Apocalypse
by Avator
Chapter 1
“Alright, let’s see if there’s anything new we can work with. Come on.”
I signal my second-in-command to follow me to the bridge.
It was busy at the Eye. People were walking all around the place with paperwork in their hands or analyzing the magic tablets that were placed orderly by the side. It’s no surprise it’s a busy place, but now it’s worse than usually.
The Eye was an underground observatory that uses magic to oversee anything and everything that happens in the outside world. We work here as part of an organization without an official name. After all, our existence is secret to anybody who lives outside. The people here seem to have grown fond of calling themselves and their colleagues Silent Gods. Somebody thought of that name a while back and it stuck. We observe the outside world and intervene if anything occurs that could threaten the existence of any of the factions. However, our policy demands that we don’t leave the slightest clue behind, should we be forced to intervene. We rarely have to, but it would explain why most people here name each other Silent Gods. The reason to our secrecy isn’t that hard to find either. If people know they’re being watched and ‘judged’, they will act unlike themselves. And for that, we have these magic tablets. They link to millions of places, but now they’re all fixed on a few specific areas.
As we pass through the door to the bridge, a tall man turns around to see who it is.
“Nothing yet, ma’am.” he tells me with a disillusioned expression on his face.
I asked him what we could’ve possibly overlooked, but he didn’t know the answer to that either.
“Ok, let’s retrace what has happened. There must be a reason.” I continued.
“Very well. It all started yesterday at 17:39.” the man said as he walked to a large map in the center of the room. He zoomed in on one of the 4 territories on the map and placed a couple of markers in it.
“When the troops of the Malgorn faction, led by general Creigo, marched into Gardona territory here, they slayed all scouting patrols they encountered. The Gardona faction didn’t expect an attack from them, but from the Jorph faction to the north. They reinforced their northern border with most of their troops, led by their general, general Stulliwyn.” he said while marking a large area on the edge of the map.
”By the time they got the message that they were under attack from the south, they were forced to get back to their capitol as soon as possible. This would’ve been a 3-day trip and they would never have arrived in time. General Creigo was well aware of this, so he marched towards the heart of the Malgorn Empire, slaying every battalion that tried to slow them down as much as possible.”
He moved the marker that represented the Malgorn army towards the center of the map and continued.
”This delay barely had any effect. In just 35 hours, general Creigo and his legion stood at the capitol walls. With the attack force he had at his disposal, he could’ve claimed the metropolis well before general Stulliwyn and his men would arrive.”
“But he didn’t.” I clarified. “Now the question is: Why?”
I lean over the map, looking for any clues that could even give the slightest hint to this strange behavior. They had nothing to fear and everything to gain.
“Did the intercepted orders enlighten anything, Uraph?” my second-in-command, Gretoh asked.
“Our spies got all orders they could find, but those only contain info about attacking the capitol.” the tall man replied. “There’s nothing that would point towards a retreat. The Calwax faction to the west didn’t show any sign of hostility, so they couldn’t have feared for an attack from them. Calwax also has no pacts with the other factions.”
Uraph takes a deep breath while looking at the map.
“It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“We must be overlooking something.” I said while joined him in staring at that wretched map. “You don’t just put your entire army behind enemy lines to reach the grand prize and leave without even touching it.”
“Uraph…” Gretoh suddenly said.
I looked at him and saw a glimpse on his face that would indicate he might have found a clue or something.
“Can you track down the current position of general Stulliwyn and his troops?” he continued.
“Yea, sure. Just a minute.”
Uraph went to one his private tablet to enter some data. The map was wiped of all markers and not much later, a new one appeared.
“What are they doing there?” I asked myself while curiously looking at the flashing area that just appeared.
“And now check the location of Malgorn’s armies.” Gretoh continued, still showing that same expression on his face.
A bit more data was entered in the tablet, and another market appeared.
“Are you sure that’s them?” I asked.
“Absolutely, ma’am. It seems that general Stulliwyn finds chasing the enemy more important than protecting his homeland.”
“No, they’re not moving fast enough to be hunting them. It’s nothing like a chase.”
