The staircase from Floor Forty-Three opened into silence.
After the endless scratching of spider legs, the roar of Dante's flames, and the collapse of the Verdant Broodmother's chamber, the silence was almost unsettling.
Jax stepped into a wide circular clearing.
The walls were smooth.
Too smooth.
Polished bark surrounded the chamber, gleaming like dark glass beneath the pale light filtering from somewhere above.
Pixelle shifted on Jax's shoulder.
"I don't like this."
Nyxian glanced around.
"You say that about a lot of floors."
"I've been right about most of them."
"A broken clock is right twice a day."
The others entered behind them.
Warden came last, sword already drawn. Several Shadow Knights spread outward, taking positions around the group.
Nothing attacked.
Nothing moved.
Jax looked at the polished walls.
Their reflections stared back at them.
Bunny rested World Breaker against her shoulder.
"So what are we fighting?"
The answer stepped out of the wall.
Jax stopped.
A second Jax emerged from the polished bark.
Same red armor.
Same face.
Same expression.
Peacemaker rested across his back, while Infernal Requiem hung at his hips.
Then another figure stepped through.
Bunny.
World Breaker in her hands.
Llandra followed with Starpiercer.
Zee emerged carrying Sanctaris.
Nyxian came next, Lilith's Kiss coiled at her hip.
Finally, a tiny pink-haired fairy fluttered through the surface.
Pixelle stared.
"Oh."
The six reflections moved into formation.
Bunny slowly lowered World Breaker from her shoulder.
"That is creepy."
Llandra already had an arrow against Starpiercer.
"Are we supposed to face ourselves?"
Zee's eyes remained fixed on the duplicate Jax.
"If it duplicated our abilities…"
She didn't finish.
She didn't need to.
Nyxian looked from the false Jax to the real one.
"Can it duplicate you?"
Jax studied his reflection.
"That would be interesting."
Five heads turned toward him.
Bunny frowned.
"Interesting?"
"Well, yeah."
"Jax."
"What?"
The mirrored group moved.
Fake Llandra raised Starpiercer.
Fake Bunny hefted World Breaker.
Fake Nyxian's hand dropped toward Lilith's Kiss.
And Fake Jax reached for Peacemaker.
Jax smiled.
"Oh, let's find out."
His hand closed around Peacemaker.
He pulled the massive double-bladed sword free and hurled it.
The Godslayer weapon spun through the chamber.
Fake Jax reacted instantly.
His own Peacemaker came free.
He planted his feet and raised the enormous weapon across his body to intercept the incoming blade.
For the briefest instant, two identical weapons met.
Peacemaker passed straight through the imitation.
The false weapon separated cleanly into two pieces.
A heartbeat later, so did the Jax holding it.
Peacemaker kept going.
Fake Bunny.
Fake Llandra.
Fake Zee.
Fake Nyxian.
Fake Pixelle.
One sweeping arc.
Six bodies separated and shattered into fragments of glowing bark.
Peacemaker curved around the chamber.
Jax raised one hand.
The hilt slapped into his palm.
Silence returned.
Pixelle's mouth hung open.
Bunny stared at the pieces scattered across the floor.
Nyxian slowly looked at Jax.
Jax examined Peacemaker.
"Huh."
"Huh?" Zee repeated.
Jax rested the weapon against his shoulder.
"They may have looked like us."
He glanced at the two pieces of the false Peacemaker.
"But they weren't us."
A notification appeared.
FLOOR FORTY-FOUR CLEARED
CLEAR TIME: 00:00:02
Pixelle stared at it.
Then at Jax.
Then at the remains of her duplicate.
Nyxian narrowed her eyes.
"Was it really that easy to kill me?"
Jax looked at her.
"What?"
"You didn't even hesitate."
"That wasn't you."
"It looked exactly like me."
"It was made out of a wall."
Nyxian placed a hand against her chest.
"So because I was made out of a wall, I meant nothing to you?"
Jax stared at her.
"That sentence doesn't even make sense."
Bunny looked toward the remains of her own reflection.
"You smiled."
Jax turned.
"What?"
"You smiled while you murdered us."
"I did not murder any of you."
"You definitely smiled."
"I was curious whether the sword was real."
Llandra lowered Starpiercer.
"You did appear rather pleased."
Jax looked at her in disbelief.
"You too?"
Llandra's lips twitched.
Nyxian nodded solemnly.
