Waking up after what felt like forever, the first thing I noticed was my head and feet both touching the coffin. I must have grew a couple centimetres while I was asleep. Opening my eyes, my attention was immediately drawn by the strange coloured light near my coffin. It was not the soft orange glow of fire nor was it the piercing blue of a magic light. It was a sort of bright white light I had never seen before. Looking for the source I looked to my left, away from the coffin lid. There stood 3 figures shrouded by a white light coming from behind them. I couldn’t make out their appearances because of the light but by their smell and the scent of their blood it was a human woman no older than 40, a human male, around 55 and another human male, this one over 80. Why are there humans here?
“\{*~!*”€},{%!%'€&>£{*!€'€'£…£<{%!%'£'£…€<€{%!*!![']…|<|^¥^['¥§|}”
One of them spoke, the older man, I think. I can’t seem to understand the language they are speaking. Could they be new servants here to wake me up?
“€}~%!*'¥§€}\{~%!*!¥',§¥<€{\~~*'%§€<£}\^%!€}^€'%'€§}¥}*>=>^*'¥}”
This time the woman, looking very closely at my face while bending down.
“She's a real beauty, isn’t she? And so young too.”
“Look at the colour of her eyes. I’ve never seen an eye colour like it.”
I attempted to speak but my mouth and throat are so dry I can’t even make a sound. Sitting up slowly, I use my water magic to create some drinking water for myself. Such a simple but useful spell. The newcomers seem startled by the water. Maybe they haven’t seen magic before?
“>=}%<%{]=~^€§…|&|>=}~%~*'¥§¥<<£%a][¥\|€^§¥&£&$§~€^*<\>=>{*]*~^¥^¥}={%~,€}]==~\~^%^%{^¥'¥{¥>?^£~=!!¥^*”
The woman seems fascinated by the bubble of water I created. I’ll make another one for her.
“<=}%{~*^*'€§}<=}?“
She shouts in excitement. She looks funny.
“This is amazing! She's using some kind of force to extract moisture from the air and condensing it into drinkable water!”
“Is this one for me?”
She presses her lips against the bubble and drinks some of the water. I think she likes it. I should really be getting up now, father and mother are probably waiting by now.
Intending to get out of the coffin, Pandora gripped the side tightly. To her, and the trio’s surprise, her small delicate hand effortlessly crushed the stone to fine powder with no resistance.
Looking at her hand with stone powder stuck to her palm, Pandora shrugged.
“It seems I have grown stronger during my nap, too.”
“<\{]%~*!¥'§£$<£<€{~{\{~%~%!€'£'§$^%~£^\<\>>=<{“
Hearing her speak, seemingly to herself, while looking at her palm the 3 slowly backed away.
“Think she's complaining about dirtying her hands or something?”
“Don’t be silly Anton. Look at her face. She’s as surprised as we are. The coffins must be old and fragile after so long.”
“What are you blabbering about, girl. The coffins are made of the same stone as the pillar that was blocking the door! Look at the inside. The same as the bullet dent!”
“What kind of freakish strength is that?”
Carefully getting out of the coffin, Pandora stood with her bare toes tapping the floor. Lifting her arm like her uncle did when he was trying to show off, she bent her arm and poked the barely defined muscle. Feeling as if she poked a stone wall, she became very surprised.
“I seem to have become much, much stronger. This is strange. Could the blood in the pipes have something to do with it? Maybe it was really concentrated? Never mind, let’s get out of here first.”
“Just who, exactly, is this little girl? How can she possibly be so strong?”
“I don’t know, Ferdinand, but I don’t think I want to find out now that I think about it. I mean look at this place. Can the explanation be anything normal? No, it can’t. And anyway, just why is she here? All alone? There are clearly 2 more, large coffins. Most likely belonging to her parents. Where are they? Why are their coffins empty? These questions, I don’t want to find out the answer. The things in this room alone make me regret coming here and poking my nose into ancient secrets that should have been kept as secrets, never to see the light of day.”
“Calm down Anton. It’s not like she’s going to kill us now is she?”
“Your tempting fate with those words, old man. You know what happens when you tempt fate like that. Last time you did that we nearly died in a train crash! Have you not seen the crazy strength she has? She could take out the 6 of us in the blink of an eye! And look at the way she's looking at us, examining us. I see hunger in those creepy, glowing eyes. I tell you, she is bad news. I’m just not sure on what kind of scale that 'bad' is.”
Pandora quietly watched the 3 humans talk in their funny language which she could not understand.
The tall one sounds and smells scared. He also looks pretty tasty. The high class ones always have the best diets. Makes their blood taste real good.
“I wonder why dad and mum would send these 3 when they can’t even understand me. Maybe dad just hasn't got around to teaching me this language yet. Let’s see. Maybe they will understand some other language I know?”
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
As Pandora tried the different languages she knew, the 3 stared as the words she spoke got weirder and weirder...
