Mai was already prepared to enter the dungeon so she spent a few days just waiting for Huy to tell her they would leave soon. She was concerned about what would happen inside the dungeon but she hoped it would all work out in their favor and that they wouldn’t be gone for 10 years. She had informed her parents of how long she might be gone but she didn’t explain why.

 

“Mai.”

 

Mai looked up from her tea and saw Huy calling for her. He was ready as well. She smiled and stood, grabbing her sword as she went to him.

 

It was time to go beyond the dungeon’s surface.

 

—

 

5 people arrived at the dungeon, Yue and Viktor, Mai and Huy, and a follower from the Azure Dragon Temple. His job was to close the doors to the dungeon once they cleared it.

 

Upon looking at the dungeon the follower was intimidated but once he looked at the four people he was accompanying he thought it would all be fine.

 

Two gods and their chosen partners. The follower knew he’d be protected if he was with them. He couldn’t look at Huy because of the religious customs of the 4 gods but he knew any of the four gods would be enough to help Yue and to make sure things don’t go wrong.

 

“Let’s begin,” Yue said and flicked his sleeves. He wore blue robes covered in gold dragon embroidery. His hair was tied up into a ponytail with a simple hair accessory. He also wore some small gold earrings.

The more interesting part of his outfit was the number of pendants on the sash of his robe. Other than his waist pendant, he also had a few other charms hanging on a chain around his waist. The gems from some of the magic jewelry that Viktor had gifted him over the year had been Carefully plucked out of their usual vessels and put onto the chain as well so their protective effects could help Yue without being too much clutter. Some other mana crystals were also added. The only non-magic jewelry items Yue wore were his hair accessory, his earrings, and the small chain hidden under his clothes that held his engagement ring.

 

Viktor wore his classic outfit, an all-white suit, with some more reinforced pieces. He wore white gloves and had his hair pinned back in a half up-half down kind of style and wore a simple pair of magic studs like usual. He had the pocket watch that showed the time within the dungeons, clipped to his pants as well.

 

Huy and Mai wore red Ao Dai with gold Vermillion Bird embroidery and matching gold jewelry. Huy wore his hair in a ponytail and Mai wore it in a low bun with a gold hairpin through it.

 

Yue took the first step into the dungeon and soon found that he and Mai had been transported together. They smiled at each other but then they remembered about the follower they had brought.

 

“Oh, I hope he’s alright… He can’t look at Anh…” Mai murmured.

 

Yue decided to try and see if he could sense him. He sensed that he was with Viktor and Huy somewhere else in the dungeon and looked relieved.

 

“It’ll be fine, Both Huy and Viktor are with him,” Yue said and smiled.

 

“Let’s go get there first.” Mai chuckled and they started going on their way.

 

—-

 

Yue and Mai entered the boss room at the same time as Viktor and Huy—and the follower. Yue was a bit irked by the tie but they quickly go to fighting the boss as it appeared. Huy and Viktor stayed back with magic while Huy and Yue went up with their swords. The boss really wasn’t a big deal. It was much easier than the other bosses they had faced in the past. The follower was still in awe though. Viktor, Yue, and Mai naturally worked together very well because of all of their experience in the academy but Huy also joined in easily.

 

“Be safe on your way back,” Viktor said to the follower as he handed him a storage item to gather all of the treasure in the treasure room. The follower nodded and bowed deeply at everyone before entering the treasure room and quickly activating the storage ring. He bowed deeply once more and then exited the dungeon. 

 

Nothing happened for a second but they all just waited for a while and then the ground started to shake. Any part of the boss room that had been broken off in the battle, even the slightest rubble was pulled back into its original position and the decaying Dungeon Boss was returning to life as if time was turning backward.  Everyone was shocked.

 

Dungeon Bosses revived once the dungeon closed? Does that mean that the dungeon boss could return in a separate dungeon once again? Catastrophic Bosses like the one that destroyed Belarus and Malaysia could return?

 

The dungeon boss looked shocked for a second but then its expression just turned to fear.

 

“L-Lord! My Lord! The Humans–!” The Dungeon Boss suddenly cried out, in response to his mostly unspoken words the doors to the treasure room reappeared and opened again. This time, however, the door didn’t lead to the treasure room. 

 

Through the door, an endless expanse of space waited. Just space, nothing more. A second later from below the door came a pitch-black tree branch. The branch was as wide as Yue’s sword was long and spread far into the space, looping up and down as it expanded. The farther the branch went the more thing appeared in the space. 

 

Countless floating islands, some covered in trees, some ablaze with fire, others made out of pure gold. No branches spread out toward these islands but once Yue stepped closer to the door he could see that there were disconnected branches that led to those islands.

