The heavy stone door groaned one final time before settling against the weathered rock behind them.
For the first time since entering the Repository the world greeted them. It did so with a scent that lingered throughout the air.
It reached them before the landscape did, carried gently on a cool breeze that wandered through the doorway. Warm wood. Damp earth. Fresh leaves. Beneath it lingered a faint sweetness they couldn't quite place, as though the forest itself had spent centuries steeping in autumn.
Everyone stopped. Without realizing it, they each took another slow breath.
"It... smells nice," Mimi murmured, her voice unusually quiet.
Rai nodded absentmindedly.
"...It does."
They stepped outside together.
The world unfolded before them. Rows upon rows of towering trees stretched across the landscape, disappearing into the distance beneath the pale sky. Their broad leaves painted the forest in every shade between new life and old memory: soft gold, warm orange, brilliant crimson, and deep wine-red canopies that seemed almost black wherever the shadows gathered beneath them.
It looked like a sunset that had forgotten how to end.
The breeze returned, gentler this time.
Below the crimson canopy, vast fields of amber grasses bent together in perfect unison, rippling across the forest floor like slow ocean waves. Their motion spread outward in long, rolling currents until it vanished among the distant trunks.
Somewhere beyond the trees came the quiet murmur of moving water.
Not close enough to see, yet close enough to know it was there.
A river. Or perhaps a stream winding unseen through the forest.
A single leaf drifted lazily through the air. Its broad surface caught the breeze again and again before finally settling upon Nozomi's shoulder.
She glanced toward it just as Midori leaned over with an amused smile.
"...Excuse me~"
She gave the leaf the gentlest little puff of air.
The crimson leaf tumbled away, spinning gracefully toward the ground.
Neera stepped forward before it could disappear into the amber grasses.
She crouched, picking it up between two fingers.
Nobody interrupted. She turned it over slowly, studying every vein that branched across its broad surface. Most of the leaf still held its deep crimson pigment, but along the edges and between several veins, the color had begun to retreat. Those small patches had faded into a muted ash-grey, as though tiny pieces of the leaf had already become cinders before the rest was ready to follow.
"...Interesting," she murmured.
The others looked over.
"It isn't dying all at once."
Her thumb traced the grey patches carefully, almost reverently.
"The pigments are disappearing gradually..."
She looked back toward the endless crimson canopy overhead.
"...Not changing."
The breeze stirred once more.
Somewhere high above them, another leaf let go.
One by one, they drifted quietly toward the forest floor, joining the countless others that already rested beneath the trees in a soft carpet of faded reds and cooling ash.
The quiet lingered. No one seemed eager to disturb it. One by one, their attention drifted upward towards the sky.
It resembled night. Yet it wasn't.
Countless stars glittered across the heavens with a clarity none of them had ever witnessed before. They were no longer distant pinpricks struggling against daylight or the glow of civilization. They shone with startling sharpness, scattered across the darkness like frost upon black glass.
Broad curtains of aurora drifted lazily overhead, ribbons of emerald, violet and pale blue weaving silently across the sky.
Stretching from one horizon to the other was a luminous band. Definitely not cloud or mist.
An immense glittering trail of countless fragments suspended around the planet, catching the pale light above until it resembled someone had brushed silver dust across the heavens. And then there was the moon.
Except...
"...Something's wrong," Midori whispered.
Everyone stared. It was the right size. The right color and place. Yet every instinct insisted something about it was fundamentally incorrect.
Rai's gaze remained fixed upon it.
When she finally spoke, her voice was barely above a whisper.
"...That's not the moon."
Nobody answered. She slowly raised a finger toward the pale orb.
"...That's the sun."
Neera's fingers loosened. The crimson leaf slipped from her hand without her noticing. It drifted soundlessly into the amber grasses. The sentence simply hung there.
"That's the sun."
It wasn't merely unexpected. It was impossible. Their entire understanding of the world had quietly collapsed beneath three words.
