Benjamin strode through the corridor outside the laboratory.
Behind him, the Black Giant Priest silently followed, clutching the test tube that was still futilely pounding against the web of his thumb.
The test tube tried seven or eight different angles of attack in his hand. At last, perhaps exhausted, or perhaps realizing it truly was useless, its arm drooped.
Yet the test tube still twisted its quartz body from time to time, voicing its lingering protest.
Passing through the teleportation array, Benjamin arrived directly at the transfer hub on the edge of the plane.
Because the Purgatory Sulfur Plane had undergone a comprehensive transformation, its Plane Barrier differed from the atmosphere-like structures of other planes. It was an invisible membrane.
In Benjamin's perception, it resembled a boundless wall of light enclosing the entire plane.
Though its "thickness" had been reduced considerably, its defensive capability surpassed the Plane Barriers of those natural planes by who knew how many levels.
And beyond simple defense, it could be fitted with all sorts of additional effects.
Benjamin had chosen a detection module at the time. Any person or object entering or leaving the plane had to undergo inspection by this barrier.
But the transformation also brought certain problems. For instance, some things could no longer pass directly through the barrier.
World Fragments were among them.
No. 2 Material Receiving Station floated in the void outside the Plane Barrier.
It was a hexagonal metal platform, each side roughly twenty kilometers long, cast entirely from standard Star Ring Federation military alloy.
Its surface was densely engraved with runes that maintained the atmosphere, gravity, and Protective Array.
A hundred-meter positioning tower stood at each of the station's four corners. The runes atop the towers emitted steady signals, providing navigation for passing transport vessels.
A pale-blue translucent shield