Ren landed on his feet.
Mostly.
The ground was solid, cracked stone — dark, dry, like it hadn't seen sunlight in years.
The sky above looked poisoned.
Gray clouds hung heavy over towers that leaned like they'd been crushed by time itself.
Black vines crawled over every broken wall.
Shattered spires stretched like dead fingers toward a sky that didn't care.
It was silent. Too silent.
Like even the ghosts were waiting for something worse.
REN (whispering):
"…Alright. Off to a cheerful start."
The others shimmered into existence beside him.
TIME (grimacing):
"Oof. Gothic hellscape chic. Bold."
FROST (softly):
"This place remembers war. Deep war."
SPACE (grinning):
"Don't worry. It's just trauma textured."
Ren took two steps forward.
That's all it took.
And suddenly—
Light.
The stone beneath his boots turned warm.
Lush green grass pushed through the cracks like it had always belonged.
The sky opened, golden and soft, full of warmth and clouds that actually looked like clouds.
Birdsong.
Wind.
Sunlight that didn't feel like a lie.
The broken towers?
Gone.
Now they stood tall, proud, polished — like freshly built monuments from a world that never bled.
REN (blinking):
"…What the hell."
GRAVITY (flat):
"Dimensional layering."
BLAZE (confused):
"Did we just time-travel sideways?"
SNARKSTEEL (snapping awake):
"WHO POLISHED THE RUINS?! THIS WASN'T LIKE THIS TEN SECONDS AGO!"
Ren stepped again.
Just one step forward.
Boom — the world snapped.
Back to decay.
Towers broken. Grass dead. Light gone. Wind stopped.
The same place.
But not.
REN (looking around):
"It's like it can't decide what it wants to be."
TIME (tilting his head):
"It's phasing. Between timelines? Or… between memories."
FROST (quiet):
"Or maybe we're the wrong ones here."
SPACE (lightly):
"Maybe this place isn't changing at all."
"Maybe we're being filtered."
Ren crouched and touched the ground.
Stone. Cold. Solid. Dead.
But when he looked up again—
The sky was clear.
The towers were whole.
His shadow looked... older.
GRAVITY (warning):
"Stay focused. This isn't illusion. It's history bleeding forward."
REN:
"So what, I'm walking through a broken memory museum?"
TIME (grinning):
"More like a mood swing with landscaping."
A gentle wind passed through.
Only Ren felt it.
It smelled like burned ink and old metal.
He stood.
REN:
"Alright, Virelya. You wanna be dead or alive?"
He took one step forward.
And the world changed again.