Prologue
A ruined city.
At one point, it was quite prosperous.
With gleaming silver roofs, and people in clean, steamed attires. Men and women peacefully and busily swarming the streets.
Perhaps these people were going to shops.
Or perhaps they were just heading on their way to work.
Maybe the younger and the more scholarly would go out to their university.
Achieving normalcy, if there was ever such a thing.
But that all had changed.
Now the people who had lived here were either dead, at war with the invaders, or fighting each day for their very lives. All of which seemed quite bleak.
There was hostility in every direction. Chaos filled the streets as desolate citizens ran into bad situations and were gunned down due to horrid luck. Even the guards of the city mistakenly shot down their own citizens out of fear. Fear filled everyone’s hearts. It was like they all had filtered lens on over their eyes and became something… driven by the conflict’s endless torments. Perhaps they had been baptised by the conflict, becoming something entirely anew.
“Activate the device.” A cry from black coated invaders as a mass of them charged across an alleyway.
“Don’t let them pass.” The reply of the platinum coated guardsmen, whom had stationed themselves up a few of the many steps that rose before the front of a massive building with carved stone columns and artistically lined tile floors. The stairs being the only entrance into such a fortress as that building. The stairs literally rose hundreds of feet in height to reach the mansion, and the guards were firing down from above, intending to make any who’d cross into their stream little more than a strewn corpse. Usually they’d have advantage with that much of high ground. But the onslaught of loud bangs and screams that soon after succeeded the voices of the faction leaders had either side at a loss. An impasse where the only victory that soldiers saw was to be lucky enough to survive until the next wave.
It was brutal… But this was war. Both the guardsman’s and invader’s bodies bore the ugly hatred lined faces as they charged to their death or defended to their death. Bloodied by the follies of their courage. And even more so bloodied were the emblems of their family that were sometimes noosed in a locket about the lifeless warriors’ necks. Or within the folded photo hidden within the linings of their uniform or in pockets. Memoirs of a family that won’t be getting their familial soldier back home for the holidays… Or back home for anything actually.
It was then that a boy came out of the shadows. His skin was oddly tan. Odd because with such a tan skin, was matched with brilliant silver hair and eyes clouded in a shimmering metallic grey. It was like looking at the moon as if it were half submerged in dirt. His ruggedly dark clothing and unkempt hair hidden beneath a ragged hood made it quite obvious that he hadn’t much gold to his name. But in a war of seemingly unending conflict, it was usual for the remnants of past societies to discard social hierarchies and the illusory gap between poor and rich. If everyone is facing life or death decisions, it seems less important about the stature that they had grown up in or the finances that they had amassed. There ends up being only two gaps, the gap between the strong and weak and the gap between the dead and the living.
Such a boy had approached the corpses of soldiers. His hands were light and quick. Searching, but still having a careful finesse about his movements that could only have been built from trying experiences. Currency in the form of different hued metal coins, and various food in vacuum tight ration containers. The boy had taken both, even gripping a dagger belonging to one of the fallen by its hilt. The blade’s cool reflective surface reflected the boy’s silver piercing eyes. Almost radiant. As if its glow was akin to that of the moon’s. After that quiet moment of gazing at his own reflection, he strapped the sheath about his waist and reversing hold on the dagger, he stabbed it back into its sheath. Something his current apparel had just enough capabilities to manage.
“Over here! Our squad passed through here.”
The voice of nearby reinforcements. The boy’s head lifted at the sound. Cursing softly at his luck, the boy left the bodies, quick steps leading away from the voices of the invaders. Each step of the hewn marble stair left a, “Clack!” as he ran up. His breath was a pant by the time he had gotten to the top of the stairway. With no other place to go, he entered into the building. And as he entered, he dove behind a potted plant of sorts with its wide coverage.
“Hurry up! We don’t know how long they can hold themselves out there.” Voices had bursted not from the stairs where the boy had ran up, but ahead. The steps of the reinforcements for the guards was like thunder. From the view of the boy who had been hiding to the side, it was a blur of silver armored, blue strewn beings. Thankfully, the boy had the instinct to hide, rather than meet the oncoming foot soldiers that were defending this area.
They were the guards of his city. But guards were only guards in a time of peace. At war, even the lowliest of guards was a soldier.
And in the few seconds that the guards had gotten outside, shots had rung out again. The familiar scene of screams and death repeating outside. As it had before. As it will again.
