----

"Wake up, exhibitionist." I didn't even need to open my eyes to know it's Brad talking.

"Yeah, I'm waking up." I said and opened my eyes and saw that the sun was rising, shining into the valley, hoisted by the mountain peaks and the tower.

I felt fresh air blow against my bare body. "Give me a minute and I'll get my clothes."

"Alright, I also don't like talking with someone when their dick is flapping around in the morning air."

I rolled my eyes at him as I saw him grinning at me.

"You know when I tried letting you both reconcile. I didn't mean it this way."

"Well, I myself don't know how it happened."

"My wife used to say that the moments of most hatred are the ones at which the purest love is born."

"Was she right?"

"Yeah, I believe so." He said.

I wore my clothes and looked at him.

"So, what now?" I asked.

"I don't know I just didn't want for someone to go out and see your naked self."

"Just because of this small thing you went and woke me up?" I looked at him and saw him nod. That was all I needed to start putting my clothes down.

"Okay, okay if you want to, we can go and see what the Prophesized Ones are up to." He said as he threw me a ghillie suit, which I took and wore.

We tracked all the way up the mountainside. From there we could see the spells being thrown. Two distinct groups locked in a fierce exchange of firepower.

"Who's fighting?" I asked.

"The Prophesized Ones against the mercenaries from the High Castle."

"They haven't found out it was us who killed their people?"

"It seems so. They've pointed the blame to the High Castle."

Something doesn't add up.

"Don't they have something to check who did it?"

"Who knows? Besides these are political things, they'll tear each other up for anything. They just need a spark."

"Yeah, yeah." Something else took my gaze away. It was a soldier or rather a commander overlooking the battle. Not caring about the spells flying around.

He just stood there and as he did so I felt as if his vision was landing on me pinning me down.

"I think we should go now."

“Alright, as you want. We were here long enough anyway.”

I didn't humour him and continued walking. An awful feeling was tearing at me, yet it was impossible he saw us.

"You know I'm somehow tired from all this I'll go sleep a bit more."

"Yeah, you should. By the way next time you're going to fuck. Go further than two hundred meters."

"Thanks for the reminder."

"No problem."

With that awful feeling I returned back to base. For the whole day I meditated and helped around, but the instinct didn't waver.

"What seems to be the problem? You've got scowl on your face this whole day." Kaiya sat beside me as I was eating.

"It's just I have a bad feeling, but it's okay."

She held my hand and leaned on my shoulder

"It doesn't matter whatever is thrown at us we'll overcome it."

"Yeah..." I said and leaned my head against hers.

"By the way what're you going to do after all this?"

"Getting through more layers.. you?"

“I'll get us a house and then think about it some more.”

---

Two days have passed since.

It was night already, some of us were sleeping while we were finishing eating the dinner when the calls from the guards came.

"Enemy attack!"

It was dark. Glancing through the entrance I saw their silhouettes some hundred meters from us.

People took whatever weapons they could, before trying to gather outside.

But that wasn't possible as two quick earth spears came and pierced the guards, making people afraid to even take one more step.

The enemies came in to the entrance of the cave, Prophesized Ones. Although they had massive presence my sight was pinned on only one living being there.

There was Charles right at the forefront beaten and bruised, he was held by the commander thatwas smiling. Amused by all of this.

"What have you done?" Isbila said as she came into the clearing. Seeing her, his face contorted into one of anger.

"Traitor!" Called out some people.

"I risk my life for every one of you, scouting day by day. Yet this is how you treat me?"

"Then why did you bring them here?"

He quietened, meanwhile the commander started laughing. I had my daggers prepared if anything happened, meanwhile Kaiya was being guarded by the guards.

"He talked so much, after all we have such way with words."

Charles's shoulders slumped as he saw, how Frank was looking at him. Disappointed, yet he understood why he did that. Not everyone is reconciled with dying.

"But thanks to the lot of you we've managed to weaken the High Castle." He gripped the sword at his waist and "So, let me give you a gift in return." he pierced Charles's torso.

"No." Isbila cried out as small droplets of blood landed at her feet.

"It is hard... Sneaking I mean." He said as he turned to me, a self-deprecating smile was all I saw before he fell to the ground.

"Slaughter anyone you can."

Spells went flying. Nearly every Prophesized One was casting, those that were not were sending flying slashes our way. There was eighteen of them.

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Frank ran at them swinging the rock he picked from the ground. Thought they hadn’t expected that it did nothing. He got to them, but all that waited for him was concentrated barrage before he fell at their feet. His head squeezed against the commander's boot.

