Outside the Sigma District, several kilometers from the exit to its Safe Zone, the river spanning heaven and earth roared without cease.
Its muddy waters surged onward, carrying yellow sand and throwing up waves a hundred meters high, as though trying to swallow the night sky.
Beneath the night sky, the grit in the water shimmered with dark-gold light.
A silver curtain hung from the heavens; golden waves rose from the earth.
A golden river rolled across the land beneath a brilliant sea of stars that enveloped the wilderness. Flecks of spray hung among the reflected stars, dark gold and silver radiance weaving together in the surging current. Lush, unnamed vegetation that had sprouted at some unknown point dotted the scene, lending the plains outside the Safe Zone a fantastical glow.
On one side of the rushing river, the Sigma District lay steeped in silence.
The people within the Safe Zone were still caught up in the wonder of the Domain Merge.
The mountain ridges that had suddenly risen, and the great rivers encircling the Safe Zone and the Sigma District, left them astonished.
The surrounding terrain had changed completely. Beyond these new landforms, countless unfamiliar plants obstructed their view.
Everything outside was unknown.
And so no one could see the hundreds of figures standing on the towering bank on the other side of the newly emerged river, facing the Sigma District from afar.
At their center stood three oddly mismatched people, close to the churning waves and utterly unafraid.
Gazing at the scene before them, which resembled an impassable natural barrier, the three began to talk.
"Wow-"
A little boy with delicate, doll-like features and a Teddy Bear in his arms widened his large blue eyes and bounced excitedly on the bank. "It's huge! So huge! This [evolutionary sequence