The text was practically bleeding into the air around us.​[Alert: Extraction protocol blocked. Dimensional collapse imminent in 58 seconds.]​"Dimensional collapse?!" I screamed, my voice cracking an octave higher than I’d ever admit to. I scrambled backward on the floating island of ice, my sneakers slipping on the frost. "What does that even mean? Does it mean we get spit out, or does it mean we get compressed into a cube?!"​"I am unfamiliar with the term cube, Master," Gulp replied, his voice maintaining that infuriatingly calm, knightly resonance. His flamingo shirt rustling in the localized breeze. "However, should this void shatter, I am prepared to carve a path through the spatial debris."​"You can't stab a collapsing dimension, Gulp!" I yelled, pulling at my hair. "It’s not a physical enemy! It’s physics!"​"I am a warlord!" Frost shrieked, waddling furiously toward the edge of our floating icy rock. His stick arms were raised in absolute defiance toward the red flashing

few days had passed since our chaotic extraction from the Boracay penthouse and to my absolute dismay, my life had aggressively returned to normal.​I was back in my high-rise office, staring at a stack of quarterly financial reports. Back to the CEO life. The air conditioning hummed a monotonous tune that made me want to bash my head against my desk. There was still no news about Xena. Her communicator line was dead silent, which left a gnawing sense of unease in the pit of my stomach.​I leaned back in my chair, rubbing my temples. My bank account in my world was thriving, but my System Point balance had already taken a massive hit since our return.​I had been forced to drop 5,000 points. A full tenth of my pop-star extortion money, on a set of System-protected skeletal lacquer for Gulp. It turned out that Earth’s atmosphere was terrible for exposed necromantic calcium. His physical body was trapped deep in the Redzone, and if the bones of his projected form got too much exposur

The Weaver Express slithered.​I gripped the armrests of my seat as the caterpillar lurched out of the terminal gate. We entered a tunnel made entirely of iridescent roots that pulsed with bioluminescence. The acceleration was incredibly smooth, yet completely nauseating, like dropping down a roller coaster in zero gravity.​"I am conquering the speed of sound," Frost pressed his carrot nose hard against the glass that it bent sideways.​"We are barely doing forty miles an hour," Midnight yawned from the headrest.​Suddenly, the root-tunnel shattered into a million specks of glowing pollen and we burst into the open air of the Fairy Realm.​My jaw practically unhinged.​I had expected a nice, tranquil forest. Maybe some oversized mushrooms or a couple of sparkling streams. This was completely unhinged. The landscape was a chaotic masterpiece of fractured physics with raw magic.Floating islands of emerald grass drifted aimlessly through a pastel-pink sky, anchored to the ground by gl

​"I am ready when you are, Master," the skeleton murmured.​I was about to answer when the air itself suddenly fractured.​BONG.The colossal bell echoing from the distant peak of the Inner Ward hit me like a solid wall of force. ​"What in the realms is that?!" Frost shrieked, covering his carrot nose as if that would somehow protect his ears.​BONG.​The second strike tore through the sky. The pastel pink clouds instantly curdled. The joyful screams from the rollercoasters and giant insects abruptly cut off. The music died.​"Ah, shit!" I hissed, digging into my pocket.​The copper transit pass the fairy official had given us was glowing like a hot coal. I pulled it out. ​"The evening transit," Midnight snarled. The shadows around his paws began to writhe uncontrollably. "Our passes just expired. We are officially trespassing."​All around us, the atmosphere of the amusement park turned lethal. The bored pixies operating the rides suddenly sat up straight, their eyes glowing in a h

​I was separated from my team, bleeding, and surrounded by the elite guard of a corrupt monarch.​A familiar calm washed over me. I brushed the dust off my torn jacket locking eyes with the captain of the guard.​"Take me to your Queen. We need to have a chat."---​Somewhere in the Eastern Coastal Jungle...​"Ugh... my spine."​Midnight peeled his face off a giant blue mushroom. He shook his head, his ears ringing violently. He looked around. Massive ferns towered fifty feet into the air. The humidity was oppressive, smelling faintly of sweet pollen.​"Owwie."He snapped his head up. Hanging upside down from a thick vine by his tail was Drako. The little dinosaur looked completely dizzy, his tiny arms dangling loosely.​"Are you structurally intact, reptile?" Midnight sighed, jumping up onto a branch to unhook Drako.​Drako plopped onto the soft moss below. "My tummy survived. But it is still empty. Where is the Master?"​"We got separated by the storm barrier, I guess!?" Midnight gr