Last chapter, the perspective changed to the owner of Fixed Reality Casino- Domino Afolabi. More specifically, he returned home to his family after days of being away and having virtually no contact with them. His toddler Edison was just glad to see his father back home, but his wife was furious at Domino for the lack of contact- leaving him to sleep alone on the couch of the living room after he arrived late at night.

6 hours later...

Domino's P.O.V.

"Come on Ajal, get up- we're almost there!" I beg while carrying Edison in my arms, after my older boy falls to the ground. We're making a run for the Soul Savers that're in the basements of my Casino- which is falling apart due to Hopian's rampage across the continent. I told them we should have got in the servers early, I TOLD THEM!

But no- no time for anger now. Ajal sobs a few times as I start to run back to him, then thankfully pushes himself up-

*CRASH!*

"AJAL!!!" I scream as the metal ceiling above him gives out, and falls right on top of him- crushing my boy instantly as I can see his blood spill out from underneath the big hunk metal.

I fall to my knees with my will to keep going just- gone... and then Hopian slams down in front of us through the hole in the ceiling. His entire giant body is being covered by an evil looking purple fog, with only his glowing red eyes that are glaring down at me being visible through the smoke.

"You know what happens to non-believers." Hopian says as he raises his wrinkled gray hand up through the smog, and starts to charge up an energy blast in his palm that's aimed right at us.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry... I should've done more..." I weep as I clutch Edison in my arms and shut my eyes, trying to get ready for our inevitable deaths.

I scream as the light gets launched at u-

"AH!" I gasp as my eyes open wide and I spring myself up and see- the ceiling to my living room...

"Fuck. Nightmare." I think to myself with a relieved sigh, as I rub my now sore neck after I launched myself up like that... damn, not what I needed today.

"Are you ok, Daddy? Sorry for waking you up, mommy told me to..." Edison asks as he pokes my hip, which as always does cheer me up just a bit. Hearing his voice I mean.

"Wait- did I sleep in too late if everyone's already up?" I think to myself as I carefully turn my neck to glance at the projection on the living room wall that tells the time- 10:07 in the morning... phew, not too late then.

"I'm alright Edison, just a bad dream is all. ...Hey- speaking of, Dazzline told me you've been having nightmares too lately. There's nothing you have to be afraid of, ya know that right? I've got all the Herin in the world to keep us safe from those criminals, they ain't nothing more than those monsters in your closet- and you know I can handle them just fine. Plus- the leader of the army himself is a pal o' mine. And he's been telling me he's got biiiig plans for how to take down those nasty bad guys." I change the subject to helping him, since making other people feel better more often than not makes me feel better too. And thankfully, what I said makes Edison's eyes open wide.

"Really?! Popsi told you that? AND he's your friend?!" He asks as he grabs my arm with both of his little hands.

"Yup. Didn't I tell you that we were kinda close before? Guess I never got the time to." I say with a yawn as I get my ass off the couch, no time to dawdle today.

"I wanna meet him!!! I saw P- P-man on TV before, he used blue fire to burn that big floating rock to dust!" Edison exclaims after grabbing my hand, as he walks with me down the hall- which is covered with family portraits. As well as a couple of photos of me shaking hands with some famous people.

"Heh, yeah Prósopsi's something alright. Maybe someday I can bring you to him or bring him here for a meal, he's a very busy man right now though so- that'll have to wait." I reply as we reach the kitchen, and I can see that Ajal's already sitting at the table and playing on his phone- along with Dazzline who was just reading a paperback book for some reason... anyways she's glaring at me now though.

"Mornin'." I say with a wave as I plop myself down on a chair at the table too.

"Ahem? Remember the promise you made the kids before you left?" Dazzline says as she continues her glare...

"Uh... um..." My mind blanks.

"Shit- uh was it to teach them a card game? Ajal's been bugging me about learning blackjack... no wait I taught him that like three months ago. Was it to buy Edison a new VR headset?"

"Cakes." Edison whispers to me from underneath the table and by my right leg- no clue when he got there, but it does thankfully save my ass and bring the memory back to me.

"Pancakes! Of course of course, we were gonna make pancakes together! C'mon boys, let's do it- we'll blow your mother's socks off with our cooking this time around." I say which makes Edison giggle and waddle towards the granite kitchen counter, but I only get an eye roll from Ajal as he reluctantly puts his phone down on the table- but he does still get up and start walking too.

"Can't complain too much about him, he is pretty well a teenager now so- a bit of rebellion or whatnot is normal. Least it was for me." I think to myself with a smile, as the years I spent with him as a kid flash before my eyes... damn. I really can't remember all that much. Ah well. Being away from home a lot is the cost of letting my family live a super luxurious and spoiled life I guess.

🥞🥞🥞

"So. Just wanna say first off, sorry for not calling- or even responding to you guys over the past few days I've been gone. Yeah, I've been real busy but- Dazzline's helped me realize that what I did still wasn't right. I could have called or left voicemails but, I just put wanting to catch some Z's after all of my meetings, calls, and paperwork ahead of you guys. And that was wrong. Especially due to the recent criminal activity happening all around the Hopian Continent, should've known you guys needed me- even just on the phone." I apologize, then cram some of the blueberry pancakes we made into my mouth.

"A bit undercooked, must've been the ones Edison made... eh. Still pretty great considering his age even if the helper robot helped a bit too. Glad Dazzline got most of the ones me and Ajal made regardless though." I think to myself with some satisfaction as, even though she isn't saying it outright- I can tell she loves my cakes based on how quickly she's eating them.

"It's ok Daddy. Like you tell us, you do your work for everyone! You're a supahero!" Edison says as he raises his arms into the air- which accidentally causes his plastic fork to fly out of his hand and into the wall behind him.

