Shortly after they had completed the dire crossing found our two companions trudging their way towards the end of the domain of fire. They were battered, bruised, burnt and tired after multiple hours of near endless combat. Sure they had gained a number of levels from the ordeal but their was only so much strain their bodies could survive before it began to give out.
They were not quite at that limit yet but were in no rush to reach the new domain and begin yet more battles.
As such they slowly made their way to the border. Thankfully it seemed like no denizens of this domain called this spot home so it was a easy journey. Other beasts that had found their way across the lava river were similarly taking their time in the final stretch, equally tired and battered as Violet and Luna.
Eventually though they did reach the boundary, and what they saw ahead was not quite what they expected.
Before them was a void of nothingness where the ground should have been. A chasm of unknowable depth that descended into the ground below. It was like the world itself simply ceesed to exist here for even when costing her eyes in void Violet could not see the bottom.
But it was mainly what lay floating in the air that truly caught the girls attention. Islands floated in the void before them, some no bigger than a particularly large boulder and some that spanned hundreds of meters. Some were bastions of greenery flush with trees, grasses and flowers whilst some were nothing but balls of ice.
Each of these strange islands were connected to a couple of their neighbors by ethereal strings of mana intervoven with the mana type of the respective islands. This seemed to only happy to lands of similar or at least not opposing mana types.
For example a ball of ice floated next to a giant rock of molten lava yet no strings connected the two. But the ice was linked to a land of barren earth and that earth attuned island was in turn linked the the lava island.
The sight was stunning and made no sense to the two girls who had no frame of reference for how such a landscape could come to be.
Each of the islands moved slowly the strings of mana slowly tightening as the interconnected lands spread apart only for them to reach a tipping point before a reverberation rippled out and the lands suddenly shot towards one another before they impacted in a cacophonous crash. Then the two islands simple drifted apart once more in a never ending cycle of collisions and separation.
All of the gathered beasts observed this strange domain non quite knew how to approach this or even how they were supposed to traverse from isle to isle without being squished between them if they chose to crash together. ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ novel⁂fire.net
"What is this place?" Luna whispered in awe as she watched the unique landscape before her in its endless cycle.
"I don’t know but, but it looks like fun!"
Luna gave the dragon a side eye as she watched Violet practically buzz with excitement as she watched the floating islands slowly shift positions. But she could help but smile as how excited her companion seemed to be over seeing such a place. And Luna had to admit, whilst it was breathtaking and quite terrifying, it was also a land of wonder what promised to be quite the experience to traverse.
Speaking of traversing that was one fact that neither the girls or the beasts present had any real idea on how to even reach the first island.
The nearest of the islands was a particularly large island that was full of greenery around 100 meters from the domain boundary. And it was full of plant life.
For the greenery did not only exist on the top but extended around the sides and they even could see a particularly large tree growing quite happily from the bottom. The logistics of how that was even possible defied all logic but it somehow seemed to work for it so Violet refused to give it more thought.
It was only then that Luna spotted movement further into the domain and pointed it out to Violet. Together they observed as a creature travelled along a small island of barren rock before leaping from the edge and sailing through the void. Yet the creature did not fall down as it should and was instead seemingly pulled towards the nearby island full of shrubbery.
They watched that in confusion till the creature disappeared into the undergrowth. "How did that beast travel that far with a simple jump. It must have traveled over 60 meters in a singular jump!" Violet exclaimed in excited disbelief.
"I don’t really know... but it seemed like it was falling towards the nearest island as if it was attracted to it somehow."
Hearing that Violet observed the two islands that the creature moved between and could just make out the strings of mana that connected the two lands. As she continued to observe that a idea began to form in her head.
She proceeded to study the strings of mana in more detail both on that island and from other interconnected lands.
Some time passed , most beasts simply taking this time to rest up and recuperate from the trying ordeal they had underwent. But not Violet, no she kept observing, she spotted more creatures moving between the islands and as she did her idea slowly began to take shape as her theory’s began to be proven true by the disparate denizens of this strange land.
Eventually she was quite certain of how exactly travel seemed to work here and she instead began to try and find how they could go about taking that first proverbial step. Whilst rhe island closest to them had no string connecting to the domain of fire they were currently standing within, that didn’t mean that others weren’t connected to them.
So if Violet’s theory was to work then all she needed to do was find an island that was connected to them, and then hope that both her theory was correct. And most importantly hope that she could convince Luna to take part in her brilliant idea!