Avengers: Damnation

Fractured World

"Master!" The Gatekeeper shouted once Nelvannu and his court had relocated to the throne room. "The intruders have breached the barrier!"

Nelvannu ignored the dimwitted creature's statement of the obvious and smiled menacingly beneath the veil of shadow. "Of course they did.

"We should not underestimate them," the Concubine spoke in her seductive drawl. "Not when your ascendency is so close at hand," she added as she stepped close to her master in a seductive sway. She settled a hand on his chest, slowly shaking it down his abdomen.

Amora's jealous gaze fell upon the display and Loki knew in that instance exactly what her tactics for amassing power would be. Typical. How very typical.

"I do not underestimate them," Nelvannu said in a very terse voice. "I had hoped they might come inside. That we might visit upon them the sort of horrors they have never before endured."

"Master?" Gatekeeper asked.

"You forget that before I was confined to this place of darkness I was a fearsome force on the battlefields of earth." Nelvannu let out a deep sigh of remembrance. "And it has been far too long since I engaged in the culling of my enemies. But I am, by no means, less fierce for my centuries of inactivity. Let them come. Let them see what Nelvannu's power can do."

Loki watched his allies as they stood in solidarity, each of them fixated upon the slaughter their master demanded. He looked to Amora, who seemed to derive a great deal of glee from Nelvannu's words.

"Besides," Nelvannu carried on. "The Asgardian and his whore have thrown down the gauntlet for Loki and Amora. Surely the two of you do not wish to allow such an offense to go unpunished?"

Amora's eyes became enveloped in the green haze of her magic. "No, that simply will not do."

Loki slowly nodded his head. After centuries, his war with Thor would finally come to its conclusion. "Agreed," he said.

Nelvannu raised both arms into the air.

A strange crackling sound fell upon everyone's ears. Then, like the gears of a massive and powerful machine, something began to rumble and turn outside of the throne room.

"What is this?" Amora asked as she stumbled. The Gatekeeper reached out with one large hand and steadied her, prompting a grimace of disgust from Amora.

"My keep is not merely a pile of mortar and stone; it is an entire world. Small, though it may be. I may not be permitted to leave it, but I exert total control over it."

The castle beyond the walls around them shifted, rapidly taking the shape of whatever horrors its lord had chosen to fabricate.

Nelvannu lowered his arms. "It is time we permitted the heroes to learn what real terror is all about."

"I can walk," Nightstar assured Hyperion as the team entered the main hall of the keep.

"So long as you're sure," Hyperion sighed, reluctant to set his fiancé down.

Nightstar gave him a little nod. "I'm fine. Really. I promise."

Watching his strength in the face of such uncertainty and personal revelation, Hyperion felt a surge of pride in Nightstar. The steps he'd taken in such a short time were commendable and it only further confirmed why he wanted to spend the rest of his life with him.

"Thor, wait," Lumen said. Reaching for his husband's hand, he tugged at him.

Thor, who had been walking through the massive hall, stopped and looked back. "We cannot waste time, Fair One."