Journey Into Mystery
Amora’s nails dug into the cushioned arm of the orange couch her right arm was resting on. The sting of the severed skin and muscle persisted as she pressed a cloth over the wound. The TVA jumpsuit she was forced into was uncomfortable and it was ugly, two things Amora never wanted to say about her outfits. Across from her, sitting stoic and poised with a pruning rod clutched tightly in her fists, was Ravonna. Poor sweet and innocent Ravonna. All that authority couldn’t hide the imposter syndrome that was buried below the surface, waiting, festering, growing with each passing second. The woman’s amber coloured eyes bore into Amora, almost to a point where Amora could convince herself there was a slight chill in the room. On the glass coffee table that sat between them were two cups of coffee, the dark roast smell filling the room as the steam filtered off.
“I see you kept my gift” Amora’s eyes traced over Ravonna’s silk red and gold necktie.
Instantly, upon hearing the remark, Ravonna reached up to the silk tie and ripped it from her collar, throwing it, and the TVA pin attached, across the room. There was a small crash across the room as the necktie collided with some of the knick-knacks on her shelves.
“Understandable” Amora mumbled shifting the pressure on the wound.
“Leena, you have to be one of my best analysts” Ravonna smiled, placing a stack of files onto her desk.
“Well, other than Mobius” Amora smiled.
“I did say ‘one of’” Ravonna chuckled.
Amora watched as Ravonna pulled a crystal bottle of liquor from one of the cabinets in her desk along with two crystal glasses. She poured a drink for both of them before putting the bottle back into the cabinet and sliding one of the glasses over to Amora.
“I always find you pouring over files but never heading out into the field”
Amora lifted the drink to her lips, giving it a sniff before properly taking a sip.
“I find that my efforts lie best used with the files, I’ve never been one to sully my hands with dirty work, besides” Amora swirled the liquid around the glass. “the Minutemen do things much more proficiently than I could”
“I must tell you Leena; the Timekeepers are just amazed by you”
“How are they, the Timekeepers?”
Ravonna rolled her eyes, taking a long sip of liquor. “Same as always…”
Amora noticed Ravonna give pause, almost as if she was thinking about what to say next.
“That’s actually why I asked to meet you” Ravonna continued. “The Timekeepers wish to meet with you”
“About?”
“That is between you and them”
“When?”
“Now.”
Ravonna escorted Amora to the coveted golden gilded elevator that she had passed by several times. The Minutemen standing guard were unwavering, even as Ravonna and Amora approached, the two men, armed with pruning rods, made no movements. Ravonna pushed a sequence of numbers into a keypad, numbers that Amora quickly memorized. The golden elevator doors opened in a single fluid motion mere seconds after Ravonna hit enter.
Amora stood, hesitant to enter the elevator, she looked over to Ravonna, whether that was for affirmation or encouragement, she was unsure.
“I cannot go with you; they requested a private audience” She answered.
Amora nodded and stepped into the golden elevator, a chill ran down her spine, and as she turned back around, the doors closed. It didn’t feel as though the elevator was moving at all, there was no shift, no creaking of the cables as they struggled to function, it was as if she and the elevator were weightless. The five-second trip felt like a whole minute to Amora as she adjusted her TVA clothing that really didn’t need to be adjusted. The green quarter sleeve button-down she was wearing looked wrinkled when it wasn’t. She was sure that a rip in her matching green tights was somewhere she couldn’t see but in fact, they were smooth and untouched. The only things that she kept from the traditional uniform were the tie, her tan pencil skirt, the black pumps, and the TVA emblem pin that sat in the center of her tie.
The elevator doors opened, prompting Amora to straighten her posture. The Timekeepers domain was nothing like she expected, compared to the yellow golden tint of the TVA, the Timekeepers sat in purple darkness of sorts. Amora stepped out of the elevator, her heels clicking against the dark floor. The chamber was dismal to beheld, Amora’s eyes had to adjust to the dim lighting mixing with what could only be neon lights hidden in dark corners. The three Timekeepers gazed down at her with a strange emptiness, as if there was a switch that needed to be flipped and their acknowledgment of her would happen.
Before Amora could even traverse up to the top platform beneath the mighty seat of the Timekeepers they all turned to look down on her (how dare they, did they not know who she was?).
“Amora” They spoke in (somewhat robotic) unison.
