It took them quite some time, or at least Cades required quite some time, as it seemed to be the case for Manug that his entire body was repellent against all kinds of filth, though one could not clearly observe that without turning around, and Cades had at least some semblance of decency in the back of his mind, added on to that he constantly listened to every single movement of the archer, he would surely know if he were to attack..
On the other hand the archer had claimed to be able to fly, and there were many other dangers, an astounding list actually, one that Cades went through in his head while he was there, stuck cleansing himself and sweating into the never-ending stream of water in fear, or rather anxiety, that the archer might attack him.
After all, the archer didn't stay with him out of his own free will, or at least Cades thought that he didn't because of all the stress he seemed to constantly be burdened with.
But rather than that there was something grossly wrong with this island, as he looked around, avoiding his backside where the archer was still washing himself, or rather trying to pass time in the water he noticed that something was off, it was not as if something had moved, it was not as if something was added, or as if something was gone, rather than that it felt to him as if something that was already there before had vanished for a short time and reappeared, as if there was something new that he hadn't known before but now had known, though that didn't really make any sense when one thought about it, how could he suddenly know something that he knew he previously didn't know and now knew that he had known it for a long time while actually not knowing it.
Though, it he entirely honest, Cades head began burning in a headache as he was thinking about this interesting theory.
How would one find a change if one knew previously that it was there and didn't know that it was not there, especially if like Cades assumed, the entire forest was under either a illusion or a entrancement spell, probably both..
One could not, perhaps only if one analysed every little thing and thought about it, but no matter how much Cades had tried to do that, nothing changed, everything was still exactly the same, the trees, the endless forest extending in all ways, the beautiful river in which they were currently cleaning themselves.
But then, at some point, Cades wasn't entirely sure when, it hit him, and he began looking to his left, sensing that that's the direction in which something was wrong, he saw an endless expanse of trees, some smaller, less beautiful rivers than the one they were standing on, from time to time there were leaves on the ground, but they barely seemed to fall in this accursed dimension judging that the trees were all green and had probably been as such since they entered this accursed realm, far away there was a mountain-region in the distance, hidden behind what seemed to be a huge tower.
As Cades finally scrubbed off the last piece of dirt on his body, as he stepped out, dried himself with some minor wind magic, or rather telekinesis magic which he used to push the wind itself, rather than moving the wind itself, the method that one usually uses when related to magic, he finally realized what was truly happening, or at least he finally came up with a plausible theory.
They were stuck.
The left side, the side that was now covered in an endless forest was the side on which he previously saw the endless void filled with the annoying light coming from its depths, but now that light was gone, now that light was replaced with what seemed to be almost a complete copy from that which he saw on his right side, which to him could only really mean two things, either this island had suddenly grown over night, or they were in a loop, and if they entered the damn thing they would be sent back out, going right towards the humongous tree in the middle, the tree located right at the geological centre of this island.
He rushed to put his cloak back on, or rather the cloak he had been gifted by the archer, and frantically screamed out to that very same archer that had seemingly already clothes himself once more, already hearing that Cades had stepped out of the river, but seemingly still being surprised at something, something that Cades himself had probably not even found out yet.
Cades screamed that they were stuck, a horrible message to tell anyone, but the archer responded with one that could be interpreted as being multitudes worse than that one.
"I am only of the 27th rank now.."
It was quite, barely audible, but Cades knew what that meant, he knew just how much weaker the archer had to be now, after all the archer had told him how the system in his world worked, and after they had discussed about their stories they had talked about ranks, as such he knew that a 27th rank was only about a demi-lord rank, not strong enough to survive in this realm.
And if that hadn't already been enough he soon began feeling how his own mana was lacking, not to the extend to which the archers mana lacked behind now, no, he wasn't an apex, rather he was in the middle of the lord rank, the lower middle part at that.
Following in the sequence of horrible news they also soon hear how the unmoving forest started moving, they heard something scrubbing against the ancient dirt, something that was calling out to them, something they already knew what tot do with.
They felt how dozens of being appeared, each at least at the apex level, a level that seemed to be rather mundane in this horrible place, and soon they began watching in slight terror as they saw where these beings were coming from.