Defiance of the Fall

"It's clearly the Stormwall Tor like the map said. But why is it here? Where's the Emerald Sea?" Esmeralda muttered. "It'd be one thing if it dried out. But this…"

Zac nodded in agreement, taking out the map he'd gotten from Mayor Truga. The jagged pillar crackling with lightning was marked just beyond the Withering Wind Region's border. It should have taken them months to reach it at Esmeralda's speed. At the border, there should have been a huge, viscous sea filled with deadly algae. And yet, they’d only traveled for a week before spotting the landmark.

“The continent doesn't seem to be randomized, and it makes no sense only saving the parts we've seen. We should have passed dozens of towns before reaching the tor, but we've only seen one ruin unrelated to the Limitless Empire," Zac said. "Could they have folded the continent like the Ensolus Ruins?"

"The further we travel, the more likely it seems," Esmeralda said, her eyes flickering with awe. “Just how did they do it? A Primal Heaven should resist any spatial meddling."

One thing was clear after their week in Black Zenith. The Left Imperial Expanse was unfathomably large, far exceeding anything Zac had ever heard of. Esmeralda even believed it was a Primal Heaven. Whether a Primal Heaven should be categorized as the highest order of Mystic Realm or a continent was an ongoing debate.

They were so incomprehensibly massive that they exceeded the limits of space. Sendor's Immemorial Realm might be larger, but the Perennial Vastness was mostly empty like outer space. It couldn't compare to a single continuous landmass drawing power from the cosmos. They even generated private dimensions.

There were extremely few Primal Heavens left in the world. They could only form during the Era's birth and only in pinnacle dimensions. Most collapsed on their own during the primordial epochs. The rest fell during the Dark Ages. After collapsing, a Primal Heaven would splinter into countless Mystic Realms and continents. Much of the Multiverse Heartlands were apparently built upon the ruins of continents like the Left Imperial Expanse.

Conversely, High-grade Continents and Immemorial Realms could still come into being if the circumstances were right. The Multiverse's peak factions could even construct one, though the costs involved would probably even deter Iz's family. It was much cheaper to find what you needed inside the Eternal Storm and drag it back to your empire.

"Folding the continent has to be part of the Fifth Pillar's design. I don't see how it's possible without the power of the courts and the Supremacies who built them," Zac said, looking down at the ground. "That's probably where all the actual ruins have gone. Maybe it was a protection for the population when they activated the grand formation."