《CerberuS Awakening [Hiatus]》 V1C1: Destiny Hey, guys... I just bought myself a new tablet with a keyboard just because I don¡¯t have enough time to write when I¡¯m at home and I hate going around with my laptop at college. Still, with this, I can now write during those boring classes or in breaks. I can¡¯t say that I¡¯m going to post daily, but 2-3 times a week should be possible. BTW this is a fiction that I wanted to start writing and I¡¯ve been working on for a LONG time. The start is going to be kinda slow but it will pick up quite fast. Thank you for understanding and have fun! Volume 1 Chapter 1: Destiny ¡°Team number 207 CerberuS , please proceed with the presentation and prepare the practical test.¡± ¡°Right away sir!¡± Jake starts preparing the device which is a huge, 20 meters tall, mass of metal and wires while Sy explains to the jury the theory behind this beauty . To be honest, over half of the words she says are alien to me, but I can see the surprise on the jury¡¯s face and that allows me to understand that it truly is as magnificent as I imagined it to be. Ten minutes or so later, Sy finishes the explanation and we proceed with the final preparations for the practical test. A huge metallic circle with a radius of ten meters or so is placed near the device connected through a couple of huge cables to an energy source that we had to prepare beforehand. With a buzzing noise, the practical test starts. Nothing happens. The jury looks slightly disappointed I might say. At this point, Jake lifts a 100 kg halter and places it inside the metallic circle. Nothing happens. ¡°Miss Syden, although the theory behind it is unbelievable and is more than enough to grant you another Nobel prize it looks like the device is not finis... ¡± The man stops in the middle of his words while looking at quite a spectacle being displayed before his eyes. The halter that was a second ago on the ground starts floating slowly upwards, one cm at a time, under the frozen gazes of the crowd. And it keeps going higher and higher... The first antigravity device in the world that neutralises Earth¡¯s pulling force in a selected area. This is our project. Watching the stunned expressions of the crowd filled with disbelief makes me feel truly happy. We did it! Again! Jake is calm and Sy is analysing the data generated by the sensors, but I can see how proud of themselves they truly are from the dim light that started emanating from their eyes. Finally, someone in the crowd starts clapping. Like this a chain reaction starts, filling the world under an avalanche of heated applause sound. ¡°Congratulations. There is nothing more we can say at this point.¡± The man looks in our direction and signals towards a girl behind him which prepares a big trophy carried together with another girl. ¡°It is my pleasure to declare that the winners of the National Science Fair edition 29 are Jake Meyer, Syden Evergreen and Seth Welsh from team CerberuS.¡± Jake grabs the huge trophy and lifts it above his heads under the cheers of the crowd. ¡°Oh, one more thing I would like to ask.¡± A few minutes later, after the cheers came to a stop, the man looks at us and asks with a slightly puzzled manner. ¡°What about the weight that went in the air? How are you going to get it down.¡± At that point, we look at each other and one thing becomes obvious: ¡°We forgot about that!¡± Before we manage to share our thoughts a huge bang interrupts the silence. Fifty meters or so away from our current position, a car looks like it was hit by a meteor. ¡°Syyy ...¡± I look at Sy with a slightly puzzled and shocked expression ¡°High altitude wind moved it slightly and the gravity outside the device made it accelerate and crash back into the ground with maximum velocity.¡± ¡°That sound reasonable. Although I am happy that no one was hurt.¡± ¡°Indeed.¡± ¡°That-t-t is my car!¡± The man in the jury looks towards the parking spot that was hit and identifies his own car. ¡°Talking about bad luck, huh .¡± Jake looks at me while muttering those words. ¡°It was worth it tho !¡± At least that is something all of us can agree with. .......................... A few hours later, I find a moment when Jake is not around and meet Sy while making sure no one is around. Since this morning¡¯s incident, I had a certain feeling and now it¡¯s the moment to confirm it. She is still looking at the data generated by the device earlier. ¡°Sy, I would like to ask you something and I would like to answer me sincerely. What happened this morning was your doing, right?¡± ¡°Of course.¡± A short and decisive answer filled with a shocking lack of guilt. Like I expected... There is one more question that I would like to know the answer to. ¡°Why?¡± She just keeps reading while answering my question with a cold face. ¡°He might not remember this, but when I was younger I had a certain project that he mocked and laughed at during a certain School Fair. I never forget and I like to take revenge for past grievances.¡± Yeah ... I guessed part of it already but hearing it from her makes things even more frightening. ¡°You are a scary woman, you know that?¡± ¡°Thank you! Mum said it is part of my charm!¡± .......................... So ... How did all of this begin? Well, that is quite an interesting story, but to be able to tell all of it I need to go back to the day I was born. It was a sunny day. But it was raining. Quite an interesting event, right? The sun was up in the sky and no clouds could be seen but, in the same time a gentle, warm rain covered the city. Date : 23/Dec/2033 Location : Providence Alaska Medical Center, USA The doors open and a nurse dressed in white appear. She moves slowly towards a certain man waiting in the hallway. Tall, not to well built but not fat either, with a well-trimmed beard, wearing a simple but elegant black suit, sitting in a dignifying position, with his back straight and legs closed together. He just sits there, with a faint smile on his face, just waiting and nothing more. Still, if you were to look closely at his eyes you could easily distinguish an amalgamation of feeling such as happiness, uneasiness and even fear. A strange combination I might add. The nurse gets close and addresses the man in a solemn tone. ¡°Sir, I am forced to inform you that your wife failed to survive the surgery. She died less than ten minutes ago. Fortunately, we were able to save the quadruplets. ¡± At this point, the nurse pauses for a little bit waiting for a reaction from the man. A few seconds later, he rises and utters only four words in a grave tone. ¡°Can I see them?¡± ¡°Come this way please!¡± The nurse turns slowly and leads the way. While moving, all the feeling that were in the man¡¯s eyes a few seconds ago disappeared being replaced only by melancholy. He gazes straightforward but his gaze seems to reach through the walls of the hospital towards the endless eternity and beyond it. The nurse stops near a series of small beds isolated in some kind of glass. She points towards four of those and looks at the man without saying anything. He approaches with steady steps, looks down and his gaze falls upon four small beings that sleep peacefully. His right-hand presses gently upon the glass of one of the middle beds. A few good minutes passes in complete silence. In the end, the man starts speaking slowly in a gentle tone. ¡°She died but you lived. I loved her more than anything in this world and I never thought I could ever love anything else like that. I was wrong. My sons, I had a rough life filled with sad moments but now I realise that it was all worth it. In the future, I promise you that no one under the heaven shall be able to chain you in this world. You shall have the liberty to do anything you want and no matter what your choice is going to be I am going to support you. In this world, there are no two people that are equals. But now there are four that are truly equal. Each and single one of you shall have the same chance in life and I shall love you all the same. This is my vow towards you, right here, before god and the soul of your mother that looks upon you from heavens.¡± .......................... This is how Deth, Neth , Seth and Zeth Welsh have been born in this world. .......................... Date : 01/Jan/2039 Location : Riverdale Country School ¡°So, what do you want to be in the future Deth?