Utopia of The Infinite [C]

The journey inside the Core was exhilarating.

Not because they were winded, but because the air appeared unable to travel through their lungs. It was too heavy. Too much stillness. The world seemed to be holding something back.

Stone walls gave way to carved pillars and sediment that had become black over time. The tunnel transformed into a subterranean cathedral, a massive hollow hall with three towering thrones built into the far wall. 

Or whatever remains of them. One was fractured by heat, another by water, and the third remained hung in the air, cracked but unfallen.

No one spoke. Wen's scanner hummed lightly on her hand, the light flashing. 

"Pressure spikes in every direction" she said. 

"Electromagnetic, geothermal, and atmospheric...This chamber shouldn't exist in this condition"

"It's holding something" Lyra stated, looking up. 

"Or someone"

A low sound began to resonate through the stone. No voice. A sense of presence.

The chamber was filled with elemental shift heat writhing across the floor, mist rising from the cracked walls, static crackling behind them.

And then they arrived.

Then, from the pool at the chamber's foot, a huge figure draped in ocean fog emerged water merging into shape. A serpentine spine, enormous shoulders, and a coral-covered skull.

Thalorca. Mother of Rain. Flood control specialist. Her body moved like water, transforming into language.

Then fire sprang out.

The fractured ground ripped apart, revealing a magma-carved beast scaled, howling, with a comet tail and living sun-like eyes.

Pyronyx. Born of the deep crust. Creator of heat. His breath changed stone into steam.

Finally, a gigantic snake of charged clouds emerged from the air, his wings growing as the wind spun into shape and his body an infinite storm made flesh.

Vortigon. Dragon of the sky. Shaper of an unseen current. He moved in bursts, partly visible, half sensed.

The girls braced themselves, instincts heightened but the legends did not attack.

They observed. Measured. Strength is not being judged, but rather alignment. The earth trembled.

Thalorca's tail lashed once, bringing a wave crashing towards them.

"Auri !!!" 

Wen yelled, but she was already moving, diving aside as Rhei pulled her back behind a broken stone block.

"Split!" Auri made a call. 

"Group into triads!"

The storm ended.

Lightning shattered the ceiling. Pyronyx's claws dripped lava. The rain swirled like knives.

It wasn't chaos. It was a trial.

Auri, Wen, and Rhei held their ground near the charred edge of the platform, Pyronyx looming like an ash god.

"He's testing reaction time" Wen yelled. 

"But also logic heat and movement are syncing on a loop"

"I can't build if I'm dodging flames every ten seconds"

Rhei muttered, her gaze darting across her scattered equipment.

Auri's pupils constricted.

Then, only for a second, another way appeared. A change in stone. Pyronyx is making a slower turn. It appeared in her vision as a remembrance from the future.