~2,000+ Years ago~

~Planet Zebal~

The Sovereign 'Jahar' looked out upon the masses, struggling to contain his smile, which his aide and long-time friend quickly picked up on.

"Lord Sovereign, there is no need for you to be so stoic in front of your people today. If anything, they want you to be happy, perhaps even ecstatic, as I'm sure you are." The aide said, ending with a wide smile.

"... A great point, my old friend. I fear I'm so used to appearing emotionless that it's become second habit."

The two men began to laugh, which delighted the onlookers far more than the Sovereign expected, but it was a very pleasing surprise to the man. Everything was about to change after all, and he wanted this moment to be remembered indefinitely as the happiest moment of every attendee's lives.

The Sovereign glanced at the construct his people had worked on for over two centuries now. He was a young boy when they started, and was personally on the front lines of every war that took place because of the unintelligent masses who could not understand the former Sovereigns brilliance. No one denied what he found all those years ago, for it was recorded and distributed to all allied and enemy nations in the confederation. The portal, the faceless creatures, the voice from beyond...

The aide tapped him on his shoulder, knocking the Sovereign out of his daydream. He nodded at his friend in thanks before approaching the podium. Once he stood in front of the microphone the entire crowd (over one hundred thousand attendants) went quiet.

"My people... The day has finally arrived."

The crowd erupted into cheers, causing the Sovereign to laugh again. He elatedly shook his head and motioned for the crowd to quiet down.

"And you know that I share in your joy. All the wars, all the death, the countless famines due to blockades and biochemical attacks from our enemies... That's all behind us now. And most importantly, we get to tell our enemies that everything they did WAS FOR NOTHING!!"

He raised his arms high while looking at the construct. The crowd cheered yet again as everyone marveled at the machine that would usher in a new era for the entire universe. The Shindo'rai, the Egnoks, the Tevrans, and so on. Also, even the lesser species who have yet to discover space travel would benefit from what they were doing here today. Ah, that reminds me! I read a report that the creatures known as 'Humans' have recently managed to exit into space and land on their nearby moon. We will need to invite them into the federation in the coming days, and the timing couldn't possibly be better for them!

He turned back to the microphone, "We do this for everyone we lost, and to save all who have survived until today." Some people in the crowd cried, some cheered, some merely nodded. He understood every single emotion they were feeling, for he felt it too.

The faceless creatures were emerging from every corner of the universe, and not only that, but other alien species were appearing from the uncharted zones as well. But most worrying of all, was that the faceless creatures were creating biological means of traveling from planet to planet, and some of them have even flown from one galaxy to another. There was a new alien species discovered that seemed hellbent on purging the galaxy of the creatures, but when the Sovereign tried to make contact, his ambassador's ship was eviscerated, so peace was clearly not something they were interested in, and he had no intentions on hoping for this 'enemy of his enemy' to save everyone.

"The fools who split up the federation in order to wage war on all of us, the loyal ones who wished to follow the Sovereign's dream of bridging the gap between our realm and the realm of souls has made this our only form of salvation. Too many lives have been lost, and some of our planets are now completely inhospitable. We are in no position to even discuss whether this is the correct path, as it's now become the ONLY path we can take!"

He motioned for the engineers to begin. They rushed to their positions and began to power up the construct - A three mile long and two mile high machine that would require the entire planets electric grid to power it, and even that wouldn't be enough for very long, but they were all certain that once the realms were bridged, the 'Heaven's Gate' (the construct) would no longer have a purpose.

"But there is no need to worry about any of that anymore. Soon we will have direct access to the realm of souls. Immortality, infinite mana, infinite resources... Soon we will have NOTHING to fear, for everyone and everything else will fear US!!"

The lights on the island and the surrounding cities all turned off as preparation to power the Heaven's Gate was underway. But the people weren't in complete darkness, as the construct itself began to give off a brilliant white glow the that increased in intensity as it powered up.

The Sovereign was worried that his people may be frightened in this eleventh hour, but all he could see in the crowd was a look of reverence on the people's faces. Tears of joy, laughing, smiling, and some were even entering prayer poses.

