Thor rubbed the back of his neck, still looking a little sheepish.
Soren waved a hand dismissively.
"Don't beat yourself up."
"This place might look dead, but I can feel it breathing around us."
"We're standing on a snare ready to snap shut. Stay sharp."
From a pocket tucked inside his cloak, Soren pulled out a small vial, swirling with a faint silver mist.
He tossed it to Thor, who caught it awkwardly.
"Drink it."
"What's this?" Thor sniffed it and recoiled slightly.
"Smells like burnt socks."
Soren gave him a thin smile.
"Mental potion. It'll clear your head. Keep you from going berserk again."
Thor grimaced, muttered something about "weird sorcery stuff," and downed it in one gulp.
He coughed, pounding his chest.
"Gods, that tastes worse than a troll's foot!"
"Stop whining. You'll thank me when you're not trying to hammer my skull in."
Soren already turning to mark the rocky ground with a flick of energy, a glowing rune, barely visible.
"Alright. Let's move. Eyes open."
They pressed forward, boots crunching softly on the brittle earth.
Soren's every nerve was taut, his perception humming, a wire ready to recoil.
A prickle up his spine.
Danger.
"Down!"
Thor didn't hesitate. Lightning exploded around him in a blinding flash.
BOOM.
Something slammed into Thor's shield of thunder, hard enough to throw him backward several steps, his boots skidding and leaving deep grooves in the dirt.
Thor grunted, steadying himself.
The darkness ahead shifted, just for a second, as something twisting through smoke.
"You see that?!"
"Barely," Soren muttered, frowning. "It looked like... black sludge. Moved like a spear."
Before either of them could breathe, the air snapped tight again.
"Incoming!" Soren magic already crackling across his fingers.
The green magic circle burst to life in his palm.
"Time Stop!"
The world shuddered.
Wind froze mid-sigh. Dust hung weightless in the air.
Even Thor froze, lightning arrested mid-arc around his body.
Only Soren moved, sliding through the stilled world.
There, in the frozen gloom, he finally saw it clearly.
A narrow, blade-like shard of pure blackness, arrowing straight for Thor's heart.
It shimmered the way oil does when it catches light, only there was no light here.
"Caught you, you sneaky bastard."
No life force. Not even a ripple of emotion.
No wonder his senses hadn't picked it up.
Whatever it was, it wasn't alive.
And it wanted them dead.
Soren waved a hand, releasing Thor from the frozen time bubble.
Thor stumbled forward with a grunt, blinking rapidly.
"What the?" Then froze as he spotted the suspended black mass.
"This." Soren said grimly, pointing. "This thing's been trying to skewer you."
Thor stared at the blade of darkness.
"Let me finish it!" He growled, glaring at the writhing dark mass like it owed him blood.
Before Soren could answer, Thor hurled himself forward.
Soren sighed, and with a flick of his wrist, released the frozen time field.
The black thing barely had time to shift before Thor's lightning smashed into it.
CRICHH!
The oily mass exploded, splintering into a rain of glittering black particles that rained down around them.
Soren approached slowly, kneeling to inspect the fine black dust.
It was cold to the touch, brittle, as the shattered shell of something once alive.
"Was liquid... or gas... now slag."
Soren was sifting some of the particles through his fingers.
Thor's shoulders still heaving from the adrenaline.
"I know this stuff."
"The dark elves... they tried to make a weapon like this once. Some kind of living shadow blade."
"Never got it working, or so we thought." He scowled at the ground, kicking at the ash.
Soren's eyebrows shot up.
"It's not a creature. It's a weapon."
He dusted off his hands and stood, feeling a sliver of unease.
If the dark elves' prototypes were surviving here, what else had they left behind?
"Forget it. Let's keep moving."
They pushed on through the cracked wasteland, the sky above them a churning bruise of grey and violet.
The black weapons weren't done with them.
Three times more, Soren felt that creeping sense of danger, and each time, he froze time at the last second.
Each time, Thor unleashed raw fury, shattering the lurking shadow-blades into harmless shards.
After the fifth encounter, Soren shook his head.
"You sure your Asgardian tech isn't this sketchy?"
Thor snorted, swinging Mjolnir lazily at his side.
"Asgardian tech?"
"We don't build crap like this. We build for peace. For defense. Only when some idiot decides to start a war do we bring out the big hammers."
He paused, stomping a shattered black fragment underfoot.
"The dark elves? They never wanted peace. Just death and domination."
Soren tilted his head slightly, noting the bitterness in Thor's voice.
"Sounds personal."
"It is." Thor muttered.
Then Soren slowed, his gaze catching on the horizon.
Something loomed there, barely more than a smudge.
A silhouette.
Vertical and stark against the ruins.
"Hey... Thor?"
"Yeah?"
"You seeing what I'm seeing?"
Thor followed his line of sight, frowning. His vision wasn't as sharp, but after a long moment he nodded.
"Looks... tall. Pointy." He offered helpfully.
Soren chuckled under his breath.
"Brilliant description."
"Hey, I'm not the one carrying a library around." Thor shot back, grinning.
They kept moving, the shadowy tower growing with every step, until even Thor could make out the intricate, almost organic architecture winding up its sides.
Thor's eyes widened.
"By the Nine..."
"It looks like one of their altars."
"Altar?" Soren asked, side-eyeing him.
Thor nodded grimly.
"Dark elves built those to channel power. Sacred sites. Dangerous places. I thought we destroyed every last one during the war."
"Apparently not."
They stopped at a rise, the ruined landscape falling away before them, and the tower, the altar, looming larger than life.
Even from here, Soren could feel it…
"What's inside?" More curious than cautious now.
Thor shrugged. "Not a clue."
"But if the dark elves loved it, you can bet it's nothing good."
"... No turning back now."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
Check out the new story: Garfield Across the Multiverse
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