¡± A tall woman dressed in a white dress with glasses and a slim figure looks towards a kid from the first row and asks one of the most basic questions in history. ¡°I am going to create a new computer company where everyone is going to be happy to work at and will achieve a place in history.¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. The teacher nods slowly and moves a little to the left towards another kid that looks identical to the previous one. ¡°How about you Neth?¡± ¡°I am going to be an artist that shall encapsulate the soul of the living in his paintings.¡± Again, the teachers nods slowly, with a content look on her face and moves again. ¡°And you Zeth?¡± ¡°My dream is to step on my father¡¯s path and become the future ruler of this country.¡± She looks at him a few more seconds and moves again to the left. The previous three kids all looked absolutely identical, but the last one, although his clothes and face are the same, his dishevelled hair makes him stand out a little. ¡°What about you Seth? What are your future plans?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know yet.¡± The teacher shakes her head and moves forward. .......................... By the age of 21, all my brothers already achieved their dreams. .......................... Deth, with the help of our father, created at the age of 16 Seed Inc that became one of the greatest computer companies in the world in less than 5 years. Attractive salaries and flexible schedule made it a dream environment for any man or woman out there. Date: 17/Feb/2054 Seed Inc launches the first VRMMORPG in the world, Seeds of Apocalypse, officially becoming the most successful company on the planet. .......................... Date: 21/Feb/2055 Neth¡¯s painting, Lost Soul of the Swan is sold at an auction at the frightening price of 192 million dollars marking the begging of a new age in art called ¡°Soul Art¡±. Date: 13/Nov/2056 Zeth became the youngest president of the USA at the age of 23. Although there was still a lot of opposition, everyone started agreeing with him when, after only two months, he managed to sign a Peace Treaty with the Russian Empire. Date: 1/Ian/2057 24 years old Seth is wasting his time playing his brother¡¯s VRMMORPG. That is the day when destiny¡¯s hand falls upon me and changed my future forever. It was just another day of my boring life. Nothing important or peculiar happened. For the last 24 years, I¡¯ve been wasting my life with banal things. Using my brother¡¯s money and influence I ordered a beautiful house in the middle of the desert where no one could disturb me. I was immersed in the 99% virtual reality game when the proximity alarm started ringing. This means that someone is coming towards my house. It was father together with two other people: a tall and well-built teenager, with a normal face and sharp eyebrows dressed in a formal black suit and, more importantly, a young blonde girl with amazing proportions. Although I¡¯ve seen many beauties, she is still in top ten. What I am disappointed about is that she is dressed in the same kind of suit like the man. A girl should wear beautiful clothes that emphasise her figure, not some random suite. Everything happened fast. Father is not someone who likes to mess around with words and negotiate with us. When he wants something he tells everything he needs to say and then allows us to decide what we are going to do. ¡°Son, I always respected your choices and I am going to do the same thing in the future as well. Still, there are certain things that I must ask you to do. Of course, as always it¡¯s your choice if you want to listen to me or not but I hope you are going to chose the right path. To be able to enjoy properly your life you must be healthy and aware of how your world works. You, Seth, never went to high school. Furthermore, the fact that you spend all your time here, alone, just playing games and eating is not good for your health. This is why they are here for. Son, please make acquaintance with Jake Meyer and Syden Evergreen. Jake is 24 years old, just like you. He is the youngest martial artist in history that created his own fighting style acknowledged by the whole world. From today onwards he is going to live here with you and help you acquire a proper, healthy body. Miss Evergreen over here is one of the best physicists in the world. Furthermore, she is a qualified engineer and has advanced knowledge of human physiology. She is going to help you discover some of this world¡¯s secrets.¡± .............................. After that father just left and I remained there with Jake and Sy. For an unknown reason, I decided to do as father said and sacrifice a little of my time to study with Sy and work out with Jake. Time slowly passed. Eight months to be exact. I became slightly fitter and slimmer than before and I started to understand basic things from what Sy was trying to make me learn. I might say, it was quite enjoyable to have something else to do although the emptiness inside of me, the lack of interest in everything, remained there. All changed on that beautiful day. Date : 26/Sep/2057 Location : Somewhere in the middle of the Sahara desert It was another boring day. It all started as usual with a morning training with Jake, some lessons with Sy followed by six or so hours of Seeds of Apocalypse. Still, that evening, for an unknown reason, although I think I was just extremely bored, I decided to invade Sy¡¯s intimacy and enter her room while she was away. God have mercy on me. I always thought I had a messy room, but what I¡¯ve seen in there was beyond this world. Books stacked to the ceiling, mixed with clothes and all kinds of devices that looked like they came from the Stargate franchise. I walked a bit and a certain thing caught my eye. It was a big mess of wires and metal that laid near her bed. It was obviously something she worked hard on. I got closer and, obviously, there was a big red button on it. What can a normal human do when they see a big red button? So, I pressed the button, a flashy ray of light hit me and then... Nothing happened. The device became inactive again. ¡®Right... So it was just a toy!¡¯ At that point, those were my real thoughts. You should have seen the surprise on my face a few seconds later when I was looking in a mirror that was hanging in a closet just to see everything behind me, but not my body as well. The first thought that popped in my mind is that I was dead. I grabbed the first thing in my path, a big advanced physics book, and hit my head as hard as I could with it. ¡®Slap¡¯ ¡®Auch¡¯ So, I was not dead, but invisible. At that point, I understood what happened. That thing was a device that can make someone invisible. That is unbelievable and truly and utterly... Interesting. That is the first time in my life when I felt a strange feeling swelling from the inside of me, trying to burst out. That is the first time I felt truly... Alive. Of course next, I realised again that I was invisible and decided to have some fun. It all ended with a dislocated arm and a strawberry pie on my face while Jake was holding me down. Later I talked with Sy, which by the way was kinda annoyed about what I did, and discovered that the device was her biggest work in which she poured all her money. She hoped to be enough to gain her a big sponsorship so that she is able to mess around with all kind of cool ideas. ................................. Three days later I had a meeting in Paris with my brother Deth and talked him into giving me a billion dollars. Yap, a billion dollars. It might seem to be a huge amount, but it actually is not something unbelievable for our family. Next day I proposed Sy to give her almost unlimited funding and in exchange allow me to be part of her work. We build a beautiful subterranean bunker under my house in the dessert with a huge hangar and a few hundred employees where she could experiment with anything she wanted. Soon, we didn¡¯t even have to use my family¡¯s money as we started to gain a lot of funding from all kind of parties. ................................. And this brings us to present. The antigravity device was our third working prototype after the light rays bending device and the anti-cellular ageing pill. The last one was not actually created by Sy but by Jake with Sy¡¯s help of course, which we discovered later that is actually, away from a great martial artist, an amazing expert in human anatomy and biology. Combining