The scene blurred, the rushing wind scraped against my face, the sight of the floor rapidly expanded, and the image of my body smashing against the ground grew clearer. The mangled body will be thrown about like a doll, the blood will dance in the air, and the soil will be dyed a dark red.
“I didn't want you to die.”
“Tch.”
Lan stretched out his hands, the mana poured into his fingers, and the air started to bend like a transparent fabric around his fingers. His rapid fall slowly declined, and the blurry scene slowly regained shape, and fine detail. Eventually he slowly floated to the ground. The bow on his back snapped apart, and turned to dust, the sword crumbled, and the traps on his belt fell apart.
“Looks like they only held their form inside the building huh.......”
It was ironic only the clothes were able to bear the weight of time, one could say it was because of the type of material used.
Lan scanned the area, and using true sight, magnified the view. After looking around him casually he spotted a patch of mushrooms, and plants. As he slowly walked towards the plant like a tired zombie, he bent down, and examined them.
“For a plant to grow in this kind of environment, maybe it has to do with the light produced by the mana stones. The mushrooms aren't something I recognize.”
He stared at the mushroom, and gently reached out to touch it.
I swallowed the mushroom, the texture was smooth, and soft. The flavour was savory, and meaty. As I enjoyed the sensation of filling my empty stomach, a strong pain ripped into my stomach. My vision blurred, blood flowed up my throat as I coughed up the iron taste of blood. I felt sharp needles digging into my stomach, and my body trembled violently in pain.
The agonizing pain tortured me four hours, until the chilling touch of death claimed me.
Lan shook his head, and his fingers stopped mid way from touching the mushroom. He ended up picking the plants, and stuffing them in a small sack.
“Should I explore further?”
*Grumble
Lan touched his stomach grumbling loudly. In the end he sat down, and examined the plants. He separated them all into parts, from the stem, leaves, and roots. One by one he touched all the parts, and closed his eyes.
“Nothing...”
With that single word he started to put them into his mouth, and carefully chewed them thoroughly. He kept walking around repeating the process, until his stomach was finally full.
He stared at the hollow hallway of stone extending into the depths, where the blue light could not reach.
“Even if I found food, without water, I would die anyways...”
He just stood stock still, entertaining the thought of dying without water. With a short tired sigh, he walked into the darkness that extended deep into the distance.
“I wonder how I can even breath here. Are there some large plants producing oxygen? We're not actually that far underneath the planet? Or is there a tunnel of wind coming from the outside?”
In the end there was no one to answer the questions for him, and he was merely talking to himself. He slowly walked ahead, the time he walked, and for how long, no longer mattered. An endless journey in the pits of darkness, without an end in sight.
As he went forward the concept of sound disappeared, because his foot steps became silent, and his breathing did not produce a single sound. Several layers of magic circles formed on his right eye in order to navigate the darkness. The scene remained drab, and unchanged, as if each step was no different then standing completely still.
His mind was blank, and without thought. His feelings were in a state of nonexistence, as he continued to walk farther, and farther in a daze. Time, and distance no longer mattered, he merely walked, for the sake of walking.
Eventually the silence was shattered by a single tapping sound. The blank mind in Lan slowly started to grow sharper. He poured mana into his ears to increase the hearing range. It was barely audible, but present, a slow rhythmic tapping sound could be heard in the far distance. Lan's dull eyes slowly grew more aware, as he casually walked towards the distant sound.
The sound grew louder, and more defined, until Lan was standing next to water droplets leaking from somewhere in the sky, a small bright glow the size of one millimetre could be seen on the expansive black ceiling. Even the true sight on Lan could not see it clearly.
A large lake formed in the underground, who knows how many years it took for this lake to come into existence. However beside the lake Lan could see a distortion in the space to the other side of it. It was transparent, and shaped like a globe. A strange force could be felt deep within that distortion.
“A closed dimension huh, I wonder what created it?”
Lan slowly walked around the underground lake, reaching the distortion on the other side. He took out his hand, and casually traced his finger on the edge of the dome. His finger merely went through it towards the other side. He pulled back his finger, and began to pour mana into his hand, then struck his hand forward.
With a sudden vibration in the air, his hand was deflected backward, the concentrated mana in his hand completely collapsed.
He put his true sight at maximum output, five layers of magic circles formed on his right eye, forming something resembling a miniature telescope.
Lan stared at the transparent globe for a few minutes.
Hmm, a 2nd tier closed dimension, I don't recognize the magic structure to form it, is it one of the new magics from the new world?
He pulled out a plant stem ten centimetres in length from his pouch, and held it on his right hand.
“I wonder if this still even works?”
With a tired sigh, he stretched out his left hand.
