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Centennials: The Full Story
The Heart That Beats: Chapter 1

The Heart That Beats: Chapter 1

It was a cloudy and mildly stormy day, Necra was once again holed up in the walls of District 9’s LIbrary of The Father, she is studying with Helia providing a source of light

Necra: So when we went to that weird afterlife place because Maivi tried to make me ruler of that place, I felt connected to every soul on Earth for an o-so brief moment

Helia: And what did you feel when you were connected?

Necra: Pain…torment…someone is screaming for help, someone is calling for rescue and I could hear it coming from somewhere near here

Helia: So you believe someone is in danger?

Necra: Yes, and I can’t sit idly by while I know someone is suffering, I think I can still hear the screaming, a cry for rescue and a call for help.

Helia: So why are you sitting idly by?

Necra: I’m studying incidents, accidents, anything that’d result in a soul screaming past all the others for help but….

Necra throws all the books off the desk in a single motion

Necra: I’m coming up COMPLETELY EMPTY!!

Helia: Darn

Necra: Yeah…we’re so goddamn good at our jobs that no one really stays trapped or in torment for long.

Helia: Isn’t that a good thing? Like…where would we be if we weren’t the absolute best at our job?

Necra: That’s a fair point, but sometimes…I still hear the screaming….

Helia: So you want to get to the bottom of this…

Necra: Yeah

Helia: Well there is something I personally want to know about?

Necra: What’s that?

Helia: Earlier this week, Iehn reported that they saw a strange elevator in the Catacombs under this district on their mandatory patrol and I want to know what that could be about

Necra: Strange elevator?

Helia: It was like a rusty old thing they said, like it looked like it shouldn’t work

Necra: But it probably did at some point…

Helia: Do you wanna get who I think you do?

Necra: Hey…he likes me….

Helia: I mean yeah but…doesn’t he have better things to do

Necra: Does he?

Helia: I don’t know

Their arguing is interrupted by Oceane brandishing her sword behind them

Oceane: Hello, am I interrupting something?

Helia: Not really…

Necra: So Oceane, me and Helia have found ourselves in a sort of conundrum, I hear a distant voice that is screaming and screaming and screaming and Helia wants to check out some crusty elevator that Iehn found.

Oceane: Ok and…

Helia: That’s what’s up

Oceane: Alright…why don’t we grab Iehn and Vendil and set off on our merry way.

Necra: Huh….good idea

Oceane: I always have great ideas

Helia: No you don’t

Oceane: Yes I do

We pan over to The Guild

Iehn: So you’re investigating that mysterious elevator I found?

Helia: Yup, and so let’s go

Necra: Someone could be in danger, we have to investigate

Vendil: I’ll help you with the elevator but if yall are going down it, I should probably post up nearby and make sure nothing awful happens.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Necra: Yeah, no problem

???: Can I come too?

A familiar voice rang out meekly from where they were

Myrtle: Been a minute eh?

Necra: Myrtle?? Why are you in Century Corps armor?

Myrtle: I got kicked out of The Jade Legion for “collaboration and conspiracy with an enemy of The Legion”, so I joined your guild.

Necra: Those prudes, I should go give them a piece of my mind!!

Myrtle: Eh it’s fine

Oceane: So you wanna go investigate a mystery Elevator?

Myrtle: Yeah sure, not like I got anything else to do…

Iehn: Well are we gonna go or are we just gonna stand there looking all goofy?

The six of them leave The Guild as we pan back to the six of them getting ready to enter the Catacombs

Necra: Everybody ready!!

Vendil: Well…if we’re gonna do this…

Helia: Let’s just go!!

Iehn: If someone really is in danger, we have no time to waste!

They descend into the Catacombs, screams fill the halls

Myrtle: What the hell!!

Iehn: The Violence…I can feel it

Necra: What is…this madness I sense

A creature dripping with blood descends from the ceiling and attacks the party

Oceane: Oh hell nah

Oceane splits it in two before even more show up

Iehn: These monsters are beyond human form…

Begin Catacombs 7

When you are halfway through

Necra: I can feel their pain, their screaming, the nightmares and horrors they’ve experienced, I can feel every single scream

Iehn: They’re beyond my healing touch…

Helia: And they weren’t here before?

Oceane: So the underground Catacombs beneath the city are filled with death monsters? Horrifying!!

Myrtle: The Jade Legion training could have never equipped us for this…

Vendil: Gavel…was this his doing?

