The man who had been one of the caravan's guards looked just as confused as he was amazed by the landscape surrounding him.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said, staring at the red sky. Then he repeated, "Where are we?"

"It's... a little difficult to explain," Izan replied. "For now, we'd better go inside the palace."

With a subtle gesture of his thumb, the boy pointed toward the feline watching them from atop the tree.

"We'd better not bother it now that it's calmed down."

"That damn tiznardia..." the guard cursed when he saw the animal.

"That's what it's called? Tiznardia?" Izan asked, intrigued.

"You don't know them?"

The guard narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw as he inspected the two boys. A second later, his expression changed completely as he raised his eyebrows and furrowed his brow.

"You're the Heroes!" he exclaimed, immediately dropping to one knee. "Forgive my manners."

Clara sighed awkwardly and said to him:

"You don't have to do that. Get up, and let's get out of here before that tiz... whatever it is attacks us again."

"Yes, miss. As you command," the guard replied.

Izan looked at his friend and laughed mockingly without the man noticing. She shot the boy a glare before speaking to the man.

"Don't be so formal with me. Call me Clara."

"As you command, Miss Clara."

The girl put one hand over her face in exasperation and gave up.

The three of them made their way back to the palace, leaving the great feline and the garden behind.

As they crossed the stone fence separating the green space from the arid, rocky ground of that dimension, Izan stopped to look at the great jacaranda tree and wondered if that garden had always been there.

"Forgive my insistence, Heroes," the guard interrupted. "But where are we?"

Clara looked at Izan, waiting for him to answer, and the boy understood what his friend was trying to tell him.

It was the look that said, "Be careful what you say."

"It's difficult to explain, because we don't know much either, except that this dimension is part of my gift," the boy said, withholding information. "Do you remember anything about the attack we suffered?"

The guard stared at the palace in amazement, but what caught his attention the most was the river of green water and the spectral arms swimming in it.

"Not much, young Hero," he replied. "I remember that we were on our way to Fort Leibos when we were ambushed."

At that moment, the man remembered something and immediately lifted his shirt, revealing well-defined abs and a hairy chest, and inspected his body.

"I thought they had cut open my abdomen... but it seems there isn't even a scar," the man said, then looked at the boys. "Could my memories be confused?"

"No," Izan replied. "I don't know how to say it, but... you're dead."

The guard stopped in his tracks.

"I died?"

"Something like that," Clara added. "I'm dead too... sort of."

"Somehow, my gift allows me to preserve your souls," Izan explained.

The boy glanced at his friend to confirm how much it was safe to say, but she subtly nodded.

"I'm still figuring out how my abilities work, so I can't explain much more to you either."

"Even though all of this sounds insane, it makes sense to me," the guard said. "The tiznardia attacked me, but it didn't leave a single scratch on me. I've never seen or heard of a place resembling this world. The only conclusion I can draw is that all of this is the work of the gods."

"Or a power that comes from a god," Izan agreed.

The three reached the palace doors, which opened to welcome them.

The sturdy man, who was the tallest of the group, opened his mouth in amazement.

"By the way, and forgive me for only asking now, but what's your name?" Clara asked.

"No, it's my fault for not introducing myself properly, Miss Clara," the man apologized. "I am Bellator Morius Atrus, at your service."

"You don't have to be so formal, Bellator," Izan said, somewhat impressed by the guard's name. "I'm Izan Coven. Nice to meet you."

The boy extended his hand, expecting a handshake.

Bellator looked at him in surprise and hesitated to shake the Hero's hand, but after a moment, he thought it would be rude to refuse.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions," the young man continued without releasing the guard's hand. "But first, let's go inside and explore a little before I have to leave."

He said the last part while looking at Clara, who immediately nodded.

"Does that mean we can leave this place?" Bellator asked in surprise.

"We can't," Clara quickly answered. "Izan didn't die. He can enter and leave this place, although... we don't really know how he does it."

"That's why I need answers," the boy added.

The man nodded and said nothing more. Although he had far too many questions, he had been ordered to serve the Heroes, and if there was one thing that characterized Bellator, it was his loyalty.

The three of them entered the great hall with its white tiles and walked a few meters, inspecting the doors before beginning their interrogation. All of them remained closed except for a single one at the back, to the right of the grand staircase.

"Iza!" Clara called excitedly when she heard the sound of the lock opening beneath her hand. "This door is open!"

The boy ran over to his friend, with Bellator following behind.

The door had subtle blue tones with vertical bars extending from its base and gathering in an upper frame.

With some apprehension, Clara slowly opened the door, revealing a long, wide hallway with a large dark glass window on the right that offered a view of the green river and the broken bridge. On the left side of the hallway, there was only a wall, while at the opposite end stood an exit door.

"Should we go?" Clara asked, intrigued.

"Of course."

They walked down the hallway to the exit at the opposite end.

"Let me go first," Bellator said, stepping ahead. "We don't know what dangers might be on the other side."

The boys nodded and let him pass.

The man grasped the door handle and carefully pushed it open.

At first, there was some resistance as the sound of leaves and undergrowth being torn apart could be heard, but after a moment, Bellator managed to open the entrance completely.

On the other side, they found a familiar landscape: the garden with the great jacaranda tree at its center.

Between the tree's branches, the tiznardia watched them with curiosity and alertness but did not leave its spot.