We both looked curiously at Gretoh when he said those words. I didn’t make him my second-in-command for no reason. He has more military experience than anybody I’ve ever encountered, which is why this was so curious. If he says they’re not chasing, they’re not chasing. But what were they doing then?
As those thoughts passed my mind, I saw his posture change as if he had it all figured out. And he almost did.
“I know what pattern that is.” he mumbled, still trying to put the pieces together he just seem to have found. “They’re not hunting them… They are joining them.”
I was stunned by what he just said. I wanted to believe him like I always have, but this would be like defying the laws of nature.
“Malgorn and Gardona have been at war for over 25 years.” I said in disbelief.
“Besides, if there were orders like that sent to the armies, we would have known.” Uraph added to that.
That look Gretoh had didn’t change a bit after hearing that. He had a theory, and it was well grounded by the looks of it.
“Exactly!” he said.
He looked at me, and I noticed a glimpse of pride. He must’ve put all the pieces together, there’s no doubt about it.
“Malgorn and Gardona have been at war and they sent no orders. That’s because it’s not them. Gardona never could’ve sent a message to their army that fast. By the distance between the border and their current position, the Gardona army was already on its way when the city was reached by the Malgornian troops. They’re disobeying orders to protect the border.”
“What?” Uraph said shocked. “Then what about their defenses against the Jorphans?”
“See for yourself.”
Gretoh nodded to the tablet and Uraph understood he should track down the biggest army the Jorph Empire had outside their walls. A little bit later, a third point on the map started flashing. That one wasn’t where it was supposed to be either. As ironic as it may sound, it was all so strange that it actually started to make sense.
“Shall I track down the main Calwax army as well, just in case?” Uraph asked.
I nodded and a moment later, a fourth point was marked. As we all suspected, it was way out of its patrolling area.
“So it’s a military gathering of the entire continent, huh? But what will they be doing there? I’ll check if we had any relative intercepted messages from any of the other factions.”
I looked at Gretoh to see if he could save him the effort by explaining that as well, but he didn’t seem to have gotten that far in solving the riddle himself either.
With Uraph working on that, it was just Gretoh and me brainstorming around the map where 4 flashing strobes were slowly crawling towards the center. Every once in a while, I saw Gretoh focus on a part of the map, as if he had a clue, but then he figured it wasn’t possible and got back to his thinking position. This went on for almost half an hour and it was getting more and more frustrating by the minute.
“I checked everything trice, but not a single clue to any of this from any faction.” Uraph said as he came walking.
“What exactly did you check?” Gretoh asked.
Uraph obviously was frustrated by his failed efforts as well, because he took it as an assault against his skills.
“If you think I’m not able to do what I do, you’re welcome to take over any moment!”
“That’s not what I meant.” Gretoh said, remaining his cool. “I just wanted to know what you used as source.”
“Well, unless you know of more than 4 capitols from which they can send out orders, I think I got them all.”
I didn’t wanted to make Gretoh look like the guy who just barged in as the know-it-all, and I understood where he was going for, so I took over.
“Uraph, check the receivers instead. They might not be disobeying orders, but they may have received orders which overwrite their original ones. If that’s the case, it doesn’t have to mean the orders were sent from the capitols.”
Now Uraph understood what Gretoh meant, but also what he had to do. He rushed back to his tablet and calibrated it to track the receivers of the generals leading the armies while we waited anxiously for the results.
“Well, I got good news and bad news.” He said. “The good news is that they all did receive orders.”
“What were the orders?” I asked.
“Yea, that’s the bad news. I can only see they got orders, but I can’t open any.”
“We don’t have to read them.” Gretoh replied. “We already know half of the results. We just don’t know why they’re doing this. But there are more ways to find out.”
“That’s right.” I continued. “These orders must’ve been magically masked to avoid being detected by the headquarters of each faction. That means there must be traces of paramysa, the rare material that allows this kind of cloaking. Uraph, try to track back the original location from which the orders were sent by following those traces back to its source. If we go there, we might find out more about this wicked situation.”
He set to it immediately, but it was one hell of a job. Paramysa is so rare, there’s nobody specialized in it to help us track it down. Gretoh and I helped him by each settling behind another tablet and divide the chores. It still took us over an hour to get a rough location.
