Chapter 227: New World

Regaleon suddenly found himself in what seemed like a new world.

The first sensation that assaulted him was weightlessness.

For a moment, there was no sense of gravity. There was no wind against his skin, nor ground beneath his feet. It was as though he had been suspended within an endless void, completely detached from everything he had ever known.

His consciousness drifted without direction, and his thoughts felt strangely sluggish, as though they had been submerged beneath deep water. Even the simple act of gathering his thoughts seemed difficult. He couldn’t tell whether he was moving or remaining completely still.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the sensation disappeared and he began falling rapidly.

His feet struck the ground abruptly, the sudden impact causing him to lurch forward as he staggered. He instinctively lowered his body, one hand reaching toward the earth as he tried to steady himself.

His breathing became heavier despite the fact that there was nothing physically wrong with him. His body was intact, and there was no pain or injury. Yet his consciousness was still struggling to comprehend what had happened.

Attempting to clear the confusion overwhelming him, he blinked several times and only after doing that did his surroundings came into focus.

The moment he saw where he was, Regaleon froze. It was almost as though he had encountered the petrifying gaze of a monstrous Gorgon as he was taken aback and bewildered at the same time.

He was certain he wasn’t supposed to be here.

The last thing he remembered was being inside the strange orb within the Reliquary. He had entered it, and the moment his entire body disappeared inside, its liquid-like surface had hardened around him.

Now, he was standing somewhere else entirely... How?

The feeling was so inexplicable, to say the least, and this made Regaleon very cautious.

His golden eyes slowly wandered across the landscape, taking in an environment that was both unfamiliar and strangely familiar.

Unfamiliar because Regaleon could swear that he had never been to a place like this before. He had no recollection of its mountains, its trees, its grass, or its enormous sky.

Yet something within him insisted otherwise.

There was a strange, overwhelming tug at his mind, as though some forgotten part of him was trying to make him remember that this place had once been a home to him.

That contradiction was what unsettled him most. His memories told him that this place was unknown but something deeper told him otherwise.

Around him, the environment was the opposite of what the Nether Lands stood for.

Rather than oppression, gloom, dread, and desolation, there was only peace, serenity, tranquility, and life.

The terrain was vast and open, stretching toward distant mountains beneath an enormous sky. Pale green grass covered the land, swaying gently beneath an unseen breeze.

Beyond it stood clusters of trees, their leaves carrying a strange shade of green that somehow appeared both foreign and familiar at once.

There was nothing particularly remarkable about the landscape, yet Regaleon found himself unable to look away.

The Nether Lands had always possessed an oppressive quality. Even the Scarlet Canopy, for all its strange beauty, carried an underlying sense of danger. Its crimson trees, hostile creatures, and unpredictable environment constantly reminded anyone within it that survival could never be taken for granted.

This place possessed none of that. There was no oppressive canopy, no crimson sky and no immediate indication of danger.

Even the sunlight felt different in a way that made it warmer, older, and almost ancient, as though it belonged to a world that had existed long before the one Regaleon himself knew.

He raised his face slightly, allowing the unfamiliar warmth to fall across him and the sensation only deepened the strange feeling within his mind.

Honestly, Regaleon was bamboozled, stumped, and perplexed, to say the least.

He had no idea where he was or how he had arrived here.

He tried to associate the landscape with somewhere from his past, searching through his memories for anything that might explain the sensation but nothing came.

He had never seen these mountains, never walked across this pale green grass and had never stood beneath this strange sunlight... Or at least, not according to his memories.

And yet, the feeling remained.

It wasn’t the simple familiarity of recognizing a place one had visited before. It was deeper than that. It felt almost instinctive, as though his consciousness recognized something that his memories could not retrieve.

Regaleon frowned.

He spent several moments attempting to recall where or when he might have encountered a place like this, but every attempt led nowhere.

Eventually, after failing to figure things out, he simply left it be and chalked everything that was happening to a simple conclusion.

It had to be the result of walking into the orb as there was little else he could use to explain it.

After all, the orb had already proven itself to be anything but ordinary. It had behaved like liquid when he touched it, reflected his form like a mirror, and then hardened around him after he entered.

Perhaps that had been the function of the orbs all along.

What if they weren’t simply strange objects floating within the Reliquary?

What if they were portals containing worlds of their own?

Or perhaps they were vessels capable of containing entire spaces within themselves?

Regaleon couldn’t say.

The possibilities were numerous, but none of them provided a definitive answer and that was precisely what made the situation so strange.

Every answer seemed to produce another question.

What truly was that strange Heart?

What exactly was the Reliquary?

What were those orbs?

Why were they inside him?

Why did they respond to his presence?

And why did this particular place feel as though it belonged to something he had forgotten?

Regaleon stared toward the distant mountains.

The landscape remained peaceful, almost completely indifferent to his confusion. Yet the longer he stood there, the more certain he became that there was something significant about this place.

He simply didn’t know what it was.

For now, there was nothing he could do except observe and try to understand.

But one thing was becoming increasingly clear.

The mystery surrounding the Reliquary was far deeper than he had initially imagined.

And whatever this place was, Regaleon had a feeling that entering the orb had only brought him closer to the answers...