Then— THUNK.
A sudden impact shattered the silence. Ragna had buried the head of her axe deep into the earth. Her grip around the handle was so tight her knuckles had turned white.
"...Absolutely not."
Her voice was controlled. Too controlled. It trembled despite her efforts. Whether from anger, fear, disbelief or all three at once...none of them could tell. She stared upward at the pale white dwarf with narrowed eyes.
"I reject this reality."
Nozomi immediately stepped toward her, slowly and carefully. As though approaching an injured animal.
"Ragna..."
She stopped within arm's reach.
"I know this is difficult."
"Difficult?!"
Ragna laughed once. It wasn't amusement.
"It shouldn't exist."
"I know."
"It shouldn't be possible."
"I know."
Nozomi offered the gentlest smile she could manage.
"...Perhaps..."
She hesitated.
"...Perhaps God... or fate... simply has a greater plan that we can't yet see."
The words had barely left her mouth when someone grabbed her collar.
"Don't."
Mimi's voice cut through the clearing with startling force. Gone was the cheerful bravado she'd carried through the Repository. Gone were the jokes.
Her eyes burned with something raw.
"You don't get to say that."
Nozomi blinked in surprise.
"Mimi-Chan..."
"No."
She tightened her grip.
"We've known each other for what?"
Her voice cracked.
"A day? We don't know this place. We don't know what's happening. We don't know if we're even on Earth anymore."
She pulled Nozomi a little closer.
"And we're supposed to trust you? Trust Midori?"
Another step forward.
"Trust some invisible god of fate because things are scary?"
Her breathing had become uneven.
"We have absolutely no reason to."
Steel whispered from its scabbard. Midori had drawn her katana. The polished blade caught the pale light of the white dwarf as she raised it with practiced precision. Its point settled squarely toward Mimi. Her expression remained calm. Almost frighteningly so.
"...Let her go."
Unlike Mimi's trembling hands, Midori's were perfectly steady. She had already decided what she would do if Mimi refused.
The forest, moments ago so peaceful, suddenly felt unbearably still. Several paces away, Neera looked helplessly toward Rai. Rai was already looking back at her. Neither of them needed to say it aloud. The situation was spiraling.
The silence broke with a sharp, cracking report.
CRACK!
Gumi's whip struck the earth between them. Dry leaves leapt into the air before settling once more. She had moved so quickly that none of them had noticed until she was already standing between the two groups.
The pink slime coating her whip slowly slid back toward the handle as she lowered it to her side.
She said nothing. She simply looked at Mimi. Then at Midori. Her expression wasn't angry or frightened. It was almost disappointed.
Mimi's chest rose and fell rapidly. Her breathing was uneven, bordering on frantic. A strange intensity lingered behind her red eyes, something restless that hadn't been there a few moments ago. For several long seconds, neither of them moved. Then her fingers slowly loosened. Nozomi's collar slipped free. Only then did Midori lower her katana. The blade dipped toward the ground but never returned to its sheath.
Across the clearing, Ragna wrapped one hand around the handle of her axe. Without another word she pulled it free from the earth. Chunks of soil crumbled from the blade. She turned around and began walking away. Mimi watched her leave for barely a heartbeat before turning after her.
Her boots came down far harder than necessary. Every step crushed amber grasses and scattered loose gravel with an angry crunch as she disappeared between the crimson trunks behind Ragna.
Nobody called after them.
"...It's not like we trust you either!"
Midori's voice echoed through the forest after them. The words had barely left her mouth when Gumi slowly turned her head. She simply looked at Midori silently. It was enough. Midori's shoulders shrank almost immediately.
The forest reclaimed its silence. Nozomi hadn't moved. She stood exactly where Mimi had left her, staring down at her own hands. Her fingers kept fidgeting together unconsciously. She blinked once, then again, as though refusing to let something escape.
Midori looked at her for a long moment before quietly sliding her katana back into its sheath.
