I took a step forward.
And suddenly—
I was sowhere else.
Not the hydroponic farm. Not the Landship. Not even Carcosa.
The world around twisted in silence, as if reality itself had been flipped inside out.
Above , the sky was not the sky.
Fishes with wings drifted lazily through the air, their translucent bodies gliding between invisible currents, their scales shimring like polished glass. They moved without resistance, their fins undulating as if they were swimming through water that did not exist.
Below, actual water floated in midair, crystallizing into suspended bubbles, shifting between liquid and solid as if uncertain of what state it wished to be. Each droplet refracted an entire world within itself, tiny microcosms of places unseen.
And then—the plants marched.
They did not sway in the wind. They did not root themselves in the ground. They simply moved—like a marching soldier walking with their two legs.
Clusters of fungal growths crawled like insects, their tendrils twitching with unsettling awareness. Trees with inverted canopies shuffled forward, their roots barely skimming the ground as they wandered aimlessly. Blades of grass stretched and contracted, writhing in waves like a living ocean.
A world completely unbound by reason.
Yet—
I did not rember the transition that led here.
No warning. No sign. No breach of space.
One mont, I was stepping into the hydroponic farm.
Next, I was sowhere beyond comprehension.
"...What the hell?"
My first instinct was to reach out—to grasp onto sothing that tethered to reality.
But even before I could attempt a connection, I felt sothing familiar. A presence outside of myself—a distant, thin thread of ti.
Kuzunoha.
Even in this place, I could still feel the contracted link between us. That ant, in so way, I was still bound to the logic of ti as it flowed within Carcosa.
I focused, analyzing the relative passage of ti between us.
And then, I understood.
It was warped. Stretched. Compressed.
"When I thought that Carcosa is chaotic, I didn't expect it to be this chaotic…"
Ti in this place moved faster than in Carcosa.
If an hour passed here, only a minute passed on Kuzunoha's side.
aning—this realm existed under a different temporal law altogether.
I clicked my tongue, shifting my stance slightly as I turned in place, taking in the surreal peripheral view of this foreign realm.
I needed to understand.
I ran through the possibilities.
My mind, usually sharp and structured, now found itself wading through fragnted hypotheses, each one clawing for dominance. Yet, none felt complete. None truly explained the absurdity of this place.
I started with the most imdiate suspect.
The Vitae Arboris & Carlotta Connection.
The ascended plant entity within my Landship had been undergoing constant evolution, its very nature shifting as it integrated with the neuromorphic network and absorbed entropy as a ans of growth.
Was it possible that, in its expansion, the Vitae Arboris had projected an imprint of itself beyond Carcosa?
Could this place be a byproduct of that growth—a conceptual fragnt, bleeding into my reality, detached from a tangible source?
It would make sense. The essence of existence could theoretically create a space where the rules were rewritten—where logic bent around the nature of its creator.
But sothing was off.
The Vitae Arboris' influence was contained, regulated, understood—an extension of my own domain, interwoven with my bastion, and bound within the laws of Carcosa to a great extent despite having more free will than a normal Cognitive Engine variant.
If it had created sothing this wild and unstable, I would have noticed long before I stepped into it.
No. This was bigger than an offshoot of the Vitae Arboris.
I moved on.
A Displaced Realm from a pivotal recurring event, perhaps?
Not too long ago, Carcosa itself had undergone a tectonic shift—a reshuffling of landmasses, a cosmic rearrangent that altered the very foundations of geography and reality.
I had seen entire citadels severed from their trade routes, bastions left stranded in wastelands that hadn't existed before. Even now, there were still unexplored lands that had never been there before the reshuffling.
Not to ntion, the Ti of Nihil.
Perhaps this realm had been one of those casualties.
A lost pocket of existence, torn from its original placent, now drifting aimlessly like a severed limb.
Sohow grabbing , a chill and vibing individual who wants nothing but peace, love, and happiness.
It would explain the disorientation. The sense of disconnection from ti and place.
But… no. That wasn't right either.
This place didn't feel like a remnant of sothing larger, nor was there anything connecting it to Carcosa itself.
There were no ruins, no echoes, no signs of a past existence, nor even a single familiar essences from the bizarre recurring events.
It wasn't a shattered fragnt of a greater whole.
It felt like sothing that had never belonged anywhere to begin with.
Sothing that simply existed.
And that was even more unsettling.
Just as the implications began to settle, I felt it.
A disturbance, not external but deep within —a flicker of sothing shifting in the recesses of my own soul.
