I had him. The High Priest was within arm’s reach, ready to be sundered by my claws, when a blinding light enveloped me, and everything changed.

A pull like no other gripped my body as I felt my senses twist and distort, but a single blink later everything stopped, and my feet dropped onto solid ground, the smell of char and burning corpses replaced by a different scent.

I immediately knew something was wrong, but instead of panicking, my mind cooled down, the wild emotions of the fight whisked away by warm winds.

What I saw didn’t seem like an illusion, but I was tricked before, so that possibility was not out of the question.

My feet shifted, producing a sharp grinding sound. I looked down and saw my feet digging into sharp gravel, the stone seemingly porous with a dark gray color, like the stones of a volcano. Mounds and boulders dotted the landscape, with an occasional hill of the same dark rock.

I gripped a nearby stone and it crumbled in my hand like soft chalk. I barely exerted any pressure yet it already fell apart on its own.

The horizon was also gray with no sun, a monotone color with a tinge of red, with dark gray clouds of dust and smoke slowly swirling in the skies above.

In short, if I had to describe the place I would simply call it a wasteland. The air was thick and dry, stale and full of particulates, giving a feeling of a gray veil draped over the land. Small tufts of dry grass poked sporadically from between the stones in a few places, but the land seemed otherwise completely dead.

Not long after my arrival, minutes really, I heard a distant sound approaching. Extending my Spirit Sense, I discovered it to be from two figures running, both human, a male and a female. Seeing that they were coming straight for me, I let a drop of Qi leak from me. Barely detectable, but enough to show my Cultivation and that I was not a threat.

That was a lie, obviously, a trick, but they didn’t need to know that. No need for senseless violence. Not until I knew exactly what was going on.

And so I waited, which didn’t take long, and from the man who reached me first, a could of dust rose behind him. As he neared, I noticed him frantically looking around me as his expression darkened.

“Damn it!” He suddenly loudly cursed and whipped his hand downward, throwing a metal rod he was holding to strike the ground with a clang.

“Hey, watch it!” The woman shouted behind him, running quickly to grab the metal rod. “You will ruin the Stabilizer.”

“Bah!” The man waved his hand in dismissal and then looked at me.

I glanced at the metal rod about as long as my arm and just as thick, noticing it didn’t even have a scratch. I had to agree with the guy, the woman was overreacting.

“You!” The man shouted, pointing at me. “Where did you come from?”

I slowly lifted an eyebrow. [Where? Um… Are you familiar with Emberfall?]

“Huh?” The guy made a confused expression for a moment and then barked in anger. “No, you fucking moron! I don’t care what backwater shithole you crawled out of, I want to know where you came out in this place! The exact position of your arrival!”

[Oh…] I didn’t care to react to his outburst and pointed at my feet. [Right here. About a meter off the ground.]

The man proceeded to spit out a string of curses I didn’t quite catch while the woman just sighed. “We just missed it. That’s unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate… That’s putting it mildly.” The man grumbled and then turned to me. “Alright you, whatever you are called. You are coming with us.”

[My name is Gerald. Gerald Fireborn.] I introduced myself and even did the cupped fist thingy.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” The guy waved dismissively again and used some Qi to reshape the ground. I detected barely a trickle, such a minute amount that you would think he was afraid of using it.

The gravel shifted where I stood and I moved, a short pillar of gray stone growing out of it. He then took the metal bar and placed it on top, after which the stone tightened around the bottom part of it, keeping it upright.

“There. Job’s done.” He said, turning to the woman. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

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“Please follow us.” The woman addressed me in a much gentler tone, and I obliged, walking after them.

We passed by a few bubbling tar pits, the stench of the rotting organic matter wafting from them. A few more tufts of grass grew nearby, or used to at least, as they were completely dry.

The ever-present coarse gray dust stuck to everything, the clothes, skin, eyes… Everything was covered in a depressing layer of gray, including the people. The drop of red that was in the sky made it all look like dusk, and for some reason I had the feeling not much changed around those parts.

----------------------------------------

Soon we reached a camp, or more like a sad-looking pit stop. A few more people were there, sitting and chatting. There were no smiles or cheerful voices. Everything was just as dreary as the environment around us.

A few people stood up, approaching. “A new guy? That’s great…” One of the guys said sarcastically after giving me a look. “Why are there no girls anywhere?”

“What am I then, huh? A rock?” The woman that came with me said, her hands on her hips.

“Come on, Calla... You’ve been stuck here longer than me, you don’t count.” The guy rolled his eyes. “Unless you changed your mind and would like to join me in having some fun?”

“Piss off, Eden.” Calla snapped.

Eden sighed in an exaggerated manner, spreading his hands wide. “And you wonder why I don’t count you.”

