Illusiveone
patreon
30: Marvel's Green Lantern, A Land Lost to Time
🕑 Added 2025-08-16 19:31:38 +0000 UTCMax guided the emerald car construct smoothly across the skies above the tranquil, endless blue of the Indian Ocean. Sunlight glittered across the rolling waves below, the scene serene and undisturbed at least on the outside. Inside the glowing vehicle, peace was harder to come by.
“…and that,” Odin finished with a huff of finality, “is why I was weaker. My father stripped a portion of my strength when he cast me out. It is the truth; I swear it by the Norns.”
Max glanced over his shoulder, one brow raised. “So you’re saying you lost because you’re less powerful now? Because Bor took away a piece of your strength when he banished you?”
“Yes!” Odin exclaimed. “By the Norns, it’s true. Ask Agamotto if you don’t believe me.”
Agamotto sighed, rubbing his temples. “The most disappointing part of that spar was watching you flail around with my spells. I told you not to use them so bluntly; you need to have—”
Agamotto couldn’t finish before Odin pointed a triumphant finger. “Aha! That’s it. I relied too much on Midgardian magic. That is how Grænlaðr gained the upper hand.”
Max shook his head, amused. He could tell Odin was rattled from their sparring match. The prince had been undeniably stronger when they first met. It was Odin’s strength and Mjolnir that had helped them survive battles against Mimir and Surtur. Back then, Max was still figuring things out, barely keeping his constructs stable in the heat of battle. Comparing that to now, he had improved by a considerable amount. In hindsight, he was surprised he had even survived those battles.
But Odin would only grow from here Max knew it. Once the day came when his friend ascended the throne and inherited the full might of the Odinforce, he’d reach levels of power Max wasn’t sure even he could match—or perhaps he would; who knew?
As his thoughts lingered on Odin and the future, there was something else still gnawing at him. The spear Kang had used… It was Asgardian. He couldn’t shake the thought. Whether it was made by an Asgardian in the future or worse, Odin himself. Its very existence unsettled him.
He shook the thought away and angled the construct-car higher.
“So,” Max asked, breaking the silence, “what exactly are we looking for?”
Agamotto’s gaze was fixed on the horizon. “What we are searching for,” he began, his tone more solemn than before, “is far more dangerous than the Mirror of Lotus we found in the realm of the Deavas. This…” He paused, eyes narrowing as though he could already sense it. “…this is an artifact of considerable power, one that will allow me to sustain the great shield I plan to erect. A barrier that will safeguard this world from the touch of interdimensional terrors. Forever.”
Odin leaned forward from the back seat. “So this Savage Land, as Grænlaðr called it, what is this place?”
Agamotto folded his hands. “By my understanding, it is a land lost to time. A place created by visitors to this world millions of years ago.”
“It’s a preserve of sorts. A sanctuary holding onto life that’s long extinct from every age of Earth…” Max said.
Agamotto nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, yes that would make sense as well.”
Max leaned back in his seat, excitement practically humming through him. He knew only scraps about the Savage Land, skimmed from a wiki in his life before all this: caveman tribes, dinosaurs, even sentient dinosaurs. His heart beat a little faster at the thought.
From behind, Odin chuckled. “Let us hope this venture proves more fruitful than the last time you led us on a pointless chase, Agamotto. A great threat to the world, you said, and all we found were empty forests…weeks wasted.”
Max snorted. He remembered that one well. Agamotto had dragged them deep into northern Europe, swearing he’d felt some malevolent presence waiting to breach their world. The only things they found were snow and a tribe that started to worship Odin after he saved them from a pack of wild animals.
Agamotto frowned, his voice hardening. “I was not wrong. That day I felt a psychic scream ripple across the Earth. It was filled with sorrow and hate, and then something manifested in this realm I know it. For a moment, I touched its presence. It was… terrifying.”
Max’s humor dimmed at that. He glanced at his ring, remembering. “Even Jade picked up on something that day. So, yeah… there was something. Whatever it was, though…it’s gone.”
Agamotto shook his head. “Let us hope so.” Then he turned to Odin. “And no, Prince of Asgard, this is no wild goose chase. The artifact I seek is there in the Savage Land. I am sure of it.”
