When I first started out as a volunteer firefighter, I thought I would rescue crying babies from burning buildings and sweep women off their feet in dangerous situations. That was the childlike imagination and naive teenage dreams at work.
The reality had turned out to be much more horrifying. They said it was an unusual summer, but after the scar that job gave me, I took charge of my life and finances. My next few years were spent making my way through prestigious but extremely boring companies until I couldn't go any higher up.
Emergencies were familiar foes now. I hadn't turned into a macho man that could tackle every situation, but I kept a cool head when others panicked.
My eyes swept over the surroundings as I took in my situation.
The skyscraper I was standing in was crumbling. The marble floor was beginning to dip as the thirty ninth floor tried its hardest to merge into the thirty eighth, and the ceiling above me was clinging to life by a thread.
Three cards of different colors hovered in front of me.
A resounding crash reverberated through my body as a section of the ceiling caved through above a nearby office and shattered it, pieces of debris scattering around the cracked marble. The skyscraper’s destruction was expanding by the second, and this was already a dangerous area as it was.
In the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of light as the green card floated up to me.
[Flash Forward (tier 1 speed skill/upgradeable): Base speed increases by a factor of 2 for a period of 10 minutes. This increase is compatible with your stats at the time of activation. This skill passively provides a static 3% increase to speed, and a 1% increase in strength and defense. Choosing this skill unlocks the speed stat.]
I cast aside my doubt and considered the words seriously. There would be time for a doubt later.
Speed was good. Running faster and moving quicker would always be valuable skills. I could become a world champion with that kind of boost. But I was inside a collapsing building and speed with no safety was a suicide mission.
If I was going to go in deep, I'd need protection.
The green card retreated the moment the thought ran through my mind. In its place a bright blue glow appeared. It was the blue card.
I held my hand toward it and the shackles that bound my body broke. The moment my skin came into contact with the card the object scattered translucent blue and gold dust onto me. The sensation of touching the card was strange. It didn't feel physical. More like I'd tried to grab a hologram.
The glittering particles of light coated my skin and clothes. Each speck invigorated me and filled my body with energy. I felt like I'd slept for a day and had a double shot of espresso as well.
I could take on the world.
[System integration completed! Welcome to a higher form of existence. A notification has been sent to your followers.]
[You have gained access to your status screen. Verbal activation command: ‘status screen’.]
[You have unlocked the tier 1 skill: Twilight Sun.]
[Twilight Sun (tier 1 defense skill/upgradeable): Summon a set of armor that will protect you from harm. Base mental processes and reaction time increases by a factor of 1.5. The summoned armor will conform to your stats, runes, and skills at time of deployment. This skill passively provides a static 3% increase in defense, and 1% increase in strength and speed. Choosing this skill unlocks the defense stat.]
[The first core of your foundational path has been formed.]
[Core (Defense): Progress: 0%.]
[Foundational core progression: 1/3.]
[You have unlocked the rare stat: Defense.]
[First Ten Bonus (Rare): You are one of the first ten humans to receive a gift from a supporter. Reward: +15 Defense.]
[Access to pure aspect: Defense, unlocked.]
[Access to mixed aspect: Power, unlocked.]
[Access to mixed aspect: Speed, unlocked.]
[Access to mixed aspect: ???, unlocked]
[Access to mixed aspect: ???, unlocked]
I skimmed over the messages. Status screen, core, twilight sun, defense. I caught the basics as my vision was filled by glowing blue lights, but I didn't have time to read everything they were saying.
“Go away,” I said.
This time the blue boxes listened to me and disappeared. The red and green cards had vanished, but I didn't have time to think about it.
The blue and gold lights had finished gathering around my body and were melting into my skin.
A cool sensation ran across my veins and pumped through my body, like a surge of power arcing through a cable. It started at my hands and swept across my back, then it lowered into my legs. Finally, it rushed through my chest and heart, racing into my brain.
A burst of pain flashed through my head, accompanied by dozens of images. They were memories of my past.
From the first comic book I’d ever read, to helping my sister from bullies. Finally, I saw the table that had been on fire only moments ago.
Between the memories something new wriggled inside the crevices of my mind. It was a foreign substance, but it didn't feel out of place, and it made no attempt to camouflage itself. Instead, it burst forth openly and sent a swarm of images into my head.
There was a moment of calm serenity as the knowledge of the card overwhelmed me. As the images took over the stimuli of the skyscraper’s destruction dampened until there was only me. I couldn't hear, or feel, or even see. All there that existed was the sharp feeling that I was changing.
