《The Edge of the World》 The End Reeve stood atop the mountain the ''gods'' had claimed. She knew them for what they were, merely the first. Vast in power and experience, so vast they dwarfed even her, but that did not matter. They too were human once, they too would fall like any other. For too long had the rest of the world lavished in ignorance, satisfied with the scraps their gods deigned to leave them, this would be the end, and at last the power of Miracle would be shared with the world. "Stupid girl." the voice boomed, genderless, commanding. "Did you think a paltry collection of mortal mages and warriors could stand against the might of your GODS?" ¡°You are no gods,¡± she retorted, rage and hatred clear in her voice. ¡°Mortals who were first are no more gods than the lowliest babe is a warrior!¡± ¡°Stupid, foolish girl. We are not mortals, we have NEVER been mortals! We came here before the first of what would one day become humanity crawled out of the slime-filled seas. We watched and prodded as you came into being, giving you all you needed to survive, we are your SAVIOURS.¡± ¡°I deny your lies, here before the entire might of humanity you dare to claim such fantasy can be anything but?¡± Reeve raised her sword, energy coalescing in her off-hand. ¡°Let fate decide the victor here today!¡±
A sneer was the only response the collected Gods gave the army of humans as they began their assault. Eldritch energies gathering around them as they began to strike the impudent creatures down. How DARE they assault the home of the Gods? For this, they would burn. For a thousand years or more would they burn, their terror and agony a message to all other mortals that the Gods were immortal and omnipotent. And then Shiva fell. A simple arrow, aided by the wind and simple human magics had pierced their eye, this should not have been possible, and yet here it was clear. Shiva lay dead before them. The many armed God was fallen. Zeus was next, their rival Odin shortly after and then the Gods began dying by the dozen. The Humans were dying in droves, trading 10,000 lives for the death of a single God, and yet it seemed they would triumph. Unthinkable. The Gods were in agreement about a single thing, one issue they had never disagreed on. The higher energies were THEIR domain. No human would ever touch the power of Miracle they held. They would sooner lock it away for all time than see it handled by the ignorant apes. A Contingency was activated. The only one of its kind. The final few living gods turned their weapons inward and ran themselves through. ¡°Stupid humans, foolish humans. We may pass from this world, but you never shall. With our deaths do we lock the energy of the world. It shall never again be touched by your filthy hands. The Ki you use to extend your lives, the Mana you use to cast your rituals, all will fade in the blink of an eye. Humans will NEVER touch Miracle!¡± A shuddering gasp fell out of the being¡¯s throat, bringing a tide of silver ichor, and the last of the gods died.
The mountains beneath them shuddered, vibrated almost. Over a million Mages had lost their lives to buy this victory, and yet it seemed the world would never know how it was won because, at that moment, Mount Vesuvius detonated. In her last moments of life, Reeve used the last drops of Mana she had to cast a single, terrible spell. She would remember in the next life, and all the lives to come. If only to tell people of the victory won here today. Of the day that mere mortal men slew the gods.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Greater European Union Experimental Deep-Core Mining Site July 13th 2050ce It wasn¡¯t so long after the wars that industry had recovered fully, the previous 25 years of brutal conflict had ravaged most major cities, and the satellite network and orbital stations had only just begun their restoration. Nonetheless, fortune waits for no man, and Jeremy Reeveson was no different. His task was one of the most daunting ever conceived. With an initial investment of over 1 trillion USD, he was to create a mine that would last for hundreds of years. It would provide the United Central Authorities the heavy metals, and rare-earths required to attempt the impossible, they were going to build a Space Elevator. He wasn¡¯t supposed to know that, but practically everyone did at this point. Why else would they purchase a massive area in the middle of the Sahara, build a 4 level highway out to it, and construct what all experts agreed looked like an anchor station for the worlds largest tether? His son had been rattling about it non-stop since the ¡®unconfirmed, no-comment leak¡¯. He was proud of his job, Jeremy was a civil engineer of peerless repute. Responsible for hundreds of sea-wall and deep-sea super-drills. He could do this, and it would be amazing enough maybe his son would get his head out of the clouds and be impressed with his old man for once. The initial core-test drill was nearing the mantle now, 30 kilometers into the crust, further than anyone had ever drilled before, and this was a test of one of the mini-drills. Barely 100 meters across, not even a tenth of what the big one would be. A crack split the air, a shift so far below it was nearly imperceptible. Yet every single person in the world felt it. Every worker on-site flinched momentarily, then most, like the sane people they were, checked seismometers. Nothing, not a single solitary movement indicating potential collapse. All was well. Then the drill shot out of the ground like a pebble from a geyser. Jeremy¡¯s final thoughts were of his son and his lack of regrets.
