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0.3 Prologue 3/3

  A thin layer of one-meter-thick stone separated Udrak from the dark mountain.

  Not enough. Not nearly enough.

  In fact, Udrak sensed that the finger-sized hole was the weak point of his shelter. He had left this small window on the outside to stalk the event. Everything he had learned about the ash led him to this crater, to this moment. But hidden in his stone stronghold, it was actually the event that lurked at him.

  Udrak couldn’t even take a step back, his gaze locked through the hole he made. He knew the plasma was about to collapse with the ground at any moment now. He could feel it, almost see it through the mountain. Yet, pure black depths obstructed his mind.

  “Get b...”

  Blurred face with polarized eyes lurking.

  Purple sparks screeching, studying Udrak’s crystallized spine.

  His instinct screamed danger, telling him to hide, to run away as fast as he could. But the dark mountain was staring. And its stare could not be denied. It knew Udrak’s presence. He was sure about that. He tried to close his eyes, to break the link, but he couldn’t even move a finger. The hole he left unfilled in the wall still linked him to the entity in some way.

  The mountain bowed slightly, like a knife in a wound.

  Paralyzed, Udrak felt some sentient mind trying to reach him. He looked into what should be the entity’s eyes and fell again.

  Cyclopean stairs sinking into darkness lay untouched for billions of years.

  Crystal oceans winding over intricate honeycomb geodes.

  Cold fusion hearts draining stars of light.

  The entity came closer, penetrating flesh, bones, and nerves. Udrak gritted his teeth in pain, dissected by diamond needles. He felt his own soul being stared at, cut into pieces, torn in hellish spirals, crushed into powder.

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  “Leave... m… alone…” he gurgled.

  His mind was about to collapse. The finger-sized hole now seemed like a giant door. His shelter was wide open, a mountain laying on the doorstep.

  He was out of breath, out of soul, out of everything, his strength absorbed in a blink.

  Suddenly, he felt the stone under his fingers. His hands still lay on the wall. Maybe he could use his prism?!

  Without hesitation, he tried to fill the remaining gap of stone with all his might. He sent his last resources into his earth prism. Centimeter by centimeter, the hole got smaller.

  ‘Slow. Way too slow! Why is it so slow, goddamnit!’ he thought.

  The light from the outside grew dimmer and dimmer. And with it, he could feel the mind pressure diminish. Almost immediately, the entity reacted. Mental claws grabbed the edges of the hole, trying to keep it open. The mountain squeaked with a shrill cry that penetrated his flesh. And for the first time, Udrak felt his earth prism refuse his flow of energy.

  The gem grew hot in his arm, battling against him. Soon, it was like an ember laid directly on his skin.

  His own prism?! Fighting him? This made no sense! It was like a sword suddenly escaping from its wearer's hands to fight him back.

  Udrak’s soul bent, attacked from both sides. The pain was atrocious. Burned from the inside, sliced alive by the mountain from the outside. His strength was running dry. He felt he could just surrender and die. Painfully, but quickly.

  But his promise to an old mate came to his mind. A promise that he could not forget. A promise he could not forgive. Something way stronger than a mountain. Something that made him what he was.

  Deep inside his soul, a spark of rage flashed and turned into an ocean of lava.

  He grabbed the mountain with his own soul hands, his fingers tearing the polarized matter. Agonizing, he overflowed his prism with despair, sadness, and rage. The gem was a burning sun in his flesh.

  He barely noticed it, full of madness. He screamed.

  “Go. To. Hell!”

  The mountain echoed his scream, pulling even harder on his mind. But he stood. It took him what felt like an eternity of struggling, but he pushed back the entity to the edge of his mind for a brief moment. The polarized mind was losing its grasp. Through the thin hole, Udrak felt the mountain sharpen its last attempt to reach him. A sharp stinger waved through the rock, penetrating Udrak’s right eye, going deeper into his brain.

  At the same instant, the hole collapsed.

  And with it, the polarized mind.

  Udrak fell to his knees.

  ‘It’s gone!’

  A brief smile of relief appeared on his face, and before his body hit the dust, he fainted.

  Outside, a purple plasma meteor approached the ground with furious speed. On its path lay a twisted mountain made of dark matter. The dazzling light mirrored on countless facets, and for a brief moment, the mountain felt alive, animated by billions of colors.

  The world disappeared in a flash.

  The shockwave wiped everything.

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