Hot, asphyxiating, and boiling.
These were the first feelings of Alvine and his men when they appeared on the other side of the portal.
Astonished, the heat they felt was probably one of the strangest mysteries they had ever faced before.
Already, for such beings to feel the weather changes, the temperature must be beyond what a human, living in a volcanic cave, can withstand.
But this wasn't the strangest thing, no, even far; it was to see that apart from the arid land and the winds of the Harmattan, their environment did not shelter volcanic areas.
For some reason, Alvine found this detail too rude; especially since he had not felt such a current of hot air.
If there were no volcanic areas, then where did this unbearable heat they felt come from?
"My lord, this place may represent unique characteristics." Askald made this remark as if he could guess Alvine's thoughts.
But this was not the case; just like Alvine and the others, including Askald, also felt this anomaly.
"Let's forget; we will first explore these arid lands to have a fixed idea that we are yet out of our universe," Alvine mutters this order before turning to his army.
-!
But just before he gave the order for deployment, a detail marked him with a red iron.
Without saying anything more, he makes his way by pushing Askald aside and passing between Sabrina and her gang.
Finally, he stopped near Azalea and her two maidservants.
His eyes were fixed on their breasts.
"Where are they?" He asks.
"Where are what?" Azalea asks by frowning at Alvine who, until proven otherwise, seems to peek at her busts.
But the next moment, Sabrina also points her hand while mumbling. "Your crystals."
Now fixed on the question, Azalea looked above her plumped melons and saw that one thing was missing from the call. An exclusive brand of their breed; their crystals!
This detail, however insignificant, distorted the faces of the three women.
But the reality was yet present; their crystals were no longer.
At this moment, Alvine notices another detail more worrying than any other.
Without losing a second more. "At my command! Go back to my shadow!" He roars like a deer without explaining the background of his thoughts.
Following his order and infallible authority, Askald was the first to execute this order followed by everyone; including Sabrina and her gang.
In the blink of an eye, the overpopulated area became more desert than ever.
But seeing Assiaphir still present, he instantly sends her to his shadow!
Now alone with the four, Alvine inhaled deeply and reopened his eyes while exhaling with relief.
Without Azalea needing to ask him the question, he reaches out and shows a fireball.
"Look at this." He spoke not only to the three but also to those who were in his shadow and who also shared his senses.
He then throws the fireball.
But even before the fireball, the size of a basketball, traveled three meters, it disintegrated by emptying itself of its energy.
-!
Azalea's eyes almost left their orbits when she saw this anomaly.
Without placing a word, she tries the same experience; and without surprise, the same anomaly occurs.
Faced with this delicate situation, she looks at Alvine.
For a long time, Alvine remains silent while leaning toward the rocky ground and making a piercing with his index finger.
After seeing the small hole one kilometer deep, he took three steps forward.
But his face became even more wrinkled after stopping.
As if he wanted to be sure of his assumptions, he continued by experimenting more with the terrain.
But before he decrepit Cindy,
-Grab!
"That's enough!" Alvine, who did not expect such a chain reaction, shouted in a high voice; preventing Cindy from continuing to torment his alter ego.
Or perhaps the opposite.
The weapon he had just prevented from vaulting Cindy's head off her neck was none other than that of his shadow!
Turning around and seeing this horror with bloody red eyes devoid of any compassion, Cindy nervously gulped up; the absolute evil was behind her.
'Too scary!' The back of her dress was already soaked in sweat because of the bloodthirsty aura that had just crashed against her in a nanosecond!
Behind Cindy(frozen by dread), after seeing Alvine forbid him to slay his prey, the shadow stepped back, without saying more.
Seeing him retreat in silence, and seeing his submission despite himself, Cindy placed herself under the protection of her mistress; never sure of Alvine's protection.
But unlike her, Azalea preferred to use this experience to confirm some of her suspicions.
"Are you sure you are weakened?" Her question was asked to Alvine.
But unlike him, it was the shadow that answered him. "Even without the slightest magical energy, I am always able to crush insects that taste for showing off in front of my majesty."
"You shut it." Alvine immediately replied when he saw the other riding on his large horses.
"Tsk!"
"..."
Seeing this type of unique link between them, Azalea raises her eyebrows slightly.
"Who's he? I've never met him before. Does he--
Alvine cut her off. "A shadow; not more or less."
Following this vague response, he orders his shadow to withdraw.
Now satisfied with his experience, and above all, relieved to see that everyone is safe and sound, he handles another subject.
"Now that we know approximately what is happening in this place, let's move on to the most important." When he says this sentence, he invokes a shadow dragon out of his dimension.
Azalea remains motionless. 'So he hadn't shown his entire army yet?'
"It's only a mount; too weak to be considered a member of my army," Alvine responds to her deep curiosities while jumping on the back of the giant dragon whose size was twice that of Alvinos in his perfect form.
Its skin was completely covered with sharp and scarlet red thorns.
Its zigzag teeth were like those of a chainsaw but massive.
"Are you going up? Unless you want to follow us on foot?" He asks in a grumpy voice when he sees her two maids tetanized by the dragon's glare.
Uncertain of his thoughts, Azalea made the first step forward.
-CRCRRRRRCKKKKK!!!
But seeing the dragon's discontent and intimidation, Azalea stopped and looked at Alvine.
"Weak? Do you mean that we are weaker than all your shadow soldiers?" Azalea frowns when she sees the dragon growling at them.
She knew, just like anyone else, she knows that dragons are proud creatures and only let themselves be tamed by beings stronger than them.
But hearing Alvine treat this dragon as one of the weakest, she felt insulted.
"If only you could know." Alvine retorts with a sneaky little smirk.
The reality was very different. Certainly, there were shadow soldiers weaker than the dragon which's yet semi-supreme rank, but being able to defeat them was another story.
The military perfection that each sovereign seeks was already acquired by Alvine. Fighting against only one of his shadow soldiers... is like fighting against an immortal monster with an inexhaustible source of infinite mana.
To hope to end this cycle of regeneration and inexhaustible mana source to infinity, the only way is to directly attack the source; Alvine.
Before, he was limited because of his shadow energy and did not understand deep nature. But this limitation is only a distant memory.
Of course, it is possible to break the soul bond between him and one of his subjects by using spiritual attacks; but until proven otherwise, no one has been more successful in this field than he. After all, the shadow is already an intangible matter and consequently...spiritual, in large part.
The reason he called the dragon weak is not because of its rank of semi-supremacy, but because of its limited intelligence and its inability to take human form; two main factors that, strangely, are not acquired by this dragon.