In Search of Epsilon

The First Distortion

The smell of blood weighed heavy on the city. 

But even heavier was the guilt we felt  

We did nothing.  

We were powerless in the face of an angel. 

Louis was helping an old lady that had lost a leg get up from the wreckage. He, suddenly, became some sort of decent human being and decided to help the people still alive. 

Bodies were piled up everywhere. 

Soo many had died in the few seconds the angel went crazy.  

And even more would have died if it were not for Kai. I sneaked a glance in his direction. Two girls had emerged from the metal bird and were conversing with him.  

Apparently, the metal bird was not a bird, but what they called an airplane.  

One of their companies started to explain with glee how it worked, but I still had no idea how it worked. Basically, it was a huge machine that flew. 

May was looking at Lucius' tombstone with Alexander. We had decided to bury Lucius here in the city. We thought it was a better place to leave him than the outside world.  

Even though I was the one that finished him, I did not gain any of his memories. I must have at least gained his powers, but I had no idea of confirming it right now.  

We buried him with one of the little plushies he had, after having someone fix it. May kept the other one with her. 

After the city was cleaned, and the airplane was fixed, we finally cleared the dungeon. We knew it was over because a huge door appeared in the middle of the city.  

All of us, including Kai and his crew, went to see what was behind the doors.  

The door had a large description, one which I could not read.  

“To the Hunters that prevailed in the dungeon, you must choose only one prize. If you choose twice or thrice, your head will fall by a single slice. Any who enter are cursed to obey, this golden rule, thou shall not forsake” Louis read aloud, he clearly disliked the silly rhyme.  

Inside the door was a room filled to the brim with gold, diamonds, and other precious metals were inside.  

At the end of the room, a sword was standing upright.  

After choosing our prizes, we decided to stay together for now. This was when I finally meet Kai’s companions. 

Res was the one that geeked out whenever Louis asked about the airplane. She had grease smudges on her clothing and hair so yellow you’d think its pure gold. She was the mechanic and the reason why we had to pair up. With all the problems it was having, she was going to need help until they went back home.

The other companion was a little quieter. Kai said that she was just shy, and that after you met her, she always liked to talk. Her name was Art, and she had brown hair and grey eyes. She was almost the exact opposite of Res.  

Louis was thinking that Art looked a lot like Zoe, and that depressed him. He missed the power freak. Every strong person they had met were people that he could not trust.  

But even though he did not trust them, it was better to go with them on the airplane.  

We finally decided to go back to Atlantis. Nobody had noticed when the doors had closed, but when we opened them again, the outside world was all that was there. 

We spent the next couple of hours searching for the plane. Finally, we found it in the middle of a cave not far too off from where the initial doors had been. Inside the cave, there was a bunch of people sleeping on the floor. 

Louis was the first one to recognize someone. He found the businesswoman that he had worked with.  

The moment he found her, we all thought of the same possibility.

Lucius might still be alive. 

“But how is this possible?” asked Louis.  

“Dude, how do you think we managed to appear in a city that disappeared ages ago? The clues were right there, you just chose to ignore them. Everything was fake. The city, the people, the objects. Everything except the Hunters that were inside” explained Res.  

That makes sense, I thought. How could they replicate a city that no longer existed? Unless it was all a dream. We were trapped inside our own heads. That explains why we were able to interact with people in a city that had disappeared long ago. Our brain created the interactions. That explains why I did not gain Lucius' memories, and why Kai never gained the angel's powers.  

Louis slapped himself hard in the face. He had not considered the possibility that it was all on his head. He thought that somehow, the owner of the dungeon had created Atlantis and the people there. That somehow, this person knew how Atlantis functioned and based on that created the environment. But this would require so much power, and not even someone like Kai could have managed that.  

Creating an entire world or a dream? Which one was easier and more plausible?  

I guess even Louis is wrong sometimes, even though I also thought it was real.

“So, that woman was a Hunter? Had she forgotten because of how much time she had spent there?” Louis told May. She looked at him like he was going crazy. He decided to wake her up and get his answers later. For now, Lucius was the priority. 

“May, we can see Lucius again,” Alexander told her.