Broke the game and got to Act 1 Cruel from Act 3 Cruel. Stuck now

I’m a new player, so forgive me for not knowing everything.

Soo, I was clearing Act 3 Cruel and figured I'd finally do the Trial of Chaos. I skipped it on Normal because the game would crash every time I tried (second or third room, like clockwork). Anyway, on Cruel, I cleared it no problem — easy.

But then things got... weird.

I approached the ascendancy reward, and instead of showing me my current ascendancy, it gave me an entirely different one. Weird. Then I went back to town, and immediately there's this portal waiting for me. Doryani himself is just standing there like, "Sup?" All my quests were marked complete, and it said, "Travel to the town portal to enter Cruel difficulty."

Like an idiot, I thought, "What's the worst that could happen?" So I entered it.

Now I’m back in Act 1 Cruel, somehow. But here’s the thing: none of the NPCs have quests. I reached Clearfell, and I’m totally stuck in limbo — no quests, no way to progress, nothing. I can't even redo the acts because... well, no quests.

Anyone know how to fix this? Or am I doomed to wander Clearfell and the surrounding areas for eternity?

This happened to me just now. I can portal back to ziggurat act 3 cruel but it says everything complete. Went to sunken city, no objectives. I wanted to get to endgame but I don’t think I can do cruel again for a second time.

I fixed it. I waypointed to my hideout then waiypointed back to ziggurat and everything was fine. No time portal and Alva waiting to give mission at ziggurat base.