Opening my eyes, I stared at the sky above me. Once more I woke up somewhere unknown, after I collapsed through exhaustion. Still, waking up again meant another thing… Stretching my hands towards the yellow sky above one thought lingered in my head.

We survived.

Then, before I had a chance to reflect on my surroundings, the ground around me began to shake. I pushed my hands into the ground, lifting my upper body into a sitting position only for it to hurt all over when my faint mind became fully awake.

Why can’t I just have a fight that doesn’t leave me like a ragged doll?

Pushing through the pain I looked around, only to wonder at what I saw. Various vegetation blocked most of my sight, bushes with vermillion colored leaves swayed in the wind, covering the ground where it wasn’t grown over with grass, each blade a shade of dark orange.

“Where am I?”

I was pretty sure that after we finished the first stage, we would be back in Aeus, but this place was nothing like it. I tried to stand up, only to her a rustling coming from behind one of the bushes. Even if I wasn’t in a condition to fight again fleeing in a rush could only make things worse.

Warily, I pressed my hand against the ground, trying to make as little noise as possible as I crouched towards the bush, hoping to get at least a glance on what was behind it. When I saw the familiar golden red colored fur peaking through the bushes gaps however my wariness faded immediately, instead replaced by a sense of relief.

“Homura.” I called out silently, giving her a sign that I was there without alarming whatever was nearby. When I pushed myself through the vegetation however, I saw her lying on the ground her tails moving by themselves. Quickly I stepped near her while panicking, but when I saw her chest heaving up and down, I started to calm down.

She’s only sleeping…

“Hey, this isn’t the place for this.” I lightly tapped her cheek, trying to wake her up, only for her to continue untroubled.

Well, she used even more of her strength in that fight… I should let her rest for now.

I let my body down, sitting next to her as I thought about the momentary situation. An unknown place. My body pushed through a grinder. I chuckled as I was reminded of the first thing I was thrown into when I came to Aeus, having to fight in that worm filled hole. Opposed to that time however, I wasn’t alone.

I have someone by my side now.

When my thoughts reached that point however, I began to worry about someone else.

What about Narva? If we were here than she should be too, freeing her from that statue’s grasp. Even then, she would most likely be alone by herself, while we don’t know what could be waiting here…

I clenched my hands into fists when I thought about what could happen. But I couldn’t just go searching for her, as Homura was still asleep. I couldn’t carry her when I could barely support myself. Leaving her alone however would be even worse. As such there was nothing I could do now, other than believe in her.

Time passed as I waited for Homura to wake up again. But even though hours must have passed since I first woke up the scenery stayed the same without showing any sign of it. Yet, as I wondered if nothing is going to happen the ground beneath started to rumble once more, this time far stronger than the first time it happened. Eventually it stopped, though it managed to wake her up as I noticed her moving ever so slightly.

“It hurts.” Without even opening her eyes she spoke out.

“Are you okay?”

Hearing my voice, she tilted her head, opening her eyes to stare at me. “Not really, but I’ll manage.” She said so, but as she gained a semblance of our surroundings her eyes opened wide in a panic. “Where are we?”

“I was hoping you could tell that to me.”

Quickly she pushed herself up, wincing in pain as she did, only to press on, her head twisting left and right in hope of finding anything she recognized.

“We should be back where we started!”

Seems like this isn’t normal after all…

Without caring for anything else she pressed forward, making me follow her if I didn’t want to be left behind. Yet, after a few minutes she stopped in her track after disappearing behind vermillion leaves. Going after her I stopped right next to her, my eyes staring into the distance, unwilling to accept what they were seeing.

A mere dozen foot in front of us the ground crumbled away. Far into the distance we could see other patched of ground, earth and stone flying in the air like islands in the sea, only that there was seemingly nothing to keep them this way.

Some were filled with fauna, just like this one, with trees growing big enough to shroud the entire islands underneath their crown, roots digging into the earth beneath, drilling all the way through it until they came out from the opposite end, where they hung freely inside the air.

Others instead had small seas in their midst, water flowing down endlessly, creating a sparkling mist beneath them. There were even ones like mountain, the boundary between its first incline and the cliff that lead towards a fall into nothingness indistinguishable, with one having a river of lava, its end the same as the watery ones.

We could only stare at the outlandishness of the scene in front of our eyes as we noticed a change at one of the island. Beneath one of the giant trees the rock began to crumble, piece for piece falling down below before all of a sudden it began to fall apart even more quickly.

It was barely held up for a few minutes, most likely through the roots filling up most of the ground beneath, but even that had its end. In one moment a fifth of the island fell apart, taking with it whatever was above it.

And beneath the rumbling, the sound of destruction, I could hear another sound, even if only barely. Screams. Hundreds of them, most drowned out by everything else happening around them. It was only for a moment, before the falling bits were out of reach, having fallen down so far that I couldn’t even see them anymore.

One foot after another I stepped towards the abyss in front of us, until I saw the darkness waiting beneath, ready to swallow everything it could reach. Just barely I could see the rest of the island that fell apart before the last bits that fell disappeared in it.

Then, before we could even think about what we saw just now, the ground began to rumble once more, cracks appearing throughout it. A blue system message appeared in front of us, but without even reading it we started to run as we saw the cracks widening, the whole place sounding like it was tearing apart.

We rushed inwards the island, running at full speed while I pushed my flames forward to make a clear path for us. Wherever we went however the ground already showed signs of cracking, chunks of it even sunken in. Once more I released a burst of flame to burn down the bushes in front. But as my attention was elsewhere for a moment the ground before me suddenly dropped downwards.

Without having a place left for my already moving foot I fell forward, the misstep sending me tumbling across the floor. Before I could regain my bearing, I felt Homura grab me, pulling me along as she shouted.

“Come on! We need to hurry!”

Even more chunks dropped down in the little moment we stood still, forcing us to spring along the still standing ones rather than sprint over them, all until the ground began to sink all at once.

A shock ran through the earth, sending us to the ground, as part of it seemingly rose in front of us. Before we could even stand up it dropped over ten foot, each passing second only making us drop faster. I pushed myself forward, breaking into a run for a last time when Homura’s arm pushed around me, clawing into one side as she pushed herself against the other.

“Jump!”

I could barely react to her shout before our bodies left the ground, flung forward to crash into the still standing earth. Pushing our hands into it we slid down, barely coming to a stop before we reached the point where only air was waiting for us.

A look beneath showed the broken piece of the island before it was swallowed by the darkness lying underneath, leaving an eerie silence behind.