The wind is colder than anything. It’s an unknown planet. 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 filled with leaves, just to pretend they are big.

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

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

The Orynite on her shoulder glows faintly with a greenish tint.

Then, she hears a voice, 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 voice is eerie.

“Don’t Listen.”

Echa groans softly at the sound. She begins to follow the straight path that leads behind the mountains, muttering to herself,

“Fheshas. Where are 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…”

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...

“Breathtaking... in a cold way,”

 Echa mutters with a nervous laugh. Her eyes stay widened. Not blinking a single bit.

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. Her voice is a faint whisper.

“Too steep.”

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. “I wonder if Fheshas would at least have a reaction if he saw this.”

Gripping her sleeves tightly, she looks up at the massive form and yells, “WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, 'DON’T LISTEN'?!”

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.

“Mmm… I merely spoke the truth.”

Echa's eyes widen at the sound of it. She gasps, but tries to reply nonchalantly. “That was vague. But... what are you?”

Echa is completely consumed by curiosity. The monster stays dead silent, letting an entire minute pass before it speaks again.

“Call me... NEGAM.”

The voice is eerie, sounding like the wind scraping through the hollow points of the mountains to create a haunting noise. Yet, it rings clearly from inside her own Orynite. But before she can utter another word, the entire world around her suddenly starts to glitch 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 she 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 teasing—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.

“Don’t play games with me.”

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 white eyes look down at Echa, unwavering. Her gentle, long hair flows elegantly, and she wears a simple blue dress.

“Echa. I am Oshna. Welcome to Agara.”