Standing at the edge of a rugged cliff sculpted by wind and snow, Hadjar surveyed the panorama before him, a scene that did its best to highlight nature’s magnificence.

The sun, a brilliant orb in the sky, bathed the valley in a radiant glow, elevating this simple, pastoral landscape to the stuff of fairy tales. Shadows danced mischievously across the vast terrain, playfully hiding or boldly revealing the picturesque surroundings in turn, ever present alongside the relentless march of daylight.

Beneath the vast sky stretched a great valley. Wherever he looked, green hills seemed nearly endless, their contours shifting with the gentle breaths of a sleeping earth, a rhythmic and tranquil dance that could soothe even the most troubled of souls. Reaching all the way to the distant horizon, these hills presented a tapestry of green and earthy hues, occasionally punctuated by bursts of wildflower colors.

Paths, roads, and vast tracts of land meandered through the valley in graceful, sinuous patterns. They resembled the veins of the earth itself, born of thoughtful hands and pulsing with the spirit of adventurers and travelers.

Though made of different stones, all the roads shared one characteristic: none showed signs of neglect, wear, or abandonment. They appeared freshly paved, beckoning to merchants and wanderers alike.

And yet the vistas remained, stretching across grassy plains and dancing with the breeze.

The forests that rose beyond the hills truly seemed like the vast ocean Hadjar had first mistaken them for. Trees, innumerable and majestic, stood shrouded in green grandeur, their broad canopies murmuring incessantly.

And the Wind carried on, always near and far at once.

Above, the clear, blue sky unfolded in a spectacle of flawless splendor, a mesmerizing expanse of azure. Clouds meandered lazily overhead, casting ephemeral shapes that tantalized the imagination. The sky was also not without company despite its vastness.

In fact, it teemed with magnificent creatures Hadjar had only heard about in songs, the kind of majestic beings that had previously been confined to fanciful tales. There were also other beings so unique they defied both memory and description.

At the far edge of the horizon stood the crowning jewel of this scene. Something majestic and gigantic that, at first glance, appeared to be a series of imposing mountain ranges where earth and sky playfully collided.

A closer examination of these distant forms, however, made Hadjar realize that they weren’t just mountains. Their immense shapes, combined with the distinct symmetry that defined these giants, suggested a man-made origin. And after a moment’s reflection, it dawned on him that these were monumental walls — structures so vast they could easily mislead a casual observer into believing they were natural landforms.

Compelled by this oddity, Hadjar called upon the Wind to inspect these constructs more closely.

Every facet of these vast structures held a story. From a distance, they projected an almost flawless, smooth facade, but upon closer inspection, a myriad of details emerged. Numerous notches, grooves, and patterns adorned the battlements and ancient brickwork, bearing witness to the countless epochs since their inception.

Despite their size, which should have cast a shadow over a significant portion of the valley, they surprisingly did not. It was as if the sunlight shone through the stones undimmed. The walls, which rose so high that they almost touched the sky, seemed almost ephemeral in some ways, due to this. Only at the very top of the walls did the sunlight shatter into countless shimmering fragments, giving the walls a glowing halo.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“What do you think?” Helmer inquired, giving Hadjar a moment to take in the view.

The General took another look around the valley. Throughout his existence, he had seen countless kinds of terrain: captivating and intimidating, magnificent and desolate. After all, he had roamed the Nameless World for centuries.

But he had never seen anything like this before. It was as if the world around him had not been shaped by nature, but...

“Everything here…” Hadjar picked up a blade of grass and ran his fingers over it. “None of it feels real.”

“Almost,” the lump of fear on his shoulder nodded. “That depends on your definition of reality. Here, the same as at the gate, everything is composed of pure energy. And that means it’s not subject to the passage of time and its effects.”

Hadjar bit into a blade of grass, swallowed, and then coughed, putting two fingers in his mouth as he nearly choked. Nature took its course shortly thereafter.

Breathing heavily, the General turned to the demon with a silent question in his eyes.

“I mentioned that before,” he waved his tiny hands. “Everything here is made of energy... from the World River. Or did I forget to emphasize that detail?”

“You might have,” Hadjar gritted his teeth and straightened back up, shaking it off.

“You could have figured that out yourself,” Helmer said with a smug grin.

The tone of his voice made it clear that the demon had deliberately left out this ‘minor’ detail.

“If everything here is made of energy, what, by the Evening Stars, am I supposed to eat?” Hadjar exhaled as he surveyed the valley. “And I suppose the animals and birds here are also made of energy?”

“They’re Immortals, not mere animals and birds,” Helmer corrected him, then followed his companion’s gaze. “Wake up, Hadji. You’re in the Land of the Immortals. Everyone here is an Immortal. And the beings you see around you are those who have passed the trial of the Heavens and the Earth.”

Hadjar exhaled and shook his head, his situation becoming clearer.

“Do you realize that I am mortal?” Hadjar reminded him. “I can go nine days without food. Without water, I won’t last past tomorrow.”

“I do recall,” the demon interrupted him, “that you can be somewhat intellectually challenged, my friend. I try to simplify things to spare your delicate head the pain.”

Hadjar adopted a wait-and-see attitude. He had learned the hard way, after doing so perhaps once or twice — okay, maybe a dozen times — that engaging in verbal sparring with Helmer was a futile endeavor. After all, over the course of nearly three centuries of traveling to the gate, there had been little else to do but train, play music, and talk to the demon.

In the end, the General had discovered two things: first, he couldn’t outsmart Helmer. Not even Albadurt could outsmart him — or talk more than him, for that matter. And second, without an appreciative audience, the demon quickly lost interest in being annoying.

“All right, all right,” the lump of fear raised his hands. “This land is made of pure energy. And if the energy of the World River exists here in its unadulterated form, then...”

“Therna,” Hadjar ventured.

“Oh, look at you, Hadji. So smart! Would you like a sugar cube as a reward? I don’t really have one, and that’s more of a sarcastic comment on your overall mental abilities, but still...”

Thanks to his years spent with Albadurt, and recently Helmer, Hadjar had no trouble tuning out the background banter.

Breathing steadily and closing his eyes, Hadjar focused on the power coursing through him. The Light of Therna responded almost instantly, searing his consciousness with a warmth that was anything but gentle.

What was surprising, however, was that while in the Mortal Realm, one had to exert considerable effort to absorb even a fraction of Therna from the surrounding world (as if something prevented it from freely touching mortal souls), but here, when Hadjar willed it, a torrent of Therna simply poured down upon him.

Had it not been for his vigilance against any and all threats developed through centuries of engaging in warfare, Hadjar might have succumbed to the onslaught, for even his body could not contain such a colossal amount of power. It was like trying to pour an entire ocean into a freshly-dug well.

After severing the connection between his Therna and the Therna of the outside world, the General wiped his forehead, which was now glistening with sweat.

“And so, you’re going to feed on Therna,” Helmer concluded.

In essence, this process shouldn’t end up being much different from what the cultivators did when it came to the World River.

“Not bad,” Hadjar admitted, glancing back at the valley before turning to Helmer. “Now the question is, why am I here, and why couldn’t I have just used the Pond to get to the Seventh Heaven directly?”