The door should not have opened.
Not for anyone.
Certainly not for her.
Yet there it stood.
A gap no wider than a man's shoulders, ancient stone grinding against ancient stone as dust drifted lazily through the green light.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Every instinct I possessed screamed that whatever waited beyond that doorway had existed long before kingdoms, before relics, perhaps even before dragons themselves.
I watched Lyra.
Of course I did.
She didn't hesitate.
Her violet eyes remained fixed on the darkness beyond the threshold as though something inside it was calling only to her.
Or perhaps...
Waiting for her.
The thought unsettled me more than I cared to admit.
"Lyra."
She paused.
Only for a heartbeat.
Then, without looking back, she took another step.
I cursed under my breath.
"Damn you, Little thief..."
She still didn't stop.
Behind me one of my soldiers shifted nervously.
"My prince—"
"Stay where you are."
The order left my mouth before I consciously decided to give it.
Because something about this place made one fact abundantly clear.
Numbers meant nothing here.
This mountain didn't care how many soldiers stood behind me.
It cared about something else.
Something far older.
Lyra crossed the threshold first.
The darkness swallowed her almost immediately.
Not completely.
The strange green light from the chamber still reached inside, but only barely, illuminating rough stone beneath her boots before fading into endless black.
For the first time since meeting her...
the thread disappeared entirely.
Not weakened.
Gone.
Like someone had severed reality itself between us.
My chest tightened.
No.
Not severed.
Muted.
Hidden.
I stepped forward instinctively.
"Raiden."
Revik's voice stopped me for only a fraction of a second.
"Don't."
I looked back.
He wasn't looking at me.
He was staring at the doorway.
"I have a feeling..."
"...this place chooses."
"So do I."
"Then maybe let her—"
"No."
The word came out harder than intended.
Because every instinct inside me had already reached its conclusion.
She wasn't walking in there alone.
Not while I still had breath in my lungs.
I moved.
Three strides carried me to the doorway.
The moment my boot crossed the threshold—
something brushed across my skin.
A faint tingling.
Like walking through a spider's web made of lightning.
It wasn't painful.
It simply...
noticed me.
The sensation vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
Behind me I heard Revik inhale sharply.
Then—
a deafening boom echoed through the cavern.
Stone slammed into place.
I spun.
The doorway had vanished.
Not closed.
Vanished.
A shimmering wall of pale green light stretched from floor to ceiling where the entrance had been.
Willow's roots crashed against it.
They bounced away harmlessly.
Revik slammed the pommel of his sword into the barrier.
Nothing.
On the other side I could just make out muffled shouting.
Their mouths moved.
No sound reached us.
Lyra hurried beside me.
"What happened?"
I pressed one hand against the barrier.
It rippled softly beneath my palm.
Cold.
Solid.
"They're locked out."
She frowned.
"And we're locked in."
For the first time since entering the chamber, she looked genuinely uneasy.
Not afraid.
Calculating.
Always calculating.
"We're on our own."
I nodded once.
"So it seems."
The mountain answered.
THUD.
The sound rolled through the cavern beneath our feet.
Heavy.
Measured.
Another.
THUD.
Dust drifted from the ceiling.
Small stones rolled lazily across the ground.
The cavern...
was shaking.
Lyra slowly turned toward the darkness ahead.
"So..."
She rested one hand on the hilt of her dagger.
"...I don't suppose you have any idea what that noise was."
"No. But it can't be good."
Another step echoed.
"It never is." She sighed.
Closer now.
The green crystals embedded throughout the cavern began to brighten one by one, illuminating more of the vast chamber hidden beyond the doorway.
What I had first mistaken for pillars...
weren't pillars.
They were legs.
Massive.
Thick as ancient oak trees.
Grey stone shifted.
Not carved stone.
Skin.
Rock grinding against rock echoed through the cavern as something impossibly large straightened.
More crystals flared to life.
A shoulder emerged.
Then an arm broader than a wagon.
Hands the size of doors.
