The Restless Box

Themyscira.

The island had been cut off from the world for thousands of years, but now its old tranquility was gone.

The sky was no longer eternally clear. Heavy, lead-gray clouds piled overhead.

Purple lightning crawled deep within the clouds, rumbling dully.

Diana descended onto the white marble plaza outside the Divine Temple.

The plaza was packed with fully armed Amazon warriors.

Hundreds upon hundreds of women in dark-gold armor stood in tight formation, spears and bows in hand.

Their spearpoints aimed straight at the doors of the central Divine Temple.

No one spoke. Only the sea wind stirred the metal plates of their armor.

The crowd parted to form a passage.

Artemis strode toward Diana, her expression grim. Sweat had plastered her long golden hair to her cheeks. She gripped a double-bladed Battle Axe in her right hand, the muscles of her arm bulging with the force of it.

"Princess," Artemis said as she came forward.

"What happened to the Oracle Stone?"

"It isn't the Oracle Stone." Artemis turned toward the grand Divine Temple and its closed doors. "It's the thing underground. It's come 'alive.'"

Diana's gaze darkened.

Underground. The sealed chamber. The forbidden object her people had guarded for generations.

"Any casualties?" Diana strode toward the Divine Temple.

Artemis kept pace beside her, speaking quickly. "None among the outer guards. But the four high priestesses guarding the chamber have all collapsed. The energy coming off that thing is strange. Ordinary magical barriers can't stop it. I ordered everyone out of the Divine Temple and sealed every exit."

"And the queen?"

"She's at the palace, reinforcing the island's defensive array. She told me to tell you that no matter what happens, we cannot let that box leave the chamber."

Diana reached the Divine Temple's bronze doors, each ten meters high.

She planted her hands against the cold bronze beast heads and heaved.

Boom!

The great doors ground slowly backward.

Diana drew Magic-Breaker, held it in a reverse grip, and strode into the Divine Temple.

Artemis followed close behind, Battle Axe held across her chest.

They crossed the empty front hall and reached the entrance to the underground chamber.

A steep spiral staircase descended before them.

The walls beside the stairs had once been covered in exquisite murals depicting humans, Atlanteans, and Amazons joining forces to repel the armies of Apokolips in ancient times.

But the murals had changed.

Diana stopped.

Thick, dark liquid seeped from the carved outlines of the Parademons on the murals.

It dripped down the walls onto the steps, hissing faintly as it ate into the stone.

The carved monsters looked as though they were about to tear themselves free.

"That wasn't there ten minutes ago," Artemis said quietly. Magic flared along the edge of her Battle Axe.

"Come on." Diana hurried down without another pause.

The farther they descended, the thicker the air grew.

At the bottom of the stairs stood a stone door covered in ancient Greek sealing runes.

Cracks now riddled it. Blinding red light pulsed through them like a giant beating heart.

Diana kicked the damaged door apart.

They charged through the flying debris into the sealed chamber.

The chamber was vast and circular.

Twelve massive pillars stood around its perimeter, each wide enough for three people to encircle with their arms. Thick bronze chains wrapped around them.

The other ends of the chains should have been fastened to the stone platform at the chamber's center.

Now that platform had been reduced to powder.

The cube made of an unknown Divine Power metal—the Mother Box—floated in midair.

It was no longer the inert object it had been for thousands of years.

The metal patterns across the Mother Box's surface flipped and rearranged themselves in a frenzy.

Its transformation defied human geometry. Gears meshed and metal scraped against metal with the grating sound of a beast grinding its teeth.

Rings of tangible red energy spread outward from the Mother Box.

Four high priestesses in white robes lay at the edge of the chamber.

Blood ran from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Strange black web-like lines had appeared across their skin. They were unconscious, their vital signs faint.

"Get them out!" Diana shouted.

Artemis immediately rushed toward the priestesses.

As soon as she drew near, a wave of red energy swept across her.

Artemis raised her axe to block it, but the impact drove her back three steps. Sparks burst across the axehead.

"The energy's pushing us away!" Artemis gritted her teeth and steadied herself.

Diana kept her eyes fixed on the Mother Box overhead.

The cube spun faster and faster. Its grating had risen to a shrill howl.

Chunks of stone began falling from the chamber's vaulted ceiling.

She had to stop it.

Diana bent her knees and launched herself off the ground.

The stone floor exploded beneath her as she shot toward the Mother Box like an arrow from a bow.

Magic-Breaker flashed cold and bright as she slashed at the dense layer of red light surrounding it.

Clang!

The blade struck the energy wave with a deafening metallic crash.

A tremendous recoil surged through the hilt and into Diana's right arm.

The skin between her thumb and forefinger split instantly, spraying blood.

The short sword was said to cut through any magical barrier, yet against this raw cosmic energy, it sank less than an inch before sticking fast.

"Stop!" Diana roared. She slammed her left palm against the end of the hilt, trying to drive the blade all the way in.

The Mother Box seemed enraged.

The metal pieces on its surface snapped inward, then surged outward.

Boom!

Violent red energy erupted in a sphere.

Diana took the blast head-on.

It hurled her backward like a kite with its string cut, slamming her into a massive pillar.

The pillar snapped in half and crashed down.

Diana rose from the rubble and spat blood onto the floor. She brushed the dust off herself, her eyes turning dangerous.

Artemis dragged two unconscious priestesses to a safe distance and shouted, "The sealing array has completely failed!"

The Mother Box's rearrangements reached a fever pitch.

Blinding red light filled the chamber.

At the instant the light peaked, the space at the chamber's center tore open like a rag.

A pitch-black rift appeared out of nowhere.

Unstable spatial currents flickered along its edges.

No light came from within it. There was only endless depth and cold.

In that moment, gravity throughout the chamber went haywire.

Fragments of stone, drops of blood from the priestesses, even the remains of the fallen pillar began floating upward.

Diana drove her short sword into the floor and held herself steady.

A voice came from deep within the rift.