When Everett woke up again, the air had that crisp, suspiciously tranquil scent of an ancient forest pretending to be harmless. Their leaf-bed was still as springy as ever—so springy, in fact, that Gloria had started calling it "Heaven's Trampoline."
"Night's still on," Everett said, stretching. "What is this, a cosplay of insomnia?"
Guruji peered out of their green igloo-house, his beard tangled around a tiny branch. Gloria stepped out with arms crossed, glancing at the sky, which was still night-black.
"That ain't a regular 24-hour cycle," she said, frowning. "Judging by the moss growth and our internal rhythm, I estimate one day here equals about 96 Earth hours."
Everett blinked. "That means... instead of 16 years, we're looking at 64 earth years here?!"
Guruji gave him a mysterious nod.
Everett sighed. "Fantastic. A four-season vacation package from hell."
Still, with the resolve of three people who had already risked frostrot, eldritch daggers, and trial systems that ghosted you for weeks, they agreed to complete the mission quickly. Even if that meant fewer rewards—mystery be damned, time was a resource too.
And so began their stroll through the cathedral-like forest. Leaves as wide as solar panels. Trees taller than corporate ambitions. Cats the size of two-story houses licking their paws casually while ancient gorilla-hawks flew above.
"That one's got feathers and tusks," Everett muttered. "Who designed this wildlife, Salvador Dali on mushrooms?"
For six ( forest realm) days they wandered. No towns. No signs of civilization. No vending machines selling dimension maps.
"Everett," Gloria asked on day six, squinting up at a squirrel the size of a motorcycle, "how much food do we actually have left?"
Everett grinned. "Enough for a thousand years."
She stared.
"I used Nalanda Academy credits. Their value is, like, ten thousand times regular Alliance currency. I might've overdone it. Also, I figured... what if I needed to trade rations with people in other realms?"
Gloria sighed in deep, exhausted relief. "Thank God. I thought we were going to have to wrestle that six-eyed lion-shrimp for a protein bar."
After one long month of travel, hovering over massive tree roots and stepping over mushrooms that made musical noises when stepped on, they finally reached the edge.
Literally.
Floating above what looked like a bottomless ocean, they stood on the edge of land. Everett, Gloria, and Guruji mounted their hoverboards, which beeped in delight like pets being walked after centuries.
"That's not a continent," Guruji said cryptically, his hands folded behind his back. "It's an island. An island we must conquer. From whom, we do not know. With what time, we cannot tell. But the forest watches."
"That sounded suspiciously poetic," Everett said.
Meanwhile, Everett's Cube of Becoming pulsed. One of its sides—the one adjacent to the frost-etched panel—was glowing. A new map began to appear, slowly forming like ink dropped in milk: vast bodies of water. Thousands of interconnected land points, a honeycomb of mystic fragments. This realm was slowly revealing itself to him.
In the downtime, the trio decided to train. Gloria sparred daily, mostly with oversized baboons that had more arms than was biologically polite.
One such encounter involved her leaping from vine to vine while a six-armed baboon—ten meters tall and very offended—hurled boulders the size of hot tubs at her.
"Your form's improving," Everett called out from the sidelines, casually peeling a fruit that blinked when sliced.
"Thanks," she shouted, dodging a tree uprooted mid-scream. "If I survive this, I'm upgrading my class to Tactical Swordsman of Professional Bravery."
Guruji chanted near a mossy stone, radiating serene death-vibes.
Everett? He'd started whispering to the frost within him. The realm inside him responded, slowly, like a sleeping beast turning in its dreams. An intention was forming. Not just any intention.
A frosted one.
And as the island loomed before them like a silent god, they knew something was waiting.
Something... worth conquering.