The light of the teleportation array slowly faded beneath their feet as Benjamin and Viola set foot on Clark's plane.
This was not Benjamin's first time here, but it was the first time he had truly seen the plane's exterior.
The previous times he had come, Mentor Clark had sent him directly into the laboratory. He had not even had the chance to see what the corridor outside the door looked like.
The only time he had not been sent into the laboratory was when he had died and returned, resurrecting in the storeroom through a Substitute Doll.
The moment his feet touched the ground, he instinctively swept his gaze around, then paused slightly.
Unlike the style of the Purgatory Sulfur Plane, Clark's plane... was far too lively.
There was an almost natural harmony within the bustle, as though this place had operated peacefully for a very long time and all its civilizations had fused perfectly. The teleportation array stood in the center of a plaza.
The buildings surrounding the plaza came in wildly different styles—one could even say they were as distinct as the Jing and Wei Rivers—yet they coexisted with a strange lack of incongruity.
To the left stood a row of low silicon-based lifeform dwellings. Their outer walls were built from layers upon layers of translucent crystalline matter, refracting brilliant spectrums whenever sunlight struck them.
Several silicon-based lifeforms the size of small hills were sprawled before the houses, basking in the sun. Their massive bodies lay so still they resembled heaps of glowing ore. To the right was an area shrouded in shadow, where light seemed to be cut off by an invisible curtain the moment it reached the boundary.
Several shadow creatures moved through that darkness, their outlines like flowing ink stains, solidifying at times and