A small silhouette stood perfectly still, clouded by darkness. A strange girl and a black dragon hid amongst twisted trees nearby.

After a long while, a young voice rang out. “Hello? Is someone there? I need help. I’m lost. I wandered off and now I have no idea where to go. Hello?“

The figure finally moved into the dim twilight. It was a very young girl.

Ceres began to leave from their cover but Nakir quickly stopped her. “Hold on a minute. We can’t trust anything here.“

“I can’t just ignore her. What if she’s in danger?“

Nakir stared at the figure of the girl. She continued to call out for help, to no avail. Nakir’s bright blue eyes burned fiercely in the blackness. “What if she is the danger?“

Ceres looked back at the girl intensely.

“I can hear you. Please, help me. I miss my parents. It’s so lonely here.“ The girl lazily walked in their direction, then stopped abruptly. They now could see her face in full detail. Her eyes were missing, and a black void accompanied both sockets. Her body was scarred and boney, as if she hadn’t eaten in weeks. Her lifeless gaze turned to look at Ceres directly. The girl giggled, but her mouth did not move until an unnatural smile tore across her face. Her limbs swung violently as if she were a puppet on strings.

Ceres readied her dagger and claw. Her dragon eye focused deeply on the girl, unwavering.

“You wouldn’t even help a lost orphan like me? What kind of monster are you?“ The girl began to move even more violently until an effervescent light, almost like moonlight, emanated from the dark spaces where her eyes once were.

“What the hell are you!?“ Ceres screamed, staring daggers at whatever cruel creature this was.

“I told you. I’m lost,“ the girl replied, then stopped. After a second, a piercing scream bellowed from the creature. The girl’s lower body broke and morphed together. Flesh and bone mangled into a horrifying mess. Spidery legs now jutted out from the girl’s abdomen, and a maw made up of jagged fangs moved up and down like piano keys. As the real creature became aware of its surroundings, the girl began to let out a bloodcurdling cry.

Ceres was stunned. She was scared. This was nothing like the wolves before. At least the wolves didn’t hide their true forms. This was the act of something truly evil. Something that preyed on human instinct. Something that knew humans exceedingly well. She found the willpower within herself to shut her fear from her mind. She would kill this abomination, no matter what its origins were.

“Help me! Help me! Help meeee!“ The girl’s feeble body continued to plead. Its screams almost made Ceres’s ears bleed. The monster below reared back, opened its maw, and jumped towards Ceres in an attempt to take a gaping bite out of her. It managed to land the bite, but it grasped onto the wrong leg. The onyx scales of Ceres’s draconic leg were totally unaffected by the razor-sharp fangs. A goopy poison leaked out from them and dripped onto the cold ground.

Ceres took her father’s dagger in both hands, pointing the blade directly toward the creature’s head, and thrusted downward as hard as she could.

The blade’s edge instantly, upon making contact with the monster’s flesh, eviscerated the top of its head and pierced into its brain, rendering it lifeless. Moonlit blood gushed out from the opening.

Ceres did not stop. She kept stabbing it. Repeatedly, she drove the dagger into the abomination’s head until it resembled nothing like its former self. It was only until she looked up at the human portion of the creature that she stopped herself mid-strike. She kicked its mouth off of her leg and fell to the ground, weeping.

Nakir wrapped a wing around Ceres. “It’s okay, little one. It’s dead. It’s over. You’re okay. Shh. Hush now. We’re okay.“

A silence filled the air until a choir of voices cut it short. Dozens of figures lined the misty horizon. They called out, “Help me. I’m lost. Somebody, please help. Where am I? I can’t see anything. Somebody, anybody.“

Nakir lifted Ceres onto his back, and flew off without a word. The tortured voices slowly faded into nothing as they rose above the clouds.

