Marvel: Incursio

"That's it for testing that," Liam muttered, putting away his notebook.

He moved on to the next part he needed to test.

'I'm quite curious about the temperatures Incursio can stand now,' Liam thought. 'After finding that out, I can finally go explore Incursio's dimension.'

He summoned his armor around him and leapt into the lava pit. Once inside, he began swimming downward. Flipper-like gear extended from the bottoms of his feet, allowing him to move much faster through the lava.

After swimming for a long time at a constant 2000 degrees Celsius (3632°F), Liam finally swam back up again.

'This isn't working anymore,' he thought. 'I need to go way too far down for any real temperature increase. If I kept swimming, I'd have to go tens of miles deeper towards the center of the Earth—and with that would come so much pressure that it would crush both me and my armor.'

He realized that wasn't an option. Surfacing again, he decided to take the easier route. Summoning Neontote, he aimed it at his arm and began pouring energy into it.

As the weapon absorbed more energy, the temperature climbed steadily: 1000 degrees Celsius (1832°F), 1500°C (2732°F), 2000°C (3632°F)—until it reached 3300°C (6332°F). At that point, Liam felt the heat beginning to melt Incursio.

He didn't stop. Pouring in more energy, he watched as the temperature continued to rise until it reached 3500°C.

"That's the limit," he determined. "This is the temperature on which I need to train if I want to keep improving my fire resistance."

"The growth is incredible—I could only handle 2000°C before," Liam thought as he cut off the energy flow to Neontote.

"It makes perfect sense. I almost died fighting the lava whale, and during those weeks of recovery, Incursio must have adapted a lot to protect me better. Coupled with its evolution, this improvement is the result."

"I'm done training in volcanoes. If I want to keep increasing my resistance, I'll need specialized equipment to create these temperatures." He took out his notebook, quickly writing down his observations.

"I'll test how long I can maintain Incursio later," he murmured, shutting the notebook. "I already know the limit's gotten much longer."

At that moment, a white rift appeared in front of him.

"Now it's time to explore Incursio's dimension," Liam said as he stepped through the portal.

On the other side, he stepped out on a massive rocky landscape filled with withered trees and other dead plants. Far behind him, inbetween a mountain and the ground, was the half ruined old headquarters from Night Raid.

In front of him stood the frozen Alexander, long dead. Liam had lost all interest in keeping him alive after getting the necessary information and writing it down. So, he encased him in ice and left him to freeze to death.

As for revenge for nearly killing his grandfather? Liam felt he had already exacted more than enough. The torture Alexander endured had inflicted pain far beyond what most people would suffer in multiple lifetimes.

With a flick of his hand, Liam shattered the ice—and Alexander's remains—into tiny fragments before continuing toward the main city.

After about an hour of walking, the massive kingdom walls appeared on the horizon.

He had high expectations for this exploration. There were still many unanswered questions surrounding Incursio. Now that his armor had evolved, he felt as though he was finally moving closer to the answers.

"I can finally use Incursio inside this dimension," Liam noted. While it didn't give him access to Incursio's full power, the improvement was significant.

"With Incursio, those figures from one of the previous times won't be able to take me out like that again," he thought as he approached the bottom of the walls.

Liam jumped up. He drove Neontote high into the kingdom walls, using his momentum to swing himself even higher. Resummoning Neontote, he embedded it into the wall once more, using the final push to launch himself onto the top of the massive structure.

'That was a lot faster than before,' Liam thought. 'Strange. I figured I'd be able to use my domain ability here, but it still doesn't work.'

On the way down, he let Neontote scrape along the wall to slow his fall, landing smoothly. He continued towards the center of the kingdom.

As he neared the inner walls, he noticed the sky had changed above the city compared to before his evolution. Yellow cloud-like smoke circled around the inner walls in the sky, swirling around like some sort of vortex.

He slowed down as he approached the inner walls, scanning his surroundings cautiously to avoid another sneak attack. Reducing his speed even more, he continued to walk for another ten minutes until he finally reached the inner walls.

On the walls, he noticed more strange scriptures—some were familiar, while others were completely foreign to him. After glancing around one last time, he pulled out his notebook and began sketching copies of the inscriptions.

When he finished, a sudden sense of a presence behind him made him spin around, but there was nothing there. 

Frowning, he put the notebook away and prepared to climb the wall as he had done before. Without his earlier momentum, the climb took longer, but he eventually reached the top.

He looked up at the sky and noticed that the dark clouds had almost completely vanished, leaving only yellow clouds swirling above the inner walls, spiraling upwards into the sky. However, at the center of the formation, there were no clouds—just a vast, empty black space.

'It looks like Vormir when they got the Infinity Stone,' Liam thought. 'What's exactly is happening here?'

He took a few steps closer to the inside of the walls to look over the edge.

Inside the inner walls, ruined buildings were in every direction. These crumbled structures all used the same type of structure and materials. Inbetween all these ruins were some enormous footprints.

'Remnants of the castle that used to be here in the anime,' Liam assumed.

What Liam found truly strange and out of place was a large open space with a massive dome above it in the middle of the inner walls. The dome was supported by extremely detailed, ancient pillars, but there were no walls between them.

This design allowed Liam to see inside, where he noticed enormous stone statues. The statues on his side weren't facing him, and the others were also too far away to see their exact features. 

'I need to get closer,' Liam thought as he jumped down from the walls.

He landed on the old debris and carefully made his way toward the central dome-like structure, his eyes scanning his surroundings warily as he moved forward incase those figures appeared again.

'I really don't like this feeling,' Liam thought.

There was an eerie sensation growing within him the closer he got to the dome. It wasn't a feeling Incursio was triggering— instead, this came from deep within himself.

On his way, he noticed several scriptures etched into broken walls. Yet, he chose to ignore them for now. The dome had his full attention; its intact state with the other ruined buildings around wasn't normal.

Finally, he reached the bottom of the structure, he stood before a set of stone stairs leading up to the massive dome.

Up close, the dome seemed to be roughly 30 stories high. The entire structure had different colors compared to the debris around him, from pure white to faded yellow, while the pillars had incredibly detailed sculptures of different beasts going all the way to the top of the dome.