"

"It sure is! Now go have fun getting them!"

As he walks away from Ixol, he heard him talking quietly to himself, yet it seemed like he was talking to someone. He decided to not listen in and went to gather stars, he runs to a direction and entered a volcano.

"It's so hot in here! Why is a star even in here?"

The Saviour hopped on the moving platforms, nervously looking at the lava below. He manages to reach the star in the volcano and get out of is, wiping sweat off of his forehead.

"Having to walk through snow in Frosted Snowland seems a lot better than walking near fire and lava in Distortion Paradise"

"Then why did you think wearing a cloak and long sleeves in the first place?" A voice spoke behind the Saviour, he turns around to see it was Compale and looks confused and startled.

"How did you even get here?"

"I heard my world being mentioned, so I gotta check if it wasn't Ixol talking dung behind my back but it's just you complaining about the heat"

"How did you even hear that from so far away"

"And that's something I can't tell you"

"Oh great so you come here to see what's happening then you're leaving while I melt over here?"

"Not sure how I can help"

"Summon snow on me??"

"It'll melt, you'd be soaking wet"

"At least it'll dry up later"

"Very well" with a snap of a finger, a pile of snow falls on the Saviour, he seemed to feel a lot better within the snow.

"Better?"

"Better."

"Compale what the stars are you doing here? I swear I didn't talk about you today"

"But he did. Complaining about how hot it is in this world"

"It's his fault for wearing such thick and long sleeved clothing! Get out of here"

"Sure, whatever pleases you" A snowball appears in Compale's hand, he throws this at Ixol who dodges it, then disappears.

"Rude! I'm going to melt his world someday"

"But what if he freezes your world?"

"Not if I m e l t him f i r s t."

"... Okay"

The Saviour slowly got himself out of the pile of snow that gradually started to melt, it soaked his clothing a little but he proceeded to gather more stars as Ixol goes to melt the rest of the snow. He comes back to Ixol after finding all the stars of his world, though noticed he was talking to 'himself' again.

"I think Ulipse is pretty cool, she doesn't come often but I feel happy when she does. But Compale- that beast of the north, that terrible, terrible snow creature, I swear I'll-"

Ixol stopped mid-sentence, looking around for any sight of Compale but only saw the Star Saviour at the distance, looking at him concerned.

"Ah, the saviour's back from his star hunting."

The Saviour quickly ran towards Ixol, stopping just in front of him.

"hey there! Are your ears bleeding yet?"

"what?"

"Haha, don't worry. I know exactly why you're here again. You think you're ready for my challenge course, huh?"

"I've been through so much, I think I can do this! I'm ready-"

"No you're not."

"Oh."

Ixol teleported the Saviour into their challenge course that's filled to the brim with complete utter chaos. He looks at it in fear but shook it off, jumping onto the conveyors, dodging every TV that came to knock him off. He carefully traversed through the chaotic challenge course, and almost fell into the waters. He reaches the end, finding himself in an arena, bracing himself for the battle that's yet to come. Ixol looks at him and laughs.

"Looks like my challenge course wasn't difficult enough for the likes of you. At least I'll get a chance to toy with you now."

"That sounds so wrong without proper context"

"I- forget I said that and take the shooting star"

He disappears, leaving the shooting star in his place. The Saviour runs towards it, grabbing it to start the battle. The battle was more of a dodging game than an actual fight, however due to the frequent teleport and attacks, he was unable to find an opening to attack Ixol. Though his attacks were scarce and little, he eventually managed to get Ixol into his true form, making the fight even more difficult. After what seemed like forever, with the Saviour loosing energy to dodge, almost getting hit by frequent attacks, Ixol was defeated and he goes down to stand on the arena. The Saviour lay on the floor, exhausted.

"You alright?"

"I'm... Alright. I didn't think it'll be that difficult"

"And yet you overcame it, quite remarkable. My symbol's yours"

Ixol placed the symbol into the Saviour's hand.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Get up first. You can't just lay down there"

"Sorry-" he slowly got up, breathing more steadily than earlier.

"So what's your question?"

"Why do you seem to talk to yourself?"

"I have friends in another dimension who can speak to me in a telepathic way. It seems crazy, like I have voices in my head, but they exist. They prefer staying in Noxron for the most part."

"Ohhh, makes sense"

"Hang on" Ixol teleported the Saviour back to the entrance.

"Wh-"

"You can go now, go kick Celesteal's bum for me"

"Uh- okay" The Saviour left the world, taking the teleporter back up to the emporium, he was greeted by Ploque.

"Welcome back, how's Ixol's world?"

"Hell."

"Understandable, also we can finally go confront Celesteal! Don't worry, everyone's coming, you're not going to be alone"

"That's greatly reassuri-"

"CYALM WHERE ARE YOU? I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, SHOW YOURSELF YOU C O W A R D" Ixol ran past the two and headed to the final door, the Saviour and Ploque looked at each other.

"That's not good isn't it..?"

"We have to check what's happening with Ixol. Come on, everyone's here"

He nodded and followed Ploque as she and the others headed to the final door of the emporium.