The only question left is what kind of 'gate' is going to come out of this thing. In all the mini-tests we've run, the gateway was completely random. Some quite literally looked like a gate, while others were shaped like rings in varying sizes, and a couple formed into small bands of light that dissipated at their end points.

Seven minutes later, he got his answer. A large band of golden light emerged from Heaven's Gate, which was a beautiful moment, but there were a few problems he could see right away. First; it was also going down into the planet. What this meant for the planet he wasn't sure, but he imagined it wasn't going to be good. And second; the band was continuing to shoot up into space unabated. He was going to order the engineers to turn off Heaven's Gate, but it had already turned off all on its own.

As he watched it expand further into space, he noticed something else. He thought he was hearing things at first, but when the band of light first appeared, he could hear something cracking, and now the cracking sound was becoming far more intense. The people were jumping for joy throughout most of the event, as they should be, but the cracking was becoming so loud that most of them stopped cheering and were instead looking around worried with their hands over their ears.

The Sovereign tried to say something into the microphone, but his voice was sadly not amplified, and that's when he remembered that it currently had no power going to it. With no other option, he was going to shout over the crowd using a sonic ability of his, to at least let them know he was still with them and to not worry, but that's when the world 'dropped'.

It felt like he was in an elevator going down, but his vision was telling two different stories. It looked like the entire world was falling, but at the same time he couldn't actually tell if anything was moving at all. However, he could tell that everyone was experiencing the same sensation as him when it suddenly stopped. It was only briefly, but it felt like the 'elevator' had abruptly stopped for a second, causing him and everyone else to buckle at the knees, with a few people falling straight onto the ground. One lady fell down and dropped her baby in the process, but right before she could pick her up, the world began to 'fall' again.

This process repeated for several minutes, and every time it stopped this loud crashing sound would accompany it. The dropping, the cracking, the crashing, they ramped up in intensity until suddenly it all came to a stop. Jahar and everyone else on the island slammed into the ground as the world 'crashed' one last time.

A familiar feeling... Jahar thought to himself as his ears rang incessantly. He slowly opened his eyes, finding the world dizzy as his head felt like it was doing laps around itself. The same feeling he experienced several times in war after explosions had gone off in his general vicinity, leaving him on the ground in much the same manner he was now.

Slowly but surely everyone managed to climb to their knees as the dizziness began to fade.

"J-Jahar, what just...?" His aid said before entering a fit of coughing. His friend never called him his name in public, as was custom, but in this moment no one here was even thinking about such improprieties.

Jahar looked up at the band of light. The end of it was far away at this point, but he could still tell it was continuing to extend through space. However, that's also when he noticed that the wind had picked up quite a bit. There had been a small breeze here and there throughout the night, but nothing like this. It was at least a seven on the Kurgen scale (forty miles an hour).

Red streaks of lightning shot through the sky, lighting up the area and causing a wave of fear to stir through the crowd. Not just because of the lightning, but because it was lighting up the sea. The waves were crashing hard against the rocks, which was worrying in itself since they were calm only a little bit ago, but the fear was truly coming from the presence of ten or more large tentacles rising out of the sea.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

By now everyone was standing up again, but part of the crowd fell back onto the ground as their knees gave out at the sight of the monster rising out of the sea. It was enormous, almost bigger than the island itself. The large spherical monster continued to rise above the water as the crowd screamed in horror. That is, until the monster opened its one great eye that encapsulated over half of its entire frame.

The screams stopped as the monster's gaze pierced everyone there, causing their bodies to completely lock up. Despite the fact that he couldn't move his body, despite the fact that his mind and soul were overridden with fear, Jahar managed to have one last coherent thought before he and the entire crowd were forcibly put to sleep.

Our enemies were right in the end... It looks like we truly were the mad ones.

----------------------------------------

~Current Day~

~Reimia~

The air system kicked on, making me jump in surprise.

