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.
"{A dragon? A Supreme Being? What is that? Are you mocking me? Are you a dumb person?}"
"…"
Malum's scales emitted a faint black hue. "Okaaay…" He inhaled and clenched is hand. "I'll kill this fucking brat!" A vein popped on his forehead as he was about to release a fire breath. But even like that, the 'fairies' appeared to be completely oblivious.
Shakti tilted her head. "Stop. They can't even sense that you're about to release a breath. Do you seriously want to kill them?" She restrained him and the ashen dragon could only huff as he stepped back.
Shakti leaped and landed in front of the petite girl. "{What about you? What is your name?}" She bent down and gently asked.
The fairy blushed a little and rested her spear on the ground. "{My name is Kureina. I am part of the Zerista race and my clan pertains to the Gratus Alliance,}" she disclosed proudly and Shakti blinked with an unperturbed smile; skillfully hiding her ignorance.
"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Only Malum expressed his thoughts out loud and although he couldn't be understood by that Kureina girl, she still glared at him.
"{Then, Kureina, can you possibly tell us where your clan is located? As you can see, we are travelers and don't speak the same language as you. Could you possibly be kind enough to guide us?}" Shakti asked a favor like a professional swindler and Malum was obliged to praise her internally.
"{Travelers…}" Kureina contemplated then discussed with her companions in her language for a moment. She then faced Shakti again and stored her spear. "{We can bring you to our land. You'll be able to speak with the chief. He's very knowledgeable, maybe he knows about your language.}"
'I doubt that,' both Shakti and Malum silently retorted.
"{Follow us,}" Kureina declared and flapped her wings. Sparkling dust fell from her back as she ascended. "{Oh, you can fly, right?}" She abruptly asked.
"{Are you blind? Can't you see the wings I have on my back?}" Malum deadpanned.
"{I can. But they're so weird. I wondered if you could actually fly with them.}"
Malum was incensed again and Shakti had to calm him before they could depart. They followed the group of 'Zerista' toward one of the flying islands that were very far up. On the way, Shakti sat cross-legged on Malum's back while talking to him.
"{What do you think about them?}"
"{They're weak. Incredibly weak,}" Malum unhesitatingly answered. "{If I'm not careful, I might kill them by just breathing too hard. And thankfully my heart is stopped because its beating would also be dangerous to them.}"
Shakti agreed. "{They would compare to someone at the second level of the Mortal Realm in our Reality. I can see that they're rather fast though… but their spirit is really weak,}" she observed the children flying ahead of them before looking around at the flying islands.
"{Yeah… and those islands too. I still can't find out how they're floating,}" Malum said. "{I've been trying since we arrived. It's definitely not gravity. There's no sign of an external force pushing it too. It's as if it was created to be able to float. An object of which the particularity is to be able to ignore gravity. It's bizarre.}"
"{Maybe there's a sort of core holding everything together inside,}" Shakti alleged and Malum didn't respond. He was gazing at a certain island. He felt like he saw something flash on it for a second. He was about to go check it out when he heard Kureina speak.
"{We arrived.}"
Malum glanced at her then focused on the island that was just above him. He carefully wagged his wings, went above it, and viewed it with Shakti. It was undoubtedly bigger compared to the one they had crashed on earlier.
Maybe it was as big as a small country. There were many habitations on it and you could see the people living on it. There were agriculture fields spread across the terrain.
Malum wasn't admiring anything and merely scanned everyone.
"Weak… why are they all so weak? It's not even funny. There's undoubtedly something strange. Based on the magic circuits here, the people should be a lot stronger. But there's not even a single one stronger than the fifth level."
"Indeed," Shakti slowly nodded and followed Kureina's group with her eyes. They landed on the island in the middle of what seemed to be an actual landing zone. There were many other Zerista there. Kureina smiled and waved her hand at Shakti from there.
"…Let's go."
"Hm," Malum nodded and glided. As he neared the ground, his body started glowing and Shakti jumped off. When they landed, Malum swiftly reverted to his human form and stood beside Shakti.
Kureina and the others gawked at his appearance.
"{Brother Malum is a lot more good looking like that. You looked like a dumb beast before,}" she said and Malum let out an empty laugh full of scorn. Shakti discreetly giggled. "{I'll bring you to our leader now,}" she added and talked to a few older people, who seemed to be guards, before exiting the landing zone and inviting Malum and Shakti to follow.
When they both stepped on the soil of the island to get where Kureina was, they immediately stopped and their eyes widened.
Malum smirked. "I get it now. Looks like the food-chain here is awfully unusual," he stamped the ground and the entire island shook. A loud roar resounded strongly and Malum laughed.
"I don't care about these little pricks anymore. I'll hit up a conversation with this big guy instead," he stated and coated his fist with fire before punching the ground.