Darius unhesitatingly activated the token, feeling the folds of space warp around him slightly as the token lit up with power. Words appeared in his head as a robotic AI voice instructed him to stand still and wait to be properly warped to his destination.
Complying, it took a while before Darius found himself traveling through space in the form of a long warp. Admittedly, it was far more comfortable compared to the typical portals made with magic or the elements, shocking him slightly.
Then again, it did make sense. Science-style warping was precise and dealt with heavy calculations of precision and timing, yet it cost absurd amounts of energy while magic-style teleportation just used abstract concepts and laws to bind two fixed points using a special type of energy that wasn't natural.
Each one had its pros and cons in the end, and Darius was enjoying one of the pros of science-style warping. However, unlike the instantaneous nature of magic-style warping, he was caught in this strange limbo for a few minutes until he felt himself being ejected.
When he finally appeared at his destination, his ears were greeted by the sounds of blaring alarm all around him, as his eyes were staring at flashing red lights.
"Alert! Alert! Unauthorized visitor detected! Alert! Alert! Unauthorized visitor detected."
Hundreds of inferior warrior-like robots came out, all equipped with common weaponry such as metal-bullet-based guns surrounding him, their weapons pointed at him. To add to this seemingly overkill of a greeting, many turrets opened on each side of the wall, releasing red dots, all aimed at his forehead.
Despite all of this, he remained calm and inspected the robots around him with intrigue, ignoring the clearly hostile intent behind their appearance. Since they hadn't straight out attacked him, the real show would begin in only a moment.
And just then, a set of double doors were opened by a mechanism, revealing three forms wearing what seemed to be skin-tight exosuits. They looked just like what one would expect from actors from a sci-fi movie exploring dangerous planets and strange locales in the universe, which amused Darius.
Like everything else, they didn't hesitate to point their weapons at him, as the one in the middle addressed him.
"You! What are you doing here and how did you get here?!"
Darius shrugged. "I came here to establish a business connection via an Entry Token."
The three stayed quiet for a bit, before the two at the side raised their weapons once more, while the one in the middle, clearly their leader, gestured out. "Hand it over then."
Darius tossed the now powerless token to her, at which point she summoned out various tools out of thin air to inspect it. Once she was done, the woman tossed it back to Darius, also aiming her gun at him.
"It's a legit Entry Token, which would grant you legal access to the visitor center... only they were discontinued here many years ago, so no one should be able to get one in this day and age organically."
Ah… well yes, that would explain their lacking welcome.
Darius had really hoped that his visit here could have gone unnoticed while he stealthily gathered information and set up a branch here, but Gravitas was too smart for its own good.
Well, since stealth was no longer an option, he was not averse to using force, and the situation truly demanded it. Before any could fire, Darius flicked a finger and sent a line of chain lightning snaking through the bodies of his assailants.
The Advanced spell was as thick as a log and had as much power as one smashing through them. Each target was reduced to ashes before the electricity could jump to the next, shocking the three humans.
Before they could fire or scream, they too were struck and turned into nothing. Darius didn't even gaze at their corpses before he calmly left the platform where he stood and idly walked through the facility.
"Miranda, dear, you can enter their network and do what you want while I go around." Darius prompted the AI.
"Yay! I was waiting for your permission before starting, just in case they put a false network in place for visitors!" Miranda chirped as she zipped into the continent-wide network belonging to Gravitas.
Darius knew she would be busy for a good while sorting out what she was experiencing and breaking through whatever blocks lay in her way, so he snapped and finger and turned the walls of the facility into sand.
He himself stepped into the wider world, marveling at what he saw which was nothing like what he expected. Instead of a modern-esque world similar to the early 21st century, what Darius saw was rather a hyper-advanced civilization relying on magitech.
The buildings, technology, and people were all of the same element, which was that they seemed to be straight out of a Japanese role-playing game's idea of an advanced civilization.
Progressive medieval-esque clothing fitted with a mixture of steampunk and cyberpunk level technology, cars styled like boats that hovered over the ground, and buildings that had neon lights but had the architectural style of the Victorian era.
Darius stood there as his eyes narrowed with intrigue. "Well, well Gravitas, it seems you have been hiding a lot from the world, haven't you?"
Darius was not under an illusion that they had developed rapidly from what they showed, even in Sino D'Mara's memories of 8,000+ years ago. Such a change would show in the fundamental aspects of their society, from top to bottom.
To the world, and to those in the know, Gravitas was as technologically adept as the modern Earth equivalent. It also seemed that had been that way for thousands of years, like they had never been able to progress further.
However, the biggest proof of their lie was right behind Darius, the visitors center. It was a place to receive foreign dignitaries who had no choice but to be received by the Gravitas' top echelon, and they styled the meeting place like modern Earth.
