The things you were looking for often ended up standing right outside of your sight, and indeed, just beyond Loimos's enormous range of perception, just off to the left, there was wide island surrounded by crystal clear water, with only animals swimming kilometers around, upon which a humble nation sat, a theocracy of sorts that had formed around a spinning sphere of light that floated in the middle of the land.
When he had scoured the memories of those lost fishermen, who had somehow ended up well away from their homeland and had also been heading in a completely wrong direction, there had been many images of this sphere, which was clearly a rather unstable portal to another realm, they viewed it as a benevolent entity as sometimes, mysterious objects would emerge from its light.
This included the tools they had figured were meant to navigate the sea, in fact, it seemed like many items that dropped from this orb related to marine travel in some capacity, which had naturally led the believers to see it as a sign to take to the oceans despite the risks and fact that it was unnecessary for their survival.
They had once managed to understand the purpose of one and had since then always assumed that all related to the sea, so when they failed to glean at the purpose of one, they stashed it into a museum of sorts, in a similar fashion to relics left behind by saints.
Walking into the heart of this peaceful nation, the people here appearing to be of elven heritage, rather slim with a slightly tanned complexion for the most part, unfit for combat, some of them seemed to have vines growing upon their body, which was most certainly why none of the people seemed to wear anything upon their backs, as it was where the plant seemed to grow in majority.
From the looks of all that they had collected and stashed up on display, Loimos had not been incorrect, the method and material used in the creation of these objects was unique, and most importantly, of magical nature, this realm might just prove to be the perfect learning ground from Ridfoirn, a different manner to wield magic from the ones he knows.
Loimos could probably form another structure around this portal, but it seemed like its unstable nature was actually being forced into stillness by the faith of the inhabitants, so he simply arranged something right below it to form in case the passage threatened to either collapse or further expand and perhaps dump part of this other realm into the world.
Then, he sent a bit of rot inside, the mass falling into shallow waters, dragging itself around like a slug as Loimos felt no strong divergence for the life and death the empire was used to, this realm, or at least the portion he had ended up in resembled a flatland covered in patches of grass bursting with water, rocks protruding from the ground, their surface covered in moss, lonely trees sprinkled all over the place, their barks crooked, branches fatigued.
The soil was covered in a layer of water, the earth incapable of absorbing all of it, generally not even reaching up to one's toenail, and at most deep enough for one's ankles to be drenched.
But those details were far from being the most important to one's immediate look upon this realm, what truly stood out were the small mounds of stone overflowing with crystal-like minerals, growing upon the rock with incisive and jagged edges.
And of course, the few creatures around, all bearing heavy traces of that very same crystal it seemed, be it insects hovering above the water or alligator-like beasts posing as small deposit of that ore, it seemed like the fauna was either one with the material, or perhaps feasted upon it so regularly that they were becoming so.
The initial impression had been right, that material was the base of this realm's understanding of magic, hiding another structure underground, pushing the dirt imbibed with water away, there were no sapient beings in sight, so a good place to arrive and get familiar with the surroundings.
As he returned to his self outside the realm, Loimos was once again greeted by an animal staring straight at him, a bird this time, turning his head to make it clear that the surveillance attempt had failed, the bird did not budge, and instead seemed to return to its normal self instead of intently gazing like a person would.
Instead of killing it, Loimos just went on his way, however or whatever was following him around did not seem to maintain a connection with its surrogate eyes strong enough for Loimos's death to latch onto and crawl right to them.
Still, as a little test before continuing his original mission, Loimos stopped and in a slow motion, deliberately clear in its purpose as he pointed one finger at a woman, or rather, at the newborn she was cradling specifically, a bone spike emerging with small impulses, seeming ready to explode forward at any second.
Just to see, what sort of being had decided to tail Loimos of all people.
Nothing was happening, but yet another bird began acting strangely atop one of the houses, there was fear in its hollow bones, there was a will to act as well.
Since it was so, the putrid skeleton decided to capitalise on it and began speaking words of pale tongue that only the bird could hear.
"This spike will lodge itself into its body, but not kill instantly, it will only cause incredible pain as I funnel the aspect of agony without stop, that would put emphasis on the idea that death is liberating, would you not agree?" his utterly flat and monotonous tone betraying that he felt nothing whatever the baby's condition was, merely a show he was putting on to lure someone out.
The bird moved its head as if trying to perform a sigh, looking down from high ground, a voice that was not unknown emerged from its beak.
"Allow the child to live a while longer, Loimos, I am here… Well, I am speaking even though I am not really here- I wouldn't get within three continents and four oceans of you if I could get so far"
"You have regained full control over your powers, it seems, so you should know that resisting is meaningless"
"I would say that you are being awfully cocky, but I cannot tell whether you are serious or trying to get something out of me one way or another… Surely, you could put some more tone into your voice?"
There was no response to this.
"Very well, even I can not be certain, there are places and beings that transcend prophecies after all, like you, your king, the dragonlord et cetera, and one that can evade fate can do anything, like crushing your empire"
"Quideos Audit, you are mistaken, only one that can defeat Death can destroy the empire"
"There are plenty of beings who experience no decay over time- Immortals…"
"Prophet, I am not speaking of the concept"
Quideos wasn't certain what this meant.
"From then on, everytime I catch you observing or interfering with the empire or any undead, I shall condemn one living to a horrific fate, you should be capable of seeing those possible fates yourself" and just like that, Loimos took to the air.
Audit would have liked to simply silently curse at Loimos, but the images he was made to behold in case of transgression on his part silenced all thoughts.