THE OUTSIDE was unexpectedly bright. The midday sun blazed overhead. I found myself in a large crater lying amid the ruins of a city. The structure I’d just escaped was stuck bolt upright at the center of the crater. It resembled an enormous cracked egg, half-buried in the ground. The thing looked alien and, how can I put it... out of place. It just didn’t belong here. It was black, webbed with the same light-blue veins which spread all around the “egg”, their pulsating threads reaching under the ground. A great many fragments of broken rocks, both big and small, floated in mid-air, surrounded with the dull light-blue glow.
The crumbling spires of city towers overgrown with greenery peeked from behind the crater’s edge.
I now realized that the group of people who’d discovered me had found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place. Those who’d escaped from inside the “egg” were now fighting a strange-looking creature which resembled a very long and very fast centipede: giant, predatory, with a great many eyes and legs. The men looked miniscule next to it; although they kept firing at point blank range, their weapons didn’t seem to deal any damage to the monstrous scolopendra. Its jointed body was safely protected by the grayish-blue layer of chitinous armor, allowing it to attack and dodge at incredible speed, curling and uncurling its lithe body. Its spiky black feet allowed it to slide effortlessly around its attackers. It grabbed one of them in full run with its sharp mandibles, completely ignoring the glitter of steel in the man’s hands, snapping him in two and sending the still-screaming man down its belly.
The frame containing the information about the creature was flashing crimson. It didn’t offer much though:
????
A-Morph
Type: unknown
???
Warning level: Red (Lethal)
The humans below stood no chance. Even the hectic firing couldn’t drown out their screams of agony as they were torn apart alive. Using its serrated legs and lithe spiky tail, the scolopendra made quick work of three more. It spat some kind of smoking venom which instantly ate through the fighters’ armor.
The three survivors closed their ranks and managed to scare the monster away with a barrage of fire, then hurried under its cover toward the crater’s charred edge, waving their hands at a black dot which had just appeared in the sky over the towers’ crumbling spires.
The dot rapidly grew in size, its insect-like buzzing noise rising to an angry rumble. A squat snub-nosed flying machine appeared over the crater’s edge.
Immediately its short wings began spitting bursts of tracer fire from behind the rimmed propellers. It threw the scolopendra back, extracting a furious hiss from it.
Two spiraling jets of smoke hit the curled-up monster, consuming it in the havoc of smoke, fire and rearing earth. Under the cover of the explosion, the three survivors grabbed at the lifelines thrown down from the ship and hurried to scramble up, disappearing from sight.
The heliplane soared upward, banking into a steep U-turn. You could see it was in a hurry to leave the scene but...
But no such luck. A giant shadow flitted across the sky, momentarily covering the entire crater. Then I could see what cast it: an enormous bird. Next to it, the heliplane appeared no bigger than a dove next to an eagle. It dove onto the plane, crumpling it in its talons, propeller and all.
With a crackling noise, the propeller blades flew everywhere, disintegrating. They must have grazed the bird though because it emitted a thunderous squawk, letting go of its prey. The heliplane careened out of control, hitting the skeletal remains of a skyscraper and disappearing in a cloud of dust behind the crater’s edge.
I heard an explosion. A pillar of black smoke billowed up to the sky. With a victorious squeak, the bird soared back up, once again covering me with its shadow.
My information support momentarily highlighted its outline in golden.
The Roc
Type: A unique stable subspecies of the A-Morph
????
Warning Level: Gold (Invincible)
Hissing, the scolopendra scarpered away, leaving a smoking trail of green slime in its wake. It was clearly afraid of this new enemy for whom it was little more than a tasty worm.
I returned to the battlefield to study the remaining bodies and their fragments.
There were no survivors. Most of the group had been ripped apart alive, their weird technogenic weapons and armor damaged beyond repair.
Dead Human Being
No energy source detected...
Integrity: 24%...
Dead Human Being
Evidence of modifications: myoelectric amplification
Weak energy source detected
Energy type: Qi
Integrity: 43%
Dead Human Being
Weak energy source detected
Energy type: Ra
Integrity: 96%
Would you like to initiate the reincarnation process?
The last fighter was a young man who’d only passed away a few minutes ago. His helmet was smashed, revealing a handsome face and short blond hair drenched in blood. Having analyzed the data, I “came to the conclusion” that he was the best option.
