The meteorite roared through the sky… a golden sun ripped from its throne, trailing flames that terrorized the sky itself.
The space around it wavered, folding into shimmering ripples, as everything was gasping under the weight of its power.
On the blasted ground below, the beast's claws dug trenches into the earth.
A deep, snarl rolled out of its throat. Its hide bristled, every animal instinct screaming at it to run.
But the moment had already passed. The meteorite was hunting it.
Impact.
BOOOOM!
Blinding gold clashed against roiling black, shockwave flattening the ground in every direction.
Thor stumbled back, cursing, ears ringing so hard he couldn't hear himself.
Fragments of the meteorite traveled like dying comets, forcing him to duck and cover behind his hammer.
Soren stood firm, one hand raised slightly as if conducting the chaos. His fingers curled inward, and slowly, the golden flames began to die away.
As the dust finally settled…
Where the beast once loomed, was nothing, only a few tendrils of black smoke spiraling back into the stone tablet at the center.
Thor approached, warier this time. His nose wrinkled at the lingering smell, a burnt, tang that clung to the back of his throat.
He eyed the stone with a grimace.
"Right."
"Not touching anything again."
The runes pulsed once.
Soren was studying them hard like a man examining a puzzle just out of reach.
Thor squinted, arms crossed. "I don't like it. This thing's whimpering like it knows we're watching."
"Could be the Dark Elves' work. Old magic, that bites if you poke it wrong."
Soren smiled faintly, a flash of mischief crossing his face. "Then it's a good thing I brought gloves."
"You're not seriously!" Thor started, but too late, Soren reached out.
Fingers brushed the worn stone.
Nothing exploded.
No monsters came howling from the abyss.
Still, Thor braced himself.
Soren remained frozen, fingertips resting lightly on the rune. His eyes were wide, unblinking.
His breath had stopped, caught halfway between exhale and gasp.
"Uh… Soren?" Thor edged forward, voice lowering.
"You good? You seeing Valhalla or somethin'?"
No answer.
The magic circle that had once lit the ground around them dissolved into the air, faint traces of silver light knitting themselves into the fabric of space. The heavy darkness was gone now, replaced by a harsh, sterile brightness.
Everything felt... still.
Thor narrowed his eyes, studying the flicker of runes under Soren's hand.
"Great." He muttered to himself. "First the monster, now the bloody statue."
He rubbed his chin, pacing in a slow circle around Soren and the stone.
"If you can hear me, blink twice. Or maybe... twitch a finger? Anything?"
Still nothing.
"Gods above, I swear if you turn into some ancient elf king, I'm gonna wallop you first and then figure out how to fix it."
The stone tablet gleamed again, not with menace, but almost... invitingly.
Thor stopped pacing. He stared hard at the runes, a memory tugging at the edge of his mind, old, half-forgotten tales, whispered in the mead halls about relics left behind by the Dark Elves.
Monuments of knowledge, sealed away because they could not be trusted.
"If this thing really is their heritage stone... and we crack it open... gods only know what'll crawl out next."
When Soren's fingers brushed the surface, his mind slipped somewhere else, a sensation like falling upward.
Inside the stone, his spirit touched a vast, endless place.
Light stretched in all directions, bands of color swirling as a living river in a sky without end.
It wasn't dark, far from it, the brilliance was almost too much, each ray sharp enough to hurt.
Through the shifting walls of radiant color, Soren caught glimpses of something.
A hollow within the hollow.
A mystery nested inside the light.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed his spirit forward, reaching for the innermost space, and slammed into a wall of force so dense it nearly shattered him.
The lights turned jagged, slicing at the edges of his mind.
No matter how he twisted or strained, the barrier held. Unmovable.
"Tch." Soren was unwilling but forced to retreat.
As he yanked his spirit free, voices crashed back into him.
"Soren! Soren! Blast it, wake up!"
His senses slammed back into his body, and he blinked rapidly, vision swimming.
Thor's face hovered inches from his.
"Huh? What!"
Thor let out a ragged breath and gave him a half-hearted shove. "Finally!"
"Thought you bloody turned into a statue! You've been frozen for ages, scared me half to Helheim!"
Still dazed, Soren glanced at his hand, still resting against the cold stone.
"I... it didn't feel that long."
Thor stepped back, crossing his arms, glaring. "Try ten minutes of you standing there like a rock while everything around you seems like it's about to explode."
"What the Hel happened in that stone?"
Soren took a long breath, grounding himself, then explained what he had seen, the impossible expanse of light, the layers of protection, the unreachable core.
"That..." Thor said slowly, scratching at his beard.
"Sounds a hell of a lot like a Dark Elf inheritance vault. Layers of illusions, magical barriers, a core..."
"Yeah. Fits."
He shot a glance at the stone tablet, now quietly pulsing.
"If that's what it is." Thor continued.
"Then this thing's not only some tombstone. It's a vault."
"Probably holds everything the Dark Elves wanted to protect… or destroy."
Soren's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Think we can break through it?"
Thor snorted. "Us? Not bloody likely."
"We'll need the big brains in the Realm to even read half the runes on it. If we're lucky, someone like Heimdall or the scribes in the Hall of Records might crack it open."
Soren exhaled slowly. He didn't like leaving things unresolved, but for now, he had little choice.
"We take it back then."
Bracing himself, Soren wrapped both arms around the stone. Though it stood barely shoulder-high, the weight hit him like a mountain.
His boots dug deep grooves into the ground as he grunted and heaved, veins standing out along his arms.
With a guttural roar, he finally wrested it free.
The moment the tablet left the earth, everything changed.
The space around them reared.
Cracks webbed across the ground, black fissures opening like wounds. The very fabric of the pocket dimension groaned, a ripping sound vibrating through their bones.
"Uh, Soren? I think you broke the room."
Soren didn't even argue. "Move!"
Together, they sprinted toward the nearest portal, the only one still stable.
Behind them, the massive black tower that had loomed like a sentinel began to list, a dying beast.
The tower fell.
The ground convulsed. Space itself seemed to shriek, reality tearing open in wild, jagged gashes that spat sparks and darkness into the void.
Chunks of shattered stone rained down around them. Thor barreled ahead, shoving Soren forward when he stumbled, both of them weaving through the chaos as the world collapsed behind them.
"Next time!" Thor shouted over the roar.
"You're carrying the cursed relic as we leave!"
"Next time, you're touching it first!" Soren just laughed breathlessly.
They dove through the portal just as the last remnants of the dark elves' hidden realm were sucked into oblivion.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
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PhantomDream