Hellish Fiend

The large magma golem roared loudly as it looked around the throne room. Without hesitation, it charged toward the nearest human beings: the Dora Milaje guards.

The Dora Milaje snapped out of their momentary shock and raised their spears towards the creature. Instead of charging at it, a blue light flowed to the tips of their spears.

Okoye shouted something in the Wakandan language to the Dora Milaje. Listening to Okoye, all their spears started releasing blue energy bolts toward the creature.

The bolts flew through the air before landing all over the creature. Rocks and magma flew back, scorching the ground as its head, shoulders, and even its legs were shattered on impact.

The creature, mid-sprint, crashed onto the ground after its legs were shot out from underneath it. Okoye raised her hand, causing everyone to hold their fire. Cautious, she ordered two of her comrades to accompany her.

At the same time, everyone in the room breathed a sigh of relief. T'Challa, who had moved in front of his father when the creature started charging, lowered his arms while glancing at the rest of the people in the room before shifting his eyes back to the creature.

"What is that?" he muttered. His eyes fell on his sister, who had begun tapping on a large blue hologram in front of her.

Having heard her brother's mumbling, Shuri responded. "I have no idea either, brother."

"Its body seems to be entirely made up of magma and rock, which mshouldn't even be possible," she continued excited, turning to look at her brother. "Can you get me this for my research lab?"

T'Challa looked at his father, King T'Chaka, who was observing the creature carefully.

"We'll see what happens," T'Challa responded, turning his attention back to the Dora Milaje members approaching the body and the white rift in the middle of the throne room.

In the meantime, Okoye and two other guards slowly moved closer to the still-bubbling magma creature, their spears raised and ready.

'What is this?' Okoye thought, noticing an extremely thin white chain screwed into multiple rocks attached to the creature. She followed the chains with her eyes and saw that they led to the swirling white rift.

Before she could pay more attention to the chains, she noticed the shattered rocks on the ground start to vibrate. Goosebumps rose on her arms as the hairs all over her body stood up. Moving quickly, she jumped back, holding her spear towards the creature while backing away and shouting something in Wakandan to the others.

The other Dora Milaje looked confused at Okoye but followed after her seconds later. Meanwhile, others in the room watched in shock as the vibrating rocks rose slightly above the ground before getting pulled back towards the creature.

The stones attached themselves to the broken bodyparts piece by piece. However, the creature didn't wait to be fully regenerated. When its first arm reformed, it lifted itself off the ground. It stood on its only leg, letting its body fall forward as its missing leg regenerated.

Halfway through the fall, its leg fully regenerated. Using its falling momentum, it jumped forward with all its might. Mid-air, its head finally regenerated, letting out a loud roar while gathering magma inside its mouth.

The creature had closed the distance between the two guards who had followed Okoye to investigate it. Seeing this, Okoye stopped moving back in order to protect her comrades. The other Dora Milaje in the back immediately raised their spears to shoot more energy blasts at the creature, but they reacted too late.

While everything seemed to happen fast, only around 20 seconds had passed since they first shot down the creature. Okoye looked at the open mouth filled with magma coming towards her and shouted angrily while standing her ground, preparing for the worst.

The creature had just opened its mouth, barely beginning to release magma, when suddenly its head was yanked back. All the gathered magma shot toward the ceiling, while the already-released magma scorched the ground just infront of Okoye.

A few seconds earlier, Liam had walked through the white rift. He had purposefully waited for a bit to show them the uniqueness and threat of these types of creatures. But after seeing some of the guards in danger, he had quickly yanked on one of the small chains he had drilled into its stones before he had sent it through the portal.

After yanking its head back, Liam moved swiftly. He summoned more chain constructs and swung them around the Hellish Fiend's entire body, ensuring it couldn't move.

'I guess the other one might not be necessary,' Liam thought, observing the expressions on the officials' faces.

Everyone present in the throne room looked at Liam with different expressions. Some were still in shock, some were angered, while others were curious and intrigued. Overall, the tension in the throne room had risen once again.

"You..." Okoye said angrily, pointing her spear at Liam.

"Stand down, General Okoye," King T'Chaka spoke from behind her.

"It's alright," Liam said, lying through his teeth while smiling. "It is my fault for letting it break free in the first place."

"Lies," Okoye said, still pointing her spear at Liam. "I saw the chains attached to—"

"General Okoye." King T'Chaka interrupted her, this time his voice was heavier.

From what Okoye had already said, King T'Chaka understood what was going on.

'He was polite and kept his composure the entire time. This was all part of his plan,' he thought. 'By the looks of it, he had the creature under control the entire time but used it as a way to show us the difference in power.'

Many questions still lingered in King T'Chaka's mind. Some wondered if Liam had created the creature himself in order to get vibranium, but that didn't add up.

'If he can create creatures like this, coupled with his portals, it would be simple to steal the vibranium,' he thought. 'There would have been no point in exposing himself like this.'

His eyes fell on the bound creature once more. He thought about the story Liam had told them about the barriers around the world and the increasing number of these creatures appearing.

'If this is the strength of one such creature,' he thought seriously, 'what would happen if more showed up? And how strong is this creature compared to others?'

His gaze returned to Liam, observing everything from his expression to his stance once more. If the sorcerer was telling the truth, then the problem extended far beyond Wakanda's borders.

Without even the slightest change in his expression, King T'Chaka finally spoke. ''What is your real purpose here?''