He then ignored her, going to the other guy who came with me, asking if they found anything. The answer was a resounding no, the guy complaining the information they had was bad and it made them miss the area of my arrival.

Suddenly there was a shriek that attracted all our attention, and then came a scream. “Why is he here?!”

I searched for the speaker, and when my eyes landed on her, I grinned and approached. [Oh hey, Thalza. What are you doing here?]

“Stay away from me!” She shouted, pointing a tiny dagger at me while backing away.

“You two know each other?” Eden asked with curiosity plastered on his face.

[Yes.]

“No!” Thalza shouted.

I frowned. [What do you have against me? I just looked through your memories a bit, not a big deal. You should try to relax. Stress ages you.]

“Fuck you!”

[Why are you so… Oh, so Antasaghar tossed you in here as well, eh? That’s really messed up. Is this his idea of punishment?]

“Get out of my head!” Thalza tried, and failed, to keep me out by covering her head with her hands.

“Alright! What’s going on here?” Calla said, putting herself between us.

Thalza, seeing an opportunity, pointed at me accusatorily. “He’s a shapeshifter and a mind-reader! He’s dangerous! Don’t trust him!”

The woman looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “Is that true? Are you a mind-reader? Heck, are you even human in the first place?”

[Eh? Who cares about all that? She’s a Drow and you clearly don’t have a problem with her.]

“Well, actually she’s our prisoner.” Eden said. “She tried to shank us when we found her wandering the wasteland. She was usually quiet and kept to herself though…” He gave the Drow a stink eye.

[Oh. Then I guess you aren’t here camping for no reason?]

“No, of course not. This place sucks. We had a mission to find the gate here and now that it's done, we are going back to base. And you two are going to meet the big boss. He will decide what we will do with you.”

I kept nodding as he spoke. [Cool. So anyone wanna tell me what the fuck is this place? It doesn’t look like we are in Kansas anymore.]

“I don’t know where this Kansas is, and no, this is not it. The place we are currently stuck in is called a Lower Plane.” Eden explained. The rest of them began packing their stuff, which was not much, and soon we continued, on foot, walking in a random direction.

[What is a Plane? Is that like a different dimension?]

“Eh, no. A dimension is like another reality, while a plane is, um…” Eden scratched his cheek. “It’s like a separate layer of our reality, I guess.”

[Like the subspace used for teleports?] I asked.

I watched as Eden’s face shifted through emotions as he tried to come up with an answer. I suspected he didn’t really know, but he was trying.

“Well… Yes, in principle it’s something similar, but the Lower Plane is below subspace. If you imagine our reality like a stacked tower of papers, the Lower Plane is basically at the bottom. I’m not sure what else could be lower than that, maybe a pocket space?” He just shrugged in the end.

[Hmm.] I rubbed my chin, thinking about the information I received. Did I learn something new? Maybe. Did it help me in any way? Not really.

[So what’s the deal with this Lower Plane? Is it special in some way? Bad, I’m assuming?]

Eden laughed. “Bad? Oh, that’s cute. This place is terrible! Torture!” He shouted. “I’m sure you already noticed, but I’ll say it out loud in case you didn’t. This place is dead. And by that, I don’t mean that nothing living can exist here, not at all. It’s actually not that bad all things considered. Everything here is extremely weak, so there is no danger from the environment. Sort of.”

[Sort of?]

“Look at it this way…” He bent down and grabbed a fistful of rocks and squeezed them, turning them to dust like squeezing a handful of loose dirt. “See? This place has no Qi, so stuff here is weak. Extremely so. Nothing dangerous grows here, not beasts, not plants. In fact, Qi itself does not generate. Your Soul cannot grow here.”

[Uh…] That sounded bad.

“Forget growing, Qi decayes here. Once it leaves your body, that’s it. You are not getting it back. It will degrade and degrade, absorbed by the environment, until nothing is left. Not like in the higher plane where Qi is naturally generated as every Soul grows. Here is just the opposite. Every living being here consumes Qi just to stay alive. It’s not fast, but it is constant. You will notice with time.”

I looked around and saw the others having somber expressions, some of them nodding to his words.

[Holy shit… This is hell.] I quietly gasped in realization. Eternal rot and decay. A land of death. What else could it be?

[So what now?]

“Now?” Eden repeated. “Now you get to meet the big boss. He will decide your fate. Depending on your skills you might join us. Or, you will become cattle, used to feed our army. Until then, I would suggest you check your Soul. You are leaking quite a bit. It would be a shame to lose all that delicious Qi.”

I snorted as the corner of my lips curled upward and I sealed off my Soul. Not a single drop passed through anymore.

[Cattle you said, huh? We will see about that.]