I wasted no time and threw a fireball back of my own from the spellbook. It came close to them near to hitting one, but a strong gust of wind took it to the side – one of their spells. It hit the wall, a part of it fell down.

"We must move further into the tunnels. We're just targets here!" I heard Kaiya yell as she started moving. I went right after her and so did the people.

"But this way we'll be slaughtered all the same."

"Then I think you should come up with something."

We'll be trapped here until we die. What's there to think about? Trapped, that's right.

"I got something."

"Then out with it."

"We'll -"

----

I saw a man running through the tunnel right past me. I didn’t even have to turn my head and to know he ran no more. Earth nails pinned him to the ground.

Across from me appeared the group, with the commander at the front, still extending his hand from casting.

"I didn't know they let anyone lead nowadays."

"A sneaky rat talking. Who would have thought we'd see such a specimen." The commander responded and sent an earth nail my way, I dodged it and sent a Spark back at him.

He didn't even bother looking at it as someone from the team was holding up a mana barrier that got visible upon impact. Classic.

"You know I wouldn't even bother with you, but the nobles wanted to set an example for the rest of you serfs. So here we are."

"Then I'm honoured."

"You should be, you'll get to see the All father as he'll cut your head off. It's a fate you don't deserve, laying your eyes on his visage. Even being in his presence."

"Don't worry... I'll make sure to spit in his face."

A barrage of attacks came my way. I dodged… most of them. What's important is that they impacted the wall behind me.

It started crumbling down.

"Eli run!"

I did, I raced through the tunnel, spells and enemies hot on my feet. Turning the corner, I flashed a smile at the commander and leaped into the tunnels.

Weapons and small spells flew and impacted the ceiling of the corner. In the end it came crumbling down in the eyes of our pursuers. At once we were separated. Dust that was heaved in to the air started settling down and people started getting back to their senses.

"Quick headcount, everyone please don't move." Kaiya said as she looked at Alan that already started his counting.

"There's eighteen of us here." The realisation kicked in. A loss of ten people and we had no chance of retaliation. I looked all around and saw that Isbila seemed fine and was taking care of Kali.

Kali got grazed in the mayhem.

Brad was pacing around with one hand an earth nail while with the other he held his side. Streaks of blood were visible peeking along with a reddish bandage. He was fine.

"What… do we do now?" Isbila asked as she looked at Kaiya that started gathering weapons.

"We do what we did." Kaiya said and threw her a pickaxe.

Yet the people had other opinion about it.

"We'll die before we can dig that deep."

"This will be our tomb."

Such optimistic words were heard from the group. They were beaten and without security, simply were scared. Thinking when it will be their turn to meet their end.

"Silence!" I shouted as I saw Kaiya trying to talk to them something, but failing. She nodded at me.

"We must know one thing..." She came to the wall of rocks that was trapping us here. "this pile keeps us safe."

"And for what? So, we can starve?"

"No, but for us to dig the last stretch. Alan, can you?"

All the eyes turned to Alan that was awkwardly sitting alone against a wall. He stood up before saying. "Yes, we only have fifty meters to go before reaching First Layer. And we can last here for another three days before oxygen will be a problem."

"You heard him. We're free! This is but our beginning."

Everyone cheered as they took pickaxes and whatever they could that would help dig and went to work. As they left, I saw Alan fall. A faint trace of blood soaking through his tunic.

"Kali, Isbila help!" I ran to him and tore off his tunic, an earth nail got visible. I used the tunic to stop the bleeding.

But it only slowed down, meanwhile Kali came beside me, while others watched around. She helped me in holding it, trying to force it to stop.

"The Earth nail it's stirring inside him." Kali said as she held it.

Without a second thought she was pulling at it with all her might, yet it didn't come out all at once. It was resisting.

I helped her with pulling and out came not an earth nail, but what looked to be a tree root made up of earth.

"That fucker must've been controlling it, ushering it to grow." Kaiya said as she was looking at Alan and circling around us trying to see something she can help with.

Meanwhile I and Kali were trying to stop the bleeding with what tools we had.

"This way he'll die." Kali said as she held the blood-soaked cloth, using it to keep him a little longer alive.

"There must be something we can do... Some wire to suture it with." Kaiya said.

"There's no such thing here." That was Brad. He was leaning against a rock wall, already expecting the outcome. His mood down as more like looking at us he looked to be looking somewhere else, somewhere inside.

I wasn't reconciled with such an outcome. Besides he still hasn't apologised for forgetting to say information.

I concentrated, drew out the red magicules from me and focused them at my fingertips. Where a small intense glow got visible. It had no waving structure like a flame, instead it was pure heat.

