Frozen Crown, a world where time is frozen. One that is ruled by a great queen, who lives in the middle of the kingdom.
From what the shadows told him, which most of the time is wrong. The kingdom itself is divided into three rings and the outskirts.
The inner rings are actually quite similar to how the Serathia kingdom worked. There was a ring designed for the commoners, one for the nobles. And one for the queen herself.
He was in the outskirts. Set at the end of the kingdom, and limited by a giant river that envelopes the whole kingdom. Apparently, there lived a giant serpent inside that river. He also heard that it was raised by the queen to keep people from living.
It is also the same river that he has been living next to, and hunting fish in.
Quite scary to think he could have been attacked by a giant serpent at any moment.
There is other stuff that the shadows told him... but most are just absurdities, so he didn't bother to remember most.
It was hard to find a human inside the outskirts. Not because there weren't many people around, but because of the sheer size of this place.
It is said that it's bigger than all three rings combined. And when it comes to population, it is the most populated.
But that number has rapidly been decreasing.
Why?
The shadows didn't dare tell him why.
Which couldn't mean anything good.
The outskirts... for the most part, were a wasteland. A frozen desert.
Even worse, a massive tundra.
If it wasn't for the dark winters inside the Withered, he wouldn't have been able to survive in these conditions.
At least his cloak was helping... as little as it did.
But from what he heard. There are forests and even cities around this place. Finding one, though, isn't easy for the normal human.
But for someone who can speak to the shadows, and ask them for direction, it shouldn't prove as hard... right?
'Maybe if shadows weren't the biggest liars!'
Either because it was another world, or he had just had bad luck so far. But the shadows have only guided him where they shouldn't. And they've been lying a lot nowadays. He wasn't even sure if what he knew of this world was real.
And worst of all, he wasn't able to deduct when one was lying.
They were far better than the one in the Withered.
He was already tired of this world.
He sighed, and out of thin air, a mask manifested inside his hand. It was his new ability [Mask of the Fool]
'An ability that has a physical form...'
It was interesting. In his dream, it was also a physical mask.
"Terrifying."
He said, putting it on.
The Mask of the Fool was a half-mask, covering the right side of Aether's face like a fragile fragment of a broken mirror. Its surface was a cracked porcelain white, stained with faint gray veins that twisted across its smooth facade like frozen tears. Around the eyehole, a deep ring of blackened ash framed the hollow emptiness where his eye would have shone, casting a shadow that whispered of lost light.
A single thin line of crimson stretched down from the edge of the eyehole, a tear neither blood nor paint, but something far older, a mark of silent sorrow etched into the mask's pale cheek.
The mask bore a smile, but not one of warmth or joy. It was a twisted grin, the smile of a broken marionette, delicate and unnerving, etched with an ambiguity that blurred between mockery and despair. Under the shifting light, it seemed to smirk in cruel amusement or to weep in quiet lament, never quite resting on either.
Its edges were jagged and uneven, as if torn violently from a larger whole, the fractured border merging unnervingly with Aether's own skin. When the mask stirred with power, tendrils of black thread slithered from its edges, stitching themselves along his jaw and temple, binding the mask to flesh and soul alike.
To touch it was to feel a strange warmth beneath the cold ceramic, as if the mask were both alive and dead, a remnant of forgotten faces pressed into its hollow inside, their faint fingerprints still visible to those who dared to look closely.
Now, for what it did, it was hard to explain.
Whenever he put it on his face. A window appeared, but it didn't say anything yet. It was blank. So for now, it was quite useless. But at least it did something, unlike the one in his dream.
So it seems that after all... he'll have to survive with only shadow speech.
'What a joke...'
He frowned.
His feet dug into the marble surface of the snow. Living footprints behind for everyone to see. If it wasn't for his boots, which weren't in the best condition, they definitely would have frozen a long time ago.
And even so. He didn't know how much he would be able to handle this. There was nothing in sight but snow. And he was following the direction of the most untrustworthy species in the world.
He regretted leaving the cabin. He regretted entering this book.
And while he regretted his decisions, he felt the ground under him was soft, and as his pressure plowed, he fell through the snow. Head first into the ground.
'Argh!'
He whined, rubbing the spot where his head his the ground. But after the pain disappeared, he looked around in confusion.
'huh?'
He found himself in a giant room. One with concert walls and floor, both cracked and hardly keeping the weight of the collapsed ceiling. Broken pipes navigated the room, and the lights seemed long dead.
The room was illuminated weirdly by a strange type of moss he had never seen before. Probably a species that only belonged in this world.
There were desks overturned and broken; he saw records, logs, and many others spilled on the ground. Some frozen, some burned.
And beyond that, on one of the walls. A weird crest with a sun in the middle.
The whole place was collapsed, but it was some sort of research bunker, as he figured out.
If it were.
Then this was great! There should be a lot of information in this place, information very valuable.
Aether looked around at the many scattered pages on the floor. But didn't find anything helpful. As I've said, to his luck, most were long either burned, frozen in thick ice, or the ink spread around and was impossible to read.
What he was able to find was the name of the bunker.
'Ashen... wing?'
A weird name to give a lab, and because most have to do something with their name.
It must be important, even hiding something. He just didn't have the knowledge to make an answer yet.
Luckily, there were other rooms.
"Development chamber?"
So the scientist must have been trying to develop something... but what exactly? Walking through the halls, he felt a weird sensation tingling inside his bones. Like he wasn't supposed to be here. Yet the place also felt... somewhat familiar.
At the end of the hallway, there was a massive door, yet opened, and broken into pieces. Inside was a pedestal, with another mural of a giant sun. The whole room was destroyed and covered in ash.
"Was there... an explosion?"
He swelled and looked back at the sun.
"Did it have something to do with the sun?"
But why would it? The sun was frozen in a state of setting. Time was frozen at dusk. So why would it be important? Yet he couldn't deny that it was suspicious how much it was repeating.
There was a broken window. One led to another room where the scientist must have observed whatever was inside. The observation chamber.
There were thirteen seats, each with a desk of its own.
On one of these desks, he found something that caught his attention.
"Read now...?"
He sat down in the seat and looked over to see what was written. Luckily, it seemed that it wasn't ruined enough for him to be unable to understand.
"If you are reading this. It means our plan probably failed. How troublesome. And we spent so much time... I know I'm selfish, but you must continue our research. There are many other research bunkers inside the kingdom. Try to find them. I've written many update logs that will help you."
So there were more than just this one? But why? Did they have to constantly change their chambers to hide? Was their work against the queen, and couldn't they let anyone find out?
There was too little information to draw a conclusion. So he continued to read further.
"I'm sure that by the time someone is going to find this. We are already under her control. So I beg of you, if you stumbled across what I became. Kill me. And some friendly advice from me to you, whatever you do, don't stare at the sun for too long."
— J.