Doom World: Ans, the Green Monarch

Chapter 25: Dragons, love, and demons

I find it disgusting. Honestly, but I'm curious, so curious. I watch from beginning to end.

What is Ans going to do with that heart?

"What are you going to do with that thing?" I ask. Ans stops working and looks in my direction.

"It's all in the information I shared with you… Didn't I share information with you?" Ans responds, doubtful, and insecure. They have been like this since their awakening.

"You did, but I haven't checked it yet. I'll do it in a while," I admit.

"Oh, good," Ans says and returns to work, to cutting and exploring, to extirpate and to store.

"What's wrong?" I ask. I want to help.

"I'm tired... that's all." a vague answer, that means that they don't want to speak, that they are hiding something.

"Is that so?" I reply.

"Yes, I just need to finish this and that will be all." they are lying and I can detect it.

"Fine, but let me know if there's something wrong," I add and Ans nods and returns to work.

I just watch on the screen what they do. I see what the cameras on their armor can see, what their sensors detect, and even what they can't.

Mother, Athena says. She's been impatient for a while. It's time to give her the attention she wants.

"Athena," I respond.

Ans is suffering a genetic failure which is slowly killing their cells. she says.

"I know," I respond. Yes, I know. Their vitals are one of the things that I'm taking care of, after all, it was me who replaced his CPU. It's my responsibility.

The genetic failure might be the reason for their recent attitude, she adds with reason and even I thought the same, but I've analyzed their behavior and my conclusion is that this is not the case. There is something different bothering their CPU and biological brain, and that is bothering me as well.

I watch how Ans reaches the end of the procedure and extracts the beating heart of the beast. They do it carefully, slowly, and precisely.

The heart is a sphere, divided into four equal parts by four burning veins yellow colored; it has 2 feet in diameter, and what I know is that the organ is delicate and very vulnerable to acid rain.

To extract it, Ans has prepared a tent and deployed a lot of equipment. It's impressive and boring. I have been watching drones coming and going from the tent to the ship more than 467 times, carrying things, scales and horns... 466, 467... samples of brain and eyes, and many other things and Ans keeps working, identifying, cataloging, and storing. The heart is in his hands.

The alarm starts beeping. I don't know what's going on. I check the perimeter, there is nothing, I check the sky, and I find nothing. I have to warn him.

"Ans there is something that I can't…" I begin, then I understand at the same time that the detectors identify the source of the threat: the heart. Of course, the heart has Uranium. It seems our meeting with Fabian affected me more than expected and… I need a long nap, a very long one. I haven't slept in many days. How could I forget about the uranium in the heart of the dragon?

Mother… it is time for you to rest, Athena adds and I know, but I don't want to leave him alone. Ans is so lonely, like Fabian.

The heart is twice as powerful as the nuclear reactor of the Behemoth, and it is unstable. I remember what I read. It seems there's a lot of information to process in my head. I need that nap to process and assimilate the information.

Warning! Mars informs and I watch how the heart starts to shine brighter and brighter, in the hands of Ans. Detonation on 30, 29, 28…

"Detonation? Ans, control that thing now! It could destroy us!" I warn him, I'm scared. If that thing explodes we will die. Neither their armor nor the Behemoth could resist such an explosion. Ans doesn't answer, instead, they put the heart in a container full of liquid Nitrogen just like the cavity in the chest of the dragon where it was held. As the result, the heart gets frozen instantaneously and it doesn't explode.

The object is stable once more. Mars informs.

Sometimes I'm amazed at how much Ans can accomplish with that biological half slowing and complicating everything. They are wonderful, but with their mind always in a different place from reality, a place that I can't reach. I can only wonder about the thoughts that cross their wonderful mind.

"I'll be recovering my strength in the capsule of regeneration," Ans says, but I can't let that happen, not this time. I need to sleep.

"Ans…" I begin. Ans tries to hide from me the pain, but I know about their condition, I know that the capsule and the armor are the only things that stop their suffering.

"Don't worry, I could use the armor," Ans concedes and they understand of course. They always do.

"Thank you," I tell them, then I go to bed and I fall asleep in no time and I rest for hours, and those hours seem to turn into days and those days into weeks and those weeks… I got lost in the storm of information, processing all that I've seen until this day, lost and not lost at the same time. It takes 48 hrs… a lot of time. An eternity.

