"You are almost late," Aaron said, "I wonder why?"
"It doesn't matter; I was never actually late in the first place, was I?" Quinn replied, "Now, you ready or do we gotta wait for another day before you prepare yourself?"
Aaron simply grunted and opened the doors to a bunker of some kind; it led the two of them down via a strong staircase, to an empty room that branched into three more rooms, filled with different things: armaments, guns, food, water, armour, first aid, and a medical bay as well. The three doors were on respective walls, other than the side from which he descended into the bunker from.
Walking until both of them were somewhat in the middle of the empty room, Aaron kneelt and punched the floor. However, it did not break; the floor simply shifted and a hidden trapdoor was revealed. Going through it, the two of them arrived inside of yet another completely empty, white room; Quinn noticed that the trapdoor had shut itself and the flooring above returned to normal, as it was before the two of them arrived.
"We shall proceed here," Aaron declared as he turned to Quinn and picked up his hefty hiking bag on his shoulder, "Tell me when you are ready; we shall activate the magic circle straight away."
"Oh, I'm ready, alright. Just tell me when you're prepared to move," Quinn mocked. "Ready...? How? Where's the magic circle?"
"Don't worry about that. And, we'll be seperated for a while, so don't freak out too much," Quinn extended his hand and a dark-purple, almost black, Shadow began to form on it, covering the entirety of his hand. It soom expanded and from the supposed palm of his hand, it split, opening wide, and taking the shape of a great wolf, it ate Aaron.
Quinn had recently just created this Shadow Skill that allowed him to place/trap living beings in a sort of Shadow Space—or so he felt. He had not tried it out, but was certain that it would not fail; the only thing he was not so sure of was the mental capacity of a mortal to withstand the Shadow Space. However, Void insisted on Quinn locking Aaron away in that Space, because Quinn—as a Shadow, travelling through the realms—could not take Aaron with him unless he was stored away in his Shadow Space; even if he could, the sheer scale of the process of jumping dimensions would break him.
———
Aaron braced himself as Quinn activated his magic and raised his Shadow without any warning, enshrouding the two of them. Aaron found himself opening his eyes only to be greeted by darkness manifold times greater amd darker than when his eyes were closed. It was so suffocating in the great darknesss that the seemingly infinite void of darkness was making him feel claustrophobic; he wanted to scream at the top of his lungs, but he could not; he wanted to run, but he could not feel his legs—nor his hands—he could not even feel his heart beat and his nose breathe.
It made the few seconds that he was in that place feel like ages. While Aaron was in that limbo, Quinn was going through something completely different to Aaron, who was safe in the Shadow Space.
Quinn was exposed to all sorts of cosmic currents that sought to destroy his mortal shell and prevent him from jumping from realm to realm. However, his existence as a Shadow prevailed and the currents did no harm to him. He no longer stood where he was on Earth, in that bunker; he was somewhere else entirely: an uncharted field in all cocept, actuality and feasibility.
Realm hopping is, by no means, an easy—or even a feasible task. Matter of fact, it should be impossible; for just a single person to control it, that is.
The other races—apart from the Werewolves—in collaboration, took more than 200 years to advance their traditional universal teleportals in hopes of it wielding magical powers, formulae and symbols strong enough to actually travel to another realm and withstand the cosmic currents—hostile to mortal bodies.
Before the invention of the only 5 exsisting Realm Teleportals, the beings known as Vampires, Humas, Elves and Dwarves, were connected through spacial rifts—by the will of the Gods. However, the Shadows were different. They were beings that were naturally above most of the Gods. It was in their mysterious set of powers and abilities that allowed them to accomplish such feats at an individual level.
As it was Quinn's first time following in the footsteps of his fellow, late Shadows, long gone, it was not the most pleasant feeling, to say the least. However, he heeded Void's warning to keep his calm and not to go against the flow that carried him in the beginning.
From the wretched little flyspeck that the Humans called Earth, on the backdoor of a microscopic universe, to the great voids in between, Quinn travelled at a speed that could never be comprehended: moving from universe to universe in the matter of seconds; in kaleidoscopic views of the infinite number of realms, universes, and dimensions, he traversed from his home planet, Earth—in the middle of nowhere in the great scheme of the grand cosmos—to yet another random interstellar planet—in the middle of nowhere.
While doing so, he passed through countless realities, dimensions, realms and universes. He witnessed a myriad of unspeakable things through all of his senses. He could see, hear and feel all of history unfolding the bubbles all over the space. These bubbles were the realms that exsisted.
Having the thought of the Vampire world in mind, the space around him expanded and the bubbles seemed more distant. In an instant, his Astral form—that of a true, formless Shadow, ablaze in a dark, dark purple—accelerated to an unfathomable speed, causing the area around him to blur. The bubbles now appeared all around him in an expanded field of vision and they expanded into streaks of multi-coloured light rays.
As Quinn's Astral form continued to accelerate, his vision flickered until he finally came to a sudden stop, echoing a shrill, screech-like explosion that was so muffled and low that it was almost inaudible to even Quinn.
As Quinn's vision returned to normal, he found himself standing over a giant bubble; his body: incredibly tiny compared to it. He unknowingly entered the bubble, causing giant ripples to form over it. The interference of a higher existence had affected the causality of the realm...
Quinn could, once again, feel that he was travelling to some distant corner of the realm. When he next opened his eyes, he could feel the strong winds brushing against him and incredible heat around him.
He had opened his eyes just to find himself in the atmosphere of an alien planet. He could see, below him, were clouds. And, even further below, he saw a high mountain that stretched to the clouds and a dark, dark forest surrounding it and stretching far and wide.
Quinn controlled his descent using Arcane Energy to continue to observe the planet from the vantage point. He used the Origin Energy to protect himself from the heat; although, he doubted that he even needed to use it—his body as a Shadow was not even affected by it and he could not even feel it. 'Doesn't hurt to be cautious, man.'
He looked to his side and above, locking his eyes on the beautiful moons up in the vast space—quite close to the planet. He noticed the two Stars and the two moons as well: a large moon with a surface covered in reflective minerals, enhancing the ambient light. It reflected the combined light of Nocturna, the small red dwarf star—smaller than the Sun—and Luminara, the white dwarf star—a smaller star that emits a brilliant, albeit cooler, light compared to other stars; Luminara's light, though bright, is not intense enough to create full daylight. Its presence adds to the ambient light, creating a balanced twilight when combined with Nocturna's glow. The moon's reflective surface creates a diffused glow that softens the shadows and ensures continuous twilight.
The other: a smaller, darker moon with a surface that absorbs light. It had irregular, highly elliptical orbit, occasionally casting subtle, moving shadows across Nyxterra. Its movement creates gentle fluctuations in light levels, adding dynamic variations to the otherwise steady twilight. It never completely eclipses the light from Nocturna and Luminara, maintaining the overall twilight conditions.
The combination of the red and white light gave the sky a constant, soft purplish hue, contributing to the planet's unique twilight ambiance. Quinn was in total admiration.