Crystal: The Tyranny of Demolus

“Where am I?” said Zohaifa, a black-haired boy with a toned body, to himself as he was in the middle of nothing but darkness. He started roaming around in confusion but no matter where he went, it was nothing but pitch-black darkness. After a while, he could see a glimmer of light from far off distance. He headed there with slow steady steps. But the light glowed fainter the closer he went. And when he finally reached to find the source of light, it wasn’t there anymore. But it didn’t go completely dark again. A new light emerged and this time from his own chest. “What is happening to me?!” he thought. That is when he woke up from his dreams. He sat up and started rubbing his eyes. The environment started to become clearer as the blurriness from his eyes disappeared. “Sigh, I have been seeing this dream pretty often now,” he thought, “I wonder what it means. Is the answer hidden inside the dream?” He gazes around the environment faintly illuminated by the computer screens. “Where am I again?” he thought. Zohaifa started to walk around the room in search of water but the planets and stars from the window caught his attention. “Oh yeah, I was sent to discover Planet Unlon. I wonder how much time is left to reach there,” he said to himself. He drank some water and thought to himself, “It’s cool we have Giasuddin’s gravitation system over here but I would love to drink by inserting a pipe into the floating blob of water as they showed in the space videos.” Suddenly a video call came from scientist Giasuddin. “Zohaifa, how are you doing?” he said while caressing his own pointed chin as his smile made his already high cheekbone look higher. “Fine, just woke up,” Zohaifa replied groggily. “I have got good news for you. We will be landing on Planet Unlon in about three hours,” said Giasuddin. The grogginess in Zohaifa’s eyes immediately transformed into sparkles. “Oh my God! I got to get ready fast,” he said. He rushed towards the washroom but exited as soon as he entered. “My brother Zabir is there in the lab, right?” asked Zohaifa. “Not yet, but I told him to come. He should be here any moment now,” Giasuddin replied. Ding dong! “Speak of the devil!” he said. By three hours, Zohaifa got ready wearing the white fluffy-looking spacesuit. Zabir and Giasuddin were excited too. Giasuddin gave Zohaifa instructions on everything he needs to do while he fulfilled his own responsibilities using the computers from the lab. The spaceship landed safely and the gate opened for Zohaifa to land on the planet. “This looks awfully familiar to planet Earth,” said Zohaifa as he walked down the grassland beside which flowed a river with a resemblance with the ones that he has on his own planet. “Hmm. From this observation, I shall conclude that life might have a universal preference towards how it likes to be structured. Maybe floras and faunas would look the same no matter the planet. But I shall not establish this claim as absolute truth. We need to discover more planets to be sure,” said Giasuddin. “That sounds interestingly boring,” said Zabir. “I will just continue exploring more and hope your claim is wrong,” said Zohaifa, “What is the radius of your signal by the way? How far can I go from the spaceship without losing connection with you?” “Don’t worry about that,” he replied, “The signal strength is enough for you to roam the entire planet without losing connection.” “Sweet,” said Zohaifa with an excited smile. He looked around wondering which direction to go. There was a river on one side and woods on the other. He moved towards the woods hoping to find more animals there. He tried to be as observant as possible not to miss any details. In a moment, he found a frog. Or at least a creature looking like a frog. “This froggy seems to have claws,” said Zohaifa. “His muscles look buffer than usual too,” said Zabir. “Not an astounding difference from our frogs then,” Giasuddin remarked. Zohaifa moved on to find more creatures, hopefully, something that would look different from Earthly ones. He found a deer-looking animal. But its chin looked more curved and the fur was puffier. The eyes were larger too. Zohaifa approached it slowly with excitement. But the animal didn’t seem to fear him at all. Rather it rested its cheek on Zohaifa’s palm when he tried to slowly caress it. “Oh, God! How come such a cute deer exist in the universe,” exclaimed Zohaifa. “It’s called a deerno, Mr. Invader,” a cold voice came from behind. “English?!” exclaimed Zohaifa, Zabir, and Giasuddin in unison. He looked back to see a late teenager throwing fierce eyes of dry blood color. He clenched his fist as his forearm gets more vascular. At one point, blades emerged from his knuckles. “He looks like a human!” exclaimed Giasuddin. “Can we ask him if he saw X-man?” said Zabir. “I don’t know who you are and why you landed on my planet but it's best for you to leave unharmed,” the person said. “Calm down, buddy. We are just here to explore,” said Zohaifa. “Leave before my countdown is over. 3…..2…” “Stop!” said Zohaifa, “I get nervous with countdowns.” Zabir and Giasuddin facepalmed. “He never changes, does he?” said Zabir. The person suddenly charged towards Zohaifa aiming to penetrate his eyes. But Zohaifa slipped to the side and used the person’s dash against him by throwing an elbow to his head. The person dropped down but immediately stood up with a back roll. “Seems you know how to fight too,” he smirked. “Martial arts have always been my hobby,” replied Zohaifa. The person dashed towards Zohaifa and started to throw flurries of wild swings. Zohaifa tried to dodge as many as possible but he was caught by many of the attacks. He was cut and bled on several parts of his body. There was a cut on the face too. “Dammit! I can’t dodge these fast slashes properly,” said Zohaifa to himself. “You don’t seem to be at an advantage anymore Mr. Martial artist,” the person teased Zohaifa. “Hey! Don’t think you are special just because you have blades emerging from your knuckles,” said Zohaifa, “Have you considered if your enemy got an ace up their sleeves?” The person raised an eyebrow. Zohaifa smirked and pointed his finger towards the person. ‘Lightning shooter!’ A beam of Lightning was shot from his fingers towards the person's head, dropping him down on his butt.