The boy didn’t dare show himself, whether it be to the invaders or the guards. Just being the focus of either in this type of conflict wasn’t good. Innocent civilians can be mistakened for infiltrated enemy forces, and the guards wouldn’t be blamed for thinking so. This war had gone on too long, and the strategies and counterstrategies that each side has come up with has reached the higher degrees of vileness and deadly. What all the citizens should be focusing about is surviving.
The boy moved after the reinforcements had passed through. There weren’t many guards where the boy was hiding and considering the noise of the war happening less than ten meters outside, it was unlikely that either side would be coming back anytime soon. Peeking around the plant, the boy fell to a low position and pushed quickly through. It was a quick movement, and the boy hoped that with his lowered figure, that he’d pass by unnoticed.
The entrance to the building was quite tall and arched. The white marble blossomed with gold vine-like trimming, sometimes swirling into a spiral vine like cluster, or even stretching out in other places, with elegant golden flowers at the nds. This same design was showcased along the inner walls. The walkway after the entrance forked into two smaller entries to either side. Both of which led from the main entrance, to a great hall. A hall with little more than columns, gardens and a wide square shaped pool of water in the center. All of which seemed to bloom in elegant colors. And all of which had that complementing golden trim against that sleek white tile. Making this grand place more and more like a palace of luxury. Untouched by the war just outside its doors. Who knew what this place would look like after war had wrung its dirty hands about the iridescent features. Snaking its sludge like conflict through these halls, and poisoning it to its very foundation. But the boy wasn’t concerned for complicated matters like this. All that mattered was survival.
The boy walked about hesitantly. The second entries opened near the top. There was pathways running up to balcony laid gardens and down to the pool and surrounding gardens. Each path connected to the next, and the intersecting webs that curved neatly through the garden had improved the grandeur image that the boy had of this place. He began walking down one of the paths that led down to the pool when-
SCRRREEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAACCCCCHHHHH!
At the sound, the boy quickly crouched down in the path he was in. This path had been split evenly in the middle with a smaller garden that ran down its length. It was suitable cover as long as no one charged up or down the path on the sides he was on now. Peeking an eye through the shrubbery, he saw IT open. It being the lake. The tiled floor literally split and rose, raising the waters on either side of the split as uniformed guardsmen sprinted out and ran up towards the pathway where the boy was in. Holding his breath, the boy fell down until his body was lower than before. He was literally hugging the small security that the raised garden provided. And the sound of them rushing made the boy’s heart beat rapidly, but… They weren’t seen. They were on the other side. And since the noise hadn’t ended, it didn’t seem to the boy that he was found out. He waited a second or two after the sound of their steps had faded before rising.
“Captain… Do you think they’ll get in?”
Frack. They hadn’t all left. Dropping down to peek, there two people facing each other. One seemed to have the attire that would usually be brought to the leader of a squadron of guards. A Captain of the Guardsmen. They were infamous on the streets. They had less hesitation to running down possible threats and were even more terrifying to the surviving mass than a majority of the invaders. But this was war. And because it was war, no one could really complain.
“Lt. Spriggers, what I think is none of your business.” The captain’s face seemed to get fierce, and even the boy, who was a good thirty meters away, could feel the temperature get cold. Shakily, the lieutenant had rushed to follow the group that had left.
As the lieutenant ran off, the captain visibly sighed. It was such an obvious one that his shoulders had drooped when there was no one to watch, and he turned towards the tiled shore that ran about the pool. The boy had always prided himself on his eyes, he never had much problem seeing things at ranges beyond the usual. It certainly helped out in the madness one calls home. He had no problems seeing the captain’s movements. His hands fell along certain symbols that were small. The boy had quietly gasped. There was a secret panel there! As the man’s fingers touched the symbols in sequence, the symbols in turn glowed as they were touched. This had continued until eleven symbols were glowing and at once, they all turned off. And with it, a screech of metal grinding against metal was heard and the flooring that had split the pool in two slowly leveled to the ground, closing it off. The Captain walked the path that the others had taken, obviously slower. Doing his best not to breathe, the boy had hugged against that wall that was getting more and more familiar. Doing his best to breathe slow, quiet breaths. Even holding it entirely as the man walked by. Frack. He was close. So close. His aura, the feeling of being close to him by itself jolted terror through the boy’s heart. His presence alone was as if there were three battalions charging the steps. But tightening on nerves alone, the boy hid and kept his breath still.
It was then that the Captain had stopped. He had gotten maybe fifteen meters away before he stopped. And he had stopped right where a gap in the garden wall had appeared. The boy didn’t dare even cursing in his thoughts out of fear that the captain might hear those very thoughts and close in on him until he was little more than the corpses on the steps outside.
