He sank deep into a white ocean, with deep, ghostly shades of black blurring the view, like the black mist that covered him when he crossed the portal. It resembled smoke spreading over white clouds.
When he opened his eyes, he frowned in confusion.
'What is this?' Nova wondered, confused, as he couldn't move. 'Where am I now?'
Nowhere in particular. That would be the correct answer, but also very ambiguous. Nova believed he had returned to the same place where it all began, but something was different this time.
He felt death embrace him tenderly. He felt its ethereal hands pierce his chest, delving deep into his soul. Those hands, cold, thin, and lonely, slowly pushed him to the bottom of the ocean.
As this happens, in the darkest depths of the ocean, where white eyes of all shapes and sizes stare up at the surface, faint, distant whispers can be heard; whispers that speak in thousands of different languages. Men, women, children, and all kinds of mysterious creatures from the depths of the cosmos.
They cried.
They laughed.
They shouted angrily.
Or they remained silent in the depths.
Such a mysterious and gloomy scene made him think of the only thing that could occur to anyone.
'Am I dead now?'
Unconcerned, he closed his eyes again, because dying hadn't been such a big deal.
Nothing hurts anymore, nothing worries him. However, did anything ever worry him? It's complicated. Besides, claiming that you're dead just because you're in a place you don't know isn't the best idea, and it's also quite cliché.
'What's going to happen to me now?'
It's normal to ask that question. In the last few hours, the succession of events had been too chaotic and desperate. Anything could happen at this point. From a portal opening out of nowhere to an octopus monster in the desert that is extremely fast and agile.
'Will I stay here forever this time?'
With no way of knowing, he continued his journey into the depths. Then, just as he was about to fall to the bottom of the ocean, a chill ran down his spine, and a voice spoke to him.
"What a surprise. You're still in one piece."
It was a deep, hoarse male voice. It sounded quite cordial and calm, considering the gloomy, almost ghostly atmosphere of the place.
Nova couldn't tell where the voice was coming from since he couldn't move his head, but from what he could hear, the voice spoke his language—the current language of the human race, which is a kind of hybrid mix of the most widely spoken languages of ancient Earth.
Knowing he couldn't move his body, he tried to move his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. Even that was beyond his limits. It even seemed as if someone was imposing these limits in this place.
The voice continued.
"Are you... scared?"
It paused.
"Worried?"
Its voice hovered close to Nova.
"Confused?"
In any case, its cordiality still sounded creepy.
Everything got worse when, suddenly, an ironic chuckle echoed alongside the non-existent ocean water. That laugh, of course, belonged to this mysterious guy. Hilariously, it said:
"It seems that's not the case. You're very calm, in fact."
That piqued Nova's curiosity, who, with all his strength, tried to look to his sides, with no apparent result.
'Can you read my mind? Where am I?'
Assuming that this mysterious being with a deep voice could see thoughts, Nova attacked with two pointed questions.
As the mysterious being had said, Nova remained calm despite everything.
"Can I read your mind? Where are you?" he laughed again, dryly, before continuing. "Nah. It's not that I can read your mind. It's just that you're so predictable that I can imagine what you're thinking. As for your second question..."
The voice paused again, leaving Nova intrigued. It continued.
"You are in the place where everyone will one day pass through. However, it is not yet your turn. No, no, no, no."
This time, the mysterious being was serious. It did not laugh or act friendly as it had at the beginning.
However, its friendly tone returned a second later.
"Although let me tell you one thing that I find curious, to say the least. You are... very skilled... You entered here without knowing where you really entered. That's great. You have great talent."
'Talent…' Nova reflected. 'Wait. I—'
"That's enough talking for today, Nova Asmodai. It's time to say goodbye, but don't feel sad about this farewell, for I will wait for you here. I won't go anywhere, for it will be you who comes to me of your own free will."
"What? I don't understand. I—"
'Can I move?'
Nova finally felt free. Still floating in the vast spectral whiteness, he turned to look at his kidnapper. What he saw made him feel something he never thought he would feel.
Behind him stood a dark figure staring at him sinisterly, like a shadow floating on water, with beautiful, light black cloaks flying over its thin, emaciated body, as if the wind made it look like a ghost. It has large, branched black elk horns on its head and a white dog skull for a face. Its deep, black eyes show a blue flame in the center, and in its thin, skeletal hand, it holds an old, innocent staff made of the same black mist that fills the ocean.
Before he could figure out what emotion he felt, Nova fell into the dark void.
Suddenly, he opened his eyes.
He found himself looking up at the sky, where beautiful blue and fresh leaves were dropping their cold snowflakes. The darkness was no longer there; instead, the great scorching sun burned everything outside the place where the snow spread.
'I don't think I understand anything.'
As obvious as it was, Nova closed his eyes. He took his time to process the information before jumping to a hasty conclusion.
He rested quietly with the snow covering his body. The heat of this scorching desert was overshadowed by the cold of the snow. That was enough to ensure that, this time, the ground would not burn the boy's skin.
He sighed, opening his eyes again.
He looked at one of the fruits hanging from one of the branches, the blue leaves, the corpse of the Aberration, frozen between the thick trunk, and the majestic cold tree. There was white mist hovering over the ground, covering the entire tree and its surroundings. The sand had been covered by snow, and in general, the entire area had been transformed into a small, completely different biome.
Finally, he relaxed.
'It worked.'
He smiled calmly. The wounds on his body are red and stain the snow crimson, but that's nothing now. Salvation is above him, dropping cold snow.
"I'm alive."
No matter how strange it all had been, he managed to reach another day of life on the other side of the portal. However, how much time had passed? Hours? Days? There was no way to know, as the sun does not show Terra's 24-hour schedule.
