“What is magic, Julie?” A man dressed in a thick, layered white fur coat monologued, a spec ops grade assault rifle held in with both his hands, his trigger disciple impeccable even under such adverse conditions. The biting cold winds of the antarctic battered against his visor, as it scanned the area for any remaining heat signatures.
The man in white stood alone, easily blending into the endless snowy landscape that stretched into infinity. The scenery would be a thing of beauty, were it not for the dozen men dressed in black armor who lay scattered across the ground, their frozen blood sullying the sanctity of the pure white snow, one of the few things on Earth still free from the taint of man.
The man moved towards one of the corpses, tearing the visor out without any hesitation off his face. It was a caucasian man in his late twenties, perhaps early thirties, his eyes open wide as his own silhouette was reflected within them. His visor automatically started running the facial recognition software, crossrefrencing the man’s facial structure with the NSA’s database.
[Error. No matches found].
“Damn ghosts,” The man muttered under his breath, entirely unsurprised by the result. He tossed the visor aside without further consideration, making no attempt to scan the other eleven soldiers. For he knew what the results would be— no affiliation to any known government, no criminal history, no fingerprint matches, no retinal scan matches… nothing. Hacking the visor was an even more futile effort— it was linked to each soldier’s vitals, the nanites inside self-destructing with their death.
[Ten Heat Signatures Detected].
The man’s attention immediately shifted to the large, gaping cavern maw that lay carved into a mountain formed purely of ice, its translucent surface glinting like crystals of the highest purity— a structure that was clearly not natural in origin, but at the same time not out of the realm of human capabilities.
Ten armored soldiers charged in his direction at the speed of a pack of hyenas, their formation consistently changing as they implemented strafing tactics in order to evade gunfire. The nanites surgically implanted within them gave them superhuman speed, strength and endurance, but they did not fire yet— at such distances, he would simply evade their bullets.
The nanites within him flared, the density and effectiveness of his nanities far surpassing anything the armorded soldiers were capable of.
His heart started beating faster with each second as he willed the nanites to perform at maximum output:
100 Bpm
200 Bpm
300 Bpm
400 Bpm
500 Bpm
The man in white burst forward with momentum, a light leap sending him ten steps to the left as he evaded the first volley of bullets.
[Analysing Movement Patterns….
Analysis Complete]
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
His visor highlighted their movement trajectories, the armored soldiers destination three seconds in the future. The man in white moved forward with swift, long steps, as he employed his own strafing pattern— his speed outclassing the armored soldiers as he wrapped his finger around the trigger. Only after two seconds passed did he start firing, his wrist a blur of motion as he fired ten shots in rapid succession.
[Analysis effectiveness: 50%]
Half the soldiers fell limp to the ground, but the other half continued their charge with renewed vigor— their companion’s death seemingly having no impact on their psyche. The man in white let his assault rifle fall to the ground as he strafed hard to the right, evading the second hail of bullets. He stretched his right hand forward, a curving nanite blade slicing through his fur coat, embedded in his right arm through a cylindrical bore, while his left arm reached for a handgun, unholstering it in an instant.
‘Zone 6,’ The man in white mentally commanded, the nanites within his body going haywire.
[High Speed Targeting Mode: Active. Permissible Time in Zone 6: 9 seconds]
The man in white gritted his teeth as his heart rate accelerated to 600 Bpm, the hammering within his ribcage making him feel like an elephant was trampling over his chest. He stomped on the ground without further ado, the motion sending him sailing through the air, the cold wind buffeting against his face.
Four shots rang out in quick succession, but as the man lined up the fifth the distance between the two parties had already run out. The man let go of the handgun, flicking his right hand as he sailed past the fifth armored soldier.
Four intact bodies, a severed head, and a headless body lightly thumped on the snow a second later, as the man in white landed a dozen meters away.
[Heat Signatures Terminated].
The man continued to walk forward, extending both his hands outward. Two whooshing sounds echoed out behind him, followed by an impact against his hands as his assault rifle and his handgun slammed against them. He holstered his handgun, tossing away the assault rifle’s used mag and inserting fresh one. The man then proceeded to pull a small, silver pellet from within his torn fur coat, swallowing it with a single gulp.
[Nanites replenished to 98%. Zone cooldown refreshed.]
The blade poking out from his arm retracted back within his skin, the nanites utilized in its construction remaining on standby.
The man in white continued onwards, his fur coat splattered with patches of frozen blood as he ventured deeper into the cavern. His pursuit had led him to the end of the world, a continent where human life was unfeasable— where there should have been nothing, barring a few meterologists and one United States Research station. It was impossible for satellite and nanite-drone imagery to have missed such a blatant violation of the Antarctic treaty, which bans military activity in the region, let alone an artificial mountain standing on what should have been barren land.
[Analysing Cavern Structure…..
Error. Analysis Failed.]
Twenty minutes passed in silence as the man in white walked deeper into the cavern, likely past the point of no return. His visor continually scanned for threats, but surprisingly, no further armored soldiers impeded his path.
[Disturbance in Gravity Field detected ahead. Scanning cause of disturbance….
One Heat Signature Detected]
The man in white fired at the spot highlighted by his visor without hesitation, unloading his entire clip even though he failed to visually identify his target.
“Gravitas,” A voice echoed out from seemingly all directions, as the space around the area which he had targeted violently rippled— an aged, bearded man dressed in flowing grey robes with golden embroidery at the hems flickered into his vision. Without hesitation, the man in white unholstered his handgun and unloaded six heavy nanite charged shots aimed at the robed man’s forehead.
The bullets lost all their momentum a meter away from the robed man, suspended mid-air in a defiance of the laws of physics— the robed man tapped the ground with his wooden staff a single time, causing the bullets to clatter harmlessly on the frozen surface like a child’s discarded marbles.
[Language Detected: Old Latin. Translation Module Activated].
“How did you find us, bloodless?” A robotic voice rang out in his mind, his visor automatically translating the words into english.
“Where is Julie?” The man in white asked, his visor automatically translating the words into Old Latin for the robed man.
“So you are him. That girl… well, I suppose it matters not. You shall die regardless” The robed man sighed, still seemingly unconcerned by the threat the man in white posed.
“Communications?” The man in white asked, unperturbed by the threat.
“Corrupted. Your death will mean that our presence cannot remain hidden, but we shall be gone before your kin arrive.”
“I see,” The man in white showed no emotion knowing that the data he sent would never arrive at its intended destination. He was on an unsanctioned mission, but the physical evidence he had submitted was enough to convince the head of the NSA to provide him with support off the books— since he believed the other two agencies to be compromised.
Both individuals moved at the same time— the man in white immediately retreated with a backward stomp of his foot, aiming to create distance before he executed his next move. But the robed man’s facial expression was unperturbed as he casually tapped his wooden staff upon the floor.
[Warning: Disturbance in Gravity Field Detected]