The hope that Ceres had mustered all but vanished in an instant. All she could see in her mind was an image of Asteria becoming whatever they were. It seemed as if the world was actively trying to torture her with every new encounter. A shadow eclipsed her heart, and the path to saving her sister seemed to scatter in a million directions. All she could do was whisper loud enough for her companion to hear. “Burn them, Nakir. Burn them all. Please.“

The black dragon dipped just below the clouds and began taking a breath. Magical energy crackled to life and wavered around and around into the dragon’s mouth. His throat began to glow a dark blue color. With an enormous roar, he unleashed an unrelenting stream of iridescent flame onto the ground below. The dark trees caught aflame and fell, then the screams began.

A cacophony of sorrow filled the empty woods. Flame tore apart the beasts, their monstrous screams only outmatched by the deathly cries of the children attached to them.

Ceres vowed to find the ones responsible for this horror. She vowed to find her sister. She may have lost hope, but she had the means to bring the world to its knees. Even if it meant throwing away everything she believed in, even if it meant burning the world to the ground, she would save her sister. She would save Asteria, no matter the cost.

Once the flames dispersed and the twilight land was purified, the two flew to the only structure in sight: a clock tower amidst the desolation.

Nakir clung to the side of the tower and Ceres jumped towards its glass clock, swinging her draconic claw towards its dusty exterior.

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Glass shards fell to the floor as Ceres crashed into the room. A plume of dust swirled throughout. This was where the clock tower’s machinery was held. A trap door that led downstairs was boarded up.

Upon glancing around the room, Ceres then noticed the body of a young man. He was unconscious, but he looked healthy and he was breathing steadily.

“Nakir. He’s alive.“

The man’s eyes weakly peered up to see a young girl wearing odd clothes with what appeared to be armored limbs and a fake eye. To her left was the face of a dragon, black as night. The man would naturally scream at the sight of a dragon, but he did not have the energy to do so. He simply accepted whatever fate awaited him.

“He doesn’t look like the others. Can you help him?“ Ceres pleaded to the weary drake.

Nakir studied him closely, then gave a small sigh of relief. “He isn’t bleeding or anything. It seems he has some kind of head trauma. I’ll try to heal it.“ Nakir transformed into a human and fell into the room with the two. A small chime resonated from the dragon’s heart once more and a brilliant light swirled from it into the young man’s head.

Ceres’s mind burned with endless thought. All that kept her mind from the dead eyes of that girl was the mystery of their predicament. Her questions would not go unanswered for long, however, as her eyes drifted towards a shadow that shimmered in the otherworldly moonlight.

In the shadowy corner of the room were a pair of unmistakable eyes. Archizend emerged seemingly from thin air and hopped up onto the clockwork machinery. “Greetings. Greetings. I’ve missed you both dearly.“ The cat gave a wicked chuckle.

Reality itself seemed to ripple and shift around the creature, and as Ceres caught sight of this she swore she could hear the faintest sound of chimes.

“I understand the confusion. I seek only to propagate it. However, it is imperative you do understand the necessities. This thing is named Raum, and his life is over. Was over. In this reality, nothing stays buried forever. This place is beyond that. I called you here from Ymiris’s grave so that you could realize something, something vitally important. You both never left my woods. You see, we never said farewell, and even though you did traverse the boundaries of my realm, it was nothing more than a daydream connecting both your minds. The true reality lies out there… in the fog. Why do you think you never saw anything living in the Greatwoods but me and those nightmarish wolven?“

Ceres grew tremendously impatient. The mere thought of all of this being for practically nothing lit the flame of anger within her to unparalleled levels.

Archizend, seeing the outrage burning in the girl’s eyes, continued his explanation calmly. “The people you saw and talked to, they are not unreal. It is a matter of perspective. Time is not a line as you mortals seem to think. The universe is not so formulaic. With the power of a transcendent being one sees everything as a spectrum. A glowing spectrum of light rays bouncing and reflecting off one another. Mortals can only perceive the light’s origin.“

“Cut the bullshit, cat! Why are we here? Aza was the plan. The Black Sorceress is the only lead we have for finding my sister!“ Ceres began panting from her outburst, her strength already having been waned from the nightmare they had been through just a moment earlier.

