Primordial Dimensions

While he looked at everything around him in awe, Empress Idral departed from the teleportation port, gliding towards the center of the floating island.

Shane noticed this and walked towards her with brisk steps.

He stopped when he was only a step behind when she suddenly added in a slightly frustrated tone,

"Just stay next to me. Knowing that someone walks behind me is burdensome!" 

Following her words, he fell into steps beside her and continued to inspect his surroundings intently.

Only now did Shane notice that the elementals around them quickly descended from the air before bowing deeply to the Empress. Her female humanoid shape flickered lightly, showing that she was annoyed.

'Why does she hate being revered that much?' Shane asked himself, but he decided to keep quiet instead of poking his nose in her private business by asking the same. He imagined how it would feel if humans were to revere him like the Elus-race revered the Empress.

The thought alone caused him to flinch before goosebumps erupted on his entire body as he quietly mumbled.

"Ugh...how annoying!" 

Empress Idral heard this and her fluctuating white-blueish form became more stable. Only a moment later she asked Shane something completely out of context because she was curious about it.

"Why are you not asking me anything about my foresight ability or what exactly I saw within you that made the Elus-race trust you? I could have also left out a few particular things intentionally that I saw through my foresight ability, in the system pledge we formed. Through a loop-hole, we would be able to kill you without much effort right now."

Shane was thrown off-guard by this question because he hadn't expected something like that to come up. While they were continuing to walk towards the center of Caera, the crystal island, he tried to think of an answer to the Empress's question.

"Hmm the last point is a bit more difficult to answer, but the questions' answers are not. I didn't ask and won't ask anything about the foresight ability. It would be improper and I already know more than enough about it, considering that I'm a stranger to the Elus race or Empress Idral.

I'm definitely curious to know more, but the things stated inside the system pledge are already enough for me.

In the end, it's me who decides my future and not some ability!... About the last point….I don't know what exactly I should answer but I know for sure that the system doesn't like being exploited to create loopholes. I think milady is aware of this and wouldn't put the fate of the entire Elementals race at stake. It would be a gamble to kill me for a small possibility that I might be the race's doom, which the foresight ability might have seen other than the already stated advantageous points it saw!"

After Shane answered Empress Idral's question, both of them stayed quiet for some time because they were immersed in their own train of thoughts.

While the Elementals Empress was trying to see through Shane in order to figure him out, Shane observed the hundreds of Elementals who kneeled in front of the Empress.

He wanted to see how he could differentiate one from the other, except using the color of their non-corporeal body that was something between liquefied and gaseous.

Elementals could shape their appearance and didn't have an 'age' like humans and other races had. They could enter the Primordial Dimensions, once they accumulated a certain amount of mana within their body. This was innately different from other races that had to reach a certain age to enter the Primordial Dimensions.

Until they reached the center of the island, Shane only found two features that allowed him to differentiate one Elemental from the other, and only one of those features was really helpful.

The first thing he noticed about the Elementals was also the most obvious- their different colored, glowing body! Not only could the Elus-race have all kinds of colors, with most of them being monotones, the density of their body's color also varied a lot.

Shane assumed the dense colored Elementals with a brighter glowing body to be higher evolved Elementals. He could sense this based on their mana fluctuations that were distinct and much more complex.

That was also Shane's second find! 

Every living being had its own individual mana fluctuations, and with only a few exceptions, one could either disregard or learn to not be fooled by anyone.

While there were still many Elementals with the same color, density, and bright glowing body, all of their mana fluctuations were different!

After he finally found a solution to his predicament, Shane told himself that he had to imprint everyone's mana fluctuation, at least, if he wanted to remember these Elementals.

As such, the first thing he did was to imprint the Empress Idral's mana fluctuation.

Shane was barely done when he saw that they had already arrived in the center of the floating crystal island. He stared in fascination as a gigantic palace appeared in front of him.

'How was I unable to see that from further away?' He asked himself in shock, thinking that he couldn't afford to be absent-minded right now!

'Get your act together!' Shane shouted in his mind, in the hope that it would help him somehow calm his jittery nerves. 

Empress Idral was also astonished that they had already arrived in front of the palace before she teased him a little bit.

"Let's meet the Emperor. He should already be waiting for you, at least after I told him what I saw with my foresight ability!" 

'Is that how an Empress should behave? Does she want me to inquire more about her foresight ability or is that some sort of role-play to get to know me more? Maybe she wants to see how curious I am about her ability?'

Shane didn't understand what motives the Empress had to speak about her foresight ability all the time, but he could only force a calm smile.

"Empress Idral, I'm also eager to meet the Emperor and his tamed beasts."

"Ohh? Did Firug, the Elemental we designated as your merchant, tell you the story about the Starstream fox?"

She enquired, observing him like a curious bird while ascending the crystalized stairs towards the palace's grand entrance that was situated on a small hill and was surrounded by a canopy of large trees. Shane perceived the presence of a few terrifying existences lurking within that dense foliage. Meanwhile, Empress Idral narrated a tale about the Emperor's achievement as if it were her own.

Shane couldn't suppress a smile when he heard the Empress talking about the Emperor's deeds.  Her behavior was comparable to that of a small child who wouldn't stop gushing about his role model's achievements.

By the time they reached the last stair, Shane noticed that his eyes had already adjusted to the bright sunlight which was definitely beneficial. He followed Empress Idral inside the palace that was guarded by several dozen Elementals that were shaped like gigantic ferocious beasts.

'Is this their favorite form or a means to intimidate other beings before they even dare to infiltrate the palace they guard?' 

Shane asked himself, wondering which of his assumptions was the right one.

Maybe it was both or none of them, but Shane didn't have enough time to think about it thoroughly because the Empress was already far ahead of him.

He had to run after her to keep up with her pace which seemed to increase the closer they came to the gigantic gate Shane noticed in front of them.

The crystallized gate guarding the opulent palace was at least 30 meters in height and 20 meters in width. The grandeur caused him to ask himself if this was really necessary.

'Is that a provision created due to the possibility of an ambassador from a race like the Blood Giants visiting Masua? Their height is gigantic and a small gate wouldn't even have enough space for them to place a single foot!'

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