A large hole appeared on the ground with a shocking sound, way bigger than the previous one. The impact melted the rock and solidified it at the same instant into a solid wave of glazed dark stone. In the deadly silence, a rumbling grew.

  Udrak watched his friend disappear on the rocky path. Bourag was right: everyone on this expedition deserved to go back home. When they returned, four Bloomings would have passed. It also meant four Ashings, and a lot of scars. They would enjoy a peaceful life for a while, find a new Pebble, get a crafting job, maybe have children...

  But not Udrak.

  He stared down at the deep crater. He had never intended to leave.

  “I’m coming for you, bitch!”

  He dropped his hammer and focused on his prisms. He felt the gems in his mind, calmly waiting for him to call. The fire gem immediately came to him, hungry to serve, reddish-orange rhombus shining inside. But Udrak gently pushed it aside. This time, he needed something more durable. He passed by his air prism and turned his mind to the heaviest energy flow. He called the earth gem, solid, immutable, layered with light brown and yellow shades. He burst with all the energy he had. A wave of heat irradiated his right forearm, right under his silver armor plate. The earth gem glowed, full of new power.

  Two solid blocks of stone rose on his sides. They emerged from the ground as if shaped by invisible might. He joined his hands above his head and the rock wall followed, bending over him. A meter-thick roof was now covering him. Whistles echoed around him. Impacts shattered nearby rocks more and more frequently. Soon, deadly projectiles rained everywhere. He poured everything he had, every ounce of energy squeezed into hardening his improvised shelter. He needed it thicker but above all he needed it now! Forcing the links, he compressed the soil of this damned land into compact stone. He tried to focus, he had to. Focus on his gem, focus on the flow of earth and energy under his finger while the landscape around him was bombed with hundreds of holes.

  Udrak stared at the terrifying destruction upon him. The whole area was about to be doomed.

  He quickly looked at the main crater, where geysers exploded below the ash surface. A billion sparks reflected the growing incandescent violet lights. All he could see from his place was the vast crater, full of volatile ash. His gaze couldn’t go through, but he sensed the presence of something deep, down in the main crater. Something that was awakening.

  “Show yourself!” shouted the warrior to the storm.

  He barely heard his own voice. The world was crushing.

  A hole appeared right in front of him, turning the ground into lava. The liquid splashed on his foot.

  Udrak screamed. He felt his foot merge with the molten dark glass.

  He needed more protection. Fast!

  He poured energy into the earth prism again. This time, he built a front wall, doubling its thickness. This would have to protect him from the incoming blast.

  Or try to, at least.

  The stone slowly emerged from the ground. He built it tough, resilient, and compact. He felt his energy eaten away, feeding the prism. Already, he was sweating. Magic wasn’t supposed to be used in rapid fire. The drawback would strike hard on his heart. Soon.

  But he had no choice.

  Any of the incoming bullets could have killed him in an instant. And as far as he could conclude from the main crater, it was going to get worse very soon. The blast was about to vaporize everything.

  Including him, a poor human made of flesh and blood.

  Of course, he wasn’t at the center of the party. But standing at the limit of its radius wasn’t great either. He wasn’t too afraid of the initial compression: his long-trained body should be able to handle it. He had years of practice in magic. Dealing with the prisms every day had reinforced his bones, muscles, and skin far beyond human capacity. He could shatter a human arm just with his hand pressure without too much effort. He had survived many stabbings in the past and had even made an arrow ricochet off his palm once. Yes, it was mostly luck, but he hadn’t even been scratched by the tip.

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  But, hey, this one was a goddess’s strike. There was no guarantee that it would be enough.

  The stone wall reached his hips at a terribly slow pace. He wasn’t really used to that density of stone. His heart jumped in his chest, abruptly aware of the critical energy situation.

  Outside, the storm went from bad to worse. He saw dozens of impacts piercing the sky on their path, allowing sick purple rays of light to penetrate the whole scene.

  He shuddered. That was the most apocalyptic scene he had ever seen in his life.

  Terrifying. And absolutely beautiful.

  The wall finally reached his neck. He slowed the energy filling his prism and tightened the opening until only a finger hole remained for him to look through.

