Once Alex fully came to the decision that he would likely be spending a long time in this place, he told Pearl as much before he left. Shumi also wrote in her letter all about how she had succeeded, but would have to remain back for the time being.
Neither knew how long they would have to spend in this place, but at minimum, they estimated it would be a few years.
Pearl left the mountain and would soon leave the island as well. With Ray watching him, he would be safe all the way back until he was outside. It would've perhaps been better to let him teleport out, but Ray couldn't isolate people in that way, so everyone would end up being able to teleport. So, Pearl had to take the long way out.
Once Pearl left, Alex began clearing things up inside the mountain.
Alex took the Three-Legged Crow's corpse into his Soul Space. Unfortunately, the crow's corpse held no Soul Space of its own. If it had, Alex could only imagine what sort of items he could receive from it.
