A suffocating sadness assaulted Synexus as the party moved through the remnants of the once great oras forest. Salira of bright colors and bark with swirls of blue made the forest colorfully beautiful—now all the color had drained away leaving pathetic withered plants.

  If there was any way of getting through to the sentient forest, he would have taken it. He would have marched into its maw and begged on his knees to save the natural beauty. Learning that the forest had killed all other life was disappointing, but the damage had been done and with help, it could have changed.

  The party was heading towards the center where Synexus had felt the stairs hoping that even with the original oras being dead, they would still be there. Along the way, he started to plant seeds throughout the desecrated forest of all kinds of plants hoping to set nature back on the right path. Gene said the space could be real since no one ever figured out what the labyrinth was. The owl told them all that most people call it a natural dungeon even though that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Either way, some seeds and a bit of mana wasn’t too big of a cost to take a chance.

  “What do you think the animals were like here?” Zuls nudged his shoulder as they ran. She was always a comfort, and they shared a love for nature.

  “Hard to say. Maybe they were half mushroom too.”

  “Oh no. That would be awful! I lived off mushrooms the entire time I was in my trial, remember?”

  “Fine, they weren’t half mushrooms and I’ll refrain from making a mushroom fish.” Zuls laughed at his joke.

  “In my mind they were grazers that had a sweet tooth. Imagine herds of bright violet and electric blue striped quadrupeds grazing on the endless fields of that honey grass.”

  Synexus did what she said and imagined the animals peacefully raising their heads to the breeze. Their colorful striped fur creating swirls of color as the wind whipped it this way and that. Golden Peleeca falling from between their flat teeth and catching the breeze into the intense light of the sun. A peaceful existence that could never have been, but there was always that chance they were right and it wasn’t just imagination.

  “Wow—just wow. What a life that would be. Sitting out there in the fields with a paintbrush in hand capturing all the colors of this world.”

  “Now there will be even more.”

  “What do you mean, Zuls?”

  “You’re planting seeds, right? Edit some to grow in unnatural colors. Maybe the next adventurers will tell stories of a rainbow forest. Perhaps the labyrinth will make our imagination a reality. All is possible. Your proof of that.”

  Synexus smiled and nodded to her.

  “Thanks, Zuls. I’m simply tired of making enemies when peace could exist. When the oras told me it had devoured this world for its own gain, my mind went to the Coalition devouring my planet to fuel their power.”

  “You know as well as I do, that nature is no stranger to enemies. Even progress threatens the natural. However, nature always reclaims. We could all live millions of years and strive so far forward with our technology that we don’t even recognize the outside world, but eventually we all die and that’s when nature’s patience pays off. Slowly it would break down all that progress and return it to the world we know. You were nature’s way of preserving your people and planet. Even without your assistance, nature will fix this too.” She opened her arms to gesture at the dead forest around them.

  “The cycle of nature and progress. How many iterations do you think they’ve gone around?”

  “Too many too count. More than anyone knows. But I do know one thing.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  “What’s that?”

  “You need to make me one of those purple and blue animals.”

  Synexus snorted from the unexpected end to a deep conversation. Zuls yelled that she was serious before running forward to jump back on Snowfall.

  With barely any obstacles in their way, the party made the three-day trip in half the time. A day and a half later, they arrived at the center of dead forest. Before them stood an incredibly thick and tall dead tree trunk. It was once the main trunk of the original oras. Now it’s a barely standing structure of dead bark and rotting wood. An entrance the size of a door is on the side of the trunk. Clearly, it’s the entrance to the staircase.

  “Alright, we will make camp here and rest before heading up. We have no idea what to expect. Maybe this was the only floor, maybe we walk into a massive fight, or maybe we will just find ourselves in another world. Either way, we should be rested.”

  “Yes, Captain!” The rest of the party exclaimed before rushing to set up camp.

  Tents went up, a campfire was made, and food was cooked. Soon they were all sitting under the strange alien sky around a fire eating some meat from the Nexus and roasted vegetables from Synexus’ garden.

  “Gene, you really have no idea what to expect from floor two?”

  “Sorry, Vorin, but there really are no accounts to read from.”

  “Well, I say the stranger the better! We’re on an adventure after all.” Kumo pushed her mug to the sky and the fragrant ale sloshed around before a few drips dropped to the ground.

  “Aye! That’s the spirit, Kumo! Nothing will stand in our way!” Prith’s mug joined hers in the air.

  “Just no spider worlds!” Synexus joined them in the toast.

  “Or snake worlds!” Shell raised her mug with a snicker.

  “And DEFINITELY no bees. Please, no bees!” Zuls joined the others and their eyes fell on Vorin.

  He hesitated making them all wait to drink. His eyes flicked to each one before he finally raised his own mug.

  “No oceans!” That got a round of laughter. Being stranded in open water for half a day does a number on someone.

  Ale spilled down their throats, and a crackling fire warmed their skin. Camaraderie stoked their confidence and pushed them forward. Loss kept them grounded and filled with purpose. Exhaustion made them put all of it to the side to sleep.

  Not once did the sun on floor one set. Eternal light for the fields of honeyed peleeca and the empty space that life and nature would hopefully reclaim. Due to the lack of a day night cycle, the party only slept for a few hours before heading toward the corpse of the original oras. One by one they stepped through the narrow doorway onto the staircase made up of nothing but starlight. An impossible dark surrounded them once more as they ascended to what was presumably the next floor. Starlight grew brighter before their vision was overtaken.

  Blinking away the starlight they found themselves in a world one would have to see to believe. A world that Vorin was absolutely going to hate.

  The seven of them stood on a flat rock. Grassy splotches could be seen here and there. Above them where the sky should be, was an ocean. An ocean that seemed to curve. As a party they ran and realized the land they were on was a solid rod of earth connecting the poles of the world. The atmosphere was made of water creating a spherical ocean with an impossible bubble of life in the middle.

  Creatures flew in the air and others swam in the oceans around them. Few were living on the rod of land. The ones that did live on land were in constant battle with others and soon the party would be involved.

  “Maybe saying what we didn’t want was a bad plan.”

  Vorin sighed. “That’s an understatement. What’s our mission here?”

  Welcome to Floor Two!

  Main Objective: Escape the Bubble!

  Kumo laughed. “Easy.”

  She jumped up and stepped on the clouds towards the ocean only to be brought back down hard by an intense gravitational pull. Synexus barely had time to soften the earth beneath her before she crashed.

  Bonus Objective: Find a way around the gravity!

  “That was a little late!” Kumo shouted toward the ocean.

  “This might be a little trickier than we thought. But don’t worry, I already have some ideas. Our biggest problem will be breathing through the water.” Vorin had a studious look on his face as he looked around the world before them.

  “I can create a bubble of water around us. We would need to be quick though.”

  “Good thinking, Shell! Wait, can’t you just throw that ocean into your ocean bag?”

  “If it comes to that, Zuls, but that would destroy this world, and I want to avoid that if they are in fact real worlds.”

  “Let’s get sta—”

  Vorin was interrupted by a crash from above. Looking up, they watched two oddly shaped leviathan locked in combat creating choppy waves on the ocean’s surface.

  “Okay. Let’s get started but avoid whatever those are.”