Arrival on Vormir!

"BOOM—!"

The Sweetheart Bomb plunged into Vormir's murky crimson atmosphere like a burning meteor, trailing a long plume of black smoke.

The ship's hull turned red-hot from the intense friction, and shrill alarms mingled with the groans of twisting metal throughout the cockpit.

Harley acted as though she were on a roller coaster. Far from being scared, she screamed with excitement and clung tightly to Link's arm. "Whoa! Lil' Puddin'! This is way more exciting than the Doomsday Drop Tower at Gotham's amusement park!"

Link remained perfectly calm. Just before the ship hit the ground, he simply raised his left hand, clad in the Infinity Gauntlet, and gently closed it.

Purple light flashed from the Power Stone.

An immense, invisible force instantly enveloped the plummeting ship, gently cradling it like an unseen giant hand. Finally, after a bout of violent jolting, the Sweetheart Bomb came to a crooked stop on a stretch of jagged black rocks, less than ten meters from smashing into a heap of scrap.

"Tch. Boring." Harley pouted, dissatisfied with the insufficiently thrilling landing.

Link ignored her antics, pushed open the warped hatch, and stepped out first.

A bone-deep chill struck him instantly.

This was no physical cold, but a loneliness and sorrow that reached straight into the depths of the soul.

Sheesh. With this much negative energy, they could open a depression theme park here.

Link surveyed his surroundings with a slight frown.

They had landed on a vast black desert, its ground covered in fine grit that resembled cremated ashes. In the distance, enormous mountain ranges rose in jagged rows, their slopes an eerie dark red, like congealed blood.

The sky lay in perpetual twilight. A huge, half-dead red star hung overhead, casting a faint, despairing light.

There was no life here. No plants, no