Prologue: Doomed World

4091 Words
Like roots do in the depths of the ground, the red lights do in the dark sky. Sometimes I look up to the dark clouds, expecting to see the sun or at least a glimpse of its light, but there is no sun, just the red lights under the dense clouds. The acid rain hits my armor and even inside this shell I can feel its anger, it is killing all life between the sky and the land, poisoning the water, the air, everything, and the wind howls, insane. I think it tries to rip me off of my protection, I think the world itself is mad, enraged with those who did this, with humans, and it punishes us all with perpetual darkness. I think the world fears me for I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to exist in this dead land, in this broken world, but those who brought me here, those who made this body called me hope, they said I'm supposed to be their last hope, that I'm the first of nine, that I'm the last spark of geniality and magic that mankind has to offer, and they believed it till the very end. "Aw…" her voice, it reminds me of a kitty, it paints a smile on my face, like magic, and that easily this world that I don't care about is now something that I do care about. "Hey, you are awakened," I can't help but smile at her, I can't help but admire her beauty, her pale skin that has never seen the sun, her golden eyes, like cat's eyes they are. Her expression softens a little when she hears that I pronounce those words, and my words carry my love… and she notices. She removes the fibers of silver hair from her young face and stands up, ready to do her job. She is the reason why I want to become the hope those scientists talked about, she is the reason why I used this body of mine, this mind, created with the sacrifice of thousands to bring the science of my world to this broken world, the science that was not possible in that world where magic didn't exist, where the tools and materials were limited, but here… it looks like imagination is the limit, the most of the times. "You've been outside," she points at my armor while yawning, stretching her body. I think she is a cat. Her intense staring reminds me that I have to say something, I look at the armor which is getting cleaned off of the poisonous world, of the outside, her expression turns dark and it hurts as my silence remains. "It was a dragon this time, it came from the north, I had to act quickly, before it notices us," I tell her. She looks at one of the screens in our ship, the one that shows the status of our rail g*n. Status: 'cooling,' it says. It was not easy to kill that beast. "You didn't wake me up," she says, she blames me. She knows I acted as a bait to attract the creature, she knows I hunted the beast, she knows that it would have ignored us that I wanted to kill it. We need the materials. "Its heart will fuel our armors and its skin will serve to make our bullets. Danna, if not the dragon then it would've been-" She looks at me, her eyes say everything that her mouth doesn't and I remember that I can't be hope, that I'm not supposed to be hope, that in my old world I was everything but hope. You are only using her, she is the replacement of the woman you betrayed... what do you think she will do when she'll figure it out? a voice whispers in my mind, my own voice. "You are a guardian, you don't have to kill all-" It is my turn to stare at her and silence falls. We hear only the engines of the ship, the engines and the silence that I hate, I hate it because it means that I'm right, that she is wrong, and the irony is that it should be the other way, that it is the other way but this world is twisted, maybe life is twisted. I have to kill all that could kill us before it could kill us both. I wonder if my own world, Earth, one day, will reach this point, I wonder if all that beauty will get burned under a dark sky with red bolts of lightning… I will never know. I look at my armor, avoiding her eyes; I don't want her to carry the weight of the truth because that is my duty. My armor is black, made of the blackest black possible in this world, it looks like a hole in reality and it is invisible at night. I built it based on the armors of medieval knights, I added cameras, thermic sensors, vital support systems, and a healing system. It is similar to mobile suits, but smaller, it is still an armor after all. I named it Lucifer in honor of the devil, who was said to be the Lightbringer. I am said to be the Lightbringer in this dark and broken world but I'm no hero, and after I've seen what they did I don't pretend to save them, to save the responsible for this calamity. Lucifer is a good name. Approaching red zone number 12. A high number of lesser demons detected. Two highly energetic signatures detected. Assumption: major demons, the computer informs. Sometimes it feels like I'm dreaming, like none of this is real because all these things that I have existed only in my dreams. The armor, the ship, my laboratory… even this body. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I made it all real. "We need-" I start. "No way," she rejects my suggestion of getting a demon alive, it is the twentieth time she does so. Is not the last time I ask. She is afraid of magic, she is afraid of the demons, of the angels and she is afraid of me who kills them, who defies heaven and hell without fear, and so she sees me entering into the shell, my armor and her lips join mine before I put on the helmet. She is my woman, my partner, after all, then she sits on the commander's chair, puts the headset on, and activates all battle systems. As I leave the ship, again I feel like I'm dreaming, but this is not a dream, it is a nightmare for if I fail they will get to her, they will hurt her. I can't fail, I am not allowed to even think of failure. The weight of the armor and the weapons return me to reality. "Rail g*n ready," she says through the radio, and again, a smile is painted on my face. "Copied," I answer as my armor identifies the enemies. "I'll go ahead no more than two hundred feet, as usual." "Copied," she answers and I jump in front of the tank and I start running, leaving the machine behind in no time. I'm fast, really fast, the weight doesn't really matter. The armor is showing me all my targets, there are many and they have noticed my presence, they've heard my footsteps on the wet ground and mud. Once they see me they run, mindlessly, to me and I just wait so they will be under my range. The first one falls, dead, a bullet in its head, its brain spread all over the place, the thunder marks the rhythm and the c*****e starts. In just a few minutes more I empty the first magazine and the lethal melody finally stops. Blood is flowing on the ground, mixed with the acid rain and dirt. My armor alarms warn me of the two enemies in front of me. They both are big, like a small building, each one can kill me with just one hit, that easily, and I'm not fragile at all. I run through the dirt and the bodies, through the ruins of what was a small town, dodging their magic, their merciless hits. My breathing is heavy. "Thank you, " I tell her. I'm so happy she thought of my breathing while designing this helmet for it would be impossible to see anything if she didn't. "What?! This is not a moment for stupidity!" she answers, I chuckle as I run over the arm of the demon emptying another magazine in its head. It doesn't fall, tries to eat me, it eats a grenade instead. It explodes as I fall and roll on the ground. The other demon was waiting, it thinks he's trapped me, but its glaring loses life and its hand stops at one foot of me after the shot of the rail g*n pierces its forehead. The second demon falls. "Great shot," I tell her, going to take some samples of their blood. "Don't you dare!" she warns on the radio. "Let me take a drop at least, I'm so curious about it, " I tell her, annoyed. "They corrupt everything they touch, their existences are like an illness, " she says. I don't take the sample, but I study their blood right there. One day I'll convince her and I'll get a sample. Danna arrives, everything is going well. There is a cave, defended, apparently and we clear the zone looking for any living being in the area. There is no one. We leave the place hours later and when we feel we are safe I finally return to the ship. It was a long day. I remove the helmet and the mechanic arms take the rest of the armor, leaving me dressed with the under armor, which works like chainmail. I get a bath with the under armor on, to remove the dirt, to sterilize me. Then I remove the under armor and I can take a bath, then the capsule opens and I'm allowed to enter the ship. Danna is with the armor, as always. She looks insistently on one of the pieces of the shoulder. There's a scratch on my armor, a scratch on that piece. The major demons are tough, their magic is powerful and only the overwhelming power that science is can stand a chance against them. "Your armor was compromised, let me see your body," she demands, it is not a request. She analyzes my arms and legs, carefully, so there won't be any wound. While she checks my body, my vital signs, the compromised piece of the armor, the shoulder, is replaced by another piece, a piece made of the materials I took of the dragon I killed. She really does care about me and I feel like I should return her feelings back, as the moon did in my world, with the light of the sun that I miss. "You aren't hurt, luckily," she says, satisfied, relieved. She has all the reasons to be worried. If I were wounded, the demonic virus would spread through my body and it would turn me into a demon, eventually. We have an antivirus, but she refuses to rely on it. I want to talk to her more, but she has work to do and I let her go. She sits on the commander's chair and starts to draw the designs; I look at my armor and I know it is the last time I've used it. She will replace it. She spends hours and hours in silence, drawing in the computer, running simulations of the pieces of armor she draws against the foes we've faced. The cacophony produced by the engines of the tank, our ship, becomes the only music while this happens. This world doesn't have music, they've forgotten about it and the next Lucifer armor design is ready in twenty-four hours because she is an excellent engineer, unlike me. I've painted a beautiful landscape from Earth while she was working. I leave the piece on her desk, she will notice it later. Hers is a better design than mine, stronger, versatile, and beautiful. The Lucifer armor made by her is a work of art. While Danna lays in the bed, tired, sleeping after the hard work, like an angel I can't help but