The group traveled around the edges of the large, crystal clear lake, shimmering under the milky vista of sparkling stars and streams of space dust.
The night sky was clear, the moon's luminance bathed the lands, and wildlife was approaching their time for slumber.
The wanderers noticed the breeze from the flowing winds was a lot tamer than in Dreamtoe Cliff.
It was as if it were glistening under the moonlight.
As they strolled across the grass-smeared trail, Aletha walked next to Sally and Asahi, then commented,
"The moon shines bright like the sun, and the winds whistle along the peaceful hills as if it were extinguishing the flames from before."
Drimi squinted at her and asked in a curious tone,
"What're you talking about? Are you some poet or something?"
Aletha shook her head and lightly chuckled, remembering all her moments of reading books in other worlds.
Though Asahi and Aletha's native language was Gincad's, she had a truth that she couldn't ignore.
"Oh… of course not. Actually, a long time ago… while I was being born, my mother blessed Asahi and me with an ability to understand every language by the touch of our fingers easily."
Drimi's eyes widened.
"Huh?"
Belial turned to Aletha.
"Oh, really? Well… that's quite… interesting. Are you two world-travelers as well?"
Appreciatively, Aletha tilted her head away from Belial and slowly nodded her head.
Her breathing gradually grew shallow while smelling the lingering scent from the fresh springs scattered across the marsh of Pladtioa.
"Yes. We were forced to become world travelers ever since the calamity. However, I don't remember much about the worlds we traveled before the calamity."
Asahi nodded his head, pointed to the starlight, and added,
"But we do remember every single smidge and memory of every world where we visited."
Phthonus interrupted, tilted his head toward Asahi, and asked,
"Oh… do you have an example of a world that gave you the most conflict and problems?"
Traversing the fields, the group approached a state of exhaustion. Most were drenched in sweat, and others were distracted by the breathtaking vista of the breeze-bathed plains surrounding them.
The wanderers almost avoided the question.
The group discovered altars scattered throughout the desolate lands, emitting essences that fumed and purified the once-tarnished lands, leaving footprints and mud from the previous, ongoing rainstorm.
As before, Belial asked the question again.
"Is there a world that makes you weaker and almost impossible to escape in…?"
Before they could tread any further, with one word, both Asahi and Aletha answered with a deep, grudging tone.
"Auguya."
The delivery of the mysterious name of the land shocked Belial, Phthonus, Drimi, and Sally.
They muttered confusingly.
"Aug…uya…?"
Asahi gripped his fingers and turned toward the sky. The group halted near the entrance of the smaller forest and glared at him.
As the wind silently blew against his hair and his flaps dangling around his chest, Asahi raised his arm and snapped his fingers. His fierce gray eyes peered straight through the souls of the group.
"A deceptive world that heeded no mercy to humans. We barely escaped after accidentally falling into it.
The regions were absolutely sweltering, a war was on, monsters were everywhere trying to go after our guts, and we created many conflicts, like encountering a demon lord who had the power to freeze time.
Oh, it was chaotic. The only thing we left was an earring I wore and a compass near some tower."
He turned to the ground and clenched his fists.
"We were just mere seconds away from getting killed after escaping—
Asahi hastily stepped forward and pulled Aletha away from the group.
"The memory from that world left a scar in our minds. I can remember it as clearly as the day of our world's calamity.
I never would have believed it, but I saw other people just like us getting killed as well. We tried to save them, but we were too late."
Aletha interrupted Asahi by stepping forward and clearing her throat.
"L-Let's not speak anymore about that place. That world is long gone and abandoned by us for now. I'm just glad that we made it home safe after all the dangerous worlds we explored."
Drimi and Belial raised their voices,
"You explored multiple worlds?! How are you..."
At that moment, Asahi just wanted to abandon the thoughts and memories of the hostile worlds that he and Aletha visited.
The wanderers and the rest of the group continued to travel drowsily.
As they stepped out of the grassy fields and the forest's thick shrubbery, the glittering, fragrant moonlight shimmered and sparkled on their dark attire.
The stars sprinkled across the horizon, with fireflies dancing left and right over the grass patches.
The wanderers were exhausted, and so was the rest of the group… so as they reached Phthonus' building, they decided to take a rest and prepare for the next day.
. . .
Asahi and Aletha still had a deep grudge toward the Kitsune. Never would they think that such a creature could unleash such chaos.
Almost all night, they couldn't get any sleep thanks to the nightmares that followed from Dreamtoe Cliff.
They were most paranoid about the three silhouettes. In some ways, they resembled the figures and shapes of their family.
The tallest one was the father, the smallest was Aiyana, and the one who turned away from the other two shadows was…
Before they could notice it, the last memory of the silhouette was wiped away from their minds.
While Asahi pulled the bed covers over his chest, he turned his head to the ceiling and sighed.
