Kai felt like he was falling for days.

He knew he was falling. There was a constant pull beneath him, an endless drop that never seemed to end. But there was nothing else. Only darkness.

It surrounded him completely, swallowing everything, leaving him with nothing to see and nothing to hold onto. He knew that there was no concept of time here, hence, he had no way to tell how long he had been falling.

It could be seconds or hours, but it all blurred together into something meaningless.

The only thing that kept him grounded in reality was the pain. His leg burned.

It felt like something had torn into it and refused to let go, the pain pulsing through him with every passing moment. It threatened to overwhelm him, to drag his thoughts into chaos.

But Kai held on. He forced the panic down and focused.

He had escaped the voidlings. That was what mattered. Everything else could be dealt with later. Still, a thought crept into his mind despite his efforts.

How long was this going to last? He had no idea how long it took to pass through a dimensional passage like this. There was no reference point, no way to measure anything.

He just hoped the others had made it through safely. That there hadn’t been any—

The thought didn’t even finish.

Something brushed against him. Before he could react, everything changed. Light exploded into existence at once.

It was sudden and blinding, and so bright that his eyes shut on instinct. After so long in darkness, it felt almost painful.

Suddenly, there was a sudden impact.

Kai hit the ground hard, a groan escaping his lips as the force traveled through his body. For a moment, he didn’t move. He lay there, breathing unevenly, trying to gather himself.

Then he shifted slightly and realized something was pressing against him.

It felt thick like he was submerged in something invisible.

A second later, he realised what it was—Mana. An overwhelming amount of it.

There was so much that it felt like he was swimming in it, every movement meeting resistance. Even compared to the space between realms, the density here was far greater.

Slowly, Kai opened his eyes. What greeted him was nothing like what he expected. He lay in the middle of a vast grass field that stretched endlessly in all directions. Above him was a clear sky with a golden hue with no sun or clouds. Just an empty sky that radiated a quiet, unnatural light.

For a brief moment, it felt unreal like he had stepped into something beyond life itself. Maybe afterlife. But Kai knew better.

Before he could push himself up or look around further, a voice cut through the silence.

“How long are you planning to stay like that? Your leg is bleeding.”

At once, Kai turned his head.

Elias stood a short distance away, watching him with a calm, almost unimpressed expression. Kai followed his gaze downward to his leg where blood had already soaked through his clothes and spread across the grass beneath him, staining it a deep red.

“Damn it,” Kai muttered under his breath.

He immediately pushed mana into the wound, forcing it to close and slowing the bleeding before reaching to his side. His fingers found a vial, and without hesitation, he uncorked it and drank the entire contents in one go.

The potion burned slightly as it went down.

Then the effect took hold.

Warmth spread through his body, dulling the pain and beginning the process of repair.

Kai exhaled slowly before pushing himself up into a sitting position.

Then he looked around properly.

The field stretched around them.

No matter where his eyes moved, the grassland seemed to go on, rolling gently under a sky that glowed with a soft golden hue. There were no clear borders, no hills to break the view—just an open expanse that felt almost too vast to be real.

In the far distance, he could see trees. But even calling them trees felt insufficient.

They towered over everything, their trunks impossibly thick, their canopies spreading wide enough to block entire sections of the sky. They rose so high that they seemed to brush against the heavens themselves, dwarfing even the ancient trees of Sylvastra.

Every breath Kai took also reinvigorated him.

The mana flowed into him naturally, filling his body and revitalizing him with every inhale. The fatigue from the journey began to fade almost immediately, replaced by a steady, energizing sensation that made his senses feel sharper.

For a Mage—this was paradise.

Kai had never been to the Earth Plane before, but in that moment, he understood why so many Mages sought it out.

A place like this would accelerate cultivation beyond anything possible in normal realms.

Slowly, he tore his gaze away from the horizon and looked around him. A faint smile formed on his face.

Everyone had made it.

Veridia stood a few steps away, her eyes scanning the surroundings with clear surprise. Elder Caelith was doing the same, his usual composure slipping slightly as he took in the scale of the place.

Killian stood with his blade already drawn, his posture tense as he kept watch for any threats.

Claire sat on the ground, still catching her breath, her expression strained from the encounter with the voidlings. Only Elias looked as calm as ever.

As Kai rose to his feet, the old man spoke. “What the hell were those beasts?”

Kai glanced at him. “I told you about them briefly.”

Elias frowned. “Yes,” he said as if remembering that conversation. “But you never mentioned they were practically impenetrable.”