For a single moment the sensation halted, and I felt it asking me for permission. It couldn't make any changes that I didn't want to accept.
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"Do it,” I said.
The words had left my mouth before I could stop them, but I found myself accepting my decision. There was a single sharp tug in my chest, and I gasped.
Then the sensation stopped, and the card was gone.
I had no idea what it had been, but it had shown me what [Twilight Sun] was. Not as a physical object, but as a concept. The knowledge had been shoved into me.
“[Twilight Sun].”
It was like I’d spoken the words a thousand times. The moment I spoke there was a tug in my chest and the newfound energy welling up within my veins drained away. Blue and gold light filled the air, and when I looked down, I saw it was coming from my pores. The lights spread across my skin and expanded over my clothes. It felt natural, and right.
Then a crash broke through my thoughts and my heart sank. Another office had collapsed.
This wasn't the time to be distracted by shiny objects.
I stepped forward, carefully making my way through the corridor. It wasn't just the ceiling that I had to watch out for. Each movement was preceded by a gentle tapping of my foot as I tested the tiles around me. One wrong move and the floor would collapse and take me with it.
There was a creak and I tensed. Then the sound grew louder, and I looked up. The ceiling above me was riddled with cracks, and they were rapidly spreading.
“Crap on a stick,” I said.
Before the words had left my mouth, I was running down the corridor. Metal and plaster screamed as the cracks spread throughout the ceiling, and I held back a cough as dust filled the air.
Then a shadow blocked out the white light coming through the windows. The ceiling was falling on top of me.
I raised my hand to block the cascade of debris, but there was enough to break my arms in a dozen places. If I was lucky, I wouldn't be buried alive, but that didn't look likely.
Part of the building crashed into me, and I winced.
But instead of pain, all I heard was a clang.
A section of ceiling the size of my body bounced off my arm harmlessly, clattering as it hit the ground. It was joined by more pieces as they smacked against my body and fell.
My skin felt like it was being wrapped up by a mother’s embrace and I saw a gleam as something metallic and cool wrapped over my hands.
It was a pair of gauntlets.
The backs of my hands were covered in solid gold plating, and my fingers were layered with segmented blue metal that moved like a second skin. The lights spread over my head and my world took on a light blue tint. The lights had formed a helmet on my head and a suit of armor around my body. Even my face was covered, but I could see through the metal visor as though it was a window.
I could feel pieces of debris bouncing off of me, but none of it could break through the armor.
This was the gift that I'd been given. I didn't know the depths of what had happened, or how it was possible, but I didn't have time to investigate. I was safe. For now. And that meant that I had a chance.
"I don't know who you are, but thank you," I said.
The blue boxes stayed silent.
I unfurled my arms and kicked aside the debris blocking my path. The floor was still intact, but the ceiling’s collapse had left a dangerous amount of weight on it. My ears were filled with the sounds of destruction coming from the floors below me.
Adrenaline coursed through my veins, and I turned my head toward my goal, the office at the end of the corridor. The door was unharmed, but parts of the ceiling were wedged in front of it. I wasn't sure my co-workers could open it even if they pushed together.
"Now all I have to do is find an exit," I said. My voice was still understandable through the helmet, but when it hit the air, it came out strangely garbled.
There was no use saving them if we were all trapped on this floor. A quick peek to the side showed a stairway entrance only meters away from Harold’s office.
I’d have to check that the stairs were still safe.
My fingers curled in a fist, and I took a tentative step forward. The large boots had wrapped around my feet, with blue tipped ends and golden metal across the rest of it. I wriggled my toes experimentally. From how heavy the armor looked I should have been too heavy to move. It also felt like my original shoes had disappeared from around my feet.
My curiosity was interrupted by a piercing shout.
I took a step forward, and then another. It took me a moment to get used to the weight on my shoulders, but the metal wasn’t heavy. The gloves were bulky, and the chest plate stuck out proudly, but it felt like I had pillows on my feet and shoulders.
Very heavy pillows.
I spared the stairway a quick glance as I waded through the ceiling debris. I'd have to check it later. The screaming person was the priority, Unlike the other rooms, Harold's office didn't have glass windows. That meant that the door was the only way out.
And the door was blocked off by the collapsed ceiling.
Each of my steps was slower than usual. I was stepping forward two thirds the normal distance and the fallen debris slowed my movements further.