“There. I’ll place it on the map.”
We gathered around the map for a new evaluation. The armies were all dangerously close to each other. In less than an hour, they would reach the center, where now the 5th marker was placed. The marker that indicated the location from which the orders were sent.
“The Blind Ruins. This has got to be the worst case scenario.”
“That place negates all magic. We’ll be going in blind.”
“Hence the name.” Uraph replied as if he was stating the obvious.
“We don’t have a choice.” I interrupted. “There’s a problem that affects the entire continent and it involves the 4 biggest armies on it. They’re not doing as commanded by their home commands, and someone is trying very hard not to be found as cause of it all. To me that sounds like we got to do our jobs and do it fast.”
“We can’t send scouts ahead this time, because they can’t report back. Communications will be lost as soon as they arrive. And as just a scout team, they won’t be ready to defend themselves for whatever they encounter.” Uraph protested.
“No scouts this time. It’s just going to be Gretoh, me and our best first encounter party. We need to go in prepared for anything without having to rely on magic or magic-powered equipment.”
He didn’t like the idea, but I didn’t have to read his face to figure that out. This was a huge risk, but we had no time for alternatives or even thinking about possible alternatives. Luckily he saw this as well and went to assemble the party and get the gear prepared. Only 10 minutes later, we were all prepared and ready to be sent to the Ruins. Gretoh and I were standing with 6 of our best men on the teleportation platform.
“I don’t know if this’ll work, since the area we’re sending you to negates magic.”
“We will just have to be lucky then.” I confidently said.
“As a failsafe, you will automatically be teleported back here when you leave the ruins. So should it go wrong somehow, that’s your main ticket back.”
I gave the signal and a few seconds later, a concentration of magic created an orb of energy above us. Not much later, the orb expanded drastically until we were all engulfed by its light.
Chapter 2
As soon as the light started to fade, we all took standard defensive positions. Mere seconds later, the brightness reduced enough to see the place was deserted.
“What the…”
The ground started to shake and some of us were losing balance. I got down on one knee to take a better stance. I looked around to see who or what could be causing this, but there was nothing in sight but old ruins. Half of the party was starting to look more worried, while the other half was starting to look more alert. Suddenly, a loud bang caught us off guard and we all covered our ears. The ground started to tremble under our feet, and with everyone focused on keeping their eardrums intact, nobody could brace themselves. We fell a few dozen meters as the light above us faded completely away.
“Ugh…” I heard some people mumbling.
I tried to move, but there was something holding me back. With too much dust around, I didn’t open my eyes, so I just felt what it was. It seemed like a weighty chunk of rock. With a firm push, I got it off of me and when I stood up I noticed that I surprisingly wasn’t very injured. I checked again, but there were only some scratches and bruises. The next thing I noticed was one of the others shivering on the floor without any visible wounds. Still half dazed, I struggled to him. By the looks of the equipment, he was the medic.
“Snap out of it.” I said while shaking him a bit up to bring him back to consciousness.
But then I noticed something he was laying on. I rolled him over and saw a curious diamond-like rock with a sharp end. I quickly checked the medic’s back and as I feared, there was a deep wound.
“Stay with me!” I yelled at him. “Somebody help me here!”
The rest of the party was coming to as well, but didn’t notice the wounded medic until just now. Some weren’t able to get fully conscious of the situation, but the others who were came running immediately. I grabbed bandages from his kit and turned him around to start, but then I saw a shard of that diamond-like rock got stuck in his back. It must’ve broken off.
“Let me through”
Gretoh pushed away a few men to get a closer. When he saw the shard in the medic’s back, he froze though. After a short silence, he slowly kneeled down next to me.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t help him.”
I was amazed by what I just heard.
“Why? He’s wounded and needs help.”
Gretoh shook his head and turned the medic’s around again so his face would be shown. He had already passed away, since his eyes didn’t move anymore at all.
“That crystal rock he landed on was crystalized paramysa. It looks like diamond, but is very weak as a material. However, this does not mean its effects are weak as well.”
He took the medic’s body from my hands and put him to rest on the rubble.
