The year 2308.
Humanity had achieved everything. The Earth, the Solar System, the entire Milky Way even, was ours to command. Technology had reached its peak. After the complete superstring theory model was developed in 2257, we had advanced at a pace that would put our previous endeavours to shame.
Hunger? Nil. Poverty? Eliminated. Disease? Deceased. Unhappiness? Nearly zero. Crime? Most prisons were running empty with the precognition system. Invading Aliens? Not possible.
Global Warming? Halted and Reversed.
Truly, we had reached an impasse. It had been proved that we couldn’t build warp drives, so we couldn’t expand out of the Milky Way in any foreseeable time frame. In our galaxy itself, there were no more planets that could be terraformed economically, and each only had a handful of robotic colonists after the introduction of multi-layer cities greatly reduced the burden our population placed on our home planet. Life expectancy had reached two hundred years at a minimum.
It was then that disaster struck. The natural calamity that we now call ‘The Progression’ shook the planet. For three days and three nights, nearly the entire world was bombarded with lightning. Somehow, in the end, an EMP had been created, so large in scale, that everything electronic on our planet shut down.
An hour before that. The entire EOS series of satellites had sent a composite image to the lab at the International Space Federation. The printer automatically printed the image, and what was in it shocked everyone at the ISF. Miraculously, none of the lightning strikes had hit any of the shelters, as if controlled to land away. These strikes, also, had left a message across the earth:
‘Congratulations, Humanity. You have splendidly reached the end of your Path. And now, I set you on a new one.'
Just before the EMP struck, the ISF made an emergency broadcast. They conveyed the words to the masses using the International Broadcast System. The System, which was only ever used in extreme emergencies, barely sent the message to the world before it broke into a shower of static. Moments later, the world came to a standstill.
Then, a bolt of lightning struck that was as large as a small country hit each continent. It charged the entire planet and ravaged the lands. Everything electronic was then completely eliminated, along with most of the planet’s population. To the few thousand survivors on each continent, a voice rang out:
‘The Chosen will be born in time. Treasure them, nourish them, and advance. You, who have reached the pinnacle of technology, show me that you can do the same with this new power I give you. Show me what I have failed to see in any other race. Show me that you can maintain this new form of life. Show me that you are worthy of the title of The First Equilibrium.'
Prologue to ‘Renewal'
----------------------------------------
December 29th, 0093 RE.
“Aegis recruitment begins in two hours,” a voice said out loud in the marketplace, attracting quite a few youths to its owner. The lady who was suddenly the center of attention spoke once more. “Just past the West Gate. Everyone who wants to attend this trip, be there.” Then she flew off.
“And here, as most of you know, we have the Anna Orphanage. Founded in 0001 Renewal Era by the woman Alex once referred to as his second mother, and run for a long time by Alex himself, they take in a large number of orphans and the specially abled every year and provide a good life for them. It currently spans more than 200 acres, occupying the entire northeastern side of Eternia. It’s said that it was here that Alex...” the tour guide continued speaking as she walked out of range with a huge entourage.
The boy felt that it was suddenly quieter inside the orphanage. Although things were as busy as ever, today he felt a neat calm hiding away from his teachers and caretakers, waiting for an opportunity to sneak out. The guards had learned to be vigilant on his birthday after he was caught last year, but they still underestimated him too much.
The ring of the bell announced lunch, which also meant the end of all tours. Today, everyone in his Family would throw him a party, like always. He, though, would not be there for the experience. Like always.
Catching sight of the returning tour group, he slowly snuck to the back of it and tapped a twenty-something-year-old lady on the back. The lady turned towards him, her face blooming into a smile as she saw his. “What can I do for you, dear?” she asked. To her, he was a ten- or eleven-year-old girl with short hair. “My mom is at the front and I can’t get there with all these people. Can I hold your hand until we come out?”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Immediately grasping the small hand and bringing the little ‘girl’ close to herself, the lady walked out with her. When she showed her ID to the guards, they didn’t think to ask for one for the child. If the mother had a pass, why wouldn’t the child? Thus, the two of them walked out of the orphanage premises. The lady then let go of the little girl’s hand to put her ID back in, before turning back. “Now, shall I help you find your mother?” she asked the air.
A few metres away, the small figure was running through the cobbled streets, looking for an alley from where he could get on to the roofs. Eternia’s layout with it’s high buildings and few alleyways wasn’t helping him one bit. No doubt his caretakers had found out by now. Only a little time was left, he would be caught if he couldn’t get out.
A small empty alley came up on his left, across the street. Swerving, he barely dodged hitting a street vendor before getting in and jumping to the rooftops. There, he was free to stretch his legs and run at full speed. Pushing his speed to the limits, he bounded from one roof to the other while heading to the edge of town. The guard post there would be a little troublesome, but he could deal with it.
As he sprinted, he looked around him a little. It was rare for the Anna Orphanage to let its wards out. They preferred to teach them all they needed to know while keeping them unaware of the outside world. Most social contact for the young orphans was with their peers, and the occasional tourists and Aegis representatives were their only other company. Getting out more than the others did, he couldn’t really see the reason for them to want this. The town wasn’t what made Eternia fun to live in. Still, the bustling streets did have a beauty of their own, however minuscule it was.
Twenty minutes later, the boy found himself at the edge of town, along the metal walls that protected his ancestors from the Storm. There wasn’t a dome anymore over Eternia, having been removed when the citizens demanded natural light, but with the tears on the top of the walls, he could imagine how it must have looked before that. A statue of Emperor Alex stood tall at the gates he was about to pass through, eyes glowing green. As he made to get off the roof, however, there was a sudden loud noise and they turned red.
“Dammit they caught on!” he said softly, dropping flat so that he wouldn’t be seen easily. He looked around for an escape route, knowing that there were almost no chances of him making it out today. The guards had suddenly become attentive, and he could see that the air in front of the gate was still. They’d obviously casted a barrier.
Other than that, the only option was to vault over the walls, but there was a distance of at least fifteen metres, with the walls themselves being a foot or two higher than the roof. Looking back, the caretakers hadn’t caught up yet. Nobody was looking at him either. “Should I?” he thought. It was undoubtedly a crazy idea, but it just might have been possible.
He crawled back to the edge of the roof he was on before getting up. A ten metre run up, a fifteen metre jump, and he had to land a few feet above his starting height. The boy’s muscles tensed, this was going to be tough. He kicked the roof a few times to test his legs. Then, Push, he ran forward at full speed, covering the distance to the edge in just over a second before jumping up.
In mid-air, the boy looked at where he was about to land. It was at eight metres or so from the edge of the roof. He had a split-second to finish the next part. Freeze. His foot landing on solid air, he took another jump, this time covering two thirds of the remaining distance. Then, he brought his legs together, and bent them. Launch! He shot straight out, his feet hitting the edge of the wall and plunging his face to the metal just after he managed to get a hand to protect it. In a world of pain and out of breath, he lay down on the wall to rest and listened to the clamoring sounds from the guard post.
“Did anyone come here after I sounded the alarm?”
“No Sir, nobody. We didn’t let anyone go out after the alarm rang, and there was no kid with short black hair here for a while before that too.”
“Thank you. He must still be in the city. I’ll go find him and take him back.”
Having recovered a bit, the boy bounded down the side of the wall and ran off into the forest. Wanting to rest a little before he went to hunt, he found a nice tree near the valley and climbed up into it before falling asleep from the mental exertion of using magic successively in a heated situation.