"Now... Where the hell was I thrown?" After hugging Acrypha for a while, Talon finally rose up from the hot, rough sand and looked around him. The only thing he could get from this environment was that it was a desert, a very large one that seemed to stretch hundreds and potentially thousands of kilometers in each direction.
'And I guess a horribly hot weather... It feels like I'm getting cooked inside a furnace right now.' Putting a hand over his eyes, he looked up only for the two suns to make him squint.
The weather was certainly way hotter than on earth even during the summer. If Talon had to estimate how hot it was, he would say that it was well into the 70 degrees or even 80 degrees.
A normal human wouldn't be able to survive with weather this hot but Talon's body was able to handle it well enough. Though, with all the salty water he swallowed, his throat was very dry and he wanted to drink some water.
"Can you recognize this place, Acrypha?" He turned to his companion and asked.
The woman closed her eyes for a second as if she was trying to feel something before she opened her eyes.
"We have been sent to really far dimension... This is actually... Way too far..." She frowned as she looked around her.
"Far? How do you even calculate how far this dimension is from my original one?" Talon asked confusedly.
The concept of dimensions was still bleak for him so things like distance and locations didn't fit his mind well when talking about something conceptual rather than physical.
"Hmmm... How should I explain this." Looking down, Acrypha thought for a moment before she crouched down and lifted one grain of sand.
"See this grain of sand?" She asked.
"Yeah." Talon nodded.
"Let's say that this was the original dimension we were in and this vast dessert which stretches for about a few hundred million kilometers is the Dimensionverse."
"Wait, wait, hold on... This dessert stretches for hundreds of millions of kilometers?!!" Talon blurted out loudly in shock.
"Yeah, this entire planet seems to be made of sand, I can't feel any water or any other form of land anywhere." Acrypha replied.
"...." Talon looked around with a stunned expression.
To put it in perspective, the earth's entire diameter was around 40 thousand kilometers. The sun's diameter was 600 thousand kilometers. So, with a simple calculation, this planet was at least hundreds of times the size of the sun.
'How is it this big... and its gravity is still not that different from earth?'
He couldn't feel any different standing there then on planet earth.
"It's not that uncommon for a planet to be this big. The Core Dimensions is said to be bigger than entire universes with how much we discovered of it and what is left uncharted." Acrypha explained with an even tone.
"... My brain hurts." Blinking silently, Talon decided not to think about it anymore. This only got him confused.
The scale of these things is simply too grandiose for him.
"Anyway, continue your explanation."
"Good, ehem, as I was saying, this desert is every single dimension discovered so far. Now, if this grain of salt is earth, then our current location is probably a few dozen million kilometers in that direction." Then, she pointed east.
With that, Talon picked up his spear, Aetherial Blades and his wet backpack before he started walking down the hill he was standing on.
The feeling of the sand beneath him was rather uncomfortable since it was basically burning hot. So much so he could see steam coming out of it.
'Where is that steam even coming from when there is no water?' Talon could only frown. Then, he simply put his backpack on top of his head to cover it from the sun. Meanwhile, Acrypha moved next to him silently.
"You don't need some kind of shade?" He asked.
"Hm? Oh, no, I actually like hot weather. It's quite pleasant." She replied.
"What? How is this good? I'm being boiled alive."
"Back where I came from, the weather is usually over two hundred degrees. This is a cold day by our standards."
"Y-You're amazing..." With a cough, Talon decided to stop complaining and started hurrying his steps to cut more distance quicker.
'With this pace I might be able to move a few hundred kilometers before I need to get some rest.'
If he wasn't completely exhausted after what happened back on earth, Talon would've went for the entire 3000 kilometers in one single attempt but he knew that his body wouldn't be able to handle such a pressure.
'I have a few bottles of water with me so I need to be careful with how I consume them.'
But, since his throat was dry at that moment, he decided to drink some to regain some energy for the long trip ahead of him.
Chugging down a good mouthful of water, he made a low groan of satisfaction as the sweet water rolled down his dry throat and quenched his thirst. Then, he washed his face from all the salty, sticky water and put the water away before he increased the speed of his walk.
'Let's do this.'
***
A few hours passed since then as Talon continued walking and walking with no end. All he could see around him was the empty desert and the dunes of sand. Gushes of wind moved across the hot area, carrying grains of sand in a beautiful harmonical dance of nature.
'I would've appreciated this more if it didn't smash into my face every time.' He thought to himself as he covered his nose with his jacket. Since the weather was hot, he didn't need that jacket and only walked with a shirt on.
"One, two, three, four..." As he walked, he counted each step he took. That helped him to pass the boredom of walking in such an empty world.
The trip was a smooth sail. He didn't meet any monsters or even any plant whatsoever.
'Is this desert devoid of life?' Talon thought to himself.
"Maybe it is aft-"
Before he could even finish saying that word, the ground beneath him started shaking all of a sudden as he noticed something rising from under the sand in front of him.
"Well, I should've not spoken!"
A//N: If you enjoyed reading, don't forget to support the book with GT and PS. Thank you!