“Apparently he landed on the rock, which broke off a shard that got stuck in the wound it created. When his organs were exposed to a pure paramysa shard, all life-essentials were drained from them, causing a quick but painful death.”
I looked at the body again, like so many were and couldn’t help but wonder how awful his last moments must’ve been.
“Meia bernennet alorn.” I prayed. “Rest in peace, my friend. Your efforts for our civilization will not be forgotten.”
The rest of the party, for as far as they were aware enough of the situation, repeated my prayers. I stood up and went to help the rest who weren’t completely conscious yet. Luckily nobody else was seriously hurt. One of the men was close to suffering the same fate as the medic, but missed the dreadful paramysa rocks by a few inches.
“Alright, everybody here?” I asked when we got everyone in the area on their feet.
Some were looking disappointed, and I couldn’t blame them. I knew what was on their mind.
“I know we lost a good friend in here, but I’m afraid we don’t have the time to give him a proper funeral just yet. But I promise you, we will give him every bit of respect he deserves once we’re done here.”
I took a small break to see how they were reacting. It wasn’t very positive, but it’s the best I could expect from a situation like this.
“Gretoh, what do you think just happened?”
He looked above for clues and replied “We should’ve predicted this.”
I looked up to try to see what he saw, while he faced me again.
“The teleporter was magic-driven. It was powered from our headquarters, so it was stable at that point. Normally, when the power is cut off, the portal automatically shuts down. But since this place isn’t magic-friendly, it must’ve ripped the portal apart when the power that kept it stabilized was cut off. Then the implosion created a shockwave strong enough to tremble the ruins to its literal downfall.”
Having that sorted out, I stopped looking up and started looking back at Gretoh again.
“Like I said, we should’ve predicted this.”
My mind went back to the corpse in the rubble, but I couldn’t show that to the rest. Gretoh knew me well enough to see right through me, so he helped me cover my thoughts by acting normal and focused on the mission. If he could do it, then so could I. I pulled myself together and started to think what I would’ve done if this was any other situation. Quite simple: I’d check the environment for clues where to go next.
We landed in a large manmade chamber. There was nothing added though, it was just plainly cut out of rock. Nevertheless, there were paramysa crystals sticking out the walls at several places. Finding out where to go next was also quite easy, since there was only one way out. I signaled the party to move out in that direction. 2 scouts in front, 1 covering our backs and the rest was ready for battle. We already lost all sense of direction since we fell through the ruin floor, so we didn’t really know which way we were heading. Either way, the further we went, the more crystals were sticking out the walls and ceiling. Even the floor was covered with them, making us extra cautious. After travelling over half an hour, we noticed the crystals in the distance were glowing. We kept our guard up as we moved closer and when we got there, they didn’t seem to be glowing after all. They were reflecting light from around the corner.
“You think it’s an exit?” I asked Gretoh, but when I saw his expression, I knew he probably thought the light wasn’t actual daylight.
After looking a bit better, I noticed the light beams were slightly flickering, so it couldn’t have been sunlight. In the same formation as before, we proceeded towards the light since it was still the only way forward. We arrived in what used to be a larger area than it is now. The entire room was covered by paramysa crystal that nearly blinded us. We were even more surprised when we found out that a small dot of light coming from the center caused all this. The crystals reflected the light, so even a tiny light source as this could illuminate the entire place. I walked over there to shade the orb so the room would get a bit less bright. As the area got slightly less dark, the silhouette of a man in a white robe appeared.
“On guard, men! We’re not alone.” I quickly commanded.
I couldn’t do anything myself, because I had to cover the orb to actually keep the man in sight for the rest of the party. I saw something from the man reaching out to me. It was his arm.
“Stay back!” I warned him.
But against anything I expected, he only made the orb’s light dim with his hand’s motions. I didn’t have to cover the orb anymore since we could all see normally now. Gretoh was astonished.
“That was magic.” He mumbled. “How did you do that in here?”
The man didn’t reply. Instead, he only curiously watched me. I looked back at him and noticed something was off.
“Wait… Scelm?”
