Soon after a plan has been made, the group ventures out into Atlantis through the skies. The demous remain ignorant to their infiltration and they land safely on high ground, away from the fierce waters. Roy once again sketches his surroundings, and the rest continue planning their unfinished plan.
“She’s in the same building,” Jack mentions, “I recall the waters around that area being suspiciously calm.”
“We cannot affirm that yet,” Roy responded, “Our main focus as of now is to enter the core. Here, I’ve drawn the map shown on the board.”
The group huddles, looking at the crude representation of the map. Following their huddle, various hiccup sounds and short bursts of what seemed to be laughing came of the group.
“I can hear your snickering, this is only a sketch that contains the useful routes,” Roy explained.
The group decides on a route before leaving. The boy remains on Flare’s back, peering down aimlessly from his shoulder. Flare turns to look at him, taking notice.
“Don’t worry kiddo, we’ll be quick bout’ it.”
The three walk up to the ledge, facing the ravenous waves that bear red. Flare looks at Roy, raising his fist below his waist. Roy smirks, giving a fist bump in response.
“No?” Flare asked, confused.
“What do you mean no?!” Roy questioned.
“Rock-paper-scissors, thats why I raised my fist?”
“Wha— On what exactly?!”
“Well, obviously who’s gonna carry Jack?”
“Well— screw you too.”
After losing a Rock-paper-scissors match, Roy carries Jack from the hand, while still having the cat upon his shoulders. The winds blow vigorously against Flare, followed by a faint voice from within the winds. The winds tell him, “I hope you know this is on purpose.”
The flight took a lengthy amount of time. Roy, stuck by anxiety, spoke to Flare through the winds.
“The portal won’t last long enough, we’re taking too long!”
“You said it would start closing unless someone passes!” Flare yelled in response.
“I know I said that, but I just noticed that the portal shrunk by two millimeters! Not much, but soon it may be too small to pass through!”
“And you tell me this now?!”
“I only noticed it now! Lay off!”
The two seemingly fly faster, passing the demous flying aimlessly, hopelessly lost by the sound of the crashing waves. Their vision blurs at the mere sight of the top of the building. The two pause, alarmed, before heading to the base of the building where their vision clears slightly.
“Haha!” Jack laughed. “Man, can’t you not drop me after the fifth time of losing your grip? Gotta be strong like me, pretty boy!”
“Maybe I shoulda dropped you!” Roy shouted, “Anyways, any idea on what happened?”
Flare looks up at the building structure, almost entranced by its appearance.
“Hello? Anyone home?”
Flare doesn’t respond, instead, his hand ignites into a scorching ball, and he hurls the ball towards the top. The confused looks from his comrades turn into a shocked realisation as what returned back down was not a ball of fire, but ashes that became swept in the winds.
Roy looks back at Flare, patting him on the shoulder, “Hey, at least we know she’s alive…” He reassured, “We’re almost there, cheer up.”
“Yeah, c’mon,” Flare answers.
Jack picks up the cat and the boy, carrying both on one shoulder.
“Watch it!” The cat yelled.
“Alright kitty, stay comfortable, your owner is safe with me.”
The front door to the building slid open in their presence. Not used to the advanced technology, the three step back; startled and amazed. The inside of the building was dimly lit, aside from the windows which only cast a faint red light.
Walking in, Flare opens his hand, only to be halted by Roy. Jack immediately covers his nose in reaction to the room.
“Yeah?” Flare asks.
“Don’t act so hastily, there seems to be a kind of gas leak, but it’s smell is too off for me to confirm it.” Roy responds. “Best for you to just go hand to hand.”
“Alright, challenges never hurt.”
“They do though,” Roy responded sarcastically.
The path before them remains dim, only illuminated by the sudden sparks of light coming from the wall lamps. The columns holding the hall lie on the ground, revealing the dark skies above. The sound of shrieks echo throughout the building, followed by a swarm of demous swiftly running about.
Scarce yet present, the gas throughout the first floor drowns the group in a nauseous feeling, before long, they rest near a staircase after the boy couldn’t hold his stomach any longer. Roy remained before a map in front of the stairs, sketching once more with a burner in hand.
Flare approached, “You sure about holding that? Didn’t you say the room was filled with gas?’
“The burner here is an invention made by Crystal that relies on my sovereignty over the Winds,” Roy responded. “I know your oh-so eager to hear a through explanation, but”
“You sensed it too?” Flare pointed upwards.
“It’s beyond us. A malevolent force that resides in Eden makes for an interesting take on the “Traitorous Era.” Through more analysis, we can ask Crystal about her take, after all, she’s been with “it” the longest”
“I can already hear the plan… Save your breath, but hurry up there, Jack will have a real field day with this information.”
