The room was expansive and large, the lights were out, and several glass showcases filled the room. A single man was staring at a large painting plastered on the wall, it was an odd painting of a sun, burning away the land, and soil, and the people in it were terrified as they burned. The man in the long black coat gently touched the words written in the lower corner of the painting, while slightly muttering to himself.
After a moment of silence, the picture distorted, as if caving in on itself, the large condensed ball that was once the painting rolled on the floor, and a large entrance was revealed. A small static buzz could be heard, and a voice belonging to a young woman spoke.
“Professor, please hurry up.”
Before he could respond, gunshots were fired, and explosions occurred from the receiver, eventually the communication was disconnected. The man quickly jumped into the entrance, and walked down the stairs. The spiral staircase went on endlessly until a large underground chamber came into sight, the dry air slowly became cool, and q gentle glow greeted him.
Inside a giant glass tube, floating in a green gel, was a seed, that gave off a strange green glow.
The man whispered, “the rudraksha seed, the last legacy of the late Sene Byon.” As the man reached out to to touch the glass, a small blast knocked his left hand backwards.
The man turned around, his short, and messy black hair that needed a comb, his brown eye seemed calm, and a lazy grin hung on his face, he looked to be around his early twenties.
There standing in the entrance were a group armed men, some had mechanical limbs, and others wore something similar to a crisis suit, with electronic sparks coursing around the surface of the suits. One of the men stepped forward, and lighted a small cigar.
“Saia, you're really annoying, you know that?”
“Ahah, you're probably right.”
After blowing out a single puff he threw the cigar away.
“Where did you take the other legacies?”
“I gave them to a friend.”
“Can you tell me where that friend is?”
“Sorry.”
“Yea, you will be, take him down.”
Saia's right eye gave off a small red mechanical glow, he just stood their with a lazy smile on his face, staring at the armed men. As one of the men started to pull the trigger a large scream escaped his lips, as red liquid poured down his chest, and he fell to the floor.
Flashes of metallic silver, and red liquid splashed out in unison, as arms were cut off, heads flew, and mechanical armors were shredded. Gunfire rang out, and large screams could be heard, as sparks of silver, danced around the spray of blood.
In less than two seconds, all the men lay dead in the pool of their own blood, peices of broken metal, and electricity remained on the stair case. A single woman reappeared walking past the pile of dead men leaving red prints from her black shoes. She wore a formal black suit, and a single blood red tie, her face was covered with a thin white mask, and her silver hair was tied in a ponytail.
In her hand was a thin sword, that had sparks of electricity dancing on the blade.
“Sorry it took me awhile.”
“No, you were just on time.”
Saia lightly tapped on the glass tube, “with this, my debt to him is over.”
“You better hurry then, it seems a gate is forming in this city, and the military will make a move soon.”
Saia thrust his left hand smashing the glass, and scooped up the floating seed, before putting it into a small container. The woman walked back up the stairways, and Saia followed, screams, shouts, and gun fire echoed loudly above, as the night was painted a deep red.
The night sky was black, and a purple, violet light shone on the mega city filled with neon lights, and towering skyscrapers that filled the city to the brim. Two people could be seen walking out of a large building, surrounded by thick walls, and armed guards, with some robotic humanoids mixed in.
The woman slowly disappeared from view, and a massacre began. Farther away in the distance of the mega city, the air distorted, and a giant black rift started to from, green muscular creatures started to pour out, they were armed with primitive weapons.
A loud groan echoed for several kilometers, as more dangerous, and weird things started to manifest from the ever enlarging rift. Eventually a loud siren rang, and a single helicopter flew around the city, broadcasting a message.
“Raid!”
Sirens all across the city rang out, people started to flood to the streets, and armed soldiers slowly began to roll into town with tanks, soldiers, and military grade assault robots. Artillery shells screamed through the air as they landed on a horde of shadows in the distance, air planes flew across the skies to meet the rift, that was now the size of a mountain.
Screams, and shouts enveloped the city, no matter how many explosions occurred, the incoming tide of shadows continued onward, pressing closer to the city.
The blaring sirens, and people rushing to the shelters was a telltale sign to Saia as he sat in a truck driven by a blonde haired man with handsome features, in a slim fitting military suit, with several mechanical sounds coming from the metal parts of the suit. He was already on a broken highway driving away from the city before the incoming panic arose, three hovercrafts were chasing the wheeled jeep, letting lose a flurry of high caliber ammo, that were immediately burned away, or self detonated before even coming close, by a woman standing on the roof of the jeep. For some reason the bumpy ride should have thrown her off, but she stood on the roof easily.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
In the distance on top of a building around 3000m away lay a single person tapping on a high tech sniper rifle neatly perched on the roof of an building still inside the city, a small cable attached itself to the figure.
The person in a mechanical suit was blending into the scenery, the face was covered with a small helmet, with three red protruding scopes attached to it. In that helmet, a soft voice muttered.
“Temperature mild, compensating for wind speed... Acceptable.... Target around 170km per hour, wind direction... 90 degrees.”
After that complete silence followed, a second later, a powerful burst of air exploded, and the rifle shook, a single hovercraft exploded, veered of course and slammed into another one.
“.... One more to go.”
After one more shot, another explosion occurred in the far distance. The lone figure ignored the scene and stared at the waves of people moving away, and large artillery shell exploding in the distance. Military tanks parked all across the city, and started to open fire at the sea of green skinned orcs. Snipers hidden in buildings, and soldier began closing off intersections and forming defensive lines with vehicles.
