The dimensional tear sealed behind them with a sound like reality mending itself—a wet, organic whisper that made Reed's augmented spine crawl. Xeris's words still echoed in the command chamber: "Hello,We need to discuss the terms of surrender." But instead of facing that nightmare, Lyralei had grabbed his arm with surprising desperation and pulled him through an emergency portal.
Now they stood in what could only be described as impossible.
"Where—" Reed began, but the words died in his throat as he truly saw the space around them.
Gardens stretched endlessly in all directions, but these weren't gardens of flowers or trees. They were gardens of memory. Crystalline structures jutted from soft, pearl-white ground like geometric flowers, each one pulsing with soft light that contained... scenes. Lives. Entire civilizations playing out in miniature within the crystal formations.
