Cruzer stepped through the swirling vortex, the strange energy tugging at his skin as if trying to pull him in different directions at once.
He felt a momentary disorientation as the room behind him—the dark, labyrinthine corridors of the academy—faded from view.
For a brief, heart-stopping moment, there was only the void. A thick, oppressive silence swallowed him, and even his own breathing seemed distant.
Then, in a flash, the world around him crystallized, the darkness giving way to vibrant, otherworldly landscapes.
He staggered slightly, catching his balance as his boots sank into soft, uneven ground. The mysterious Domain of Echoes had revealed itself.
The sky above was a swirling canvas of deep purples and ethereal blues, streaked with veins of silver light that pulsed with a strange rhythm, like a heartbeat.
Massive, floating islands drifted in the sky, their jagged edges casting long shadows over the land below.