his knowledge with Sy¡¯s, almost anything is possible. By the way, the anti-cellular ageing pill was a huge hit because it was safe and helped anyone who consumed it to gain thirty up to forty years worth of life. Unfortunately, a second pill was useless but this didn¡¯t mean that it was not the most sold product on the market. Soon, we didn¡¯t even have to use my family¡¯s money anymore as we started to gain a lot of income from our own products. ................................. Date : 13/April/2058 Location : Somewhere in the middle of the Sahara desert The research institute is empty for a while now as I gave everyone a week vacation after our last big success from this morning. Only people left are me, Jake and Sy. Right now we are down in the bunker, in a certain room, floating around the place. The best thing about inventing something new is the fact that we can have as much fun with it as we want. Outside is a downpour like I¡¯ve never seen in my whole life. Huge bolts of lightning fill the sky and, if I didn¡¯t know better, I could swear that this is the end of the world. Anyway, we floated around for a few more hours, followed by some swimming in the heated pool, combined with some champagne... It was not long before we started running around, invisible, with paint guns in our hand, shooting at each other. In the last years, we became really good friends. Friends... That is something that I never had before. I hate myself for not knowing how good it feels to have fun with your friends for over twenty-four freaking years. But no more. From now on I can enjoy life to its full potential. ................................. ¡°Holly shit, my head hurts like hell...¡± I mutter those words as I manage to raise my body from the ground. A little further away from me, on a sofa, Sy is still sleeping. It looks like Jake woke up earlier as he is already doing his morning practice. I am certain that he drank even more than me but he doesn¡¯t even look one tiny bit affected by it. I slowly start moving my legs again. We are in one of the relaxation rooms in the bunker. It¡¯s a simple square hall that combines a kitchen with a living room. I slowly crawl towards the elevator and press the button for the first floor. After last night I really need some fresh air. Before the door manages to close, Jake follows me leaving Sy to sleep in peace. ¡°Hahh... I really need a shower.¡± I always loved to have a good, warm shower in the morning. And now, after last night, not to mention that I am half painted in shades of green and blue, I can feel all the dried sweat on me starting to emanate a terrifying smell. Jake looks at me and slowly nods his head. He was always the silent type. Actually, only now did I realise that he is completely clean. It looks like he already had a shower. The bunker is 50 meters underground so it takes the elevator about twenty seconds or so to reach the top level. ¡®Ding¡¯ The familiar sound reaches my ears as the doors start opening. I rush towards the shower while Jake starts walking to the entrance door. ................................. ¡°Pfeww.... That was a good shower!¡± I finally feel slightly better again. The hangover faded a little and the fact that I feel clean allows me to move around with a smile on my face. ¡°Seth, did you by any chance put mushrooms in my drink again?¡± Jake asks me in a slightly elevated tone while walking in my direction. Well, I did that a few times in the past but I don¡¯t remember doing it recently so the answer to his question would be... ¡°No... Why ?¡± Seth looks in my eyes like trying to confirm if I say the truth or not. He looks slightly... Panicked? I wonder what could have happened... ¡°Come with me.¡± Saying those words, he starts walking towards the outside exit. His steps are kinda rushed and he looks really tense. Finally, we reach the door and... ¡°The fuck?!?¡± ¡°Exactly!¡± Uhh... I did not see that coming. If you live in the desert and go outside you expect sand dunes and maybe a kangaroo or a hyena, but DEFINITELY not a freaking jungle. ¡°Those are trees...¡± ¡°Yap.¡± ¡°A lot of green trees...¡± ¡°Yap.¡± ¡°And grass...¡± ¡°Yap.¡± ¡°So... It¡¯s a jungle right?¡± ¡°Jungle confirmed!¡± That was the most retarded conversation I ever had we, Jake. But, in this situation, that was expected. At that point, a single thought existed in our minds. ¡°¡±We need to wake up Sy!!!¡±¡± V1C2: Grief Hey, guys! I¡¯ll keep it short... Basically, one more chapter is out because I was bored. Enjoy! V1C2: Grief To say the situation is strange would be an understatement. Yesterday we were in the middle of the dessert and now all I can see before me is a huge jungle. At the beginning, we thought it might be an illusion, another accident created by one of those prototypes in the basement. But it¡¯s definitely real Well, the house is the same but there are some things that look strange. First of all, the electricity cables are no more. Our power comes from the emergency generator that activated automatically. Furthermore, the phones are down and even the emergency subterranean Morse code transmitter doesn¡¯t seem to work. In this situation, the next action we need to take is to wake up Sy. From the three of us, she is the most knowledgeable. If she is in the mist like we are then there is literary no hope remaining. Sy is still sleeping in the underground lobby without knowing anything. Both I and Jake move towards her with fastened steps and panicked faces. ¡°Sy! Wake up!¡± I don¡¯t even wait to reach her properly to try to wake her up. Hey, don¡¯t blame me! I¡¯m really panicked here, you know? ¡°Uhh... Five more minutes please!¡± God damn it... She has always been a heavy sleeper but now is really not the time. Before I was able to do anything else, Jake grabs her blanket and pull it fast. Sy, who was kinda wrapped in the blanket, falls from the sofa on the ground but still doesn¡¯t wake up properly. Her eyes crack open and take a peek at our panicked expressions. Then, in a feeble but cold voice, she starts muttering slowly. ¡°Unless the dessert outside has been replaced by a forest I don¡¯t care what happened. Now let me...¡± ¡°¡°How did you know?!?¡±¡± Both I and Jake have silly expressions on our faces filled with confusion. Sy¡¯s eyes snap open and she rises from the ground. Then, with fastened steps, without even caring about her messed hair or half covered body in paint, she starts walking towards a certain room on the other side of the bunker. We follow her and soon reach our destination. Inside the room is a huge cylindrical object connected to a lot of computers through some cables. Sy goes to one of the computers that looks to be the main commanding unit and starts tapping fast, like searching for something. We wait in silence for a few minutes. Soon, she turns around and starts walking again towards the elevator. This time her destination is the outside exit of the house. She stops in place and looks around with a slightly confused expression. ¡°This is strange...¡± ¡°¡±You don¡¯t say!¡±¡± A few more minutes goes by in silence until I finally decide to make haste and understand our situation. ¡°Sy, what is going on?¡± ¡°We travelled in time... In the future to be more exact...¡± Uhhh... Jake has an extremely confused expression on his face... As for me, there is no confusion, only anger. ¡°You knew this was going to happen, right?¡± ¡°No.¡± I am not satisfied with this answer Sy! Why the hell can¡¯t you read the mood and give a proper explanation for once? ¡°Start from the beginning!¡±This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. While still looking in the distance towards the boundless sky that can be seen through the branches, Sy starts talking in a relaxed manner. ¡°Last year I started working on a time machine prototype. Although I like to call it a time machine, in reality, is just a device that can slow the time in a certain area. All tests were failures and I stopped trying after a while. In the end, I realised that what the device needed was a huge amount of solar radiations combined with a power overload. This is why I constructed a device on the roof that should have collected the solar radiation and redirected it towards the device. During the last night storm, there were a lot of mega-lightning that, from the looks of it, happened at the same time as a huge solar storm hit the planet. This combination created a situation where the power needed to start the device was more than enough. But even so..." ¡°And you never thought about telling us about this?