It didn’t take long for the temperature to drop as the icy peaks of Antarctica came into view. Agamotto extended his hands, whispering an incantation under his breath. A faint shimmer spread across them a magical barrier that kept the cold at bay.
“Temperature stabilized,” Jade said through Max’s ring, her voice calm and clinical.
They flew farther in and, following Agamotto’s directions, arrived near what looked like a massive storm. It churned in slow spirals, monstrous and silent. Towering walls of snow and wind curved skyward.
Max narrowed his eyes. “Look at that… That doesn’t look natural.”
Agamotto’s eyes opened, sharp and focused. “It isn’t. But it’s not magical either.”
Odin straightened up, Mjolnir already in hand. “Let me deal with it.”
He raised the hammer, summoning the winds but when he hurled it toward the storm, nothing changed. The swirling mass of snow barely acknowledged his presence.
“What?” Odin muttered, trying again. “What is this?”
“Jade,” Max said, “scan the region.” As he spoke, he created drone constructs. They burst out in every direction, dispersing toward the storm’s edges. Max slowed the car, hovering just outside the storm wall while Agamotto began muttering his own incantations.
Then, simultaneously—
“I have found something,” Agamotto said.
“I have found something,” Jade said.
Max chuckled. “Alright, Jade, go ahead.”
“The storm is artificially generated,” she explained. “Origin: subterranean. There’s an entry point at the eye of the storm.”
Agamotto nodded. “The Oracle is correct.”
Max grinned. “Into the storm it is.”
He pushed the construct forward, and the car rocketed toward the spiraling maw of snow.
“Sorry, folks,” Max said, adopting a pilot’s voice. “We are experiencing some mild turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts.”
A green visor flickered into place over his face, scanning for the opening Jade had identified. He spotted it and angled the car downward.
Odin whooped from the back, arms raised. “Drop us in, Grænlaðr!”
The construct dove.
Wind howled and snow battered the car, but it held firm. Max maneuvered with ease, dipping through the swirling chaos. Lightning flickered in the clouds, illuminating jagged ice peaks far below.
And then suddenly silence.
They passed through the eye of the storm and emerged into a vast subterranean tunnel. Walls of black stone shimmered with faint bioluminescence, and glowing moss coated the edges. Max piloted the car downward, weaving through tight caverns and echoing chambers.
After several winding turns, the tunnel opened up.
The car burst through, and Max’s jaw dropped.
Before them stretched a jungle unlike anything he had seen before lush, untamed, and brimming with life. Gigantic trees towered above mist-filled canyons. Waterfalls cascaded from red rock cliffs. Herds of dinosaurs grazed in the distance, while pterosaurs and other flying creatures soared overhead.
The Savage Land.
Max slowed the car to a hover and let them take it all in.
“This is…This is… wow.” he said, eyes wide.
====
Max glided the car gently over the prehistoric canopy, the rich green of the Savage Land stretching endlessly in all directions. Below, in the distance, he could hear the thunderous, rhythmic groans of enormous creatures echoing through the valley, followed by chirps, low growls, and the deep bellow of something truly massive.
He leaned forward, eyes wide. For a brief moment he was a little kid again a short period when he was obsessed with dinosaurs, wide-eyed and full of wonder.
“Midgard continues to surprise me,” Odin said from the back seat, craning his neck to get a better look at the flying reptiles above.
Agamotto sat straight, his hands folded calmly. “The presence of the artifact is growing stronger. Further south.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Max waved dismissively, already dropping altitude. “But first let’s look around!”
He dipped the car construct into a clearing where towering, long-necked dinosaurs grazed in serene stillness Brachiosaurus, their massive bodies moving slowly as they pulled leaves from the high treetops.
Max touched the ground lightly. The car settled into the grass, and the transparent roof dissolved away. He stood on the seat and pulled off his visor, eyes wide, a huge smile on his face.
“You did it,” he whispered with pure joy, quoting Jurassic Park. “You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.”
Agamotto blinked. “Who… did what?”
Max waved it off. “You wouldn’t get it.”