Reincarnation process initiated
Connecting to the Source...
Taking over the host’s bioenergetic channels...
Restoring the damaged functions...
Success! Incarnation complete!
Energy cost: 500 Azure
Current Azure count: 500/1000
Rubbing my head, I gingerly scrambled back to my feet and took a few steps. My new body was easy to control, its muscle memory and motor skills eagerly performing the required movements.
Immediately I sensed a huge change in myself. No more was I an emotionless creature devoid of a body. Although admittedly some part of the old me was still lurking inside me, I was now fully alive, capable of feeling and experiencing the whole range of emotions.
My self-preservation instinct kicked in. I had to escape. Even though the wounded scolopendra had slithered off, I had my doubts it was too far away. The giant bird was still circling the sky overhead. And within the terrible black “egg”, more people were awakening from suspended animation inside their sarcophagi, their bodies infected with the black liquid. I had no idea what it was but I could sense the mortal danger of staying nearby. The sooner I got out of here, the higher my chances of survival.
It didn’t take me long to make it to the crater’s edge. I climbed over a low bulwark which appeared vitrified by some old raging fire. Pieces of broken glass and all kinds of junk crunched underfoot.
The crater was surrounded by the ruins of nearby buildings. I dashed into a gap between them just in time. As I looked back, I glimpsed the quivering antennae of the curious scolopendra showing over the crater’s edge: it must have sensed my motion.
This was a city - or used to be, rather, whatever was left of it. The street in front of me was blocked with mangled carcasses of cars which heaped up on top of each other, rusty and misshapen, completely filling the space between the collapsed buildings. The houses appeared dead; people must have abandoned them a long time ago. The buildings’ lower stories were overgrown with moss and creepy vines; the wind howled in the black gaping holes where windows had once been.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
The tarmac underfoot was cracked and claimed by tall grass. A small tree grew right through one of the cars, lifting it over the road. How long ago had this city been abandoned? Whatever had happened here?
I had no idea where I was or what the hell was going on. As I walked, I struggled to remember who I was. What was my name? What was this place? How had I ended up here? I just couldn’t remember. My memory was an empty void filled with fragments of irrelevant details. My head was blank, completely blank. My last conscious memory was when I’d been released from the sarcophagus and floated, invisible, in mid-air in search for a suitable host.
That just felt wrong, as if I’d been stripped of something which meant the world to me. It just shouldn’t be happening!
Still, it was. Trying not to make noise, I ran along damp moss-covered walls. Where to? - No idea. It was simply my self-preservation instinct driving me away from the egg-shaped object in the crater and the predatory scolopendra which had just made quick work of a well-armed assault squad. I needed to put as much distance between me and that place as I possibly could and find some sort of shelter. Then I could sit down and try to work all this out.
Devastation was all around me. Darkened shop signs lying on the ground, display windows grinning with the few remaining shards of glass; thick cobwebs blocking dark gaping doorways. How much time does it take to turn city streets into makeshift forest glades? The omnipresent carpet of greenery entangled the burst pavement, reaching toward the higher stories of the ravaged skyscrapers in the plants’ attempts to get to the sun. Quite a few of the buildings gave me the impression that the damage done to them couldn’t be explained by time alone: they appeared to have been mangled by a squad of army heliplanes. How else would you explain the collapsed walls and entire floors caved in on top of each other? I had to vault my way over heaps of debris, squeezing between the upended rusty skeletons of vehicles.
A far-off hoarse crowing cut through the silence. A dark cloud of birds took to the wing from the crumbling framework of one of the highrises. Or were they birds? I couldn’t exactly make out the details of the great many black dots which started circling the ravaged skyscraper, but their movements were too fast and controlled for comfort. They seemed to be heading in my direction.
I strained my every sinew to keep going, searching for gaps in the maze of the rusty cars. A lot of them appeared crumpled or forced open like tin cans.
Finally, my advance was blocked by a deep fissure in the ground lined with reared-up tarmac. It crossed the entire street, reaching out for as far as the eye could see and cleaving right through one of the collapsed buildings. There was no way I could possibly find a way around it.
The birds’ sharp squeaking and the flapping of wings were drawing near. They did home in on me, and it didn’t bode well.