Kai gave a small smile. “They’re not actually impenetrable,” he said. He looked back toward the sky for a moment before continuing. “But they live in the space between realms. They’re made for it, hence extremely strong.” His gaze shifted back to Elias. “They’ve been there for centuries… maybe longer.”

At that, Veridia turned her head toward him. “Then I don’t think anyone below a sixth or seventh circle Mage could kill them,” she said.

Kai nodded. “Yes. Even then, they would still be extremely troublesome. If you somehow managed to kill even one, its scales could be turned into armour strong enough to last you until the ninth circle. But that’s almost impossible. They’re never alone, and fighting them in their own domain is no different from suicide.”

Elias let out a short snort. “As if anyone has ever reached the ninth circle,” he said. “Or even the eighth.”

Kai didn’t say anything to that. He didn’t want to give them the shock of their lifetime with the knowledge he had. Instead, he shifted the topic.

“We should focus on the plan,” he said. “And what we need to gather here before we think about returning.”

Claire immediately spoke up from where she sat. “I don’t think I want to fight more of those things.”

Kai glanced at her. “We won’t have to,” he said. He straightened slightly before continuing. “All of us are bound to our home world. I won’t go into the details, but when we return, we can bypass the space between realms entirely.”

Killian gave a small nod. “That would be good, Lord Arzan.” Then he added, “But we still need to find an Elder Tree seed first.”

Kai nodded in agreement. “Yes. That’s our primary objective. Along with that, we’ll need pure mana essence to power the return ritual. Elemental cores won’t be necessary this time. We won’t be connecting to the space between realms again, so the ritual itself will be much simpler. But it will require far more mana.”

Veridia looked around the endless field. “I see mana everywhere here.”

Kai shook his head. “We’ll need even more than that.”

He looked around, letting his senses stretch through the air.

“I have plans to siphon mana from the atmosphere,” he said slowly, “and use it to power the ritual.” He paused, gauging the density again before continuing. “But if we rely only on that, we’ll need to find a zone where the mana is even more concentrated than this. And even then, we won’t be able to stay there for long. Ten minutes at best and it will crush us.”

Elder Caelith nodded. “And such places will attract stronger spirits,” he added. “More aggressive ones.”

Kai gave a small nod in agreement. “Yes. That’s exactly why we need both an Elder Tree seed and concentrated mana essence. The seed is essential. As for the mana essence…” he looked around again, “that shouldn’t be too difficult to obtain here.”

With a place this saturated in mana, the odds were in their favour.

“We might even come across liquid mana,” he added after a second. “If we do, that alone would be more than enough.”

The group seemed to accept that. One by one, they adjusted themselves and began preparing to move. If they wanted to find what they needed, the grasslands wouldn’t be enough.

They had to head toward the forests. Toward the center of the Earth Plane. Kai didn’t know how vast this world truly was, but instinct told him that was where they would find what they were looking for.

As they started walking, Kai moved closer to Claire. “Use the Storm Sovereign’s mana,” he said. “Make sure you don’t feel the pressure too much. It should affect you more than the rest.”

Claire smiled. “It did,” she admitted. “When I first got here. But Aeralion already took care of it,” she added, sounding almost amused. “Told me that Lord Arzan doesn’t have to worry.”

Kai let out a quiet breath. “I doubt he phrased it that politely.”

Claire’s smile turned a little playful. “I’m teaching him how to talk properly.”

Kai doubted that was going to work.

A spirit like the Storm Sovereign was far too proud to suddenly become polite, especially toward anyone who wasn’t its master. Still, he didn’t press the matter further. What mattered was that Claire was comfortable.

That was enough.

For now, his only concern was making sure no one collapsed under the pressure of the mana in this place.

He had prepared potions in advance—ones that could help both him and the others withstand extreme mana environments—but there was no need to use them yet. Everyone was still adjusting, their bodies slowly adapting to the density around them.

So he let them be.

For the next two hours, they simply walked. But the moment they entered the forest, things changed. Walking became far more difficult.

The ground was uneven, tangled with massive roots that twisted and rose above the surface like natural barriers. They couldn’t just step over them and climbing over each one took effort. Every few steps forced them to slow down.

The trees didn’t help either. They were enormous.

Far larger than anything Kai had seen before. Standing among them made him feel smaller. But even that wasn’t what held his focus.

It was the mana.

Every breath filled him with energy.

Not just a small boost, but a steady, overwhelming influx that made his entire body feel alive. It was raw in a way that normal realms could never achieve. The sensation reminded him of when he had first traveled back in time—when he had first felt the world’s mana in its purest form.