They did in fact know who she was it seemed. This single name ran a deep chill and carved a void in Amora’s chest. Amora ceased walking, stopping in the middle of the second platform and forcing her lips into a smile.
“My name is Leena; you seem to be mistaken”
“There is no mistake, Amora, we know who you are”
Amora’s smile faded quickly into a frown, her eyebrows furrowing and frustrated sigh exhaling from her nose.
“It is commendable, however, that you are standing here completely of your own free will, within the confines of the TVA”
Amora scoffed, “Free will is something that is a fantasy here”
“And yet, here you stand, the center of the thing you sought to infiltrate” The Timekeeper’s eyes glowed red as they accosted her.
“Sought? That implies that I failed…I dare say that I have achieved what I wanted, and I have been having very piss poor liquor lunch breaks with your darling Ravonna, who, might I add, is the worst one of the lot I’ve come across” The bag had been opened for Amora, there was that temper she had tried to hold back for so many centuries.
“How did you come to be here?”
“I could ask the same for your Minutemen, Analysts, and Judges…unlike me, they have quite the extensive files…even though you fill their heads with lies of creation from their great and powerful rulers…” Amora motioned to the Timekeepers. “you.”
“You think that your meddling in our affairs has gone unnoticed? That you simply snuck by without anyone batting an eye? You should be thanking us that we let you get this far”
“Oh, horseshit!” Amora rolled her eyes. “You haven’t been watching me, or leading me on a path of whatever shite narrative you can come up with on the fly…you had no idea I was here until Ravonna ratted on me, and I know she did because she’s your little spy for every single thing that happens”
“Then why befriend her if you knew what she does?”
Amora heard the elevator doors behind her open.
“She’s a pawn, just like the rest of them, I needed access to higher security files, and if it means playing best friends with that none-the-wiser judge then so be it”
“Unfortunately for you, it seems you’ve accomplished nothing of what you wanted”
“And what did I want? Oh, powerful Timekeepers?”
“Did you really think that you could take the TVA off of the board that easily?”
A smile poked at the corner of Amora’s lips, a minute chuckle building in her before she let out a high-pitched and long overdue cackle of laughter. It took a minute before she could properly compose herself, letting the laughter echo off the chamber walls and fill the room.
Wiping a tear from her eye, Amora looked back up at the Timekeepers, “I could care less if your little puppet club prospered or perished…I’ve already completed what I came here for”
Ravonna’s icy glare held steadfast as Amora reached down to the coffee table to retrieve the cup of coffee in front of her. Lifting the cup to her lips, Amora took a long sip of the bitter beverage.
“Well, it’s certainly better than the Roman wine I was drinking” She cleared her throat, placing the cup back down gently.
Ravonna continued to glare, her knuckles almost turning white from the grip that she kept on the pruning rod.
“Are you going to say something, or do you think looks can kill?” Amora forced a smile, it fades within seconds because of the pain that returned swiftly to her arm.
“How could you?” Ravonna mumbled, her lips no longer pressed tightly together. “How could you betray the TVA and release a variant?”
“Quite easily if I do say so myself, lack of magic is not the handicap you think it is” Amora licked her lips. “Would you like to know how I did it? I know you’re dying to know”
Ravonna sighed, blowing a stiff breath out of her nose.
“Your Minutemen and Hunters came after me…they had been tracking me for years, they, not YOU were the reason I had to flee Asgard, because believe it or not Ravonna, I do care about the people around me. I had to run. I found my own little place in the deep forests of Jotunheim, called the Ironwood if you were wondering, and I created a whole new life under a new alias. You still found me…my barriers sensed your meddling and when a team crossed into my domain is when I struck”
“You killed my men”
Amora held up a finger, “I actually didn’t. I knocked them out, I never raised my blade of magic against them…after that, I stole armor off of one of the Hunter’s, it’s atrocious by the way, and a Tempad, afterward I went to wipe the memories of the team when what do you know…there were some juicy memories buried real deep in their subconscious”
Ravonna’s face dropped.
“So,” Amora continued. “I restored those memories, one of them did come too as I was doing so, the poor dear was in a panic, took me a whole minute to calm them…when I did and they could form sentences I had them tell me everything before I knocked them out again, and using the Tempad, I took them back to their place of origin one by one, it took a horribly long time, but I did it anyway. Then I followed the Tempad back to the TVA where I ditched the Hunter uniform and got some analyst clothing…the rest you know” Amora grinned, having finished her story.