I laugh and get up to pick it up for him, Edison just shakes his head with a smirk- but Dazzline is giving me the stink eye again...

"Your Daddy thinks he's a superhero, but that doesn't mean he's perfect like we've talked about. Also. You're not even going to ask me about granny Diane, Domino?" Dazzline says which makes me cringe in shame... I give Edison his fork back, and head back to my seat.

"Right- I'm so sorry, my mind's been a mess since yesterday. How's she doing?" I ask, worried to hear the answer since A: I love dear old Diane. And B: she's been my Casino's main energy source for years, since with her blessing she can convert the energy of people's souls into electricity at an insanely efficient rate.

...Still gotta have some meetings today to plan out how I'm gonna release our human "batteries" that have lived in Fixed Reality Casino's dorms for years, since I won't have a need for them after Diane passes. Gonna be a hassle but- at least it'll help my conscience. Even if those human batteries did willingly gamble their lives away to us and do live fairly comfortable lives in our dorms.

"She's not doing good. They say Diane may have a few days left at best, she isn't recovering as well as they hoped after the stroke. Even with those micro robots they use to do delicate internal repairs." Dazzline says which makes me frown.

"...You kn-"

"If you're going to mention anything about shoving her soul into one of your machines- trust me, you're far better off keeping quiet here Domino." Dazzline says as she stabs her knife right through her last remaining pancake- annnnd that's my queue to shut up now.

"Ahem- anyways. At least she's had a long life as is, 106 years old huh- not bad at all. Plus, good news, the government agreed to help fund my Soul Savers- as well as to help supply some energy to the Casino. So the business'll be just fine energy wise, even after Diane passes... but enough of that, are you all okay? You know, dealing with the... what do they call it, grieving before an expected death?" I ask as I glance across the table while taking a sip of my apple flavored coffee- no one seems happy about the good news though.

"We're... relatively fine, the kids are at least. What about you? We're leaving at 4pm today to get to our hotel, 2 hours before the competitors for the events should start to line up outside I think you said. Do you have everything you'll need prepared, Domino?" Dazzline asks me with some concern which, I do appreciate... maybe she was just extra mad at me last night for the no-calls and for coming home so late.

"Oh yeah, been prepping this event for months now. Besides, at this point my workers are gonna be handling most of the event stuff anyways. My main job is just gonna be to act as the host and commentator for the show- as well as to meet up with the winners of each of the events games and all. As long as nothing goes wrong at least, which I doubt will since- yeah our security checks are gonna be top notch, plus the tickets were only given out online to pre-existing members of my Casino's loyalty program. With threats to anyone who gave out their tickets to those who weren't invited of course. Oh- and security aside I'll also be there to send off the lucky winners who get to enter the teleporter we have, that'll send the winners to Dalkan." I happily rant as I cut into my pancakes again to take another bite.

"Couldn't someone have sold their tickets to bad people though, someone who didn't care about the 'threats' or whatever?" Ajal asks as he plays with the food on his plate which impresses me.

"Smart kid. Technically yeah but, again, everyone who enters the Casino still has to get their ID checked- which will happen at multiple checkpoints in the Casino on every event floor, along with a ton of seperate ticket checks too. And then if anyone is found to not be on the Casino's loyalty program list or doesn't have a valid ticket, they immediately get taken out by security- or we'll call the Hopian Army to deal with them if the bad guy was a real pain in the ass." I say with some pride.

"Language." Dazzline warns, but at least Ajal laughed at that.

"Sorry. But yeah, I'm gonna be just fine here- don't worry. And I promise, I'll call you guys this time around." I say which seems to please Dazzline a bit as she finishes off the last tiny piece of my always-fantastic pancakes- Edison's too I guess.

"What games are gonna happen at the event Daddy? You said you'd tell us on the day it starts, didn't you?" Edison asks me with puppy dog eyes...

"I meant you'll see when the events start kiddo. But fine, as a hint... there'll be some card games, some epic fighting matches, and some out-of-this-world VR games. There's more events than that but, you'll have to see it for yourself! Besides, don't you want to watch your old man on the big screen to see him announce all of the surprises there?" I ask, hope he doesn't just say no but- well even the nicest of kids can be brutally honest sometimes.

"I guess... but I still wanna know now! But I'll wait..." Edison says with a huff- phew.

"Good boy. Say... wanna fly?" I say after noticing that Edison's done his breakfast too, and he nods his head like crazy with a wide open mouth- then hops off of the booster seat on his chair at the table and runs towards me as I get up as well and put down my cutlery.

"Alright, I can do thi-"

"I'm ready!!" He breaks my focus by crying out impatiently as he grabs my finger and starts swinging my hand around.

"Be patient Edison, your Dad's a bit tired and rusty here." I reply with a small smile, as I remember the video I watched years ago of Hurricane Benton that swept through the island of Aprase. The winds were crazy, taking some shingles off of roofs- even pulling some small trees out of the ground... right!

I grab both of Edison's hands and say "I'll Bring you There!"- which immediately makes my boy get flung up into the air, but of course he doesn't slam into a wall or the ceiling or anything since I'm holding his hands tight.

He's laughing like a madman with tears in his eyes, with his cheeks flapping in the "wind" that my blessing reproduced just for him. Should probably master the blessing at some point due to how strong it is.

More specifically it lets me recreate the effects of any environment I've seen before, on anyone or anything, for as long as I'm touching the person I want to effect. In theory, the strongest environment I could simulate on someone is a black hole since I think I've seen some photos of them online but... I really don't want to fuck around and find out with that in case there's any negative side effects. Or kill anyone in general really...

Enough dark thoughts though, back to Edison- to make things funner I start to spin around while he's still being effected by the hurricane's wind and flailing in the air. Ahh I love his smile.