Salem stared at the bleached set of bones he had pulled from the water, utterly confused.
"I haven't seen any sea life in this whole area, so how could it have survived?" Salem asked disbelievingly. "Where would it have gotten its sustenance?"
"Since there are spirits here, maybe it fed on aquatic spirits." Ruby suggested.
"What's the difference between aquatic and land spirits?" Salem asked her.
"I don't know, it's just a thought." Ruby shrugged.
"Fair enough." Salem said.
Salem examined the smooth skeleton of what seemed to be a massive whale.
Spending hours hypothisizing, Salem eventually gave up understanding how it survived.
"Let's explore deeper into the ocean." Salem said, creating a speedboat. "I think it'd be interesting to see how the water interacts with this vessel."
Seating themselved in the boat, Salem steered the boat towards the massive expanse of water ahead of them.
It took five minutes for them to discover that the water was going somewhere.
It took another five minutes for them to see the waterfall.
"Flat-earthers are going to love this." Salem remarked.
As soon as they could see the waterfall, Salem was no longer able to control the boat. The water was moving faster than the blade of the speedboat.
"We're going to have to fly." Salem said, giving each of them wings.
Leaping off of the boat that was fluttering about like a leaf in the wind, Salem soared above the boat and saw the emptiness beneath.
As he watched it fall into the void, Salem carefully kept track of the boat, wanting to verify that the planet was flat.
The boat hit nothing on the way down, continuing unimpeded into the vast blackness beneath. Salem watched it fall until it shrank into nothingness.
"So this is basically a Minecraft modpack." Salem said. "I believe this mirrors a modpack called Rlcraft."
"...What?" Alina asked, puzzled.
"The world seems to be flat, there's an abyss beneath it, the water's volume seems to be constant, despite it flowing, and there are spirits." Salem explained. "Minecraft was a game from my homeworld that had all of these as game mechanics."
"But what's a modpack?" Alina asked.
"A mod is something that's not part of the base game. Usually they're user created." Salem explained. "A modpack is a collection of them that is put out as a whole for players to enjoy."
Nodding in understanding, Alina gazed into the abyss once more.
After some consideration, Salem flew down to where the water was running off the edge and tried to collect it.
Holding the small bucket he had created, Salem watched as the water that entered the bucket vanished as soon as it hit the bottom.
Giving it an airtight lid, Salem tried again, hoping to at least see if it was in a gaseous form.
It still vaporized in the bottom of the bucket, vanishing without a trace.
"Strange." He murmured, flying back up to the waiting girls.
"What'd you find out?" Ruby asked.
"That the water doesn't seem to follow the laws of physics." Salem explained how energy and matter couldn't be created or destroyed.
Leading them back to the cape where they had departed from, Salem began examining the local wildlife.
Or lack therof.
Salem couldn't find a single animal in the forest. All he was able to spot, even with infrared goggles, was trees, grasses, mosses, and bushes.
"Where are the animals?" Salem asked, baffled.
"I haven't spotted any animal during our entire time here." Alina said.
"What a strange world." Salem said. "We've got water that doesn't follow the laws of physics, animal bones but no animals, weird spirits, and lots of trees."
"No reptiles, either." Ruby broke in. "Not even a single insect."
"What a wierd place." Alina agreed. "The only things we've encountered that move autonomously are spirits, and even then, only a single one."
"It makes me anxious that the laws of physics in this world are so easily ignored." Salem said. "I don't think we should spend very long in this world."
"Very long?" Alina asked. "We're going to stay here longer?"
"I want to expiriment with spirits." Salem said.
"That's how we die." Ruby said, laughing lightly. "I'll die happy, then."
"What does that mean?" Salem asked, baffled.
"I'll die with you." Ruby elaborated. "And I'd be happy to have lived with you."
"I understood that part." Salem said. "What do you mean, 'That's how we die.'?"
"Some spirits are semi-intangible." Ruby said. "Meaning they can pass through walls."
"So we shouldn't stay here?" Salem asked, wanting to make sure.
"We could try, though It'd be a horrible idea." Ruby said, glancing at the sun.
"Alright, we'll leave now then." Salem caved and produced his magical washing machine.
"I wonder if the reason that this world was differently coloured in the void was because it had very little life on it." Salem said as a singularity was formed. "Or maybe because it's not complete."
"That's an interesting thought.'' Ruby said, attaching herself onto Salem's front.
"Let's go." Alina said, attaching herself to his back. "We can't fight what we can't touch."
Stepping through the spatial crack, escaping the world, the three of them embarked upon another journey through the abyss.
Once within the space, Salem immediately made out two stars in two directions.
On his right was a star that burned white, shining blindingly, while the one on his left shone a brilliant yellow, illuminating them with a warm yellow light.
"Which one should we choose?" Salem asked after he created headsets for them. "White or yellow?"
"Yellow was the one that we couldn't a
easily complete, wasn't it?" Alina asked. "Let's try white."
Embarking upon their long journey once more, Salem started complaining aloud how annoying it was that they needed to walk so far.
"Can't everything be shorter?" He asked. "Why do we need to walk so far?"
"Maybe it's how we adjust to the new world." Ruby suggested.
That gave Salem pause.
"In my homeworld, we had a theory about the vibration frequencies of the Multiverse, and how each frequency corresponded to a different Verse within it." Salem said. "Perhaps walking through this space brings the molecules in our bodies to the right frequencies, allowing us to stay inside that Universe."
"An iteresting thought." Alina said.
"It makes me wonder what this singularity signifies." Salem said, pulling it out of his pocket. "Can a singularity exist indefinitely if it has no ties to a universe?"