Swamp

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  Around three days since the beginning of the journey, Rick, Alice, and the dragon are gliding through the void towards the third arc: Crossed Worlds.

The stars were gone by that point. They were flying through a mostly empty sky with a few floating rocks here and there. It was oddly serene, given the fact that if they fell off, they could fall forever.

Eventually, they could see a huge, dark island, with water and lava spilling from it. There was also a castle and a volcano. Rick could practically smell the curiosity radiating from Alice. They noticed some sort of blue barrier surrounding it.

The dragon lit down on the strip of land beyond it and let them down. Rick and Alice walked through, then looked back at the dragon, who was still sitting outside of the barrier.

  "Hey, let's go!" Alice urged.

  "I cannot cross this barrier. It was made for the creatures of this world." To prove its statement, it pressed his snout against the barrier, which glowed with contact. "Forgive me." The farmer nodded and strode off with Alice in the lead.

Following a path that cut through the marshland, he drew his gun and glanced warily at the trees, which twitched and growled with the creaking of their aged limbs. Alice took quiet steps, and she constantly glanced back to make sure he was still there. She had a tight grip on her shovel.

They came across a set of wooden doors at the end of the path. He mumbled something incoherent and flipped his pistol. He nudged Alice. Needing no words, they both pushed open the heavy wooden doors and dashed into the monsters that awaited them.

  While Alice bashed bats to the ground, he aimed for the white, ghoulish creatures that rushed him from the water. In his rushed maneuvers to kill the monsters, he constantly backed up into brambles. Unfortunately, these brambles were riddled with large thorns. It wasn't very long before he was all cut up.

  Alice slowly approached a flower. It reeled back, and she dove out of the way to avoid its acidic spit. She landed in a crouch and got up again. As the flower reeled back, she got close enough to smash its head in with the head of her shovel. She looked around to reorient herself.

"Agh!" Tripping over backwards, Rick fell into a small body of water, and a ghoul jumped in after him. Its long claws reached for his throat, but he was having none of that. He pressed the barrel of his shotgun to its head before leaping out and converging with Alice. As an army of walking trees approached, they began to fight side-by-side.

"Look out!" he heard her scream. They both turned around to face the ghoul that was about to maul him. He socked it in the face, then shot it. Just as quickly, another one appeared behind them. This time, its claws slashed through his back. Gritting his teeth, he spun around and shot at it with his pistol. Though he would be better off using a shotgun, Alice was too close for comfort. He could feel an increasingly warmth drying his back through the downpour, but he was too occupied with the ghoul.

Next thing he knew, he was teetering on the edge of a lava pit. Alice lunged forward and grapped onto his wrists. She pulled him forwards with all of her strength. Snapping back, he pitched forwards and landed back on solid ground. With a deep breath, he popped back up and killed the trees.

"Alice?" he prompted. She picked up her shovel again with a tight grip. "Thanks." He sprinted away from the volcano with her and veered away from the insanely large spider that was scrambling towards him. He hurried to blow out its brains with his sniper as Alice mashed the smaller spiders into pulp.

  After a few narrow escapes, the beast crumpled to its knees and fell. A gold key made itself visible around its neck.

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