I felt my brows sweat as I was tracing along his wound, pumping just enough magicules so it releases heat without exploding.

It was no easy feat as I was essentially using my own body as a welding machine. In that case that would make Alan a battered metal.

That I welded. Welded good.

I stopped his bleeding with it and closed his skin completely, it’s not pretty but better than dying of blood loss.

I felt my hands go weak and fall beside as I was done and glad.

"He's stabilized." Kali said as she checked his pulse and wound.

It was all sealed up.

"So, when will he wake up?" Kaiya asked. To which Kali looked at her and shook her head.

"He won't?!"

"No, I mean it can take a few days at worst, it can be few hours at best. He has lost a lot of blood."

Kaiya sighed. "Can you be a bit clearer next time?"

"If we're unfortunate and something like this happens. I'll make sure, but now let's get him somewhere comfortable."

Isbila came and helped Kaiya and Kali with carrying him away, to some makeshift bed. But Brad was quicker.

"At least now he's helping."

I heard Isbila as she walked after them. I was left alone and so I went and rested my head against the wall of the rubble. It helped ease my swaying vision though it did nothing for the light-headedness and I let it take me.

----

I woke up to the sound of alarm ringing. The sun hasn’t even perked out from behind the horizon and I was already going about my morning routine.

Bringing a soft light into my inner-city apartment was the low hanging moon that could be seen through a window as I enjoyed my coffee. Next to it, there in the sky was a glistening colossal structure. Dukedom of First Step, a massive space habitat, the first one to be built.

Overlooking the vast expanse of a city Spectropolis laying out before me in all its glory.

I was up on the hundred nineteenth floor- not the best, I know. After all I was a middle-class citizen and could only dream of living on the top floors, like my boss Davis that lives here on the two hundred second floor.

The view from there is beautiful, unblocked by most of the housings and without the smog radiating from the streets below.

Even that wasn't as bad as it used to be, bills were passed down to combat it. Mainly keeping all kinds of genetically upgraded plants to soak up what smoke could.

Thanks to advancements people let plants take over their fronts of houses. Now it looks kind of stupid seeing a neon sign to a bar overgrown by plants.

I took my clothes, wore them and was off to work. My work? A programmer of this always evolving machine that is this city. I was another gear that kept it running.

My walk to work consisted of taking the stairs and travelling five floors below -together with others behind me- there were our cubicles.

Further below I never had a reason to go, but there are factories down there with the workers, being our foundation, upon which we stand.

In all that moving crowd I got to my cubicle. I booted up my computer and prepared to get my tasks done.

It was a slow methodical work, that required me to know my stuff and to know how to implement it, but I wasn't alone for this task.

[Hello Eli, there are three tasks that are currently waiting for your assistance.] Jerome, a helping hand AI that assisted in our work and we assisted it. Symbiosis as it should be.

"Open the first task and let's get to it." I said as I took out a coffee cup from my briefcase before saying. “First get the news playing."

[Of course, sir]

A live broadcast got opened on the second monitor while I worked. "...by order of the Galactic Council, the newly discovered planet Opportunity will be unoccupied and will be under control of the Galactic Council. That was Councilor Inever, now for the news from our Coalition of Mankind. There are diplomatic talks underway with our humanlike neighbours of Reign of the Prophesized race as they call themselves. There have been made some unguaranteed claims that we're currently..."

I stopped registering the words as all my attention was taken by something behind the window. It wasn't the ever-buzzing metropolis that stopped. Instead, up in the sky a Giant Portal.

"...AI tests about uploading the Human mind are underway. This channel was stopped because of an Emergency. To all citizens we ask you seek out the nearest iron fortress. For those who can't the basements and sewers are safe enough for temporary cover. This is not a drill. To all..."

From within the portal ships were popping out. Right on their way to the space habitat. A space battle was starting, with explosions being visible from all the way down here.

They were like fireworks. Nuclear bomb level fireworks.

"Eli, we must go." One of my colleagues, [name of soldier], said and started dragging me.

[The work hasn't yet been finished. Five-minute break active.] What a piece of junk spouting such bullshit now, they must've given us some AI without full training.

We tried taking the elevators, but that was worthless endeavour as a group of people was already waiting around. On other floors it must be so, too.

It was so. We were sprinting down the stairs, as if being taken by the crowd that was pushing us forward. On each floor a small group rather stayed and waited for the elevator.

Just then I heard a sound of an explosion of something. Looking behind me, through windows I saw it in the distance. A massive shroom rising, while at the top an illusory circle was visible with engravings and intersecting lines all over it.

Next thing I know the shockwave hit.