¡± I am really angry this time. Sy has always done a lot of things that I did not agree with, but this is too big. ¡°Let me finish, please. Like I was saying, this shouldn¡¯t have happened. The time-freezing device should have frozen the time in a small isolated area inside itself. But, from the looks of it, the whole house, basically a sphere with a radius of about four hundred meters, have been part of it. This can only be explained if the solar flare was so huge that it overloaded the device and the field was forcefully expanded. If you look around the house, you can still see sand from the former dessert. As for the jungle before us, it appeared in tens of thousands of years.¡± ¡°¡±TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREAKING YEARS?!?¡±¡± ¡°Yes.¡± How can she be so calm in this situation? I just don¡¯t understand ... ¡°O.K. Let¡¯s calm down and think about this. Sy, can you reverse this phenomenon and send us back in time?¡± ¡°No!¡± ¡°Why not?¡± This time it looks like even Jake is at his limit as he asks in a quite elevated tone filled with anger. ¡°It was proved over twenty years ago that time travel is impossible. In those conditions, we are stuck here.¡± ¡°Is there really no way around it?¡± ¡°No. But you know... This is actually a blessing in disguise.¡± The hell? Has she gone insane or what? ¡°Why is that?¡± ¡®Drip¡¯ A drop of rain falls to the ground hitting the hard concrete. But there are no clouds... I move a little to the left so that I can see Sy¡¯s face. Tear... It was not rain, but a tear. This is the first time I¡¯ve seen Sy crying. The Ice Queen that I¡¯ve never seen saddened or upset in years is now crying with a distorted face. I and Jake are stunned by this. Just what could have happened to make her this sad out of the sudden? I approach her slowly on her left while Jake gets closer on her right side. We pot place our hands on her shoulders and whisper in a calm, low tone. ¡°Sy, are you ok?¡± ¡°What happened?¡± She didn¡¯t respond for a little while... Her face still filled with tears that continued streaming downwards like a waterfall. In the end, she starts muttering words of which half are incomprehensible. ¡°The solar storm... But how? ... It hit the whole planet and the shield... No ... It was not enough. But then this jungle. Why is this here? Maybe? No! But then ... How? Why? ¡± She continued to mutter random words formulated in questions towards herself while shivering. ¡®Slap¡¯ Jake slaps her hard on the right cheek. Sy stops trembling and looks at Jake in shock... ¡°Pull yourself together! Whatever happened, it can¡¯t be changed anymore. In those conditions, we can only stride forward. Stop whining around and tell us what happened. We are your friends and no matter what happened we are together to the end!¡± Nice words man! Even I was impressed by them. Sy finally stops crying. With her left hand, she wipes away those remaining tears from the corner of her eye and gives both of us a short look before starting talking in an honest tone. ¡°You are right! Thank you, Jake! I lost myself there for a second. Haah... To put it bluntly, a storm big enough to expand the temporary field was more than enough to wipe out almost all life on our planet. In those conditions, if we were not to be transported in the future, protected by the temporary field, we, together with the rest of the humanity, would have been wiped out last night.¡± ................... ¡®Sillence¡¯ All of us are silent for a long time... My mind stopped there for a little while. If what Sy is true, then everyone we know is dead. Father, Deth, Neth, Zeth... In my case, away from Jake and Sy, those are the only people that I care about. And they are all dead. Furthermore, we can¡¯t do anything to change this absolute truth. ¡°Hahh... Well... That is fucked up!¡± ¡°Indeed!¡± ¡°At least we are still together...¡± Sy mutters those words in a very low tone... At some point, I started thinking that she didn¡¯t say anything and it was only my imagination. To be honest, it doesn¡¯t matter. Those words are the only good news we heard today. V1C3: A light in the darkness ... No comments... Enjoy! V1C3: A light in the darkness ¡°Hello darkness, my old friend I''ve come to talk with you again ¡° ¡°182. 183. 184...¡± I keep counting like a machine, without thinking, without a reason or motivation. This old song keeps being played on a loop. I don¡¯t know why, but it helps me relax a little... Although just a little! Considering our situation, taking inventory of everything we have is a must. Of course, we could have done it later, but, at this point, anything that might help us to lessen the pain that we feel inside is welcomed. I always thought I am that kind of detached person that doesn¡¯t give a fuck about anyone or anything. Oh boy, you can¡¯t even imagine how wrong I was about that... Everything that I loved or cared for has disappeared from this world in a single night and I remained here, in this unknown place, alone. Of course, there are still Jake and Sy... I know that and, to be honest, if it were not for their presence, I don¡¯t know if my sanity would have been kept until now. ¡°250. 251. 252.¡± I note down the final number and move forwards. Right now I am in the basement of the manor counting the emergency supplies. Away from the pain that haunts my soul, our situation is not that bad. We have food and water for more than eight years and the emergency generator can keep up with our consumption for at least five years. Jake has already deployed all defensive system, the outer wall has been raised and the railguns are prepared and ready to be used. This is a new place, an unknown world, we must be prepared. Still, initially, we thought to have travelled ten thousand years in the future at most... We were terribly wrong about that as well. When the darkness fell, Sy tracked certain stars on the sky and managed to determine that more than 1.2 billion years have passed. 1.2 billion years. That is a number that exceeds my comprehension. Of course, together with this discovery a few more mysteries were revealed. From those, the most important one is: why are there still living species on Earth? Sy said that, in the past, scientists created simulations and deduced that sun¡¯s luminosity should have increased by about 12% at this point and the oceans should have already evaporated. At this point, large amounts of carbon dioxide were to be produced and the only living species on earth should have been some micro-organisms that could survive in those harsh conditions. That is what was supposed to happen. And still, sun¡¯s luminosity is not different that it was 1.2 billion years ago and the atmosphere is extremely clean and welcoming to all carbon-based life forms. How did this happen, we have no idea. ¡°88. 89. 90. 91... God damn it!¡± We have only 91 bottles of wine left... I am not a heavy drinker or anything, but in this situation booze is a good way to make us forget everything and help us start a new day with fresh hope. ¡°Well... One or two fewer bottles shouldn¡¯t matter, right?¡± ¡®Gulp gulp gulp¡¯ ¡°Hahhh... ¡± ............................ Time started to pass slightly faster... Or it might be my impression? ¡®Gulp gulp gulp¡¯ I take another look at the bottle in my hands and, for god knows what reasons, I throw it towards a random wall. The bottle breaks and the red liquid spills on the floor.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. My mind is messy... I can¡¯t think properly anymore... Slowly, my body starts leaning backwards. ¡®Thump¡¯ I hit the back wall with the back of my head quite hard but there is no pain. ¡®Click¡¯ The moment I hit the wall it seems I hit the switch as the lights fade away and the darkness takes its rule over the basement. My consciousness starts fading away as well... I look around in a daze but everything is dark. ............................... I don¡¯t know how much time has passed... A few minutes? Hours? I don¡¯t know and I don¡¯t care. My eyes keep opening and closing. It¡¯s like I am in a dream. Ohhh... How beautiful it would be if all these were to be a nightmare and soon I was to wake up in my bed and start a new day in my former world. Unfortunately, the reality is harsh and doesn¡¯t care about my hopes or dreams. .............................. What a strange dream I have right now... I am in a dark place. There is almost no trace of light except for a small sphere that floats around me slowly, without making any kind of noise. Its light is pure white and all the pain that I feel, be it physical or mental, seems to go away when it gets closer to me. Haah.. What a wonderful feeling. I rise to my feet and my left hand, moving on its own, starts approaching the small blob of light. The contact is made a few seconds later, but nothing happens. My hand goes straight through it and the little blob just flies around my head like nothing happened. ¡°Hahh... What are you I wonder?