The scroll Reluun had been perched on finally crumbled beneath him with a soft crack, and the alienlet out a grunt as hended t on his face.

    "Guess that''s the archive''s way of tellingus we''ve overstayed our wee." he muttered, sitting up and dusting himself off.

    Alex didn''tugh. Didn''t even smile.

    His mind was too chaotic with all these new revtions to even concern himself with the joys and reliefughter provided.

    But he stood up nheless, joining Reluun in the sentiment that they had perhaps stayed too long in the archive.

    It had nothing useful left to offer them anyway, so it was perfect timing.

    He hadbed through every piece of useful material in the archive, sorted every shred of myth, folklore, and parchment that might rte to Mikhail already.

    And now, he finally had a direction to head in. A spark in the darkness, if you will.

    They approached the guard near the entrance after wading their way through the ocean of paper before letting them know of their intention to leave.

    The guard seemed rather unconcerned with the lengthy period they had stayed there, as if it happened often.

    Or maybe they simply just didn''t care.

    Either way, the two stepped outside, and Alex turned to Reluun, his voice quieter and more subdued now.

    "You''re an Expeditionist, you''ve been around, haven''t you?"

    Reluun blinked at him.

    "You mean besides crawling around on scrolls with mold colonies older than most stars? Yeah. I''ve seen a few realms in my day."

    Alex nced over his shoulder once, eyes narrowing before turning back to Reluun.

    "I need to ask you something then. The ce I''m looking for is likely a ce known to be associated with fire and metal, likely a realm riddled with volcanoes or something along those lines."

    He stared at Reluun intensely.

    "You ever heard of a ce like that?"

    Reluun didn''t even pause. "Yeah. I have."

    Alex sighed. "Yeah. I though so–"

    Then opened his eyes widely, taken aback.

    "Wait, seriously?"

    ''It''s not that easy, right?''

    Reluun stretched, arms overhead.

    "It''s not some hidden secret, y''know. Among the many rather advanced or older civilisations, the Dead Realm – at least thats what most people call it – is a well known ce. Most know it as nothing more than a cosmic scrapyard. Full of molten rivers, floating continents of ore, broken constructs drifting through me storms… No life. No cities. Just the leftovers of one of the oldest civilisations in the universe. One so advanced, they melted their own future down to g."

    Alex felt his heart quicken the more he heard about this ce.

    "And nobody''s ever… imed it? Explored it?"

    Reluun scoffed, as if the idea was ridiculous.

    "Explored? Sure. imed? No. You can''t just im something whose entire existence tries to kill you. People don''t go there without serious protection, or without being confident in their own power. Whole expeditions of higher life forms no less, have vanished there. Most say the realm is cursed, touched by the first war of the gods, or whatever myth you buy into…"

    Alex''s eyes sharpened, and Reluun''s did the same, as he too hade to a realisation by this point.

    This had to be the ce Mikhail wasst seen.

    That whole myth about thest war of the gods had to be bogus, created just to hide the real truth.

    And Reluun had realised that too, just not to the same extent as Alex.

    To him, Mikhail must have been one of those ''gods'' involved in the war, which only made Alex much more mysterious for going out in search of him.

    "This ce for sure exists?" Alex asked.

    "Definitely, beyond any doubt." Reluun replied with serious confidence.

    His breath hitched.

    "Could you take me there?"

    Reluun looked hesitant.

    "I could… but you''re forgetting one small issue."

    Alex tilted his head a little.

    "What?"

    Reluun''s smile turned sheepish.

    "If swathes of expeditions filled with higher life forms have disappeared there… what makes you think I''ll survive!?"

    ''Oh yeah that''s right!''

    Reluun wasn''t a higher life form, in fact he wasn''t even a C tier.

    Going to a ce like that was practically a death trap for him.

    "But I can tell you where the entrance is, at least." Reluun replied.

    ***

    The entrance to the Dead Realm wasn''t too far from their current location, by Alex''s standards at least.

    It was a week''s travel at full speed for him, which would probably take months or years for Reluun.

    To Alex''s surprise, it was located in the dead centre of one of the most popted cities in the entire Sri realm.

    This both shocked and confused him at first, since… who in their right mind would build a city around a fracture!?

    But then he remembered.

    No life.

    There was no life on the other side of the fracture, which meant that there were no beasts that could filter through the fracture in droves and go on killing frenzies.

    If anything, it was actually a treasure trove, a money pot waiting to be exploited.

    The whole realm was filled with all sorts of rare ores and other valuable materials, and there were no dangerous beasts to worry about either.

    The only caveat was that the entire realm was suffocatingly hot and covered withva everywhere one went, so only the stronger people were willing to risk their lives by heading over there in search of riches.

    However, even this posed a problem for Alex.

    With its status as a realm filled with riches, there was bound to be opposition.

    Those in charge of the fracture wouldn''t take lightly to him trying to visit, even if he went to the ends of hell and back to try and convince them that he wasn''t there for that reason.

    At best, they''d block his entry, and he''d just sneak his way in anyway.

    At worst, they''d go as far as to try and kill him to stop him from entering.

    But Alex didn''t have to worry about that.

    He had a card up his sleeve that even the most powerful Sri in the city couldn''t ignore.

    His diplomatic status.

    Alex was now an important guest from an allied race, so they had to treat him ording to his status.

    If he wanted to enter their treasure trove, they had to curb their ego and let him.

    And let him they did.