The sound was deafening—like the sky itself had cracked. James barely had time to yank Jenny's harness tight before the ice beneath them *shifted*.
"FRED!" James bellowed, but his voice was swallowed by the roar of splitting ice.
Jenny stumbled, her boots skidding as the ground tilted. "Where is he?!"
James didn't answer. His eyes locked onto the jagged fissure snaking toward them. Then—
***CRACK.***
The world dropped.
---
Fred had been standing directly over the hollow. One second he was grinning, the next—gone. Swallowed whole by the collapsing ice.
James and Jenny barely had time to react before their harness lines snapped taut, jerking them to a stop mid-air. They dangled over a yawning black pit, the edges of the hole still crumbling around them.
"CLIMB!" James roared, scrabbling at the ice wall. Jenny kicked her crampons into the surface, heart hammering.
Below them, Fred's headlamp flickered in the darkness. He'd landed on a ledge—*alive*—but the ice around him groaned ominously.
"You two okay?!" he shouted up, voice echoing.
"YOU SON OF A—" Jenny's scream cut off as another chunk of ice broke free beneath her boots.
---
The pit wasn't just empty space.
Fred's headlamp swept across the walls—*smooth*, almost *polished*. Not natural. And at the bottom, half-buried in shattered ice, something gleamed.
" Guys , we did found something interesting " Fred laughs out loudly as his laugh echoes inside the dome .
Both Jenny and James climb down and they were flabbergasted by what's in front of them . They forgot how deep there were or how are they gonna climb up .
The only thing they had in their mind was - WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT.
A huge black object, like mixed between obsidian and metal. The object is covered in scale made of those same obsidian material. The over all height was about 10 to 15 ft give or take .
Jenny came closer and tried touching it but she couldn't feel anything, so she removed her gloves and tried. James suddenly grabbed her head before she came contact.
" Are you nuts ? We don't even know what that thing is ? Or how old is it ? It can contains viruses " he warns her
On the other side Fred already touched it .
He screams loudly. James and Jenny both rushed to him, pulled his hand out and laid him on the ground " Fred, Fred , are you ok ? " Jenny was panicked , Fred was shaking uncontrollably, like he was having Seizure.
" Came on speak to me Fred " James slaps his face few times lightly but there was no response.
James search his pockets for sat phone but he couldn't find it , he looks around and he found it close to the dome wall.
James pointed to the sat phone " Jenny, grab the sat phone and ask for Air medic " James continues to wake him up . Jenny runs to the wall and picks the phone .
As she was making a call she hears a laugh.
James was stunned. The person who is laughing was non other then Fred .
" You should have seen both of your faces " he stands up and dust off the snow .
James just simply lays down on the ground . Jenny walks close to him and punches in the gut. " That is not funny, Fred " she pouts . Fred holds his stomach and collapsed to the ground .
Fred's laughter echoed through the cavern, bouncing off the obsidian walls like a madman's chorus. James sat up slowly, his face pale—not from the cold, but from the sheer *rage* boiling under his skin.
"You *asshole*," he hissed.
Jenny wasn't laughing either. Her hands were shaking—not from fear now, but from adrenaline. "You *faked* a seizure? Down *here*?"
Fred wiped tears from his eyes, still grinning. "Oh, come on! You guys were *so* scared—"
***CRACK.***
The sound cut him off.
Not ice this time.
*Obsidian.*
All three of them froze as the black, scaled surface beneath Fred's boots *moved*.
---
A seam split open along the dome's surface—a perfect, geometric line, glowing faintly blue.
Jenny stumbled back. "That wasn't *you* this time, was it?"
Fred's smile vanished. "No."
The ground trembled. The scales shifted, sliding apart like armor rearranging itself. And then—
A sound.
Not a machine. Not an animal.
A *voice*.
Deep, resonant, *wrong*.
It spoke a single word, in no language any of them knew—and yet, they *understood* it.
The blue glow pulsed brighter. The scales continued shifting, revealing more of whatever lay beneath.
Fred, for once, wasn't laughing. "We should go."
Fred took a step back, his boots crunching on shattered ice. "Okay, new plan—we run."
Jenny didn't move. Her eyes were locked on the shifting metal. "Did you hear that voice? It spoke."
James grabbed her arm. "Yeah, and it wasn't a goddamn welcome speech."
Above them, the fissure they'd fallen through was sealing—ice reforming like a wound stitching itself shut. The light from the surface dimmed, plunging them deeper into the eerie glow of the structure.
Then—
= Stay.=
The voice again. Not from the dome.
Inside their heads.
The blue glow pulsed like a slow, alien heartbeat. The obsidian scales rippled—then parted.
Not a humanoid figure.
Something worse.
A serpent.
But not like any snake they'd ever seen.
Its body was segmented, not with flesh, but with interlocking plates of the same black metal, shifting like liquid as it uncoiled from the depths of the structure. Its head was elongated, smooth, the eyes were like void, featureless save for a single vertical slit where a mouth should be—glowing the same eerie blue as the chamber.
And it was huge.
Twenty feet long, maybe more, its body undulating without sound, without friction, as if the air itself moved aside for it.
