Emile’s beak contorted as he frowned and spat out a black substance. He stuck out his tongue, which was stained with traces of tar, and coughed a few times. “This is terrible.”

“I agree,” Susan said and made a face. The two phoenixes were sitting on top of a gnarled tree. It was pitch-black, but it wasn’t dead. Black leaves grew out of its branches, and there were even berries, which were also black, growing in bunches on a few vines entwined around the tree’s trunk. “Where do you think we are?”

“Wherever we are, it’s your fault we’re here,” Emile said and sighed. He ruffled his feathers and spat some flames underneath his wings to keep himself warm. He glanced around while shivering. Everything was black. In the whole landscape, the two phoenixes were the only splotches of color. Above them, an endless cloud of black mist hung in the air, making even the normally blue sky an inky gray. When the gray mist approached Emile and Susan, it was burned away by the phoenix flames.

“How is it my fault?” Susan asked. “Just because I was the one to explore that weird ruin doesn’t mean I’m the one who placed a teleportation rune there. We should blame whoever created that structure in the first place.”

“Well, where is he, huh? Do you see anyone else around?” Emile gestured wildly with his wings. “We’re in a complete dead place! We haven’t seen a single soul since we got here. At this rate, if we don’t starve to death, we’ll catch some sort of sickness from eating these crappy berries. My tummy hurts already.”

Susan blinked. “Hey, we’ve explored this place for such a long time, and we haven’t been able to find our way out. I don’t think this is a dungeon. What if this is the outside world?”

Emile rolled his eyes. “Sure,” he said. “The only place this dead would have to be the southern continent.” He froze, and a second later, he gulped. “What…, what if we were teleported into the southern continent?”

Susan shuddered. “Don’t say that.”

Rustle.

Emile shrieked and nearly jumped off the branch. “What was that!?”

“Calm down,” Susan said and patted her brother with her wing. She pointed at the ground. “It’s just a rat, see?”

Emile exhaled. “Calm down? What do you mean? You’re acting like I was scared or something.” He settled down and stared at the black rat. Instead of skittering, it limped along like a zombie. Its eyes were unfocused, but it steadily made it way towards the base of the tree Emile and Susan were sitting on. Emile’s stomach grumbled, and he whispered to Susan, “Do you think we can eat it?”

“Maybe if we cook it first,” Susan said. She took in a deep breath and exhaled out a jet of flames. It enveloped the rat, incinerating it completely. All that remained of the poor creature was a pile of goop. The base of the tree caught fire, but a moment later, the flames were extinguished as if a bucket of water had been poured on top of them.

“You ruined it,” Emile said and sighed. “Why do you always ruin everything?”

“I don’t ruin everything,” Susan said and snorted. “The rat was just extra … melty. Watch out!”

“Huh?” Emile didn’t have time to react before Susan tackled him. A vine lashed down, smacking the spot on the branch the phoenix had been sitting on. When it made contact, a sound akin to thunder rang out. “Holy crap! That tree almost killed me!”

“Flee!” Susan shouted and spread her wings.

“From what?” Emile asked but got his answer nearly a second later. The black ground was moving, surging towards the two phoenixes. Emile leapt into the air and flapped his wings, desperately clawing his way upwards. “Even the ground wants to kill us!?”

“That’s not the ground,” Susan said and continued climbing higher into the air. “Those are bugs!”

“Ugh, this place is awful,” Emile said, following after his sister. “No wonder why everyone says Grimmy destroyed a continent. Even living upside-down with no legs would be better than living here.”

***

“Wow, that was quite the experience,” the Recordkeeper said. She was in the process of being healed by Vur, her body enveloped by a white glow. “Your ability was a lot stronger than in the records. If you’re not careful, you could accidentally kill someone like that.”

“Are you a moron?” Stella asked. “If you know you’re a weakling, don’t ask people to cast spells on you!”

“Even if I died, Vur still has the ability to revive people,” the Recordkeeper said. “As long as I have something he wants, he’ll bring me back to life. Speaking of which, why are you here?”

“You don’t know?” Stella asked, raising an eyebrow. “I thought you knew everything.”

“It’s impossible to keep track of everything,” the Recordkeeper said. “I just know the general trend and the people behind it.”

Vur rubbed his chin. “I want to see things that won’t be able to be seen in the future, and I want to bring Tafel to see them if they’re interesting.”

The Recordkeeper blinked. Then, she nodded. “I think I understand your request,” she said. “You want to see things like the polar bears.”

“Polar bears?” Stella asked.

“A long time ago, there used to be huge masses of ice covering some parts of the world. Polar bears used to live on top of them,” the Recordkeeper said. “Over time, the world became warmer, and the masses of ice melted. The polar bears lost their homes, and they disappeared along with the ice, never to be seen again.”

“Oh, that’s a little sad,” Stella said.

“It’s just nature,” the Recordkeeper said and shrugged. “An uncountable number of different creatures have gone extinct. What you see roaming the world now is just a fraction of everything that ever was, and at the same time, new creatures are coming into existence every so often.” The Recordkeeper tilted her head from side to side, the bones in her neck cracking. “Besides, as long as someone remembers their existence, can they truly be counted as gone? If you want to see a polar bear, I can show you a recording of one.”

The Recordkeeper glanced around. Seeing how no one was responding, she shrugged again and stood up. “Your healing abilities are very nice too,” she said, nodding at Vur. She gestured for him to follow her. “Rather than telling you about the things you’re looking for, it’s much easier to show you instead.”