The wind is colder than anything. It’s a Planet of the Unknown. Everywhere is just grey ice. And black rocks, peeling the planet upward to meet the sky. But the dark clouds seal them, preventing them from ever meeting each other.

The trees, they still grow in the cold. Like they are used to it. The branches and everything are covered with leaves, just to make them look big.

Echa opens her eyes and closes them. She is gasping for air. She wears the same clothes she always wears—a gray coat, a black T-shirt, black pants, and boots. Her hair is dark blue, with that gray dyed strand falling right in front of her head. Her green eyes are faint from the absolute cold.

Her skin is pale. Her lips are on fire for water. Cheerfulness is nowhere to be seen. She is quiet. Too quiet for someone who had everything would work out her way.

The Orynite on her shoulder glows faintly with a tint.

“What place is this?” She says, her green eyes looking at the boots which have been sunk deep in the snow.

Then, she hears a sound, or maybe it's just a feeling. She looks around quickly to see who it is—but it's nothing. No one is there. The sound is eerie.  

Echa groans begin, as she began to follow the straight path that leads behind the mountains, muttering to herself,

“Fheshas. I wasn’t able to save you.”

Her voice is broken, nervous. Tears fall softly from her eyes, turning into ice before they even hit the ground.

“This can’t be…the end”

For a moment, the sound of boots crushing the snow is all that can be heard. Echa passes through the massive rocks.

Then, what comes into her sight makes her stand in absolute shock. She freezes in place. It’s a brink. She was, in fact, already walking on a mountaintop, and the path ahead drops even lower.

It’s mountains everywhere. But in the middle of all this, at the very bottom...

There is a huge circle down below. Its lines can faintly be seen tracing even beneath the roots of the mountains.

And at that center sits something. It’s white, but a dull, lifeless white. It has two massive wings with holes torn into the edges, and some kind of shining rock has stabbed it completely into the ground. From this distance, it looks entirely motionless.

Echa's reaction is a mix of surprise and pure curiosity. She hesitates, wondering whether she should actually approach it. Sighing heavily, she grips the edges of her sleeves tightly and makes her choice.

It takes a bit of time, but Echa ends up rolling all the way down the slope like a snowball. Reaching the ground, she shakes the snow off her clothes, shivering violently from the impact.

Up close, the monster looks even more massive, tremendous, and intimidating. She is still many meters away from even reaching the dark circle's boundary line.

“Oh…” Her voice is so soft. Her green eyes stare up at it, completely taking in the ancient, hollow patterns carved onto its wings.

She takes a step closer. Close enough to cross the dark circle line. But a sudden gust of wind violently pushes her back, making her fall to the ground. It turns out the monster is breathing out. The massive exhale pushes the snow away from everything, shaking the ground just a little. But the entity doesn't move. It remains completely still.

“Ouch,” Echa mutters, wiping her back as she slowly stands up. She shakes her head in disbelief and sighs.

“What is this thing even?” she says to herself.

Gripping her sleeves tightly, she looks up at the massive form and yells,

“HEYYYY!!”

Echa breathes heavily after yelling at the beast. Her eyes remain fixed on its massive body, watching for even a millimeter of motion.

The monster remains completely motionless. For a long, quiet moment, the only sound is the howling of the wind through the valleys.

But after a while, a voice is finally heard. It doesn't come from the monster's mouth, though—it vibrates directly out from the Orynite shard on her shoulder.

“YOU HAVE A NECESSITY TO FILL, BUT REFUSE.”

Echa's eyes widen at the sound of it. She gasps, but tries to reply softly.

“Necessity? What necessity? Refuse who? No one is here.”

Echa is completely consumed by curiosity. The monster stays dead silent.

The voice is eerie, like the wind scraping through the hollows of the mountains to create a haunting sound. Yet, it rings clearly from inside her own Orynite. But before she can utter another word, the entire world around her suddenly glitches into a blinding, sterile white.

“There you are.” The voice belongs to a woman. It is so gentle, so soft. But everything around her is white. Blindingly bright.

Echa can’t feel the cold anymore. In fact, she doesn't even know if she is the one in control of her own body anymore. For a long moment, there is only a deep numbness and the echo of this lady's voice.

“Don’t be afraid. It took some time to patch you up,” she speaks, but Echa still can’t spot where her voice is coming from.

“Your soul might have accidentally connected with an inter-dimensional fracture. But here you are.”

As the lady speaks, Echa bristles. The sound seems to be shifting left and right, slowly drifting closer to her. Echa wants to say something to break the tension—but the environment is simply too much for her mind to process. Instead, she speaks in an annoyed, blunt tone.

“Who are you?”

The oppressive brightness slowly begins to dim, revealing a woman standing directly in front of her. The setting has transformed into a white, silver laboratory. Echa can feel that she is resting inside some kind of pristine white pod.

But her eyes remain completely glued to the woman in front of her. A soft grin rests on the woman's face. Her pale, soft orange eyes look up at Echa, unwavering. Her gentle, long, blue hair flows elegantly, and she wears a simple blue dress.

“Echa. I am Oshna. Welcome to Agara.”