"Before entering, put these on." He handed each of them a metallic bracelet.
After putting it on, he pressed the only button on top of the bracelet, and a digital screen appeared, divided into small squares with four red dots. Each dot had a name above it.
"These dots represent us. In case we get separated like before, we'll be able to track each other's locations through the bracelet."
That was all Alvin said. Once he made sure everyone was ready, they walked together into the tunnel, disappearing into the darkness.
"I hope they survive!" whispered Vinia as she returned to her attempts at playing without her music sheet.
When Elena opened her eyes, she saw something resembling tunnels, but with major differences—a long path vanishing into distant darkness, split into two sections with a stagnant river in between, reflecting the glow of the ceiling above.
The ceiling looked as if it was cradling the stars of the night. The glow from them cast light upon the walls, which were carved with strange shapes.
"Guys!" called Meryl anxiously as she looked at her hands. It wasn't just her—all of them had become thinner, their exhaustion written all over their faces.
"What's happening?" Elena asked in a low, fatigued voice.
Suddenly, a sound came from behind. They turned to see who was approaching. A few minutes passed before a small boat appeared, steered by a strange, small creature.
Its head was almost round, with large red eyes, and its body covered in sky-blue fur. From its back sprouted transparent white wings.
"Hello, I'm Nai, your guide, dear tourists…" Alvin cut off its head before it could finish the sentence. Blood splattered, staining the boat and the water beneath it.
"Why did you do that?" Meryl shouted in astonishment as she sat beside the exhausted Tulip, trying to transfer some energy to him.
"This is the fourth time he's said that," Alvin replied, then sat down as well, pulling the weary Elena down with him.
He pulled out several elixir bottles and handed them out calmly.
"What do you mean? This is the first time he's shown up," Meryl asked.
"No, it's the fourth. This is our fourth day here." Alvin drank the elixir calmly as a sound came from behind.
The others turned, their hearts pounding. Their eyes widened in shock as the same creature appeared once more and, in the same tone, said: "Hello, I'm Nai. I'll be your guide, dear tou—" Alvin cut off its head again.
"We entered here three days ago, and each time, we followed him.
When everything ends and it's time to leave, he resets time back to when we first entered." Alvin spoke after regaining a bit of his strength.
"Hello, I'm Nai, I'll be your guide…" Blood splattered again.
"Every time we return, we lose part of our life force." He turned to face them directly and continued, "I'm not entirely sure, but I think these creatures feed on our life energy."
"Hello, I'm—" This time, it was Elena who drew her sword and angrily sliced off the creature's neck. "We need to rest here and recover our health and strength."
"Alvin, do you remember the events of the past few days?" Meryl asked, hoping to learn something about the future, Around her were many empty bottles.
"Just a few fragments," he replied briefly.
— [That's thanks to me.]
A message from "The Chatty Ant" appeared in the public chat.
Alvin's brows furrowed in confusion at the message. Elena, speaking toward the planet, asked, "What do you mean?"
— [I'm the one who gave Alvin the ability to remember parts of the past days.]
— [Things would've gotten boring if you had died here.]
Another message from "The Chatty Ant" in the public chat.
If that was true, why hadn't the masters of Alvin, Meryl, or Tulip intervened? Why hadn't they helped their followers?
"My planet hasn't entered the chat in days!" Meryl said in shock. It wasn't like Elyor to be away from their conversation this long.
The same was true for Alvin and Tulip. Lady Evára and Mister Pie had both been absent for days.
No—it wasn't just them. When Alvin searched for "The Sad Clown" and "The Womanizer," he couldn't find them in the public chat either. Their last activity had also been days ago!
"Hello…"
"I wish he'd stop showing up!" Elena said in frustration after cutting off the creature's head.
"If he can be killed, doesn't that mean he's not the one rewinding time?" Tulip wrote in the chat after reviewing the current events in his mind.
His words triggered a moment of realization for the others. He was right—how could someone who dies repeatedly be the one reversing time? That was impossible—unless his soul possessed the power to return.
Elena had killed the creature for the tenth time now, and each time her anger grew, as he always interrupted her thoughts.
"If we move forward now, we'll likely be brought back here for the fifth time," Meryl said calmly. "Before we take another step, we need to find the source of the time distortion."
Silence fell. Each of them was deep in thought, trying to figure it out.
Until Elena finally snapped: "I'm hungry." She lifted her head from her hands—now restored to a healthy state—and noticed the others staring at her silently. She grumbled, "Don't look at me like that. I can't think on an empty stomach."
Tulip hesitated before raising his hand to catch their attention, then pointed to his stomach. They understood—he was hungry too. Meryl shifted awkwardly for a moment, then whispered, "Me too."
The place was strange indeed, and the clear waters that reflected the ceiling's glow were the strangest of all to Alvin.
Water naturally reflects images—but not with such precision. At times, when Alvin focused on the surface, it felt like the glow was coming from the water itself, not the ceiling.
In the few fragments he could remember, this scene stretched all the way to the end. Alvin looked back in confusion — the creature had stopped coming toward them.
Perhaps they had drawn the attention of the rest of its kind by killing it, and that was certainly not in their favor. Meryl was the team's pillar of strength, and their lives were directly tied to her.
Unfortunately, she had not yet recovered even half of her energy. Unlike the others, who had regained most of theirs — thanks to Meryl, who had provided them with both physical and emotional support throughout the battle.
As long as Meryl hadn't recovered her energy, moving toward their enemy would not be in their favor. It would be like throwing themselves into an erupting volcano, hoping they wouldn't burn!
"I wonder what happened to the hunters who went before us?" Elena asked, her mouth full of meat.
If they always returned to the starting point, didn't that mean the others should have returned too?
"They've probably run out of life energy," Tulip sent his message. His response made more sense than anything they could have come up with.
Meryl's expression suddenly tightened, and she looked around in confusion.
"What is it?" Alvin asked, scanning the area cautiously.
"I heard something... like a whisper!" Meryl replied. Tulip waved his hand and pointed to himself, then quickly wrote a message and sent it to them: "I heard it too! It was like screaming, but very far away!"
Elena closed her eyes, trying to focus and catch the whispers, but even after several minutes, she heard nothing.
"I didn't hear anything," she said with frustration, then went back to eating, leaving it to Alvin to figure out what was going on.
Alvin also tried to hear the whispers, but his ears picked up nothing but the heavy silence surrounding them.
So he asked Meryl and Tulip, hoping to get more information from them: "Can either of you tell which direction the sounds came from?"