Danaël didn't even remember his fall, yet the pain from his landing remained when he awoke. His face was smeared in a puddle - in fact, the whole ground was marshy. 

Danaël tried to push himself up with both hands, but he was still exhausted. He rolled onto his back and used his abdominal strength to sit up cross-legged. The young boy looked right, left, and above him. 

The place where they had landed seemed infinite, and Danaël couldn't see its limits - indeed, he couldn't see much at all, as they were plunged into total darkness. He felt extreme heat coming from his forehead, then the heat seemed to disperse, dotting his face with an all-too-familiar crimson liquid. 

The young boy gently ran his hand over his forehead and noticed the dripping blood. "Great," he thought. The darkness was already obstructing his vision, and the accumulated blood under his eyelids and in the corners of his eyes was making him almost blind. 

Danaël wiped the blood from his face, dipping his head into his shirt and rubbing it vigorously. Then he dropped his hands in the water before wiping them against his pants, which were now ripped and partially torn on one leg.

 He could make out certain shapes in front of him, and Princess Evangeline's blond hair jumped out at him. The latter was crawling towards him, her clothes in tatters, the princess uttering muffled cries. 

Every movement seemed to be agonizingly painful. Danaël got down on all fours and helped the princess, who leaned against him. Evangeline was out of breath, and on closer inspection, Danaël recognized that she was much more badly injured than he was. 

The burns on her legs had worsened, with a long red stain running up her right leg, stopping in the middle of her thigh. 

The burn didn't extend so far down her other leg, though the intensity seemed greater. Her left ankle was blistered, its skin still smoldering. 

Danaël judged the burn to be second-degree, the princess still clinging to him, struggling incessantly with the pain. Her face tensed, reacting to every micromovement of her body in disconcerting facial gymnastics. 

Danaël ran water down the girl's legs, which seemed to ease her pain slightly. 

The boy began to worry that he still couldn't see Dod. Making sure the princess could stand on her own before letting go, he withdrew his backpack, one of whose straps was about to give way. 

The young boy then reached blindly for his flashlight. After a few seconds of searching, he found the metal object and shook it forwards and backwards. 

The fantastic crystal inside the object began to glow, and Danaël shone his light ahead. The first thing he saw in front of him was the carcass of the cart. 

The machine was still smoking, and every now and then, fantastic little jolts escaped from the electronic circuitry. Danaël reviewed the machine, scanning the beam of light from right to left, then up and down. 

As he concentrated on the front of the vehicle, he noticed a dark mass. Danaël grunted as he rose to his feet and strode towards the vehicle. 

He was now close enough to make out Dod Allentown's body in the gloom, lying on what remained of the cart's hood. 

"Dod! No!" Danaël limped over to his friend. 

The boy's inky blood* (to be worried in Ordinal language) was short-lived, however. 

"So, this is what the afterworld is like? Are we dead? I think it's pretty lame."

Dod's voice contained a dose of sarcasm mixed with a certain melancholy that he could barely decipher. Danaël sighed, both reassured and slightly irritated by his friend, before helping him to his feet. 

Of their little group of three, Dod seemed to be in the best of health. His clothes were almost completely intact, and he had only a few scratches on his face.

"Where have we landed?" Dod asked. 

"I really have no idea, dude. Princess, perhaps you can enlighten us?"

Evangeline stared pensively into space. She rose to her feet, her legs trembling, and Dod and Danaël had to help her stand by putting one of her arms each around their shoulders. 

"We're in another dimension", she began in a jerky voice. "The city of Goliath has appeared on our radar as an area at risk."

"At risk of what exactly?" Asked Danaël. 

Evangeline paused briefly, then continued: 

"A zone at risk of fantastic rifts. They appear when there's an imbalance in the surrounding fantasia. A fantastic rift absorbs absolutely everything in its path until it is closed." 

"Wait", interjected Dod."You said this was the reason you'd come, I mean, the royal delegation. I'd have thought it was a job for a guild, not royalty."

"Yes, you're right, the Fafnir guild was put on the file, but I... I wanted to prove to my father, the king, that I was capable, worthy of joining a guild of The Order. So, I insisted on going with them and convinced the guild master directly, on condition that my guards would be along for the ride. I intended to make myself useful and try to discover the most likely place in the city where the rift might appear, and that's when I came across you."

"Princess, we're really sorry to have ruined your plan, said Danaël, but now we're here, we've got to find a way out."

"We need to get our hands on the fantastic artifact that powers the entire dimension."

"What's a fantastic artifact?" Asked a credulous Danaël. 

 Evangeline raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes in exasperation. 

"Am I dreaming? Didn't you ever go to school or something?" 

 "Not really", no, replied Dod in a monotone. 

The princess sighed again. 

"A fantastic artifact is an object with fantasia properties. They're powerful, devastating weapons, and are in great demand on every continent. They are extremely rare to find in nature. That's why fantastic rifts are so highly prized. Ten years ago, the appearance of a fantastic rift on the border between the human and elven kingdoms sparked an unprecedented war. Today, it's known as the Durendal War. It's the name of the legendary sword that was contained in the dimension in question, and unfortunately for us, it's now in the possession of the elves."

"So, all we have to do is get our hands on this artifact to return home!" Exclaimed a cheerful Danaël. 

Dod shook his head in his friend's direction before saying: 

"Wait for the "but" Dan, there's always a "but". Right, Princess?"

"Yes, there is", agreed Evangeline. "The artifact is protected, it's always protected, and not just by anything: fantastic monsters. We're currently on the first floor, but in a few moments, the ground will drop away and take us down to the second floor. There are monsters waiting for us on every floor." 

"Exactly how many floors are there?" Dod asked fearfully. 

 "Hum...as far as I know, it should have a minimum of fifty floors."

Dod let out one of his nervous laughs, only neither Danaël nor Evangeline was able to discern whether the young boy was laughing or crying. 

"In other words, we're screwed", he said between sobs.