What if he was a Human from a much older, much stronger, much more advanced civilisation?
This changed things completely.
After all, if he could leave the Primordial Expanse, then… couldn't his forge also be in the outside universe!?
Alex paled at the prospect.
This just infinitely extended his search area, far past the point that made it worthwhile to even search.
After all, the forge could be fucking anywhere at this point! It could literally be located in any random location in both the outside universe, or any of the likely infinite realms the Primordial Expanse had to offer!
How the fuck was Alex supposed to search sothing of an infinite size?
That was like searching for a needle in an infinitely large haystack, and for all he knew, the needle could be located so far away that his whole lifespan could dry up before even reaching it…
However, trying to keep his morale up, Alex scanned the parchnt over and over again, trying to decipher what it exactly ant.
The symbols pulsed once in his mind—and then…
Revealed the short extract of what was likely a poem the parchnt originated from.
'The Heart does not beat within a world.
It burns where thought is fire and tal dreams.
The smith broke the circle. The gods scread.
He left through the wound… and sealed it behind him.'
Alex blinked.
Reluun frowned. "That… doesn't sound comforting."
"No," Alex said quietly. "No, it doesn't."
Why was a huge clue related to Mikhail's forge just coincidentally sitting in this archive? Alex also wondered, but the significance of it being there wasn't important to him at the mont.
Just the fact that it was there was enough to satisfy him.
Most importantly though, Alex could use context clues to decipher what exactly the poem ant.
The first line, "The Heart does not beat within a world." Likely referred to the Forge itself, and since this 'heart' doesn't beat in a 'world', Alex assud it wasn't located on a planet, at least.
This left him a heavy sigh of relief to release, since it narrowed down his search trendously.
If it wasn't on a planet, then it likely wasn't in the outside universe – or at least made it so that he could rule them out of his search.
Searching planet to planet would have been the most troubleso part of his search after all, since there were countless different ti wasting procedures to go through, as well as land disputes, trespassing and any other annoying stuff he would have to deal with.
…Especially on planets outside of the Federation.
Trying to not only enter, but search through them, as a being of a foreign race was basically asking for a fight.
Especially since he couldn't explain his reasons for searching either, since he didn't want anybody to know what he was looking for.
Alex explained his deduction to Reluun, who whistled low under his breath. "So… what now? You go back to the Federation? Look for so ancient ruins? Crash a few cults?"
A small trace of sadness crossed Reluun's face for a split second when he threw his questions out, since he knew that if Alex did take that route, he would have to part ways with him.
And he had no idea whether he'd see him again if he did that.
Alex didn't take his eyes off the parchnt and continued scrutinising it under Reluun's curious, watcheful gaze. "No. But even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I have yet to increase my rank, so going back to the Federation's off the table for a while. Besides, if this poem is legitimate – and referring to Mikhail – then I'm 99% sure the forge isn't located in the outside universe at all."
"Right, right…" Reluun nodded, clearly not understanding a word Alex was saying. "So… it's between worlds? Or outside them?"
Alex's gaze grew despondent, as it was clear as day that Reluun wasn't of any help. "More likely, it's in another realm of the Primordial Expanse. Or, maybe it's not connected to the Primordial Expanse or even the Outside universe – maybe its in an entirely different pocket dinsion altogether. The fact of the matter is, we don't know."
Reluun stopped asking further questions, while Alex continued reading down the poem.
The second line down likely referred to the geography of the place the forge occupied, which Alex wasn't surprised it was laced with 'fire and tal dreams', though he didn't exactly understand what the 'dreams' part referred to.
However, he was sure that this line wasn't going to help him in finding it in anyway, since he'd only get to witness this place of fire and tal when he's already found it…
Moving on, he scrutinised the third line.
This… this line was the most complicated of all.
'The smith broke the circle. The gods scread.'
To be quite frank, Alex had absolutely zero clue what this line even referred to, and he doubted that he ever would – at least until he found what he was looking for.
Right now, he suspected that it might be so background on what caused Mikhail's disappearance, which was valuable information, sure, but not helpful in finding the forge.
The ntion of 'gods scread' did intrigue him though, as it cleared up so doubts of his own.
Ones related to the 'god's' nature.
But that was a study for a later date.
Finally, Alex turned to the last line of the poem.
'He left through the wound… and sealed it behind him?'
Alex read the final line over and over again.
It didn't change, nor did it provide any further clarity than he already had by reading it more than once.
However, the ntion of 'wound' did remind him of sothing.
'Fracture…'
Back when Alex first caught sight of the fracture leading to the Solari realm from his own, Federation's realm, Alex thought the fracture looked quite unnatural.
It didn't feel like it was supposed to be there, like a law of the universe, such as abilities like Spatial teleportation just felt… natural.
It felt like it was forced open…
…Like a wound.
Like the fabric of space itself had been wounded.
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