  Finally, he leaned against the rock. He just needed to catch his breath. And for his heart to slow down.

  In the dim light of his shelter, he thought about the last crazy days he had been through.

  These lands clearly weren’t made for human life.

  The ash was thick and more poisonous than anywhere else on the planet. It was simply everywhere, all the time. The less powerful hunters of the expedition struggled just to catch their breath while walking in the clouds. Without ash stripper support, a human being would die in mere minutes in this acid fog.

  Most animals ran away from this hell, making easy food harder to find. Udrak couldn’t blame them. Everything here could digest you in a few weeks. The expedition quickly learned that even the grass could hurt you if you lay on it too long. One hunter had been found in the morning, burned all over his right side.

  Water had to be purified, which took a lot of energy from the healers. The good thing was, they were now complete experts in purifying prisms.

  The vegetation was abundant, at least until you reached the damn crater. The size of the trees was unmatched by most other regions. Brambles, acid ferns, and gloomy flowers covered the underworld. A veritable quagmire for caravans. The turtows pulling the wood-and-metal carriages moved slowly, sometimes refusing to go any further in this acid jungle.

  There were some fruits, indeed, gorgeous and rich in color. Most were inedible of course, even poisonous, and the edible ones had been eaten so often by the hunters that they now felt disgusted just thinking about them. Inevitably, food supplies ran short very quickly.

  And, well, that was the manageable part.

  Because rakodons were absolute beasts. The top food chain monsters were unimaginably powerful and formidable in this region. In the worst way.

  Udrak touched his right shoulder plate. The silverish metal was ripped for several centimeters. The beast had almost torn his arm off. He remembered the bear-like creature with horns and arm-long teeth made of rakon steel. The monster was bigger than the caravans! And gods knew how proud hunters were of their caravans. Fortunately, the monster had only been at the second stage of its evolution. Otherwise, he would have been in trouble.

  An impact shattered his roof, pulling him out of his torpor.

  He straightened up and approached his eye to the opening. The stone rain was raging with new strength.

  It was a matter of seconds now.

  He placed his hands on the stone, ready to fill the slit to protect himself from the blast. The skylights were now bright as ever, almost painful to the eye.

  It was wonderful.

  A wonderful fiasco.

  The expedition had suffered several deaths over the past months. Yet, they had found only ashes and rakodons. And their leader was now attempting a suicide mission…

  ‘What a great leader, uh...’ he thought, feeling a little guilty.

  Maybe he should have stopped searching for answers.

  Maybe he should have surrendered to an easy life.

  Maybe he should have forgotten her…

  He gritted his teeth. A dark laugh came from his throat.

  He knew too well he would never allow that to happen. He couldn’t allow himself to forgive. He had a debt that could only be paid in blood.

  “I’ll send you to hell, bitch!”

  As if answering, the sky suddenly bent down.

  His eyes widened.

  Both the clouds above and inside the crater pushed away, instantly dissipated by a tremendous air pressure. A purple rain of plasma emerged from the clearing. For an instant, sunlight touched the ground, lighting up the depths. The moment felt like an eternity. Yet, it lasted less than a few seconds. But clear of any fog, he saw the deepest part of the crater.

  Melted golden scaffoldings rose in perfect lines to the sky.

  Liquid mountains of dark matter with impossible angles.

  Dimensional mosaics cooling over endless frozen flights.

  Atomic maze of countless minds engraved on vibrating surfaces.

  Udrak shivered, disoriented by an immense mind pressure. He felt his soul compressed in a steel vice.

  He wasn’t alone. Not anymore. Something had just risen from nowhere. An oppressive and hungry entity pressed against his own soul. His body tensed instinctively.

  He had to be careful not to wake it up.

  Slowly, the warrior came closer to the stone hole to get a better look. He knew he shouldn’t, but he did.

  “What are you…” he whispered.

  Dozens of kilometers away, deep in the crater, a dark mountain twisted in response. As if hearing his question, the mental pressure grew stronger.

  “No!”

  He tried to retreat from the hole, but a hand gripped his soul.

  In a blink, the mountain came for him.