think about the masterpieces of art she would have created if the world were different. The ship is working, forging the armor. Danna was the second of the nine, subject #2, she was who released me from the chains they had put on me. This body was their creation, after all, its property, until Danna released me and she gave a name, a new name. "Ans…" she whispers in her dreams. We have only one bed in one corner of the control room of the ship, next to her desk, and we share it, sometimes. "I'm here," I answer sitting on the bed, cherishing her face. She gets quiet and sleeps in peace. I haven't slept in ages. Unlike hers, this body doesn't need to sleep, but it needs a lot of energy and nutrients. I have to put on the armor whether I like it or not to feed on its energy when there's no food which is… nearly every day. The armor keeps me alive, it is my shell and in a certain way: my prison. We are approaching city number 7, sir. The city is under attack. Two angelic vessels detected. Four hundred angels class avenger detected. One thousand humans detected. Recommendation: avoid any conflict. The city is doomed. The computer informs, it shows me the danger. The angels, dressed in gold and silver are the only light this world would see, a merciless and lethal light that burns all that lives between the sky and the land. I could fight one of them, but I would never win against all of them. They are powerful, they have magic, they are superior. The city is doomed, I can't save anyone. "Let's hide and wait for a while," I order and the computer obeys, immediately, precisely, beautifully. Danna wakes up. "What's going on?" she asks, but she doesn't expect my answer, she just needs a quick look at all the screens to know what's going on. "Let me know if something changes," I tell her as she sits on the commander's chair. On Earth I was a biology student; I loved technology and all that had to do with science. I guess I knew a bit of a lot of things. I'm so glad I did like all those things even though I thought they would never be helpful, they were, they are, ironically. In this world magic exists, dragons, demons, angels, and humans. Of the three species, the last is the only one that can't use magic, and as expected they developed their own magic: science. My knowledge refuses to accept the other three species, their magic, but my curiosity makes me study them, and the gift of humans, intelligence, makes me understand them. I enter the laboratory. It is as big as the ship allows it to be. In the center of the room is the capsule where Danna was created, the healing capsule, and around it, enclosing it, is the table. It has the shape of a "U" and there are all my tools and scientific instruments, microscopes, chemicals, all that I could need to perform my research. All stolen from the place where we were created. Welcome back, Ans, the IA salutes me. She is another creation from Danna, made according to my specifications. "Show me the results, all of them, Athena." I named her Athena for she carries all the knowledge I've collected, she's my library. Athena was a goddess, the goddess of knowledge. Showing the results of the simulations. Ans, I'm happy to inform you that we now have a complete map of your genome, and we will be able to stabilize your DNA according to your specifications, her voice sounds really happy. I wonder how Danna accomplished such a thing. In my world, it would have taken ages to accomplish this goal. But here, after just four months, Athena knows all about me, she has learned all about my genes, the little pieces that made us all. She knows how I work, basically. I've prepared the solution to stabilize your condition, she informs me and I smile as the injection in the table is illuminated, presented to me as if Athena were proud. I take a seat on the bed and the mechanical arms of the laboratory apply the injection. The needle gets deep into my chest, directly to my principal heart, to the bloodstream, then they apply another dose in my spine. It hurts, but I think it's a little price to finish the work those scientists couldn't finish. I'm wrong. You will fall asleep as the edition goes on, Athena informs me. I guess she doesn't know everything after all. She doesn't know that half of my brain is electronic, she doesn't know and I don't fall asleep. I guess that means that I can't sleep either, she points. "You need to get tired first, but that is beyond us, isn't it?" I add. She laughs. You better get into the healing capsule then, the edition will be painful. I don't believe her, sometimes I'm a fool, but I enter the capsule, a big transparent capsule that gets filled with the healing green liquid, destined to give nutrition to my body and help the healing process. I have no problems breathing there, despite the liquid. Once, on Earth, I fell and I broke my arm. The pain was like fire, it spread from the wound to my chest, to my spine and it reached my very soul; tears flooded my eyes and my mouth opened and I cried in pain, calling for someone to end it. Nobody came. I was alone. That was the most painful experience I had… until now. Athena activates the arms inside the capsule of liquid to immobilize me and I cry as I feel my skin being disintegrated, as my bones c***k one by one, as my electronic half understands why she asked me to enter the