Chapter 130

The sun bathed them without the interference of shadows cast by the sprawling branches of the apple tree. Once there had been just a trunk, but now—at the end of a path where strange, even bizarre, worlds hovered around the two of them—a building stood before their eyes.

No one noticed, but as soon as both of their feet touched the ground, a purple-tinged bolt silently tore across the sky.

“Shall we?” Samantha said, trying not to betray her disbelief at everything around her. Confidence—she wanted Arche to feel that. And so she strove to act as naturally as possible, even in this surreal situation in which, after only a few steps, they had emerged into an entirely peaceful new world.