*Slap Slap Slap*
Azario felt a repetitive stinging sensation on his right cheek.
"Get up~."
"Ugh what the hell? Let me sleep. I'll get up.. in a… a few more minutes," he bargained, half asleep.
The disrespectful slapping continued.
*Slap Slap Slap*
A seething dark rage boiled in Azario. When it soared to breaking point-he lashed out, swinging his right fist in the direction where he thought the godforsaken slapper would be. The sloppy punch missed. His arm flopping pathetically across his body.
"Azario-GET UP!" an annoyingly familiar voice yelled on his left.
The urgency of the voice made Azario weakly open his eyes enough, so that he could identify the outline on his left. His eyes widening in recognition-Azario snarled.
"Deemas you *****! I swear when I get up, I'll make you remember this for the rest of your life," Azario vowed malevolently.
Demas stared blankly at Azario, his eyes looking unamused.
"Why don't you look at where you are-idiot," Deemas retorted.
"Huh?"
Getting thoroughly annoyed, he pushed himself up, so he was lazily sitting at an angle. He craned his head to look around the room he was in. To his fervent embarrassment, he saw many unfamiliar people in a completely white and incredibly big hall-which was clearly not his bedroom. All the people that he could see were wearing completely white pants and long sleeve shirts, including Deemas himself. Azario felt like foreign.
Azario smiled awkwardly.
"Oh… hey everyone~" Azario managed to utter with forced calm.
He turned his head to face Deemas, who was still on his left. His eyes conveying immense urgency.
"Deemas-what the hell is going on here?" he whispered.
Deemas' face shockingly enough displayed some worry-making Azario feel his stomach drop.
"I-"
Deemas' answer was interrupted by an eloquent sounding but commanding voice, originating behind him at the other end of the room.
"Is everyone awake now?" he demanded.
"Yess~," most of the people answered with mock enthusiasm.
The source of their almost sycophantic compliance, being 2 vortex robot enforcers standing imposingly on either side of a giant screen, which was at the end of the large hall. The deal breaker was that they were holding black guns that had some resemblance to an assault rifle.
Azario got up sluggishly and looked at the screen. Even though he was near the back of the hall, he could see that the voice belonged to a handsome violet-haired white man, whose long hair rested across his shoulders. His eyes appearing reddish but just as easily could be mistaken for purple. He stared right into the souls of the people, watching with a self-assured monarch bearing. His eyes began to wander as if looking at something, seeming to not hear the responses.
"Is this guy a fantasy cosplayer? There's no way this is really happening. I need to snap out of it"
*Slap*
Azario promptly slapped himself on his non abused left cheek with significant force. The resulting noise captivating the surrounding people, who turned to see what happened.
"Are you crazy or something?" Demas asked embarrassingly loud.
Azario's already reddened cheeks blushed furiously, not being able to muster a single retort.
"Good, let's start this debrief then," The purple-haired man continued with a charming smile.
"Are you serious? Do the vertex have internet lag as well? So much for a so called 'incomparably advanced civilization'," Deemas once again voiced out loud-causing the vertex enforcer robots to snap their heads in his direction.
Azario's faced crumpled.
"Deemas shut up," Azario mutely hissed
Prompting Deemas to look back and roll his eyes in response.
"First of all, I offer the most heartfelt of greetings. My name is Aghatya and I am the leader of this expedition group. You will address me as leader," a cacophony of bewildered noises filled the room.
"I understand-" he projected, subduing the restless crowd to complete silence.
"that this must be very shocking to you all but this was the very reason for your collective…relocations,"
'Relocations my ***.'
"As you know, your media body has probably informed you that there are only three or so years left before the 8 black holes swallow up the entirety of earth-ending life as you know it on this planet. However, that is not the complete truth. The black holes as they refer to them-"
The visuals change to a bird's-eye view of the impossibly big black hole that stretched from beyond Greece all the way to Italy.
"-are actually what vertex researchers call false realities. These false realities are tears in the fabric of space-time itself and as you know are eating up this planet but what it consumes is not destroyed just converted into materials which fill in aspects of its own reality making them... 'real',"
Once again, people voiced their shock but one voice stood out like a sore thumb.
