Chapter 1420: From Farewell to Freefall

Crack.

The first spatial fracture split apart completely, followed by a second and a third. Cracks spread and intersected, swallowing the white light, the grassland, and the little animals running through it.

Everything in that space vanished.

The group passed through the exit and returned safely to the Forest of Vigil.

But they soon realized the forest had changed as well.

The towering trees were losing their luster, and the edges of their leaves had begun to yellow. The life energy that once filled the air was steadily fading, while the blue mushrooms in the distance had lost their soft glow.

The Forest of Vigil had grown under the nourishment of time energy.

Now that Vesperhart and Noxhart were both gone, the energy sustaining the entire forest had been cut off.

This strange forest, which should never have existed in the first place, was beginning to die.

Ethan reached out and touched a falling leaf.

Time energy flowed from his palm, trying to restore its vitality. The yellow briefly receded as the leaf turned green again, but as soon as he withdrew his hand, it quickly returned to its withered state.

Saving one leaf meant nothing.

Even if he exhausted all his power, he couldn’t sustain an entire forest.

Ethan had wanted to save this place and preserve its breathtaking beauty. But the world had its own rules. Anything born from an unnatural force could only disappear once that force was gone.

The time energy Vesperhart had left inside him was slowly fading as well.

The last trace slipped from his fingertips and dissolved into the dying forest.

Perhaps it had left with Vesperhart and Noxhart.

Ethan didn’t stay any longer.

He picked up Auri and looked at her downcast face as she watched the forest wither around them.

"Where does Auri want to go next?"

After thinking for a moment, he brightened his tone.

"How about the beach?"

He still remembered how Seraphina had woken up in the green smoke with nothing but giant octopus on her mind. Now that the fighting was over, this was the perfect time to take everyone to the coast and relax.

Auri thought it over seriously, then glanced at the deteriorating forest before silently nodding.

"But where are we going to find a beach?"

Lying in Ethan’s arms, she quickly perked up again.

"I want to sunbathe! And eat giant octopus!"

Ethan smiled and nodded, then led everyone to a clearing.

The place looked familiar.

It was where they had first landed after descending from the pale green cloud layer.

Seraphina looked around to make sure there were no obstacles, then returned to her dragon form. She lowered her enormous body and spread her wings against the ground, allowing everyone to climb onto her back.

Once they were seated, she took off and flew into the distance.

Not long after they left, a massive wave crashed over the lonely island.

From high above, it looked like a child nature had abandoned in the middle of the sea. Little life remained. Only stunted, withered trees and broad patches of dead grass covered the faded ground.

Time would eventually wear it away.

Perhaps, after many long years, it would reappear in the world in some other form.

Seraphina carried everyone across the ocean.

Ethan and Auri lay near the edge of her back, peering curiously into the distance. Before long, a strip of land rose above the water ahead of them, looking very much like a coastline.

"We found a beach already?"

Everyone perked up.

But as they drew closer, they realized it wasn’t a coast at all. It was only a small patch of raised ground surrounded by seawater, with barely enough room to land.

Their excitement immediately faded.

Ethan, however, spotted something different near the edge of the sandbar.

He looked down at Auri in his arms.

"Auri, want some crab?"

Her eyes lit up at once.

Green Fairy energy emerged from her fingertips, weaving an outline of twigs above Ethan’s palm. It had a round shell and a pair of mismatched pincers extending from either side.

"This?"

Ethan examined it and nodded.

Auri immediately began waving her arms and legs in excitement.

Her commotion caught Idra’s attention. Idra moved closer, looked at the twig crab, then turned a wary eye on Ethan.

"Daddy, what are you plotting now?"

Ethan’s smile froze.

Plotting?

How did eating crab count as plotting?

He couldn’t be bothered to explain. Instead, he patted Seraphina beneath him.

"Don’t keep flying. Everyone’s tired."

He pointed toward the raised patch of sand.

"Take us straight down. We’re having giant crab!"

Idra’s suspicion vanished the moment she heard "giant crab." She sprang into the air in excitement, making the others laugh as they looked down at the sandbar.

At Ethan’s command, Seraphina lowered her head and locked onto their destination.

Then she folded her wings.

Her enormous body began descending vertically.

Just as everyone braced for the landing, Seraphina shifted back into human form.

The moment she did, everyone who had been sitting on her back lost their support.

They all plummeted toward the ocean.

This still counted as going straight down, didn’t it?

Seraphina looked at the rapidly approaching sandbar and felt quite satisfied with her interpretation.

Her master had only told her to descend vertically. He hadn’t said she needed to stay in dragon form.

Ethan hadn’t considered that possibility at all.

Wind roared past his ears as the beach below rushed closer. He turned to look at Seraphina’s calm face, with only one question left in his mind.

Couldn’t she have warned them before changing back?

A deafening scream tore across the ocean.

Halfway through, Ethan remembered he could fly.

White energy spread from his back and formed a pair of wings. His fall slowed, and he steadied himself a short distance above the ground. Then, pretending nothing had happened, he calmly descended toward the beach.

Everyone else had already landed and was looking up at him.

Ataneya’s twenty-four fox tails reached into the air. One wrapped around Ethan’s waist, while several others caught his arms and legs.

Ethan looked down at the tails, suddenly struck by a very bad feeling.

The next instant, Ataneya yanked them back.

Ethan, who had only just stabilized himself, was dragged straight toward the ground.

A second scream followed.

Thud!

Soft sand exploded in every direction as Ethan completed his landing in a less-than-dignified fashion.

The process had taken a few unexpected turns, but the result did technically qualify as "straight down."

Feylora stepped into the center of the group and brought her hands together before her chest. Pale green energy spread from beneath her feet, forming a ring of soft light across the sand before curving upward and closing over everyone as a shield.

Life energy circulated within the barrier, replenishing the power they had expended earlier.

A sea breeze blew in from the distance.

At first, it merely skimmed across the water. Before long, however, the waves farther out began to churn violently. One after another, they crashed against the raised beach, spraying white foam across the shield before sliding down its curved surface.

The sky darkened with them.

Heavy clouds blotted out the sunlight, and the sea grew darker by the moment. The group stood on nothing more than a patch of sand slightly above sea level, with little room to move. As the tide rose, even the last stretch of dry ground disappeared beneath the water.

With nowhere else to go, everyone remained inside the shield and waited for the tide to recede.