Chapter 9 - Those Who are Left for the Time - part 1 - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG

The aircar was packed with technological equipment - so many sensors that it got slower than the airbike. As a result, the trip up the small mountain to the guard post took a few extra minutes. It was still possible to make out the remnants of a road going up the mountain with a very gentle incline. There were no signs of activity or power sources in the whole area. Cautiously, the group approached the guard post, almost at the top of the mountain, partially concealed by a lateral recess. Before entering the post, they could barely make out the valley among the silhouettes of mountains. Down there, everything remained utterly dark. Even using night vision and heat sensors, nothing could be seen, and the silence seemed to reign there for a long time.

"Well, if there's a city in that valley, it's completely empty," Liora concluded, attempting to pierce the darkness. She continued, "We can illuminate the city from here to obtain more information, but it's best to take things one step at a time. We start by exploring the post here, and then we may go down hidden. At least there are no signs of rats or anything else."

Petra took the lead towards the post; advancing toward the entrance, she whispered: "There's a lot of dust accumulating against the door. Let's try to open this. It looks like a purely mechanical door. It's going to take force." Each of them carried a headset with night vision and a small portable lighting device. But even the four of them lit up a minimal area together. It was impossible to see anything else in the surroundings, and the place was freezing, making the thermal clothes generated by the shelter cube turn on almost at maximum power. Despite the little light, they saw two smaller airbikes in a corner outside.

“Let me try to open it, Petra, just a moment… Careful,” Frank warned. He kicked some dust away and tried to move a sliding door. To his surprise, it wasn't even locked. Even opening it carefully, the door made a noise of old metal scraping. Frank stopped immediately. He looked at the others with surprise and whispered, "I haven't even used any force... It was already open!"

Liora took her fuel cube from the aircar. She immediately created a generous amount of lubricating fluid and poured it liberally through the small opening Frank had made. Then, the door opened almost silently. Petra carefully went in first.

On the other side of the door was a room that was part of a set of three small rectangular rooms. Silas had to bend to enter. The smell coming from inside was stale and metallic. The walls had lost almost all their paint, and the metal was quite deteriorated in some places, but the structure remained firm. From the first room, it was possible to see the other two because a straight, open corridor ran through the middle. There were three smaller containers arranged in a row. The connection between the rooms was worn, and it was possible to see some cracks in the ceiling, already giving a view inside the stone cave in the mountain.

"This place rusted from the inside out..." Liora said before entering. "From the smell I'm getting from here, it seems the survival support managed to keep the interior environment heated and humid for a long time before it was exhausted."

The group slowly entered the outpost while Silas stayed at the door to observe any reactions. After realizing that there was no movement inside, Liora increased the lighting, allowing everyone to see the environment. The first room had a breakfast table set with plates, cups, and jugs, everything filled with a lot of dust that had accumulated. One of the chairs was knocked over, and the other two were turned sideways as if the people had left in the middle of breakfast. The food was gone, but all the utensils were arranged as if they were being used. In the same room with the small breakfast table was a closet with armor and weapons, all with the symbol of the city. The symbol consisted of the silhouette of this mountain against a silver sky, with the name "Northern Valley" in the Nailia language written below in a handwritten style. Two sets of equipment were missing, but the rest were arranged to be equipped without wasting time.

"That name, Northern Valley, is mentioned in the entry terminal, but only in the last few years of records," Silas commented from the doorway. "I see deactivated terminals here. I'm going to grab some repair material and another energy cell from the car. I'll put all of this together, and we'll see what kind of records we have here." And he began to organize things in the aircar while the others continued to explore.

While Liora tried her luck with readings from the probing devices, Petra moved to the second room and said, "We've got a bunch of closets here..." Petra advanced while a beeping sound from Liora's probes could be heard. Petra continued, "They're closed. Frank, your turn!"

