Iskhal Town is a settlement on Uriva that becomes a temporary sanctuary for Raine and Leese after their escape from Sydea. They reach it not as travelers following a planned route, but as fugitives using the System’s teleportation infrastructure at random, and the town’s quiet darkness gives physical form to the sudden uncertainty of their future: they have crossed out of danger, but also out of the world they knew.

Refuge at the End of the Chase

Raine and Leese arrive at Iskhal Town after fleeing through a portal while Gold- and Silver-rank pursuers follow close behind. Once the portal becomes transparent and cuts off the flow of people, Leese reaches a teleportation pylon first and disappears; Raine follows, selecting destinations at random from the available list. They repeat the jump three more times, deducting the necessary tokens from their wallets, in the hope that the rapid sequence will confuse anyone attempting to track them.

The plan forces the sisters to separate temporarily. They cannot coordinate such a rapid succession of random hops, but both are aiming for Iskhal Town, located near the Grand River Conflict Zone. The town therefore functions as a prearranged point inside an improvised escape: it is not presented as a destination of safety in itself, but as the place where two fugitives can restore their partnership after surrendering control of the route.

The Nighttime Nexus

The sisters reunite in the town’s System Nexus room at night. Its windows are dark, and the only illumination comes from crystals set into the ceiling, producing an enclosed and uncertain space rather than a welcoming civic center. Raine is alone when she arrives, and anxiety twists the tip of her tail while she waits for Leese to materialize. Her relief comes only when Leese appears moments later, allowing them to leave together.

That reunion is immediately qualified by caution. They hurry outside in case a pursuer has managed to follow them through the random teleports. Raine knows that specialized Skills can track such movement, though only a few people crossed the portal after them. The sisters decide that they will be beyond pursuit once they reach the wilderness, making Iskhal Town a threshold between the artificial safety of the Nexus and the exposed but freer space beyond the settlement.

The Geography of Exile

Outside Iskhal Town, Raine encounters a cold, dry night and a sky unlike Sydea’s. A narrow band of stars stretches from east to west, nearly overwhelmed by a long chain of moons running from north to south. She remembers having visited Uriva once before, when she and Leese first reached Gold rank, but Cato’s instructions now make the landscape carry a different significance.

The setting turns a familiar System destination into evidence of displacement. The town belongs to a world the sisters have previously known, yet their circumstances have transformed it into an exile station. Its Nexus still provides the practical means of movement, while the surrounding wilderness offers the concealment they need; together, these spaces embody the contradiction of their escape, in which System technology enables flight from the System’s political reach.

The Irrevocable Break with Sydea

At Iskhal Town, the sisters understand that the portal’s closure has changed the strategic situation for everyone left behind. Raine states that the portal has shut down, and Leese recognizes the consequence: with the sisters on the far side and the portals closed, nothing remains to hold Cato back. They also conclude that they have seen only a fraction of what Cato can do.

Iskhal Town thus marks more than a pause in a pursuit. It is the place where escape becomes a permanent separation from Sydea. The sisters’ movement through several random towns has been a defensive maneuver, but their arrival at Iskhal gives that maneuver historical weight: they are no longer merely running from immediate pursuers, and they will not be returning through the closed portal. The town’s importance lies in this irreversible turn, where reunion with each other coincides with the loss of their former world.