Jack yells frantically, “Aw! Damn, he fainted! Guys! Wait— Haha nevermind! He’s still breathing— But he shouldn’t be breathing this for long! Can you, I dunno, hurry up?!”
The boy lies motionless on Jack’s shoulder, his mind aching more than his stomach, currently, a mind clearer than the deepest abysses.
The boy opens his eyes to black, unknowing and curious as a newborn should. Dreaming about a heartbeat that does not belong to him. Of emotions that do not belong to him. And a mind that shares the same body. Oddly enough, yet he didn't know it, the “mind” gazed at him.
The image gazed endlessly, seemingly everywhere the boy looked, it was always right in front of him.
“You… invader… why…?” The voice echoed, its words muddied by the void. Given naught in response. “In… secluded… dominion… wastes… thrive…”
No words could be comprehended by the boy, yet he felt a strange feeling. Rather than some meaningless image before him, he saw much more. He stared back and came to his first conclusion in life, he was staring at himself.
“Good guess, soul, however, wrong, and your current state is impossible to work with. You are to be ejected at once.”
Meanwhile, the group moves up to the highest floor and the stairs take them before meeting collapsed infrastructure. There, no gas is present, yet the floors are drowned in Eden's water. The room featured an enormous square interior with more statues that portrayed gods lie in waste.
Jack proceeds into a less flooded room with the boy and cat in hand, meanwhile, Flare and Roy remain in the room of statues. The two felt an ominous presence, yet before them were mere sculptures of the lost. The two began to investigate the flooded room.
“So, where do you think this water came from?” Flare asks.
“Must be another room, there were many pipes containing Eden’s waters. This city is probably fueled by it,” Roy responded.
They continued further into the room. There, they find a peculiar statue. The statue did not seem broken, rather, it was unsculpted. A piece of taped paper remains on the statue, acting as a nameplate. However, the paper has long since worn, and the statue seemed to be sliced cleanly in half. The other half remained on the flooded floors of the temple.
“Got an explanation, Flare? Oh Mr. Know-it-all-when-it-comes-to-gods?” Roy taunts.
“Well, Mr. Not-Know-it-all-when-it-comes-to-gods, I do have an explanation,” Flare answered mockingly. “It seems to be a statue crudely carved, unfinished, and definitely of a god.”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Just get to the point…” Roy exhaled.
“This statue could possibly be of The Last God. Tales has it that they were the last created god, as well as the only god to survive to see the Traitorous Era.”
“Pretty sure Granny spoke of this,” Roy recalls.
“Yes, the First Memory of Yggdrasil,” Flare answers, “The memory depicts two men, one supposedly injured, and one that moves effortlessly. They claim the man moving effortlessly could be the Last God.”
“Yes, but what’s with the sliced in half thing?” Roy asks.
“When a god dies, their statue remains as a tombstone of sorts, when they die, the statue gets destroyed. He most likely died soon after.” Flare responded.
“Guys! I found photos!” Jack called, “And there’s a message!”
The two immediately rushed to him, the information locked behind a 400-year-old wall began to reveal itself before them. Pushing aside each other to enter what seems to be a room of pictures and paintings. The room had been elevated, remaining unflooded.
“Guys look!” Jack calls.
The two pant. “Is…is it true that these… eugh… depict gods?”
Jack exhales, “Well I’m no Know-it-all-when-it-comes-to-gods, though, these look promising.”
Roy and Flare immediately look at the paintings, depicting what the gods should have looked like. There stood portraits and pictures of multiple of them together. The nameplate below describes the painting in unique detail.
The first painting they admired was “Gaeya of Nature.” Her crystal white hair flows elegantly like a river in a stream, and she poses before her beautiful creation, brimming with hues of green and blue.
“This is… Mother…?” Roy thought.
“This is huge! If the portrait depicts Mother as detailed as this, maybe The Tree would have more stories to tell,” Jack exclaimed.
“I doubt the tree had even seen what its mother looked like. Sure, it will get to see now, but unlocking memories? I don’t think so,” Flare argued.
“I guess you’re right,” Jack responded. “Oh oh! This one!”
The group turned to the next painting. This one is dimly lit, and presents three more gods, all with suits and grey hair. Two stand with hammers next to an unfinished statue resembling the third. Although unnamed due to their ranks being close to insignificant, the nameplate below reads, “The gods under the branch utility creating their own statues.”
“You guys have a Camera?” Flare asks.
“If we brang one, why would I be sketching the entire time?” Roy responds.
“So—” Jack interrupts, “—Why didn’t we bring a camera if the whole purpose was to explore this place?”
Roy closes his notebook, “I would ask the same question to that King of yours, Flare, but its probably because they didn’t expect to find paintings here, and or they didn’t want these to get lost or leaked. Any proof of this place would rile up the media in Baetr.”
