The group followed Dusk as he led the way through the splitting tunnels, the essences and new skills forgotten for the moment.

  They hadn’t noticed it before, but the solidified ash that made up the tunnels had gradually turned softer along the way – a fact that became immediately obvious once they felt their feet sinking into the ground with barely audible squelches.

  “Ugh… It’s getting wet here…” Dawn murmured with a grimace.

  “Um, did you lose your shoes?” the human asked as mud splattered into her own inappropriate footwear.

  “No, we don’t wear shoes.”

  “...Why?”

  “We’re geckin.”

  “...I see.”

  Given how the Saltglass rift had gone for Dawn, maybe they should start wearing some. If only geckin shoes didn’t cost so much…

  Luckily, they still had [Iridion’s Shawl]. It slowed them down a bit, but making an invisible barrier between their feet and the increasingly soggy ground helped a lot.

  Meanwhile, Layna looked downright smug in her boots and pants perfect for this terrain.

  Regardless, the party quickly reached one of Dusk’s soldiers – Green – and immediately saw hints of sunlight at the end of the tunnel.

  “Yes! Good job, Green!” Dusk praised with a smile.

  Green saluted in response.

  Dusk paused for a moment, wondering whether this was simply how the skill worked or some kind of echo of the dead coilborn. He shook those thoughts away, canceled the skill – making Green turn back into a card while the others simply vanished – and continued forward.

  “Finally out of here…” Layna murmured with a sigh of relief.

  On the other hand, Linza seemed to grow tenser as they approached the exit, for whatever reason – likely something to do with her amnesia.

  Unfortunately, the closer they got, the more apparent it became that the wet ground they’d had to trudge through hadn’t been a coincidence. No, this tunnel seemed to lead straight into some kind of swamp.

  The twins held in their groans and pushed forward.

  Sure enough, as the last bits of ash surrounding them turned into dirty mud, the ceiling of the tunnel ended, revealing cloudy skies above and a wet marsh as far as the eye could see.

  “Ugh, great…” Dawn murmured, as the party took in the landscape filled with bubbling water, chirping crickets, and heavy air.

  “Any idea where we are?” Dusk asked Layna, only slightly uncomfortable in her presence.

  The redhead frowned, pulled out her map again, and unfurled it where everyone could see. They took a long moment to try and pinpoint their location… but fail miserably.

  “...There is no marsh anywhere near Anxia. Where the heck are we?”

  In fact, there weren’t many marshes inside Vargarott at all, according to the map. The only one that would appear to match the size of the one they found themselves in would be the ‘Iridion’s Wash’, which served as the southern border between Vargarott and Couthen.

  But that was way too far from Anxia. It wouldn’t fit.

  “I guess this isn’t gonna help.” Layna sighed as she put the map back into her backpack. “Dammit, what do we do?”

  Silence fell over the party as the twins looked into the distance. They idly noticed Linza gawking at the surroundings, likely since the moment they’d stepped out into the sunlight.

  “Well, I think we should move,” Dusk finally announced.

  “Yeah. But which way?”

  “I think–”

  “That way!” Linza interrupted Dusk, pointing in the distance. “There’s a big hill there. We’ll see further.”

  The twins blinked at the surprisingly sound plan coming from an amnesiac. They narrowed their eyes in suspicion but decided not to press.

  “Sure, sounds like a good idea.”

  “Yeah, let’s go with that.”

  With their goal decided, the party finally started to move.

  Only for Layna’s foot to sink up to her thigh three steps in.

  “Gyah! What the heck!”

  The twins quickly rushed in to help her pull it back out. Thankfully, they had no issue doing so.

  Unfortunately, the bigger problem still remained.

  “Ugh, how are we supposed to even get anywhere like this?!”

  None of their skills seemed particularly useful for this. Maybe [Feather’s Grace], but that wouldn’t help the rest of the party. And [Iridion’s Shawl] didn’t help at all with a marsh this deep.

  “I could try to freeze the water, but it wouldn’t do much,” Layna offered with a frown. “Freezing isn’t the main attribute of my skill.”

  “I can… hold on.”

  The party turned to look at the human who had pulled out her newest – and only – skill. They tried not to inch away from her as her [Umbral Acolyte] card turned into the inky ghost of a scowling creature. Linza nodded at it with a smile.

