The teleportation wasn't smooth. It never was. Even when executed perfectly, spatial shifts left the body disoriented, tumbling across unfamiliar terrain as reality reasserted itself. I hit the ground hard, rolling to a stop against something solid—cool to the touch, slightly luminescent. I groaned, forcing my limbs to obey as the last traces of distortion faded.
A forest. Not just any forest—a place painted in deep, royal purples, shimmering like an oil slick beneath an unseen light source. The trees weren't the verdant green of nature but something otherworldly, their bioluminescent veins pulsing with energy. A thin mist clung to the air, carrying a faint, electric hum. The magnetic pull of the forest's mana was intoxicating, rich and concentrated, as if I had stepped into a place where magic itself was alive.