“Enigma's armoury”
A large magic circle formed underneath Lan's feet, and above him, ten flashes of light stabbed the ground, and formed a circle. Eventually the light subsided revealing ten swords of different shapes, and colours. Above him was an eleventh sword that did not have a blade, but only a handle. Of the eleven swords, only five sword on the left side had colour, the rest were greyed out.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
He casually picked up a purple sword buried in the dirt with his left hand. With a brilliant flash of light, all other swords disappeared. A ball of purple light floated in his palm, he slammed the light into the plant stem.
The plant stem disappeared revealing a thin purple sword that pulsed with violet light, he gripped the thing gold handle firmly with a bitter expression.
“Really sorry, to think the prized god slayer swords made by the primal forge god were to be linked to a mere plant as a sword vessel. I really am sorry.”
He slowly walked up to the outer edges of the closed dimension, and moved his sword arm in one blinding movement, in a mere second five purple scars formed on the closed dimension, causing it to crack, and shatter like glass. The sword on his right hand broke apart into particles of light, revealing a crushed plant stem.
“Once again, really sorry for the disgrace.”
He apologized to the sword that disappeared.
He casually walked into the broken shell of the dimension.
“It'll probably repair itself in a few hours...”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A deathly cold wind blew, the sky was a madder red; from as far as his eyes could see was an ocean of black water. He stared at the black water underneath his feet that was only a few millimetres deep. He casually walked forward while looking around him with mild curiosity. In the distance a giant castle was perched on top a solitary hill in the water. The castle seemed to be made of black marble, and a faint trace of energy could be felt from afar.
As he walked closer to the castle he could feel powerful residual thoughts in the winds, a soft feminine voice whispered into his ears.
“I love you, I'll always love you, and even if the world forces us apart, I will forever remain by your side.”
While walking closer he could sense a deep voice answering the female voice.
“Dear sister, the world will never approve of this. Why did you force us to reach this point? Why did you have to walk down this path?”
“Even if it means my death, even if I am hated by the world, I couldn't have been happier for this very moment. The fact I will forever remain by your side....”
“You are a fool...”
“Brother.. I'll always love you.”
Lan shook his head clearing away the voices, and walked towards a boulder.
“What powerful residual thoughts, surprisingly their language is the same. I guess the new gods introduced the same tongue.”
There hidden by the boulder, was a man, and woman leaning against each other; two large bloody wounds in their chests. On the floor were two swords covered in blood, made of strange materials, and designs. Lan stared at their faces, which wore a small tragic smile, and their closed eyes had traces of tears. Their hands eternally gripped together for all eternity, in a solitary world.
“Hmph, so I entered some sort of cemetery for you guys huh? Looks like the time in this dimension stopped, causing your bodies to never decay, even after death.”
He stared at the two corpses.
“To think the new race physically resembled my own, but my kind only has black hair, and a special aura inside them. It's almost like the universe threw us away, for something new to replace us.”
He walked by the couple, and took his eyes away from the swords. He had no intentions to steal from the dead, not to mention the swords were nothing special to him. He walked towards the castle only to find strange transparent creatures floating around the entrance, with no defined shape. The moment they noticed Lan they started to moan horribly, and float towards him.
“Psychic entities formed from residual thought, and mana.”
Lan merely walked to the gate, each stare caused the the creatures to burst apart, and melt into mist. Lan just sighed lazily as he walked to the castle steps.
“Low level as well..... I wonder what you are guarding?”
The hallways were extravagant, the chandeliers, and carpets looked expensive, but the castle was hollow with life. He saw gold, silver, jewels, armours, and beds. Occasionally he would stare at paintings that depicted different places, scenery, weather, and lifeforms.
After wandering around he saw the throne room, there on the seat, was a single glowing crown emitting specks of golden light.
With a disappointing sigh Lan exited the room, and started to scour for some items.
"Really! There was no food at all in a castle?"
After an hour, Lan walked out of the closed dimension carrying a bucket, and a primitive sword. He slowly began his journey back to the cliff.
When he finally walked back into the building, and placed the bucket, and sword in front of Zara's floating body, he started to plop down, and lean against the tube.
“How was it?” A soft disembodied voice whispered into his ears.
“How was what.”
“The outside.”
“Found some traces of the new race, surprisingly they resemble mine with some differences.”
“Your impressions?”
“Meh, nothing new.”
“But you know what Zara?”
“What?”
“Your disembodied voice floating outside is creepy, and it's a waste of saliva moving my mouth to answer you. Communicate telepathically please.”
[Better now?]
[Yep.]
Lan sighed again, as he closed his eyes, and started to report on what he found.