When I wake up I see Ans working in the laboratory, wearing the black armor as they said they will. I suppose the pain was too much to obligate them to use their armor.

Then, I see that there are many strange creatures on the screens of the laboratory and Ans is analyzing the body of one. Again, they are dissecting, cutting, and cataloging muscles, bones, and DNA.

Update: new species found.

Venom lizard

Fire fish

Electric viper

Update: a new project has started.

Antimagic field.

That last update impresses me. An antimagic field would turn us invincible against any individual who would rely only on magic; such a tool would make us Invincible against this world. I read all the information about it.

The device is theoretically simple, a lighting rod to magic. Ans has discovered how magic works it seems.

Mother, you still have two days of sleeping remaining, Athena remarks.

"I have to make sure that you are working properly," I answer. It is true but is not.

"You've awakened," Ans says, leaving the work and coming to receive me. "I've learned how to deal with magic."

"Did you?" I reply.

"Yes!" An affirmation. They are confident in their achievement.

"Show me," I add and Ans does.

As I receive the results of the many simulations that they have performed to get to a conclusion, Ans tells me about the discovery.

"You see, all that exists is made of the interaction of matter and energy, or energy and matter, there is nothing more." They begin.

"How about souls?" I reply.

"They are energy too. The trick with magic is that in this world there are individuals with the ability to manipulate energy, the energy that they can collect from the environment through nutrition, eating, or drinking," they state and I watch at the screen they show me, in which Fabian appears casting his magic, defeating demons.

"I can only see what we already saw," I tell him.

"Well, how about now?" Ans changes something and the image becomes the true image, not just what the human eye can see, but everything, all that the cameras in the armor can detect.

I see how Fabian looks like a regular man until he uses his magic. When he does he releases a wave of energy from his body and that wave is what holds the demons in the air while another wave appears, and takes the shape of sharp spikes that stab the beasts. Magic seems just energy.

"How is that he can perform magic and we can't?" I ask.

"I haven't figured it out yet, but I will sooner than later," he affirms. "Look at these recordings. Thanks to them I've learned more about energy and I've started to develop something that I thought impossible, something that I will show you later," they declare. Then the video ends and we are back at the list of projects that they are working on. One name awakens my curiosity: quantum engine.

Ans shows me the magical rods. We can build them, but during all their explanation I can't forget about the quantum engine. What's a quantum engine?

"These will be the magic disruptors, they will attract and conduct any wave of magical energy to the depths of the ground preventing the magician from casting anything," Ans affirms and I believe it. "They just need…"

"A slight adjustment, I know. I will work on it after my nap, agree?" I respond. Ans nods.

Warning! Lesser dragon detected.

Advice: the area has been identified. We are in the middle of the continent.

Bad news and good news.

Ans walks to the weapons capsule, to the exit, to take the missile launcher and their heavy g*n.

"Be careful," I ask, sitting in my chair, preparing the rail g*n.

When I go to bed we have killed three lesser dragons. Apparently, we are in the middle of their territory and that's the reason why we haven't found any demon.

Dragons are the strongest creatures in the world. Their scales are made of a powerful alloy of tungsten with ebonite. Ebonite is always where magic is and it makes anything stronger. It's nearly impossible to penetrate them. That's why the rail g*n is the only thing that we have to kills dragons. Its immense power manages to defeat magic and penetrate the scales.

"Why did you name it Lucifer?" I ask, getting comfortable in the bed. Ans is sitting in the commander's chair, checking at the drones which are dissecting and collecting all the materials from the last dragon.

"There are many myths in my world, on Earth," they begin. "And this one goes about a god, a being of energy who created everything from absolute nothingness."

"That doesn't make sense at all, things just don't appear," I reply.

"Well, the tale affirms that it is what happened," Ans chuckles.

"Go on," I ask.

"Then he created beings to serve and adore him and it is said that those beings were perfect: angels," Ans says.

"Angels?" I repeat.

"Yes, and one of them was his favorite, so perfect, so beautiful and so proud. But one day he started to believe he was superior to god, so he started a rebellion against god, taking with him the third part of the angels that lived in heaven as his army. His name was Lucifer, the first rebel. The goes that he was defeated, for the moment."

