The night was cold, filled with the distant howls and screeches of depredators. Amid the cacophony, a faint heartbeat pulsed steadily, barely audible over the ambient chaos. The source of the sound was a charred, skeletal figure lying unconscious at the center of a smoldering crater.
Above, a curious emerald parrot fluttered down, drawn by the stillness of the body. Mistaking it for food, the bird began pecking at the burned flesh, pulling small pieces from the corpse. With a sharp, painful intake of breath, the figure jerked awake, startling the parrot, which squawked in alarm and flew off.
The creature was Omega Man, though he was almost unrecognizable. His once formidable body was now a grotesque husk—blackened skin stretched over skeletal remains. He glanced down at himself in horror, noting the two bullet wounds embedded in his chest, their surfaces glowing faintly.
His first attempt to scream came out as a rasp, his throat too scorched to allow more than a low, guttural sound. Pain coursed through his entire body, the effort to even cry out making him feel weaker.
FRAGMENTED MEMORIES
As the initial shock subsided, Omega Man’s thoughts began to swirl in confusion. He tried to piece together how he’d ended up like this. He remembered injecting Micro Astros into his veins, using their unimaginable power to obliterate a city. He had felt invincible. But then, she had appeared—an eerie, pale woman in white.
“What did she say… something about noise?” he muttered hoarsely, his voice barely audible.
The memories of their encounter were hazy, but he vividly recalled the moment she had pulled out a gun. The next thing he remembered was the overwhelming force of her attack, sending him flying. After that, there was nothing. The crater around him told part of the story—fire and devastation—but the exact sequence of events remained a mystery.
AGONIZING RECOVERY
Omega Man struggled to rise, his charred muscles screaming in protest. The pain was unbearable, every movement like shards of glass slicing through his body. After several excruciating attempts, he managed to sit upright, surveying the scorched earth around him. There was nothing but blackened soil and lifeless trees for miles.
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With great effort, he pushed himself to his feet. Every step felt like a battle against his body’s desperate pleas for rest. Slowly, painfully, he climbed out of the crater and stumbled into the surrounding forest.
The silence of the forest was unsettling. No depredators, no rustling leaves—just an eerie stillness that made the hairs on his burnt scalp stand on end. Omega Man dismissed the unease; he was too weak to dwell on such thoughts. What he needed now was energy—anything to sustain him.
A FAINT LIGHT
He wandered aimlessly for what felt like hours, his skeletal frame barely holding together as he moved through the dense forest. His vision blurred, and his knees buckled more than once, but he forced himself to keep going. Desperation pushed him forward until, at last, he saw a flicker of light in the distance—a fire.
The sight rekindled a sliver of hope. Omega Man staggered toward it as fast as his mangled body allowed, collapsing to his knees when he reached the source. The fire burned low, illuminating the remains of a Magma Corps soldier. The guard’s body lay motionless beside a damaged weapon, its casing cracked open.
Omega Man’s sunken eyes fixated on the weapon. He crawled over, his skeletal hands trembling as he pried it apart, releasing the faint glow of a micro-universe sphere. Without hesitation, he absorbed it into his body.
ENERGY LOST
For a moment, power surged through him, mending some of his burned tissue and restoring a fraction of his strength. But then, something strange happened. The energy began to drain away almost as quickly as it had come. Alarmed, Omega Man clutched at his chest, his glowing eyes narrowing as he noticed the faint, pulsing light emanating from the two bullets still lodged in his torso.
“Those… things,” he rasped, his voice barely audible. “They’re… taking it.”
The realization filled him with rage, but he was too weak to act. Instead, he slumped against a nearby tree, his body trembling from exhaustion.
A VAGUE MEMORY
As he drifted into an uneasy sleep, fragments of memory surfaced once more. The pale woman’s face, her casual demeanor, her mocking tone—they all haunted him.
“Who… is she?” he muttered weakly. The thought lingered in his mind, even as darkness closed in.
Before he succumbed to unconsciousness, one final thought flickered in his mind:
The princess… only she would know what’s happening to me.
Omega Man’s skeletal body went still, his breathing shallow as he rested against the tree, waiting for the forest—and the horrors lurking within it—to claim him.