Wind rushed through Alex's hair. Hot, burning wind.

He was falling through the sky the moment he reappeared. He was unable to tell just how far below him the ground was. He opened his eyes, but smog covered his vision.

Instantly, he controlled his falling body, slowing down. The smog covered him entirely still, so he quickly flew away, trying to find a way out of it. He had to fly for a considerable time before he was finally out of the smog.

When he was out, he finally realized that he had been flying dozens of kilometers above the ground. Just a few kilometers up, and he would be considered to be in space.

'It's night time. So I have truly come to a different realm,' he thought. 'But why didn't I land on a receiving formation? Why did I arrive within this wall of smog?'

Alex remained in the air for some time, trying to figure out what had just happened.

The Sun God's words had distracted him so much that he hadn't heard anything that the others were saying at all. He quickly closed his eyes, trying to sense the three's souls, but he couldn't sense them at all.

Alex frowned slightly, annoyed by the situation. Why did he have to be so distracted? If he wasn't, he might've been able to do something to help the group.

'What did happen?' he asked himself. 'A teleportation failure? Or was it sabotage?'

Alex looked around. This was the Sun's Talon realm, right? Had they even been teleported to the right place or not?

Just as Alex was considering that, something appeared within his senses.

He turned around just in time to notice a massive bird made up of fire flying out of the smog. And it came straight for him.

"What the hell?"

Alex instantly brought out Midnight, ready to attack.

The bird charged at him with unexplainable aggression, leaving Alex with no choice but to fight back. Without hesitation, he swung his sword, using the power of his Sword Heart to create a Sword Aura that flew along with a sword slash.

The attack landed on the bird and passed through, doing no damage at all.

"Huh?"

As if empowered by the strike, the bird's speed nearly quadrupled, catching Alex off-guard. It struck him in the chest, leaving a deep burn that went into his organs.

Hot, burning pain covered Alex, which he barely managed to control. Even when his Undying Physique tried to heal it, it still struggled to, as though the wound was everlasting.

Alex turned around, searching for the fire bird again, but it had vanished from his vision.

"What… what the hell was that?" he asked, but no one was there to answer.

He breathed deeply, looking down at his chest, where the wound had only just healed. For someone who could come back from decapitation in an instant, the fact that his wound took several seconds to heal was worrisome.

'What was that bird even?' Alex thought, still not certain. His eyes went toward the wall of smog before him. "That was where it came from. Are there more of those inside there?"

He did not want to believe that was the case. More than that though, he did not want to fight another one.

While it had next to no strength in its aura, it was clear that it had a different sort of strength that Alex couldn't so easily explain. After some thought, he flew back down toward the ground.

As he did, he saw signs of civilization further away from where he would land. At the same time, he also saw the source of all the smog that flew in the air, and staring at it gave Alex a sense of awe.

A sea existed before him, one that stretched as far as his eyes could see. Unlike a regular sea, this one glowed a bright orange, a tremendous amount of heat emanating from it, along with the heavy smog.

This was a sea of lava.

Alex had never seen this much lava before. Perhaps calling it a sea was even underselling the amount. This was practically an ocean.

Alex tried to look in the distance, but the smog quickly thickened up, making it hard to see very far in. He could see no mountains nearby though, which lava would make over time after constantly erupting. Why did they not exist?

Soot started covering him, so Alex flew further down. Standing around would not give him any answer at all.

A strong wind flew in from the other side, trying to drag him into the lava, which Alex had to fight to get out of. Because of the lava's perpetual heat, a convection current constantly formed near ground level, causing monstrous storms to form near the lava.

Alex made his way out of the lava area. He did not want to fight the flame bird again if he could, so he got as far out as he could.

Alex was dozens of kilometers away, so far out that the disastrous gale turned to a gentle night breeze. Finally, he sighed, landing down on an open field, where he brought out his talismans from his Soul Space.

First, he contacted Pearl, but he got no answer. He contacted Scarlet next, and it was the same situation.

Alex then tried to contact Whisker, and suddenly a thin line of flame flew out from the lava ocean, instantly incinerating the talisman in his palm.

Alex quickly stepped back in fear, but nothing else happened. He took a few deep breaths, staring at the lava ocean and then down at the ash that remained on his palm.

"What the fuck is going on?"

Nothing made sense anymore.

Alex brought out another talisman, this time trying to contact Bai Jingshen. Before he could contact him, however, he saw something appear before him.

The Sun God appeared again.

This time, he didn't look toward him at all. Instead, he remained silent, simply pointing in the direction of the ocean of lava.

Alex looked at the man and then at the lava.

"Is that where I have to go?"

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