“You didn’t kill those hunters?” Ravonna’s face had gone pale.
“I just told you my entire scheme and the first thing you ask is if I killed your hunters?” Amora scoffed. “No. I didn’t kill them, I thought I made that blatantly obvious”
“Then who killed my hunters?” Ravonna leaned forward, setting the pruning rod on the cushion beside her.
*********
The air was still, a strong scent of mildew flooded Loki’s senses. Groaning, he slowly opened his eyes, being met with a dusty purple sky. The ground beneath his hands felt damp but dry at the same time.
“Am I in Hel?” His own voice startled him.
“You will be if you don’t come with us” A voice called out.
Pushing himself onto his elbows, Loki’s eyes fell across a group of, what was upon first glance, about three strangely dressed people, one of which was a child clutching tightly to an alligator. An older man sporting a green and yellow jumpsuit, with a spiked yellow collar and matching yellow boots stood to the right, his hand clutched tightly to the strap of a duffel bag. On his head, which was covered by a yellow cowl, sat a pair of horns made from what could only be assumed to be gold. The horns twisted up and the cap of the helm was just a partial mold that sat on the man’s head. To the left of the group, Loki beheld a man clutching what looked to be a concrete block soldered onto a broken metal tool handle. His outfit was different, a darker green plaid pattern crisscrossing his torso, met by a large leather belt at the waist, matching green leather pants and loincloth, and finished with fur boots and tan fur that covered his shoulders, but no horns. The final figure was a child, this one Loki knew all too well, the child sat crouched, a gold band adorning his brow with golden wings on the side and in the center a small horned shape. He wore a short-sleeve hooded green tunic over top of black trousers and a dark green shirt that wrapped around his arms. The edges of the tunic were lined with gold accents and the same horned symbol that sat on the helm sat embedded in a gold circle in the center of the tunic. The same gold edges that adorned the boy’s black boots. The boy’s mess of dark black hair frayed out from under the gold helm as if it couldn’t be contained, or it didn’t want to. In the child’s arms sat an Alligator, who had golden horns of his own but much simpler, only held on by a tiny strap and much smaller than the rest.
The boy gave away who Loki was gawking at, the boy was him, so that must mean that the others were him as well. Is that really what he looked like as a child? Why was there an alligator? Was that Loki as well? Nothing was making sense and Loki could feel a slight panic arise in his chest. What was this place? Was it truly Hel? Why was there an alligator?
“You’re…me...I presume?” Loki finally found words to address the group.
“Are you Loki?” The older gentleman inquired.
“Yes of course!”
“Then yes, we are all Loki” He chuckled.
“Uh, can we please get a move on? Alioth is on the move, not that I couldn’t take him one on one, but I would like to live long enough to see my brilliant plan to fruition” The Loki to the left boasted.
“Right” The young Loki responded, getting up from his crouched position, the reptile still in his arms.
The group didn’t seem to want to wait on Loki’s response or even seem as though they desired to hear one. Quickly Loki stumbled to his feet, following after the group as they ventured away from the spot of his discovery.
“Hold on!” Loki shouted, running in front of the group to stop them from walking any further. “Where am I? Why are there multiple of me? What is Alioth? And how can I get back to the TVA?”
“Goodness, you want to go back? You just escaped that wretched place” Old Loki rolled his eyes, the group pushing past Loki.
Loki quickly fell in step with the group, he was determined to get answers, if that meant going with them then so be it.
“I have to get back” He protested. “Where am I?”
“Ask the kid, he’s been here the longest” Boastful Loki responded.
“Also, it's best if we explain everything back at the palace, Alioth waits for no man…or woman…or…Alioth waits for no one, let’s just leave it there” Old Loki mumbled.
“The void” Kid Loki spoke before prompted, he seemed annoyed to even be included. “Where the TVA sends the unlucky sods who create Nexus events in their Sacred Timeline”
“And what was your Nexus event?” Loki continued to follow them but stopped as Kid Loki stopped and turned around to address him.
“I killed Thor”
Loki felt a pang of hurt within him as he heard the claim, in their youth, Thor was often the victim of many of Loki’s pranks…he never imagined them going this far.
The group continued on their way, trekking through a desolate wasteland of New York City, yet another bad reminder of what Loki sought to achieve. That old saying, “fortune favours the bold”, yeah, it’s a load of shit when considering all of the numerous failures Loki has accumulated throughout his life. He was bold and it got him nothing, nothing of what Thor achieved, just emptiness and anger for what he wanted but couldn’t have.