The streets were blazing with gunfire, and loud noises. She watched as a strange formation formed in the sky, letting lose a barrage of electricity accurately destroying a group of soldiers, she saw fireballs blasting away defensive positions, and orcs that dove into hapless human soldiers.
In one intersection, a robotic soldier skewered an orc with it's bladed limbs, before smashing the corpse into another. It managed to kill a few more, before it was eventually torn apart by crude bladed weapons that had a strange glow to it.
A small whistle escaped her lips as she stared at the scene of carnage.
“A military grade blade stalker being destroyed by six orcs, one is worth over 100,000 credits, but orcs are just breeding machines similar to rats.”
In the distance something that size of a mountain emerged, it had the face of a beasts skull with fiery eyes, and leathery wings that seemed to emit a black light. With a single wave of it's arms, three fighter jets were carved open.
Eventually a chain of explosions in the sky wiped out three fighter squadrons, the tide of green overran the defenders, and the wreckage of military vehicles littered the city, sending numerous plumes of smoke into the sky. Black creatures started to appear, chasing the fighter jets, and swooping past the orcs, and picking out the people hiding, and fleeing.
Without bothering to pack up the rife she quickly began to move to the edge of the roof, the rifle slowly began to disintegrate, the particles followed her, and dissipated into her metal knapsack.
As she was about to leave, a single gun formed in her left hand, and she opened fire, the resulting blast knocked something resembling a giant bat unto the floor next to her. She didn't wait to check if it was dead, and merely jumped off the high rise.
This was the year 2660, after various global cataclysms, some man made, some not, the world was reduced to a barren shell. The population that once numbered billions was now reduced to several hundred million.
Those who survived the downfall of nations, formed their own empires, some through many years of blood and conflict, others through mutual protection. These isolated empires are now scattered across the world.
When civilization was rebuilding itself another tragedy hit, a mysterious continent appeared flying above the largest ocean. Border empires that discovered it tried to explore the continent, but would somehow be relocated somewhere else when they came close enough. Absolutely nothing could physically interact with it.
Along with that continent came the rifts, strange pathways varying from the size of a dog, to the size of a city appeared randomly throughout the world, and from it, strange creatures of fantasy invaded.
Small villages were sacked, and the people were either eaten, killed or kidnapped. Some empires fell, while others still resisted. When they spawn, how long, and why are unknown, it just became a part of living in this world.
Despite all of this, how can technology reach this current level?
The reason is because of hidden military labs all across the globe that survived the cataclysm that shook the world. These labs were treasure troves of data and knowledge, those empires that obtained these labs have been able to maintain, and advance technology.
Due to the arms race from guarding their own technology, the technology levels are disparate world wide.
Who, and for what reason these labs were created remains unknown to most people, except for a certain few who are scattered in the world.
One of those is a man named Saia Peregrinus.
Saia was currently sitting in an abandoned warehouse in the outskirts of a ruined city, he was holding a small device scanning the seed on a desk.
“The genetic structure is too strange, nothing I have seen before, there are too many unknown elements to it that are unrecognizable, and also, what a complex cell structure.”
Saia had been staring at the seed, and analyzing it for over two hours, after a good long conversation with himself he placed the seed back in the capsule, and stared at a blond man walking into the warehouse.
“So Leon, how is it?”
A small sigh came from Leon as he stood in front of Saia.
“They lost our trail, seems like the triad is desperately looking for clues, but the military, and orcs made everything chaotic.”
“...How's the city?”
“About a quarter of it is in rubble.”
“I see.”
Saia sighed, as he dug in his long black coat to dig out a book, his right eye glowed a deep red so he could read the pages in the dark warehouse.
Leon stood still staring at Saia for a long time before speaking.
“Professor... I…...”
Saia didn't bother to look up, instead he turned a page.
“Is it a woman?”
“How did you...”
“No, it's plainly obvious to anyone but you.”
A troubled expression appeared on Leon's handsome face, Saia turned a page before continuing.
“Ten times. Do you know what that number represents?”
“Eh.. Um..”
“It's the number of times you were tricked by a woman, I share some blame for not teaching you properly when you were young, but you are an adult now, so your mistakes are your own.”
“But she....”
Before Leon could continue, Saia interrupted, “you helped a prostitute rob a powerful crime syndicate, you tried to help a woman belonging to the southern tyrant, you made enemies with the Cyfang mercenaries over a bar fight because of a girl, you got captured by the Saron Empire because of a female agent...... Should I go on?”
Leon remained quiet as Saia continued to turn the page of his book.
“Anyways be careful.”
“Huh?”
“What? You thought I would object? Do what you see fit, just remember to bear the consequences of your actions.”
A bright smile appeared on his face, and his blue eyes shined with enthusiasm, as he quickly disappeared from view.
“Is that okay?”
A small slim shadow could be seen sitting on the roof, where a large hole was opened.
“Well everyone has thier own desires, who am I to restrain him? Especially if it's you guys.”
“No, I mean he took the jeep.”
“Ah.”
As Saia walked out, the jeep was long gone, as he stared into the sky he saw a massive shadow flying in the clouds, creating a deeper shadow on the land.
“What a sight.”
Ciel who was lying on the rooftop stared at the shadow with her visual scopes, and lost interest a few seconds later. To her if you've seen one, you've seen them all.
Saia was already walking back into the warehouse, and started to read his book again.
Ciel who was bored asked Saia, “what are you reading?”
“A book.”
“Hmm?
“A book about gardening.”
"Boring."