The bridge did not feel like a bridge but an endless road.
Veneri's steps echoed softly against stone that did not feel like stone. Each step felt as though the structure itself were hollow—or perhaps immeasurably dense—while the world hung inverted around them with the sky beneath their feet. Every step carried the faint sensation of falling sideways.
Veneri adjusted his grip on Asenane. Her arms loosely wrapped around his shoulders. She slept deeply thanks to his Sleep Rune. Phaenora walked beside him as she kept looking at her holograms.
"I found them," she said at last.
Veneri did not slow down. "Shimmer and Runner?"
"Yes. I can sense them clearly now."
"How are they?"
"They're… frozen. Not metaphorically. Literally."
That made him stop.
"Frozen how?"
"Total stasis. Their body functions are halted. It's not death but containment. They're trapped but alive with no injuries. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing."
Veneri exhaled slowly, forcing himself to breathe. "And Shimmer?"
"Her body temperature is extremely high."
His grip on Asenane tightened instinctively.
"She has dragon fever by my guess. Under normal circumstances, it would have manifested violently by now but the stasis is counteracting it. Whatever field they're trapped in is cooling her faster than the fever can escalate."
Before he could respond, a shadow passed beneath them. The clouds below the bridge parted as something impossibly large surged upward through them. It was a massive blue form spiraling like a living river. Its segmented body was gleaming with bioluminescence as it pierced the sky beneath their feet, only to dive back down moments later, vanishing as though it had never existed at all.
Veneri did not move until the Dafe was gone.
"It didn't sense us."
Phaenora nodded. "Ingenious Prince is still active. We have less than an hour left."
They resumed walking. They had been walking for more than six hours and the bridge had not narrowed, curved or hinted at an end. There were no rails, no landmarks or visible edges. It was just an infinite path of stone stretching forward and sideways until distance lost meaning altogether.
"If a Dafe attacks us here, we're dead."
"Yes," Phaenora agreed without hesitation. "God-Ranked Creatures are not to be messed with and this bridge offers nowhere to hide. Also, giants built this."
Veneri glanced at her. "You're sure?"
"There's no other explanation. This scale isn't symbolic. It's literal. Even Celestials wouldn't waste space like this. And we can't see the edges, not sideways, not forward. That means it was never meant to be seen whole."
That was when Veneri slowed down again. Something on the ground had caught his eye. He knelt, careful with Asenane, and brushed his fingers across the stone. Lines were carved deeply, deliberately. Their edges were impossibly sharp despite what must have been unimaginable age.
They were in Godscript.
"Phaenora, what does this say?"
She crouched beside him, and then she froze.
"Oh."
"That bad?"
"No. It's so familiar."
She inhaled, then began to translate.
"A hundred centimeters equal one meter. A thousand meters equal one kilometer. Degrees measured in Celsius. Distances recorded in miles."
Phaenora stopped before she groaned.
"I had a feeling."
Veneri looked at her. "About what?"
"Do you remember the first time we met?"
"I was seven."
"Yes. You asked me a question I couldn't answer yet."
"I asked a lot of questions."
"You asked why Spheraphase uses the exact same measurements as Earth with no deviations. I didn't answer because it's a Hidden Truth, one I'm not permitted to reveal until you're ready. At least, that's what my protocol as an Omniscient said back then."
Her eyes flicked back to the runes beneath their feet.
"This is when you find out. My memory revealed one answer long ago. Someone from Earth transmigrated to Spheraphase eons ago when this world was still learning how to be sentient. They introduced Earth's systems here. Measurements. Standards. Concepts. They used what they knew to shape a world that didn't yet know how to define itself."
He looked around.
"And if these words are here, then—"
"Then whoever transmigrated must be the one who built the Hidden Citadel."
Her gaze lifted, tracing the endless span of the bridge.
"These runes are massive, Veneri. They weren't inscribed later. They were written into the structure itself by hand."
"But why?"
Phaenora's fingers hovered just above the runes without touching them, tracing the symbols in the air while her lips moved silently.
"Let me translate it mathematically."
Veneri turned fully toward her. Asenane stirred slightly on his back but did not wake.
"One hundred centimeters equals one meter. That's a definition of scale. One thousand meters equals one kilometer. Again, scale. Celsius defines temperature by water's phase transitions. Zero freezes. One hundred boils. That only works if the environment respects thermodynamic constants and water in Spheraphase doesn't exactly follow those laws."
She looked up at him now.
"And miles? Well, since its not used that much by Earth standards, it seems that their transmigrator didn't have information about it."
"That's because the measurement of miles and Fahrenheit is only used in the United States. It's a country on Earth. That means that he isn't from there."
She gestured broadly at the bridge.
"Right. So we're standing on something that ignores vastness entirely."
Veneri's gaze slid forward, following the bridge as it vanished into curvature and haze.
"We ran at full speed for hours and we didn't even reach a fraction of it."
"This bridge isn't long because it's physically long," she said. "It's long because distance here is defined differently."
"Meaning?"
"The runes aren't informational. They're corrective. Whoever built this place noticed a problem."
She tapped the stone lightly with her heel.
"This environment doesn't naturally obey consistent measurement. Distance stretches. Temperature stabilizes unnaturally. Time likely dilates too."
Veneri's eyes widened slightly.
"So the runes—"
"—anchor reality. They impose Earth's measurement system onto a space that would otherwise be infinite. Which means the person who built the Hidden Citadel didn't just visit Spheraphase. He used Earth's measurements to change how it worked."
The clouds beneath the bridge began to churn as if something massive were circling beneath them. Phaenora's head snapped up.
"They're surrounding us."
Veneri turned slowly. One Dafe rose from the clouds to their left, its massive blue body coiling gracefully as it ascended. Another surfaced ahead. Then another behind. Veneri hissed under his breath as his Codex began to fade.
"Ingenious Prince is fading. I can feel it."
"How long?" Phaenora asked, already knowing the answer.
"Minutes."
She looked down the bridge, then back at the encircling God-Ranked creatures.
"We won't make it. Not on foot."
"So what's the plan?"
Phaenora met his eyes. "We fly."
"On what?"
"You know what."
He groaned. "Of course."
He shifted his stance, steadying Asenane on his back and raised one hand.
"Biolumine, time to wake up!"
Light condensed, coalescing into an enormous silhouette beneath them. A massive manta ray unfolded itself from nothingness. It's wings stretched wide enough to blot out entire sections of the cloudscape. Its surface was shimmering with bio-luminescent veins.
"Still beautiful every time."
"Don't get distracted, Phae. We're jumping."
They didn't hesitate. Since the world was upside down, jumping down meant falling up.
For a heart-stopping moment, there was just the sensation of falling into the sky itself before they landed hard against Biolumine's back. The Dafes reacted immediately. A deep sound rippled through the clouds as they turned in unison.
Biolumine surged forward and in doing so, the sound barrier shattered.
Wind howled past them as the divine manta ray accelerated to impossible speeds. The Dafes followed. Their immense forms flew through clouds with terrifying ease. Their size meant nothing when divine momentum was involved. Biolumine turned sharply, light as a Dafe lunged from the side.