In what was once called Earth, a world now under anarchy, to survive is not a choice… but an ongoing struggle against death.
One of the last remaining soldiers after the destruction.
Their boots broke the eerie silence, flattening a mix of scattered skulls beneath them, those of friends and monsters alike.
Dan French:
Exploration soldier in the Delonia Emirate
"Adam! What are you doing over there?!"
Dan's voice pierced the silence, tinged with concern he didn't bother to hide.
I turned to him, a flicker of sarcasm in my eyes, one he had grown familiar with, "Huh? It doesn't matter if we break formation as long as we haven't entered the ruins, right?"
Dan sighed, as if already knowing that the discussion wouldn't lead anywhere. "You see, if we happen to come across a high-ranking monster—"
I cut him off, obviously bored, as I got down to examine a half-buried piece of metal in the ground, "Listen, I'm not able to dig and talk at the same time. It's exhausting… and infuriating. So, just shut up for a bit."
I went on, while he stayed behind, being his typical uncertain self.
"If we get into trouble on your account due to your careless actions, I'll blame everything on you. That's certain, isn't it?" he declared firmly.
I did not look back at him; I just lifted my hand in a rejecting gesture. "Okay, Grandpa."
"Stop it with that!" he growled resentfully, but I could not help myself and smiled.
Dan had always been different from me. More reserved, more controlled, but still… my best friend. We had shared death hundreds of times side by side, although we were so different, and my trust in him was just as strong as my trust in myself.
"Adam! Hurry up, I found something!"
This time, there was no usual joking tone to his voice.
I approached, my eyes widening when I saw the large hole exposed in the ground.
This isn't a natural hole…\" Dan replied, leaning down to put his hand on the ground. "The marks are fresh. If we continue, we'll definitely encounter a swarm in no time."
I nodded, taking in the terrain. "If the leader of the swarm is rank C or higher. that'll be a bad thing."
"What's your opinion?" he asked, finally sounding serious since the mission began.
I hesitated for a moment. The air was thick, as if the atmosphere itself was warning us not to. At last, I spoke:
"We've gone too far. If we continue in this direction, we'll be stuck… and with our suit power dwindling in this environment, we might not have enough time to escape."
Dan didn't reply, but his eyes did.
"Let's go back."
"I agree."
We wheeled around and retreated towards our vehicle, but the next instant, it was a nightmare.
A burst of an explosion shook the ground behind us. Debris swirled, and the crack of the explosion resonated like thunder in the stillness.
"What the hell?!" Dan yelled as smoke poured out of a new crater miles downrange.
I stood fixed, my gaze fixed on the smoke, which billowed fast.
"We have to get out now, this will attract them—"
You mean, they're already present here." Dan exclaimed, activating his combat mode in his suit.
We could not see anything as yet, but the sensation… the chill passing through my spine, the aura heavyening the air. these were cues which could not be overlooked.
"Combat mode: Activate." I activated the button on my chest, and my suit was transformed instantly.
The suit constricted the energy lines inside me, making my blood rush faster, every beat more potent. Neuroprocessing was accelerated, and my power doubled. Without the suit, we'd have no chance in hell of defeating even a newborn monster.
…Then, the swarm fell upon us.
From all sides, from all angles… as if the ground had vomited them up.
"Dan! Do you see what I see?!" I exclaimed, brandishing my dagger.
"See. D and C together? That never happened before."
"Get ready for this. It's worse than we expected."
I shot at him, and under the black visor, I noticed a strange glow in his eyes.
"I know." He said firmly, then looked at me again.
He was smiling. Despite everything, he was smiling.
"That's reassuring," I muttered, then faced the oncoming death.
Though he kept calm, I was certain that he was more nervous than me. But he didn't exhibit it… for me.
Adam Cole:
Hell… my blood's hot. My heart is thudding far too much.
This isn't right… at all.
We have to pass through this tide as a single entity.
"Dan! Take the rear, and I'll—"
"No time for that! They're moving on us from all sides. We need to defend ourselves back to back."
"But we'll be trapped!"
"There's no other option."
I kept quiet, then chuckled, with a wide grin despite the perilous situation.
"You're crazy… I like it."
"Haha! Let's go!" Dan also chuckled.
I held my dagger aloft, and we stood facing each other back-to-back.
"Basic move one." I stated, and energy began to accumulate in my dagger.
"Basic move four." He replied, with his sword held before him.
The first beast charged at me, its huge teeth flashing, and its stench of breath knocking me off balance before it reached me. I moved quickly and struck the killing blow to its neck.