  “Go on, Jim.”

  ‘Jim’ complied by sliding down her legs to the wet ground below. As soon as he touched it, he seeped into it like ink on paper, expanding Linza’s shadow and making it merge with theirs.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The twins flinched as their shadows touched hers, expecting something to happen – but nothing yet.

  “Uh. What are you doing?” Layna asked, nervously watching the scowling face connecting all their shadows together.

  “Give me a second…” the human murmured as she crouched, narrowed her eyes, and scanned the area for something. “There! Okay! Hold on, everyone! We’re gonna teleport!”

  “What?!”

  But before they could raise any complaints, the ground beneath them suddenly gave way, and they screamed as the shadows swallowed them whole.

  For a moment, it felt like being underwater – if said water absorbed all light, at least – and then they felt the world lurch to the side in a way that didn’t make any sense. It felt as if part of the world squished into a smaller space and another part spun around, all while the the third part disassembled into pieces and quickly reassembled into something else.

  Before they knew it, solid ground re-formed under their feet and light washed away the bizarre world of darkness.

  The twins stumbled with a gasp, but quickly straightened themselves and blinked away the uncomfortable afterimage of black in their eyes.

  The moment they realized where they were, their jaws dropped.

  Somehow, in about five seconds, they had crossed all the way to the hill Linza had pointed out a moment ago – right into a shade cast by a little overhang.

  “What in the world?!”

  “What was that?!”

  The human positively beamed at ‘Jim’ as he detached from their shadows and climbed back up to her hand.

  “Ahah! That is awesome! I can use magic! Actual magic!”

  Once again, the twins couldn’t help but stare at the human as if she’d grown a second head.

  “...Right. Magic,” Dusk murmured, in a deadpan tone.

  “Please, don’t suddenly teleport us like that,” Layna chided, looking just as rattled by the experience as them. “I almost thought you were attacking us.”

  Linza had the decency to look chagrined at least.

  “Uh, right. Sorry about that.” She winced, scratching the back of her head. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  The twins let out a sigh.

  So much trouble, this human.

  “It’s okay. Just don’t do it again without asking first,” the catkin finished.

  Linza gave her a nod and a tiny smile of appreciation. Then the party fell silent as they observed their new position.

  The marshes still surrounded them on all sides, but the ground right here and especially the hill itself seemed oddly solid, unlike everywhere else – in fact, the hill seemed to stick out of the ground as if someone had placed it there. Weird, but convenient.

  “Well, let’s get a better vantage point!” Dawn suggested and leaped up the hill using her [Feather’s Grace] to get higher, before latching onto the side of the hill with her limbs, idly noting the unusual warmth the hill emanated.

  Dusk watched as the human’s eyes went wide at the display. She had admitted to having never seen a geckin before, to be fair.

  Not wanting to get left behind, Dusk latched onto the hill as well and began climbing.

  They belatedly realized that they should probably help Layna up like they’d done back in the Bellowing Jungle rift, but before they could offer to do so, the other girl did so first.

  “Can I get us up?”

  “...Another teleport?” the catkin asked, her tone dripping with wariness.

  “No, I can only teleport into shades. But I can make Jim carry us up!”

  “...Alright.”

  Dusk turned to look back at the two, wondering what ‘Jim’ would do. He shuddered as the shadowy creature coiled around Linza’s midsection, then did the same to Layna as she tried not to flinch away from it. The scowling shadow in the shape of a coilborn then lifted them onto its tail, then smoothly slithered forward and up the hill as if it could stick to it like they could.

  Well, as exciting as that looked, the twins would always prefer climbing with their own hands and feet.

  Regardless, it didn’t take long for the whole group to make it to the top of the hill and finally get a good look past all the tall grass. The shadowy coilborn dropped Linza off, but rather than doing the same to Layna, it lifted its tail up as high as it could, allowing the catkin to get an even better vantage point. She yelped at the unexpected movement, but quickly understood the intent, took out her map again, and began trying to figure out their position.

  The twins sighed, feeling just a tad useless at the moment. Even the human and her brand-new skill were more useful than them.

  Speaking of which…

  “So… Have you thought about which four essences you’re gonna take from us?” Dawn asked, sounding a tad more aggressive than she intended.

  Linza blinked.