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The man in front of me was really Scelm, a researcher who used to work for us. He was the first who was sent out to these ruins to map them. Back then we didn’t know that magic was negated around these parts. We haven’t heard of him ever since.
“We assumed you died after weeks without a word from you.”
I still couldn’t believe it, but I was just so happy he was alive. I walked towards him to make sure, but I was forcefully pulled back. It almost caused me to lose my balance and noticed it was Gretoh who was to blame.
“That’s not the Scelm we know.” He said.
I looked and him and then back at Scelm, but he looked just like how I remembered him.
“You actually got a promotion, didn’t you, Gretoh?” Scelm suddenly said. “High enough to pull her cloak. That’s quite the advancement you’ve made.”
He sounded quite insulting, but what would you expect if the world kept spinning while you’re left in solitude.
“Tell me, Mr. Reynard. Did you send the orders to the 4 generals?” Gretoh asked as direct as he could possibly have.
I was so busy worrying about what he was doing here, I almost forgot why we were here in the first place. Luckily I made a very good choice on who I made my second-in-command.
“I didn’t expect you to be here, but I shouldn’t be surprised.” Scelm continued, avoiding the question again.
Slowly but steadily, rhythmic vibrations started to echo through the crystal-filled room.
“That sounds like… Jorphan war drums!”
“Exactly.” Scelm whispered.
The rhythms started to get distorted as other vibrations came through as well.
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this moment. The moment of truth is here at last.”
“You did send those orders. What’s the point of all this?”
A small smile appeared on Scelm’s face, and then he calmly said “Don’t worry. You’ll see soon enough it’s in everybody’s best interest.”
Scelm walked towards one of the walls and broke off a piece of paramysa crystal and crushed it in his hand. The crystal dust emitted a pulsing glow that shone through his fingers. The moment he did that, all drums were silenced and all vibrations stopped. It was completely silent and I awaited what would happen next. Then he dropped the paramysa dust on the crystallized floor. You could hear the clear sound of every grain of dust that touched the ground. The whole place started to tremble again. We all knew what was going on up there.
“Since when is open war in everybody’s best interest?” Gretoh yelled over the noise coming from above.
“I have been down here for years, doing the same work as you have. But unlike you, I’ve been open to all possibilities. All you care about is protecting your precious factions, but you’re too ignorant to see that the same thing you’re protecting is also the cause of everybody’s suffering!”
He took a deep breath to calm down and continued.
“Just think about it. It makes no sense to just keep protecting people that are causing problems. They never learn. To prove that, I created a couple of superior creatures to aid the factions. And now, all 4 of them are leading the largest armies on the continent. Not that it surprises me. That’s why I used these crystals here to add a special ability to my creations. If they can’t resist building nothing but armies to create pain and suffering, I will make them regret that dearly. With the biggest battlefield in recent history happening above, it will be also have the biggest death toll. My creatures ‘consume’ every death nearby to gain power. This, to ensure they will only gain full strength when the factions really have gone way too far in their military operations.”
That was quite something to even try to imagine. The generals of each army are getting stronger with every death. There must be almost a million men battling right now and all generals are there too.
“What are you going to do when they reach full strength?” I asked.
Gretoh and I were on the same level now. We both were as direct as possible and taking nothing for granted.
“Then I will make them all pay for the death and destruction they all created.”
“By killing them?”
“That would make me just as bad as them. Besides, I’m not letting them get away that easily.”
“They’re human, just like us! We make mistakes!”
“You do. I don’t. And since this is a mistake in human nature, I’m going to make sure they won’t make any more mistakes. I will help them evolve into a stage far beyond humanity! There will never be so much pain and suffering again.”
“Evolve? You mean you’re going to turn them into abominations! You’re insane, Scelm!”
Gretoh rushed at him in anger, but Scelm had other plans. He shoved the paramysa dust from the floor into Gretoh’s face, blinding him. With a firm push, he pushed him back to us. I checked his face to see if the dust caused any harm, while the rest of the party covered me. Luckily there was nothing for as far as I could see and Scelm didn’t make any sudden moves.
“I wanted to use one of my own creations as the base for its perfection, but you have much more potential. You have rage, which tends to combine quite well with vengeance.”
