The moment the group came out of the tunnel, they started to walk alongside the sea on a small beach.
Next to them, the sea was moving very slowly; it was extremely calm and it didn't create any problems. No big waves could be seen arriving. "I wonder for how long we will keep walking…" said Vane as he walked into the sea and his feet were getting wet.
Darian was currently looking at the horizon on his side, trying to spot some buildings coming out of the ocean. "I think we're still far…" he answered.
"But are you sure we're going in the right direction, Darian? Are we sure it wasn't in the other direction?" asked Liro, worried that they might have chosen the wrong side.
Right now, both he and Lily were walking without any fear. This small beach was near a huge cliff, this small place didn't have a single monster around, so everyone remained more relaxed without any problems. Snowy remained curled up on Darian's shoulder, looking together with his owner at the horizon.
Lily let out a deep breath. "Mmm, I've missed this smell so much." Lily realized that she had been away from Yalemba for a long time; her body was getting used to the different smell of the air, but now that she was this much closer to an ocean, she realized how much she actually missed this smell.
"I must say that it is easily better than the smell in the tunnel…" said Liro. As he started to remember about the bad smell there and how full of moss it was, he realized that this smell was significantly better.
"Hey, look at that!" called out Vane as he finally spotted something coming out of the sea. "Where?!" asked Darian. He wanted to see if he was able to see something he had already seen when he returned to the mainland; not being able to see the building, he positioned himself next to Vane and looked in his direction. "What's that?" said Liro, confused.
Where Vane was pointing, there was what seemed to be an old skyscraper, or at least what remained of it. The building coming out of the ocean was full of coral and was completely ruined.
"It's an old building!" shouted Darian happily. He grabbed the phone for his pictures and began to zoom in as much as he could to analyze the building better.
"So? Does it seem familiar in any way?" The building was extremely far from the land. There, the water wasn't as shallow as it was near the mainland, to submerge a building this tall, Darian realized that the water there must be extremely deep.
Darian, with the zoom of the camera, was able to spot many different corals on the building. Looking at that, he realized how beautiful the oceans must be, even in the spots considered bad during his time.
He then took a picture of what could be seen of the building. "Does it look like this because it is too far away?" asked Vane, confused by the picture Darian took and why it was that bad.
"Yeah… if I probably had my phone from back then, I wouldn't have any problem taking a beautiful picture from here." Darian remembered that when he took lots of pictures with his old phone, the cameras were able to catch things that humans couldn't see with their eyes in such a perfect way that it felt like it was being seen right in front of the object.
Rusty had created this phone by himself, but he wasn't able to gather the best camera, just an old one from about 60 years before the great catastrophe, so the quality could never be compared to what Darian was used to.
"Well, it is still much better than what we can see from here…" said Liro as he tried to take the phone so he could look too. Darian slowly put the phone in his hands, and Liro looked at the sight as well.
"Hey, don't you find it strange? Even if we can see inside the building, it is completely empty; there are no decorations. Darian, it wasn't like this in your time, right?" asked Liro, confused.
Darian took the phone in his hand again and checked if Liro was right, and he realized that there wasn't any furniture in the building. "Oh, you're right…" murmured Darian while trying to find a solution. "I guess they fell into the ocean after the catastrophe?"
"I wish we had a way to go and see down there," said Lily. The moment she spotted the corals on the building, she found them extremely cool; she had never seen them in Yalemba, so she would love to see them in front of her.
"Sadly, it is impossible… without a boat, we will never be able to travel over the ocean," answered Darian.
"Can't we ask Rusty to build one?" asked Liro.
"Well, we can… but the materials for a boat large enough for us are too much, and Rusty would have to build that alone non-stop. It would take too much time," said Darian as he breathed heavily, for he would have loved to study what had happened to the ocean in this time too.
"You told us in your time the world was full of buildings, right? I wonder how many of them we will be able to find…" asked Vane as he started to walk in the front. Everyone followed him from behind.
"Yeah, that is one reason… but think about it: don't you think that there are other Krukins who can swim?" asked Darian, wondering how full the ocean would be of Krukins who can swim.
"Well, we've already met two of them…" said Vane as he tried to remember what type of Krukins they found in the ocean. "The Kruktopus and Poisudonom," said Liro, not giving Vane enough time to answer as he had already thought of them.
"I feel like they aren't the only ones, I'm sure that many other Krukins love to enter the ocean like them," said Darian, imagining in his mind another Krukin who could swim in the ocean.
"But no one has ever been able to kill them there… I wonder how dangerous it might be." This thought from Liro scared everyone; their idea of building a boat to explore the ocean was slowly becoming an impossible fantasy.
The group walked along this small beach, in the distance, they were able to spot some other buildings full of coral and seaweed. Darian was able to take some other pictures, even if some of the buildings were too far from the camera and could only be seen from a long distance.
After one hour of walking, they finally reached what looked like the end of this beach; in front of them, the cliff was cut off by the tide.