“It wouldn’t be just Baetr, trust me,” Flare warns.
The boy awakens to the sight of the cat watching the group. She sighs, “It feels like I’ve been stuck with them forever — I mean, I did spend half my life with them.”
The boy sat up, alerting the cat to approach and sit with him. The boy’s previous interaction seemed to leave no impact on him, however the cat felt a somewhat different presence from him. She stared at him, “You seem more… here? Pfft— What am I talking about?”
The boy looked back at her with a faint wide-eyed look. “T-” He sputtered
He alerted the group, looking back to see the cat staring, appearing pleasantly surprised. The three walk over, having Jack pick him up again. Flare picks up the cat and points to the next room.
“Is something wrong?” The cat asks.
Roy continues to the next room without them. Jack stares at another painting, Flare takes notice and does the same. The painting contains 10 different people. Some holding weaponry, and some only posing, all in front of the dawning sun. The nameplate shines brighter than any of the others, “Resolution Group - Wildfire: Members resolve disputes and shall uphold Eden until the end of time (Looking at you Haezen)”
“It feels odd—” Jack says, “They seem so… human. Of course, we’re modeled by the gods but… I dunno, they just seem like us; no troubles, no worries, they’re so happy.”
Flare sighs, patting him on the back, “You’re right. My god nerd side’s gonna kick in right now. Haezen was the God of Time, and Wildfire, although no proof, was said to contain the last gods… Nobody knows every god in Wildfire, though he, Tae of Prophecy, Idonia of Fate, and Furei of Space to name a few, were a part of this group.
Jack groans, “Ugh, they also made jokes about each other, people called them villains?!”
The Traitorous Era. An Era in time where Gods died out, every single one of them. February 4th, 0 A.T (After Tree/Traitors) Of course, the Traitors were referring to the Gods. Away from Eden, the overworld was a place with no Kings or Rulers, only Gods who provide. The peoples' lives were entangled with the Gods’. However not all gods were keen into incorporating Human lives with Gods.
Not that they could do anything, as the power of the former was overwhelming. With the help of Wildfire, those who opposed humans would be kept in check. Their lives changed when the Pitch-Black appeared. Now called Demous, the Pitch-Black were creatures that took the shape of anything they consumed. Soon, Gods themselves became consumed. The cause or creation of these creatures remain unknown, and though these creatures only appeared in Eden, they found their way into the Overworld, and in an attempt to protect them, the first god Gaeya perished beneath a new, red sky.
The humans perceived the Demous as god's punishment for an unknown action and have resented them ever since. The gods agreed with their anger, as their mistakes caused the suffering of their beloved humans. Only a scarce number of people know the truth. And so, they used what was left of their power to fix their wrongs. Their only option was to seal these monsters in Eden. The humans continue to resent them, though, the gods rest peacefully knowing that their prized species shall thrive.
Roy returns from the next room holding what seems to be a vial. “The room had the pipe that flooded this floor— so I just grabbed some,” He passes the vial to Flare. “From the source. Maybe Crystal can make use of it.”
“Good idea, anyways, dead end?” Flare responded, looking at the vial.
“Yep, so now what? Head back down?”
Jack raises his fist; a circle from before shines on the ceiling; before long, the ceiling crumbles.
“Problem solved,” Jack smirked.
The two sigh as Jack laughs, walking behind them. “Well then— ladies first?”
Above them, the room was illuminated by purple lights, oddly enough, they worked perfectly. The room was not decorated and was quite small, only chains laid across the floor, holding onto a table with a broken top. They entered the room without a problem, plowing through the door effortlessly.
Roy immediately found something amiss right before leaving the ominous room. The two waited for his response as he walked over to the table.
“Something wrong?” Flare yelled from outside the door.
“There… there seems to be something in this table,” Roy responded. “You two go ahead, there’s something I wanna try.”
“Suit yourself Miss,” Flare taunted.
“Tch, I’ll win next time!—” His voice grew more distraught as he repeated himself, “Next time.. Aw…”
Flare, with the cat, walks down the corridor, meanwhile Jack, with the boy, continues their upward journey. Following Flare, he ventures around the floor looking for anything noteworthy, the cat continues to stare at him talk to himself.
“If I were a…” He stops to a noise made in the room over, “Demous!” He cracked his knuckles and pulled out a branch similar to Jacks. And just like Jack’s, it glowed a different orange hue as opposed to green. The branch bloomed into a book with two masks displaying emotions of Glee and Melancholy.