"This guy's actually insane!" Deemas declared nonchalantly, his arms still crossed.
"Deemas shut the hell up!" Azario hollered.
But it was too late. The robots sole attention was fixated directly at them-making the hairs on Azario's neck stand up. Most of the people in the room turned to look at Deemas.
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Azario violently flinched, his body hunching over to futilely avoid the attention.
'****! We're finished.'
The video switched back to Aghatya-who's smile had left his face. His eyes looking seriously at the slightly bottom left direction of his 'screen' for an uncomfortable amount of time. In spite of that, Deemas kept gazing at the screen-unfazed.
"You've got guts, or maybe you're just stupid but next time you have any interjection you should bring it up after the debrief. Moreover, do not use such inflammatory language to a superior. You may not like the consequences otherwise-no.5678," Aghatya verbalized cooly.
Deemas continued to look at the screen unresponsive.
Azario's face tensed.
'No.5678? What is he talking about?'
Azaria subtly approaching Deemas, he cupped his hands over his brother's ear.
"Stop being an-" he whispered.
A dangerously unamused voice cut off Azario-rattling his system.
"Silence. Speaking from this point onwards, whilst I am speaking will incur severe disciplinary action. You have been warned," Aghatya stated sternly.
"…." absolute stillness followed.
"Good. Now you may think I am deluded but this is what a vertex volunteer saw when they entered a false reality."
The screen shifted to the point of view of a camera standing on what appeared to be a rocky surface climbing upwards. Heavy breathing could be heard betraying that it was a person. The person looked around. The people watching were able to catch a glimpse of the clearly matt-black exoskeleton shoulder, as the vertex in the footage seemed to keep peering behind themself over their right shoulder for something. The only thing visible was the fact they were in a mountain range. A smaller mountain was visible in the far distance with greenery dotted around, especially in the basin between the mountains. For some reason, they turned their head back around just in time to see the front of their vision eerily darkening-as the mountain terrain in front of him began to disappear into the abyss.
"Huu, Huu"
Their breathing quickened as they looked up at the wall of dark, its expanse shockingly extended as far as the eye could see into the sky. Abruptly, their head locked into place as they mechanically ran forward into the growing black that engulfed their vision. Their breathing devolved into severely panicked hyperventilation.
"AAAGH" a despairing scream was picked up by the video.
The vertex put its multiple onyx arms in front of its face, the color of which was noticeably discernable lighter from the black hole.
"AAGH!" this time a blood-curdling scream rang out.
Unmistakably one of incredible agony, as the arms that were in front of it instantly appeared to have gone to its head, presumably holding its head in pain. The scenery and point of view changed as it looked as if it was on the mountain again-yet it seemed different somehow. The colors were more vibrant, the air more playful and the sunlight seemed more artificial and deliberate. The screen shifted, going back to the view of Aghatya.
"I do sincerely apologize if I spooked you with that clip," he alleged whilst smiling reassuringly.
'Spooked you? There were too many things wrong with that horrifying clip and what the hell was wrong with that vertex 'volunteer'? They didn't seem much like a volunteer to me'
"The reason for the volunteer's blatant distress is because they did not know what would happen to them once inside the black hole. Since they were the first vertex to ever step foot into a false reality after all."
'Sure, but what about the screams afterward? Does stepping into the false reality blow your brains out or something?' Azario speculated worriedly.
"The reason he screamed afterward was because any piece of electrical, quantum or even steam technology is dismantled and distributed into the false reality. At least that is the leading theory, because the chip in his brain vanished."
Astonishment flickered in Azario's eyes
'A Brain chip?'
"The fact that he had a Brain chip may have surprised some of you but you may have noticed that the vertex do not carry around much technology with them. For example, the hover bikes don't have keys like your vehicles have, this is because they have brain chips instead, which they manipulate with their thoughts and use like how you use mobile phones but they can also use it to interact with various other technologies. Like turning on and off or partially controlling their hover bikes or other vehicles but even mundane tasks such as turning on and off the lights etc."
