[Not knowing where Add is? It's more likely than you think.

When everyone winds up on separate platforms and there's no Add in sight, Elsword's first act is to panic immediately and look for him — not that there's many nooks and crannies for him to hide in. He doesn't see Add. Where could Add have gone? By the El's Light, he's not losing Add again, fuck no, fuck that—

He takes a breath, ash and smoke filling his lungs. The voice signals the start of the game, but Elsword doesn't move, staying until everyone else has gone just in case Add shows up. And... he doesn't.

It takes maybe two minutes for the heat to be unbearable to the point where Elsword starts to literally fry in his armour, too. There's a distant sizzling noise as metal burns his skin, a somewhat-panicked look on Elsword's face as he starts unclasping his gauntlets and doffing his armour as quickly as he can before he boils. The game is only just beginning, and he's starting late. The lava rises. Add isn't here. He has to literally free himself of all of his armour if he wants to live long enough to maybe, hopefully, see his friend — and anyone else — again.

Sephira's wings won't come, which means he cannot fly out of here. Sephira won't even float like this, but that device is too important to lose; he pockets the golden ring in his remaining clothing, and just before the magma can touch the heels of his shoes, he sprints toward the nearest cliff face.

Maybe you were waiting for him. Maybe you turned around to grab him. Maybe you're far ahead. In any case, Elsword is swift to catch up to you so you can both get out without cooking.]

Shit—!

[Climbing the hot rock wall was probably a bad idea, but it's also the fastest way out by Elsword's measure. There are lava floes nearby that bubble up sometimes, and one of those just struck him against the cheek. He's lucky it was just a tiny splatter, like bacon grease in a frying pan, and not anything worse.

Swiping it away hurts his hand, and he spits out another curse before carrying on. Up he goes, up and up...]

Hey— [you there, yes you!] Hey, are you holding up okay? Do you need help?

[Self-preservation sense: 0. Let him help you instead.]

[Elsword is at the top of the rise, in the air-conditioned safe spot, literally shivering because the cold in contrast with the heat throws his body temperature completely out of whack. It's like stepping out of a dessert into a tundra. He's only in his undershirt, after all. There are no sleeves.

He thinks quietly, if he goes out because he suddenly got hypothermia, at least he lived through the worst of it.

He's not the first one to the top — there are others up here, but he doesn't immediately start talking to anybody. Instead, he's assessing the damage done to his left arm, where it was submerged entirely in lava for a good ten seconds. His skin and some of the muscle underneath is completely destroyed, some black and charred, some still meaty-looking and bloody. The familiar white of bone shows on his forearm in patches where the lava had burned away everything else.

It's a miracle he can move that arm at all. He's desperately trying not to. They just need the game to end so that he can heal his injuries, it's fine, he's fine...

Finally, he speaks up:]

You're okay, right? As okay as you can be, anyway.

[hi again. it's me again. you can throw something at my face, again—]