“<{]*¥|~”
“{={~\|€~%^£”
“{\]%|!*”
“{=]|\|\~%^%^”
“]=]\||%?%”
Until.
“Hello?”
“What?!”
Felicia shouted, startled. The girl had spoken in the ancient language of the Dragons. Felicia’s family, having a long history and many great individuals, had at one point made contact and befriended one of the giant creatures. One of her ancestors helped a dragon escape his pursuers and in return the Dragon shares with the ancestor the secret of their language. The language of the Dragons was a very complicated one. Unlike what most would assume, it does not consist of growls and snarls. Instead it is comprised of many complicated sounds, some difficult to make with a humanoid mouth.
“What is it girl?”
“She...she speaks the Dragon language.”
“How is that possible? I thought only Dragons can speak in their language because it’s impossible for other races to produce the same sounds.”
“It’s not impossible. One of my ancestors, far down the line, was bestowed with the hereditary memories of how to speak in their language. Apparently, Dragons hatch already being able to speak thanks to the memories they get from the parents.”
“So, can you speak it?”
“Well, yes. The Dragons hereditary memories that were passed to my ancestor behaved in the same way as they would for a Dragon and since then all the members of the main branch family have been able to speak it.”
“That’s amazing. Anyway, what dis she say?”
“She said hello.”
“Really now. She must have been testing other languages she knows to see if we could understand any of them. Ask her for her name.”
“Ok.”
“Hello, my name is Felicia. What is your name?”
As Felicia replied in the Dragon language, Pandora beamed a smile.
Finally a language they understand.
“Hello Felicia, my name is Pandora. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is all mine.”
“May I ask if my father or mother sent you to get me?”
“Your parents? The coffins over there belong to them?”
“Yes this is the safe room my father had built in case of emergencies like this. But since your here and I’m awake, that means you woke me up to bring me back to the top, right?”
“Err...I’m not quite sure? Emergency? What emergency?”
“The battle must be over then? The danger passed?”
“There hasn’t been any battles or any danger aside the heat in nearly 100 thousand years. The last battle that took place here ended with a huge blast that covered half the continent in unbearable heat.”
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“Wait...you mean...it’s been more than a few days since I went to sleep? It wasn’t my parents who sent you to get me?”
“I apologise, but I do not know when you went to sleep. I can’t answer your question on how long you were asleep, but we were definitely not sent by anyone. We are archaeologists. We dig underground to find things from the past to learn about the things people used in the past.”
“The past... Time... Aahh! How many tubes are empty?! Quickly tell me! How many of the tubes hanging on the walls are empty?”
“What? Tubes? The glass ones? Well... All of them. They are all empty. We watched the last one finish just before you woke up.”
“What?! All of them?! All 5 million? It cant be. 95,890 years. It can’t be. No. An explosion thousands of years ago. Mother? No, it can’t be! It cant!”
Pandora screamed and diapered from their sight. All they felt was a slight gust of wind. A second later, a huge crashing sound drew their attention at their backs. There, behind them, in the distance, they could clearly see the door way. The pillar that was blocking it now lay in 2 pieces on either side, against the wall with a large amount of debris on the floor at the foot of the stairs.
“She’s incredibly fast.”
Anton spoke with a pale face and trembling lips.
“Never mind her speed. Her strength is on a whole other level.”
Ferdinand spoke as his legs suddenly felt weak.
Just then the 2 guards in military suits came running over.
“What was that noise?”
“And what happened to the pillar?”
“Quickly, let’s go!”
“We'll explain on the way up!”
The guards all carried their charge up the stairs in a hurry.
“We found a girl. She was asleep in the coffin with a machine feeding her nutrients while she slept.”
“Impossibly beautiful, insanely fast and monstrously strong. She may have been asleep for a very long time.”
“She may be from a race of people who went extinct long ago. She talked about some kind of danger and a battle.”
“We think she may be referring to the battle that happened right here, which ended in the huge explosion.”
“But that would make her nearly 100 thousand years ago wouldn't it?”
“Like I said, asleep for a very long time.”
“The reason she woke up seems to be that the machine just happened to run out of nutrients as we came in.”
As they reached the top of the stairs they noticed the girl standing in the dig site, looking around, looking lost.
“It was...right here. *sniff* Where did it go? Where did everything go? *sniff* Where did everyone go?*sniff*”
With tears in her eyes, little Pandora searched left and right, high and low, but there was no sign of the castle. Or the walls. Or the people.
[Time itself will answer my call! Time itself will show me the truth! Or time itself will bare my fury, my rage, my wrath!]
As she finished the chant, a huge red magic circle appeared in the sky. A red outline of the castell and the walls materialised in mid air and red silhouettes formed from the light cast by the circle. The scene of the alchemist and the battle played out. Right to the final moment of the explosion.
Pandora stared, wide eyed at the events recreated by her own magic in disbelief.