I had to take cover pronto. The buildings’ first stories were basically just big gaping holes, offering no shelter. I dashed into the nearest side lane blocked by a bus lying on its side. Behind it, I discovered a rusty fire escape. One of its steel platforms led to a surviving door. I jerked at the stairs to check their safety, then gingerly began to climb. The stairs sagged under my weight but held.
I opened the door. A dark corridor breathed damp and mold in my face, dimly illuminated by the meager light reaching through the cracks and gaps in the building’s collapsed framework. The walls were peeling; junk crunched underfoot.
I purposefully avoided turning into the first few corridors that crossed my way. I caught a glimpse of a gaping elevator shaft to my left - then found myself in an abandoned human dwelling.
The door must have been ripped out of its mangled frame a very long time ago. In the surrounding gloom, I made my way through pools of stagnant black water. The room was littered with heaps of crumbled plaster and unidentified rotten garbage. The walls were covered in mold and blue moss; clumps of tall translucent mushrooms quivered in the room’s corners.
The birds’ deafening clamor ripped through my eardrums like the screeching of as many circular saws. Their black winged outlines flashed past the gaping windows. I glimpsed them just in time to drop to the floor. It might have been my imagination but the birds appeared to be the size of a large dog. Some pigeons they had here!
The birds must have flown very close. I could see their shadows flitting across the floor; I could hear the loud flapping of their wings. By now, I had little doubt their interest in me was purely gastronomical. Could they get inside the building? I just hoped that their large wing span could prevent them from entering through the empty window frames.
Well, I shouldn’t have. One of the birds squeezed itself though the window and began darting around the room, screaming and rustling its wings. Its grayish-blue spindle-shaped body flashed past me, hitting the opposite wall, then immediately swung round toward me. The bird was up to my waist, its long beak and three-digit feet with impressive talons looking rather intimidating.
Young Ptar
A-Morph
Type: Gregarious
Warning level: Green (insignificant)
This was insignificant? For a moment, we just stared back at each other. Then the Ptar, or whatever his name was, went for me like a ton of bricks. I barely managed to dodge to one side. His hard feathers grazed my face; his talons screeched against the walls, leaving deep furrows in their wake.
Luckily, the bird’s size was working against him now as his wingspan didn’t let him turn round. He rammed the wall again and began to thrash about, realizing he was trapped.
Until now, I hadn’t even realized I had weapons on me. Two of them: a knife in a heap sheath and a handgun which used to belong to my body’s previous host and which he’d still clutched in his hands when I’d taken over. As I left the “egg”, I’d mechanically holstered it in what looked like a very ergonomic right-hand rigid case. The body’s well-honed motor skills and reflexes all functioned on a knee-jerk level, which was excellent news.
My fingers closed over the gun’s ribbed handle. It felt as natural and familiar as shaking an old friend’s hand. My thumb checked the safety catch while my index finger felt for the trigger. The gun’s balancing was unusual so I had to prop it with my left hand, supporting its massive thick barrel.
The shot had no recoil and was almost soundless. It threw the Ptar into a corner, raising clouds of feathers. Squeaking his protest, the monster tried to scramble toward me, his talons screeching against the floor.
I loosed off another round, then a third one, but the bird had no intention of stopping, desperate to get to me even though he was leaving a wide crimson trail in his wake.
It had taken me a good ten rounds to silence the die-hard avian. Finally, he produced one last heart-rendering screech and stopped moving. Dead as a dodo.
A pool of dark blood spread all around the body. Some bird that was! His long beak was open, revealing some truly impressive teeth; his knobbly three-digit feet were protected by gray scales. As I inspected him, I came to the conclusion that this so-called Ptar looked more like a pterodactyl than a regular bird. His feathers were as long as my forearm, so sharp you could actually scratch yourself on their edges; their stems hard and strong. If you sharpened one of those, you could probably use it as a dart.
The Ptar’s brethren were making a terrible racket outside, dashing to and fro somewhere very close. Then a thunderous cry drowned out their squawking like a lion’s growl drowns out the jackals’ yapping. A sound like that could only come out of a truly gigantic throat.
I scrambled to the safety of a nearby partition wall and half-sat, pressing my back to the cold slimy wall. The thunderous cry resounded again, closer this time. The floor jolted as if some giant had just brushed against the building in passing. Small debris showered past the window from above. Another jolt and a new scream were followed by the flapping of gigantic wings. The sounds and the vibration seemed to come from above as if some gigantic creature had just landed onto the building.