Archizend licked his right paw and looked up at Ceres with eyes eerily similar to that of the monsters outside the tower. “This was a test, and you passed. It was to see how far you were willing to go to survive. Killing a creature resembling that of which you seek is enough for me. Your sister is in good hands. Red hands.“ He chuckled again.

The man, Raum, was beginning to fully wake to his surroundings. He had already been desensitized to the impossibility that was his situation. He slowly and painfully got up from the ground and sat against the wall. His movement made Ceres listen for a while longer than she would have otherwise.

“This thing is a gifted magus who will be vital to your further existence. For the rays of time to shine upon your path, he will be indispensable. And equally disposable. As for Aza, it is just beyond the great tree. Although, the corruption you seek is on the way. A monstrous manor sits near its gates. Your answers will be found in such a place. I hope you do not listen to the ramblings of one more mad than I.“ The devilish cat chuckled a final time.

Ceres, overcome with rage, threw herself at Archizend. Just before her wrath could be known, however, the world went black once more.

The three awoke to the chirping of birds and the light hand of sunlight grasping at their cheeks. The sound of swaying branches and falling leaves drifted through the air.

“I’m going to kill that son of a bitch cat! Where did he go?“ Ceres angrily jumped up to a standing position and looked around the field frantically. Archizend was nowhere to be seen.

The taciturn man and the humanoid dragon looked at one another and started laughing. Nakir’s hearty laugh and Raum’s dry chuckle set Ceres’s mind at ease. If anybody else had been laughing at her, it would’ve only made her more mad. But this was the first time she had heard Nakir truly laugh, as well as Raum.

“Is she always like this?“ Raum questioned Nakir with a half-smile on his face.

Nakir feared yet another beating from his companion until he saw that Ceres had calmed down somewhat. “No, no. Ceres is always a lovely, calm, beautiful, calm young lady.“

“You said calm twice.“ Ceres snapped with a certain warmth appearing on her face.

“Anyway,“ Nakir began, “we better carry on out of here before we can get wrapped up in whatever nonsense our mutual friend can cook up for us again.“

Raum and Nakir stood up.

Ceres noticed the extremely odd attire Raum had donned. He wore extremely baggy pants and a shirt made from a light cloth. Everything was a dirty shade of white, and a pair of brown leather goggles were strapped to his head. It looked as if he had come straight out of the desert. “Your name was Raum, right?“ Ceres asked.

“Yes…“ Raum replied, half-focused on the beautiful scenery around them.

“Who exactly are you? Why did Archizend give you to us? What was the meaning of all that crap he said?“

Raum took a while to respond. For some reason, this green and vibrant area seemed especially amazing to him. He felt as if he had a deep longing for this kind of place long ago. “One moment, there was nothing. The next, I was atop that tower. Only those things outside and the cat were there to greet me. I know now from the screams that those weren’t people.“

“This just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I can’t tell if Archizend wants to help us or kill us.“ Ceres sighed, blocking the harsh rays of the sun with her extended hand.

Nakir gave a nervous cough. “I propose we just accept it. I had heard of that cat’s trickery way before we met him the first time, but I never would have thought his influence stretched that far. I’m still not quite sure what was truly real, and what he created as an illusion. At least it’s safe to say that it’s all behind us. We really should get going, before he can trap us in that world again.“

“That’s if you even want to come with us. You don’t have to do what that creepy cat said.“ Ceres explained to Raum about their journey to find her lost sister, and the danger that both had ensued and probably would come about in the future.

Raum thought long and hard, the breeze lightly pulling his unkempt auburn hair across his forehead. He closed his eyes to feel the air against his skin and focus his thoughts, then opened them lazily. “As long as, as we travel, we can figure out why I’m here. Or who I am.“

Ceres and Nakir agreed.

Nakir transformed back into a dragon and the three flew past the great tree, leaving behind the Greatwoods for good. Each of them hoped that whatever lied ahead would give them the answers they so desperately needed.