But this, this was far beyond that.

It was overwhelming in the best possible way, exactly what he needed. Coming to the Earth Plane had been necessary because of the Elder Tree. But that wasn’t the only reason he was here.

Kai had plans.

Even though his strength was already on the level of a Magus, he hadn’t officially reached that stage yet. And he intended to change that here.

He wanted to break into the fifth circle—something he was already close to achieving. But more than that—he wanted to push further to reach the sixth circle. He knew it was possible. The gap between the fifth and sixth circles was small, deceptively small. But crossing it required a lot of risk.

It was the kind of risk that most Mages would think dozens of times before taking and hence, why even though Veridia and Elias were already close enough to attempt the sixth circle, neither of them had taken that step.

In this era, Sixth-Circle Mages hardly exists.

There had been attempts, of course. Some might have even succeeded, but the success rate had been so low that it bordered on madness. Most Mages chose to delay that step until the very end of their lives, when they had nothing left to lose.

Dying while attempting a breakthrough was better than dying having never tried. That was the mindset.

The methods to safely reach the sixth circle simply didn’t exist yet.

They would only begin to take shape much later, during the middle years of the first golden era of magic. Over time, those methods would be refined again and again, until the success rate rose to something acceptable, above fifty percent.

But right now, none of that knowledge was available.

At least, not to them.

Kai, however, knew it. He knew the methods, the risks and the exact points where most Mages failed. And more importantly, he knew how to improve the chances. Especially when the Earth Plane made that possible.

The sheer density of mana here could offset the instability that usually came with breaking into the sixth circle. If used correctly, it could push the success rate even higher than what would be achieved in the future.

But that would come later.

First, he needed to understand this place. Find the Elder Tree seed, and secure it.

Only after that would he consider advancing further.

As they continued walking, Kai began to notice subtle changes in their surroundings.

The trees grew even larger, their roots spreading wider, their presence more overwhelming. But it wasn’t just that. There were more plants now, not the ordinary kind.

They came in all kinds of colours—deep reds, glowing purples, vibrant blues—and one that immediately caught Kai’s attention shimmered with shifting colours, like a fragment of a rainbow rooted in the ground.

Every single one of them radiated mana. The kind of plants that would be considered treasures in his world.

Kai didn’t hesitate.

He immediately summoned constructs of wind behind him, shaping them into hands.

Beside him, Claire instinctively took a step back as the constructs formed.

Without wasting time, Kai guided them toward the plants, carefully uprooting them one by one, making sure not to damage their structure or disrupt the mana within them.

There was no reason to leave resources like this behind.

With his control over mana, the process was clean. The plants were lifted from the ground without tearing their roots or disrupting the flow of energy within them, and Kai immediately stored them inside the bag he carried at his side. He didn’t plan to be selective either—anything useful, anything rare, anything even remotely valuable, he intended to take. If he could replicate even a fraction of these back in his own world, it would help a lot.

As he continued, Veridia glanced back at him, her eyes narrowing slightly.

“Don’t you think taking those plants would anger the residents of this plane?” she asked.

Kai shook his head. “Actually, no,” he said. “These are common here. Rare for us, yes, but in a place like this, they grow in abundance because of the mana in the air.”

He gestured lightly toward the surroundings. “Anything truly valuable would be protected. Spirits would guard them, and we’d have to fight for it.”

Veridia raised an eyebrow at that. “Do you plan to?”

Kai shook his head again. “No. I’d rather find a spirit that’s willing to talk.” His gaze shifted briefly toward Claire and Elder Caelith. “With two spirit trainers, our chances should be better—”

He stopped mid-sentence. There was movement ahead. Elias, who was walking at the front, had already paused.

The group went still. A second later, a group of spirits stepped out from behind one of the massive trees.

They moved on four limbs, their bodies sleek, resembling a blend between wolves and tigers. Their fur carried distinct stripes that shimmered faintly with mana, shifting slightly as if alive. Long tails swayed behind them, cutting through the air, and their eyes glowed faintly, watching the group attentively.

They didn’t look immediately hostile. Just… confused. As if trying to understand what they were seeing.

Kai leaned slightly toward Claire and Elder Caelith, lowering his voice.

“I think this is our chance to talk.”

Both of them nodded and began to move, their mana shifting as they prepared to manifest their spirits.

But before they could— One of the creatures moved and leapt forward without warning straight toward Elias.

Its jaws opened wide, baring sharp teeth as a low growl tore from its throat. And in that instant kai understood.

There wouldn’t be any peaceful conversation.

***

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