Author's Note: Thank you all for continuing to give me support despite the long break! I'll do my best to at least pump out 1 chapter per week. My upload schedule is a complete mess though, so I would highly recommend everyone to add this series to their reading lists so you guys can see when a new chapter is posted. Thank you all for your amazing comments and I hope you all enjoy! :D

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Jimmy continued to hold back the hoard of creatures while the car made its way towards the mall. Of course, the rifleman he rescued had no idea what was going on, so Jimmy gave him a brief rundown on the situation and introduced himself and Rodger. He looked to be around the same height and age as Jimmy, except with blonde hair instead of dark brown. It was clear that he also worked out a fair bit; his arms were noticeably bulky and there didn't seem to be much of a struggle dealing with the gun's recoil before it was destroyed. The man was finally stable enough to talk coherently by the time they were nearing a mile's distance from the mall.

"So, you're saying that the world is being invaded by giant monsters and now everyone has magic powers?"

"Basically"

"My god... if I wasn't in so much pain, I would've thought this was a nightmare"

Their casual conversation was interrupted when the driver-side window rolled down.

"You should've wished this was a nightmare. You ain't waking up from this mess, lad" Rodger shouted from inside.

The rifle-less rifleman's eyes lit up and he immediately crawled over to the open window, leaning over the side of the car to look through it.

"Whoa, you really do look like Babe Ruth!" the man exclaimed.

"Holy-!"

Rodger jumped at the sudden voice near his ear causing the car to swerve violently and sending the man flying off the side. Jimmy dove forward and somehow managed to grab the man's leg mere inches before he would've hit the ground.

"Oi! You almost killed me, old man! What's wrong with you!?"

"What's wrong with me- how about you ask what's wrong with yourself! Why are you climbing into the window of a moving car!?"

"I was trying to introduce myself! How am I supposed to shake your hand if I'm on the roof? Actually, I can't really move my arm much to shake it-"

Jimmy pulled the man back up with one hand as the two continued to argue; his other hand was reserved for flinging the shield around the car to keep the creatures at bay. The number of creatures was steadily declining as they got further away from the dense areas of the city. Even so, Jimmy still had to focus nearly all of his attention on the surroundings.

Earlier in the journey, the creatures would give up trying to attack the car after being banged up a bit by the shield, since there were hundreds of easier targets to choose from around them. Now that they were nearing the city's outskirts, the number of people drastically decreased and the creatures were a lot more persistent.

Although now being able to finish off the creatures greatly helped Jimmy recover from his fatigue, he had to be much more precise with his strikes, as he actually had to defeat the things rather than simply ward them off. He noticed that though the particles were still healing him just fine, he was not growing stronger nearly as often.

"Can you two please settle down? I need to... nevermind forget it" 

He stopped his plead upon seeing that the two weren't listening.

Guess I'll just have to ignore them. I didn't think this new phase would be such a massive jump in difficulty. We're barely hanging on despite being semi-prepared for it. How many people will even be able to survive this mess?

Though these bleak worries filled his head, Jimmy had no choice but to push them aside and focus on the task at hand. It took another 20 minutes before they arrived at the mall. Luckily, the parking lot was nearly barren; only a few creatures roamed throughout it. If this madness had started in the daytime, there's no question the mall would have been completely ravaged by looters.

They decided to park the car near the mall's side entrance to be less noticeable and to give an opportunity for a quick escape if the need be. The ex-rifleman and Jimmy climbed down from the roof and Rodger wobbled out of the driver seat, noticeably weakened from the blood loss.

"Please keep this thing away from me, kid. Now that I'm not driving, I'll have to restrain myself from bashing his head in... and I don't have much of a desire to do that"

"This thing has a name, old man! My name is Dylan- I'd tell you to remember it, but I doubt that you can with your Alzheimer's brain!"

"Please focus you two. One of you is bleeding out of nearly every part of his body and the other probably has several broken ribs. Seriously, how are you guys even able to argue right now?" Jimmy sighed before continuing, "Save yourselves the energy and spare me from the noise until we figure out how to fix this," Jimmy inputted with a sigh.

The two finally settled down as the group approached the side door with Jimmy acting as the rearguard to defend the injured guys in case a creature ambushed them from behind. Dylan wiggled the handle before looking back with a defeated expression.

"It's locked guys, we can't get in. I knew coming here was-"

Crash!

Dylan's somber speech was interrupted by the sound of glass shattering. Rodger stood with his giant, yellow hammer in front of a shattered window. A smug expression was plastered on his face.

"This is an apocalypse in case you forgot. Maybe you're the one with Alzheimer's after all, lad?"

Lamenting on his defeat, Dylan silently followed Rodger inside while Jimmy stifled his laughter behind them. The mall was 2 stories high and completely dark. Their quiet footsteps were the only things breaking the eerie silence as they walked through the long empty halls.

"Hey, Jimmy, can you break open that vending machine for me? I haven't eaten since yesterday" Dylan asked as they walked.

"Let's try to stay quiet. There could be creatures in this place and I really don't have the energy to fight again. Actually..."

Jimmy took off his backpack filled with snacks that he grabbed from his apartment and tossed Dylan a bag of chips. He was so focused on escaping that he nearly forgot he had it.

"Thank you!" he whispered in a kind attempt to stay quiet.

Crunnnch!

"... I should've just let those things kill me" Rodger muttered, slapping Jimmy in the back of the head, "you really gave that idiot the loudest food you had!"

"I've been fighting on 3 hours of sleep; give me a break! I'm tired and grumpy and I need a nap. Let's just get over to the first aid thing and rest there. It should be right behind the fountain if I remember correctly"

The group slowly made their way towards the center of the wall where the fountain was placed. Every crunch from the chips made Jimmy sweat, but they were able to make it to their destination without any problems. The large marble fountain stood in front of them, except something was off about it. Instead of normal water, the fountain was filled with a purple liquid swirling around in a spiral. A familiar purple glow provided dim light to the otherwise dark surroundings.

"Whoa! That's a weird fountain!" Dylan exclaimed, pointing at it.

"Thank you, Captain dumb-"

"Oi, do you think this could be one of those shop things? This is really giving off the 'I'm important' feeling" Jimmy asked interrupting Rodger's comment.

[ Affirmative. Crystal Users will be transported to the shop upon contact with entryway ] 

"I was directing that towards Rodger, but thank you, robot voice! It's confirmed, this is what we're looking for! We don't gotta waste time wrapping your injuries, when we got this here. "

"Are you sure? I don't see anything we can buy though" Rodger questioned while staring at the fountain.

"No, you old geezer! It's clearly a portal- we just gotta jump in it and we'll get taken to the thing!"

After shouting that excitedly, Dylan dove into the fountain.

Splash!

"Hahahaha!"

Rodger's laughter was contrasted by the deep frown and shame plastered on Dylan's face as he sat in the water.

"Ow, that hurt! This thing is broken! Why could I go through it!?"

That's weird... the robot voice said it was an entryway. Oh, wait a second!

"I think only Crystal Users can go... we never got this guy a crystal, did we?" Jimmy revealed, interrupting Dylan's complaints, "I'll go hop in and get the potions. You wanna come with me, Rodger?"

"Thanks, but I don't feel like getting soaked, kid. I'll watch over this idiot while you go"

Jimmy nodded and approached the fountain, slowly lowering his hand into the purple water. The next moment, his body was engulfed in a purple light.

Everything went black.