"Guess we have to climb this all the way up," whispered Darian, realizing that this was their only real solution to get up there.
"Dammit… it feels so long," whispered Liro in despair, wondering how hard it would be for him to crawl along this entire path.
"Lily, you can use the roots to help us crawl, right?" asked Darian. Snowy was about to fuse with him, but Darian stopped him. "I'll surely become stronger if I climb this with my own strength," whispered Darian to the small fox next to him, who looked him directly in the eyes and then returned to his shoulder.
"You want them to follow us while we climb, and our bodies should be attached to them so we will not fall?" asked Lily with a smirk. She had already understood what Darian's intentions were; the moment Darian nodded his head, some roots that were waiting for the group to get closer appeared on the wall behind them.
"Oh, let's go!" Vane was the first to go there, clearly excited to finally do something rather than just walk around. The moment he positioned his hands and feet near the roots, they closed around his body, not letting him go.
"Hey, it's pretty strong!" pointed out Vane as he tried to pull away his hand to break the roots, unable to do it.
Vane, without waiting for the others, already started to climb the cliff. Darian was second. "Hold tight, Snowy," he whispered to the fox next to him curled up on his shoulder, who nodded his head upon hearing Darian's words.
Then Darian started to climb up the cliff once he was sure that the roots were resistant enough for him too.
"Come on, Liro," said Lily, inviting Liro to get near the roots too. "…Alright." Even if he was a bit scared, he agreed to it. 'Come on, Liro… you can do it,' he thought. The moment the roots gripped his body, his heart began to beat faster. 'Just don't look down.' With that, Liro started to climb the cliff.
Lily was the last to move. After being sure that everyone was attached to their roots, she was the last one and started to do the same.
This climbing lasted around 20 minutes for Darian, while for Vane it was only 15 minutes. The third to arrive was Lily. "And Liro?" asked Darian, wondering if their friend was arriving. The moment they looked down, they saw him stuck, looking down and unable to move.
His whole body started to shake. 'I—I can't…' he thought until he heard the others calling his name. "LIRO!" Hearing their voices, Liro slowly lifted his head and looked up at his friends who were waiting for him.
"I'm coming," he said. Looking at his friends, the strength returned to his body, but suddenly, once he climbed higher, the rock he positioned his hand on started to shake until it was completely destroyed.
"Huh?" Liro remained confused until he realized that he had lost his balance and was about to fall down. "AHHHH!" he shouted. The others could not even speak before the roots had already blocked him mid-air, and he wasn't falling anymore.
The others tried to call for him, but Liro didn't answer; he was stuck in that position, too scared, with his eyes closed. His whole body was still shaking. "Lily, can't you get him up with your roots?" asked Darian. Lily nodded her head.
Liro felt his body being transported higher, and he opened his eyes again just to see more roots under his body that were slowly bringing him up.
The moment he was safely on the ground in front of his friends, he breathed heavily. "If you could do that… why didn't you do it immediately?" Liro was looking at the ground, not scared, but a bit disappointed that Lily hadn't done it from the start.
"Well, Darian told me that we should climb the cliff…" said Lily a bit awkwardly, looking at Darian, who was looking in a completely different direction.
"Let's just… rest for a moment." In the place they were right now, there weren't any Krukins nearby. Sometimes some Bladekruks would pass by, but they were too far away for anyone to hear them.
The group was finally able to eat some fruit grabbed from the trees nearby and rested for about another hour.
"We're ready," said Darian while getting up on his feet. Now that he glanced around, getting a better view of everything, something was starting to feel more familiar. "What is it, Darian?" asked Liro. By now he had completely calmed down and didn't have a problem.
"Come with me," whispered Darian, trying not to make any loud noise. They reached a spot that was extremely familiar to Darian, it was the edge of a cliff. The moment he looked down, he saw the same body of the Bladekruk he had killed when he had returned to Earth two months ago, and he finally understood where they were.
"Come on, guys, we're not far," he said as he started to rush in the direction of the sea. "Are we finally there?" asked Vane, running next to him. Darian nodded his head.
They reached a spot where the water wasn't deep at all; in fact, everyone could walk easily, barely getting their feet wet. "Come on, it should be in that direction," said Darian as he started to walk in the front, leading everyone. Vane didn't have any problem as he was always without shoes, but for Liro and Lily it was harder, as they didn't want their clothes to get wet.
After 10 minutes of walking, they were finally able to reach the rocket. It could be seen in front of them in all its beauty, it was still the same, nothing had changed, and everything remained as Darian had left it.
"No way, we're here!" shouted Darian as he immediately started to run toward the rocket. The others followed him from behind, going a bit slower. Strangely, Darian looked into the rocket and he saw something that made him confused, until he had to remain still because of the shock.
"What is it, Darian?" asked Vane, as he hadn't looked into the rocket yet. Liro's body had started to shake. "Po—Poisudonom…" The moment he mentioned the name, the Krukin inside the rocket turned around and smirked wildly.