"Imagine if that really had been us."
"It wasn't."
"What if we'd been teleported?"
"You weren't."
"Replaced by exact copies?"
"You weren't."
"How would you know?"
"Because you're standing right there!"
Nyxian considered that.
"Convenient."
Jax pinched the bridge of his nose.
"…I hate all of you."
Nyxian gasped.
"See? That's why you enjoyed murdering us."
Jax closed his eyes.
There was no winning this.
He knew that.
They knew that.
Which apparently made it more entertaining.
Jax turned toward the staircase.
"I'm leaving."
"Although…"
He stopped.
That single word from Nyxian was never good.
She was looking at the fragments of the other Jax.
"Is it only me, or is the idea of two Jax's at the same time kind of hot?"
Jax slowly turned back.
Llandra answered immediately.
"I can assure you. It is only you."
Nyxian smiled.
"Think about your favorite thing to do with Jax."
"No."
"Just for a moment."
"I decline."
"Too late. You already thought about it."
Llandra's eyes narrowed.
Nyxian's smile grew.
"Now think about your second favorite thing to do with Jax."
"Nyxian."
"And now…"
Nyxian stepped closer.
"…they're happening at the same time."
Llandra opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Her expression remained perfectly composed.
Almost.
The faintest smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
Nyxian's eyebrows rose.
Her grin slowly widened.
"Sure, Llandra. Sure."
Llandra looked at her.
Nyxian said nothing.
She didn't need to.
Llandra's eyes narrowed slightly.
Then widened.
Only slightly.
Nyxian's grin became positively wicked.
Llandra knew that look.
She had heard her thoughts.
Worse, Nyxian knew that Llandra knew she'd heard her.
Llandra straightened.
Her shoulders settled.
Her expression became serene.
The woman standing before them was no longer a Vixen who had just allowed her imagination to wander somewhere extremely inappropriate.
She was a Princess of Elarion.
"I can concede that your point might have a little merit."
Nyxian's eyebrows climbed.
"A little?"
"Strategically."
"Of course."
"For the group dynamic."
"Naturally."
Llandra lifted her chin.
"That is all."
Nyxian's smile suggested that was most certainly not all.
Jax looked between them.
"What are we even talking about now?"
Nyxian pointed at him.
"CAN IT, Vixen killer! The ladies are talking."
Jax stared at her.
Then at Llandra.
Then at Bunny, who was trying unsuccessfully not to laugh.
Zee wasn't even trying.
Pixelle was giggling on his shoulder.
Jax shook his head and walked toward Warden.
"Come on. Maybe the next floor will make sense."
Warden looked at him.
Then toward the women behind him.
The General wisely said nothing.
Floor Forty-Five did not make sense.
At least not initially.
Jax stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
A massive basin stretched before them.
Golden sap filled dozens of pools scattered across the chamber. Thick ridges of pale bark separated them, twisting through the enormous space like islands.
The entrance itself opened onto a broad stretch of solid bark, but farther ahead the pools became increasingly dense until there was no obvious path between them.
Something moved in the nearest pool.
Jax watched it.
Then frowned.
It appeared to be some kind of lizard.
It was walking.
Very, very slowly.
One leg hung suspended above the golden surface.
Jax waited.
The leg barely moved.
"What the hell?"
Pixelle flew from his shoulder.
Her expression immediately changed.
"Oh."
Jax looked at her.
"Good oh or bad oh?"
"Very bad oh."
"Of course."
Pixelle flew closer but stopped well short of the pool.
"Time Sap."
Jax looked back at the golden liquid.
"Time Sap?"
Pixelle nodded.
"The World Tree produces it in very small quantities. At least, that's what the old stories say."
She pointed toward the creature.
"Time moves differently inside it."
The lizard's foot finally touched the surface.
"And that's the slow version?"
"Yes."
Something flashed farther down the entrance area.
Jax's hand moved instinctively toward Infernal Requiem.
Another creature raced through a separate golden pool so quickly that it seemed to disappear and reappear several feet away.
Pixelle pointed.
"And that one isn't."
Jax studied the second pool.
"Fast."
"Very."
Zee stepped closer.
"How dangerous?"
Pixelle looked at her.
"There are stories about adventurers stepping into pools and aging years before they could escape."
Everyone became considerably more interested in where they put their feet.
"And the slow pools?" Llandra asked.