Fortunately, navigating the marble floors while keeping an eye out for cracks was much easier now that I didn't have to worry about the ceiling smacking against my head and shoulders more often. The slower pace was an inconvenience that I could live with.
When I came across a pile too big to walk around, I gave it a tentative push with my gauntlets. It was tough, but I managed to pave a path through it. The gloves didn't actually give me more strength to push with. The suit didn't give me anything more than I already had. It was like a tougher skin.
I was disappointed until a sliver of glass tried to cut me in half
The wooden doors were two feet away when a knife-like shard of glass fell through the area the ceiling had previously occupied and shattered against my shoulder plate with a loud screech. I stared in shock as dozens of twinkling pieces fell to the ground. I hadn’t seen it coming. If I'd been unprotected, I'd have lost my arm.
A moment later I reached the office entrance. It was covered by a single large piece of debris, and I clamped my hands around it.
“If you can hear me, I’m freeing up the door,” I shouted.
Glass crunched underneath the soles of my golden boots, and I tugged at the ceiling piece sharply. There was a pained wail as the floor scratched but with a final push the entryway was freed.
I tried to pull the door open and frowned as the hinges creaked in protest and the door refused to budge. A moment later I saw what I'd missed from afar. The door was a push, not a pull. The people inside could have opened it the whole time.
With a slight push the door opened without hesitation and was immediately met by a darkened room. Everything was covered in a fine layer of shadow, and I couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of me.
"Is anyone here?” I asked.
My words were cut off as something barrelled toward me through the darkness, and I turned to face it.
With a snap of my wrist, I snatched the object out of the air and stared at it in surprise. It was a stapler. From what I'd seen so far, the stapler wouldn't have hurt me if it had hit my helmet, but I’d caught it well before then.
I didn't know I could move that fast.
"Who’s there?" A voice called out through the darkness.
It was Miriam.
"A person that doesn't like staplers being thrown at their heads,” I replied. “And who's come to help you get out of here.”
There was a shift in the shadows around me as my co-worker stepped out from the darkness. Her long brown hair was frayed and there were cuts in her shirt. More importantly, her hands were on fire. But she wasn't screaming. Or melting.
Then I took a closer look and realised that she wasn't on fire. The flames were hovering in mid-air.
Curiosity rose within my heart, but before I could ask Miriam turned to face the door and her hopeful expression fell.
"Why the hell did you let it close?” She said.
I looked back in surprise and the reason for her fear and anger revealed itself. Something was covering the entrance.
No, it was covering everything.
Shadows covered every inch of the walls and windows in the office. The only source of light was the flames in Miriam’s hands.
Miriam stepped forward and pressed her knuckles against my chest. Then she knocked. The sound reverberated inside the suit and through my ears, and I stepped away from her.
“New guy, uh, Shane, is that you?” She said. Despite her rough tone I could see her clenched fingers trembling.
"It's me,” I said.
“Thank god. I don't think I could have handled this alone. Whatever the hell this is.”
Miriam’s shoulders dropped as the tension drained from her body. I saw her smile tug at her lips, quickly replaced by a pained expression.
A trickle of blood ran down the side of her arm as she examined me.
“You're hurt?” I asked.
Miriam pulled back her arm and winced. Instead of letting her retreat, I gripped her side gently and examined her right shoulder.
There was an ugly black spike the size of a pen protruded from her skin. It had pierced through her clothes and wisps of shadow curled off of it like smoke. The skin around the spike was black, and her muscles pulsated angrily as they took on a blue tinge.
Just looking at it made me feel queasy.
“Take a picture. It'll last longer,” she said. “Or at least until we’re dead.”
Her words were sharp, but they bounced off me harmlessly as I examined the wound.
"We need to get you to a hospital,” I said. "Where’s Harold and the other person I saw.”
Miriam pursed her lips at my words and cocked her head toward the door.
"I don't know about Harold,” she said. “He left to get something before this craziness went down, and I don't have time to worry about him. As for Glenda...”
Miriam waved her hands and the surrounding shadows retreated from her flame. As the light moved, I saw something else moving within the darkness. It brushed the corner of my gaze for an instant, and then disappeared.
There was a shriek from within the darkness. The sound crawled across my skin and primal fear rose instinctively from my heart to greet it. It was the same wail I'd heard from the corridor, but up close it was unmistakably inhuman.
“We’re trapped in here with her.”