This can’t be happening. Why is this happening. What did they do to deserve it. What did we do to deserve it. What did I do to deserve this!
With a mental scream, a formless wave of pressure erupted form her tiny body. Her pupils contracted into slits. Her fangs elongated and her claws grew long and solid. At that moment everyone present heard a loud voice in their head.
“Despicable humans! You dare take my family! In exchange I will take your lives!”
The moment the words fell, so did the dead bodies of over half the digging crews. Pandora, with her tiny body and a speed too fast for the human eyes moved from one victim to the next, shredding the throats till only the spine held the head to the body. Seeing the gruesome scene, chunks of flesh flying around and dead bodies dropping like sacks of potatoes, the 3 guards in power suits sprang into action. Anton’s guard ran towards her, Ferdinand’s guard moved to one side and Felicia’s guard moved back. Pulling out a large calibre pistol, a rotary heavy machine gun and a rifle respectively, each prepared for battle. The suit's high speed processor and surveillance systems allowed them to track her movements even at her superhuman speed. Opening fire at the location predicted by the computer, Felicia’s guard watched his rifle round slamm into her shoulder. The impact of the large round while moving so quick caused her to miss the target of her leap.
Landing on the ground, well past her target, Pandora inspected the red mark on her pale shoulder.
The glowing blue one is troublesome. He shoots large, heavy projectiles that move really fast. They can knock me off course when I’m in mid air. Need to stick to the ground.
Seeing that lunging and diving at targets was no longer an option she dug her claws into the hard ground and took off in the direction of the one who shot her.
Faster than he could react, Pandora appeared in front or him, less than an arms length away. She inspected the strange looking armour and weapon before gripping the barrel of the rifle and pulling it effortlessly out of his hands. The rifle, longer than she was tall, began to take on a crimson colour before melting into a blood looking liquid, quickly absorbing into her palm. Taking the moment of inaction from her as a chance, the now disarmed guard pulled a shotgun out of his storage crystal and quickly fired a shot into her chest knocking her back and making her stumble on the soft, uneven ground.
Seeing the man she had just disarmed now had a new weapon in hands, she quickly closed in and snatched it too. Melting and absorbing the weapon, she looked in satisfaction at the empty handed foe. The hands did not stay empty for long, however, as he soon pulled out another weapon to replace his lost one. This cycle continued 17 times, until Ferdinand’s guard, who until now was looking for the enemy, noticed his fellow guard in trouble.
“So that’s where you disappeared to all of a sudden.”
He swung the heavy rotary machine gun in her direction and opened fire. Letting loose a literal wall of bullets, he gave her no chance to escape his barrage.
Feeling her body shake from the many impacts on her back, Pandora crouched, turned and took off in his direction.
The big glowing red one has something that shoots very fast. It’s like I’m being fired at by hundreds of soldiers one after the other.
As the 3 barrels chased each other, the bullets kept on spraying out in her direction. Even as she closed in on him, he stood his ground and never stopped shooting.
Eventually you'll be too close to dodge and I refuse to believe your eyes are as hard as your skin. One of these bullets will hit their mark eventually, and when it does it will all be over for you.
Using an arm to cover her face and relying on her smell and hearing she closed in on him and pounced on his gun. Gripping the red hot barrels with her hand, the gun gave off a horrible grinding noise and exploded in his hands. She had destroyed the inner workings of the gun by applying her vice like grip to the part that was never supposed to come into contact with anything while it was spinning.
He dropped the broken gun and watched it turn to blood coloured liquid before being absorbed into her hand. The soft, little white hand that showed no signs of having just touched a burning hot gun barrel. He looked at her blankly wondering if she would attack him, and for a second she looked like she was considering it, before a deafening boom rocked the area.
A huge, 40mm shell slammed into the back of her head sending her tumbling across the floor.
Feeling dizzy, and with swimming vision she watched the biggest of the 3 approach her and lift his leg to send a kick down on her back. She lifted an arm to meet the kick and stopped it with little effort. Closing her fingers around the metal, it squeaked and bent under the force of her grip. Yanking her arm towards her she relieved the large black and yellow suit of its leg.
Pandora used her blood power again and absorbed the power suit's leg, analysing its structure and purpose.
These are empty inside and have these things that slide inside to fill the empty space? Then these things turn on and force these to slide out and extend. This makes the knee part straighten out. Hmm, it’s kind of like a real leg, but made of metal. It makes them stronger? Able to lift more and work longer without getting tired. Interesting. I need more complete samples. The people i killed over there were also wearing these. I’ll go take those.
Shaking her head to clear the dizziness, she quickly scurried across the floor to the power suit wearing corpses. Going from one to the other, she quickly absorbed them all while being careful to avoid the large projectiles from the big, loud pipe.
“Don’t let her get away!”
“I don’t think she intends to escape. More like trying to take as much stuff as she can before it gets too badly damaged by the stray bullets from your heavy gun.”