"So the palace also connects to the garden from the inside," Izan commented as he stepped through the door. "We couldn't see the entrance because the vines were covering it."

"How strange," Clara said.

"What?"

"The door wasn't open the last time we tried to open it," she said. "Could it have opened because we had already discovered the garden?"

The boy bit his lip thoughtfully but finally said:

"It's possible, but we'd better go back inside. Maybe we'll find something else this time."

The guard closed the door, looked cautiously at the feline, and warned it off, and the three of them headed back down the hallway.

"Bellator, as you already know, we don't belong to this world," Izan began. "So there's a lot we don't know. You mentioned earlier that we were on our way to a fort, right?"

"That's right. We were traveling to Fort Leibos. But it's not just a fort; it's a military city."

"All right, and... do you remember where we were when we were attacked?"

The man thought for a moment, trying to retrace his steps mentally, and then recounted:

"Yes. I remember that we'd left Akros and were traveling along the western route. The attack happened as we were leaving the borders of Nemis Forest."

Izan glanced at him, intrigued. He didn't remember much about that journey. He didn't know what caused his lack of memories from the previous days, but whenever he tried to remember his time in Deivas, a dark fog clouded his mind. The little he had managed to reconstruct was thanks to Clara's memories.

"And after the forest was there a desert?"

"No," Bellator immediately replied, frowning. "After leaving the forest, we were going to enter the valley."

"Valley? Which valley?"

"Praetus."

Izan exchanged a confused look with his friend and then scratched his head in frustration.

"I don't understand any of this," he said with a sigh. "Nemis Forest and Praetus Valley... I wish Google Maps worked in this world."

"That would definitely help a lot," Clara joked before adding, "Shouldn't we explore the upper floors?"

Izan nodded. Although he hadn't said anything to his companions, he was worried that he was running out of time there.

"Are you sure there isn't any desert or wasteland near where we were attacked?" he insisted as they climbed the stairs.

Bellator shook his head.

"Perhaps you're talking about the Scarlet Ocean. It's the only place I can think of that matches what you're describing, young Hero."

"Scarlet Ocean?" the boy wondered. "Does the whole landscape turn red at sunset?"

"That's what they say," the man confirmed. "I've never been there to see it with my own eyes."

"Is that where you are, Iza?" Clara asked.

"Yes. There's nothing wherever I look, just dead trees and dry earth."

Bellator stopped on the staircase, confused, and asked:

"Did you travel there after the attack?"

"I woke up there. In a pit, surrounded by the corpses of... well, everyone. Including you."

"That's... It should be impossible," the man said, stunned.

"What do you mean?"

"The Scarlet Ocean is on the other side of the continent, at the edge of the world."

The three fell silent, not knowing what to say. Clara, in particular, looked at Izan with concern.

"Just tell me one thing," the boy said with complete seriousness. "Which direction is the nearest town or city to the desert?"

"West, always west. I don't know the area, but I can tell you that you won't find anything to the east," Bellator assured him, swallowing hard. "However, I must warn you that... if you're really in the Scarlet Ocean... you won't find any civilization nearby for hundreds of kilometers."

The boy narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

"All right, that's enough for now," he said. "I have too much to think about and analyze. I'll ask you more questions later, but before I have to leave the palace, I'd like to see what else we can find here."

"I agree," Clara added. "The palace is your ability, so there should be rooms or places that can help you somehow, right?"

"Exactly. That's what I was thinking."

As they climbed the main staircase of the Dark Palace, they found a long mezzanine surrounding the great hall. The floor was covered with red velvet carpeting, and there were three more doors, all of them closed.

At the end, the hallway turned to one side. When they rounded the corner, they found another high-ceilinged hallway so long that, at a glance, it seemed to stretch across the entire length of the Dark Palace.

They reached the end of the hallway frustrated because all ten doors along it were sealed. The farther they went, the less hope they had of finding anything useful until, when they turned the corner at the other end of the hallway, they found a staircase leading to the second floor.

When they went up, the scene didn't look much different. They found another hallway, except the carpeting was purple, and it ran straight through the center of the palace. The great hall was directly below it.

"This place is enormous," Bellator said with a sigh. "There's no way everything can be closed."

"Yeah, and it looks like we haven't even seen half of the palace," Izan added, equally frustrated. "From the outside, it seems like it has more floors."

The two walked a few steps ahead of Clara, who stayed behind to look at a door she was going to try opening.

"Izan?" she said after a moment.

The boy turned around and saw his friend pointing at something on the door.

"What happened? Did you find something?"

"My name is written here."

The two men ran over to Clara and saw a metal plaque on the door with the girl's name engraved on it.

"Was your name always there?" Izan asked, surprised. "I'm sure I looked at the door, and there was nothing there."

"No... it appeared the moment I put my hand on the doorknob."

At that moment, Clara opened the door without further delay, driven by curiosity, and revealed the room.

The room was very spacious, like an apartment in a luxury building. From the entrance, they could see a huge canopy bed, a large window overlooking the hellish landscape, and a desk beneath it.

Clara was the first to enter, amazed, and Izan followed closely behind. But when Bellator tried to enter as well, something different happened.

"What is this?" he said, frowning.

The boys turned around and found the man pressing his hands against an invisible wall. No matter how hard he pushed to try to cross it, he couldn't.