What if he was a Human from a much older, much stronger, much more advanced civilisation?

    This changed thingspletely.

    After all, if he could leave the Primordial Expanse, then… couldn''t his forge also be in the outside universe!?

    Alex paled at the prospect.

    This just infinitely extended his search area, far past the point that made it worthwhile to even search.

    After all, the forge could be fucking anywhere at this point! It could literally be located in any random location in both the outside universe, or any of the likely infinite realms the Primordial Expanse had to offer!

    How the fuck was Alex supposed to search something of an infinite size?

    That was like searching for a needle in an infinitelyrge haystack, and for all he knew, the needle could be located so far away that his whole lifespan could dry up before even reaching it…

    However, trying to keep his morale up, Alex scanned the parchment over and over again, trying to decipher what it exactly meant.

    The symbols pulsed once in his mind—and then…

    Revealed the short extract of what was likely a poem the parchment originated from.

    ''The Heart does not beat within a world.

    It burns where thought is fire and metal dreams.

    The smith broke the circle. The gods screamed.

    He left through the wound… and sealed it behind him.''

    Alex blinked.

    Reluun frowned. "That… doesn''t soundforting."

    "No," Alex said quietly. "No, it doesn''t."

    Why was a huge clue rted to Mikhail''s forge just coincidentally sitting in this archive? Alex also wondered, but the significance of it being there wasn''t important to him at the moment.

    Just the fact that it was there was enough to satisfy him.

    Most importantly though, Alex could use context clues to decipher what exactly the poem meant.

    The first line, "The Heart does not beat within a world." Likely referred to the Forge itself, and since this ''heart'' doesn''t beat in a ''world'', Alex assumed it wasn''t located on a, at least.

    This left him a heavy sigh of relief to release, since it narrowed down his search tremendously.

    If it wasn''t on a, then it likely wasn''t in the outside universe – or at least made it so that he could rule them out of his search.

    Searching to would have been the most troublesome part of his search after all, since there were countless different time wasting procedures to go through, as well asnd disputes, trespassing and any other annoying stuff he would have to deal with.

    …Especially ons outside of the Federation.

    Trying to not only enter, but search through them, as a being of a foreign race was basically asking for a fight.

    Especially since he couldn''t exin his reasons for searching either, since he didn''t want anybody to know what he was looking for.

    Alex exined his deduction to Reluun, who whistled low under his breath. "So… what now? You go back to the Federation? Look for some ancient ruins? Crash a few cults?"

    A small trace of sadness crossed Reluun''s face for a split second when he threw his questions out, since he knew that if Alex did take that route, he would have to part ways with him.

    And he had no idea whether he''d see him again if he did that.

    Alex didn''t take his eyes off the parchment and continued scrutinising it under Reluun''s curious, watcheful gaze. "No. But even if I wanted to, I couldn''t. I have yet to increase my rank, so going back to the Federation''s off the table for a while. Besides, if this poem is legitimate – and referring to Mikhail – then I''m 99% sure the forge isn''t located in the outside universe at all."

    "Right, right…" Reluun nodded, clearly not understanding a word Alex was saying. "So… it''s between worlds? Or outside them?"

    Alex''s gaze grew despondent, as it was clear as day that Reluun wasn''t of any help. "More likely, it''s in another realm of the Primordial Expanse. Or, maybe it''s not connected to the Primordial Expanse or even the Outside universe – maybe its in an entirely different pocket dimension altogether. The fact of the matter is, we don''t know."

    Reluun stopped asking further questions, while Alex continued reading down the poem.

    The second line down likely referred to the geography of the ce the forge upied, which Alex wasn''t surprised it wasced with ''fire and metal dreams'', though he didn''t exactly understand what the ''dreams'' part referred to.

    However, he was sure that this line wasn''t going to help him in finding it in anyway, since he''d only get to witness this ce of fire and metal when he''s already found it…

    Moving on, he scrutinised the third line.

    This… this line was the mostplicated of all.

    ''The smith broke the circle. The gods screamed.''

    To be quite frank, Alex had absolutely zero clue what this line even referred to, and he doubted that he ever would – at least until he found what he was looking for.

    Right now, he suspected that it might be some background on what caused Mikhail''s disappearance, which was valuable information, sure, but not helpful in finding the forge.

    The mention of ''gods screamed'' did intrigue him though, as it cleared up some doubts of his own.

    Ones rted to the ''god''s'' nature.

    But that was a study for ater date.

    Finally, Alex turned to thest line of the poem.

    ''He left through the wound… and sealed it behind him?''

    Alex read the final line over and over again.

    It didn''t change, nor did it provide any further rity than he already had by reading it more than once.

    However, the mention of ''wound'' did remind him of something.

    ''Fracture…''

    Back when Alex first caught sight of the fracture leading to the Sri realm from his own, Federation''s realm, Alex thought the fracture looked quite unnatural.

    It didn''t feel like it was supposed to be there, like aw of the universe, such as abilities like Spatial teleportation just felt… natural.

    It felt like it was forced open…

    …Like a wound.

    Like the fabric of space itself had been wounded.