"Just as dangerous. Imagine being trapped so deeply in slowed time that you couldn't move quickly enough to get out."
Nyxian stared at the nearest pool.
"So don't touch the glowing death syrup."
Pixelle nodded.
"That would be my recommendation."
Jax looked across the chamber.
There were stretches of solid bark between some pools, but none appeared to form a continuous route to the opposite staircase.
Then he looked upward.
The chamber was enormous.
Nothing blocked the air above them.
Jax smiled.
Pixelle saw it.
"What?"
"I think we're good."
Pixelle followed his gaze.
Her eyes moved upward.
Then across the chamber.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"The floor expects us to cross the pools."
"Probably."
"And you're just going to go over them."
"That's the plan."
Pixelle looked across the deadly maze again.
"I thought this floor was going to be difficult."
"It still might be."
Jax continued staring at the nearest pool.
Pixelle watched him.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"That wasn't a nothing look."
Jax glanced toward the faster pool.
Then back toward the slow one.
"I have an idea."
Pixelle's expression fell.
"Why do I already dislike it?"
Jax summoned the dimensional tent.
It appeared on the broad stretch of solid bark near the entrance.
He walked inside.
Pixelle followed.
The others exchanged looks and came after them.
Jax headed through the living area and into the kitchen.
He opened one of the storage areas and pulled out an empty wine barrel.
Then another.
Pixelle landed on the counter.
"Why do you have empty wine barrels?"
"We finished the wine."
"And you kept the barrels?"
Jax looked at her as though the answer should have been obvious.
"They're perfectly good barrels."
Nyxian leaned against the doorway.
"He does have a point."
Jax carried both barrels outside.
Once everyone had exited, he dismissed the tent.
Pixelle looked at the barrels.
Then at the slow pool.
Then at Jax.
"No."
Jax picked up one of the barrels.
"I didn't say anything."
"You didn't have to."
Jax carried it toward the edge of the slow pool.
Pixelle flew after him.
"Jax."
"Yeah?"
"What are you doing?"
"Getting some."
"Some what?"
Jax looked at the glowing liquid.
Pixelle followed his gaze.
"Oh, Goddess."
Jax crouched safely on the solid bark and carefully lowered the barrel into the thick golden sap.
He made certain none touched him.
Slowly, the barrel filled.
Pixelle hovered nearby.
"You just figured out how to avoid the Time Sap."
"Yep."
"And now you're deliberately collecting it."
"Yep."
"Why?"
Jax pulled the barrel back onto solid ground and sealed it.
"Because it's Time Sap."
"That isn't an answer."
"It's something that I don't know, and I want to understand."
Pixelle stared at him.
The sealed barrel disappeared into Jax's personal Storage.
Then he picked up the second empty barrel.
Pixelle pointed at it.
"Why did you bring two?"
Jax looked toward the accelerated pool.
"Because there are two kinds."
Pixelle closed her eyes.
"Of course there are."
Jax carried the second barrel across the solid entrance area.
The others followed.
As they approached, another small creature raced through the golden liquid.
It crossed the entire pool in the time it took Pixelle to blink.
"Some magical creatures have adapted to the time sap and live in it, apparently."
Jax crouched at the edge.
Pixelle landed beside him.
"You collected the slow sap."
"Yep."
"What do you think the fast sap can do?"
Jax shrugged.
"I have no idea."
Pixelle stared at him.
"No idea?"
"Nope."
"Then why are you collecting it?"
Jax carefully lowered the second barrel into the accelerated sap.
"What if it can speed up how quickly crops grow?"
Pixelle blinked.
"Crops?"
"Think about it. What if an entire season of crops could be grown in a week?"
He glanced at her.
"Then another season the next week?"
Pixelle looked down at the golden sap.
"Could it do that?"
"No clue."
The barrel continued filling.
"Maybe it could change food production across entire kingdoms. Maybe it does something completely different."
Jax pulled the barrel free and sealed it.
"Might be something life-altering."
He placed a hand on top of it.
"Might be nothing at all."
The barrel disappeared into his Storage.
"We have no clue what we can do with it until we know what it can do."
Pixelle stared at him for a moment.
Then back at the pool.
Her people had known about Time Sap for generations.
It was dangerous.
Something to avoid.
Something spoken about in stories warning fairies and adventurers away from the deepest reaches of the World Tree.
Jax had looked at the same thing and asked what else it could do.