But fortunately, the captain had kept walking then. Without even turning back. Once the presence and any concern of being detected was gone, the boy had taken a huge breath. That was too.. Stressful. If there was more than one captain here, the boy wasn’t sure if he’d make it.
The boy had a dilemma.
He realized it as soon as the Captain had left.
This garden. This palace of luxury. This white tiled, gold trimmed manor out of heaven only had one entrance. And it was the one that currently had the terrifying beast that was a captain. Sure there was a skylight up above, but unless the boy had a grappling hook, and a length of rope, he wasn’t going to get out there.
‘Should I go down there…’ The boy’s eyes had leveled at the pool whom’s surface had stilled to its original, peaceful nature. The boy couldn’t go up. Couldn’t get out by any other means. It seemed that there was only one way. Despite his reluctance of charging straight into possible risk, he was quite curious. The boy always was. It was in his nature to examine and thoroughly explore things that he found curious. It was often the cause of some of his more unruly situations.
He could go down, or he could just hide as he was. But if he hid, then he would hide right in the middle of two dangerous organizations with no exits out the side. It really wasn’t a choice between two decisions, but rather a risky decision and an almost sure death decision. It was a no brainer which he decided.
The boy zipped down. His steps quiet. Light. But at the same time, they were not at all slow. Careful, practiced steps. Cultivated and grown. He had experience in this. Without taking more than a minute, he had arrived. Closing his eyes, he cursed through his memories. He was quite good, see? At remembering. Even the smallest details sometimes. Sure enough, after a few seconds, he opened his eyes and with movements full of conviction and perhaps eagerness, he touched the tiles in sequence. Earning him a rumble. His heart palpitated excitedly, but at the same time he was worried and backed away. Slipping back to bushes as the pool’s floor raised like before.
Seeing it up close, however, was an entirely different experience. One could feel the vibration running across both ground and air. The cranking of hard turned gears in a space you wouldn’t have expected to contain such fancy mechanisms. It would have been an amazing feat of engineering if more people had known about it. But considering the very nature of it, people knowing about it would probably defeat the purpose.
A curiosity spread inside the boy as the mechanics had fulfilled their purpose and the way once closed was made open. With a gulp of anxiousness, the boy’s thoughts and feelings crept to a rise. There was only one choice after all. But no matter how much he told himself that, the boy felt a nervousness. This was a pure gamble. There was no way to see if he could escape, but there was no point in stopping now.
The boy briskly strode down the stairs. His footwork soft, falling quickly to each descending step. Sounds no greater than rain drops. His breath quieter than the soft breeze that touched his face. Before him, the stairs cut deep. Far deeper than he had imagined. He had descended to where he had thought the bottom of the pool was, but still he wasn’t sure if he hadn’t even gotten halfway to the bottom of these stairs.
After he had gotten to below a good distance, a grinding sound echoed.
Turning around, he saw with a futile gaze that the path that he had ventured upon was closing. He wasn’t sure if the area where he was at right now would close too, so without a second thought he had sped his pace and within 5 minutes of speeding down the stairs. He had reached the bottom.
5 minutes was long for just a walk down stairs. It was strange how that staircase was so long. And the boy knew he was definitely well beneath the earth. Tens of meters beyond that iridescent garden. His only hope fell on this underground to have a path or a tunnel that led out. The boy’s greatest worries was that there wasn’t going to be any of the following, but with a shake of his head, he repressed those worries. It wasn’t the time to worry. To panic and worry is to waste time, and who knew how much time the boy had. Worrying wouldn’t solve anything.
The boy had arrived in a dimly lit junction. Behind was a length of stairs that hadn’t been closed off by the mechanics. Before him was two paths to the right and left. Along the walls was a variety of pipes and cables that ran along the upper corner of the walls. But beyond the cables, pipes and the iron barred light sources that seemed to be imbedded in the wall every several meters, the walls were bare. And white. Almost unnaturally so.
The boy had to make a choice. Left, or right. Either path led pretty far in their cardinal directions with various archways along the way that seemed to branch out into smaller rooms and hallways. In situations like this, the boy knew that this decision that was based solely on luck, would possibly lead to his salvation or demise. It wasn’t a choice that could be carelessly made and at the same time, it wasn’t a choice that one could afford to waste time on. Gritting his teeth, the boy decided to walk to the right when all of a sudden a pair of armored guards rounded a corner. Gasping suddenly, the boy slipped back behind the wall corner that bordered the junction and the stairway.
