Heaven's Door

It started as silence; a stillness that longed to feel movement, like a tired muscle forced to remain unmoving for too long. There was an energy behind this silence--a sense of urgency and a build-up of anticipation. The underlying tension increased with each passing moment, with each passing breath.

Though, there should have been no breaths here. There was nothing but scattered wreckage from a battle recently fought and won. Or perhaps it was lost? That depended on which side you were on, of course.

Something did stir, however. A wretched creature--a withered-looking sin'dorei--pulled himself out from beneath a crumpled pile of felsteel panels. His body ached. He had stopped bleeding days ago, but his form had not fully healed, yet. It should have been of little concern to him, as his was one of the souls that Lord Sraath had saved--his soul had been shaped. It was completely immortal.

This reshaped soul infested the broken body he now wore, so he would be able to seek out another form soon. This one had been available; a fleeing prisoner from the cells on the outer edge of the vessel, and it had been easy to overcome. That had been part of the promise given by Lord Sraath: take any body you wish. Unfortunately, this one was already damaged, and his last one had been split in two by that damnable Eraelan Netherbane. He wondered if there was anyone left not already dead in this accursed place.

The blood elf shifted one of the panels off of him, and it slid down the debris pile with a scraping rumble. The noise was loud, but it did not echo. He stood on unsteady legs and looked around.

The area was featureless, save for the massive gateway standing in the middle of a nowhere now littered with pieces of the Umbral Eclipse. The immense structure had appeared as it was: a huge doorway dominating the horizon. Its sheer size made it feel much closer than it it truly was--or was it actually closer now? Had it moved?

No. Doors do not move.

A peal of thunder cracked across the plain, and the sin'dorei jumped. There was supposed to be no weather here. There were no clouds visible, and he had never heard reports of rain falling around an Outer Gate.

A spear of light started to rise from the center of the collosal doorway, impossibly thin and ominous in its appearance. That most certainly was not supposed to happen. The door was never supposed to open.

Another crack of thunder, louder and deafening, roared across the field of debris. It was like an echo of the first, but an echo that was stronger than the source. Or perhaps the first was the echo? Time was strange here.

The shockwave from the explosive sound was visible, even to an unaugmented eye, and it raced outward in all directions, slowing for nothing.

This body won't survive this, the blood elf thought. I'll have to find anot--

As the wave of power reached him, the only living creature at the Eastern Gate suddenly ceased to exist.