A loud shock made the room shake and a few crystals hanging from the ceiling even came down. None came close to any of us, luckily, but I got a terrible headache. It wasn’t any normal headache. It was like my head was being crushed from the inside. I wanted to get it out or keep my head from imploding, but nothing worked. I did get a glimpse that the rest of the party was having even worse problems. They were severely convulsing on the ground and in a lot of pain.
“That was quick. You see, the bigger the armies, the faster the death count rises. Gretoh, my old friend, you’re going to play a big part in the new era for humanity.”
Scelm tapped the crystal wall and not much later, the 4 generals themselves came through the walls and ceiling. It was the most unnatural thing I’ve ever seen.
“Syjilem, Stulliwyn, Creigo and Bacapp, the time has come at last! Merge into the creature that you were always meant to be. Salvation from imperfection awaits you!”
He pointed at Gretoh, who was also having trouble keeping his head together. I couldn’t let anything happen to him. I would protect him, just like he would protect me if I was down. I stood up and struggled to keep my balance, but that was the least of my problems. As fast as I could, I walked towards him without falling to the floor. That would only cost me more valuable time. In the few seconds I had, I still noticed I wasn’t fast enough. Then no more safe play. That was a mistake I shouldn’t have made. I lost my balance, but didn’t give up yet. I started crawling to him instead. When I was close enough to grab his clothes, a large spiked boot stepped on my arm when I reached out. It was Bacapp, and he had no intentions of letting me anywhere near Gretoh. He kicked me so hard, that I flew a good dozen meters through the room until I landed on the hard ground. That really hurt, but not as much as the pain of my failure. I let him down when he needed me.
“Gretoh!” I screamed, but it wouldn’t help.
He tried to fight back, but those creatures were inhumanly powerful. Bacapp and Stulliwyn grabbed his arms, so he couldn’t struggle. Slowly, their hands molt and the disgusting fluid that came free covered Gretoh’s arms and crawled towards his shoulders. They held him firmly down on the ground as they completely fused with him. Gretoh’s face disappeared as the bodies of the generals fused as well, covering him completely. The other 2 creatures picked him up and fused similarly on his back. He was now latterly swallowed by these monsters and all that remained now was this abomination that reeked of burned human flesh. I couldn’t believe he was gone. I looked at the rest we took with us in this mess, but they were still not in control of their bodies. All the pain I saw them in was too awful to see. Their skin began to rot. There’s no other way of explaining what happened. Some strange fungus started to grow all over them. It must be that ‘evolving’ Scelm mentioned. It was making me sick.
“Look beyond its appearance and see perfection! Never again will we have the problems we’ve always been solving. We can return to the way it was, but then in peace.”
“The way it was was without these hideous monsters. You’ve been surrounded by these crystals for way too long. It twisted our mind. Come back to your senses!”
He was not amused by these words and thought I betrayed him. In a way, I did. But he lost his sanity. There was no point arguing with him.
“You’re just as much causing problems as they are and I won’t allow it.”
He turned his attention at the abomination that consumed Gretoh.
“Kill her.”
I had to get out of there. If Bacapp alone could send me flying with a simple kick, what would the 4 of them combined be capable of? There’s no way I could’ve taken them on, so I quickly started running back the way we came from.
Chapter 3
I almost forget how dark the tunnel was in comparison with the lit room, and I knew running was just a very short-term solution to the problem. It wasn’t even the real problem. That… thing was going to corrupt every human being on the planet. But right now I had to handle 1 problem at a time. First I had to escape from there and then I could start thinking about what I could do about that monster. And if that wasn’t a burden enough, my mind was haunted with the memory that a dead end was eventually waiting for me. But I had no choice. The least I could do is stall and hope an opportunity would present itself. The further I ran back through the tunnel, the less crystals were decorating the walls. I knew that it meant I was getting closed to the hall where we fell down. I also remembered how much crystal was on the walls over there, and judging by the amounts I saw here, I knew I was getting dangerously close to the end of the line. Then I saw a pile of rubble to the side, which was probably created by the shock of the generals reaching their full power. At first sight it seemed too small to cover behind. However, luck was on my side, as it was just big enough for me to squeeze in. But if that creature would even stop to look around, he would spot me for sure. I had no other option and dug myself in. I covered myself in the dirt to blend in the environment and to neutralize my scent. There’s no telling how good his nose is, if he even has one, so I took no chances.