¡± I don¡¯t even know why I asked that question... This dream truly is interesting. ¡°Name.¡± Did I just hear a voice? No, it was more like there was a voice inside my head... I look around but there is no one except the little blob of light. ¡°Are you alone?¡± I test it out by asking a random question, but there is no answer... This means that it was only my imagination... I think it¡¯s quite bad when, even in your dreams, you hear voices... ¡°I am going to name you Sparky and together we shall rule this new world!¡± I take the victory pose with one hand high like holding a flag... I bet that this would have been really embarrassing if anyone were to see me although it¡¯s only in a dream, but I am alone. At this point, something strange happens. The little blob of light starts glowing in a crimson shade, very different than its pale, white light from a few seconds ago. Then, it approaches my chest and disappears. A few moments later pain fills my world. This time it¡¯s physical pain. I feel like I am taking a bath in molten steel. Sweat starts pouring on my face as my body is convulsing in pain on the floor. This dream is really fucked up... Fortunately, my consciousness fades away, again... ............................. Morning... I can feel the light on my face. Soon, my eyes start cracking open. The first thing that I feel is a horrible migraine... Well, considering that I stopped only after the fourth bottle of wine, I am not too surprised. ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± Sy... She is inspecting my torso... Her eyes are sparkling like she found something truly fascinating... And there is some fear that starts taking root in my mind. One thing should be mentioned, Sy is terrifying when she find something she likes. Under her eyes, I don¡¯t even feel like a human being anymore... It¡¯s like I am a small mouse that is about to be dissected. I know that she wouldn¡¯t hurt me, but the fear is still there. ¡°Fascinating!¡± Not being able to hold on my curiosity anymore, I raise my head and look at my torso. ¡°Tattoo?!?¡± What the hell? Did by any chance all this apocalypse thing was a dream under the effect of some hard narcotics and I was actually kidnapped or something? The tattoo is quite an interesting one, with some kind of circles intertwined together in a complex pattern, filled with hieroglyphs. I swear to god they look exactly like those magic circles in fantasy novels that I read before. First I must be sure if it was all a dream or not. Taking a look through the window, I can still see the crown of the trees that stands above the wall. ¡°No dream huh?¡± Disappointment fills my face. Then how the hell did this tattoo appear? Maybe? Nooo!!! Thinking about the strange dream I had last night, a possibility pops into my mind. Still, I realise that something like that happening is even more unlikely than this tattoo just appearing from thin air. ¡°Hold still and don¡¯t move, OK?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Sy approaches me with a smile on her face holding a scalpel in one hand and a syringe with some green liquid in the other... ¡°Don¡¯t worry Seth it¡¯s going to hurt only a second!¡± ¡°Yeah... How about... NOOOO!¡± Before you could blink twice, I raised from the bed and started running in a totally random direction... ¡°Hey, slow down! What happened?¡± In my hurry, I stumble upon Jake that was carrying two big water bottles. Unfortunately, I don¡¯t have time for explanations right now so I just point behind me towards the crazy scientist that is following me with an evil smile on her face and keep running in the opposite direction. ¡°Sy is scary sometimes...¡± I can hear those words being uttered behind me as Jake just watches us running around like some sort of show on a Japanese channel. ¡°Keep running! She is getting closer!¡± ¡°You are not helping dude!!!¡± ¡°I know!¡± ............................... Sometimes I hate those friends of mine! V1C4: Encounter Hello, everyone! This is the first chapter of the week and... Eh? What¡¯s that? I didn¡¯t post anything last week... Nooo... You are mistaken... Anyway, I had a lot of work to do last week and now that I have a little more free time I decided to recover those lost chapters. I am going to post at least another two chapters tomorrow and with that finish the quota for last week. Without further ado, please enjoy! Volume 1 Chapter 4: Encounter Eight days have passed since we came to this new world and I must say this much about our current situation: it¡¯s boring as fuck! Now, let me be honest here... One point two billion years in the future + last humans alive + awesome base filled defended by a huge wall and more firepower than some small countries + terrifying jungle = boredom? I mean, are you serious? We expected, or to be more exact, I expected to be assaulted by mutant monsters that can spit fire through their but holes followed by an army of giant insects that are under the command of a huge emu riding an elephant, not this freaking boredom... Especially after that strange tattoo appeared on my chest... Three days ago Sy sent drones equipped with all kind of sensors to scan the surroundings. We managed to map everything in a fifty kilometres radius, but what made us gasp for a second when we received the data was that there is literary no freaking living being around. Trees, trees and... Oh yeah: more trees. This is a sea of trees which, although looks like the perfect environment, it seems not to be... Sy suggested a radical theory that there are no more animals on the planet, only plants. In the end, we dismissed that idea as ridiculous. Anyway, away from that, anything else is quite nice I might add... Jake set up the solar panels which produce more than enough energy for our daily usage. In those conditions, the emergency generator¡¯s power has been rerouted towards the defence systems. After that, I and Jake took the initiative to clean up everything in a one hundred meters radius. It took us quite a bit of time in combination with a few hundred litres of fuel used by the heavy machinery, but it was worth it. Now we are planning our first exploration mission like I like to call it. To be honest, we could just live in this place for a few good years with what we have right now, but that would be boring and none of us wants that. Sy is interested in... Well, everything around us... I just want to have some fun and Jake pretty much shares my enthusiasm. It might sound childish and so on, but all of us lost almost everything only a few days ago. A tragedy of that magnitude is not something you can just pass through in this short of a period. ¡°Seth, pass me the impulse grenades.¡± ¡°Here you go!¡± I pass Jake a suitcase filled with micro-impulse grenades... Like I said earlier, we are preparing for our first mission. This land might be dead, but we don¡¯t want any kind of surprises. In those conditions we are inspecting all the equipment and weapons just to be sure everything is in perfect condition. ¡°We have a total of two hundred impulse grenades that seems to be in perfect working conditions.¡± ¡°That is good to hear... How about the nano-suits?¡± ¡°There are Six nano-suits and sixty batteries. Those should be more than enough for now.¡± ¡°Yeah, I guess you are right. We are in quite a good shape, to be honest...¡± ¡°Indeed. Never would I have thought that your obsession with the real life zombie apocalypse was going to be this helpful to us in the future.¡± ¡°Hey! You never know when a zombie apocalypse is going to take place!¡± What? It¡¯s true! All those preparations, the pulse Gatling guns, the huge plasma cannon and the reinforced wall were for a real life zombie apocalypse.