Before Frank could open it, Liora warned, "Just a minute, everyone. There's an energy reading, very faint, coming from the second room..." Liora went in to see where the energy reading was coming from. The room had a central corridor and a bunch of closed cabinets. One of them was twice the size of the others and stood out for its perfectly preserved doors and a kind of metallic padlock. Liora said, "Well, the energy reading is coming from inside this larger cabinet. From what I can see now, it's a Nailia design, and I think it's magical. Otherwise, I have no idea what it is..."

Despite the tension, Frank couldn't resist his curiosity. He stroked his beard. "Hmm... Looks like a padlock!" But he controlled himself, "Better try to find some keys for this. Interesting!" Petra gave Frank a sideways glance, "Pay attention, everyone. Let's stay focused here! I'm going to enter the last room."

Everyone was attentive to details. The place seemed well organized and slightly less dusty. Most of the dust formed small piles beneath the holes in the ceiling between the rooms. But other than that, it seemed like the people who lived there had used it yesterday.

The third room was a bedroom initially divided by interior walls made of some light material that had already been entirely degraded by time. What remained of the decomposed walls was a pile of debris on the floor, following the lines of what once was the walls. On the left side of the corridor was a double bed made up inside a larger and more comfortable partition, and on the right were two smaller partitions with two small beds each, very cramped. Inside the large room were various cabinets, mirrors, tables, and clothes that, at first glance, were similar to those of humans. But the height was a little taller than average. The proportions of the arms and legs were clearly longer. Some of these clothes were thrown into a basket in a corner as if they were waiting to be washed.

"They're typical of nailia culture. They have peculiar customs of forming homes integrated into their activity. There was a workplace, and a family must have lived here in the larger room. The other rooms seem temporary," Liora said, starting to take readings with the devices again, but this time, nothing seemed different.

Frank went directly to the big room and looked at a shelf with a large mirror covered in dust. There was a set of instruments that he judged to be for beauty and hygiene. He was able to identify a thick comb and a framed portrait of a couple who were clearly not human. Frank carefully brushed away the dust and showed the others, impressed, "They're not humans, but they look happy. Look at the vibrant colors in this photo here!"

The photo depicted two skinny figures with long arms, slim faces, and sharp and elongated ears and noses. They had enormous multicolored eyes with no apparent iris. Both figures were holding hands and posing for the photo. In the background, there were party decorations and a lot of food. They both wore full cloaks, highly decorated with metal and greenish stones. There were things written on the photo and the frame, which the nano-translators took some time to translate because of the dust. Frank concentrated and read aloud, "Long and sublime life to the Buklises!" He paused to read further down on the frame. "Hmm… Head of the Guard Akandra Buklise and Grand Maga Olanna Buklise, 15th day of the 2nd month of 1281!"

Petra looked at the photo with interest. She said, "The nailia have hair! But it looks like metal strands in this photo!"

Liora responded, "Some have metallic colors. They are quite strong strands and serve to protect their sensitive backs. It reminds me that I still keep nailia-style hair. It's very similar to human hair, just a little thicker and longer," she explained without resisting the urge to provide details.

"It seems like there is no immediate danger here. Let's explore this place better while Silas finishes putting the systems up," Petra concluded. With that, the three of them began to scan the rooms. Frank concentrated on the compartments in the closet and the double bed. He found two small cabinets with drawers next to the bed.

“Aha, here they are!” Frank said upon finding what appeared to be a bunch of keys covered in dust on top of one of the cabinets next to the bed. He continued: "This means two things. As I suspected, it looks like the Grand Maga disappeared without having time to leave the house normally," Frank said, shaking the keys. "And second, we'll soon find out the source of the energy in the room next door."

"Liora, but what could have made the people disappear?" Petra asked, less excited and more worried.

"Nothing that I know of. We'll have to see if Silas finds anything else..." Liora continued to search the room. After reviewing the readings, she said, "There's nothing else here. I think we've covered everything. Let's see what's inside the cabinet."

With that, Frank went towards the locked cabinet. He hesitated and asked, "Liora, do you think there's any protection or traps here?"