{J-Jeez!! Your emotions hit me directly while I'm in here you know?!}

Sorry about that... I almost never get hit by jump scares like that, but it's been so damn quiet since we left the train, and the only thing I hear in this building is a low humming sound that seems to extend everywhere.

I placed my hand over the air vent. *It's warm, and I'm only just now realizing that the building is full of oxygen. Err, probably not so much anymore since I busted that one window open, and that does explain the weird gust of wind I felt after I busted the window.

{Rei, they have no 'Gods' here. I've asked the others.}

You talking about that weird note on the board? 'God - 72%'? Yeah, I don't know what that's about, but just like everything else here, the core should answer that for us.

At least I hope it does.

I left the meeting(?) room and continued down the corridor, checking one door after another. Unlike on the second floor, things seemed much more normal down here. Meeting rooms, lounges, shared bunks, kitchens, etc.

There's also an ungodly amount of weapons and power suits too... I've found some Tyranium suits and several other types I haven't seen yet.

I entered a large room which was obviously the war room that apparently coupled as a lounge. Most of it was one massive table with a hundred chairs around it, while off to the side there was several couches and a single massive TV. Below it was a few game consoles which looked completely out of place.

I pressed one button after another on the table until finally it lit up and a 3D map appeared above it. It was a map of Caedrus and it was visually showing the trajectory of both enemy and allied forces over the course of the last six months before the purge wiped the people here out.

{Wow... They lost over a million people in six months? And the enemy only lost one hundred thousand?! What kind of monsters were they fighting???}

I don't know, but I'm going to assume the purge wiped them out too. Unless they were the machines...? I don't see anything detailing what died on either side. It just says casualties. And nothing I'm finding around here is really telling me much of anything either. Although, I'm not exactly combing this place for information since I'm here for something else. I'm only taking a quick glance around as I try to find the way down.

I left the war room and kept checking rooms until finally I found another staircase down, and this one went much further than one floor.

It looks like this goes down quite a ways... Luna, tell me when I'm even with it.

{Stop at each floor then, please.}

I did as she asked, stopping at each doorway we came upon, and on the fifty one she said 'This is it... I think?'

Good enough for me.

I tried opening the door but it was locked.

Can you try going through the door?

{And unlock it from the other side? But that's a keypass swiper, and uh, my physical manipulation spell is really hard to use...}

Concerning both those worries; I know, but please try anyways, okay?

{Okay!}

She went from apprehensive to excited in the span of a few seconds... I could have ripped the door off its hinges but if possible I'd prefer to not make any noise. There hasn't been anything in here so far, but that doesn't mean it really is devoid of enemies. Especially since I saw those machines come out of the building adjacent to this one.

The door dinged and opened up soon after that. As I pulled it open Luna flew back into my chest.

{Boring. It was just a big stupid button I had to push.}

After turning invisible again I walked through the door and sure enough, there was a monitor that I presumed was used to show people on the other side of the door, and there was a big button below it with the words 'Open / Lock' written on it.

In front of me was a long hallway with rooms on both sides of it, but these ones were made almost entirely of glass, and they were completely different from the rooms I was previously in.

All of the rooms were clearly used as laboratories, but they had been completely overrun by vegetation. The ground I was walking on was covered in moss and thick bramble.

{Rei, it's trying to infect your soul.}

I know. Not what I expected out of a bunch of plants, and it kind of feels like there's an intent of some sort behind it, but this was a lab after all, so who the hell knows what they were making in here. It must've grew out of control after the people here disappeared.

I walked down the long hallway until I came upon a doorway without a door. Inside the room ahead of me I could see the door was on the ground, barely visible through all of the vegetation.

I stopped at the doorway and peaked inside. Tables, consoles, wires, machinery of all sorts lined the room, and it was massive in size.

{Rei, up!}

Heeding her call, I looked up and saw a large spherical machine with ten legs and four large wire-like legs attaching it to the ceiling and walls.

{Teeth again... So creepy and weird on a robot---Ah!}

I noticed it the same time she did. Something locked onto me from above, and it was obvious what it was.