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I get on my feet and turn towards the exit. ¡°I am hungry. Jake?¡± ¡°I¡¯m OK.¡± Turning around, I start walking towards the kitchen. ¡®AWOO OOO AWOO OOO¡¯ ¡±¡±...¡±¡± That was the proximity alarm. There is something moving towards our position. Both I and Jake hurry towards the command room downstairs where Sy is. Less than a minute later we arrive at our destination where we find Sy looking towards the big monitor in the middle of the room. ¡°Guys, faster! You MUST see this!¡± Looking at each other for a second, we approach the monitor just to witness... Nothing. There is literary nothing that can be seen. And still, Sy is looking towards a certain tree not daring even to blink not to miss whatever we are missing. My gaze stops swirling around and is directed towards the same tree. It is a huge one... At least thirty meters tall, with a brown trunk and brown leaves. Looking closer, there are long red lines that seem to pulsate around its trunk. It looks extremely peculiar, but that¡¯s it. Actually, now that I think about it I don¡¯t remember such a tree around our house... ¡®Craaaakkkk¡¯ Slowly, a branch starts moving on its own. It touches the ground a few meters in front of the tree and, at this point, we witness one of the strangest scenes we¡¯ve ever seen. The tree¡¯s trunk lifts from the ground and moves forwards. With a ¡®Thump¡¯ the huge trunk hits the ground. Next, the same branch from earlier moves another three or so meters forwards and the trunk is lifted from the ground again. ¡°Well, my theory about animals not being around anymore might not be so far outstretched, right?¡± ¡°¡°Yeah...¡±¡± Uhhh... I am not surprised... At this point I am terrified. Looking at Jake, his face looks quite grim as well. I mean, we¡¯ve been working around those trees a few days ago, cutting them and moving their bodies away. We were fortunate not to encounter this thing back then, otherwise who knows what might happen. ¡®Baaanggg¡¯ A loud sound wakes all of us from our dreamlike state. The tree monster or whatever it is reached the outer wall and started hitting it. ¡°Uh... Sy, what should we do?¡± The situation looks quite bad, to be honest... I mean that thing, although I don¡¯t know if it has any kind of intelligence or not, is still attacking our wall. We can¡¯t afford to let something like that to happen otherwise our first line of defence is going to fall. ¡°Calm down. It can¡¯t even scratch the outer layer, not to mention the Adamantium core. ¡± Her words made me calm quite a bit. Well, she is right. I mean that wall was created to resist a point blank antimatter bomb, not to mention a small little tree. ¡°Sy, are the impulse Gatling guns enough for killing that thing?¡± Jake inquires exactly what I wanted to find out from Sy. Well, unless we are dealing with some kind of unknown material, we should be able to... ¡°No problem! We can turn it in swish cheese in seconds!¡± Yap, that! ¡°Do it!¡± ¡°Why? It¡¯s not like it can hurt us or anything and I really want to study it!¡± ¡°You can study it after it stops moving. Until then, living with a huge tree monster that is banging on our gates is not an option!¡± ¡°Uhhh... OK...¡± Sy puffs her cheeks and turns around towards the control matrix. Two Gatling guns appear on top of the outer wall and target the big tree. ¡®Wooommmmmmmmmmmm ....mmmm¡¯ A barrage of pulse bullets is launched towards the moving tree. Big holes, the size of a fist, start appearing everywhere. The tree doesn¡¯t seem to understand what is happening as it just starts falling towards the ground. ¡®Thuummmpppp¡¯ Its big body hits hard the ground. His branches are still moving slowly around which shows that it is not dead yet. The automatic pulse Gatling guns keep shooting it. The branches filled with holes can¡¯t support their own weight anymore and starts falling to the ground. The big trunk is almost severed in more than one place by the rain of death. Less than twenty seconds later, the fight is over. The tree can¡¯t even be recognised anymore. Everything left is a mess of branches and pieces of wood covered in some kind of red liquid which I really hope is not blood. All of us are looking towards this scene with various expressions. To be honest, there is only one thing passing through my mind. ¡°At least we are not fighting against an emu riding an elephant that commands an army of giant insects!¡± ¡°¡°...¡±¡± V1C5: Tremors Hello, guys! I know that the story is kinda slow but please bear with me here because things are going to pick up really soon. Well, without further ado, please enjoy! Volume 1 Chapter 5: Tremors ¡°Damn, that thing is ugly as fuck!¡± ¡°Indeed...¡± ¡°It¡¯s not ugly! It¡¯s just misunderstood!¡± ¡°¡°...¡±¡± One day has passed since our encounter with the bloody tree monster and things got even weirder than before. How is that possible? Well, yesterday we recovered that thing¡¯s remains for Sy to study. In the end, after one long night, we got some interesting results. First of all, it¡¯s not entirely a tree. It has muscles that allow it to move and even a stomach and a mouth situated somewhere in the upper part of the trunk. To put it bluntly, it¡¯s a mix between an octopus and a tree. And, of course, all that red substance was blood. But the strange part comes only now. This morning when I and Jake went to check on Sy we saw her analysing not the bloody tree monster but a small creature the size of a cat with black fur, six legs and more eyes than I can count. I swear to God it looks like someone took a spider and a black cat, threw them in a mixer and let them blend together for ten minutes. The creature was discovered by Sy inside the stomach of the bloody tree monster. With this discovery, Sy¡¯s theory from yesterday about animals going extinct has been busted. The reason why we couldn¡¯t find any living things around looks to be because that tree monster has been eating them. ¡°Oh, by the way, guys, there is something interesting that I need to show you! Come!¡± Leaving the ugly spider cat¡¯s body behind, we start moving towards the control room. There, on the big screen can be seen a 3D map of the house, the outer wall and everything in the vicinity as it is picked up by the sensors. ¡°Look! Can you see it?¡± ¡°Not really...¡± Jake responds almost immediately. I look closer starting from the right corner of the screen and making my way towards the other side inspecting everything. Then, when I reach almost the top left corner, I spot a small anomaly. ¡°What is that? An earthquake?¡± The sensors have picked up a small vibration that is displayed as small waves coming from N-V. ¡°This is what I thought at first, but the replicas are too fast. It looks more like a series of smaller earthquakes or explosions. To be honest, I¡¯m not sure exactly what it is.¡± ¡°Could it be another tree like the one from yesterday moving around?¡± Jake¡¯s idea might actually be possible. I mean it really looks like one of those trees moving around, although this one looks to be way lazier than the one from yesterday because the tremors are more than thirty seconds apart. ¡°No, that¡¯s completely impossible. Whatever it is, it¡¯s big. For one of those trees to be able to create this kind of tremors it would have to be the size of a mountain.¡± ¡°I have a bad feeling about this...¡± ¡°Calm down Jake, let¡¯s go eat something!¡± ¡°...¡± .............................. Another day passed without anything spectacular happening. We are all in the living room playing a game on the console. Even Sy needs to rest once in a while. Yesterday we discovered a strange tremor coming from N-V. Although we couldn¡¯t determine what it was, we decided to send a drone in that direction to see if we can find anything. So far we did not find anything although the tremors did not stop either. ¡°Jake, duck! Reload! Reload! Sy flank them!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have any more ammo!¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Here you go, use it wisely!¡± ¡°Faster! They are getting close!¡± ¡°Noooo!!!¡± ¡°I can¡¯t hold any more!¡± ¡®GAME OVER¡¯ ¡°Damn it!¡± The score table appears showing Sy in first place followed closely by Jake and me on the last position. I can¡¯t understand how can these guys who have played less than 5% the amount of games I did be so good... ¡°Calm down, I am sure you are going to win next time!¡± ¡°Hahhh...