In the earlier years of the twenty-first century, desperation loomed over all humanity in the seemingly endless wars of dawn and dusk — the world was to come to an end, most would say.

But then… it came. The key to ever-lasting life, immortality: The Syndroids.

For years, many pondered over the question if immortality ever existed, many wanted to abandon the shell of bodies they inhabited, many wanted to transcend. Although it wasn’t achieved like many hoped, these new bio-engineered bodies offered more than what one would imagine, surpassing human-capabilities, both mentally and physically. Originally manufactured as synthetic body upgrades to soldiers and warriors during World War III, the syndroids were essentially clones, created from the simple cloning of collagen cells, along with the bodies themselves being sheltered by a “skin” layer of nanocrystalline cellulose, and they also stored human consciousness — effectively replacing the current completely biological body. After the war, which spanned from June of 2079 to November of 2091, was over, the SYN Corporation (the one that created the syndroids) saw them as one step closer towards human evolution. “With Syndroids you won’t need to be afraid of growing old or weak; you don’t need to fear permanent injuries,” a representative of the company once said in his statement. The SYN Corporation soon started manufacturing syndroids to the public, spreading the newfound evolution, until “humans” became an ancient word.

Now, in the Musōru era of 2184, the entire world was filled with syndroids, that you could no longer tell the difference between actual bio-engineered ones to artificial intelligent ones, allowing machines to live among “humans” normally as one species: Syndroids. “Full equality has been achieved,” or so it has been said by many men of power around the globe.

It was a dream come true, a fiction turned to reality. And thus, the long awaited era of technological marvels arrived. Wherever you went, the cities of dreams were always there. People could do anything with their bodies, and their bodies were keys to even greater dreams. Every so often, you would hear about a big dreamer wishing to hit big, and not a small period of time later, you would hear about how they achieved their dream. That was how it was. You would only hear about dreamers reaching their goals, but never, not in a million years, would you ever be able to achieve your dreams. Something, anything, would always push you down, making you question your luck — but that was never the case. Because they don’t matter after all. None of it mattered.

Still, some pushed on, oblivious to the truth, but always had faith, faith that they would get what they wanted eventually. It worked, albeit on small dreams for some people, but it worked. If all you ever wanted was to achieve great, but small things, then the city would grant all you wanted. But never reach higher — unless, of course, you were chosen.

Because on the twentieth day of December 2183, those who possessed great dreams with no permission met the grim truth of the reality bestowed upon them. All of them completely shattered.

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Maruki Yagami stood in the dark hallway of the SYN Corporation’s main building, trying his best to take in all what had just occurred before his eyes. The neon fluorescent lights flickered constantly, disturbing the scene more than ever, and putting a halt to Yagami’s thought process.

Minutes felt like hours, as he kept lumbering himself down the hallway, fighting the pain as best he could. The path wasn’t as smooth as it seemed despite his injury. There were men, sentinels, here and there, roaming the halls, still oblivious to the hideous crime that Yagami had committed not a few minutes ago. If his crime were to be found out in the next few minutes, then he would be done for. Yagami needed to cut short his time, and escape whenever the closest chance would surface.

He should have listened, they should have listened, such thoughts filled Yagami’s mind, it was all because of the man in the mask.

Underneath his shoes, and what covered most of his lab coat, was blood, as red as scarlet, splattered onto the ground. It flowed like a calm river, slowly seeming into granite gullies, as the once white and gleaming floor became nothing but a red ocean. Its sight would send shivers down one’s spine, along with its malodorous odor sweeping through the nose, causing extreme nausea. However, this blood was unlike any, that it would be a joke to call it so. Whatever it was, it was alive, because as Yagami continued on with his cluttered march, it followed. But not in a messy pattern like how dripping blood would be, it was straightforward and flowed calmly like a snake.

Before Yagami could pass the next hallway, two watchmen passed, and Yagami stopped, but the thing did not. It passed him and onto the watchmen, it followed. Yagami held his breath, and pulled out his small gun, to point at the blood-like liquid. It was an instinctive move, but at what cost, no benefit would come if Yagami had fired another bang. And it wasn’t a matter of he would not shoot, it was a matter of he could not shoot. The blood-like liquid was no longer what it was, it flowed more fluidly and faster, its red color was entirely devoured by darkness, like an infection spreading. Just like that, the dark liquid simply touched one of the watchmen’s feet, and he disappeared into nothingness as it devoured him whole, like he had been vapourized, leaving nothing but black smoke in his place. The other watchmen began to plan for a retaliation, but he could not quite grasp what had occurred, that he failed to understand that he was to be next.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

A catastrophic event was on the horizon, and only Yagami had realized it. He took himself down the other hallway, as the dark liquid continued on towards the opposing hallway to God knows where. Screams of pain and panic was what he awaited to hear as he made through his escape, but nothing of the sort happened. There was only silence, a rather eerie silence. If whatever that thing was, hadn’t been stopped yet, then it probably fed on most of the employees in the building before they could even see it. Yagami hoped that would not be the result, but everything seemed to point to it being likely.