"Well, the nailia are very careful about their privacy, particularly when it comes to magic," Liora responded. "But given the situation we're in, it certainly justifies trying to find out what happened here. I don't think there will be any security contingency other than the keys because most magic would hardly go unnoticed by the sensors. However, if Olanna is alive, she certainly knows we're here."

Petra watched Silas come in and out with equipment and realized that it would still take a long time. Even though there was no immediate danger, the people's disappearance left her restless. She observed Frank and Liora trying to open the beautiful cabinet with the key while she imagined what they would find in the city just below. Frank took a while but finally figured out how to open it.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! But what is all this stuff here?” Frank exclaimed upon seeing that everything inside was in perfect condition and the open cabinet emanated a mix of flower and wood perfumes. The interior view was full of colors, metal, stones, and fabric. He could identify clothes folded on the top shelf, identical to the ones in the photo. In the middle part was a huge box, taking up the entire shelf, emanating its own light. It had a stone bottom and a paper top. When Frank looked at the box with his hands, writing appeared in an ethereal light that translated as "Vabala 1902 NM open." And on the line below, the name "Olanna Buklise of the Northern Valley." On the bottom of the cabinet, a bunch of letters written on paper were organized in files divided by years. Each file read "Restricted Access: Akandra Buklise."

Liora put her hands on her headset and said, "Silas, bring the particle scanner. We might have some answers, but I want to avoid having to open some files. They're on paper..." Silas mumbled loudly from the other room, "Paper! Seriously, they used that?" With that, Liora responded in a low voice, as she was visibly amazed by what was in front of her, speaking in a distant tone. "They used that when they didn't want to spread the information… I never thought I would see one of those in person! Wow!"

Even Petra relaxed her tension a little bit. She asked, "Liora, are you okay? What is this, anyway?" Frank was visibly excited.

"Excuse me, Petra, not everything here is urgent, but we should keep all of this and return it to the nailia as soon as possible; I mean, after we use it, probably," Liora replied, refreshing her oldest memories. "Of the things that I think are urgent, and I asked Silas to scan, is the bottom of the cabinet. There may be contingencies to prevent someone who doesn't have clearance from reading what's written there. I'm not noticing any protection, but they are restricted access documents..."

Frank turned to Liora with open palms and a questioning expression, but before he could speak, Liora continued, "In the middle, we have here an open Vabala. 1902 is the year it was made, and NM refers to the New Metropolis calendar. The Vabalas are a set of three magic schools: "Va," which is transport; "Ba," is creation; and "La," is communication. Nailia society subsidizes access to three magic schools for all nailia, but almost none of them own a Vabala like this one. And I've never seen any of them keep a Vabala open. I bet that the couple planned to have and raise children here in this city. And since they were far from a nailia community, they managed to get this set together. This Vabala is something very rare, and it can be incredibly useful to us because they are used to allow a mage alone to learn how to create and maintain entire cities. If they're a strong enough mage, it allows them to create small, private universes. It was this knowledge that Seneca probably used to create your Earth."

Frank didn't stop walking around the room, completely euphoric. Petra continued, "Are you telling me that this is a DIY manual for creating universes?"

"Precisely, Petra. But creating universes is something that's divided into three or four chapters of the Vabala. And in total, there are fifteen. So, there's much more to it than that, but we must take advantage of this opportunity with caution and wisdom."

"But how so? This opportunity will turn us into gods!" Frank exclaimed. "Let's enter a hole and only come out after we've read this Valhalla line by line!" he concluded. Liora was about to correct the name, but Silas spoke up, hearing it from the other room.

"So, Frank, I understand your excitement," Silas said as he entered the room carrying a pile of devices, "But let's take it easy. Magic takes much longer to learn than technology, and it draws much more attention. Look at my case; I'm the only one here who is, physically, almost the same as when I left Metropolis. If something from Gate breathes a little stronger next to me, I'm toast! Now imagine a specialist mage. They will spend a huge amount of time and effort learning everything about creating universes, and there won't be time for anything else. Do you understand? Obviously, it's fascinating, and you can be sure we will use it. Yes, but we have to do this strategically."