Fred exhaled in wonder. "It's... beautiful."
= I am Awake ? Why ?.=
The voice wasn't sound. It was pressure, a vibration behind their eyes, in the marrow of their bones.
Jenny gagged, clutching her skull. "Make it stop—"
James staggered, his vision swimming. The serpent's head tilted, studying them.
= You are afraid.=
It wasn't a question.
The obsidian scales parted silently, revealing not a chamber, but an endless depth—a well of swirling blue light that stretched downward into impossible geometries. From its center rose the serpent, its prismatic body moving through the air like ink through water.
Time stuttered.
Jenny's breath fogged the air in jagged, frozen bursts. James' pulse thundered in his ears, each beat lasting an eternity. Fred's widening eyes reflected the serpent's glow in slow-motion fractals.
The creature's voice unfolded between moments:
= You stand where time kneels.=
The serpent coiled around them, its touch neither warm nor cold, but other. Where its scales brushed the ice, frost bloomed in perfect Fibonacci spirals.
Images came—not visions, but memories etched into the fabric of this place:
- Glaciers growing and receding like breathing lungs
- Stars wheeling in accelerated arcs across prehistoric skies
- A thousand human explorers vanishing into sudden snowstorms, their final screams stretched into infinite echoes
Fred gasped as understanding struck. "This isn't a place. It's a fold."
The serpent's approval vibrated through their bones.
= A stitch in time's fabric. My vigil.=
" What are you ? " Jenny questions, while still trembling in front of the serpent. " Are you gonna eat us? "
The serpent did turned its head towards jenny and spoke = You do cannot hold the weight of that question kid and as for eating you all ? i don't think you can satisfy my stomach, even if i swallow the your whole world, it cannot. But do not worry, i wont do anything for you or at least for now =
They were petrified as they heard the response. Cannot satisfy? Consume the hole world ? There was no logic in those worlds. Logic ? Logic was out of this fucking world at the moment. After what it did, the things that showed them was absurd. But also relieved, the serpent was not gonna harm them, not they do somthing.
" What is this place ? " James asked.
= It's just ice = it spoke. you cannot say it spoke but rather they heard it direct inside their mind .
" We knows its ice but what are we standing on ? " Fred asked as he was looking on the ground . There was a giant circle and some patters written on it .
= Oh this, Its a " one " formation, no one can come inside or leave . Unless you have the authority . =
" So we cannot leave this place ? " Jenny feared.
= Yes , and no =
" What's that supposed to mean ? "
= Just as I said , you cannot leave as long as I am alive but .. you can also leave when I am alive . =
The three of them were confused. What does that mean ? They cannot leave if the serpent is alive but also leave if the serpent is alive? Do they have to fight the serpent ?or ask for permission to leave ?
" We don't get it " Jenny said
The serpent's body shifted, scales rippling like liquid shadow, its presence warping the air around it. It regarded them with those void-like eyes, neither cruel nor kind—just *indifferent*.
= You stand on a 'One' formation,= it repeated, as if that explained everything.
Fred swallowed hard, his scientific mind scrambling for logic where none existed. "A 'One' formation… like a prison?"
The serpent's laugh was a soundless tremor in their skulls.
= Prison implies a prisoner. I am neither trapped nor guarding. I simply… am.=
Jenny's hands trembled. "Then why can't we leave?"
The serpent's massive head tilted, studying them like an astronomer might study distant, insignificant stars.
= You misunderstand. The formation does not keep you in. It keeps *everything else* out.=
---
James' breath fogged in erratic bursts. "You're saying this place… is separate from reality?"
= Reality is a fragile thing, = the serpent mused. = This fold is a tear. A place where time and space are not bound by the rules of your world. =
Fred's eyes widened. "That's why time moves differently here."
The serpent's tail flicked, sending ripples through the ice beneath them—not cracking it, but *bending* it, like a reflection in disturbed water.
= An hour here, a week outside. A day here, a lifetime beyond. The formation sustains itself. And I sustain the formation. =
Jenny's voice was small. "So if you… *die*…?"
The serpent's void-eyes darkened further.
= Then the fold collapses. And everything inside—including you—ceases to have ever existed. =
---
James clenched his fists. "You said we *can* leave while you're alive. How?"
The serpent coiled lazily, its body passing through solid ice like mist.
= Authority. =
Fred groaned. "What *is* authority here? A key? A password?"
= Understanding, =the serpent replied. = To leave, you must first comprehend the formation. Not with your minds. With your *souls*. =
Jenny let out a hysterical laugh. "We're scientists, not mystics!"
The serpent's presence grew heavier, pressing down on them like the weight of centuries.
= Then you will stay. =
---
Silence stretched—seconds? Hours? Time had no meaning here.
Fred exhaled sharply. "Okay. Teach us."
The serpent stilled. For the first time, something like *interest* flickered in its abyssal gaze.
= You wish to learn? =
James nodded, jaw set. "If it's the only way out."
Jenny hesitated, then whispered, "What happens if we fail?"
The serpent's voice was final.
= Then you become part of the fold. Forgotten. Unseen.=
The ice beneath them pulsed like a living thing.