The Earth Online

61 The Desolate Quartz Clan

“For the last time, you guys need the Akkadian cube more than me. I’m like one person, and you guys need to bring as many supplies as you can to survive in the second stage.” Thaleos whined at Kedrick and Haya.

Natalia already left and went back to her group. The last thing she said was, “See you in the second stage, Thal!” and then escaped into the night.

Right now, they were all packing some supplies from the Melam Military Base as they were ready to go back to the alien world.

Haya, Kedrick, and Ygritte were all currently insisting on bringing the cube, and Thaleos was trying to fight tooth and nail, trying to convince them to take the cube with them.

They were currently in a deadlock, and the beast tamer just let out a deep sigh, “Thank you, I really mean it, thank you. But it would help me more knowing that you guys have backups as much as possible. Besides, I have one mythical weapon and some tamed beasts with me. I will survive.”

Everyone was serious for a second until Kedrick started singing, “At first I was afraid, I was petrified. I kept thinking I could never leave with you by my side,”

Then Haya and Ygritte jumped in and started singing along, “I will survive. I will survive. I will survive!”

Soon enough, they were all singing their lungs out while watching the rising orange sun. The morning sky still was designed with navy blue and magenta shades, housing a couple of dwindling stars here and there.

The morning breeze somehow managed to refresh them as they were packing their stuff in the black jeep.

Finally, the priest, berserker, and druid agreed with Thaleos’ decision and decided to keep the Akkadian cube in their bags. This made the beast tamer smile as he packed some useful supplies in his bag.

He decided to pack light and just brought a swiss army knife to help him gutter some edible beasts in the second stage.

Interestingly enough, the gods were kind enough to explain how some animalia kingdom beasts in the alien world can be hunted and feasted on by humans. They explained in great detail to not eat any of the animals with white markings on their forehead because they would instantly kill you.

Upon finally arriving in the gymnasium, they spotted Reiko sitting by the gym’s outer doors. The man arrived earlier than them because he said that he wanted to clean up his previous teammates’ corpses first before they arrived.

Thaleos was eternally grateful for Reiko’s thoughtfulness because he knew how triggering the sight can be.

Once they were a couple of feet away from the Asian man, Kedrick tossed a plastic bag towards Reiko’s direction, making the man rush up to catch the item.

When he opened it up, it was some breakfast and a tumbler filled with hot coffee. He gave them a thankful smile and proceeded to snack on the full breakfast greedily.

Before the Igigu Team went inside the gymnasium, the Asian man gave them one final nod and continued inhaling the food. Thaleos just shook his head in laughter and opened the gymnasium door.

Stepping on the floors of the gymnasium, they already felt the conflicting nature of mana and miasma seeping through their skin. The place was filled with the familiar-looking blue and purple mist.

Spotting the tiny door that actually shifted into a large vortex, they proceeded to walk in its direction and readied their stuff.

“Ready?” The bearded asked his team while clutching unto the doorknob that kept shifting from hot to cold. As soon as everyone nodded their heads, Thaleos opened the door for them and signaled them to go inside.

“How about you?” Kedrick asked in confusion as the beast tamer was standing beside the threshold of the door.

“I’ll go alone after closing and re-opening the door. I need to go to a different location.” Although Kedrick looked like he was going to protest, Ygritte pulled the umber man’s shirt to shake her head.

The priest looked at the druid and berserker's expressions, and he finally agreed and nodded his head.

Thaleos gave them one final smile before the team entered through the door.

They were sucked into the second alien world with a split second and saw the familiar dark safe location.

They spotted other people arriving at the location, and everyone was quite cautious about where they were walking.

After the debacle they experienced the last time, everyone took the time to be extra careful in the second stage. They always watched out for the white lines or boundaries.

They all unsheathed their weapons and proceeded to follow the trail they were already familiar with. Kedrick did still not use without one of their teammate’s presence, but he just raised his ax and shouted, “Let’s go!”

~ ~ ~

“Okay, T. You can do this.” The beast tamer whispered to himself while looking at the closed tiny door. Giving himself one final push, he rapidly opened the door and jumped through the vortex.

When he opened his eyes, he was in a desolate and barren place. The silence was piercingly loud.

He felt a cool breeze fanning his body, and as he looked around the location, he saw that the whole place was covered in different kinds of heavy metals. It formed this form of a collage of silver metals that over towered him.

He went to one of the nearby metal walls and touched its cool surface. Looking around the area closely, he noticed twinkling and shining minerals, even in the dark area.

He felt stupid not noticing at first, but the barren area resembled an enormous cave covered with precious metals and high-quality mineral sources.

When he heard a certain rumbling, a weird sound between a whistle and a growl, his eyes widened in realization.

As soon as he understood where he was, he quickly stopped moving and even attempted to stop breathing. Once the weird beastly noise died down, he was finally able to breathe.

Nightmare # 02

November 2

02:22 AM

I’m trying to document these nightmares I’ve been having recently. I tried remembering the first three dreams I had, but they just won’t come to me to no avail.

This new nightmare was a different kind of scary. It wasn’t the aliens nor those prickly gods. It’s being stuck in a metallic cave with nothing but silence.

Or that was what I thought at first.

Waking up or sleeping in the nightmare? I was not sure what to call it, but when I first arrived in this location, the first thing I noticed was the sterile metal walls and lifeless minerals.

It felt like the metallic walls were caving in on me as it reminded me of the days where my grandmother would lock me up in our refrigerator room. I could feel myself wheezing as I remembered shouting as loud as I could and scratching at the smooth metal walls until my fingers bled.

My grandmother would only let me out after an hour and a half, and I swear that she makes sure to open the refrigerator door before I take my last breath.

Remembering all these memories triggered the fear that I had, but because of a certain tone, I was forced to stop from having a full-blown panic attack.

The sound was unidentifiable? It was weird? I don’t understand what it is, but it was a mix of whistling, growling, and mewling.

While Thaleos was trying to recount all the details about the nightmare, the noise suddenly came back. He had to stop thinking and breathing for a while because he knew how the beast could sense even your thoughts.

Once the beast quieted down again, Thaleos tried remembering James’ words again,

When I turned around, I completely froze. I couldn’t even feel my legs as I felt like the fear completely overhauled all the sensations I felt.

Right in front of me was a beast as large as a whale, but it had the body of the lion. The size was just one of the scary parts. One froze me in my spot was how it had three heads.

On the left side, it had the head of an eagle. In the middle, there was a bear’s head. Finally, on the right side of the beast’s body, there was ahead of a lion.

It looked like it just woke up from its slumber as all the animal heads had a terrifying expression. They all seemed like they were ready to maul someone to death.

True to my theory, when an alien carefully entered the cave, the beast hid in the shadows and kept silent.

As the alien tried its best to look around the location for any beasts, it breathed a sigh of relief after hearing nothing for five minutes straight.

The tension was incredibly thick as I could feel the impending doom the alien was about to face.

The alien then took out a pickaxe and started hammering away to get the minerals. I could hear all the three beast heads grinding their teeth in anger and annoyance at the sound.

Within seconds, the three-headed beast pounced at the alien and started scratching at its guts. Hearing its screams, the beast looked like it was having fun as it proceeded to eat the alien’s guts and crunched at its bones.

Just as I was about to puke, I suddenly woke up. I immediately ran to the toilet and puked out my guts.

Right now, I’m still puking and writing at the same time. I’m a mess, but one thing is clear, be careful of the three-headed beast.

Thaleos had to stop thinking as he felt something terribly large breathing on his neck.