The creature rose slowly, fragments of broken stone cascading from its back as though it had been sleeping for centuries.
Its head finally lifted into the light.
Eyes opened.
Shining green burned from deep within cracks running across its face.
Its body looked as though the mountain itself had decided to stand.
Rock.
Granite.
Ancient earth layered upon ancient earth.
A crown of jagged stone horns curved backward over its skull.
When it breathed—
dust exploded from its nostrils.
Lyra stared upward.
"...That's..."
"An Earth troll," I finished quietly.
Not one spoken of in tavern stories.
Not some wandering beast.
A guardian.
Old enough that even our oldest records had turned the existence into bedtime stories.
Its gaze settled on us.
Neither angry.
Nor curious.
Simply...
expectant.
As though we were merely the next challengers.
Lyra exhaled slowly.
"I guess neither of us is getting anywhere near that relic."
She looked sideways at me.
"...unless we bring him down first."
A corner of my mouth lifted.
"I was hoping you'd say that."
The troll moved.
Far faster than something that size had any right to.
One enormous fist crashed toward us.
We dove in opposite directions as the impact shattered the stone floor where we'd been standing only moments before.
The entire cavern shook violently.
Fragments of rock flew through the air.
I rolled to one knee, shadows already gathering around my arm.
They lashed forward like living spears.
The troll didn't even flinch.
The shadows struck.
Stone splintered.
Then...
the cracks sealed themselves almost instantly.
Interesting.
Fire erupted from the opposite side of the cavern.
Lyra.
A torrent of white-hot flame engulfed the creature's chest.
The heat forced even me to shield my eyes.
When the fire finally faded—
the troll remained standing.
Black scorch marks covered its body.
Nothing more.
It looked down at the burns almost lazily.
Then another layer of stone shifted over them.
Healing.
Lyra clicked her tongue.
"Well..."
"...that's inconvenient."
I couldn't disagree.
We attacked together after that.
Not planned.
Not discussed.
Instinct.
She launched razor-sharp spears of ice toward its joints.
I used shadows to pull its balance away.
She followed with waves of compressed water powerful enough to crack stone walls.
I struck with precise bursts of lightning, aiming for every fracture she created.
For several minutes...
we fought as though we'd done this our entire lives.
Every opening she created, I exploited.
Every distraction I caused, she understood instantly.
The thread might have been silent...
But somehow...
we still moved together.
The troll refused to fall.
It shrugged off everything.
Fire.
Water.
Ice.
Shadow.
Nothing lasted.
Every wound sealed.
Every fracture disappeared.
It simply...
kept walking.
Toward us.
Relentless.
Ancient.
Unstoppable.
I slid backward across the stone, breathing harder now.
"This thing doesn't stay damaged."
Lyra ducked beneath another sweeping arm.
"No."
She landed beside me.
"It heals."
I stared at the creature.
Then at the glowing cracks running through its body.
"...Then perhaps we're not hitting it hard enough."
She looked at me.
There was only one attack left I hadn't tried.
One I rarely used indoors.
One that could just as easily collapse the cavern on top of us.
She understood immediately.
"Raiden..."
I stepped forward anyway.
Lightning began dancing across my skin.
Red.
Black.
Violent.
The shadows retreated instinctively from the growing storm.
Every hair on my body stood on end.
The troll finally paused.
For the first time...
it reacted.
Good.
I raised one hand toward the ceiling.
The cavern darkened.
Thunder exploded through the mountain.
Every bolt of lightning I could summon converged into a single blinding spear.
"Let's see..."
I whispered.
"...how well you heal from this."
With a roar, I unleashed it.
The world vanished beneath red light.
The explosion swallowed the cavern whole.
Stone shattered.
Thunder became everything.
Smoke rolled outward in thick waves, obscuring the troll completely.
Silence followed.
Heavy.
Expectant.
I took one cautious step forward.
Searching through the smoke for any sign that the attack had worked.
Then—
Lyra's voice tore through the haze.
"RAIDEN!"
Not fear.
Urgency.
"STOP ATTACKING!"