  “Ah, I completely forgot about that. What were my choices again?”

  How could she forget they owed her essences?

  Regardless, the twins once again pulled out all they had for the human to look at. She looked at the remaining Legendary ◆Umbrage◆ and their two Epics and the twins couldn’t help but grimace.

  But then, for some reason, the human paused, glanced at each of their faces, and reached out toward the Very Rares.

  Of the eight Epics she had cleansed into Very Rares, they had: ◆Mirror◆, ◆Barrage◆, ◆Refraction◆, two ◆Needle◆, and three ◆Shard◆ in addition to their ◆Snipe◆ and ◆Corrosion◆.

  “Okay, Jim is pretty good for… mobility, offence, and defence. Now I’m just missing scouting, I think?” she mumbled. “Hmm, how about ◆Mirror◆, ◆Refraction◆, and… ◆Snipe◆? Would that give me something to scout ahead?”

  The twins exchanged a glance with raised eyebrows before looking back at the human.

  “I don’t know? Could be anything, really. What does refraction mean, again?”

  “It’s… light bending in a particular way. Hmm. Okay! I’ll take these three then! Let’s see what it makes!”

  The twins let out a small sigh of relief at retaining their two Epics and a Legendary and handed over the three cards. Then they had a thought – wasn’t [Soul Split] supposed to be an Epic?

  Could they… upgrade it? With ◆Core◆ and ◆Bastion◆, perhaps?

  …Did they even want to?

  “Here we go! I think I’m getting the hang of this now!” Linza excitedly yelled as she slammed ◆Snipe◆ and ◆Refraction◆ into ◆Mirror◆ and groaned as the headache hit right after.

  Meanwhile, her shadowy acolyte lost his form and turned back into a card, dropping Layna from where he was holding her. She yelped, but quickly adapted and managed to land on all fours.

  “Hey! What are you– Why are you crafting right now?!” the catkin yelled at the human as she stood back up.

  “Ughh, sorry. I forgot… I didn’t think it would cancel ‘Jim’…”

  Even Layna sighed in exasperation at this point. Seriously, what was wrong with this human? This couldn’t all just be the ‘amnesia’.

  “You’re really a handful, aren’t you?” the catkin said, vastly downplaying reality. “Well, whatever. More importantly, I think I figured out where we are.”

  “You did?” Dawn perked up.

  “Yeah, come look at this.”

  The catkin unfurled the map again – a bit crumpled because of the fall – and pointed where they’d feared they would – the Iridion’s Wash.

  “Looks like we ended up here. I don’t know how that’s even possible. It’s nowhere near Anxia.”

  They felt a sinking feeling in their stomachs.

  Not because the place was named after a titan – nobody had seen Iridion in centuries anyway – but because Iridion’s Wash lay at the exact opposite direction from Anxia if they wanted to get to Estra Dolla. That meant they’d either have to either pass through Anxia again – suicide – or they had to take the long route around Anxia if they wanted to reunite with the rest of their party.

  But from this far away, even a straight line would take them weeks to get there, never mind having to go all around! By the time they got there, the others would probably think they’d died and leave! What were they supposed to do now?

  Maybe the others were in the same situation as them? Spat out at a random place on the continent by the tunnels? But then, how would they ever find them? No, they had to trust the others to make their way to Estra Dolla and do the same.

  “I could barely see Couthen’s border down there. And over there, you can see where the Wash turns into Voss even from here, so there’s no mistaking it. I just… have no idea how we ended up all the way here,” Layna finished her explanation, looking quite frustrated.

  The twins suddenly remembered the old elf – had he even survived? – telling them about how Anxia’s ultimate skill [Soul of Erebus] drilled these tunnels into the Earth. But what if it was really a teleportation skill instead? Linza’s entire situation might even tie into this whole mess.

  They had wondered why the tunnels were apparently only used for emergency evacuations but not fast transportation. Perhaps where one exited truly was random?

  The twins slumped as they watched the Sun dip below the clouds, illuminating the Iridion’s Wash with its red light.

  “Um… Should we keep going?” the clumsy human asked.

  The twins tiredly exchanged a glance with Layna and without even speaking, instantly agreed on what to do next.

  “Let’s set up a camp. Travelling at night is too dangerous.”

  At least this place was warmer than Anxia.

  Especially this odd hill.