Without saying anything, she reached over and gently took Nozomi's hand.
"...Come on."
Nozomi looked up. Midori managed a small smile.
"...I think we should find that river."
Nozomi nodded silently.
Together, the two of them walked into the forest, following the distant murmur of flowing water until the crimson trees slowly swallowed them from sight.
Neera remained standing where she was.
"So..."
She looked one way, then the other.
Ragna and Mimi had vanished into the trees. Nozomi and Midori had disappeared just as completely in the opposite direction.
"...Well."
Rai rubbed the bridge of her nose with a weary sigh.
"...That could have gone better."
Beside them, Gumi watched the empty paths in silence.
The breeze carried another crimson leaf between the three of them before it settled quietly atop the amber grass.
Neera looked toward Rai.
"...Do we split up?"
Rai didn't answer immediately. Her gaze lingered on the two diverging trails through the forest. One born from anger, the other from hurt. Neither felt right to leave alone.
"I..."
For perhaps the first time since gaining a body Rai genuinely didn't know what to do.
The forest breathed, until it suddenly didn't.
The gentle rustling of amber grasses faded. The distant crackling chorus overhead: hundreds of birds clicking softly to one another like tiny campfires stopped in perfect unison instantly.
The silence that followed was unnatural. It wasn't the peaceful quiet they had admired moments before. It was the silence that existed because everything alive had agreed, all at once, that making noise was a terrible idea.
The firefly-like bugs vanished into the canopy. Entire clouds of them erupted from the crimson leaves together, scattering like sparks from a dying fire before disappearing deeper into the forest. Even the breeze seemed hesitant. Neera froze.
"...Wait."
Her eyes narrowed. The tiny hairs along the back of her neck stood upright.
"...Something knows we're here."
Her hand tightened around her spear. She slowly looked upward.
"...It's close."
The words had barely left her mouth before she planted one foot forward, lowering herself into a guarded stance.
"Behind me."
Rai didn't argue. Neither did Gumi.
Rai drew her chakrams in one smooth motion, their golden edges humming faintly as electricity danced across their surfaces. Beside her, Gumi's whip uncoiled with a wet, elastic sound, the pink slime coating it shifting restlessly as though sensing danger alongside its owner. Nobody breathed.
The canopy above them swayed a few times. The forest exploded.
A massive claw burst through the crimson branches. It descended with terrifying speed, shredding leaves as thick limbs forced their way through the canopy. There wasn't time to think. Rai moved first.
"Down!"
She threw herself into Neera and Gumi simultaneously. All three hit the ground just as the claw slammed into the place they'd been standing. Long black talons carved through the soil, sending dirt, dead leaves and shattered roots spraying through the air.
The impact shook the ground beneath them. Before anyone could react, the claw was already gone. It had vanished upward. Branches bent violently overhead, then sprang back into place. Neera scrambled to her feet.
"...Where is it?"
She spun, searching the canopy.
Nothing. Only shifting crimson leaves.
Then— A shadow.
Far too large. It crossed between the branches for the briefest instant.
Long limbs. A body far larger than any predator she'd ever imagined. Then it disappeared again.
"Its fast."
Rai whispered.
"No..."
Neera corrected, never taking her eyes off the canopy.
"...It's staying where we can't see it."
The branches above creaked. Another glimpse. A tail? A shoulder? An eye? Every time they thought they'd identified part of it, it was already somewhere else. The forest itself concealed it. Neera inhaled sharply.
"If I can't see you..."
She shifted her footing.
"...Then I'll hit the first thing you show me."
The canopy burst apart again. Another claw lunged downward. This time she met it head-on. Her spear shot forward with all the force she could muster.
The blade struck the creature's enormous claw. Or... tried to. The instant metal met flesh, the spearhead dissolved. It simply... flowed away. The blade liquefied into a ribbon of clear water that splashed harmlessly across the creature's claws before cascading between its enormous toes.
