Sergeant Major Eleanor UsaldoRoyal Dungeon; three hours earlier
I awoke in a void, something I have sort of become accustomed to through the inky blackness of the void ATLAS provides during auto-pilot mode, but this time, it was different. I could not feel or see any walls. It felt as if I was truly floating in a void of absolutely nothing.
It felt like hours, days even until something changed, when out of this dark void, I finally saw something. It approached me like a tentative chihuahua, but was anything but. I couldn’t see it, but I could sense it, and to me it felt like a stream, a strange stream of consciousness. Not someone else's, but rather my own. I reached out until I felt the stream touch the palm of my outstretched hand. It felt soft, warm even. But the moment I closed my fist around the stream, it went from soft and welcoming to cold and threatening.
I felt shock wave through my body as I wasn’t expecting the sudden shift, but it did not last. Suddenly, I felt the stream begin to pull me in, sucking me in to go off to who knows where along with it. I tried to resist, but it was all in vein, the current was simply too powerful.
The moment I was fully inside the stream the scene changed, I saw myself back on Alpha Centauri, I wasn’t there myself, no, it was as if it was a memory I was viewing from the outside in. I saw myself, along with the rest of my platoon cautiously clearing the new soviet research facility. I, of course, was at the forefront, guiding the charge through the winding depths of the old building. Despite being hundreds of years old, the building itself was still in decent shape, most of the hallways and rooms still had their shape, but a lot of the machines that lined said halls stopped working years ago.
After an hour or so of walking I suddenly heard one of the soldiers scream out somewhere behind us. Both me and past me turned to identify the source of the scream, just to see one of my men hanging upside down from several wires in the ceiling, blood trickled down from his now severed neck from where his head used to be. Something was able to not only get past the composite armor guarding the man, but so fast that none of us could see what happened. Not even ATLAS could see it, and ATLAS always has a 360° view around me. Regardless, the VI showed me the video clip of the man dying, it all happened in less than a nanosecond, and from the looks of it, something in the ceiling reached down and yanked the man back into the ceiling.
I heard my past self yell orders to remain on alert, even though if anything like that happened again, none of them would likely have any chance to do anything, or even react for that matter. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the floor beneath my feet opened up, revealing a gaping esophagus ready to swallow me whole.
My past self attempted to claw my way out, to get back up with the group which would be nothing more than a buffet to that thing without me there. But something prevented me, something latched on to my ankle and began dragging me down along with it. Up above, the hole finally sealed itself, sealing the fate of those soldiers above. Almost the second the hole closed, I swear I could hear the screams of multiple men ring out through the cavern I was descending down.
…
Sergeant Major Eleanor UsaldoRoyal Dungeon; Half An Hour Later
“Heh, that elf didn't even know what was coming when I revealed my full house. Then and there he lost over 90% of his winnings!” A deep voice rang out throughout my head, making my splitting headache even worse. Slowly I regained my consciousness, I felt gravity change as I woke up. Before where I felt little to no gravity in that strange dream, I now felt like I was standing up straight just that I couldn’t feel the ground at all.
I opened my eyes to see that I was indeed not touching the ground, I was in fact chained to a stone wall in the cell of some medieval-esque dungeon.
“Damn dude, how much did you make off with?” I heard some other voice ask. I tried to locate the source of the voices, but they seemed to be just beyond some corner of the cell, just outside of view.
Adequate brain function confirmed, welcome back Sergeant Usaldo.
“Atlas?” I whispered, as to not catch the attention of the voices.
Yes sergeant, for study purposes, please state the last thing you remember.
I thought for a moment, the last thing I remember… “The last thing I remember would be the fight with the oversized squirrel, I remember him activating some magical circle and everything going green.” ATLAS stayed quiet for a while, most likely considering my words carefully.
Confirmed, all ATLAS related abilities have been returned. Now treating user under normal circumstances once more.
Correction: the creature known as Vanhaven Hoverfield’s species has been named as a Mikew.
“Eh, tomato tomato, Wait, ATLAS, what happened?” I paused, thinking about what to query to the VI “Tell me everything that occurred for me to get into this position.”
Confirmed, now beginning the playback of report logs pertaining to current situation. Beginning with the moment of loss of user conscious…
ATLAS then began telling me everything, from the conversations between the two ‘Mikews’ to the circumstances of the teleportation circle.
It all seemed strange, first I didn’t remember any of that, second it sounded like I was still conscious and was able to respond to stimuli accordingly. Thankfully ATLAS noticed the change, and locked me from being able to fight with ATLAS. I could hardly even walk due to the sheer weight of the nanoparticles weighing me down.
“Gaah, damnit! How the hell are you so good at sokyol?!” The deeper voice basically screamed out in frustration. It sounds like they are playing some card game or boardgame.