Not a few minutes passed before Yagami was to be on his way out, and the lights immediately went out and on in a flash, changing the scenery to a shade of red, followed by the warning siren that made it seem that another world war or a nuclear attack was to occur. But Yagami did not care, he held his gun tightly and continued on with his march. If he were to encounter another watchmen, he would shoot them no matter what. His hesitation was gone, survival was of the utmost importance in his mind. But deep inside, he knew that he would still cower from shooting, possibly killing another life. What he had done earlier was an uncanny act that was never to be repeated. If only it were that easy.

The automatic sliding glass door leading to the garage, stood at the end of the hallway as Yagami’s saving grace. He approached it, but it did not open. He tried to push open both doors, but nothing would budge. A red holograph flagged up in front of the automatic door, stating that the facility was under [CONTAINMENT BREACH]. This could not be the end of the line for Yagami, he wouldn’t accept it. He pushed, pulled, punched, and kicked the door, but nothing happened. Yagami came to the last possible solution, pulled out his gun, and shot the glass door.

Nothing.

However, that shot did draw attention to three watchmen who stood outside in the garage. Upon seeing Yagami’s appearance, injured and covered in blood, their first moronic instinct was to pull a weapon on him. Fortunately, they opened the automatic door for him, the path for escape was finally open. The unfortunate event was soon to follow. Yagami raised both his hands in the air, and dropped his gun, as they ordered him to do so, focusing their rifles on him. Many thoughts engulfed Yagami at that moment (that moment before an explosion), to simply act on his adrenaline and let things go the way they would go, or to obey — like always — and surrender himself. Then there was the third option, to jam their intercoms with the device in his lab pocket, but his reflexes wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge a bullet if one were to be fired. Yagami resorted to giving up entirely, and kneeled before the three watchmen, eventually winding up to rest his body on the floor like he was praising them. It was merely a facade though, covering up his body on the floor gave him a chance to grab his signal jammer unnoticed.

*CLICK* *CLICK*

All the watchmen fell to their knees as they held their heads from the pain, dropping their rifles in the process. Yagami swiftly grabbed the keycards from all the watchmen, approached the garage, and passed one keycard by the lock system to close down the automatic door, and prevent the watchmen from passing through. Before Yagami could move on with his escape plan, a watchman got ahold of the tip of his lab coat, and tried to pull him back in before the door would close. Leaving the coat was the only option, and so Yagami did. The door finally closed in on the coat, the watchmen reached for the door, constantly banging on it and ordering Yagami to open it for them. Yagami took a few steps back in panic and confusion. Leaving the watchmen in there would be basically leaving them for dead with whatever that dark thing was. But it would make no difference from the others, Yagami would convince himself, if he did not do anything, he would not be blamed for anything.

There will be no one alive to place blame on you, idiot! A voice passed his thoughts like usual.

Yagami smiled, coming off as insane to the watchmen pleading for help. He ran off, further into the garage, leaving the watchmen for dead.

Multiple cars filled the endless garage. Yagami could not remember where he last parked, the only solution was to use his keys to turn his car on and focus on its sound, amidst all the sudden chaos occurring in the upper levels. After a few minutes of searching, his car was found, resting at the near end of the garage, almost near the exit. Unspeakable joy spurred up inside him. Finally, this horrendous company would be no more, and he would be free.

Yagami got into his brown sedan car. It was filled with endless garbage, that it looked like a teenager’s room, instead of the car of a well-respected doctor. Yagami did not have the time to worry about the mess. He turned the car, pushed the pedals, and set off to the exit.

Only obstacle, and hopefully final, still standing against Yagami, was the shutter gate at the exit. Yagami sorted through the glovebox, passing the used tissues, his expensive watch, a flyer of a well-known idol, and finally to the gate remote (which he occasionally carried as he used to have top-level clearance). Yagami pressed the button on the remote, but nothing would happen, the gate wouldn't budge. Panic immediately ensued with Yagami, as he began searching for another solution. He left his car, and went for the gate’s control panel. Nothing… the panel was empty. He went back to his car, and brought out his pad to look through the cameras of the company.

Right outside… was nothing, or possibly mist if one would think rationally. But Yagami knew better. He dropped down to his knees, giving up seemed like the logical decision now — to him at least. There was no escape, he would tell himself as he rested by his car, staring into the abyss of the garage. All this time he was clinging onto false hope like how he hung on to the false truth that led to this disaster. Yet he knew deep down, that were was no escape. Once an explosion would begin, it would devour all that would come in its way. And now, the reality Yagami once knew was gone, leaving him entirely to this abyss.

Desolation was all that was left for him… in the fractured plane.