capsule. I would have died otherwise. I understand what I have done, what is happening, why there is so much pain. My very soul is changing. If I were a tree it would be like changing my deep and long roots, no… nothing can be compared to what I'm experiencing. It takes eight hours. Athena informs me so after it ends, then she releases me and my electronic half tells me what has changed. I feel better, I feel great… until I see Danna. Seven hours, Athena informs. The time Danna has been suffering with me. She hugs me immediately after I'm out of the capsule. I wipe her tears, I can't say a word. My mind keeps working, now I have the details, now I know my new limits, my strengths, and weaknesses, my electronic half makes me unable to get completely focused, in only one thing, in the present and sometimes I wish I didn't have it, but since Danna built it after the first was damaged, I feel like my consciousness, all that I am is in there as though as if I, would have found my place, my home, in her work. I guess she is all that I didn't have on Earth. Oh, you did have something like that. And it was perfect! Can't you remember? You betrayed her and for that, you don't deserve any joy at all, there it is again, my own voice in my mind, my guilt. "Don't do anything like this, ever again!" it is not a request, but I can't help but look at the seven different injections stored in refrigeration. I don't make promises that I won't hold, so I stay silent. "You plan to do it again!" Her voice hits me, it hurts. "I will rely on their strength but it will be our last option," I explain her, but she doesn't accept it. It will be like this for the moment, mother, we are actually working on better weaponry so Ans won't need to use such a risky and foolish resource. Athena adds and I'm grateful. She never calls me father. Sir, the angels have left, Mars, the system of weapons and vigilance informs. "Let's keep going on then," Danna says, she's angry with me, but she understands that is not wise not to have a last resource. "No more stupid things for today, Ans." I stare at her while she leaves the room. "You shouldn't let her in," I tell Athena. She has information about your vital signs all the time, Ans, and she is my mother, her order has the priority, Athena says what I already know. "I guess I'll have to tell her that I…" She is not stupid, Ans, she knew you were in pain, she helped me improving my processors so that I could finish the mapping of your DNA, so I could help you where she couldn't. Athena says and there I am, again, underestimating those that I love. The needle on my chest pierces deeply into my heart, only that there is no needle this time. I stop the transmission of my vital signs to Danna. One part of me wants her to enter the room again, wants her to be mad at me, but she stays in the other room and she says nothing to me when I return. She can reactivate the connection at any time, but she understands me, she is probably the only one who can do it and for that, for that, I'll try my best to be the hope that a group of hopeless villains tried to ignite in this world. We reach the city in two hours… The ruins of the city. It is still raining, it is always raining. The big skyscrapers at left and right remind me of cut trees, and I find them beautiful, scary, and beautiful. I know that there are creatures, beings attracted by the light of the angels, beings that seek to feed on the remains of those who fought heaven. We search for hours, we seek for survivors. When I leave the ship the armor feels heavier, but that's okay, my body is now stabilized, is not the body of a god of course, but now is relatively perfect, it is not decaying anymore and I'm still able to move the four hundred pounds of my armor without a problem. "There is one ahead, it is still alive it seems," Danna says through the radio. "I'll take a look, get ready for the worse," I tell her. I know she's ready. My armor marks the target and the threats. This is the first step to fulfill a promise, a promise made to myself, a promise I made to her. I press the trigger and the bullets fly, killing the lesser demons around my target. It is so easy to take a life, so easy to turn off the lights and welcome the dark, but how about giving life? How about restoring the light? How about creating beauty from chaos? Even the dark misses the light. In my old world, on Earth, I was a student, a biologist, a scientist; I worked to learn from life, to understand it, to protect it, to make it even better than what was, and somehow I ended up here in this doomed world where the last embers of life are slowly fading. In my old world, I learned that life always fights to survive and so, I will stand against this enraged world, and from these ashes, I will build the world that I painted for her once, a simple piece of paper and color, the world that she keeps in her heart and admires, and dreams with, a world full of flaws that she believed was heaven. I find my principal target. It is a man, he's wounded. As I lift his pathetic body from between the remains of his companions, my resolution grows stronger. I will make of this doomed world a beautiful place, more beautiful and perfect than Earth was, I will do it so the woman I love could create art… instead of weapons.
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