"Anyway,"he continued dismissively.
"What we only know for certain is that you cannot use any of those types of technologies within the false realities. My theory is that it would not be consistent with the mythological narrative of the false reality for those technologies to even exist or work. Since the creators of the mythology and the myths they created knew nothing about them, nor would they be able to comprehend them-"
Without warning the screen lost power.
"…."
A tense amount of time passed.
The people in the room collectively broke into enthusiastic chatter.
"Deemas, what the hell is going on here?" Azario repeated looking straight at Deemas.
"I was training in the gym like usual," Deemas recalled glancing back but still facing forward.
"Uhuh,"
Azario motioned to carry on.
"Then vertex enforcers robots started storming the gym and taking people with them. I tried to run away but they had us surrounded. I managed to keep avoiding them, so they went for other people but one of them explicitly targeted me. It happened too fast for me to run away, so I started fighting it and then they must have shot a tranquilizing dart or something into me and I got knocked out. When I woke up I was here beside you" he explained.
Azario furrowed his brows.
"Is that it?"
"But you were up before me, did I miss anything? Because you didn't seem to care when he called you 5678," Azario asked in concern.
"Most of us were up like 10 minutes before you…Well have you noticed something yet 5679," Deemas teased.
"Why the hell are you calling me that? Have they numbered us,"
"Take a guess. Let me give you a clue, they branded you. I rhymed" Deemas mused.
"OK Shakespeare, just cut to the-"
Azario's eyes went wide-feeling a soul shuddering shock, as upside down whitish-silvery numbers had been seared into his left hand. Slowly turning his hand to face him, he read the numbers.
"5679 what the ****! They branded me!" he voiced with disbelief.
"Did they brand you too?"
Deemas held up his left hand in response, likewise displaying upside-down white numbers, which with his prior knowledge he could make out.
"5678… these sons of *******! How could they treat us like this-like animals?"
Deemas' face appeared unaffected by Azario's words, his face was devoid of emotion evenso Azario's anger built.
Nonetheless the screen flashed with life.
"Sorry about that guys," Aghatya verbalized with a forced smile.
'It seems that I need to be more…to the point,"
'Damn, his vertex masters must have told him to shut the hell up.' Azaria giggled to himself
Aghatya let his smile linger, appearing to be looking at things.
Azario snorted.
'I almost feel sorry for the guy,' he remarked sarcastically.
"Now you're probably wondering what this 'expedition' even is. Why you people were chosen and what we expect from you…" he paused, building suspense.
"This expedition aims to explore the Greco-Roman false reality, which is the one that was displayed on the screen, these false realities I keep mentioning, as I alluded to before I was having…technical issues. Are the mythological realities native to that area."
An electrifying fever exploded uncontrollably throughout the people present.
'No way. So supposedly mythologies are real and are replacing our world?' Azario pondered cynically.
"You're probably thinking that this must mean that the mythologies are real but this is what a native looks like in the false reality-without having freshly reaped a soul,"
Azario squinted.
'Why...did he add that last part?'
Azario's confusion was cut short as the screen displayed a painting of a 'man' without any discernible facial features. Even the clothes he wore seemed to just be one colour nothing stood out him-not a single detail. It seemed to be some sort of unsettlingly 3 dimensional being.
'What on God's blue Earth am I looking at?' Azario mulled.
'That can't possibly be an actual being, that's just a pretty realistic unfinished painting,' Azario thought assuredly.
To his wonder the 'camera' moved up to the 'man' whose head moved in tandem.
'This must be special effects or something?' he concluded dismissively.
"You're probably thinking this is some sort of edit or fabrication. Yes? While I'll grant you that it could in fact be such a thing. The vertex would never spend so much money, manpower and time, sending this expedition to explore something that didn't exist."
Azario bit down on the urge to roll his eyes in disgust.
"This is why they refer to it as a false reality. Everything in that reality is fake its slowly eating up more and more of this earth filling in it's fabricated reality to become more real. The natives not batting an eye to-"
The screen went black once again.
"…" deafening silence seized the room.