Another fireball was barely avoided, and Synexus was getting tired of being burned. This fight was dragging on and still, he couldn’t figure out what the slug was doing. Every time he got close, his enemy was in a new place. The Timeless Flats were clearly beneficial to this slug while being a detriment to his own abilities.

  He had enough and pulled thousands of seeds out of his bag that he had been saving for an enemy much like the one he was facing. His mana was still low from the wings, but he only needed the flowers to grow a little for the effect to take hold. All around him, beautiful flowers started to grow although it wasn’t smooth. It was like the flowers were refusing to grow and yet they were forced to. One second, they were seeds and then it was like a skip in reality happened and they were small flowers. Synexus would love to stop and investigate this phenomenon, but there were other things he had to focus on.

  Flowers grew enough for their effect to take hold. This was a special flower that Synexus had been fascinated by and had cultivated quite a few seeds for troubling foes. It was of course the Siren Snapdragon of Regret that he had created before setting sail from Gale. Thousands of flowers grew and started to give off a scent of attraction while turning the ground into quicksand in a massive area around Synexus. A fierce shattering sound let him know it worked, and he looked towards the sound.

  The fire slug had gotten stuck and was trying to blast the sand with fire which was creating glass instantly before it shattered. Part of the flower’s abilities is that it produces an aura to make those trapped in the quicksand tired. He wasn’t sure if it would work on a giant slug monster, but after a few minutes the fire stopped coming and the slug simply disappeared or at least it did for a few seconds until he got the notification that the Burning Slag had been slain. Once that happened, the corpse became clear to him once more or part of it did as most of it was buried in thick quicksand. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to get any remnant magical material or a skill echo without putting himself into the dangers of his snapdragons.

  Using the sliver of mana he had left, he used the wings to fly out of the quicksand radius and found Gene waiting.

  “How were you moving like that?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You were blinking about while fighting. It was impressive, but I didn’t realize you had a teleport skill echo.”

  “Uh, I don’t. I was moving normally. The slug was teleporting though.”

  “Strange. From my perspective you both were teleporting around. Fireballs were coming from nowhere. Then the ground was full of flowers with quicksand, and the slug was slain. It was hard to follow even for someone with my perception.”

  “That is strange. It must be an effect of the Flats. Which by the way, I’m liking less and less the longer we stay here. Unfortunately, I’m now completely out of mana. I couldn’t even grow all those seeds. Luckily, it was enough.”

  “Let’s find somewhere to rest then until you get your strength back. It might be hard in the Flats.”

  Synexus nodded and they took off walking in the direction of the System ping. The memory was their ultimate goal, so they needed to make ground whenever they could.

  True to the name, the Timeless Flats were indeed completely flat, and they decided it was best to keep moving while his mana regenerated enough to fly. Synexus questioned why he hadn’t created some type of plant vehicle by now to ride around on when he needed to rest. Perhaps that would be a project he’d work on.

  A few hours later they were able to take to the skies once more with his mana pool almost completely refilled. His regeneration time was getting faster, but his pool was getting bigger. They were just hoping to put some distance between themselves and the last fight. Synexus looked toward the horizon and realized it was all flat for as far as he could see.

  “Say Gene, how big are the Timeless Flats?”

  “They create a band going around the entire planet. A perfect stripe with no variation in width. At every point, it’s 6892 miles across.”

  “What a strange number. This place gets more mysterious the longer we stay here.”

  “It truly does. Let’s try to pick up the pace a bit. How strong is the feeling from the memory ping?”

  “It’s getting stronger. Right now, it’s a deep throb that is hard to ignore.”

  “That probably means your memory rests in the Timeless Flats which makes it even more strange. Just what were people doing out here?”

  “I guess we will find out. This is going to be an important one. I can feel it.”

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  “That’s the System. This is a key memory of your trial. We just must be careful not to make too much progress in your trial before you’ve done all you want to do here. Once we see the memory we will know how much we need to slow down or speed up.”

  Synexus nodded and they picked up the pace. With his mana pool being drained by the wings constantly and increasing with every second in the air, they had to stop and rest a few more times before the tug of the memory became a pounding in his head. Gene told them that it meant they arrived.

  They landed and looked around, which wasn’t helpful because there was nothing but flat land around them. No sign of infrastructure and no locked memories walking around. Of course, they both came to the conclusion that it was some sort of underground complex. They just had to find the entrance.

  Hours of searching had left them with nothing and Synexus started to fear that the entrance was back in the city or something and there was a massive tunnel system leading to where they were. Gene told him not to worry. The System was much smarter than that and would have pinged the entrance. Not the spot above ground where the memory was. However, the owl was perplexed by why it had led them to an empty field.