‘Did they see me?’ The boy’s adrenaline started to fuel worries. But his hand gripped tightly as he attempted to control the emotions. Acting reckless now would only make things worth.
When he had calmed enough to peak about the corner, he had sighed. The guards had their backs to him. They were probably doing rounds as the inner security guards. It would be strange if all of the guards left the place they were guarding to attack the invaders. It seemed to make sense why some would be left behind.
The boy paused and reconsidered. He could head left where there was no guards. But the guards on the right seemed keen on wandering on the right side. Was there something special over there? Curiosity sparked an interest, and with quiet steps he had already decided.
The path on the right.
Following behind the guards. But they were at least 50 meters away. Unless they turned around, they wouldn’t spot the boy. Despite knowing this, the boy still flinched back whenever one of the guards turned to the other to say something.
After a minute or so of following, the boy approached the corner that the guards had first appeared from. Turning there, the boy glanced at the room. It was strange. Like a laboratory, but at the same time, it was like an inventor’s hall. There was various liquids in beakers, and scrap parts laid all about. Even crystal fragments and dust laid scattered across the tables as if the workers here had carved and grinding the fine stone into powder.
It was at that thought that his eyes turned towards the right. There, the walls had expanded. So much so that there was at least twice as much room on the right side of the doors as there was on the left. And where the left was cluttered with tables containing the scrap ingredients and beakers, the right was bare. Bare except for an alcove. In this alcove, there was a glowing clear crystal propped within a large cylindrical tank. Behind and about the tank was stairs that rose to either side to get what seemed like a closer look on the crystal. For this crystal that was propped inside the tank was about 2 meters in length, and various cables and suction cables seemed to be attached to it.
Step. Step.
A sound soon broke the boy out of his trance. Footsteps? Frack. Which door? He didn’t know. The boy quickly ran towards the alcove, and slipped between a space too small for a man until he was underneath the stairs that arose in a semi circle around the tank. If he looked up, he’d see that glowing crystal.
“....I told you. It’s not ready yet.”
A voice belonging to an elderly woman sounded. The boy peeked from the gap. There was a lady in a lab coat grouped near what seemed to be two assistants and a man in an army uniform. From the style of the uniform, it was unmistakably one belonging to the Head of the Guardsmen. The reclusive figure whose power was enough to take on multiple captains at one time. It was more a rumor. Since the war had spread, the mere mention of the Head had become a rumor since no one had seen him much. But that coat undoubtedly belonged to the rumors of the Head of the Guardsman. With the black and blue checkered pants, and a coat layered with golden string wreathing from one side of his side to the other and the hat shaped to what one would expect a general’s hat to be. It was as if a person from legends had literally come into the spot light.
“Damn it, Margaret. We don’t have time to be ready. You see those grunts raiding outside? Our men cannot protect this area anymore and we can’t leave the Ark behind.” The voice was gruff, and a certain amount of authority seemed to well from the sound of the voice by itself.
“We can’t control it, Sir. We can’t even safely move it without days of preparation.. The implications of using the ark itself would be--”
The man growled under his breath. “I know the implications! This is our only move now. This is the only solution. Do you know how that makes me feel? To resort to this? But if those Greegalks got their hands on it, then that would spell to the end of this world as we know it.”
“If we use it, we’ll be no better than them if they used it.” The woman’s voice was stubborn, but it had already sounded like she couldn’t think of a better method either.
“We will be. As long as the intelligence is untainted, it will be better if we use it here.” The Head’s eyes brimmed with something. Hope? It could be. But it seemed to be the same intensity of the determination of a battle slewed warrior meeting his untimely demise with a smile.
To that, Margaret could only sigh and shake her head. “Heaven’s bless us all. Alright. Start the preparation!” With her voice, the two assistants ran to various tables and tapped along them. Responding to the command of the touch, virtual screens hovered within the the thin air.
“Core started. Power at 1% and rising.” One of the assistants had called after analyzing the data that appeared.
“Connections have stabilized, no interferences detected.” The other called a second after.
“Begin Process 0001.”
“Process 0001 Initialized.”
“Power stabilized 40%. Levels are within the normal range. Lowering Safeguards 1 and 2 now.”
The labcoats talked amongst themselves as the Head gazed at the crystal expectantly. The boy had followed his gaze and internally gasped in astonishment. The pure white crystal began to spark inside. But instead of long arcs of lightning, the arcs seemed slow and spreaded out. It was like lightning had slowed down to a snail’s crawl. And the color which was initially white gradually changed into different hues. It was unique. Entirely and absolutely. And a shiver ran up the boy’s spine as he realized that it seemed to get intense.