“I’m just made different, mate. Don’t beat yourself up over it.” I could almost hear the smirk after he finished. Along with the almost physical heat radiating off of the other guard’s head.
I looked around, my cell was fairly large. There was even a couple other people in there with me, one of them was a Mikew which didn’t surprise me but surprisingly, huddled off in the corner of the cell crying was a giant humanoid lizard, it didn’t seem to be in pain or anything. Probably more a mental thing than anything. Something that I noticed though, was that I was the only one who was chained to a wall, sure there were some other spots supposedly for other creatures to be chained up at but they were all empty.
“You were asleep for a few hours.” I turned to find where the voice came from, off ot the side of the cell not far away from me I saw the third and final being in the cell with me. He looked to be an elf as well, just he was wearing nothing but decaying and torn rags.
“I know that.” I stated plainly, as ATLAS has an internal clock I can check anytime. Speaking of which, I needed to get back to the forest. The sun was going to set in exactly two and a half hours, I don’t know what will happen if I don’t make it to the guarding spot in time, but I don’t really want to risk it. I also marked it as one of my goals, to get on the good side of the forest.
“I assume you are wondering why you are chained up?” The elf continued the conversation.
“No…Well, I am, it’s just… I am actually more curious as to how you ended up here.” I asked the elf.
“Heh, well thats a long story. It was about… gods, I believe about 80 or 90 years ago now. I was walking through the forest with my son, Dennis, we were hunting for anoconreal lizards to sell in town. But, we got ambushed,” He paused before looking down, most likely in reverence towards the memory. “At the time, the one who ambushed us was nothing more than a child of a noble, but from bringing me back, he was able to get a high standing at the council, and eventually became the king. Anyway, I was able to get Dennis out of the way of the trap he set in time, but I wasn’t so lucky…” He ended his backstory on that sad note. I felt his dread, and his hopelessness. I knew that there must be several other stories just like that one in this here dungeon. Something unexpected though was the fact that he was Dennis’s father. Perhaps…
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“Hey, don’t fret over it. It wasn’t your fault. But I would also like to say, I think I have met your son recently.” His eyes lit up at my words.
“Really? How is he?” He asked frantically, even getting up off of the floor to look me more directly in the eyes. I chuckled internally at his enthusiasm.
“He is fine, I don’t know if you knew this but I believe he thinks you are dead. Not only that but your grandson thinks that as well.” He froze,
“G-Grandson?” He asked weakly.
“Yeah, his name is George Yahjo. He is a bright young man, I think he has a good future ahead of him.” I reassured the man. I wanted to help him, to get him out of this prison, but… the risk of getting him killed, and the possibility of this kingdom of squirrels enacting revenge on Dennis and George is way too high as well. I looked back to the man who had begun crying at this point, after a hot second, he collected his bearings wiping tears off of his face.
“Thank you, those words are all I ever needed.” Suddenly he paused, he was looking at me, but not at my eyes. I followed his gaze to see that he was looking at my ears, which were still disguised to be the same as Dennis’s ears.
Shoot I thought to myself, I don’t want him questioning that too much. I decided to continue the conversation.
“Well, back on topic, why did they chain me up and no one else?” I said swiftly, drawing his attention back to the conversation. My ears were under the slight cover of darkness due to the dimly lit cell, so he probably thought they looked similar but not exactly the same.
“Ah, yes. When they brought you in here, they tried to get you to answer some questions but you just stood there not saying anything. They decided to try and use force to get it out of you but couldn’t even give you a bruise. All of this was in view of the cell, so a lot of us had a good laugh at their attempts. I think that was why they decided to chain you up.” He finished with a chuckle.
Of course I knew most of that from the report ATLAS gave me but it did give a bit more information to hear it from a third perspective. Anyway, I need to get out of here.
“Well, it was nice talking to you, but I need to get out of here now.” He looked at me puzzled.
“What does that-” He got cut off but the creaking of metal as I pulled my hands together, bending the living shit out of the chains. The noise caught the attention of the guards who stopped their conversation.
Suddenly, I saw a furry head pop in front of the bars of the cell, looking rather annoyed at that.
“What is it?” A voice behind the guard said.
“I-I don’t believe it… You! What do you think you are doing? Those are magic embedded chains, you can’t get out of them.”
Suddenly, I was able to clasp my hands together. They were above my head, but it was a start. Slowly, I worked my hands in front of me, bending the chains even more. The look on the guard went from one of annoyance to one of surprise and confusion.
“Shit, she might actually break em! Get over here I need some assistance.” He said while fumbling with his keys to the other guard.
At this point, my back had made a permanent crack in the rock behind me. What with all the pressure that was being built up, when suddenly;
BANG!
The chains broke, and I fell to the ground, still wearing the cuff links of the chains. It wouldn’t be a problem though, I should be able to get out of these in due time.
I reached my hand up towards the guard who was now at my eye level.