Necra: I doubt it, their souls are twisted and perverted into…blatantly inhuman forms…

Iehn: It’s clearly irreversible for me…

Myrtle: So the city was just casually hiding an army of soulless blood demons

Necra: I believe so…

Vendil: Gavel didn’t do this…then who did?

Resume

When you are done, you reach the elevator Iehn spoke of, it is now partially destroyed, with a hole that the creatures could squeeze through from

Iehn: Well, the monsters probably broke through here

Oceane: That wouldn’t exactly be a stretch of the imagination

Myrtle: So a horror elevator down to the pit of hell was just there?

Vendil: It was most likely something that could get down to the deeper levels of this hellscape that we find ourselves in

Necra: We need to repair it…

Vendil: If you insist…

Vendil channels Gorbuch’s power to repair The Elevator and turned it back into pristine condition

Iehn: Alright…now it works for us…

Vendil: Good luck, I’ll be keeping watch for any of those creatures?

Necra: Are you sure you can beat them by yourself?

Vendil: I stopped Gevhim, I’ll be fine…

Helia: If you insist

Myrtle: Alright gang, let’s go

The five of them step into the fairly roomy elevator, as Vendil stays behind to watch The Elevator

Iehn: So what do we do now that we’re inside this cage?

Necra: Go down to the next floor

Necra moves her own body, revealing that the elevator is on Floor 1 and that there are 11 floors

Helia: Huh, 11 floors…

Iehn: We can see all the horrors of this place…

Myrtle: I’m way out of depth here but shouldn’t we NOT want to see the horrors…

Helia: I thought you wanted to come here?

Myrtle: Touche

Oceane: Well…press the button!!

Necra: Alright

Necra’s finger quivers uncontrollably as she presses the button to move the elevator down to the second floor

The door opens with a ding as elevator opens to the second floor, which posses old machinery and tubes filled with blood

Necra: Lab experiments

Myrtle: So people made these…abominations…

Iehn: So my question is how could Necra hear the screams if these creatures are simply lab grown

Helia: I have no idea?

Oceane: Maybe they were made with human souls

Necra: They feel like…they used to be human…it feels like this wasn’t the life they chose..

Iehn: I wonder…could they have avoided this fate

A quick sweep of the lab reveals strange signs on the tubes

Iehn: This reads…Department X…

Myrtle: Department X is real?

Necra: What the heck is Department X?

Myrtle: Department X is supposedly a super-secret organization that wants to find the Garden of Eden and reach godhood, or so it goes. They operate all over The American Alliance, The Canadian Royal Duchies and even have bases in The Caribbean and Beyond…

Oceane: So they’re a very powerful force….

Helia: Oh wait…I think Larkin ran into them the other day?

Iehn: Huh?

Helia: Yeah he mentioned something about fighting an evil clone of himself while being chased by goons..

Necra: That’s interesting…

Myrtle: So one of yours already ran into Department X?

Oceane: It would seem so…

Myrtle: And he survived…

Necra: Well Larkin can’t die but yeah…

Iehn: Uh guys??

Helia: So Larkin ran into these Department X guys before and-

Iehn: GUYS, GREEN GOO IS DRIPPING FROM THE CEILING

Green Goo begins raining from the top of the lab…

Myrtle: What the hell!!

Helia: Ok…what is this…?

Green Goo: Wouldn’t you like to know!!

Iehn: IT’S TALKING

The Green Goo covered all 5 of them before colalessing into a single green blob that vaguely resembled Larkin…

Lark2n: I’m Lark2n, a genetic clone of “your friend Larkin” and I wonder what brings you to the place I used to call home…

Necra: Home?

Lark2n: This place used to be my home, back in my tube here until the incident

Iehn: What incident?

Lark2n: Let me show you

Lark2n slithered across the ground and broke the soundproofing

Suddenly everyone could hear what sounded like a massive heart beating

Myrtle: The fuck is this?

Necra: I can hear the screaming….

Oceane: A massive heart is beating and you can hea-

The Blood Creatures begin breaking out of containment

Lark2n: Hehe, goodbye….

The Lark2n slithered down the vents and went down levels

Helia: These creatures should use some LIGHT

Helia blasts the Light Creatures with her powerful lights…

Oceane: Let’s scrap

Fight The Blood Creatures

When you win

Iehn: The heart is causing them to get even more violent I think!

Necra: What did Department X even want with a massive beating heart??

Necra didn’t have time to answer that, as part of the floor collapsed and The Party fell to the third floor