Crash!
A figure pushed through a door in haste. “They’ve found the entrance. And are pushing down the staircase now.”
The boy had turned to glance over only to see the guard there, out of breath. But then a shock sent through his spine as he realized something else. The Head of the Guardsmen, was looking at him. Growling, he turned towards the guard. “What’d you say? How’d they get down the stairway? What about the Captain?”
“I-I don’t know sir. The Captain is missing. I didn’t see him.”
“Let’s go then. We’ll need to handle this.” The Head said with a suggestive smile that made the guard flinch, and without turning back, he said. “We’ll stall for some time. Get it ready, you hear? I ain’t giving my life just to have us fail here.” The man smiled then. And Margaret just shook her head and waved her hand. It seems that despite the serious matter, the two of them could still tease each other. It showed that they were closer than expected.
The two men departed as Margaret turned back. “Status update.”
“Power stabilized at 70%. The prerequisites have been met.”
“Process is at 30% completion. The Ark is responding well to the suggestions.”
As their words echoed, they could hear the bangs of gunfires. It was enough to make the boy nervous on normal circumstances, but somehow it didn’t seem to matter. The crystal seemed to hum. The colors that changed quickly captivated his attention. He felt an inclination just to stay and listen and his worries faded slowly but surely.
The lightning seemed to be overfilling the tank now. It was still slow, but each arc had slowly ricocheted off whatever they touched. Expanding a web of energy that changed between hues. The light of the energy even sparked colors along the walls, making the unnaturally dim room becoming a myriad of colors. As if a warped disco ball had been used in a party.
This continued until the web resembled a solid mass of energy. Like a tank full of glowing white liquid, rather than a crystal and super slow, multicolored lightning.
“Process is at 98% completion.
“CRASH!” The door broke open, and a group of people stepped inside. The loud noise distracted the boy from the crystal in the tank. Margaret and the labcoats instantly raised their hands. And the figure’s backs were red coated, except for two. One was standing above the other whom kneeled down. After peering a second more, the boy realized that the one standing above the other was the Captain that had left. The Captain that the boy saw. He was relatively in a good state.
But that was in comparison to the Head. The Head’s head had cuts here and there. Wet and dry blood carving lines down across his face. His uniform and attire which was once in a proper place was torn and cut, riddled in blood stains and what have you’s. The way the Captain was holding the Head, it was obvious that the the Captain had switched sides and backstabbed his commander.
A man stepped forward. Amongst the red coats that were the symbolic colors that represented the invaders, there was one with a cape that was blood red. “Put it down if you want to live.” The man sneered towards the labcoats in the back. “We’ll be taking it and make our own changes to it.” The man had laughed. The mere sound of the laugh made the boy want to punch him. It was an arrogant laugh that would usually incur the wrath of anybody nearby that had self respect.
“You think we’d just hand over the Ark? You must be crazy.” The assistant who was monitoring the power supply said. And in an instant, the laughing invader had raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. Splattering the lab equipment behind the man with his own blood.
“My mental state has nothing to do with it. You will hand over the Ark.” The man smirked with a smile, moving the gun to point at the Head. “Otherwise your precious leader will meet his untimely end.” The gun pressed against the temple of the leader of the guards. And the Head seemed to groan, raising his eyes to Margaret. And he… smiled.
In a movement that seemed too quick for the other invaders to react, the Head’s head swung back, pushing the gun back towards the mass of invaders. It was so quick that the man who had laughed pompously was too slow to react and pulled the trigger and the men behind were soon slew down by their leader holding the assault rifle. But the Head didn’t wait for the invader to adjust his position and lunged at the Invader’s Leader. The Captain who seemed to have switched sides was likewise a second slow. Barely growling before diving on top to try and pull the Head off the invader leader.
But as the head did that, Margaret turned to the dials and typed a few things on the virtual keyboard. She wasn’t noticed at first, but after the head was detained the leader suddenly pointed and shouted. “Shoot her! Hurry!”
But it was too late. Margaret had pressed the final button and then the energy within the tank exploded out.
Everything felt slow.
Every thought seemed to take a day.
Every breath a week.
The boy watched as the light engulfed. And spread. And filled. It spread across his vision until everything was blotted out.
Until there was only the light.
Even his body soon lost its feeling. And all that he could see was the light. The light even dominated the sounds, the touch, the smells. Everything was gone, but the light.
And after awhile, the light faded to darkness.