'I didn't know if it would work. The Cold Tree of the North has a very difficult composition to achieve. It seems I'm quite lucky.'
To put it simply, the existence of this cold tree is due to Nova's control over the Plantae Kingdom, an ability born from the control of Calem energy.
Energy skills allow the user to control aspects of matter and the physical laws of the planet. For example, someone with the skill to control pyrokinesis will be able to create and control fire, manipulating the composition of combustion and other aspects that generate fire.
Something similar happened with Nova.
'I guess that's because I've been able to control plants since I was a kid. Thanks, Mom, for the free botany lessons.'
When someone is very attached to an aspect of physics and nature, they often learn to control that aspect. Since childhood, Nova helped his mother with the plants in the house. This sparked a small interest in the Plantae Kingdom.
As a strange and marginalized child with not much to do, he studied the plants on the planet and learned how each one works. Well, that doesn't mean Nova knows every plant on the planet, he just studied the most interesting ones.
Among those plants is the famous Cold Tree of the North, which grows at the planet's North Pole—forgive the redundancy.
'Although it's not perfect, it saved my life.'
A tree with the ability to heal the wounds of biological beings, that's what it is. Its fruit works as an elixir of life capable of healing mortal wounds. However, something so valuable is also extremely rare. Furthermore, recreating one perfectly is completely impossible.
What Nova achieved is just a cheap, low-budget replica. Considering the conditions in which this tree was born, that makes it even worse.
'Now I just have to stay here. I'll let this miraculous tree heal my wounds with its magical snow, and then I can go home.'
He closed his eyes and rested.
The snow has covered his wounds. The bones inside his body have begun to miraculously knit together. His body will slowly heal. All he has to do is wait.
It will take a long time, that's true, but for now, he will be able to live.
***
Days? Weeks? It doesn't matter. Barely recovered, Nova set out to continue on his way. He tore his trench coat and turned it into dozens of bandages to hold his decaying body together. His ribs are still not in place. His organs are not yet fully healed, but at least now he can move.
With the help of one of the tree branches, he picked all the fruit that lay above.
'Nothing like that will do me any good.'
The frozen corpse of the Aberration. It's just frozen meat, nothing more.
'I could try to eat its flesh, but I don't know if it will be poisonous to my body.'
However, there is one thing that can be useful.
Nova looked at a small piece of shell that was conveniently shaped like a shield with cracked edges.
'It looks like you'll be of some use to me.'
Anyway. With everything ready, Nova set off.
Now he carries a powerful staff made from a tree branch. Anyone who dares to attack will receive a good blow to the head. The fruits are also extremely important. They are juicy and provide sufficient liquid for the body. They also increase wound regeneration and refresh the throat. The small shell shield is another point of interest.
The outer structure of the shield is hard, while the inner structure is soft. Nova only had to tie a rope made from the remains of her trench coat to the edges of the shield to hold everything in a makeshift backpack.
'Now I have twelve Sweet Flakes. I must protect them with my life, or life will escape my body if I lose them.'
It's best to be prepared for anything. Although he started with just a couple of seeds, he now has food for a few days, a weapon, and a shield. Excellent!
'My back feels very cool.'
Yes. The fruits also generate a slight feeling of coolness just by touching them.
Speaking of which, as he walked across the sand, Nova remembered the day he learned more about this tree.
During high school, at the age of 15, when he happened to find information about this tree in a book, he decided to ask his teacher about it after school.
She was a very kind woman who loved being a teacher. She taught her students all kinds of things, especially things related to nature.
The teacher told him everything there is to know about the Cold Tree.
The first tree was found by an expedition group at the North Pole. The fruits and the tree were thoroughly examined, until their powerful healing properties were discovered. As an added bonus, the tree emits a dense and pleasant amount of Calem energy. It was deduced that it was the excess energy during the tree's growth that gave it these properties. Biological beings, being part of this energy, are healed by these fruits and the snow generated by the tree.
'Someday I should get a real Sweet Flake. Learning its composition on the communicator doesn't work so well.'
He continued walking for hours. Those hours turned into days. As the fruits were consumed one by one each day, Nova began to think that leaving the tree was not a good idea, but staying was not a good idea either.
Apparently, everything that happens in that world is a bad idea. Can't there be anything good here?!
Looking at the communicator, which now had less than half its battery life remaining, he saw that seven days had passed since he arrived in this world. Although it seemed like more time had passed because the big sun never set on the horizon, it was the feeling of never seeing nightfall that stretched out that time in the boy's mind.
Now Nova was eating another piece of fruit. He had eight pieces of fruit left, because the days he was knocked out didn't count toward using up the fruit.
The texture of the fruit was somewhat hard when bitten into, but when chewed, it became soft and juicy. The fresh sweetness ran across his tongue until it faded away in his throat. This fruit helped Nova a lot from dying of thirst, as it fulfilled the two main functions of survival: food and water in one place.
'Oh, man. Even if it's a defective copy, it's delicious.'
It's a delicacy of the gods in this kind of situation.
When it was time to rest, Nova used his shell shield to keep his bottom from getting burned, and ate his daily fruit to stay hydrated and well fed. He also made sure to keep all his belongings in order. He kept four seeds in his socks and three more in his pocket. This was in case of an emergency.
"Hm?"
In his tranquility, something disturbed his senses. A feeling that squeezed his heart attacked him, but it did not cause him pain.
Confused, he looked toward the horizon.
'There's something there.'
An energy crawling across the ground; an energy well known to humans.
"It could be..."
A chance to escape.