Examining the visuals before him, Ezra decides to be sarcastic.

"You all look to be in...great shape I suppose"

"Oh..." Valentine groans. "Fuck you"

Right away, Ezra bursts into a grating laughter.

This fellow is undoubtedly evil I tell you.

Chuckling for thirty seconds straight, Ezra ceases his laughter, moaning in satisfaction and contentment before reverting back to his serious face,

Back to the matter at hand.

Roxanne stirs, groaning deep and guttural as she forced herself on her feet. "Ezra... this is... your fault," she says, her voice hoarse.

???

Ezra tilts his head in confusion. "My fault? How exactly?"

Roxanne gestured weakly toward the empty expanse a distance in front of them.

"The portal... that damn portal. Whatever happened, it crushed us... internally... left us like this"

Valentine, still clutching her stomach, managed a weak nod.

"She’s right. That damn portal. It twisted everything. Felt like my organs were rearranged—twice."

Ezra blinked, genuinely surprised. "Wait, you’re saying the side effects of crossing the realm caused this? All of you?"

A chorus of groans confirmed it.

"Well," Ezra said, scratching the back of his head, "maybe the portal wasn’t perfect as I thought But—"

"Ezra" Roxanne interrupted, her tone dripping with exhaustion, "this is entirely your fault"

Ezra sighed. "Alright, fine. Let me fix this. Just stop looking at me like I kicked a puppy"

Despite their feeble state, Roxanne’s glare intensified, and Ezra quickly decided it was better not to test her patience further.

—--------

Ezra reaches out to Zydrax, his trusted advisor to offer a solution to the dilemma.

[Well, this is a bit difficult...]

True.

Being a secret realm exclusive to Transcendents, going there could have Ezra killed.

Meaning he couldn’t personally ascertain what the others had experienced.

At this juncture, Zydrax comes up with a solution.

"There’s another portal point... the Gatemark we set for the second secret realm" Zydrax managed to say. "Use it. That might stabilize things"

Ezra raised an eyebrow. "The Desolate Madlands? Well...I guess that works"

With a relaxed breath, Ezra activated <Gatemark>, to which it responded immediately, pulsing with energy as a new portal tore open before him, locking onto the coordinates for the Madlands.

"Alright, let’s see how this goes" Ezra mutters before stepping through.

—------

The sensation of traveling to the Desolate Madlands hit Ezra like a freight train.

The moment he entered, his body was seized by an overwhelming force that seemed to twist and compress every atom in his being.

He tried to scream, but no sound escaped.

The world around him blurred into a kaleidoscope of violent colors, his mind reeling from the sheer velocity at which he was being hurled through space.

His mind felt the greatest havoc trying to process what was happening to him.

So the extent that at some point. It just shut down.

Ezra literally went offline, completely unconscious.

—---------

Coming back to his sense, Ezra violently coughs, spitting out a small amount of dirt.

A little recalibration of him intuitively explained his arrival at his current situation.

His landing hadn’t been graceful.

Ezra assumes he hit the ground face-first, the impact causing sand to enter his mouth.

He lay there for several moments, disoriented and groaning, before slowly pushing himself up onto his knees.

The Desolate Madlands stretched out before him—a barren wasteland of jagged rocks, crimson skies and weapons of all kinds strewn around, having turned into scrap metal since long ago.

The air was thick with the scent of sulfur, and the ground beneath him was cracked, as if the land itself abhorred life

"Great" Ezra muttered.

He staggered to his feet, taking in his surroundings.

The Madlands were eerily silent, the only sound coming from the occasional gust of wind that sent spirals of ash dancing through the air.

But it was like this the last time he was here, so Ezra is unperturbed.

Before he can begin an analysis, Ezra falls to his knees, clutching his stomach in pain.

For the first time in years, if not decades, Ezra has a stomachache.

A potent one at that.

Ezra groaned, clutching his stomach as the pain surged like molten lava coursing through his veins. He doubled over, beads of sweat forming on his brow.

For a moment, he looked utterly defeated by what could only be described as a ’betrayal from within.’

"What the hell is this...?" he muttered, his voice strained as another wave of pain hit.

[Well. It is much less dangerous than I feared was happening] Zydrax answers, his tone sounding scholarly with no hint of worry. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Ugh!"

Even while Ezra groaned in pain.

Rather.

[Calm down, your body will be back to peak performance within an hour]

Rather joy-

’An hour?!’