For one utterly absurd moment Neera had done nothing more than give the gigantic predator an exceptionally refreshing hand wash.
The beast froze. Its claw twitched. Apparently, being unexpectedly splashed with cold water was not part of its hunting strategy.
"...Huh?"
Even Neera blinked. The hesitation lasted barely a second. It was enough.
She threw herself backward, sliding across the thick carpet of fallen leaves just as the enormous claw slammed back into the ground where she'd been standing a heartbeat earlier.
Earth erupted. Amber grasses flattened beneath the impact. Neera rolled once before regaining her footing several meters away, breathing hard. She stared at her spear. Then at the water dripping from the creature's claws.
Behind Neera, Gumi had already acted.
Her whip cracked through the air, the ribbon of living slime stretching farther and farther toward the descending claw. Whether she intended to bind it or simply force it off course, nobody would ever know. Because the whip reached its limit. And physics remembered it existed. The taut length of the whip snapped back with terrifying speed.
Gumi's eyes widened. The elastic recoil wrapped around her torso before she could react, pinning one arm to her side as the whip continued retracting. The force yanked her completely off balance. She hit the ground with a muffled thud. The enormous claw descended.
"Gumi!" Rai shouted.
Her thoughts accelerated. Hundreds. Thousands, no millions of possibilities unfolded through her mind in an instant.
Attack from the left...no. Distract. Retrieve Gumi. Target the joints... No. Too slow. Her gaze darted toward Neera.
"We need a—"
The words caught in her throat. Neera wasn't holding her spear anymore. She was holding...
"...The duck?"
The completely ordinary yellow rubber duck sat between both of Neera's hands. Rai blinked.
"When did you—"
"It seems my element is water," Neera said with remarkable confidence despite the giant predator actively trying to kill them. "Rubber ducks are found in pools and bathtubs." She nodded once, apparently satisfied with her own logic.
"Things that have water." She looked at the duck.
"This could work."
Rai's eyes widened.
"Neera, that's a terrible ide—"
Squeak. The rubber duck answered first. A deafening roar erupted from its tiny beak. An immense jet of water exploded outward with the force of a ruptured dam, slamming directly into the descending claw. The gigantic limb lurched sideways under the impact.
For the briefest instant it actually worked. Then Newton demanded his payment. The same force blasted backward through the tiny rubber duck.
Neera disappeared. She shot into the air like a stone fired from an impossibly oversized slingshot, spinning wildly with absolutely no dignity whatsoever.
"RAAAAAAAAI—"
She pinwheeled through the air, somehow resembling a deflating balloon more than a human being. Several uncontrolled rotations later...THUD!
She crashed into the forest floor beside Gumi, rolling twice before finally coming to a stop. A sharp, nauseating pain exploded through her right arm. Her fingers twitched uselessly. She didn't need medical training to recognize that kind of pain.
"...I definitely broke something."
Nearby, the creature recovered from the blast almost immediately. The claw rose again.
Rai's simulations recalculated. Wind speed. Distance. Weight. Angle. Rotation. Optimal throwing trajectory for the chakrams. Probability of striking the wrist joint. Probability of forcing a retreat. Probability of survival. Every calculation flowed together in perfect sequence.
Then she looked at Neera. Covered in leaves. Possibly missing a functioning arm. She looked at Gumi. Still tangled inside her own whip.
The simulations paused. None of them had included this. Not because they were impossible. Because they were so spectacularly irrational that no predictive model had considered them viable outcomes. Rai had a choice. To attack or to protect.
The hesitation lasted less than a heartbeat. She made it. She threw herself toward them. The gigantic claw descended.
Time seemed to slow.
Rai wrapped both arms around Neera and Gumi, pulling them beneath her as tightly as she could.The shadow swallowed them. Then came the impact. Pain unlike anything she'd ever experienced tore through her body. A sickening chorus of cracks echoed through the forest.
The world vanished beneath unbearable weight. Someone screamed.