Pixelle was beginning to understand that this happened a lot around him.
Jax stood.
"Okay. Now we can go."
Nyxian laughed.
"Now?"
"Now."
Jax turned toward the open basin.
"Come Forth."
Darkness spread across the bark.
Gryph emerged from it, wings unfolding as the massive gryphon raised his eagle-like head.
Jax pointed toward Llandra, Zee and Nyxian.
"You three ride Gryph."
Nyxian looked offended.
"What about Pixelle?"
"She's with me."
Pixelle immediately flew back to Jax and landed on his shoulder.
Nyxian looked at the tiny fairy.
"I still think you'd be safer with me."
"I'm safe here."
Nyxian glanced down at her own chest.
"I have padding."
"You have hands!"
"I do."
Nyxian looked at them.
"Not nearly as comfortable."
Pixelle tightened her grip on Jax's shoulder.
"I'm staying here."
"Your loss."
Nyxian straightened slightly, deliberately emphasizing the generous amount of "padding" she'd just offered.
Pixelle rolled her eyes.
Llandra climbed onto Gryph.
Zee followed.
Nyxian sighed dramatically and joined them.
Bunny looked across the chamber.
"I can Wind Walk it."
Jax nodded.
"You good on mana?"
"For this?"
Bunny smiled.
"Easy."
Jax knew she had plenty.
Not an endless supply like his, but more than enough for a single floor. She simply couldn't afford to treat Wind Walk as something she could maintain indefinitely.
Jax could.
Jax looked at Warden and Fang, and the shadows who followed them through the stairwell. "See you on the other side."
He dispelled them.
"Then let's go."
Bunny stepped upward.
Her foot met empty air as though it were solid ground.
Then another step.
And another.
Jax followed.
Gryph's wings spread.
With three Vixens on his back, the Shadow gryphon launched into the air.
Pixelle looked down from Jax's shoulder.
The deadly maze of Time Sap immediately became considerably less intimidating.
They flew over the first pools.
Then the second.
Then the third.
Creatures crawled through the golden liquid below them.
Some moved so slowly they appeared frozen.
Others raced through accelerated pools at impossible speeds.
None mattered.
The group never touched the ground.
Gryph soared effortlessly above the basin.
Bunny moved through the air beside him, careful and deliberate with each step. Her mana reserves were substantial, and this crossing wasn't going to trouble her. She simply wasn't going to waste more than necessary.
Jax walked through empty space as casually as though he were crossing a road.
Pixelle sat on his shoulder.
She looked down.
Then ahead.
Then down again.
"That's it?"
Jax glanced at her.
"What?"
"This is how we're clearing the floor?"
"Seems like it."
"We're not fighting anything?"
"Do we need to?"
Pixelle looked at the creatures below. One of the creatures leaped from the water, well below where they were walking and with super sonic speed, landing in the other sap on the other side.
"No."
"Then why would we?"
She didn't have an answer for that.
They continued.
For the first time since entering the World Tree, they weren't clearing a floor by destroying everything standing between them and the exit.
They simply ignored the challenge.
Five minutes after leaving the entrance, Gryph reached the opposite side.
He landed gracefully on the solid bark before the staircase and lowered himself enough for Llandra, Zee and Nyxian to dismount.
Bunny arrived moments later.
She stepped onto solid ground and released Wind Walk.
Jax landed beside her.
Pixelle remained on his shoulder.
Behind them stretched an entire floor designed around one of the most dangerous substances Pixelle had ever heard of.
Pools capable of distorting time itself.
Creatures moving at impossible speeds.
Others trapped in moments stretched almost beyond comprehension.
Adventurers were supposed to navigate all of it.
Carefully.
Slowly.
One mistake could kill them.
Jax checked their elapsed time.
"About fifteen minutes."
Pixelle looked at him.
"Fifteen minutes?"
"Give or take."
She looked back across the basin.
Then at Gryph.
Then Bunny.
Then Jax.
Ten of those minutes hadn't even been spent crossing the floor.
They had been spent retrieving wine barrels and collecting samples of the incredibly dangerous substance everyone else would have been desperately trying to avoid.
Actually traversing the deadly maze had taken them about five.
Pixelle slowly shook her head.
The World Tree was every bit as dangerous as she'd always believed.
That wasn't what she was beginning to question.
She was beginning to question exactly what kind of people she'd decided to enter it with.