-Ezra felt unbearably annoyed and also frustrated.

His stomach innards had twisted as if it were being wrung out by invisible hands.

The pain surged again, forcing a guttural growl from his throat.

Yet now he was hearing that he might have to endure such things for whole hour?!

"Zydrax, what is this?" Ezra gritted through clenched teeth, his frustration barely held in check. "This isn’t just discomfort. It feels like my insides are trying to murder me"

[Patience. You’ve just experienced something interesting] Zydrax replied, his voice calm. [Hmm. It’s a good thing this happened early]

Ezra’s hands dug into the dirt, his nails scraping against the rough ground as he fought to regain control of his body.

He exhales sharply, attempting to steady himself against the waves of nausea and discomfort.

"Zydrax, I need more than riddles right now" Ezra snapped, his voice laced with frustration. "What exactly happened back there? And why does it feel like I’ve been turned inside out?"

[Very well] Zydrax began, his tone shifting to one of explanation. [The portal you crossed to the Desolate Madlands operates on a principle beyond what your physical body is accustomed to, actually, your portals always did. It just didn’t matter until now]

"What?"

[The differing factor this time is the distance between your previous location and this realm was vast, not just in physical space but in dimensional complexity]

Ezra groaned, rising shakily to his feet. "Dimensional complexity? Can you explain that without sounding like a philosopher?"

Zydrax sighed in mock exasperation.

[Fine. Think of it this way: the portal had to transport you faster than the speed of light to reach this place.

But moving a corporeal body at that velocity presents a problem.

Your human biology isn’t designed to withstand such forces.

The portal’s solution? Morph your physical structure temporarily into something that could survive the journey]

Ezra’s eyes widened slightly, and he stopped clutching his stomach for a moment. "Wait. Morph my body?"

[Precisely] Zydrax confirmed.

[It reshaped your molecular structure into a form more suited for dimensional travel—essentially reducing you to a state that transcended your usual three-dimensional framework.

This allowed you to move through the portal without disintegrating or being lost in the void.

However, upon arriving here, your body had to revert to its original form, which caused a violent backlash.

It’s precisely like that what happened when you Teleported from Black Quartet directly to Planet Polaim. But with far less backlash since the ability is much more refined]

Ezra blinked, his mind struggling to process the revelation.

"So you’re saying... I was something else while crossing the portal? And now my body’s throwing a tantrum because it didn’t like being turned back to normal?"

Ezra had failed to notice that the pain in his body had already began to reducing.

[In layman’s terms, yes,] Zydrax replied.

[Your body isn’t used to transitioning between these states, which is why you’re experiencing such extreme aftereffects.

But don’t worry; the pain is a sign that the process was successful. You’ll recover fully within an hour or so]

"ACK!" Ezra groans again, struggling with reality. "So should I be filled with gratitude that I’m even alive?"

[I don’t think you understand what just happened] Zydrax pauses, his voice devoid of any warmth. [You have just travelled the distance of multiple star fields that originally took you eleven days on a top class spaceship in less than a minute!]

"I know but-

[And the only drawback you have to show for it is a stomachache!] Cutting him off, Zydrax might as well be fuming.

[Do you understand in any capacity how crazy, how insane that is?]

"ugh"

To such words, Ezra could only groan in silence, not daring to complain.

Honestly, contrary to what one would expect, this Zydrax is much more positive than one would initially expect.

Ezra shook his head and began pacing slowly, testing the limits of his recovering body.

The Madlands stretched endlessly around him, a desolate landscape of jagged rocks and barren soil covered in all sorts of filth.

The crimson sky above churned with ominous clouds, adding to the oppressive atmosphere.

Despite his discomfort, Ezra couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of familiarity.

"This place hasn’t changed" he muttered under his breath. "Still as welcoming as ever"

[You’ve been here before] Zydrax remarked. [That’s an advantage. You know what to expect]

Ezra nodded, his gaze scanning the horizon. "Yeah, but last time, I wasn’t recovering from having my biology rewritten. If something decides to attack me while I’m like this..."

[Seriously?] Zydrax questions.

[You are a third step Nascent. If the measly hunks of metal in here can get the better of you just because you have a stomachache, then I will have to accept that you are far too incompetent an individual to enact my revenge]

"Sheesh, so angry" Ezra sighs. "All right, all right, I heard you"

And then...

"Hmm?" Ezra’s face tilts in confusion, standing upright in one go.

"I’ve completely recovered?"

How unexpected.