"Silas, Seneca has been around for a long time, and he can wait a bit longer. What do you think about us doing the following: We go into that aerolito and go back to Rocatrista immediately. There, you open an engineering business that will certainly be very useful to the city. Meanwhile, we use whatever time there is to learn magic. Then we return here well-prepared!" Frank requested, gesturing with his hands in a pleading voice.

Silas answered without delay while still arranging the devices. "Well… I think it's a good idea, Frank. I was thinking just about that. The Seneca plan was made based on the information we had before, and now we have better options. And it's not just me who decides what to do. What do you guys think, Liora, Petra?"

"There are a few things we still don't know. It bothers me that no information was available in Rocatrista's systems; I'm referring to the three aerolitos with passengers that came here after the people disappeared, whose data was only captured by the automatic records there at the entrance." Liora considered. "Let's do the following: We finish collecting the data here at the outpost, and then we'll see. This place makes me nervous..."

"Well, everyone, I was trying to avoid saying this, but I have a bad feeling about all of this. I just can't explain why..." Frank confided, "I would like to leave this place right now!"

"I think we all feel the same, Frank!" Petra confirmed. "Common sense tells me it's best to come back to this place when we understand what happened. It doesn't seem like the rats are responsible for the disappearance of the people from here. I also don't feel good about snooping around other people's things. Silas, how much time do we need?"

"To finish the reading, a little over an hour, if I and Liora feed a model with this data. As soon as the reading is done, we'll pack everything up and get out of here," Silas said. Everyone started to help accelerate the process. Frank took charge of taking the Vabala to the aircar along with some of the guard's weapons. Petra stood guard outside. In less than half an hour, everything was ready for them to leave. All that was left was to wait for the devices to finish reading the bottom part.

"Well... I asked my copy to help, and we can already share partial information about what's here," Liora said, realizing the aircar was ready. "The main things are guard reports from the city and something about the old politics of this region. We'll start with the most recent, dated 03/23/1911. That's the same day as the last manual record in the outpost near the containers. They usually did a weekly report, but on days 23 and 22, there were extraordinary and disturbing daily reports. Starting with day 23..." Liora paused and rested her forehead in her hand, quite hesitant. She spoke as if she were reading: "One, Two and One. Two and One. Two and One. Two and Turn. You must wait to make me happy. You must understand to make me happy. You must win to make me happy. Everything is perfect. Forever. And I am happy! Am I? I?" The report from day 23 is identical to the one from day 22, with only this phrase written and repeated ad nauseam in place of the others, without making any sense of paragraphs or divisions..."

Everyone, with a cold stare, was waiting in silence. Liora continued, "I thought maybe it was coded to hide information, but that wouldn't make sense. That was written in nailia in Akandra's handwriting. Day 22 is very different. At the beginning of the report, she explains that it will be an extraordinary report. Throughout that day, several people in the city say they saw a short figure, resembling a child, who was jumping as if they were playing hopscotch and then disappearing when someone approached. That night, there were reports of random people coming out on the street, speaking nonsense in an unknown language, and when confronted, they couldn't remember anything, not even why they were there. On that same day, Olanna stayed up late trying to understand something but found nothing..."

"Well, everyone," Liora continued, visibly worried. "Other than that, it doesn't seem like the older documents will have anything interesting for now. I went ahead and found the arrival and departure dates of Seneca in this city. He stayed here from 1803 to 1809, and then he left for the North alone. But I think that can wait. What do you think about getting out of here immediately?"

"You don't have to say it twice!" Frank rushed. In less than a minute, they interrupted the reading process, which was almost finished, and put all the remaining equipment back in the car. They started the engines and descended the mountain back to the aerolito.