Great Lakes Megalopolis Grand Rapids Borough North American Territories July 13th 2050ce Numb. Numb and cold. That had been his dad¡¯s project. News continued flicking across his contacts as he stared blankly in disbelief. This couldn¡¯t be, dad didn¡¯t make mistakes like this, he was thorough. He handed an Internal Security Service background check to the parents of Max¡¯s first date to reassure them that his son wasn¡¯t a creep (it didn¡¯t work). Max knew, he KNEW his dad had made no mistakes. He was drilling in the most tectonically stable region with the crust-thickness and lack of volcanic activity they could get. There was no way a ¡®magma flow overpressurized the underground river they drilled into¡¯ they were less than a kilometer from the mantle, underground rivers didn¡¯t go that deep. And they weren¡¯t drilling a revolutionary water collection and storage plant either. This was a coverup. Max knew he felt the moment his dad died. Like a trembling of the earth itself. It rocked through him, and there weren¡¯t earthquakes in Grand Rapids. He lived in a megalopolis of 100 million people. Alarms, car alarms would be going off like crazy if there had been a tremor that strong. No, it was something telling him his dad was dead. The news continued, heedless of Max¡¯s internal arguments and fallacious logic. ¡°Strange reports are coming through of millions of earthquake calls in areas no seismometers detected earthquakes. Is this a sign of something larger? Or just an elaborate bot prank? Find out when we return, after the break!¡± Wait, that sounded important¡­ It said millions of reports of earthquakes¡­ Max had just experienced an earthquake, and according to the site he had pulled up there hadn¡¯t been one. His brain was sluggish, trying to process the death of the only relative he had left when he felt it again. And again. And again. Increasing in intensity and duration until it was a slowly growing roar, vibrating him down to his core. It didn¡¯t stop, he felt his body in agony, but it was distant, far away, down an ever-growing black tunnel¡­
It was on this day, July 13th, 2050ce. That Humanity broke that seal holding them back. They regained their former power and a chance at something far more. 2: The Renaissance ¡°In the early days, everyone was scared. Or angry. Or just plain old crazy. I think those were the days we really got to take the measure of each other when the dust settled we kinda had no other choice.¡± Excerpt from ¡®The Aftermath: Consequences of the Breaking¡¯ by Hamilton Jones
¡°BLEEEP BOOOP BLEEEP¡­ This is the Emergency Broadcast System. A Major Catastrophy has struck your area. Please remain in a safe location until more information is available. More details will come through shortly. BLEEEP BOOOP BLEEEP¡­ This is the Emergency Broadcast System-¡± The audio cut off as he switched away, flicking to his social hub to see if anyone else knew what was up. He was met with an error code, he hadn¡¯t seen one since he was a kid, it was a little esoteric, and the code didn¡¯t seem to say much, just 3 numbers. 404. He shrugged, it must have been a holdover from an earlier period of the net, not unusual, but notable. This did, however, leave him with a problem, he had no information, no real way to get information, and it kinda sounded like there was screaming outside. Max pondered on his next move as the screaming continued, under normal circumstances, he would be charging out to help with whatever was going on, but he felt no need to at the moment, which in and of itself should have worried him. It did not. Finally deciding on calling his cousin, who was a marine stationed nearby, he pulled up his dialer app and then yelped as his lense sparked and cracked, falling out of his eye in the process. Which sucked, it was a model that cost nearly $1000, and yet he was not overly bothered. It was at this moment he saw the light, particles of every color of the rainbow and some that were mind-bending in their variations swirled freely through the air, tiny currents drifting to and fro seemingly without rhyme or reason. He reached out to touch one and it drifted closer, following his hand before seeping into the skin and vanishing. With the strange swirly energy came a rush of heady emotions, causing Max to seize up as he realized what he was missing. Since he woke up a few minutes ago he had not felt a single shred of any true emotion, none besides arrogance anyway. Somehow he had ignored the fact his dad was dead, he had ignored the screaming people outside, and he had ignored the fact that his REALLY expensive lens had nearly blinded him. There was gonna be hell to pay for that one, that lense had been 4 months of savings. He needed to figure out why people were screaming, and why it was getting louder. With a little hesitation, he glanced out the window and saw a scene out of a nightmare. People were twisting in the street like they were made of taffy and slowly being pulled into the wrong shape. An older lady by the street was crying as her arms grew longer and hairier, her face pulled into a misshapen muzzle. Max ran to the bathroom, checking himself in the mirror carefully. He was still normal. Still human. Something was VERY wrong, and the glowing energy stuff had to have something to do with it. Reaching out, he mimed pulling a strand towards him, and to his astonishment, it worked. The energy seemed to react to gestures, or was it his thoughts? He concentrated on the energy moving towards him and it acted the same as it had before, slowly drifting over to him before settling on his skin and being absorbed. With every bit of glowy stuff, he absorbed he felt himself return to normal a little more, with a tingling rush running up his spine. Sprinting out of the apartment he ran to the woman, now collapsed on the ground, barely recognizable as the person she was. To his relief, he wasn''t affected by the stretching horror thing, so it was probably related to something about her. Thinking quickly, he mentally pulled on some energy, envisioning it floating into her. To his delight, his idea worked and her twisted shape became a little more human, not a lot, but a little. It took him almost an hour to pull the energy to her, and when she was fully human again she looked very different. Where before she had been a woman who appeared to be in her late fifties, she now appeared to be barely older than him, if he didn¡¯t know better he would have said she was in her mid-twenties.