As they walked, the scenery around them was breathtaking.
The tunnel walls shimmered with crystals of every color imaginable, red, green, blue, and even some that shifted hues slowly, like a rainbow caught beneath the surface of stone. The faint glow from them lit the path ahead, casting long streaks of color across their faces and the ground beneath their boots. Every step they took echoed faintly, as if the air itself was alive, humming with old power.
Elara's voice broke the silence.
"Dawn, what's the plan once we reach the city?"
Dawn didn't answer right away. His eyes stayed fixed on the path ahead, light flickering across his face.
"Heh…" he muttered. "Honestly, I couldn't say. I guess we try to find somewhere safe first, then go from there."
Elara tilted her head slightly. "Hm." Her tone was curious, but not pressing. She'd learned that when Dawn didn't want to elaborate, pushing him was pointless.
For a while, they continued in silence. The air grew warmer as they walked, and the crystals along the walls became larger, more defined, almost alive. Some of them pulsed faintly, as though in rhythm with the group's footsteps.
After maybe another five minutes, the tunnel widened ahead of them. A soft, golden light spilled from the opening, washing over them like dawn breaking after a long night.
When they stepped out, all of them stopped.
Even the golden-haired man, whose expression rarely changed, stood frozen, eyes slightly widened. The sight before them was enough to steal anyone's breath.
Before them stretched a city.
It rose out of the crystalline plain like a dream half-remembered, towers of translucent glass that caught the light and scattered it into a thousand colors. Bridges arched gracefully between the spires, and thin rivers of glowing water wound through the streets like veins of liquid sapphire. The buildings themselves seemed carved from the same crystal as the walls they'd just passed, some shaped like petals of blooming flowers, others sharp and angular, reaching skyward.
Above it all hung an enormous ring of light, slowly rotating in the sky, neither sun nor moon, but something in between. Its glow bathed the city in a pale luminescence that made everything look almost too perfect to be real.
The air was still, heavy with quiet awe.
Elara took a slow step forward. "It's… beautiful."
Dawn didn't respond. He was staring at the city, but his eyes weren't filled with wonder, more like curiousity.
Dawn didn't respond. He was staring at the city, but his eyes weren't filled with wonder, more like curiosity.
This place was far bigger than the mountain outside, and the only explanation that crossed Dawn's mind was unsettling:
A Sequencer capable of manipulating space itself, on such a massive scale and somehow maintaining it over time.
Still staring at the city, Dawn's gaze drifted upward to the enormous ring of light.
A faint, humorless smirk crossed his face.
"Heh… this world really is full of monsters."
And without warning, space itself seemed to warp.
The tunnel behind them vanished, replaced by countless shimmering distortions, portals that opened one after another. Figures began to emerge from them, human-like, yet not entirely human. Some bore tails, others horns, wings, fur, or pointed ears. Dozens of different races stepped through the light, their clothes and markings as varied as the crystals around them.
Elara's eyes widened. "W-What the…?"
Dawn's tone remained calm, though his hand hovered near his weapon.
"Remember what I said? Crysallis is a kind of entrance, to Flauria. It's only natural that all sorts of races would gather here."
Elara swallowed hard, glancing at the endless stream of newcomers. "So many different people… all together."
The golden-haired man's eyes narrowed as he looked over the crowd, his voice low.
"The world truly has changed far more than I imagined."
The flow of travelers from the portals began to slow, the glowing rifts dimming one by one until the air settled again.As a radiant blue staircase of sorts emerged leading into a street of sorts, the crystalline ground shimmering faintly beneath their feet.
Elara glanced around, her eyes full of quiet awe. "Won't they question the two uh… two bodies floating behind us."
Dawn's gaze swept over the crowd, merchants shouting in unfamiliar dialects, winged figures perched on rooftops, beastkin children weaving between armored soldiers, even cloaked travelers who shimmered faintly with mana residue. The city felt alive, not chaotic, but harmoniously busy, like each person belonged here despite their differences.
"Such a city wouldn't try to intervene with strangers"
The golden-haired man watched silently, his expression thoughtful. "Strange," he said quietly. "For a place so radiant, I expected more… order."
Dawn smirked. "From what I know this place is ran by a King and 10 wardens. It seems in the section of city we're in this place probably runs on deals and influence."
They started walking again, blending into the slow-moving flow of people. The streets were lined with tall crystal spires that acted as lamps, their light pulsing faintly in time with the ring above. Every so often, floating platforms passed overhead, carrying passengers to upper levels of the city.
Elara's eyes darted everywhere. "This place is far bigger than I thought it'd be…" she thought, half to herself.
Dawn, on the other hand, seemed unfazed. Even surrounded by such wonder, his expression didn't change. His thoughts wandered elsewhere, to something simpler, something far away.
Home.
After a while of walking they reached a wide plaza paved with polished crystal tiles. In its center stood a large obelisk engraved with runic symbols, faintly glowing. Around it, various stalls and traders were set up, selling food, tools, and strange crystalline trinkets that glowed faintly when touched.
Elara slowed down, her eyes catching a vendor's table filled with floating crystals that sang when struck gently. "It's all so… peaceful."
The crowd began to thin as the light above dimmed, the great ring in the sky fading from gold to pale silver.
Shadows stretched long across the crystal streets. Lanterns lining the path bloomed to life, each one glowing softly like captured starlight. The air had a faint hum to it, alive, but calm.
They walked until the noise of the market dulled behind them. Eventually, they found an inn built from pale blue stone that seemed to breathe faint light. The golden-haired man handled the arrangements without a word; no one questioned them, travelers were common here.
Once inside, Dawn stepped into his room and shut the door behind him.
Silence.
The walls glowed faintly, alive with soft pulses of color. The bed looked untouched, perfect, almost too clean.
He didn't sit. He just stood by the window, staring out at the city below.
From this height, Crysallis looked even more unreal. The lights of the towers shimmered through layers of glass-like mist, and the faint movement of people below looked almost like reflections in water.
It didn't feel like a city.
It felt like a mirage.
Dawn leaned against the window frame, arms crossed, eyes half-lidded.
He could still feel the faint pulse of the crystals through the wall, a heartbeat buried deep in the mountain.
"…Manipulation of space… living minerals… a light structure that mimics a sun," he muttered under his breath.
It was impressive, yes. But it also told him one thing:
Someone, or something, created this place. And whatever could do that… probably wasn't even around anymore.
He let out a slow breath. Even after everything, those four appearing at Lake Dawn, the red-haired woman with that crimson aura resembling the war criminals of the old world, the damned floating island… those three, no, all four of them. Even if the crimson-haired woman still hadn't woken, that aura, what Elara called "prana", it was too similar to the Celestians. But they weren't. And that word "Reversion."
Dawn knew what the word meant on its own, but the context they used it in… what did it mean?
None of it felt real. This journey, this damned adventure, he'd started thinking of it as such. Each step forward seemed to take him further from his understanding of the world.
He closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the faint hum in the walls. It wasn't quite sound, more like vibration, a rhythm too deliberate to be natural. The kind of thing that lingered even in silence.
He exhaled softly.
He wasn't used to stillness.
Not anymore.
His gaze drifted upward again, to the ring of light turning slowly above the city, endless, perfect, cold.
This world really is full of monsters, he thought again.
And some of them don't even need teeth or claws.
He stayed there for a long time, unmoving, watching as the light dimmed into a dull blue haze.
Sleep didn't come easily.
It rarely ever did.