After 15 minutes of descending the mountain, they realized something was entirely wrong. They were going full-speed downhill, but the mountain didn't seem to end. Liora and Silas turned on several probes, but they returned errors or nothing unusual. "Okay, we're not going anywhere..." Silas said, stopping the aircar. They realized they were just a few meters from the entrance to the guard outpost.

"Look! Right there!" Petra shouted, noticing something on the road. Everyone watched in bewilderment as a copy of their aircar, with them inside, moved away at high speed and continued down the road. After a few seconds, the image slowly faded until it completely disappeared.

"There are some powers that I think could do something similar to this, but nothing on this scale. It breaks the rules. And I can't detect anything on the sensors..." Liora said.

"This looks like some kind of spatial distortion. Let's put the airbike on the automatic drive and test it to try to find an alternative route," Silas concluded. The others nodded, pondering. Silas prepared the airbike to travel autonomously and sent it off the road. After a while, it appeared behind them out of nowhere, a little higher up on the mountain, while a copy of the airbike seemed to continue down the path until it disappeared. Silas said, "The airbike stopped receiving signals from down there as soon as it appeared up here. I don't know what the image we see of it going down is because I immediately disconnected the airbike here, but the copy continued independently. I also changed the route slightly from our previous course, and the result was the same. We can continue testing here to find a gap or try another approach..."

"Guys, maybe the text from day 23 gives us a clue. I'm chewing over the words but without much success. Should we stop and wait for something?" Petra asked.

"No, no!" Liora responded, "I think it's the opposite. The repeated phrase has a mix of verb tenses and voices. The sentences in the middle of the text that start with 'you must' have a mode of the nailia language different from the other parts. They are orders given by someone, and maybe I don't want to let whoever that is be happy. I suggest we act immediately."

"If we can't waste time, we need to find more information somehow. The people who came here after everyone else disappeared, if there are no records of them, it’s possible they ignored the guard outpost and went directly to the valley..." Frank commented, not very convinced that he should suggest going down to the valley on the other side.

"I don’t know. No one returned, and the problems here haven’t been solved. If we do the same thing as them, we could have the same fate," Petra said. "Maybe go around the valley in another direction..."

"The three groups that came here all did so very close to the date when everyone disappeared. Many of the city's sensors likely recorded what happened to them. If we go down into the valley, we'll have to decide this now to have time to check the city data," Silas said.

"It’s a risk… Let's try!" Liora said without much certainty. Petra was thinking while Frank was still looking in the direction of the containers and the spiral, trying to think of a way to go back.

“Okay, we'll go directly to the aircar. When we reach the city, Silas, go straight to any terminals you find while we three explore the place, always keeping a close distance between us. If there’s any sign of problems, we’ll be able to react in an organized manner. Liora, look at the partial material you took from the guard and try to build a map of the city along the way. Try to find points of interest and locations where the terminals are. We'll try to organize a search strategy in the few minutes we have until we reach the valley!" Petra tried to organize the actions as best she could.

With that, the group moved forward in the aircar at full speed. They realized that the distortion didn’t prevent them from continuing towards the valley. Silas, reaching the edge of the mountain, asked, "Guys, it seems impossible to be discreet now. Can I turn our lights to the maximum and activate the sensors from up here? We'll still need about ten minutes to reach the center of the valley. What do you think?"

"Hmm... It seems like we've fallen into a trap. Silas, you can move with your hand beams, right? Wait until a terminal that Liora has mapped is within your flight range. Then turn on all the lights we have and go to the terminal. If anything gets bothered by the lights, it will come after us and not you!" Petra said.

And so they continued. When the car was already at the entrance of the city, Silas jumped out of the car and flew towards a large warehouse. At the same time, the city was lit up by the lights of the vehicles and the devices. They could see several dozen streets in the city and small houses. There was space for trees and abandoned gardens, but no plants seemed to have survived over time. Silas said over the communicator, "In a few minutes, I'm going to turn on the city's power to access the terminals. I'll also try to connect an energy cell to a light and heat tower here."