¡± My shoulders drop in defeat. So far I¡¯ve never won against those two. No matter what game we played, they¡¯ve always come on top. ¡®Ding ding ding... Ding ding ding...¡¯ ¡°The alarm... The drone discovered something.¡± Sy is the first to react. She gets up and basically runs towards the elevator followed by Jake. In the end, I rise to my feet as well and follow them. To be honest I really hope the drone discovered something interesting. The bloody tree monster from two days ago was a good distraction but I need more! Fortunately, the world is big so there definitely are a lot of awesome stuff lying around. Reaching the elevator door, I have to wait a bit because it looks like Sy and Jake did not wait for me. Well, it is going to take the elevator at least five minutes to come back up. In these conditions, I should use this time to get some fresh air. Outside the sun is up in the sky. The temperature is over fifty degrees Celsius, although I am used to this kind of weather considering I¡¯ve been living in a dessert for quite a few years. The thing that I can¡¯t get used with is the freaking humidity. It is literary unbearable. I turn my head around looking towards the sky. In the distance, black clouds can be seen. ¡°Hahh... It looks like it¡¯s going to rain today...¡± I murmur those words with a depressive voice. All my life I hated rain. It¡¯s so melancholic. It makes me remember things that I would like to forget. My past has been quite boring, excepting all the kidnappings for ransom that I had to go through in middle school. Now, something interesting happened to me but the price is so huge that I would like it never happened. Unfortunately, time is absolute. Or at least this is what Sy always says. While contemplating I keep my eyes on the black clouds in the distance. They are moving slowly, rising up like a funnel. The top of the cloud changes its colour to a lighter black, with some red mixed in. It¡¯s beautiful! ¡°...¡± ¡°Wait a second... Why is that cloud red-ish?¡± Now that I think about it, the movement of that cloud is quite unnatural. I mean it moves up and then down in waves. The movement is rhythmic with a certain tone. From what I remember, the weather is not that precise. At this moment, an insane thought pops up in my mind. Without waiting even one more second, I rush towards the elevator. Two minutes later I enter the command room with a ragged breath. Jake and Sy are looking at a monitor not reacting in any way at me entering. ¡°Guys, we might have a problem!¡± They turn their heads towards me. At this point, I can finally see their faces which are devoid of blood and filled with dread. Looking behind them towards the monitor I see one of the most terrifying scenes in the world. The drone is moving at a distance of ten kilometres or so from a huge tree. Its size is unbelievable. The trunk is bigger than a small city and the branches go up in the sky so high that the camera can¡¯t even see their end. The leaves are a combination of red with a lot of blacks mixed in. The huge thing is moving slowly by putting one branch on the ground, lifting its huge body and then moving a few kilometres at once. ¡°Sy...¡± ¡°Trunk diameter: 5.4 km; maximum height: 29.6 km, approximate weight: 35.0178 trillion tonnes, moving speed: 192.3 km/h; current direction: straight towards us!¡± Damn... That is big! That is way too big. Can we even fight against something like that? ¡°Do we have enough firepower to subjugate it?¡± ¡°Not even by close!¡± Fuck! What the hell are we supposed to do then? ¡°Sy, are we safe in the bunker?¡± Jake asks Sy a pointless question... The bunker is 800 metres under the ground and has been designed to resist any kind of nuclear attack. Even that tree shouldn''t be able to... ¡°No! It could just rip the whole bunker from the ground and turn it to shreds in seconds!¡± ¡°FUCK!¡± I couldn¡¯t hold myself from uttering that word... I mean we can¡¯t kill it and we can¡¯t hide from it. Then, what are we supposed to do? Run? ¡°Seth! Hey, Seth!¡± But I can¡¯t run. This is my house and I refuse to hand it over to that thing. ¡°Seth! Answer me!¡± Then what can I do? Fight to the death with it? No, that is not an option either! Then maybe... ¡®SLAP¡¯ ¡°Snap out of it, you idiot!¡± My thought process is interrupted by a slap on the right cheek. Bending my head lightly I can see Sy with a worried expression looking straight at me. ¡°Seth, you are still the head of our team. Whatever you decide, we are on your side!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Sy is right Seth! Whatever happens, we are with you in this!¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± A lonely tear moves slowly on my cheek and falls to the ground. They are right. I am not alone. And I must choose the best course of action that favour all of us, not only me. ¡°Jake, prepare the hovercraft. Load in the weapons, ammunition and the nano-suits. I am going to get the food. Sy, prepare everything down here for the encounter with our little friend over there.¡± ¡°I see. We are running away while the house¡¯s defensive system is going to keep it busy.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a good idea, Seth. We can always create a new home as long we are alive!¡± Jake puts his hand on my shoulder with a wide smile on his face. He is right, we can always build another house, but if he thinks I am going to let an ugly tree monster take over my house he is gravely mistaken. ¡°Sy, how is project Firefly doing?¡± ¡°Eh?!? The prototype is ready, but it¡¯s still too unstable to be moved. In these conditions, we can¡¯t use it...¡± ¡°No, we can! We will just have to activate the prototype without moving it!¡± ¡°Ooohhhh!¡± ¡®GRIN¡¯ ¡°I see. Leave it to me ¡®boss¡¯!¡± Facing the mountain like tree monster, all three of us have huge grins on our faces and eyes filled with bloodlust. ¡°If that thing wants my house, I am willing to sell it to him. The price is going to be HIS LIFE!¡± V1C6: Sequoia Emperor Hey, guys... This is the first chapter of the last week. I know I am kinda behind on the schedule but, in my defence, I would like to say this much at least: college is hard. Anyway, expect at least one more chapter tomorrow. I know the story is pretty slow, but it should be picking up from here on. Without further ado, please enjoy! V1C6: Sequoia Emperor ¡®Thump ... Thump ... Thump¡¯ ¡°Jake, hurry with those supplies! Seth, stop lazing around and bring the crates in here! Come on guys, we have less than two hours left. We need to move!¡± ¡°You know, it would be much easier if you helped a little!¡± ¡°I told you already, Project Firefly is a little unstable so I must take all precautions. The last thing we need to happen is a premature detonation.¡± ¡°Sy, do your job. I and Seth are going to be finished here in less than fifteen minutes!¡± ¡®Thump ... Thump .... Thump¡¯ The constant sound keeps us alert. Although that thing is still a few hundred kilometres away, the whole house is vibrating. Jake is loading the final supplies inside the chopper while Sy is calibrating Project Firefly. Project Firefly. The name sounds pretty inoffensive, but the truth is terrifying, to say the least. Antimatter null field generator. That is its original name. Then, why is it called Project Firefly, you might ask... Well, this happens when you allow a twenty years girl to choose the name to one of the deadliest projects in history. To be honest I don¡¯t understand exactly how that thing works, but basically, an antimatter outer shell is used to create a huge explosion that compresses an inner core made out of some strange material found in some cave in Antarctica. When the pressure is great enough the core implodes upon itself generating a huge attraction force, similar to a small black hole, in the process. A few seconds later the nucleus uses all its energy and the reaction stops on its own. At that point, we have a super-compressed nucleus made out of all the material that has been swallowed. That material is called Dwarf Star Alloy and is almost impenetrable. Initially, Project Firefly was not supposed to be a weapon but a way of creating cheap Dwarf Star Alloy. Although extremely heavy, using a zero gravity generator it could be used to create impenetrable bulletproof equipment that could save lives. I never thought that the first time we were going to do a field test it was going to be a monster tree that wants to eat us alive. ¡°Jake, this is the final crate. Is there anything else left?