“Don’t you move! He said, just as he was able to get the door open. He swung it open with a lot fo force, sending the door crashing into the lizard who didn’t react even in the slightest. With a quick motion, I created a wall of nano-particles to separate me from the front part of the cell. After a few seconds, I heard the guard start to bang on the newly created wall.
I turned to the elf who for the most part seemed unaffected by the drastic change in scenes.
“Well, before I take my leave, I do have a couple things I would like to ask.” I asked the man, he simply looked at me with a reaction that was a mixture of surprise and being impressed at the same time.
“And what would that be?” He asked looking up at me, I returned his gaze with a smile.
“Your name of course, Dennis never really said anything about you. Oh, and what’s on the other side of this wall.” I gestured to the wall I was chained to. To which he simply laughed.
“Ah, yes, well my name is Grayson, thanks for asking. And, I think the market would be on the other side of that wall. But it would be about 50 feet up to the surface.” He gave me a look as if saying; are you sure you can get up there? I decided to return it with a smug smile saying, of course I can.
I was getting ready to leave, getting into a power stance to punch the living fuck out of that wall; when I stopped for a second. That voice in the back of my head said something ‘Are you really that heartless to leave this innocent man here to die?’ I thought about it for a moment, should I really do something for this man? I thought about it fir a moment, my militaristic side was screaming to just leave him there. As I have done for many a other people and creatures.
I remember each and every one of them, the first creature I could have saved but choose not to was some 12 year old girl I found in the middle of a battlefield. Her house was almost completely destroyed, and her parents were both lying in the living room both right in front of her. Her father’s arm and neck were both severed by an industrial beam that fell down from the ceiling, and her mother was nothing more than a charred corpse lying just a few feet from the girl.
What made it worse was, the fact that a quick scan showed an embryo that looked to be a few months old and, at the time, still alive within the mother.
The house was outside of the range of comms, and I was the last member of my platoon. So I couldn’t tell someone else to take her, and I couldn’t call for an airdrop. Not that one could make it this far into the Vlandeer territory. I considered taking the girl with me, but decided against it due to the fact that it was still an active warzone, she could get killed at any moment.
In the end, I just walked out of there, I didn’t even say a word to her. But, as I was walking out, I heard the jets of a Vlandeer bomber rev up. I turned around to see that it had detected the girl’s life signal within the house and a moment later…
BOOM
I didn’t even flinch, I just shot the thing out of the air as soon as I could. It wasn’t in time but I really expected as such. The house was now nothing more than a pile of scrap for some lucky junker to pick through.
Thinking back, I am glad that the little girl got a quick death. Those bombers act like miniature nuke dispensers, even though they most definitely do not dispense nukes. It is a form of neutrino bomb that vaporizes everything within a certain distance from it.
Back to the present, I looked back at the old man. He has suffered here for almost a century, I…I think he has suffered enough but this isn’t sympathy I’m just returning the favor to Dennis and George, a sort of thank you for giving me almost all the information I know about this world.
“Hey, before I go, I want you to have something.” His look returned to one of curiosity. Slowly, I knelt down to where he was huddled and extended my hand, palm side up. Out of my palm I created a small sphere, one that was made of a special type of nano-particles I specially coded myself.
“W-What is it?” Grayson sputtered out.
“Think of it as a liquid, one that can harden into any form you wish. Simply whisper what you want its form to be,” I leaned my face towards the floating sphere and whispered Sword I said it loud enough for Grayson to hear as well.
Suddenly, the sphere began elongating, shaping itself into something long and thin before hardening into a sword that to my credit looked brutal, this thing now looks like some old relic of a demon king.
“Fascinating…” He reached out to touch the blade, poking at its sharp corners and feeling the sharpness of the blade itself. “Are you sure you wish to give me such a powerful relic?” He asked, clearly puzzled.
I nodded my head, “Yeah, think nothing of it. I have a lot more where this came from.” I said gesturing to the wall that was also made out of nano-particles.
He took the blade in his hands, feeling its surprisingly light weight for a sword. “I-I don’t know how to thank you. I have never received such a kind gift before, I-I might actually be able to see my son… after all these years.”
“You can find a way to thank me later,” I said while getting back up. “But for now, I think I will take my leave now.” I got back into the stance I was in earlier. Readying my fist, I created a protective cover over it and with all my might, struck the wall.
BOOM!
The explosive punch ran all throughout the dungeon, for a second, I even heard the guards on the other side of the wall stop their relentless attack out of surprise at the loud noise.
The wall, now adorned with a massive crater-esque hole in the middle of it, now provided a clear escape route without going through any of the hassle of an escape plan.
I stepped inside of the hole when the dust finally settled. Before I left though, I looked back at Grayson. “Hopefully we will meet again sometime, down the road.” He returned the gesture, and I began my climb out.