The theme from Jurassic Park swelled in his mind as he looked around, naming the peaceful giants.
“Brachiosaurus… Parasaurolophus… maybe a hadrosaur? Oh man, that might be an Edmontosaurus holy crap, I forgot how big these guys were…”
He lifted off the ground, flying toward the massive herd. Odin and Agamotto followed behind.
“Look at that one!” Max shouted as he soared over the back of a lumbering Ankylosaurus, its clubbed tail swinging slowly.
He rattled off names to himself. “Camarasaurus, maybe… oh, that’s a Stegosaurus… is that a…Triceratops?!”
He landed a bit too fast near a grazing herd of smaller hadrosaurs. They scattered in panic, stomping away with frightened cries. Max threw up his hands. “I didn’t mean to spook you sorry… hahaha.”
Odin touched down beside him, eyeing the dinosaurs. “Let’s kill one for dinner tonight.”
Max spun on him, horrified. “Absolutely not!”
“Why?” Odin gestured broadly. “They look like Mitin from Xernonia. You remember how delicious those were?”
“These,” Max said firmly, “are majestic, ancient creatures.”
Jade’s voice suddenly rang in Max’s ear. “Warning. Large predator approaching from the west.”
And then they heard it.
ROAR.
Trees shattered in the distance. A towering shadow moved through the jungle brush then broke into the clearing. A Tyrannosaurus rex, easily over forty feet long, bellowed as it charged after a terrified iguanodon, crashing through foliage like a living tank.
But the beast’s nostrils flared. Its yellow eyes locked onto them. The iguanodon escaped and now the T. rex had new prey.
“Now that one,” Odin said with a grin, holding up Mjolnir, “we can kill.”
The Tyrannosaurus rex thundered toward them, jaws wide. Odin sprinted to meet it, the Asgardian prince charging straight at the beast.
He raised Mjolnir high. “You will make a fine meal for us, beast.”
“Nope! No-no-no!” Max shouted, lifting his ring.
A shimmering green construct snapped into existence around the massive predator, an enormous containment pod reinforced with thick struts and energy locks. Before the T. rex could reach Odin, it was hoisted up, roaring and thrashing inside the construct.
Max flicked his wrist and launched the entire capsule skyward, sending it arcing far across the forest. The construct disappeared over the trees, its occupant still roaring in protest.
Odin skidded to a stop, turning with a scowl. “Why did you do that?!”
Max’s eyes glowed faintly, his voice stern. “We’re not killing dinosaurs, Odin.”
“You’re no fun.”
Ignoring the Asgardian’s grumbling, Max turned to Agamotto. “Where’s this thing again?”
Agamotto raised a hand, a golden rune spinning in his palm. “South by southwest.”
“Alright, all aboard,” Max said, summoning a broad, flat platform construct beneath them. It lifted all three into the air, sailing smoothly over the thick canopy of prehistoric jungle.
=====
It didn’t take long for something enormous to break the horizon. Agamotto pointed toward a stone structure rising above the treetops.
“There it is.”
The structure was colossal a ziggurat-like temple formed of pale gray stone. Moss and vines clung to its sides, and strange glyphs ran across its surface.
“Jade,” Max said, narrowing his eyes, “scan the structure.”
Jade’s voice responded in his mind: “According to records retrieved from the planet Perska. Dead World #5, which we explored on the third expedition last year this architecture matches known patterns of Sagittarian architecture.”
“Sagittarians…” Max repeated. “Anything else?”
“Only that the Perskians cursed their name. They labeled them ‘most evil’… and ‘traitorous.’”
Max frowned. “That’s… not comforting.”
Agamotto’s expression darkened. “If what your oracle says is true, we should proceed cautiously.”
They touched down at the base of the temple. The ancient steps loomed before them, half swallowed by vines.
Max stepped forward, rolling his shoulders. “All right. I’ll take the lead.”
Max was an archaeologist, after all. This had been his dream well, maybe not exactly this but it was the kind of work he’d wanted when he was growing up and studying for it.
As the three of them took their first steps toward the stairway, a deep, earth-shaking roar shattered the silence.
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
It was raw. Primal.