Like a ripple on still water, it spread—soft yet undeniable, a presence brushing against the edges of my consciousness, stirring in the unseen depths where only one other resided.
And then, a voice.
Light. Playful. Mocking.
A whispered ray of void, piercing through the structure of my existence, brushing against the delicate threads that defined —an eerie stroke of familiarity that slithered through my planarity.
"Getting lost, are we?"
I sighed, exhaling through my nose as I tilted my head slightly to the side.
Black Daffodil.
The one voice within that I could never truly silence.
I didn't respond imdiately. Instead, I let the silence stretch, the surreal atmosphere of this impossible place pressing around as I tried to remove her presence from my mind.
Above, winged fish continued their lazy drift, their transparent fins catching the shifting light. Below, roots slithered like slow-moving serpents, tracing patterns in the soil that had never known permanence.
Sowhere in the distance, an entire column of water twisted upward like a frozen cyclone—except it wasn't frozen at all, rely suspended, droplets weaving in and out of solidity as if deciding whether to obey the rules of existence or not.
And yet, for all its chaos, all its absurdity—this place was eerily still.
Tiless.
Unclaid.
I clicked my tongue. "You're late," I muttered telepathically, my thoughts slipping into the familiar rhythm of our exchanges. "I could've used so insight a few minutes ago."
A chuckle, laced with mischief.
"Oh, but it's fun watching you struggle. Not to ntion… you didn't even try reaching out to ~"
Typical.
"Did you call just to be insufferable, or do you actually have sothing useful to say?"
"This realm," she mused, "It's not as vast as you think."
I frowned. My fingers twitched.
"Not vast?"
"Mm." A hum of amusent, the lilt of a smile I couldn't see but could feel. "Stretch your awareness. Go on. You'll see."
I exhaled through my nose, shifting my weight as I let my focus expand outward, spreading my perceptive extension.
A ripple spread from —an unseen pulse rolling through the air like a wave in still water.
The world answered.
It mapped itself out before , revealing its boundaries, its edges, its limits.
And just like that, I understood.
Black Daffodil was right.
This realm—for all its impossibilities, its surreal landscapes, its untad phenona—was no larger than a single adow.
A self-contained space.
A pocket of existence, floating without purpose.
I let the revelation sink in, feeling the weight of this discovery, the implications curling around my thoughts.
How does a place like this exist?
An actual fragnt? A forgotten echo of sothing once greater and grandiose? A failed creation?
Black Daffodil's voice interrupted my thoughts, carrying that sa teasing lilt.
"Now, let ask you—" She continued aiding , taking pleasure in my reluctance to rely on her. "Do you sense anything else here? Anything with high existential height?"
Her voice was sing-song, but there was a keen edge beneath it—a hint of genuine curiosity masked beneath her usual amusent.
I smirked.
"Is this just an excuse for you to ask if there's anyone interesting around?"
For once, Black Daffodil didn't imdiately respond.
That alone made my smirk widen.
"Are you lonely?" I pressed, amusent lacing my tone.
The sharpness returned to her voice almost imdiately. "I am rely ensuring you don't get yourself killed."
Which was an elaborate way of avoiding the question.
Still, I followed her lead.
Entering the Floating Through Life state, I shifted the axis of my existence, allowing my awareness to transcend the limitations of conventional perception.
The world around slowed—or rather, I detached from the flow of its motion entirely.
Everything beca sharper, clearer—the thin veils between reality and unseen structures peeling away like mist in the morning sun.
I searched. I scanned. I observed.
And I found—
Nothing.
No entities.
No presence.
No claim.
I blinked.
"This place…" I murmured, letting the weight of the realization settle. "It's unclaid."
Black Daffodil humd, pleased.
"Which ans…?"
I narrowed my eyes, piecing it together.
"Which ans it was either abandoned long ago… or it was never created by anyone's will to begin with."
Both possibilities were equally intriguing.
Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire
A realm without a ruler. A space without a past.
Realms always had owners—whether it be Carcosa with the King in Yellow, or Kuzunoha's mansion, or even the Spires of Theotech, still bound to the echoes of their past creators.
But this place?
This place was wild.
Untouched. Untad. Without direction or claim.
Black Daffodil's chuckle returned, softer this ti, yet still carrying that sa sense of knowing amusent.
"Well, I'll leave you to it."
I could feel her withdrawing, slipping back into the depths of her hidden realm within .
And then—she was gone.
I stood there in silence, letting the weight of the mont settle.
An ownerless realm.
A space outside of ti.
A pocket of existence without direction.
I inhaled slowly.
Then maybe…
I should claim it for myself.
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