"And you named the armor like that because it's the materialization of your rebel spirit which refuses to give up to god, to the harsh nature of this world," I add. I understand them, a bit more… and I like how Ans is. They are a wonderful being.

Ans remains silent.

"You haven't told me about Fabian and the others," Ans points out. I grin. I was expecting that question.

"There is not much to say. Fabian was weakened after the battle with Leon so I allowed him to recover his strength on the capsule, then we continued together until we reached the route to the Blue fortress." I explain. "We got separated there and I continued driving to the south, then you woke up just when I was struggling not knowing how to deal with that flying beast."

Ans smiles.

"Good I woke up on time then," they say sitting on the border of the bed.

"Yes, good," I add and my eyes get lost in those brown and beautiful eyes, lost and found at the same time. "You are so beautiful." I let out and Ans smiles.

"And you are beauty itself…"

That's how it begins. Our expressions are playful but they turn serious in front of the realization of what we want from the other.

Their under armor falls on the floor, is no big deal to take it off, I designed it; then, my own clothes fall as their hands, those beautiful hands that draw so beautifully, the hands of the artist slowly reach me… and charm me with their expert touch at the same that those eyes that are looking at me as though as if I were the most precious thing in the universe, undress my soul...

I fall asleep with Ans cherishing my cheek, looking at my eyes, with an unknown light in their eyes, while whispering how beautiful I am, how loved I am and for the first time I am happy and I feel like I don't need to hide anything from this precious being next to me...

My dreams are peaceful but anxious, they become heavy because I want to return to reality, to those arms and those legs… and those eyes and lips, to those hands, and their skin… to Ans. But I have to wait, I have a lot of information more to process, a lot involving those new projects that they have just started. I stay asleep for 10 hrs. and when I wake up they are there. Ans didn't leave.

564 days since we left the green fortress have passed.

We found the ruins of many cities in our journey to the south and we found demons, more and more demons. The progress became slow and harsh, many times we had to go back, overwhelmed by their numbers, but with a good strategy, we always managed to overcome all the obstacles, until the drones found a fortress unlike any other we had ever seen before.

It was surrounded by an ocean of thousands of thousands of demons, it was obvious who was the owner: a demon lord.

I told Ans that with the aid of the magical rod we could defeat the dark lord, but They said that the demon lords were as powerful as the monarchs, then I was given the information that Scarlet shared with us at the end of the battle in the green fortress. I didn't know that the monarchs knew that much about the demon lords.

When I asked Ans about why we ended here if that information was in the database, they told me that we needed to see the power that the demon lords command, then I understood why. Ans was trying to estimate how powerful they are, and how powerful the monarchs are as well. Ans is always busy, always looking for more questions to answer and I can only imagine what those questions are while perfecting those ideas that they shared with me. Does Ans refuse the update for they won't need me to perfect their projects afterward? They are a monarch after all and monarchs are lonely and perfect. They don't need anyone.

We share the bed many times these last days and I've learned more about Ans. They told me about their world and I don't know if believe their stories or not. They mentioned so many details that I can make a simulation of it in my mind and their drawings, the so-called sunsets, moon, rainbow, starts, all of them only help me to believe more and more. What if it is true? What if they come from another world? Would they leave someday?

They are working on another design while I think about the outcome, while I calculate the outcome and I reach the answer to my questions: Yes. If they come from another world they will return there someday. That's the conclusion.

"Ansy," I let out. We are laying on the bed, looking at the ceiling.

"Danny?" they respond, looking at me.

"Don't ever leave me," I tell them and I mean it, I don't want them to leave. They only cherish my cheek and they don't give me any answer. Our hands join and our fingers intertwine, our lips join and I fall asleep once more.

It is the last time we share the bed.

Days come and go, monotonous. They are always working, they are avoiding me, and I know why. I regret I asked that question, I miss their touch in the bed, but I'm angry at their silence and the answer that will never come.

When I wake up I learn that they had killed another dragon. They are doing more and more things without me and it feels like they are getting ready to leave me behind. I wonder if Ans only used me…

But then, then their gentle eyes meet me, and the thoughts that cross my mind disappear, replaced by the certainty that I care too much about them. I love someone again after a long time.