The crimson canopy blurred overhead. The amber grasses dissolved into indistinct streaks of color. Sound and light faded, until only darkness was left.
Not far away, hidden beyond the crimson trunks of the forest, another silence had settled.
Ancient stone ruins lay scattered throughout a small clearing, half reclaimed by the forest. Crumbling walls leaned beneath the weight of creeping moss. Broken staircases disappeared beneath layers of ash-grey leaves. Here and there, weathered pillars stood stubbornly upright, refusing to surrender to time despite the centuries that had passed.
Ragna hardly looked at any of it. She swung. The axe slammed into an already fractured wall. The stone cracked. She swung again. Another chunk broke away.
Ragna kept swinging. Every strike echoed through the abandoned ruins. She wasn't trying to destroy them, for they had been destroyed long before she arrived. She simply needed something that wouldn't break before she did.
A short distance away, Mimi sat quietly atop a collapsed section of wall. Her bow rested beside her. For once, she wasn't humming. She simply stared across the ruins.
"...Neera would've loved this place."
Her voice was lower than usual. Quieter. It lacked its usual playful bounce.
She watched several large tortoise-like creatures resting peacefully among the fallen stones. Their enormous shells resembled cracked volcanic rock, crimson moss growing softly within the fissures as they basked in the pale light filtering through the canopy.
"...She would've wanted to explore every corner."
Ragna didn't answer. Instead, she swung harder.
The moment the axe bit into the earth, something changed. Grey light spread across the blade, dense and heavy. The air itself seemed to grow thicker.
Before Ragna could react the axe buried itself impossibly deep into the ground. The impact sent a visible shockwave racing across the clearing. Loose leaves jumped. Broken stones rattled. Even the ancient walls trembled. Mimi watched the grey light fade from the axe.
"...Gravity."
One word. That was all it took.
The peaceful tortoises immediately reacted. Every one of them withdrew into its shell. A low hiss echoed across the clearing. Thin clouds burst from vents hidden within the cracked rock-like shells. Spores.
Ragna inhaled before she could stop herself. Her lungs ignited.
"Cough!"
The burning spread through her throat instantly. Beside her, Mimi doubled over. Her eyes flooded with tears. Another breath only made it worse. The spores clawed at every exposed surface they could find. Everything burned. Ragna wrapped both hands around the axe handle.
"Come on..."
She pulled. The weapon refused to budge. She planted one foot against the earth and pulled again with all her strength. Still nothing.
"...Seriously?"
She almost laughed. Of all the times... If only she'd chosen a mace. Or a hammer. Or literally anything that wasn't designed to bury itself inside whatever it struck.
Another violent coughing fit bent her forward. Mimi stumbled toward her through watering eyes.
"I'll..." She coughed. "...I'll help."
She reached Ragna, then immediately realized she could barely see. The spores blurred everything into indistinct shapes. Every breath hurt. Every blink felt like rubbing sand across her eyes. She grabbed her bow instead.
"...I'll blast it out."
Ragna turned toward the sound.
"Mimi, wai—"
The arrow was already flying. Fire blossomed around its tip. It streaked through the haze toward the shape Mimi thought was the embedded axe. A heartbeat later...
"AAGH!" Ragna's scream tore through the clearing. The sound froze Mimi where she stood.
"...Ragna?"
No answer.
"...Ragna?"
Panic surged through her. She stumbled toward where she'd heard the scream, one hand stretched blindly ahead. "I can't..."
Another coughing fit interrupted her.
"I can't see..."
Her foot caught on something. Whether it was an exposed root, a loose stone or simply her own failing balance, she never knew.
The world tilted violently. Mimi fell. Her outstretched hand scraped across the jagged edge of a collapsed wall. Sharp stone sliced through skin. Pain flared across her palm.
Then... The burning in her lungs disappeared abruptly. The fire in her eyes vanished. The pain in her hand dissolved into nothing. And everything went silent.