He chanted, “Book; cast upon creatures of Fire, mock for my allies; Creation: Images from the Ignited,”
Flares tawny hair swayed with flames jolting out of his book, setting everything ablaze indiscriminately. The corridor illuminated a burning yellow, followed by the sound of crackles coming from the book. The temperature rose significantly, nearby decorative plants were set ablaze, and so were their steps. Creatures resembling animals purely made of fire stood before Flare, almost as if they themselves were Demous in an orange hue.
“Alright, Images! Search and Shatter!” Flare commanded.
The cat watched the Fiery Images keenly, “Will these things… work?”
The images without wasting a second, charged into the room the Demous made a sound. Suddenly, an enormous wave of fire burst from the room, breaking the wall in front of the door and revealing the red sun as well as the foggy mess outside. The cat stared in shock beyond belief before nudging Flare's head.
He sighs in response, “Yeah… overkill, my bad.”
They walk into the room in what seems like an infirmary. The room was scorched beyond belief, splattered with soot and a pitch-black fog seemingly trying to escape the room.
“Seems like there was a Demous here,” Flare remarked.
He looked over to a board only slightly scorched, revealing medical entries. As he picked it up, some peculiar names were written. Knocked over beside him, most likely what the demous was after, were a set of lollipops with a note beside it. “Rewards for Sayt, congrats, you survived another needle!”
Flare scoffs, “Pfft no way they were afraid of— Oooh— don’t mind if I do,” He cheered, putting a lollipop in his mouth.
“Aren’t these really old?” The cat cautioned.
Flare, not hearing her, sang “Lil’ 500 year old candy never hurt anybody~”
“Ugh… this guy’s crazy.”
The two continue to walk, Flare continues to read the medical entries while his Fiery Images search the floor.
“Man… Tough to believe that this was in the hands of a god, too cool!” Flare smiled. “Just look at these! Aiis of Technology, Roy and Crystal are gonna kill me for not using A.I.I.S but that's whatever, Yupell of Alcohol, Ubaiis the Everlasting, Sayt the Clutter, Sayt the… Clutter… Sayt… Damn how many times has this guy been to the infirmary?” He looks at the cat with a smirk. “Maybe he just wants the lollipops and isn’t afraid of needles.”
The cat peers back at him, “Not my biggest concern in this situation but that's on the table, I guess?”
“Y’know, you give me company, cat, listening without correction. I wanna be more laid back, but with this leader showbiz. I just wish I could have at least six hours of sleep— four isn’t cutting it anymore…” Flare sighed. “If only you could understand me—”
“—I can understand you!!!”
“—But alas, I don’t possess the ability to understand cats… or animals in general, you get my point! Wait, no you don't…”
“I— ehh, why am I wasting my breath on you…”
An image returns to Flare, unlike its exploding counterpart, it disperses into sparkling kindles in the air, almost like stars in the night sky— the two things this place never sees. Flare folds the paper and places it in his coat. They continue to follow the path the image came from, finding a staircase at the end of the trail.
Flare looks around, finding no demous in sight, but soot and ashes. He questions himself, “If these ‘things’ were so easy to kill, why did the gods struggle? These couldn’t possibly have given them any sort of trouble, especially that the weaker ones are almost four times my own strength…”
“Now that you mention it… Huh, good question—” Suddenly, the cats’ hairs stand up on end, at the same time, Flare feels a shiver down his spine. The two stare at the staircase, quickly making the trip up it. The staircase was configured with the stairs placed along the walls, given enough space for a lift in the center, that is where Flare flies up to reach the highest point in the building.
After Flare crashes through the roof and makes it down to the highest floor, they are met with a coded door. The room was dim, only lit by the hold made by Flare, but feeling the door—
Flare sighs, “No good… It’s made from the same material as the gate from outside… What do we do now? Head back down?”
Suddenly, a hand from behind them fills the code, and the door slowly opens. The two look behind them to see Roy, smirking.
“Problem solved—” He taunted, “—Now then— Ladies first.” After being responded to by Flare putting the cat down and walking after her, he is met with Roy’s annoyed face, “Hmph, cheater…”
Their banter was cut short as the roof of this room caves in, shedding light into the dim corridor. The door across contained noises thought to be demous. The two rush down the corridor, unsheathing branches as they breach the next room.
To their shock, they witness the Boy sitting in a corner, and a bloodied Jack towering above the broken ceiling. Cold wind blows as his opponent in black stands behind endless hordes of Demous.
He turns to them, as blood trickles down his face, his arms shaking from his efforts, his ax remains high, yet his left eye remains closed due to the severe wounds he had received. Just as he was about to kneel, he looked over to his companions, immediately responding with shrinking back to normal size, and flopping on his back. Even with his injuries, he gives them a wide smile.
“I'm beat! Woo!” He exhales, “When y’all kill him, can I get one of those lollipops?”