But… the beast bent low. It grabbed my hand, and jerked my arm like one throws a ball.
Then… I flew through the air.
Above me, I saw them. Dozens, hundreds, thousands.
"We have no hope against this number."
Dan shouted my name, but before he could say it. his body came crashing to the ground with a chest punch.
"Daaan!!!"
Shoot. why did I break formation? This is my fault.
Regret began consuming me as I fell to the ground, unsure of what was happening around me.
The monsters were moving in.
This. is the end.
Dan French:
"Heh. heh."
Tiredness was creeping into my muscles, gradually.
Even the movement I used to take so easily to avoid the Valkyris claws was now cumbersome and tiring.
I couldn't avoid them all anymore… some of them were hitting me.
"Damn… they never stop coming!"
I clench my fist, set my feet on the ground, and charged at the creature with the huge spear.
I focused my energy flow for a moment… just enough to deflect the blow that was inches away from my face.
Just as the spear was about to pierce me, I shifted my body downward and with force burst into its ribs.
I placed my body at an angle, taking advantage of the ground's push to make the power of my blow as effective as possible.
My short sword struck its body…
And with dogged tenacity, pierced its defenses.
I drove my sword deep into its body.
With the extra energy around it, it was done.
The monster fell, silently, without a struggle.
"One more… heh… heh…"
My fatigue level went up to 93%.
The suit flashed me repeated red alerts, begging me to stop.
But I didn't pay attention, like I didn't pay attention to all the warnings from my body… there wasn't time to rest.
I looked over my shoulder, estimating the monsters around us.
But my eyes rested on one thing:
Adam…
He was in mid-air.
His eyes… were filled with fear that I had never before seen.
His face was white, as if he was losing life.
His vision began to blur in front of me, misty, like the space between us was another universe.
I could not hear what he spoke,
But I am going to get him to repeat it later…
If we survive.
…
Huh?!
The world came to a standstill.
As if everything else stood still and only I moved.
My strength was depleted.
Shaking hands, I could not grasp the sword any longer.
The earth was closer… My knees betrayed me.
Before I could make sense of what was happening,
something cold had passed through my right side.
I looked down slowly.
A bullet wound in my side, blood seeping from it.
Instinctively prompted me to clamp down on it, but all I found in my palm was cold blood diffusing there.
With a last burst of consciousness, I tried to shift myself clear of the combat.
But instead of standing, I hit the ground.
I lifted my head with great effort,
And above me… I saw a dark red glow dividing the sky.
Glittering on the horizon, the sky color-changing, and the stars vanishing.
The monsters surrounding me…
Started to gaze in its direction.
Even the one that would tear me into pieces turned its head to see the spectacle.
In a moment, they all began to move toward the source of the light,
Like a crazed herd… nothing restraining them.
The ground shook beneath their movement, but it gave me enough awareness to stay awake.
And the moment I raised my head ever so slightly…
Something passed over me.
Just inches from my nose.
It was swift… too swift,
So swift that the heat of its passage singed my hair.
And the next thing I knew…
Was the monsters' halves standing
And a blood rain pouring down on the other half of them.
It was a disgusting sight,
Even for me, a soldier, who was used to seeing death again and again.
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
What in the world could… do something like this?
{Present Time}
• Adam Cole:
"So, that's what happened."
"Yeah… hard to believe, huh?" Dan said. He was right; it was impossible to put into words.
But even with all of that… I trust my friend more than I trust myself. I never questioned him. Not even for an instant.
"Oh, wait… what happened to your wound? It was awful!" I exclaimed, surprised.
"Don't worry about it. I've been resting for a bit. The suit healed it just fine."
His words were reassuring, but I couldn't help but notice… fresh blood was still dripping from the wound.
Good, well. Where is the source of light? Did you find it already?" I asked, anxiety carved on my face.
"No. Next thing I did was look for you."
"Haha. What an amazing friend."
"Did yo—" Dan started off with a wide smile, but I stopped him.
Are you stupid or something? I scowled at him, voice raised.
Huh? Why are you yelling? The normal thing to do is look for you!" he said, obviously upset, but not loud.
"You really are an idiot… That's reasonable in ordinary situations. But you just explained to me a beam of light sliced through hundreds of monsters like butter! And your first thought was to come find me without thinking about it being able to happen again?" I put my hand on my face, dropping my head, amazed at my friend's logic.
"I didn't think… I was worried about you. So the first opportunity I had to move my legs, I thought of nothing else."
