Sophia froze for a second as she noticed the age of her child, not knowing what had happened to her child—or the place itself—made her realize. She was about to call upon Ray, but before that, she was noticed by him.
"Mom! I miss you," he said, surprising her as he actually spoke. "Oh, my boy, you can talk now?"
"What happened here? And when did they build this?" Nevertheless, it was a good surprise. She favored asking him first, as it had been only a night or so for her and Ray, but for her son—and the loghouse—they had spent quite some time here. So what happened?
"You're finally here. I thought you got into some problem with all this time passing," the man's voice came from the side.
"What do you mean? It was only a couple of hours at best, not even a day," Sophia said, before she noticed the kid was a little older than she remembered.
"Couple hours?" The man raised an eyebrow. "Try a couple of months. It's almost a year since you've been gone."
"You mean a couple of months passed here?" Sophia asked for confirmation and got a serious nod from the man.
"Yup, it's been almost a year since we entered this place," the man's wife spoke, reinforcing his words.
"That wasn't supposed to happen," Sophia murmured, not knowing the cause of this time dilation, as neither the memory nor what Ray told her contained anything about it.
'Hey, you ready?' Ray's voice came to her mind.
"We've got a situation here, but it can wait until you get here. All good, start when you're ready," Sophia answered before turning to the pair and their children.
"Ray is about to send the imprisoned people in. I need you to help release their restraints and lay them down. All of them are unconscious for some reason." She addressed them, hoping they would get ready.
Soon, people started to appear in the vicinity of the newly constructed house. One thing they all had in common—they all had their hands and legs restrained and unconscious.
The man nodded at Sophia, and along with his wife and children, began releasing them one by one and laying them neatly in rows on the grass.
Soon the place was crowded with over a thousand human beings, all lying there, some already awake and looking around.
The moment they laid their eyes on the log house and saw the kids playing with the soul beasts, they just observed the children silently.
If it were any other time, they would have run the moment they saw beasts that size.
But with the explanation given by the family, they could only look at the children, then thank the parents for their help with relief.
Despite the strange situation, they knew they weren't in danger for now. Some began looking around for familiar faces—family, friends. Some found them and started to gather, while others didn't and sat there in silent heartache.
While transporting the hostages inside Plana, Ray asked Sophia to explain the situation she was talking about.After learning the condition, Ray affirmed that he knew about the time dilation—but it wasn't supposed to be this fast inside. Otherwise, they would have noticed, especially with Ray's regular visits to the dimension.
Soon they came to the conclusion that the time difference between Plana and the other side was unstable.Which was true—sadly, Ray didn't monitor the time flow, so he hadn't noticed it was actually linked to his and Sophia's presence inside, which defined the speed of time flow.
Meaning, if Ray or Sophia entered, time would flow the same as outside, but both of them being inside wouldn't affect the flow. This adjustment of time flow was done unconsciously by Ray.
After asking the man about the specific time that had passed, followed by Sophia's quick test—jumping out for a second and returning to find almost a day gone—they concluded that the time flow was: 1 hour outside = 1 month inside under normal dilation.
Still, Ray didn't figure out why it became equalized when they were both inside.
'All the people are out of here, you can come to me now. We'll talk about the time flow later. Just have them hunt and eat from the forest and sea until we get back,' Ray confirmed after coming to an agreement with Sophia.
"Okay, listen up," she said, addressing the people. "I need to go out to help Ray in the subjugation of those evil masters. Keep calm and don't wander too much. You can hunt for food in the forest and use this place for now."
"The place has beasts and edible fish, but they aren't that strong. So you just have to be careful."Pointing toward the forest and the sea, Sophia turned to her child. "I have to go and help Ray. Be a good boy and help guard these people, okay?"
Opening the gate, she was about to jump through when someone called out.
"Wait!" One of the men stood up and called, "Can I tag along with you? I'm a Soul Ancestor—I can be of use!"
The man was one of the hostage cultivators, a Nomad Light Element Soul Master. He had drawn the attention of the evil masters and ended up captured, along with his daughter and wife.Thankfully, they had just been saved—but still, as a man, he needed to take his revenge.
"No, just take a rest," Sophia declined. Despite his determination, she wasn't willing to sabotage Ray's plan. "Ray already has a plan."
"And take it from me—they'll face a punishment worse than death." Leaving those words behind, she jumped, and the gate closed behind her.
Balling his fists in unwillingness, the man stood there until someone patted his shoulder.
Looking back, he found the man who had helped release his restraints. Getting his bearings back, he sighed and let his tense body relax.
"I know how you feel, but I can assure you—they'll get your revenge better than you think," the man said, trying to calm him down. Thankfully, it worked to a degree.
"What makes you think so?" he asked back. "My name is Wang Yu, by the way."
"Mine's Li Fang," Li Fang said, shaking his hand before pointing toward his family. "That's my wife and kids. We got rescued while escaping. Thankfully, that boy Ray got in right before we were attacked—or else…"
Hearing the story of their meeting, Wang Yu was shocked. Not only had their savior killed two evil Soul Masters, but he also somehow captured and sealed the others.
And now he had just saved him and all the people in the base—additionally, he was currently destroying that base.
"Are you sure he isn't even an adult yet?" Wang Yu asked, and got a wary smile with a nod from Li Fang."I know it's hard to believe, but I saw it myself," Li Fang confirmed. "And you'll meet him soon. Now, let's get to the important part."
Wang Yu looked seriously at the man, hearing his words. But instead, Li Fang smirked and said, "Where do you want to build your house?"
Almost slipping, Wang Yu looked at Li Fang, only to get a laugh in return."You should ease up a little. You and your family are safe—that's what matters now," Li Fang said, patting Wang Yu on the back. "Now go and spend some time with your family. After everyone wakes up, we'll decide our next move. Honestly, I don't know what's next."
Shaking his head as the man walked away, Wang Yu, for the first time, took a good look around.From their talk before, he knew this was a closed dimension—and looking carefully now, not only was the energy pure, but the view itself was soul-healing.
"Maybe you're right. Let's take it easy for now." Getting to his family's side, he hugged his wife and looked at his daughter playing with the other children and the fawn.
At first, he was nervous, but seeing the small (not realy small) deer playing carefully and showing care for the others, he finally let his heart ease completely.
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