"Okay, Silas, we haven’t found anything yet, just the empty city. The visual sensors can see a big dark circle drawn on the ground, right in the middle of a garden square in front of a big building. Otherwise, there are only closed buildings. We’re going there," said Liora.

Silas first turned on the city's power source. A small portion of the devices started working again, and he connected to the public camera databases. Silas fed his visual AI models at the same time as he looked at specific recordings until he spoke through the comlink, shocked by what he found.

"It seems Liora was right about not waiting. Even though I still haven't found any records of strange entities as described in the guard logs, on day 23, people lost their sanity; they bore a panicked expression, and they didn´t speak anything to each other. They just left, walking, without taking anything, never to return. And the same thing happened to the first two groups that came here shortly after. However, in the third group, one of the people was quick and managed to get to the north. That same person wore a cloak with a symbol that I recognized. He was an archmage from Metropolis. He entered and left the central square without any problems, and he seems to have repeated this route many times for more than a year, as I can see…" Silas said just before the others reached the center of the city.

"So, let's hurry up. Let's head north following the archmage's footsteps." Petra said through the communicator.

"Okay, in five minutes, I’ll be there. I’m going to leave an energy cell here and also some remote connectors to transfer all the data. I will connect both the records and some of the cameras that are still active to our system. You have a few minutes to see if you can find anything there in the center." The sound of Silas loading things and muttering can still be heard through the comlink, in a rush to get everything ready.

Petra and Frank entered the dark circle area without ceremony and investigated what was once a city square. Liora stayed on the edge, analyzing the ground, and warned with concern, “I don’t see any sign of energy. But this black material forming a circle is organic - nailia blood and frozen remains. If there’s nothing there, we’d better leave."

When Frank heard Liora, he hesitated, "Petra! Let’s get out of here!"

"Yes, Frank, I noticed something right there in front of us," Petra said, checking if Silas had the channel open. "Silas, at the edge of that circle, there’s a trail of the same material as if something was dragged, and it’s heading north. Can you confirm if that’s the direction the archmage traveled?"

After a few moments of silence, Silas answered. "That's the direction he passed through almost every day. But there were no tracks at that time. There's no data on when he stopped coming or of anything on the ground. Some of the city sensors stopped working before this circle or the tracks appeared."

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Petra found footprints near where the trail to the north began. They seemed to be from a small human but with large nail marks on the ground, also pointing north, and a partially buried translucent red pebble in the dust. After a few seconds, Petra bent down and picked up the stone.

Frank looked at Petra incredulously. She said over the communicator, “Silas, I found two footprints and a red stone on the ground right in front of them. I took the stone, and nothing happened, so I'll take it for Liora to investigate. We're going to follow this trail north, right?”

Liora approached the two of them, avoiding entering the circle. When they all met at the point where the line to the north cut the circle, she observed the stone and said, "There's something strange about it. It's not magic, and it doesn't emanate any kind of energy, but it is a monolith."

"Any idea if I should leave this here or take it? The place where it was seemed important to me..." Petra asked.

"I wouldn't keep it in any other situation. But I have no idea what to do..." Liora concluded.

"We better take this stone!" Silas warned, reaching them while flying with his energy beam. "This is something the archmage carried with him."

Everyone rushed to get into the aircar and departed immediately, following the straight path marked on the ground by a dark line. Due to the tension of the moment, they barely had time to notice the abandoned city around them. The trail to the north ended at a small tent in the middle of an avenue. This shelter wasn't part of the city.

"Well, everyone, this is the place where the archmage lived. I don't know what happened to them or if they stayed in the city longer," Silas said. "The last visual records I have show nothing beyond this mage walking around, back and forth, with great tranquility. They seemed to be exploring this region until the day these cameras ran out of power..."

Everyone entered the small tent, nailia-sized. Silas remained at the doorway, observing. Frank announced himself upon entering, "We're coming in. We're friends!" But there was no response. The place was tiny and only had a chair and a table with some things scattered on top. Silas noticed some circular holes in the canvas that served as the tent door.