Then I smelled a familiar stench. It was that same burning flesh stench from before. He was here and I knew there was no more time to cover myself up and no chance to find a new hiding place. All I could do was sit, make myself as small as possible and hope it wouldn’t spot me. The stench got worse and worse until it was almost unbearable. But I couldn’t break now. There was no way I was going to let something stupid as a filthy smell get me killed. Then I heard footsteps. I could hear them getting closer. I tried so hard not to make a sound, it only made me pant. I silently raised my hand to cover my mouth, afraid of any sudden sounds coming out. The footsteps kept coming closer. With all the effort of not making any noise, my heartbeat just seemed to get louder. I psyched myself out, listening to it. I was so scared it might also be able to hear it, I was getting tears in my eyes. That moment couldn’t be over soon enough. Through my tears, I saw a blurry picture of the monster’s feet stumbling past me. I was begging in myself it would pass me by quickly and didn’t dare to look up to avoid any accidental sounds that could blow my cover. That would be my worst nightmare. Those blurry legs faded away in the dark distance and the stench slowly started to clear.
I waited a bit longer until that terrible smell was almost completely gone to be sure it was far enough and then I sighed in relief. There was no time to let it all sink in. I had to find a way out. With my robe, I wiped my tears away, while trying not to get any dirt in my eyes. Clearing my eyes and mind made me notice a tiny opening in the wall I was sitting against this whole time. When I took a closer look, I noticed it led to a new path. One that was partially uncovered by the same shock that brought me this shelter. I checked the road the monster took to see it was really safe to make some noise and started to dig a hole big enough for me to fit through. As soon as I was on the other end, I started to create as much distance between me and that cursed place. A new source of light shone in the distance, but this one was different. It was steady. It was daylight! The sun aimed its rays of light straight into the cave, making it hard for me to see anything, but that didn’t matter. I was finally out of there.
All of the sudden, the light became less bright as if the sun itself was being dimmed. When it had faded enough for me to see, I found myself standing on a manmade floor. At first, I didn’t understand, but then I remembered. Uraph’s failsafe. As soon as we would leave the anti-magic area of the ruins, we would automatically be teleported back here. I might’ve gotten myself to safety, but there was still a lot of stuff that had to be done. This part of the Eye was deserted it seemed, so I went to the bridge to find Uraph and tell him everything. When I arrived, there wasn’t anybody there either. Something wasn’t right. There was almost always someone at the bridge, but the place looked like it was abandoned. Then I heard a noise coming from the corridor. The sound of some tool that fell on the floor. I turned around to see if anybody was there to tell me where everyone went to, but the man who dropped it was no longer capable of speaking. He was mutated, covered in a dark fungus, like my party was in that cave. His mouth was molten shut and there were only stumps where his hands used to be. But that posture was unmistakably Uraph’s. I couldn’t believe he fell victim. More mutated men and women came from other rooms. There were dozens of them. If that mutating aura even penetrated to the secure walls of this facility, who knows how far it had reached. Maybe everyone is already mutated. I thought if Gretoh and I could resist its terrible effect, Uraph could too. But the evidence shows otherwise. It was all lost now. I was cornered and the only human left on the continent. Maybe even the only one left on the planet. The mutated people came stumbling and crawling towards me, trying to infect me as well. Lost in thoughts, I went to Uraph’s tablet and sealed the bridge with a magic barrier. I wrote my whole story in this tablet. Should anybody be out there that is not mutated and reads this message, I will be either dead or one of them. Should anybody be out there who reads this after humanity is erased from the face of the planet, then please listen to me when I say we weren’t as bad as my brother claimed. He was just lost. My part in this is over now. There is nothing more I can do. I see my friends and colleagues trying to break in, so I’m going to release the barrier and hope for it to end quickly and painless. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I let it come this far. I’m so, so sorry… for everything.
Iadora Reynard
[END OF LOG]