Everyone was back on the island.
The black-haired man had returned to his slumber, his breathing shallow but steady, shadows faintly pulsing beneath his skin like veins of darkness. The crimson-haired woman remained unconscious, her body occasionally flickering with traces of silver light, unstable, but alive.
The golden-haired man stood at the edge of the floating isle, eyes fixed on the horizon where the clouds met the fractured sky. The faint glimmer of his aura had dimmed, but not disappeared, like sunlight refusing to yield to dusk.
And Dawn and Elara sat in silence, each lost in thought.
The only sound was the wind, if it could even be called that. It moved strangely here, not as air should, but in waves, like the slow breathing of the world itself.
Dawn's mind spun.
Too many questions. Too few answers.
Where were they?
Why had a Glacial Titan appeared, and two at that?
And most importantly, who the hell were these people?
His gaze drifted toward them one by one.
The golden-haired man, he didn't even use a catalyst sequence. He'd just said, "Let there be light."
No flare of resonance, no echo from the voice of the world.
Nothing.
Yet his power was...frightening.
That shouldn't be possible.
Then there was Elara, her what Dawn had started calling it "stasis" ability. It froze a Titan mid-swing. That level of control was beyond anything a normal sequencer could achieve. Her arcana wasn't even consistent with the common paths.
And the black-haired man…
Dawn's jaw tensed slightly. Even while unconscious, his presence pressed against what seemed to be forest itself. The shadows didn't just follow him, they seemed to listen to him. As though he was something the dark itself recognized.
He exhaled, leaning back against the frost-bitten ground. "What the hell did I get myself into?"
The golden-haired man turned slightly, his expression unreadable.
"Dawn… that's your name, right?"
"Huh? Y–yeah, it is."
"Dawn," he repeated quietly, as if testing the sound. "Do you have any idea where we are?"
Dawn hesitated, eyes flicking toward the endless expanse of clouds below. "Well… Glacial Titans are known to appear near the continent where the Tree of Life and the entrance to Yggdrasil are located."
The man's brow furrowed. "Yggdrasil?"
Dawn blinked. "You're kidding, right? It's where the Eight Provinces reside. How fractured are your memories to not even know that?"
The man didn't respond immediately. He turned his gaze downward, the faint shimmer of light at his fingertips dimming. "I remember… a city made of glass. A throne room that reached into the clouds. And then… nothing."
Elara looked up for the first time, brushing a strand of silver hair from her face. "A city of glass? I remember something like that from my memories I think the name was Solnera ."
Dawn frowned. "Solnera's been gone for centuries. It collapsed during the Resonance War."
The golden-haired man didn't even flinch. "Then I suppose we've been gone longer than I thought."
The words hung in the air like a curse.
Elara's expression softened, but curiosity burned in her eyes. "How long were we truly asleep"
Dawn's thoughts wandered somewhere else, even amidst the conversation.
The Tree of Life and Yggdrasil, that was the problem.
They were located on the continent of Flauria, a place that should've been on the complete opposite side of the world from Rinzard.
Dawn pondered for a bit longer and came ti a conclusion… they were no longer where they thought they were.
He rubbed the back of his neck, frustration bubbling under his calm. "Damnit That's impossible," he muttered under his breath. "There's no way we could be that far, well actually anythings possible in this damned world."
Elara turned toward him. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said, a bit too quickly. "Just, thinking."
She frowned but didn't press further. Instead, her gaze shifted toward the horizon, where faint glimmers of light pulsed among the clouds residue from their fight still lingering.
And without any warning the voice of the world rang out..
>[■■■■■■■Initiated]<
The air warped.
Clouds tore past them like streaks of white fire as the entire island dropped. The ground trembled beneath their feet, the once-still sky now a blur of motion.
"We're actually falling!?" Elara shouted, gripping onto the edge of the log she'd been sitting on.
"Yeah, no kidding!" Dawn yelled back, squinting against the rushing wind. "And before you ask, no, I don't know why!"
Despite the chaos, the golden-haired man still hadn't moved. He stood at the edge of the isle, coat whipping violently around him, eyes fixed downward as if watching the descent itself.
The black-haired man didn't stir. The crimson-haired woman's body flickered again, that strange silver light forming a faint barrier around her as if instinctively protecting her.
Dawn glanced at Elara, panic edging into his voice. "Can't you slow this thing down? Use your sequence or whatever that "stasis" thing is!"
"I can't stop gravity, Dawn!, I don't,"
She stopped mid-sentence. The ground beneath them suddenly fractured, glowing with faint golden lines that pulsed in rhythm with his heartbeat.
"What the hell,"
Before he could finish, his body instinctively reacted. Golden energy surged beneath his boots, forming the same radiant slide as before, extending outward like a half-formed bridge. The island didn't stop, but its fall seemed to ease, slowing just enough for them to breathe again.
Elara stumbled to her feet, hair whipping across her face. "Did you,"
"Not on purpose!" Dawn shouted back. "It's reacting on its own!"
The golden-haired man finally turned his head slightly, his voice steady even through the storm of wind and sound.
"Keep it that way."
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Dawn snapped.
But before an answer could come, the island broke through the last layer of clouds, revealing, far below, what looked like an endless expanse of ice and pale light. Mountains of glassy crystal, rivers that glowed faintly blue beneath the mist.
Elara's breath caught. "Dawn is that Rinzard?"
Dawn grit his teeth. "No. It's not."