"Interesting. I'm seeing a recording cube right next to it. I think the mage sent audio-visual recordings to somewhere from this cube. It’s an old Metropolis model for private use. It won’t have much on it now, but we can check the cache," Silas advised.

“Of course, let's see what the last record is," Liora said, picking up the cube and connecting it to everyone's communicators. She realized that on the table, there was only another shelter cube and nothing else. After activating the cube, an audio-visual recording of a nailia with multicolored eyes that literally emanated light appeared. There was an aura of energy around his body, and beams traveled across his cloak, emitting a constant static charge noise without apparent reason. He was far less discreet than Ramirez. The figure spoke in a deep and powerful voice, utterly unexpected given his slender figure.

“Charri Dukliasse, Day 976, Metropolis Bureau of Special Investigations, Mission Code 45086. Today, I pierced the target with moderately powered stone pillars. A little more force and I could have easily killed her. Like the other times, she doesn't seem to have gotten any more resistant. I feel sorry for that creature. She can't get out of her confinement, no matter how hard she tries, and I’m starting to get bored. She needs the shard, and she doesn't seem to realize it. And even if she had, if it weren't for my provocations, she wouldn’t even think about getting out." Charri stood up and placed the red stone Petra was now holding on the table, rotating it as if making a visual record. He continued, “The target is not getting any stronger over time. But she seems to react and even learn things related to what’s happening. When I left her alone a short while ago, after attacking her with the stone pillars, she curled up and began to build two little stone men. Anyway…” The mage turned his back to the camera and sat back down in his chair. He continued recording, "Three more weeks and I'm out of this end of the world. Before this place drives me crazy, I need to speak with Director Mose between today and tomorrow. After I finish sending the data, I will shut down for today…"

But before the archmage could realize or react, four stone pillars invaded his tent, piercing the canvas entrance without any resistance. A kind of protective energy aura deflected the first three. The last pillar penetrated and hit the archmage in the head, opening a hole in his skull and knocking him to the ground, dead. Two flying stone golems with sharp and retractable arms entered the tent. They transformed the stone spikes into arms. One of them picked up the red stone, and the other delivered consecutive blows to the fallen mage's body. In moments, they dragged Charri's body out of his tent by the legs, creating a trail of blood all the way to the center of the city. After the file finished sending to Metropolis, the cube stopped transmitting.

Everyone agreed that the right thing to do was to disappear from there immediately. All of them got out of the tent and saw, in the distance, down there in the square, in the exact spot where the footprints were, a figure almost like a human girl. Liora and Petra clearly noticed her completely red eyes and pale, injured skin. She was wearing dirty, torn cloaks. She raised her arms, and two stone golems began to emerge from the ground, slowly awakening to kill again.

“Silas! Silas!” Everyone shouted, already heading toward their vehicles, noticing he was frozen, looking at the figure in the distance. There was no answer. The ebex was paralyzed. “Frank, get Silas inside the car. Let’s get out of here!” Liora said. And with that, they all crammed into the aircar and left the city towards the north. While accelerating the vehicle, Liora asked, “Silas, what’s wrong with you?” She looked back and realized they’d soon have the company of flying golems.

“It’s her, Liora. She’s in my nightmares…” Silas answered, still in shock.

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Name: Silas "Archon" Cade Species: Ebex XP: 23+1 / 3 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Energy Magnitude 4 Super-Resistance (ebex) Magnitude 1 Super-Technique Magnitude 6 Unknowledge (ebex) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology: Architect Magnitude 8 Natural Combined Armor (ebex) - Know it all (party) - Skills Traditional Dancing (Dex) +2 Mathematics (Int) +4 Computer Engineering (Tech) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 9167 Equipment Superior safety clothes (AC 3) Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry), resized Silas´ Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) Other 3 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Flight surveillance drones (1x, normal tech) Airbike, speed +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech) Aircar, perception +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech)