 

“Azure Dragon of the East” 

 

“Vermillion Bird of South.”

 

Yue perked his head upward as the branch separated into two. Both branches reached up to the sky. Huy also looked out of the door and upward and noticed what had caught Yue’s attention. Two huge islands, significantly larger than the rest floated up above them. Nothing about the islands was visible, just the rocky bottom of the floating masses. The branches reached the islands and finally stopped growing. 

 

“Up there/Up there”. Both Yue and Huy spoke, Yue spoke in Chinese and Huy spoke in Vietnamese.

 

Mai and Viktor looked at them with confusion, the branches they saw didn’t lead up to those islands, the branches they saw continued forward into the space. They looked even more confused when Yue and Huy stepped out on the branches, they quickly followed along and did the same but watched for a second. Yue seemed like he tried to use magic to make himself fly for a second but then found that he couldn’t and looked confused for a second. Huy on the other hand exposed his wings and immediately succeeded in flying. He completely deserted the others and flew up to the island by himself, his eyes bright red speckled with gold as he flew off in a trance.

 

Mai looked appalled, “Anh!” She called and got no response from Huy’s flying figure.

 

Yue’s confusion did not last long and he quickly used semi-transformation. His body became weightless as he did so and he quickly flew up to the island as his horns grew out from his head.

 

“Yue!” Viktor called out as well.

 

“Why are they–?!” Mai exclaimed and tried to use magic to fly but failed and looked at Viktor with an expression that become more and more anxious and concerned as the seconds passed.

 

Viktor gulped, he tried to think of what to do but he took a deep breath, realizing that there wasn’t anything he could do.

 

“We’re probably going to have to go through this all separately…and without our magic,” Viktor murmured, motioning for Mai to calm down. With Insight he could see the splitting of his and Mai’s paths up ahead.

 

“...Stay safe and if you find that you can use magic, try and get to Huy,” Viktor explained.

 

“I’ll try and get to Yue…” Viktor murmured.

 

Mai nodded hesitantly, she knew that there might be a dangerous situation where they are separated if they came here but she didn’t think it would be immediate and that it would be impossible to find them.

 

Viktor and Mai stuck together for the time that their paths were the same and hesitated when they had to separate, without any magic…would they really make it?

 

—

 

By the time Yue came to his senses, he was waist-deep in a lake, half-transformed and partially unaware of where he was. The first thing he thought of was how nice the air felt to breathe. The next thing was Viktor.

 

“Viktor!” he yelled and quickly turned around looking for his fiancee. He looked all over and he couldn’t find him no matter where he looked, started trying to get back to the shore but in all directions, it was just a lake, he didn’t know where he started and his body was heavy now that it was wet. And his heart was beating out of his chest and his anxiety was filling his chest and the idea that he’d never find Viktor…or Mai or Huy or anyone and that he’d be alone in the lake for all of eternity… His thoughts felt like they were weighing him down more and more.

 

“You changed the whole island in a second…You’re really the real one…” 

 

Yue turned around quickly and found someone sitting in the lake with him. The person looking back at him wasn’t identical to him but there was certainly a similarity. Both had pitch-black hair and Asian feature and both of them had Azure Dragon eyes. It was immediately clear that those eyes weren’t the ‘special feature’ that the person who Yue assumed was an Azure dragon Incarnation had. Their left hand was like that of a dragon, covered in scales and with sharp claws.

“Calm down.” Another voice said and suddenly another person appeared from the water now to Yue’s side. This new person looked nothing like Yue, they had light brown hair and were very clearly not Asian. They had the Azure Dragon eyes too but that also wasn’t their key feature either, they had very sharp teeth and Yue could only assume that was their feature.

 

“Can you bring the ground back? It looks like this.” Another person spoke but this person covered Yue’s eyes before he could turn around and somehow showed them an image of a vast lake with many small islands all close together with a huge palace spread out throughout the islands. 

 

White granite bridges with gold accents connected large Chinese-style architecture throughout the islands. Greenery was spread throughout every part of the palace and steady winds pushed mist through the bridges creating clouds shaped like the intricate designs on the bridges. The clouds flew up to the sky and sat there for a while before slowly disappearing. There was no sun in this special little world, only a moon that illuminated the golden dragons riddled throughout the palace. Each Statue was decorated with blue-green gems that glowed when the moon glowed directly upon them.

 

Yue sat in silence as he looked at the detail of the vision he was shown. He only opened his eyes when suddenly someone pulled him up and out of the water. 

 

His eyes grew wide as he looked at the incarnation that he usually spoke with.

 

“I’ll explain it to you.’ He said as he watched Yue’s confusion and shock twist his face.

 

“This is just your first stop on a long long journey.”