Chapter 231: I doubt that. (1/2)

Malum walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down. He spotted a few aerial beasts passing by. Some looked like wyverns and others were straight-up giant fishes. He looked around and saw how the earth was oddly cut. There were even some waterfalls going down.

The truly shocking thing though was the countless flying islands laid out in front of him. Their size differed but they were quite small on average; the size of an average human city. Each one of them seemed to possess different fauna and flora. There were even frozen and volcanic islands among them.

Malum groaned and looked behind him. Nature was pretty normal. At least, it didn't change a lot from what he was used to see in the other Reality.

”How does this even work?” He muttered and looked at the sky. Apparently, he and Shakti were on one of the highest sited islands in the area but you could see more of them very far if you looked attentively at the sky.

Malum didn't even know if you could still call that a sky though. That was what perturbed Shakti the moment she arrived. There were clouds here at least, but it continued indefinitely behind that. There was no space. No stars. No planets.

Maybe you would be able to see this in the other Reality, but just inside of an artificial dimension which would be an illusion at best. But it was real here. The world was actually built like so, with an indefinite number of floating chunks of earth with absolutely no spatial zone.

”It's fairly absurd when you think about it,” Shakti muttered then breathed in strongly. She closed her eyes to ponder. ”Malum…”

”What is it?”

”The air composition is different here.”

”What?” Malum's eyes widened. He hadn't thought about that and immediately analyzed the air around him. ”It's true… I can't even find any atoms similar to what we know,” he said and abruptly ignited a fire above his claw as he realized something. His expression twitched when he saw the fire burning in his hand.

”What is wrong?” Shakti jumped on his shoulder and asked. She stared at the flame and stiffened.

Malum cackled then burst out laughing. ”I see. This is what makes this thing a little tricky but easier at the same time,” he said. ”In this Reality, there's no space, no stars, no constellation, no planets, and the laws of gravity must be messed up too. There's no oxygen, the history is not the same, the legends are unknown, the varied races are new…”

”Gods and goddesses might not even exist. Same for dragons and maybe undead too,” Shakti added and conjured a block of ice. ”The magic circuits are completely unfamiliar; the worldly energy is not the same…”

Malum smirked and extinguished his fire. ”The power balance has been modified the moment we arrived here. We don't know if simply our breath could kill the strongest and neither the opposite. But we're definitely weaker right now.”

”…I wonder what kind of reality Arimane went to,” Shakti said and Malum mused.

”Knowing him, I'm sure he took the one that would reveal itself to be the hardest to survive in. I also assume that he let us choose while considering that the three other Realities are not hard for our level,” Malum guessed and looked up at the silver disc which had still not disappeared. A blue mist came out of it and vanished in a few seconds.

”That's Jormungand,” Shakti exclaimed and Malum nodded. ”It seems that the World Serpent's 'theory' is still applicable in this Reality.”

”Perhaps…” Malum squinted. ”But Jorga is also an ethereal being. He's able to turn into an insubstantial being to be actually omniscient. 'World Serpent' means nothing here,” he said and snickered.

”Big guy, I'll leave the reconnaissance to you,” he raised his voice and turned around. He deployed his wings and crossed his arms. ”We have some company in the meantime,” he said as a group of people was coming down from a distant island.

As they were getting close, both Shakti and Malum gradually became able to grasp their appearance. It was without saying that they were prepared to see something out of their imagination but what they got was a group of small humanoid beings. They looked like children and had translucid wings.

When they landed before them, they could only describe them as fairies or maybe spirits. They were incredibly young and good looking.

”Kilou hej via?” A blue-haired girl stepped forward and spoke in a strange language.

Malum frowned. ”The Gods' Tongue doesn't work.”

”Yes… maybe we should try to use telepathy?” Shakti suggested and Malum agreed.

”{Hey, who are you?}” Malum asked.

Telepathy is a way to convey thoughts, it technically doesn't need any language to function. The fairy who received the message suddenly panicked and looked around. She summoned a white spear and her friends were mystified at her actions.

'Weird… they don't know about telepathy?'

”{Who talked?!}”

Malum picked up a response but according to the fairy's countenance, he believed that it wasn't intentional.

”{Me. The one standing in front of you,}” he told and this time, she properly faced him.

”{You are…? What are you? Where do you hail from?}” She inquired immediately. Malum's eyes twitched at her rudeness and Shakti wryly smiled.

”{My name is Malum R. Nosferatu. This lady here is Shakti Parens. I am a dragon, and she is in theory a Supreme Being,}” Malum chose to introduce himself and Shakti. Although he didn't need to, he didn't want to complicate things.