The sky above the Savage Land trembled with a sound that split the still air in two.
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
Odin whirled, scanning the jungle. “What in the Nine Realms was that?”
Max raised his hand and flicked several green-lit drones into the air. “Jade, I need a full sweep. Where did that come from?”
Before the AI could respond, the roar came againcloser this time.
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
Jade spoke, louder than he had ever heard her: “Alert. Unknown biosignature approaching. Energy levels… extreme. Rising rapidly.”
Max’s brow furrowed. “Define ‘extreme,’ Jade.”
“Unknown. This entity’s power output is fluctuating… but massive.”
Agamotto stepped forward and conjured golden mandalas in his palms. “Whatever it is, prepare yourselves.”
Odin raised Mjolnir, lightning cracking around his frame. “Let it come!”
Max clenched his fist. Green energy surged around him and, with practiced focus, he built a suit of power armor around his body, sleek, angular, and inspired by the Mark 33 Iron Man design, his favorite. He created it piece by piece, every component tuned to properties he knew by heart. It was one of the few armors he kept memorized for instant assembly, something he’d refined over the last two years.
Jade’s voice rang in again: “Max the temple. Something inside it has activated.”
“What?!” Max turned toward the ziggurat just as it began to move.
Massive arms tore free from the temple’s sides. Blocks shifted and groaned as the top twisted, revealing a monstrous stone face. Two glowing eyes snapped open atop the structure.
Odin and Agamotto stared, stunned with him.
And then… it spoke.
“I am Umbu. Intruders… shall perish for defiling my master’s treasure.”
The voice was deep, mechanical, vibrating the very earth.
Lasers lanced from the awakened temple’s eyes.
Twin beams of scorching red light ripped across the clearing, searing toward the trio.
Agamotto raised his hands in an instant, golden sigils blooming around him in intricate, concentric patterns. “Shield of the Vishanti!” he called, just as the blasts struck.
At the same moment, Max brought up a circular construct of shimmering green energy in front of them. The beams collided with both shields, sending crackling energy arcing in all directions.
Behind the barrier, Odin scowled. “Have at thee!” he bellowed, spinning Mjolnir and launching himself forward. Lightning split the sky above, summoned by the prince, and he hurled it down toward the ziggurat-turned-monster.
Thunder exploded across the jungle as bolts crashed into the temple’s stone surface. Chunks of ancient masonry cracked and smoked but the creature barely flinched.
Agamotto followed. “Spear of Seraphim, strike true!” he intoned, hurling a lance of golden mystic energy that streaked through the air and slammed into Umbu’s midsection with a thunderous boom.
“Jade, give me a read. What is that thing?”
“Exterior composition: stone. Interior: advanced synthetic alloy. Internal power source registering as semi-organic.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “Alright… let’s—”
He never finished the sentence.
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
The roar tore through the forest like an avalanche. Louder. Closer.
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
Trees snapped in the distance. The ground trembled.
“Max! It’s near. Take flight now!” Jade shouted.
Max didn’t hesitate. He leapt into the air, a shield construct blooming beneath him just as an enormous fist of Umbu’s came crashing down and smashed into it with a deafening crack.
Then the other roaring creature finally broke through the treeline. Towering above the shattered canopy stood a red-skinned colossus, at least nine feet tall, muscles bulging across every inch of his frame. On his chest burning like a living sun glowed a star-shaped brand inside a radiant circle.
Max hovered, stunned.
“Holy hell…” he whispered.
The thing let out another guttural scream that rippled the air itself:
“RAAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGHHHHH!”
Odin yelled as he dodged another swipe from Umbu. “What in the fuck is that?!”
Max didn’t look away from the glowing giant. “You two deal with Umbu,” he said sharply. “I’ll handle Glowing Hulk over here.”
Without waiting for a response, Max rocketed forward and, to his surprise, the creature leapt to meet him.
They collided midair, fists connecting with a force that shattered the sky. A concussive shockwave blasted out in all directions, flattening trees and whipping up a cyclone of dirt and wind.
Everything around them shook.
The battle had begun.
.
.
Next chapter in a few hours gonna get some sleep first.
Comments
June Soriano
Tftc