Thor.
It seemed like a lifetime since Loki had thought about his brother. Where was he? Was he looking for him after his escape in New York? Loki inwardly smiled at the thought of Thor going back to Asgard and telling Odin that Loki had slipped through his grasp. How funny it would be to see the golden prince of Asgard outsmarted once again by the cleverness of Loki. (If you can call the Tesseract sliding across the floor, hitting his foot, easy for him to pick up and teleport himself out of Stark Tower, cleverness that is.) Sadness overcame the trickster as he walked behind the group of Loki’s, could it possibly be that he missed Thor? After everything that transpired between the two…could he really say that he missed the pig-headed oaf he had grown up with? Yes. Yes, he could say that. Being away from Asgard and taken from his timeline, it all was beginning to weigh on him, how alone and misplaced he was beginning to feel.
The emptiness of the void slowly began to morph into a more occupied space, the destruction of New York fell away into the macabre purple background. Concrete structures piled atop one another, creating a mountain of rubble that had become overrun with nature. Ivy and various other plant life twisted and choked the cement rubble around them, the ground beneath their feet turned from dirt and grass to stone with blades of grass breaking through every few steps. The sky quickly vanished as the group ventured into a concrete cavern, the smell of mildew and wetness became more prominent as they walked through the cavern, the only light being the streams of light that made it through the cracks in the structure. The group’s footsteps echoed off the walls and Loki found his black dress shoes ruined by the various amounts of puddles he was stepping in.
What would Amora think of him ruining his clothes like this? A smile poked at his lips. She would surely chastise him but at the same time, she would use her magic to give him a new and improved wardrobe, “fit for a prince of the nine realms” she would say. Not that Loki couldn’t conjure up his own attire, he just loved to see the look in Amora’s eyes when she got the details just right.
Looking down at his shoes as he walked, Loki remembered Mobius as well. Mobius gave him the damn shoes that now were flooded with water and Norns know what else.
Mobius.
Mobius was pruned just like he was, that meant that he had to be in the void somewhere right? But if this was just scratching the surface of the contents in the void, that would take the time that Loki knew he didn’t have. He needed to save Amora from…well…Loki. He needed to get out of the void. He needed to escape the TVA. Just thinking about it was exhausting, was this what heroes had to grapple with? But he didn’t consider himself a hero, heroes were too…good, and they followed morals too well, Loki felt as though he lay somewhere in the middle. A situation that was neither good nor bad but whatever he felt at the time.
Crossing through the concrete cavern, Loki’s jaw dropped as they emerged on the other side. No longer were they trekking through the wasteland of New York City, in front of him towered the dulled golden remains of the palace of Asgard. His home. Nature had overtaken it like the rest of the void, but it towered above them in the cave that Loki had found himself in.
“Norns…” He muttered to himself. “The palace is here?”
Old Loki looked back, slowing his pace to walk beside Loki. “It seems the TVA had gotten rid of Asgard at least at some point, so much like New York it was sent here…don’t worry” He chuckled, bumping Loki with his shoulder. “Everything is just as we remember it”
Loki nodded, frowning at the memory of the glittering palace and how it used to look surrounded by the mountains and rivers of Asgard.
“Come on! I want to try and beat my high score on Polybius!” Kid Loki called back.
“I have no idea what that is” Old Loki chuckled.
*********
Amora had long finished her cup of coffee, the remnants now cold and stewing at the bottom of the cup in her hands. Ravonna was back to holding the pruning rod, but it was only in one hand, a precaution, Amora thought.
Ravonna glared at Amora from across the coffee table, “You mean to tell me that you and that variant you helped free have been working together?”
“Had” Amora leaned forward, placing her cup on the table, her wounds still aching. “We had worked together, and it was nice for a while, but she ultimately found a different route to take…if anyone is killing anyone, she’s the one you need to look for…not me, and not Loki” She paused. “I mean the other Loki, not the one that was pruned by Loki…we should really come up with clarifications for these Loki’s it’s difficult to differentiate the same person”
“Which one is she?”
“Uhhhh…” Amora looked around, trying to recall the Loki’s story. “She killed Thanos.”
“You’ve picked a hell of a partner in crime to betray” Ravonna rolled her eyes.