"Lucky me… No use arguing, huh?" A genuine smile spread onto my face, believing him.
"Let's go find the source of the light together."
"Let's start with that crater."
"Good idea." I gave Dan a thumbs up to show my agreement.
We walked towards the crater, about a hundred meters away—where our vehicles had come to rest.
We arrived. The crater was gigantic—bigger than a small village could accommodate.
"It's huge…"
The crater was tiered, each level smaller than the last but deeper.
"There, at the bottom… do you see that?!" Dan suddenly exclaimed.
"See what?"
"There's something down there… in the middle of the crater."
He indicated to the very center of it. Sure enough, something was softly glowing.
We burst using our suits and advanced in the direction of the center.
What we found was a massive crystal—nearly twice as large as a standard one. The dominant color was dark red, with patches of black sweeping over its surface.
"It's… a giant crystal."
"What are those markings?" Dan inquired.
Strange symbols whirled in the area around the crystal, orbiting it like planets around a star.
They pulsed with red light—clearly the source of the distant glow we'd seen.
"They look like encrypted glyphs of some kind," I said, moving forward.
"I've never seen an alphabet like this one… What do you think?"
"Me neither… I don't think this even comes from our world."
"Hey Dan, take a look at this."
What was strangest of all was that in all the shining symbols, one of them was unlit.
It was shaped like two arcs beginning at the top—of horns.
"Do you have any idea what you think it means?"
"Not the faintest. But we're in the dark here… and we're not going to discover anything by just standing around."
I reached out my fingers to softly touch the glyph which was unlit.
The moment there was the slightest contact, it began to drain my energy—like water pouring into dry sand.
"Adam!"
"Damn it!"
My fingertips remained locked to the symbol.
I tried with all my strength to pull my hand away—but it wouldn't budge.
"57%"
"51%"
"46%"
The energy levels were dropping… horrifyingly fast.
I feared we'd run into another monster on the way back.
And in this condition… we'd die in seconds.
As fear gathered in my mind and my energy seeped away, Dan placed his hand on the symbol too—condemning himself to the same doom.
"I had my doubts… but you really are dumber than I thought."
"If you let it drain just your energy, you'd collapse. But if we feed it together, maybe we'll retain some."
"There has to be a limit to how much it's trying to take—to achieve some goal."
His logic was good—if only we knew how badly it wanted.
But here all we could do was hope it did not exhaust us until we lost our minds.
"29%"
"27%"
"25%"
It seemed the drain was slowing down.
"You're right, but it's still sucking us in… and at this rate, I'm not optimistic."
"20%"
"We've entered danger zone."
I couldn't help but wonder—what kind of madness would demand this amount of energy?
I glanced over at Dan standing beside me and spoke in a whisper—bARELY even I could hear it.
"Hi Dan… we're frightened of the monsters waiting for us on the way home… "
"What if?"
I focused my eyes once more on the veiled crystal before me.
"What? What're you talking?" he asked.
"No… nothing." My voice trembled again.
A pull…
Huh?!
Finally—I managed to free my finger from the glyph.
I glanced over at my friend, and he'd just released his too.
"Still got some juice left?" I asked him, exhaustion etched on my face.
"Looks this thing depleted me a bit. 33%. Not terrible."
"High probability that won't be enough."
If a monster of that quality shows up—whoa, we're dead.
As I fell back into obsessing—something I was getting all too used to—a gentle slap snapped me out of it.
Who else would it be?!
Dan.
"Look! Something's happening to the crystal!"
"It's…"
"It's shrinking."
It was the most surreal thing to see.
The crystal just kept shrinking in front of our eyes, its red light fading… to be filled with blackness.
"Do you think it's going to explode?!" Dan asked, barely even looking at me.
I took a deep breath before I answered.
"I don't know."
The crimson glow went away altogether… to be replaced by complete darkness.
Then… cracks started appearing.
"Dan, look at that?"
Our faces were virtually identical.
"Yeah…"
We were both stunned at what we were witnessing.
The crystal seemed to shatter into a million little pieces.
And that's exactly what was happening.
A strong, overwhelming odor filled the air…
And then. it appeared.
"A baby?!!!"
End of the Prologue
In this chapter, two characters were introduced: Adam Cole and Dan French, both members of the Exploration Squad of the Principality of Delonia. They got separated from the rest of the squad in the Forsaken Lands, then ambushed by a pack of ferocious Valkyries. Dan was pushed down by one of them, and they ended up facing a strange crystal.