Hours later Athena tells me that she has found the solution to the failure in their DNA, then, Ans is healed and I witness their suffering, during all the time they spend on the capsule. I suffer while they suffer, unable to help them while Athena repeats that they are getting better, that the procedure is working as expected. It hurts, to love hurts so much.

I see the regret on their eyes at the ending while Athena admits that she told me everything. Why didn't they tell me?

Later I hug them until I fall asleep and when I wake up they are still there, next to me and we let our feelings get mixed once more as we do in the bed.

"I will never leave you," they whisper in my ear while I kiss theirs and I smile, happily, and Ans smiles. We will stay in the bed for the rest of the year it seems.

The soldier is awakened, Mars interrupts and we have to leave the bed. None of us want to, but we have to know how he ended in that city, fighting angels.

The man in the capsule is scared. He has noticed us. And he is probably thinking about how he ended here.

After Ans makes sure that all his vitals are good the man is released from the capsule.

When he is outside the capsule he looks amazed by all that he is seeing.

"Thank you!" is the first thing that he says. "Thank you, excellence!" he adds, lowering his head and kneeling before Ans. He knows Ans is a monarch.

"Who are you?" I ask. He meets my eyes.

"I am…"

"Omega-117," Ans intervenes. The eyes of the soldier open wide as he smiles.

"Yes, excellence," he adds. "I am Omega-117, a soldier of the 300, from the silver legion."

"Why is a royal guard here?" Ans asks.

"Lord Silver predicted that some of the survivors from the green fortress would be in this city and gave us the order to rescue them and lead them to the Silver fortress where we are gathering our forces in an attempt to recover the golden fortress." the royal guard explains.

"How could you know that Ans is a monarch?" I ask.

"It's in our DNA, my lady, we can recognize our monarchs," he responds. Could he know who I am?

"What happened in the city?" I ask.

"We had defeated an army of demons, our forces were weakened and tired, we didn't expect an attack from heaven. It was a m******e…I'm ashamed to admit that we were not ready, even though we were trained" he admits, bitterly. "We don't deserve lord Silver, we failed him."

"We met lord Scarlet at the green fortress," Ans says.

"And probably the herald of lord Silver too, didn't you?" the royal guard replies.

Ans nods.

"Lord Silver will understand you, 117. We have found angels before and we know how annoying they are," Ans replies. I remember the day, the angels attacked from nowhere when we less expected. We repelled them after three hours.

"Thank you so much, my lady, our excellence. If there is anything that I could do to help you…"

"There is," Ans responds.

"I'm your servant," the royal guard says.

"We met a fortress a few months ago in the north, a fortress that is not in any map that we have," Ans says.

"That is one of many. Those are the farms of the demon lords, cities populated by those humans who followed the dark lords, the cities from where they extract the fuel for their demonic magic that they use to protect their frontiers from the dragons," the royal guards explains.

"Blood," Ans lets out.

"Yes," the guard answers.

"I thought so. It seems blood is a good source of magic…" Ans comments.

"It only works for demons, no other creature can take power from blood, excellence," the royal guard adds and I don't like what he just said because we know someone who uses blood as a source of power. Now Ans will wish to study demons even more.

"Have you heard about Fabian Silverado the Seventh?" Ans shows him the face of Fabian on a screen. I knew Ans would ask that.

"I know about Dr. Fabian, but nothing about Fabian Silverado, excellence, but based only on his appearance he could be a descendant of the black monarch's family," the royal guard answers. It seems Ans won't forget about Fabian and I don't like that. It never ends well.

"It seems that this man is a mystery," Ans concedes.

"Once I return to the silver fortress I'll research the Silverado family, I'm sure I'll find something. Our Silver lord owns the biggest library in this world and in there the records of the families that existed before." the guard adds and now I'm relieved.

I would care about it, but I know he won't get anywhere. Silver will stop him and will explain it to him. There is no danger. Ans is safe.

"I will appreciate that," Ans responds. "Oh, please. Get dressed. I still have something where you could help me."

"It will be my honor, excellence, my lady," the guard answers.

Then, we go to the command center and the soldier helps Ans to identify the positions of the demonic farms and the ostentatious cities where the demon lords live, their castles, the only places where the sky is still visible and where beauty remains, all thanks to their demonic powers.