The 'Eye' on the machine opened up, revealing a pinkish-red eye surrounded by sharp teeth, and it was looking directly at me of course. *Yet another one with a massive eye and now this one also has teeth surrounding it like the ones outside did.*

The machine didn't move as I removed my veil and activated my halo. Even after I was ready for it to attack me, it just stared at me, unmoving.

?

I walked back and forth near the entryway and it just continued to watch me.

{Maybe it's waiting for you to come further into the room? You can easily run away near the door right now.}

Hmm...

The numerical display on my vision read '0.02', telling me it was in this room, and probably in or near the consoles in front of me, which were directly underneath the machine.

{I can tell it has mana and an aura, but it's not probing you or channeling an attack, so it has to be waiting. What are you going to do? I already know, since I know we can't leave without the codes, but still...}

I slowly walked over toward the consoles, keeping my eyes on the machine, which is exactly what it did in kind. Kept its eye on me.

I reached the consoles and it still didn't move.

... Okay, fuck this. If it attacks, it attacks. Luna, warn me if it moves even a little.

{Ugh, I-I'll do my best!}

I didn't need to power the consoles up, as they were already on and thankfully on their main menus, bypassing any need for a password.

I clicked through the folders, and found that most of them were images and videos of what had taken place here in their experiments, while a couple of them were filled with text files.

Anything?

{Nope, just staring.}

I skimmed through one of the files looking for anything of interest, but came up short... Kind of. Nothing on the core codes, but I did know what the experiment here was about now. This was one of hundreds of labs, and this one was tasked with two things. One; repairing the atmosphere. It didn't say what was destroying it, but it was apparently not always like this. And two; to keep tabs on Arcadia's progress. They needed to make sure it was going to be ready for 'The Grand Voyage', and this was tasked to them because the head scientist here just so happened to be the brother of the woman leading Arcadia's construction. They decided it was best that these two could be trusted the most to prevent anyone from prematurely launching Arcadia.

The word launching being next to Arcadia really caught my interest, but that wasn't why I was here, so I went through all of the other text files one by one, until I finally found it.

{Is that really it...?}

I thought you were looking at the spider?

{I can pay attention to many different things when I'm inside someone's soul, stupid.}

I read the notes of the head scientist here several times to make sure it was definitely what I was looking for, but I had no way of knowing if it was going to work or not without telling the others to test it.

This time I went through every text file without skimming, but in the end that's all I could find in relation to the core's 'codes', which was more of a trick to get the engine and other bays to unlock. 'Engine', huh? So it really is a ship...

I checked the other consoles just in case, which led to a bunch more photos showing the team working, partying, playing games, etc. But nothing about the codes.

Alright, I guess that's it then... Here's hoping that actually works. Pretty clever of them honestly. There's no way of finding the right numerical input by going one by one, since there are no 'codes' to begin with. It's instead a simple manner of opening and closing a subset of programs and folders in a specific *very long* order. The siblings liked this approach when it came to hiding information.

I looked up at the spider who continued to watch me unmovingly. I backed up while keeping my eyes on the machine, one step at a time, until it finally moved as I reached the doorway. Its 'lids' moved in a way that made it look like it was smiling, and I swear I could see one of its limbs waving goodbye to me.

... Thoughts?

{I can't tell if it's happy or mocking you. I don't get it...}

I have a really bad feeling about this now. Am I crazy in thinking this thing wants me to unseal the bottom levels of Arcadia?

{Maybe? I don't know it's all just so weird, especially since it's not attacking you!}

There's that too... I'll talk to Yulong and the others first before making any decisions when I'm back home. Whatever decision they decide on, I'll go with. And I need the money from this expedition too, so there's that.

{Isn't everyone expecting you to return with the codes too? You can't just show up empty handed now, right? Won't uh, something bad happen?}

Shit, I forgot about that... Well whatever. It's not like I haven't come up against hard decision with unknown variables before. Whatever happens, happens. So for now, let's head home, Luna.

I turned around and walked through the entryway, feeling the mocking gaze of the machine digging into my back as I left.