The illusion didn’t arrive with the flutter of demonic wings or the chant of ancient curses.
It swallowed reality whole.
One instant, Frank was standing on the glass-fused dark rock floor of the World Core. He was surrounded by his students and the smell of fresh concrete.
The next instant, the underground cave vanished.
Frank found himself standing upon an empty, see-through platform suspended in the center of the deep cosmic void.
There was no up. There was no down.
Surrounding him in every direction were trillions of burning galaxies. It spun like pinwheels of brilliant, multicolored fire against the velvet dark.
Then, the clock of the universe sped up by fifty trillion years per second.
