Laz felt like he was drifting in a peaceful black darkness until a flash of light caught his attention. Within it, there were several people gathered around a stone column looking up into the sky. While the roof blocked their sight, they could still see what was happening outside. Their world was burning, their people being slaughtered. Ships littered the sky, hulking masses of metal and flames that blocked out even the sun. Some fought back, their weapons ancient but useful as swords cloved metal spiders in half, fans filled the sky with hurricanes and spears pierced through the clouds to strike at the lower flying ships.

It looked like a sci-fi movie had invaded an historical painting.

But despite their best resistance, there were far more of the machines than there were of the men. As blood and oil coated the land, more metal beasts arrived, but no more hands were able to pick up a sword, or a fan, or a spear.

Those below ground sighed as they placed their hand on the column. Stored within it was a shining white sword with a red hilt and a golden guard. The column exploded outward as the sword was revealed. One man then stepped forward and reached for it, before being stopped by the others.

"Are you sure your highness? Is there no other way?" One of the men asked.

"This sword is cursed. When I killed that bastard back in my youth, I thought I saw a smile on his face, as though he was glad for death. It’s only now that I understood how he felt. There is no other way. I will take this sword and lead what remains of our solders while the rest of you enact the plan. Once they have it, I doubt they will care much about a fractured dimension," the man said and then grabbed the sword, feeling the energy creep into his body as his eyes turned a bloody red.

"Go. And don’t disappoint me," the man said before he vanished.

Once he was gone, the remaining men laid their hands on the four foot column, now covered with strange symbols and buttons and each pressed several of them in sequence. After doing so, the area around them rumbled and shook, as the massive hall seemed to have been reduced in size by half. After that, they waited, afraid to look outside at the fate of their leader.

They all felt it when it happened, when the man who had lead them to a golden age took his least breath as hundreds of ships fell to the ground all over the planet, leaving only a few hundred left in the air.

A beast covered in metal, scales and a few strips of clothing picked up the fallen sword and grinned, weighing the blade in his hands.

"Destroy it all," he said as he vanished to somewhere else.

The last ships in the air and in space around the planet pointed their special weapons at the planet and fired as one black beam after another hit the planet from all over and drove deep within the core.

"DO IT!" One of them screams and with a massive surge of energy, the stone fortress they were in along with a massive chunk of the planet phased out of existence while the rest of it was blown up, collapsing in on itself before blowing outward in a fire work like fashion that only a few would ever witness in their lives.

Watching from his pleasure warship, the phasing of a part of the planet didn’t escape the beast of metal and scales, but his attention quickly went back to the sword in his hand.

"Leave it. We got what we came for," he said as his ship and the remaining ones all turned away, heading for somewhere else unknown.

In the phased space, it was far too much for normal people to handle and the ones who had survived the invasion began to drop one after another until very few humans were left. Even the men surrounding the column felt that they couldn’t hang on and ended the phasing just before dropping to the ground, their bodies weakened beyond measure as parts of them began to fall off.

"We knew this would happen."

"There are some who are safe. Within the storage, their bodies wouldn’t have been effected by the phasing."

"We just need to wake them up."

"Yes... And find out where we are."

"Of course."

"We need... to hit the release button. On the column."

"I... can’t...move."

"Nor can I."

"Can anyone else move?"

None of the other men responded and the two who had been talking to one another realized they were the only ones left.

"How far are you... from the button..." the first man asked.

"I’m... not sure. How about you."

"A ways. My body... feels like it’s very heavy."

"As does mine. Can you see anything? Everything is dark for me."

"I can see the column, but no much else. It’s weird as well. Its like I’ve fallen into a hole and the only thing I see right now is the floor and the column beyond,"

"There were no holes in the room."

"I’m aware. And yet somehow the floor is like a few inches from my eyes."

"... is it?"

"Yes. Why?"

"You know where I was standing before, right? Can you turn your eyes to see me?"

"I can try. Hand on.... uh.... oh... oh fuck...."

"What?"

"I only see... some of your legs.... sticking out of the ground...."

"Yeah... I figured that’s what happen..."

"What’s that?"

"Our bodies are still stuck in phase and in turn, we shifted into the ground. The reason why you see the ground a few inches from your eyes is because everything else is probably stuck inside the stone."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means that once our bodies stop phasing, they will merge with the stone."

"And when that happens?"

The response never came.

...

Laz shot awake as the entire fortress shook. The strength of his dream hit him like a wave as he suddenly understood. He just didn’t know how Jormungandr had ended up in his hand.

Laz ran, quickly. He knew the way as the sword led him, having been a resident in that place for many years, it remembered the way, even if the way was different.

"LAZ!" Pooja and Hera called out at once when they saw him running. Laz didn’t respond and kept running, causing them to follow closely behind them.

He ran back and forth, making quick shifts and turns, so many so that the huge group following him had trouble keeping up.

"Make sure we leave guards at every change. Order more down here. Get the guards who have been here a while to come meet us. I want to know everything about this place," Hera began ordering as they ran while several officials and guards ran back to enact her orders.

Laz finally stopped when he came to a door that had just a small opening, like someone little had pushed it and slipped in. As the base rumbled again, he pushed the doors open and ran inside, finding Eris and Nagi on the ground, stuck there as though a force was holding them.

As soon as others entered the room, they felt an immense pressure hit them as they hit the ground, one after another, Only Pooja and Hera were ok and made their way over to where Laz stood, looking at the dais and the buttons on top of it.

It took him a moment before he felt something from the sword in his hand. Laz nodded and the sword again disappeared, probably back into whatever space it was occupying since it wasn’t his storage ring.

Laz quickly punched some buttons on the control panel and the intense pressure vanished like it had never been, allowing everyone to rise.

"What was that?" Hera said, catching her breath before noticing Eris and Nagi getting up as well.

"Well... these two do like to cause some trouble, don’t they?" Pooja said with a laugh, seeming to approve of their actions.

"We’re sorry. I didn’t know anything would happen when we came down here," Eris said, not mentioning it was Nagi who pushed the button.

"Well... Since I don’t even know what you did, I guess I can’t exactly get mad. But from now on when you find something you don’t understand, maybe say something about it before you go play with it?" Hera suggested.

"Like a certain man’s penis?" Pooja asked, nudging Hera with her elbow.

"You need to stop talking," Hera shot back.

"Daddy. Do you feel it?" Nagi said, pulling on Laz’s shirt as he stared at a far wall.

"Yeah. Is that why you did it?" Laz responded, feeling that several points were coming together. It wasn’t the phase shift which Nagi had almost started as there wasn’t enough energy for something like that anymore.

Instead, she had activated a program that caused some movements, but hadn’t disengaged the safeguards to keep things from moving.

On the far wall, lights suddenly came on as the floor and ceiling opened up, revealing hundreds of people in glass tubes, their bodies encased in ice.

AS the frightened group looked on, lights came on and started flashing as hissing noises echoed over the room.

"Someone was asking for my help. They.... wanted to be let out..." Nagi said, pulling on Laz’s shirt as she backed away from the strange sight slightly, confused and afraid.

"Yeah. I figured that. Come on. There is nothing to fear here," Laz said, walking forward while everyone else was frozen stiff at the sight.

Seeing Laz walk forward with Nagi, Eris followed on his other side and Pooja and Hera snapped out of it and joined them as well as dozens of additional guards arrived from the summons.

Laz could feel the same draw that had gotten Nagi’s attention and walked to one of the frozen people, a young girl in a purple dress but with no hair.

As they watched on, the young girl sleeping in ice opened her eyes.