The moment his foot crossed the threshold, reality fractured around him.
The familiar desert air vanished, replaced by something far older, heavier, and infinitely more alien.
There was no sound of transition, only a sudden, overwhelming silence that pressed against his ears like the vacuum before creation itself.
He emerged into Arcadia.
"...Fucking hell..."
The first thing that struck him was the sky.
It wasn't exactly a sky, but more like a living canvas of pure light and shadow.
Swirling nebulae of silver, gold, and deep violet twisted slowly overhead, forming ever-changing patterns that resembled both galaxies being born and dying in the same breath.
There were no stars in the conventional sense; instead, massive crystalline structures floated in the upper atmosphere, pulsing with soft inner light like hearts made of frozen time.
Some were the size of continents, drifting lazily through the endless expanse.