¡± Finishing moving the last crate with equipment, I start moving towards a final check up to be sure we did not miss anything. ¡°I am done as well. Is there anything missing?¡± ¡°This is what I¡¯m doing right now!¡± ¡°Weapons: checked! Nano-suits: checked! Water filters: checked! Emergency kits: checked! Sy¡¯s stuff: checked! Erotic magazine collection: checked! Food crates: check... Jake! What the hell are you doing?¡± At this point, Jake just picked up my treasured collection of over 1000 unique magazines and threw it on the ground outside the cargo bay. ¡°My precious collection! How dare you? I know that you are jealous but if you asked nicely I would have given them to you once in a while!¡± ¡°Jealous? Why the hell would I be jealous of your perverted collection?¡± ¡°Oh come one, no matter what you say you are still a man and any man dreams of beautiful girls, right?¡± ¡°Those are not girls for God¡¯s sake! They are only some useless pieces of paper that can only be used for starting a fire!¡± ¡°How dare you?!?¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I dare? You are just a pervert and as your best friend is my duty to bring you on the right path.¡± ¡°Yeah right, because I don¡¯t know about those wet dreams of yours!¡± ¡°I don¡¯t have wet dreams, you pervert!¡± ¡°Oh, don¡¯t deny now...¡± I pick up my cell phone and open a certain video. Jake takes a look and his face blushes red like that of a young girl during her first kiss. ¡°Where the hell did you get that from?¡± ¡°Oh, I have my ways. Anyway, I never thought you had that kind of dreams about Sy.¡± ¡°I am going to kill you!¡± ¡°Bring it on!¡± ¡°Guys, that¡¯s enough. It¡¯s time! And Seth, please give me that video later. ¡± ¡°¡°...¡±¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Jake looks at me with puppy eyes... Although he is my best friend and we are both men, I can¡¯t help you while going against Sy¡¯s words... That is a one-way ticket to hell man... .............................. ¡®Thump ... Thump ... Thump¡¯ The huge tree is less than fifty kilometres away from our house. Its size is even more terrifying than I thought it would be. The huge trunk is like a moving mountain while the leaves cover the sky creating a whole new world. With each movement, huge cracks fill the earth and everything in the area where it lands are turned to shreds. Even now I can¡¯t comprehend how such a being came into existence. Although we are safe at over three hundred kilometres and at a height of 1200 metres, its sheer size and mass make my hair stand on end. Seeing the monster up close I start to worry about our plan... Although I know the power that Project Firefly has, I am not 100% sure that it is going to be enough to destroy that thing. At least I hope that it is going to be heavily wounded otherwise we might have a problem. ¡°Thump ... Thump .... Thump ... Thump. ¡± It finally reached our house. At this point it stopped in place, not moving, not reacting in any way. It looks like it does not know what to do... Or maybe it¡¯s looking for something? ¡°Sy, be ready!¡± ¡°I am!¡± One smaller branch that looks like a vine moves towards the outer wall. The defensive system is offline because all the power is used by Project Firefly. It gently presses against the wall for a couple minutes, investigating what the strange structure that he stumbled upon is. In the end, the vine retracts back to where it came from. The red blood veins that cover its huge body starts bulging. The blood flow increases and all its blackish leaves turn completely red. The branches on top of its trunk start moving towards the exterior revealing a huge black hole filled with countless white teeth. ¡®ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR¡¯ A deafening sound fills the world. The blast generated is like a hurricane and the small helicopter we are riding in is like a boat in the middle of the ocean. Losing my balance, I drop to my knees. The helicopter sways in all directions on the verge of going out of control. ¡°Jake!¡± ¡°I¡¯m doing my best!¡± ¡°A true monster!¡± Sy¡¯s comment hits the spot head on. That is without a shadow of a doubt a monster that could ruin a country. Jake barely regains control of the helicopter. Meanwhile, the tree monster ignores the house like it is not even there and sends its huge branches towards the ground. The branches go deep underground. From the look of it, its target is the bunker itself. ¡°Exactly as planned!¡± Although I know it is bad augur to say that, I still can¡¯t stop myself from uttering those words. Our plan was quite simple at the beginning: use Project Firefly to destroy the huge monstrosity. Unfortunately, we had a slight problem... Project Firefly couldn¡¯t be moved. In those conditions, we had to think of a different solution. In the end, we came up with a plan that might actually work. From what Sy discovered from the small tree that attacked our house a few days ago, it looks like those monsters use the brainwaves of living beings to identify their meals. In those conditions, we used a modified camouflage device to mimic a living being and we used it on the whole bunker. And now we can confirm that all worked perfectly! The huge tree starts pulling its branches from the ground. The house on top is upturned and pulverised into pieces. Slowly, from the ground, a huge cube of metal is being lifted. Although its size might seem big, comparing it to the tree is just like a small walnut to an elephant. ¡®Crunch ... Crunch ... Crunch¡¯ The whole bunker is thrown inside its bulging mouth and then horrifying crunching sounds reverberate in the surroundings. ¡°It can actually chew the bunker... It is way tougher than I thought it might be...¡± Sy¡¯s words are alarming... A question pops into my head right now... What if... ¡°What if Firefly is not going to be enough?¡± ¡®Grin¡¯ ¡°Calm down and enjoy the show. It is going to be AWESOME! ¡°Click¡± With a simple click, a signal is sent and the countdown starts. ¡®10 ... 9 ...8 ... 7 ... 6 ... ¡® ¡°Put on your glasses. This is going to be HUGE!¡± ¡®5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1¡¯ .............................. White light fills the horizon. There is no sound, no pulse wave, nothing... Only light. ¡®BOOOOOMMMMM¡¯ A few seconds later a huge sound wave hits the helicopter. Compared with this sound wave, the one produced by the roar of the huge monster was like a small kitten mewing. The helicopter does a few back flips in the air, Jake losing control for a few seconds. In the end, we manage to stabilise just in time to witness one of the most astounding scenes that I¡¯ve ever seen. There is no tree left, just an enormous ball of fire that fills our view. ¡°HOMMMMMmmmmm....¡± Then, the explosion starts getting smaller and smaller until it disappears completely. Quite anticlimactic I might add... ¡°It¡¯s done!¡± Those words from Sy mark the success of our scheme. There is nothing left from the huge monster like it was never there. All we can see right now is a colossal hole in the ground. ¡°We¡¯ve done it!¡± ¡°Indeed!" ¡°Universal announcement..." ¡°Guys ... Did you hear that?¡± At Jake¡¯s words, we all nod in the same time. A monotonous voice that I couldn¡¯t identify as being male or female could be heard. Actually, to be more exact, it¡¯s not like I heard it, it¡¯s more like it was inside my head... ¡°The Sequoia Emperor of the 107-th lower realm, planet Earth, under the jurisdiction of the Astral Infernal Realm has been defeated. A new Slayer team has been born. Origin: 107-th lower realm, planet Earth. Member count: 3. Group name: Cerberus. All other information is private. Current rank: 13 out of 13!¡± ¡°¡°¡°...¡±¡±¡± At this point, all three of us are dumbfounded. ¡®Ahhhhhh¡¯ ¡°Sy, what¡¯s wro...¡± I am not even able to finish my words when I start feeling an excruciating pain coming from my chest. My tattoo is glowing. Looking towards Jake and Sy I can see that both their chests are glowing as well. ¡°Jake, activate the auto-pilot and set a landing course. We don¡¯t have time!¡± The pain is even worse than last time. Looking around I can see that Sy is already on the floor of the helicopter, unconscious. Soon my brain is overwhelmed by the pain and I lose my grip as well. Before succumbing to the darkness one more time I manage to utter three more words... ¡°WHAT THE FUCK?!?¡±