Looking around Chronos was very confused, nothing here made sense.
He was standing in a dark void with no sun, moon, or clouds. Nearby he could see pieces of the village floating within the void like islands, but many of them were not facing the right way. Some were sideways, others were upside down or vertical despite the fact that gravity was pulling him down. Or did each piece have its own gravity?
The water was a different story from the land; it would reach the end of the land it was on then go in a completely different direction, some of it would go straight up others would loop around then go back to its origin, and he could even see one pond that just came to an end, it didn't go anywhere and the pond didn't overflow despite more water flowing in.
There were also trees, plants, and other things just floating around the islands. They looked like bridges; he might be able to cross to other islands over those, assuming that gravity remained the same.
In the end he came to the conclusion that whoever made this place was either stupid or insane.
While looking around he saw statues everywhere and recognized many of them. There were lizardfolk, nagas, knights, paladins', and mercenaries all of which had been turned to stone and none of them fell into the void, even when the island was upside down.
Hmm, there were less statues than people in the village, where had the others gone?
When he was pondering on this, he heard voices coming from behind a nearby building. Sneaking over to the building he peeked around the corner. On the other side were dark goblins but they were solid here, unlike the shadowy forms he had seen before.
They were carrying statues to a vortex of darkness at the edge of the island then throwing them inside it. The vortex didn't destroy the statue but seemed to store it away and when looking into the vortex Chronos could see a shadow taking form that looked exactly like the statue.
The goblins were speaking in gobble-de-gook and hadn't noticed him, Chronos attempted to gather as much information as he could to refer to later.
"Gib gib gok gob... (How long before these ones turn?)"
"Gob gib grunt... (A few days. Nothing lasts long in the vortex. Then we store the statues to make sure they don't break.)"
"Gok gib grunt gib... (After this we need to hunt the ones that didn't turn to stone.)"
"Grunt gib gok... (Where were they again?)"
"Grunt grunt Gib gok... (East, west all over the place. Everything changes places when it enters here.)"
"Gok gok grunt gib... (I hate chasing them down. Let's hurry and finish this.)"
So, he had been right, whoever had started this war needed creatures alive but stationary in order to create the dark beasts. Chronos didn't know what he could do about that, but he could stop the goblins from collecting them for a time.
Holding echoforge he was about to rush out when the goblins brought a pair of statues that he recognized, Gregory and Sariah were being carried to the vortex. Gregory had Sariah over his shoulder and was in a running pose. It looked like he had picked her up and tried to escape from the village when the thorns had appeared.
When Chronos saw them, he didn't hesitate any longer, rushing out he swung echoforge at the nearest goblin with a shout.
"Take your hands off them! They need to date first!" He got the sudden feeling that Sariah was going to slap him later.
The goblins reacted slowly as they were not expecting anyone to be moving within this void, nearly a third of them had been defeated before they drew their weapons for battle.
They didn't last long in front of Chronos. Each of them was only a first rank goblin even working together they weren't much of a threat, but just after Chronos defeated the last of them he could see shadows gathering together.
With the speed of the shadows, it would only be half an hour before they were back.
Squinting slightly, he thought to himself, "If they reform this rapidly then anybody fighting will be caught in an endless battle. The shadows even come from this void so it might not be possible to defeat them, how strong they are is probably playing a part in how fast they come back too. I don't have long to act even if I pull the other statues out, they will just put them back in when they reform. Time to grab my friends and leave."
Entering one of the houses on this island he searched around for a rope, it didn't take long to find one made from vines. Using the rope, he tied a harness onto Gregory then cut the rope and used the extra to tie Sariah and Gregory together.
Just as he was going to put the harness on, he stopped and turned around smashing the shadows again to buy a little more time. Once he had the harness on, he turned toward the nearest floating tree bridge and ran off to find these "other people" the goblins had mentioned.
The monsters in here were all weak and easily crushed as he ran, making his trip through the void quite smooth, until he came across an island whose land was vertical. The statues and dark beasts on the island were not falling into the void but seemed stuck to the ground like it was flat ground.
"I was avoiding these islands but now I can't find flat land to run on anymore. Time to take a risk."
Putting his foot out over the void he tried to have it stick to the island like how the statues and dark beasts did it but not only did his foot not stick he started to slide down into the void! Luckily, he caught himself and scrambled back onto the flat island.
Sensing Gregory smirking at him he said, "Okay I admit that was a bad idea, but I had to try something. Looks like I will be jumping onto trees and walls to cross this island."
Looking over the island, he planned his path then jumped to the nearest tree. He was hoping to avoid the monsters as he crossed but luck was not on his side.
"Awooo."
Some dark wolf beasts had caught his scent; it wouldn't be long until they caught up with him. If they caught up to him than he didn't want to fight them on such a limiting surface
Picking up his pace he rapidly crossed to the next island which was sloped this time. It was much better than having to jump through trees while fighting.
Not wanting to fight them while carrying his friends Chronos took off at a full sprint doing his best to find a favorable battleground or storage spot for his friends. As he ran, he smelled the blood of someone fighting just ahead, shadows didn't bleed so whoever was there was still alive. Increasing his speed, he came around a bend to see a battle priestess covered in blood fighting a group of dark wolves.
"Finally, someone else who isn't stone." He muttered to himself as he ran to help her.
When she saw him, her face despaired before becoming resolute.
"Hey, I need yo..."
Bang!
She had just hit him in the face with her mace. Instead of falling over Chronos firmly planted his feet on the ground and took the blow. Pushing the mace back with his face he mumbled out.
"What was that for?"
She looked surprised then, "Ah, I'm so sorry!"
.....
Battle priests' perspective.
"Lyla, run! There are too many of them." Called the older battle priest as he slammed his mace into another crocodile that jumped out of the swamp.
Knowing there was no hope of winning here Lyla turned to run as she wondered when everything went wrong.
Remembering what had happened till now made her fume, "We responded to a call for help in Dracon Fen that looked like the tears from legend. However, when we arrived the dark beasts were already all over the place and we had to fight our way to the naga village. I thought we could rest and prepare to take back the swamp but NO! Just as we arrived that massive boar appeared and ruined everything. After being swallowed by the dark void, I'm placed in the middle of a fierce battle with other battle priests but we're badly outnumbered and on the losing side! Oh, if I see that boar again, I am so going to bash its knees in!"
As she ran, she heard howling from wolves nearby.
"Oh, just great! They already have my scent." She looked down at the blood that covered her robes from fighting to the village. "Not that I could hide with this much blood on me. Hah, I'll just have to crush their skulls."
Coming to a decision she stopped in the next clearing to fight them to the death.