“In my defense-“ Amora stopped herself. “No I did betray her…kind of…its complicated, speaking of which, Miss Minutes!”
Upon her call, the hologram orange clock manifested in Ravonna’s office, hovering onto the coffee table.
"Leena!!!" Miss Minutes chimed, grinning and jumping onto the cushion beside Amora and hugging her arm. “How have you been sugar? I’ve missed you!”
Ravonna cleared her throat, Miss Minutes’ smile faltered as she jumped back onto the coffee table. Amora grinned, she always favoured the southern belle of an assistant.
“Miss Minutes, can you give me all the files from the beginning of time?” Amora smiled.
“What?” Ravonna’s eyes widened.
“That’s an awfully tall order Leena” Miss Minutes frowned, pulling up her own virtual file folders.
“Miss Minutes, no, do not give this traitor anything” Ravonna shouted.
“ooooh? Traitor now is it, Ravonna?” Amora leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. “I’m trying to help you; these timekeepers are lying to you”
“That’s a lie.” Ravonna sneered.
“A lie that the timekeepers are lying or that I’m trying to help you?”
“Enough Amora. Miss Minutes, do not give her anything from the TVA database”
Miss Minutes hesitated, looking between Amora and Ravonna with uncertainty. Her files were still visible in front of them and with another moment of consideration, Miss Minutes decided to continue looking through the files. Ravonna’s mouth hung open in shock, Amora couldn’t help but snicker at the clock’s choice on the matter. Ravonna’s grip tightened on the pruning rod as Miss Minutes flipped through file after file in front of her. The minutes passed by slowly, too slow it seemed, for Ravonna’s liking.
“No.” Ravonna seethed. “No. You’re done, Amora”
Before Amora could comprehend or respond to Ravonna, the judge lunged across the coffee table, seizing Amora by her throat. Amora couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation, never before had she seen Ravonna become so heated over something as simple as Miss Minutes choosing Amora over her.
“Where is Loki?”
“You pruned her” Amora chuckled, stretching her neck a bit to loosen the grip, it wasn’t working.
“Why did you help her?” Ravonna pointed the pruning rod at Amora’s chest, Amora could hear the subtle buzzing of the device.
“Because Loki is my friend…no matter what timeline, no matter what universe, no matter what crime…I will ALWAYS put Loki first”
Ravonna frowned, “Why did you infiltrate the TVA?”
“I was bored, and I needed your hunters to stop chasing me”
“What do you know?”
Amora gave a sly Cheshire grin, “Everything…” she said with a purr.
“Why and how did you omit things from your file?”
Amora drew in a deep breath, staring Ravonna down, their faces now a breath apart. Heat rose in Amora’s chest, it was anger, anger from the memories that the question resurfaced. Using her free hand, Amora reached up, unbeknownst to Ravonna, and grabbed the body of the pruning rod. In a single motion, Amora pulled the pruning rod toward herself and pressed it to her chest.
“NO!” Ravonna screeched as Amora felt her body dematerializing and the scenery of Ravonna’s office faded away.
“Leena!” Miss Minutes shouted.
*********
Loki sat on one of the benches in the great banquet hall of Asgard, eyeing the liquid in his cup suspiciously. Looking over to Kid Loki, who was occupied with a cabinet video game named Polybius, he watched the kid intently mash the buttons on the console. Old Loki was sitting at the far end of the banquet table nearby the game console, and Boastful Loki had dropped himself into the seat across from Loki.
“I once got the high score on that game, was there for a while before the kid beat it again” He chuckled.
“He never had the high score!” Kid Loki called back to them.
Boastful Loki rolled his eyes, looking back at Loki. “So tell me, what’s your story?”
“My story?”
“Yeah, why’d you get pruned by the TVA?”
“Well I…uh…”
Boastful Loki erupted into a deep chuckle before Loki could answer, “See, I killed all of the Avengers, one by one with my mighty hammer” He swung the makeshift hammer around him, mocking the actions of hitting things and people with it. “They were no match for me-“
“That’s not true” Old Loki groaned, getting up from his seat and moving closer to the two other Loki’s.
“How would you know?” Boastful Loki sneered. “An old geezer like you”
Old Loki smiled, taking a sip from his own cup. “Because you talk in your sleep, let’s start there”
“What’s your story?” Loki wanted to avoid the bickering that was no doubt on the cusp for the two.