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Mind boggled, he poked her a few times, trying to wake her. With a snort and a wild flap of her arms, she awoke, jumping up as she saw Max. ¡°What happened?!¡± she practically screamed the question at him, eyes wild with panic. ¡°You, like, mutated into a creepy werewolf thing!¡± Max¡¯s reply was swift and almost as panicky. ¡°If you have a lense in, pull it out and tell me if you see the glow stuff.¡± It couldn¡¯t hurt to try right? The woman looked at him cautiously before pulling out her lense and gasping loudly. ¡°It¡¯s everywhere!¡± Her voice was filled with awe, the sight truly must have been something special to her. ¡°As far as I can tell,¡± Max began, figuring a rundown would be appreciated, ¡°the stuff responds to thoughts or intent, if you want it to come closer it¡¯ll get absorbed into your skin. That¡¯s what turned you back into a human I think.¡± He paused for a moment. ¡°This may be rude ma¡¯am, but how old are you?¡± ¡°Highly rude yes, but if you must know I¡¯m 62. though I don¡¯t look a day over 40 it''s true.¡± She joked sounding amused and scolding at the same time. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± Max began, ¡°I don¡¯t know if you¡¯ll appreciate this, but I think the glowy stuff made you younger. Like, the early to mid-twenties younger.¡± The woman¡¯s hand went to her face, probably feeling for the wrinkles that no longer existed. ¡°Fantastic. Now my husband¡¯s going to be grumpy and thrilled at the same time. Thank you for your help young man. I¡¯ll be off now. If you ever need help, come to the bicycle shop on Havardo street. I owe you one for this.¡± Max watched as the woman walked off, stunned and astonished at what he had witnessed. She had turned into a werewolf. There wasn¡¯t really much else it could have been called, and the strange glowy energy had fixed her. Was that what the energy did? Turned people into monsters if they didn¡¯t have it, then back to normal when they did? That made no sense! Why had no one seen this energy before, and why had no one turned into a monster before? Why didn¡¯t he turn into a monster¡­ Oh, he finally realized, he had turned into a monster. He became ridiculously strong and lost all his emotional capacity. In a way, that would have made him far worse than a werewolf. A werewolf people can see coming, but a normal looking person with the strength to crush concrete and a total lack of emotion? No, he was extremely lucky his lens broke on him, otherwise, he might have killed people. Max withdrew into his apartment, concentrating on figuring out what was going on with this energy and himself before going anywhere else.
Across the Atlantic ocean, the world was in chaos. Everyone saw the massive pillar of energy rising into the sky. Initial flybys showed it reached the edge of the atmosphere before spreading out, creating a shell of energy that was rapidly covering the globe. People had started to shift into horrible, mutated monsters of myth and legend, and Johann Halle had no idea how to fix it. Electronics had died quickly, sparking and in some cases igniting and self-immolating. Any vehicle made in the past hundred years was inoperable, their electronics destroyed and motors useless. There were assorted staff members sobbing in the other room as their transformations slowly reverted, the energy absorbed into their skin. He was president of the Greater European Union. He was in charge of nearly 20% of the population of the world and he was frozen. Unable to do anything as the world crumbled around him.
In Tokyo, the streets were in chaos, millions of people sprinting around without any idea what was going on. If Hideo looked closely he could make out monsters from every mythos, every legend. Every region of the world and ancient religion dashing about and huddled in alleys. He had a job to do though. If no one else would help these people he would. He walked around handing people the leaflets he had printed, he had perhaps 200 left, his printer had started smoking after that, the cheap piece of crap. It was a simple piece of paper telling them to pull out their lense and pull the glowy stuff to them to reverse the change, then give the page to someone else. His life of being just another cog in the machine was over, this change meant something, and Hideo Naginta would capitalize on it.
In San Diego, it was like the second coming of Comic-Con. People were streaming about like they had put on fursuits. It was a terrible thing to behold. Sandra Peterson didn¡¯t mind, however. It was chaos, and chaos was when she got her best work done. While everyone else was busy freaking out about the end of the world, she was putting her new¡­ Gifts, to use by relieving them of their wallets. The world was ending, what were they gonna use them for anyway?
These scenes and more played out across the world. In the chaos that would eventually become known as the Breaking. The day the Seal had been shattered by the most ambitious project mankind had ever conceived.