A warm glaze of orange shone on his face from the insuperable luminance of the light.
He turned to Aletha, who was on the other side of the room, and hollered.
"Sis, can you turn off the light?"
Aletha, who had her bangs untied and covering both her eyes, drearily groaned, lifted her head, and reached for the metal chain dangling from the light.
Silently, she flicked the switch, clicked the lamp, and the orange luminance faded from reach.
Aletha then slammed her body back against the floor, pulled her fluffy blankets over her head, and turned back to the fireplace.
"Not even a good night?" Asahi asked quietly.
Aletha lifted a thumb, pulled her blankets over her head, and faintly mumbled.
"Good night."
. . .
The following day, Phthonus decided to wake everybody up and head outside. He wanted to warn them because he had a particular plan lingering inside his mind the other night.
They were all outside the door, with their things and luggage packed up and ready for the next trip.
The warm yellow glaze of the sunlight, mixed with the vibrant hues of the forest, made the moment a little more bearable.
The birds began to sing their tiny tunes, and the wildlife sprang back to life as the faint morning mist resonated through the ground.
Drimi said as she crossed her arms and stared at Phthonus with her drowsy eyes.
"What made you all so hyper this morning, dude? Do you have some itch up your back or something?"
It was clear that she was still trapped within her masculine personality, mainly because the current situation wasn't as severe as it was in Dreamtoe.
After all, the magic she and the others used made them exhausted, and almost all their energy was depleted.
Even Asahi and Aletha looked drowsy and tired.
Despite rubbing their eyes and yawning, Belial was the only other individual wide awake.
As he walked out of the front door of the cabin, Belial held three steaming croissants in his hand.
They were steaming, with the crusty, flaky texture pressed against his soft skin.
His emerald eyes shone brighter than the others.
"I see that most of you are exhausted, despite getting enough rest. Perhaps it was the energy of mana that led our stamina to deplete from the constant fights that the beast unleashed on us?
...No matter, I have a solution for your exhaustion…."
Belial cheerfully stepped forward and peered at the group with his glistening emerald eyes.
"When my parents were still around, back in the past when I dwelled within a small brown shack within the rough whistling sands of Zomrack, my mother always taught me how to bake these wonderful delights made from the resources that resided within the Cocoa Forest of Zomrack…."
As he continued to explain, Belial gave everyone in the group one large, steamy patisserie.
He lifted his own croissant into the air, cleared his throat, and took a deep breath.
Even his voice was inflated and accelerated as if there were continuous bursts of energy bouncing in his head.
The group didn't even question what was inside the treat; they just stared at it.
"Inside those croissants is a special ingredient that forces your mind to accelerate, thus unleashing blossoming amounts of energy through your body."
As Asahi, Aletha, Sally, and Drimi tossed the treat into their mouths, munching and devouring the crispy buttermilk patisserie, Belial lightly chuckled and smiled.
While the wind brushed against Belial's long, dark hair, he turned to Drimi and inquired.
"If we can obtain our weapons, and if Drimi can sail us through the diverting sea, maybe I can tour the wanderers and the rest of the group around the Spurni Building in Linuxinia City? I haven't been in Vehemat for a long time, so I have no idea how business is doing…."
Most of the group was shocked and flabbergasted when hearing Belial's secret.
When the warm, savory treat slithered down everyone's throats, bursts of energy fumed, pulsated, and coursed in their bodies like a flashing light.
Each function and organ in the group's bodies got stimulated, accelerating their duties like drinking a warm cup of uncondensed coffee.
Almost immediately, the drowsy fog within all their eyes faded into a shimmering, warm, awakened sense of nourishment and wakefulness.
"What's going on?" Asahi asked, turning his head in all directions. "Do you see anything, Aletha?" Aletha replied, scanning the surroundings at the same time.
"I feel… energized. As if I was put into the state before the Kitsune fight."
Aletha swiftly jumped up and pushed Asahi to the side. She was overwhelmed by the constant rush of energy, bursting into a massive plume of wakefulness.
"I feel a lot more refreshed after I ate that! Wow, I feel… so… hyper! Do you have another supply of this so my brother and I can eat this every morning?"
Belial's emerald eyes widened; he backed away and scratched his head nervously.
Phthonus slowly nodded his head, placed his hand over his hips, and quickly gulped the last chunk of the croissant down.
In the dark, empty plain inside Phthonus' mind, an explosion of pure energy spread through each corner inside him, forcing him to jump and shiver out of wakefulness.
He quickly remembered why he was out there and raised his voice.
"Now, all of you wonder why I swiftly forced you to get outside of my building. Well, it wasn't because I was drowsy, angry, or envious among any of you, but it was at the fault of…
As he was explaining, Phthonus hastily pulled out a small prismatic white crystal from one of his long gray pockets.
It glistened and shimmered under the light, with the sun tracing each of the gem's pointed corners.