This just had to be the Roc which had smashed the heliplane like a child smashes a plastic toy. Against a monster like that, I had zero chances whatsoever; I couldn’t even conceive of anything powerful enough to hurt a behemoth like that. No wonder even the scolopendra had made itself scarce once this boy had arrived at the scene.
I had only one option: to lie low and wait. There was no way it could get inside, unless he took the building apart brick by laborious brick. Still, I had a funny feeling he wouldn’t even bother with petty prey like myself.
Let’s wait, then. I looked at the dead bird lying a mere couple of feet away from me. Once again, I received an augmented-reality message in a blue frame:
Dead Ptar
???
I squinted, focusing on the flashing triangular icons with question marks. Immediately, new prompt popped up:
Don’t forget to collect all the Azure and genetic material amassed by the A-Morph. To start the absorption process, touch the creature’s body.
Ah, so that’s how it worked, then. Mental commands, fair enough. Another snippet of old memory resurfaced: I must have known how to use this kind of interface in the past.
Obeying the instruction, I touched the dead bird’s stiff wing. A small ball of light-blue energy shot out right into my hand and got absorbed into my skin, leaving a pleasant tingling sensation.
A new icon appeared over the dead bird’s body:
You’ve absorbed 210 Azure
Total Azure count: 1000/1000
Critical quantity
Absorption aborted
Would you like to create a Neurosphere?
A ghostly green spark shaped as a figure of eight appeared in the blue sphere’s wake. It pricked my hand as it entered it. What the hell?
You’ve received a Ptar genome
Another hoarse croak came from above. Was it my imagination or did I detect disappointment in its sound? The building shuddered again; I heard the flapping of wings. Judging by a sudden gust of wind which raised a cloud of tiny stone fragments from the windowsills, the Roc was one hell of a monster. His smaller brethren had already made themselves scarce, scared away by the arrival of a bigger predator.
I spent several minutes listening intently but it looked like the coast was clear. The Roc had left; I couldn’t hear any new sounds. I could finally take a breather and try to figure out what the hell was going on here.
First things first: this wasn’t my body. The mysterious Incarnation protocol had had my identity transferred to the body of this young man who’d just been killed while fighting the mysterious A-Morph.
Only was it a transfer? Or a resurrection, really? I could feel my own pulse; my heart was beating, my body temperature seemed to be within the normal range for a human being.
Secondly. I’d emerged from one of the Black Sarcophagi: an extraterrestrial cryogenic capsule which must have fallen from the sky - or from outer space, rather, otherwise what else could have formed a crater of that size around it? Presumably, my own physical body still lay there, most likely infected by the unidentified black liquid. What was it, by the way? And how had the old me ended up there?
Thirdly, in my bodyless form I’d been invisible and impassive, with only one concern: I had to find a suitable host for my new incarnation.
Question: who the hell was I? Was I even human?
I had no answers to any of these questions. I couldn’t remember jack. My memory felt like a clean slate. Even though I’d eventually remembered certain words such as “outer space”, “interface”, “cryogenic capsule” or “handgun”, they had only come to me whenever the necessity arose and in any case, I had no idea how I knew them. What was my name? Who were my parents? How old was I? Which year was it now? How had I gotten here? Where the hell was I, anyway?
All I could remember was an echoing, crystal-clear void. Still, I had this gut feeling deep inside me telling me that I was alive and human. And judging by the fact that this world and all the objects in it looked eerily familiar, that’s probably where I used to live before.
Could my interface shed some light on it, maybe? I focused, trying to activate its main menu. Logically, if I already had all the little augmented-reality icons, prompts and descriptions, it stood to reason it should also have a control panel.
Which wasn’t long in coming.
Summoned by my mental command, a translucent rectangular screen shimmered to life before me. Wasn’t it what they called mnemonic control? Or was it neural control? Irrelevant, anyway.
A long horizontal bar glowed on top. It was marked Azure. Its icy-blue strip was calibrated into one thousand increments. Below it was a dainty figure of eight which resembled both the infinity sign and the DNA symbol made up of a multitude of tiny empty spheres.
Four icons glowed next to it:
Status
Abilities
Transformation
Information
The interface design was elegantly Spartan. It must have taken them a whole research institute of eggheads to polish it to this level of perfection.
So let’s start with the first one.