[Realm: Álfheimr]
[Location: Outskirts]
Echidna's shock did not come from the landscape ruined around her.
Yes, the plains had been crushed flat into a scarred land. Yes, enormous trenches split the earth. Yes, hills collapsed in the distance, and the trembling quake still pulsed faintly beneath her coils.
But she had witnessed devastation far greater in her lifetime. This was tame in comparison.
What unsettled her wasn't the destruction.
It was who had caused it.
Her serpentine lower body rose slowly from the dust, muscles rolling beneath regrowing scales. Her humanoid torso lifted, cracked skin knitting, blood vanishing from wounds that sealed themselves with a small shimmer.
She exhaled once, steadying herself—and turned her gaze to the one responsible.
The human.