  “Gene, do you believe they found some way to benefit from the unique effect of the Timeless Flats? It does seem to do something to effect perception.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. I’m just not certain what they could have done to hide the entrance as well as they’ve done.”

  “Well, let’s try and piece together what we do know about this place. It has to be something that the Zaxillians could have figured out and if what caused the place to act the way it does was still a mystery to the planet as a whole then it probably isn’t something about the cause but rather benefitting from the strangeness.”

  “Indeed. They simply found a way to harness a benefit. That means it must be something we can observe without delving too deep into the mystery. We know that plants don’t grow, there is a stillness that permeates the air, and perception seems to get altered here. I have no trouble tracking you right now, but when I was watching your battle, you and the slug were teleporting everywhere even though you said you were moving normally.”

  “I would lose track of the slug when I was fighting it except when it stopped to attack. The corpse didn’t seem to blink from existence either.”

  “Yes, even when the beast was trapped in the quicksand, I couldn’t see it until it died. That must be a clue. What if the stillness of this environment is also a clue. Perhaps still beings can perceive other still beings, but beings in motion can only perceive other beings in motion.”

  “Interesting. That could be it, but then I would have surely seen the slug moving when I was also moving to attack, right?”

  “That’s correct. Hmm. Maybe it’s more about how fast you’re moving then. In this place, you can only perceive movement matching your own speed of movement. Stay there.”

  The owl flapped their wings and a second later they were ten ft away. Synexus didn’t see them move other than the initial flap.

  “You skipped for me like the slug.”

  “Perfect, so far, our theory is holding up. Now, move towards me.”

  Synexus walked towards Gene and saw the owl backing away while matching his speed.

  “I can see you still while we are moving.”

  “That means we are moving at the same speed. Now keep that speed and I will fly faster.”

  With a nod, Synexus kept walking, and a second later Gene appeared twenty ft in front of him.

  “You teleported again for me. So, it appears your theory is correct. That is fascinating. Does this mean the entrance to this mystery place is moving and we have to figure out at what speed it’s moving?”

  “That is the most likely solution to this puzzle. My creator never shared much about this place and I’m starting to wonder if he knew more than he let on. We’ve been here less than a day and have figured out a small portion of its mystery.”

  With that comment, Synexus and Gene started to move at varying speeds in the general area of the memory ping. After about twenty minutes, and sprinting as fast as he could, Synexus saw a flicker from the corner of his eye.

  Keeping up his speed, they both tried to catch a glimpse of what he saw. It was Gene who got a clear image first. Standing five feet from where they landed was a vibrating metal door.

  Knowing where they were looking and what they were looking for was all they needed to enter the secret location, however, before they entered, they stopped to rest. In order to enter the door, they speculated they had to keep up the speed, and it was pushing Synexus’ limits. He had no idea how the owl was that quick.

  “This is a growing mystery. A strange door, in a strange place. I can’t say I’m not excited to find out what’s inside, Synexus.”

  “Oh, I’m excited to, but a little afraid. This obviously has to be something big. A secret facility hidden in such a strange place with a door that is already difficult to find so far away from the city. Everyone has their secrets. I’m just dwelling on something I remember my mom telling me when I was a baby. She said they had made mistakes. What if this is one of those mistakes?”

  “Even if it is, would it matter? All this happened decades ago. It’s important to learn about your personal past, but don’t let it change who you are now. Mistakes are made, so we can learn and grow. It is true that no one is perfect. Even my creator made mistakes and sadly he paid for them. They all paid for them.”

  Silence surrounded the two weary adventurers, but after a few minutes they decided to try and enter the door. Whatever they found inside, they would face together.

  Gaining speed was difficult for Synexus and then maintaining that correct pace was even more difficult, but soon he saw the vibrating door and ran straight into it hoping it would just open upon impact. Luckily, his people didn’t feel that a hidden door needed locks, and he tumbled down a set of stairs into a dark metal hallway. Gene followed gracefully flying in.

  The hallway suddenly lit up with strange lights built into the ceiling. It continued about fifty feet before opening up into a vast circular room with rooms lining the outside of the ring. A half wall went around the center and peering over, Synexus saw the room descended farther down and a lift could take you to any floor just like the one in the forge tower. There must have been fifty floors that he could see just by quickly peering down. He wasn’t sure where they needed to start, but he did know that they were going to learn a lot. On every floor, locked memories were crawling around in their silver liquid form.