Temple of Valhalla

The air seemed to freeze at that very moment.

Only the faint crackling of green flames in the fireplace remained in the hall, along with a silence between the four that was so heavy it could almost crush bone.

Abaddon stood in the deepest shadows, the corners of his lips slowly curling into a meaningful smile, but he did not answer at once.

He merely raised a hand lightly, his fingertips gliding through the air as though caressing some ancient power that did not exist, yet felt utterly real.

"Gentlemen," his low, drawn-out voice echoed as if from the depths of the earth, "some secrets cannot be taken back once they are uncovered."

He paused, and two crimson glimmers lit up in the darkness of his eyes. "But since you have already seen them... let this game reach its climax a little sooner."

He uttered an extremely strange incantation, one that belonged to no known language.

The three supreme treasures erupted with blinding gray-white light at the same time.

The lights intertwined and merged, coalescing above the altar into the phantom images of two enormous temples—

Above the temple on the left floated a plaque formed from gray-white mist, bearing the three words "Valhalla" in ancient Cyrillic letters.

The entire hall seemed pieced together from the lingering shadows of countless heroic spirits and fragments of souls, its body translucent and silver-gray. Shattered stars floated above its roof, while innumerable spectral warriors wound around its pillars. They held weapons in their hands, their gazes hollow yet brimming with murderous intent; beneath the temple on the right, the broad black steps were engraved with the words "Hall of the Dead" in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The entire structure was built layer upon layer from countless dead souls. It was as black as ink,