“Mine?” Old Loki raised an eyebrow. “Well…I survived Thanos, casting an illusion of myself much like the one I did back during the Dark Elf scourge, I was a coward” His eyes grew sad as he recalled the memory. “I abandoned my people, left them to the titan because I was too afraid to face Thanos as I should, I left Thor to believe I was dead and then removed myself from the narrative entirely…” A sad smile poked at his lips as he took another sip of his drink. “There was a flat on Midgard I procured, in London…I lived there for years, possibly decades before I got it into my head that I wanted to go find Thor, let him know that his brother was still alive…that’s when they picked me up” His smile turned into a frown. “Arrested me and erased my timeline”
Kid Loki stopped playing the game, he must have grown tired with it and sat down next to Loki at the table.
“You were alone all those years?” Loki asked.
“No.” Kid Loki answered instead, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. “The illustrious, beautiful, mysterious, and greatest beauty of all the nine realms were with him” He giggled as Old Loki tried to swat him from across the table. “How could anyone leave out the alluring Enchantress of Asgard, Amora herself!”
“That’s enough out of you!” Old Loki knocked Kid Loki off of the table bench with a flick of his fingers, magic knocking the boy onto the floor.
“You knew Amora?” Loki sat a bit straighter.
“We all did, in some way” Boastful Loki grinned.
Kid Loki, pulling himself off of the floor and back onto the bench, summoned a juice box for himself. “She was, after all, our best friend” His smile dropped.
“I was pruned trying to save her,” Loki said.
“Save her? From whom?” Old Loki inquired.
“Us, actually”
“The Thanos killer” Boastful Loki mumbled.
“Pardon?” Loki’s eyes widened.
“The Thanos killer, that’s what we call her” Kid Loki answered. “She killed Thanos after escaping his capture and torture, the TVA picked her up and pruned her a while back, she escaped and they captured her again…then she got free and then, again, captured but when she came back here one of those times she was different, upset and angered, but not because she had been pruned for the third time, because she had been betrayed by Amora, instead of seeking out a secluded way of living like before…she went back to hunt Amora down…to kill her as she killed Thanos”
Loki’s blood ran cold, the betrayal of Amora? What kind of betrayal? How did Amora and the Thanos killer Loki meet? It seemed to be one question after another when it came to that woman.
“What about the alligator?” Loki looked over to Alligator Loki who was occupying themselves in a small shallow pool of water in a blue plastic tub.
The gator gave a low growl in response, “Turned Thor into a Frog and tried to eat him as an Alligator…it backfired as you can see” Old Loki answered.
“Why?” It was the only question Loki had.
“We still aren’t sure” Kid Loki responded. “But then again, the actions of a Loki can never really be explained now can it?”
“Here here!” Boastful Loki shouted, lifting his cup in a toast.
*********
Amora sputtered into a cough as she woke up, clutching at her wounded stomach and using the last bit of her magic up to seal the wound. It would leave a scar, but if she got more magic she could remove the scar. Sitting up, Amora gauged her surroundings, it looked like a Midgardian diner but extremely decrepit and overrun with nature. Pulling herself off of the floor, Amora leaned on the dirt and grime-covered bar top before dusting herself off.
“This damn jumpsuit” She cursed, wishing she had the magic to change her clothes. “Hideous thing couldn’t get pruned off of me?”
“I’m afraid that’s not how it works”
Amora looked up to the source of the voice, Mobius sat at the bar a few stools down, his hands fiddling with a tempad in his hands. Amora walked from behind the bar and sat down next to Mobius in one of the empty, formally red, stools.
“You’ll be happy to know that I’m rather relieved to see your sodding face” Amora chuckled.
“This is quite a lucky series of events…” He said, looking over at her.
“Is it?”
“I mean, you just happened to show up in the exact location that I stopped in to hide”
“That is lucky…” She smiled, but it quickly fell. “Hiding from what?”
Mobius looked over his shoulder, out toward one of the grime-covered windows. Amora got up, following his gaze, she leaned over one of the still upright tables and out the window. Possibly a few hundred yards away, a large purple mass blew across the empty plane of oblivion she found herself in, deserted and destroyed cars and buildings littered former streets and where a city should be opened into a large grassy plane. The purple mass blew over destroyed obstacles in its path, and once it did, the obstacles vanished entirely from the plane. Amora felt a chill run through her as she watched it obliterate everything it came across.
What is that thing?