Ten years later.
The sky of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane had changed.
Its ash-red hue remained, but it no longer carried that cramped, suffocating gloom that pressed down until people could barely breathe.
The vault of heaven had risen, and the clouds had thickened.
The distant volcanic craters still spewed smoke, but the wind dispersed it halfway up, no longer leaving it hanging in the air year-round as it had before. Benjamin stood outside the laboratory, looking up for a while before turning and stepping into the teleportation array.
When the light faded, he appeared on an observation platform at the edge of the plane.
The platform floated in the void. Beneath his feet lay the eternally twisted colors of the Endless Chaotic Void; behind him were the slowly expanding borders of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
An engineering administrator in a gray Wizard Robe was already waiting there, holding a data tablet. The moment he saw Benjamin appear, he hurried forward. "Lord Benjamin." The administrator bowed respectfully. "All preliminary work for the plane fusion has been completed."
"You've worked hard."
Benjamin nodded and walked to the edge of the platform, looking down at the land growing beneath them.
The ten planes he had brought back from the parallel world ten years ago had, after a full decade of splicing, anchoring, and fusion by the Star Ring Federation's engineering teams, now completely merged with the Purgatory Sulfur Plane.
New land stretched outward from the former borders. Ash-black volcanic rock and dark-brown sedimentary rock lay interwoven like an old garment covered in patches.
It was a little ugly, but the area had truly expanded.
"Basically, everything that can be done manually has been completed. What remains is to let time finish the fusion naturally." The administrator flipped through the data tablet.
"According