It was purple. The ominous purple light was filling the giant room and lighting the device that was filling a third of the room. Thousands of cables and pipes were connecting the different pieces and holding the contraption together, and in the middle of it, there was a giant orb. Various shades of purple were dancing and forming chaotic shapes inside of it while it floated in the middle of the giant device.

Under the dimly lit room, a man stood, his two small albeit strong-looking horns poking out of his head were casting a shadow behind him. The orb was lighting his sturdy light purple skin and giving his red pupils an ominous spark. But those eyes were filled with pride towards his creation.

His figure was strong, and his high-quality tunic was not fully covering his muscular chest. His skin had a different colored pattern on it, almost like tattoos. That pattern was proof of his power and superiority among his race.

So much time had passed in this god-forbidden wasteland, but it was finally bearing its fruits. And that giant orb was the sweetest of them all. The waves of energy were colliding and exploding, dancing inside the orb. It was changing. Changing under the will and intention of its future master.

"Just a little more time. The calculations are almost done. Everything is progressing as planned. Then I, Morpheal, will stand at the top and show those bastards who is the superior one. I will not be looked down ever again." With a snap of his fingers, the main lights of the room lit the rows of books and research equipment inside the big stone room he was in.

He went towards the double doors that led deep inside his castle. As soon as he passed the door one of his servants approached him. The servants in his castle were from a lesser race that he had been using as his slaves for quite a while. They reached up to his leg at most. Their skin was dark purple, but they were ordered to wear hooded robes to hide their disgusting features.

The servant tensely presented him with a report about his growing army. He took it without even looking at the servant. Some of the test subjects were causing trouble and needed his direct attention to progress further. He was expecting something like that this time around because his next creations were made to be extra dangerous. He was already heading there to check the preparations, so the report didn't bother him that much. The servant relaxed visibly and left his sight as quickly as possible without turning its back on him.

He continued towards the underground, to the soldier creation facility but stopped for a second in front of a window to admire the view outside. The whole sky was covered with dark clouds and explosions and lightning of different shades of purple were lighting the rocky ground. The surroundings of the castle were flattened by him before he even built the castle there. And it was full of his different creations and test subjects. All of them had developed some unique physical attributes and characteristics.

They had different types of skin and limbs. Some had horns, some had bone spikes poking out of their body. Some had wings like giant bats or feathers like griffons. Claws like lions and pincers like giant crabs; feet like humans or hooves like oxen. All were only made for his future plans. War and destruction.

***

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"Ah sorry about that, something caught my eye." The Traveler turned to the suffering Elise. She was desperately trying to breathe and resist the wild environment. The feeling that captured her faded away and she could breathe and stand again on her own. She looked around thoroughly for the first time.

"What is this place and what just happened to me?" She said while trying to catch her breath.

"We are in a different realm. So, the air, gravity, and Energy density of this realm are different. And for your luck, it is quite harsher than yours. I put up a filter for you for now." He was looking around while talking. "You can train your body to adjust for gravity and energy, but the air is a different thing."

Different realm! Even the thought of something like that is enough to excite Elise. She has traveled a lot since she left home and experienced a lot of things, but they were nowhere near this. It was a rocky wasteland as far as the eyes could see. And the sky itself was a different story. "Are all the places you travel to look like this?" asked Elise.

"No. This seems like an incomplete and abandoned land. Energy is floating around freely, wildly even." He seemed to have no problem with the current situation. "This place will do."

"What do you mean incomplete?"

"I'll explain it later. Come, let's start." He started to walk towards the closest rocky hill.

"Start to what?"

"Your test of course!"

"Are you really going to test me here? I can't even properly breathe!"

"It's fine, don't worry. We'll start from the easy one." As he finished his sentence Elise felt the crushing pressure again. But this time the feeling that turned her insides out did not come with it. She fell on her knee once again. "I'll release the gravity first, keep your armor on, and try to keep up to me."

He kept on walking and left Elise there. She felt like her armor was betraying her and trying to crush her. Even standing straight was hard but walking was the hardest. Every step was a challenge but giving up was not an option. If she wanted to continue traveling and experience more things, she had to go beyond herself. So, she walked.

She thought sword training with armor on was hard when she first started her training. Before, armor was making her movements a lot slower and at the end of the day every muscle in her body was screaming in pain. But this time the pain was a lot worse. Her legs tried to give up countless times on the way, but she forced herself to walk straight until the end. She was about to collapse when they finally stopped walking in front of a big pile of rock at the foot of a hill.

"Well done! I thought you were going to collapse way back there. Get some rest, then we can start here." He started to inspect the pile of rocks while she dropped herself to the ground.

"Wait! Start? Didn't we start already?"

"We just came here; how can we start?"

"You are joking, right?" She was lying on the ground and trying to catch her breath.

The Traveler didn't answer her, and she was in no shape to chase an answer anyway. She lay there quietly and watched the magical explosions in the gray sky. She listened to the constant roaring sound of the sky, and she noticed the ground was also roaring alike. Those rumbling sounds combined with her exhaustion were enough to force her eyes to close. She fell asleep without even realizing it.