Name: Liora “Stardust” Gorgath Species: Oioioi XP: 22+1 / 3 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Energy Magnitude 1 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 17 Shardify (oioioi) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology Network (oioioi) - Structural (oioioi) - Know it all (party) - Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Informatics (Wis) +3 Streetwise (Cha) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 8612 Equipment Double-trouble (5), ranged, hit: Dex, 2TP\turn, prototype (quirk: +3 hit when shooting twice a turn) Other Secure private network nano-connector Mk1: enables connection with Mag1 safety 2 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (fuel cube, shelter cube)

Name: Petra "Warden" Somerson Species: Human XP: 21+1 / 3 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 4 Super-Strength Magnitude 1 Super-Resistance Magnitude 11 Super-Wisdom Magnitude 2 Super-Constitution Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Res) +4 Shooting (Dex) +4 Military Discipline (Mor) +4 Tang Soo Do (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5281 Equipment Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn Sci-lab jacket (AC 3), regen, prototype (quirk: AC 2 to magical defense) Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry) Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)

Name: Frank "Firebreaker" Summers Species: Human XP: 21+1/ 3 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 2 Super-Willpower Magnitude 1 Super-Strength Magnitude 9 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 5 Super-Intelligence Magnitude 1 Super-Constitution Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Bar Politics (Int) +4 Power Drinking (Res) +4 Drunken Fighting (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) - - Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5001 Equipment Dual-ray trigger happy riffle (5), ranged, hit: Dex, 2TP\turn Ebexian Flexoclava (d12), melee, hit:Dex Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Vabala, complete, open Northern Valley Shielded Bracers (1 parry) 2x Northern Valley Guard Armor (AC 2) 4x Northern Valley Stun Rifle (2), hit: Dex, dam: Dex, ranged, non-lethal option, unlimited ammo 4x

Superior Technology projects People on development Silas 8 research/day People on prototyping Silas 14 research/day People on production Silas, Liora (1 copy) 15 research/day Blueprints Flexoclava Foundation melee weapon + 1x internal energy generator 20 / 20 Research Sci-lab jacket Foundation main protector + regeneration 20 / 20 Research Dual-ray trigger happy riffle Foundation ranged weapon + energy(2) 30 / 30 Research Prototype Silas´ Flexoclava Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) 20 / 20 Research Sci-lab jacket of disbelief AC:3, regenerate (quirk: AC:2 for magical defense) 20 / 20 Research Double-trouble Damage: 5, ranged, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 2TP\turn (quirk: +3 hit when shooting twice a turn) 30 / 30 Research Production Flexoclava (complete: 2x) Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn 20 / 40 Research Dual-ray trigger happy riffle (complete: 1x) Damage: 5, ranged, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 2TP\turn 30 / 30 Research

The Unforgettables Assembly (Milestones 2/1) Maneuver: 9+4 (condition: Firebreaker on vanguard) Perception: 0+3 (condition: Stardust on perception range) Tactical Insight: 1+4 (condition: Firebreaker on perception range) Vanguard: Firebreaker, Warden Ranged: Stardust Artillery: Archon Combat Totals Char-action life aural hit dam def mdef dodge TP cost extra Warden 40 / 40 33 4 0+4 regen 1/t War - melee 1+4 1(d12) War - parry 11+4 11(d12) X-1 X hit/t Firebreaker 20 / 20 WP 1/1 0 0 5+4 regen 1/t Fir - melee 5+4 9(d12) X-1 X hit/t Fir - ranged 5+4 25 X-2 X hit/t Stardust 10 / 10 TP 1/1 0 0 17+4 Stardust (self) +10X X reaction Star - ranged 17+4 85 X-2 X hit/t Star - ranged TF2 7+7 85 X-2 X hit/t Star - Blast (rng) 17+4 X(d6) X push Archon 10 / 10 TP 4/4 5 0 0+2 Arch - melee 0+5 1 X-1 X hit/t Arch - parry 1+7 1(d12) X-1 X hit/t Arch - Blast(art) 6+4 X(d6) X push Arch - Nova(mle) 6+4 2X X all targets