As the three of them stepped through the fracture, the world twisted for a mont.
It wasn't anything like the other teleportations Alex had experienced before. Colours bled together, space folded like paper, and for a few seconds, Alex couldn't tell whether he was standing, floating, or falling sideways into so painter's fever dream.
Then, just as quickly as it began, it ended.
The trio stumbled into an entirely new realm within the Primordial Expanse.
Well, entirely new for two of the three.
Alex suspected that he was the first human from the Federation to achieve such a feat, though he didn't feel any sense of accomplishnt from such a thing.
He'd done so much insane stuff ever since becoming an Awakened, that being the 'first' in sothing no longer felt as special.
Barely a few seconds had passed and Alex could already feel so differences.
The air there was lighter, feeling a little less oxygenated than Alex was used to. He suspected that the atmosphere there wouldn't be very suitable for a normal human, or a C tier awakened or lower. However, he and Brontes were fine as they were higher life forms. The need for air was no longer present for them.
Apart from the difference in the air, everything else felt relatively fine. There was little to no difference in the gravity. The sky was the sa pale blue dotted with clouds as far as his eyes could see.
However, that was the natural parts of the realm that were the sa, or similar to what he was used to.
It was the unnatural, manmade stuff that threw Alex off.
Towering structures made of so sort of crystal like stone rose off in the distance, with so floating stone platforms gliding lazily between them, with strange flora shimring between the buildings with so sort of bioluminescence, clearly lighting the place up when night ti fell.
Reluun, who had faceplanted upon entry, lifted his head from a bush of softly humming purple fruits and spat out a leaf.
"Well," he declared, "We're here! Welco to the Solari realm of the Primordial Expanse. Mind your step – so of these flowers explode if you complint them too harshly."
Alex blinked with a deadpan expression.
"You're joking."
"I wish I was. I once lost my left boot to a tulip that couldn't handle praise."
Alex still couldn't tell if Reluun was being serious or not, which left him rather hesitant to test out those ridiculous claims.
Brontes growled lowly, clearly uncomfortable in the new, foreign space, but kept himself close to Alex. Even though he had no need for air as an A tier Divine beast, he was still relatively young so breathing in the unfamiliar atmosphere was still uncomfortable for him.
Reluun dusted himself off and waved a hand toward a distant floating tower. "We'll need to report in, obviously. If the life force sensors didn't already detect your entry, soone's definitely seen us by now."
Alex frowned, forgetting to take sothing like this into consideration before stepping through the fracture.
He had judged things too easily, assuming that since Reluun was nice enough, the treatnt on the other side should be similar.
However, he knew from experience that he couldn't be that naive.
Just because there were nice humans, didn't an that all humans were nice. This was a fact he had realsied many tis during his life.
He couldn't judge the Solari by different standards just because of one guy.
'I'll need to remind myself of this in the future.'
"Are we going to be arrested?" Alex frowned.
"Hmm… fifty-fifty." Reluun said cheerfully, as if being arrested wasn't a big deal.
"But don't worry! I'll vouch for you."
"That's not very comforting." Alex said, not feeling any confidence from Reluun's words.
"It shouldn't be," Reluun replied, already walking. "This'll either go really well, or… we'll both be in jail. And I snore. Loud."
They began moving down the winding path leading away from the fracture towards to crystalline structures in the distance.
As they walked, Alex took in the scenery. It was nothing like the Federation's realm – too serene, too… calm.
"I have to admit," Alex said. "This place is beautiful."
Reluun sniffed. "Too quiet, if you ask . Peaceful realms always make paranoid. You never know what kind of hyper-pacifist cult is hiding behind the next tree."
Alex had no idea what Reluun was talking about, so he just nodded along.
"Hyper-pacifist?" He asked, pretending to be interested.
"Oh yeah. Saw a sect once that disassembled a couple guys on sight with their minds, in seconds. They don't kill you, no, that would be too violent – but they did make you sit through ten hours of emotionally disarming poetry."
Alex paused.
"...Ten hours?"
He wasn't one for poetry, but being forced to listen to it for ten hours did sound rather torturous.
"And interpretive dance." Reluun added.
Alex decided not to ask further.
The Solari were clearly an… interesting race with their own quirks.
As they neared the tower, a sleek, silver platform descended with a soft hum.
On it stood two tall, androgynous Solari, with their pail, luminous skin almost translucent in the ambient light.
They wore long and flowing robes, etched with shimring runes that moved like liquid glass.
Seeing these spectacles that he would never in a million years see back in the Federation's realm, Alex had to ask.
"By the way, I thought the Primordial Expanse limited the use of technology in its realm? That doesn't seem to be the case for you guys though? How?"
This question had been gnawing at him ever since he first spotted those floating towers and platforms moving between them.
Reluun replied, yawning. "Oh that's still the sa case here, and every other realm in the Primordial Expanse. But nothing stops us from imitating outside technologies using the abundant energy available to us inside the Primordial Expanse."
This answer satisfied Alex's curiosities.
Similar stuff happened in the Federation's realm, just not to such an extre degree.
The Solari probably had a better grasp of energy compared to them, allowing them to create much more efficient and better chanisms.
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