Cataclysm [1]

I was on my way back to Myria city, my home.

The train sped past many sights, light streamed through the window and then flickered.

A sigh of relief escaped me, a satisfaction settled within.

I could feel it... I was... healthy?

Yes, I was.

Finally normal.

The nanomachines were doing their work perfectly.

Happiness I felt was a lot, made me feel like I would float. Without even realizing, I smiled. The smile tugged at my lips, my eyes shifted, registering the view outside the window. And...

'What is that?' My eyes narrowed.

My brows knitted—an instinctive reaction to what I saw. The color of the sky was acting strange—purple and yellow, a swirling of colors one usually did not see...it was unsettling.

'What's going on?'

I saw something like this in the news before—Ring! Ring!

Jolted by the sudden sound, I took out my phone. My eyes landed on the caller; it was mom. She only ever texted me, usually never called unless it was necessary.

A skip of heart followed suit, the premonition of what this was crept in my mind.

The great cataclysms...

The atmosphere in the train slowly shifted into an eerie chill. A stranger's voice broke through the silence with a haunting murmur, "Another disaster..."

His words trailed off, but their weight lingered in the air.

I apprehensively answered the phone. "Mom...is everything alright?"

["Noah! Are you alright! Where are you?!"]

!

There was a nervous tremor in her voice.

Just that much, a simple question. But that was all. In that moment, time froze for me, my heart lost its rhythm.

The feeling of what was happening grew at my core by the second, and all I could do was, nothing.

["I don't know what is happening, the building is shaking violently..."] She gasped, her frantic footsteps audible through the speaker.

-"Stop the train! Stop the fucking train!"

-"We need to get out of here!"

-"Oh God! Oh lord, creator of heavens and the earth..."

Panic ensued as the passengers succumbed to terror.

"Mom, c-calm down!"

["How do I calm down? I called your sister, she's not picking up. I don't know what's happening. Noah...I- oh my!"]

Brightness.

A sudden, blinding flash engulfed the world. My eyes closed; x-rays—the skeletal radiographs of passengers aboard the compartment burned behind my eyelids. The world's chiaroscuro melted into white; my consciousness diluted, I could feel it. I was dying...

My mouth opened, I tried to say but, nothing came. It was too fast, all of this was too sudden. I knew it.

'This is... the end?'

A meaningless death. I wanted to laugh at the irony, but a certain rage was boiling within. Surviving all these years, only to meet such a fate. I was angry at myself.

At the face of death, my fading consciousness began to fight back. I wanted to live.

But I was too weak to do anything.

The last thing I felt was rage.

Pure rage.

.

.

.

.

***

Soft...

.

.

.

"Uhmm.."

.

.

.

"Urhm"... 'Peaceful...'

.

.

.

Hmm?

I blinked, awake; greeted by chirping birds and gentle embrace of sunlight.

It's morning already?

"What time is it..." My hand groped for the alarm clock, it was not there.

"Huh, this..." I shifted on the bed, a faint smile played on my lips.

The mattress felt unusually plush.

But suddenly, the air in front of me crackled with a subtle energy, and...

Crackle!

──────────────────────

┌─────────────────┐

│ 𝐒 𝐭 𝐚 𝐭 𝐮 𝐬 𝐖 𝐢 𝐧 𝐝 𝐨 𝐰 ➙

└─────────────────┘

𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞: Noah Grey ⇔ 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐤: (G-)

𝐀𝐠𝐞: 16 +(23?)= 39?

𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬: Homosapien

𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬: None

■𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒 →

⌜ ⌝

Health: (G-) 100/ 100

Mana: (G-) 100/ 100

Strength: (G-) 100/ 100

Dexterity: (F+)

Intelligence: ???

Mana Capacity: 0

⌞ ⌟

■𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐓𝐒→

⌜ ⌝

Armor: (G-) 1

Resistance: (G-) 1

Stamina: (G-)

Charm: (E-)

Durability: (G-) 1

Flexibility: B

⌞ ⌟

𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐒:

None

𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐒: None

𝐀𝐑𝐓:

None

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲: None

𝐀𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬:

None

──────────────────────

A ghostly hologram floated over my face. What the fuck?

Confused, I was. The holographic window displayed my stats. It showed mana... status, what is this?

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the window again.

It was still there, hovering in front of me like a ghost.

'Did I left some VR game open?'

"And...what the fuck happened to my... room? It's changed..." My brows furrowed.

Am I kidnapped?

Questions flooded, I tried to process what was happening.

But my train of thought was put on hold

by a sudden voice.

[Good Morning, master.]

A mechincal tone. Before I could reply, I remembered what happened.

"The explosion!"

***

The tail—long, thick...almost reptilian in nature. It slapped against the rocky ground causing a small tremor, dust flew. Then, another heavy slap.

A foot extended into a power stance atop the pointed outcrop. Standing was Azazel, the demon king. His wings beat sending shock waves. His eyes glanced at the sky.

Krak-Kraa! The clouds of purple charged with bolts of amethyst lightning.

The world clocked in shades, the air smelled of thick sulfur, green light escaped the cracks on the ground.

It was NeverNever, or as humans liked to call it—The Demon World.

A misty silhouette slid through the rocky terrain leaving a trail of black line before stopping, just behind Azazel. With a gentle bow, the prince of pride greeted Azazel, "My liege, you have summoned?"

"Baphomet, you feel that?" Azazel asked, his eyes never leaving the sky.

"I am afraid I don't follow," Prince of pride replied.

"Something just feels off," Azazel growled. "Prana suddenly started acting strange. I want you to find out more about this."

"Prana is acting strange?" Baphomet asked for clarification.

"Yes. It's bleeding out of the demon world in huge amounts as if to fill a gap in existence. Feels like an outside force...something extra has breached an entry into existence. Keep an eye on the human world, I don't have a good feeling about this..."

***

Noah's POV:

Monster.

I felt something gnawing at my gut, something unsettling. A sensation I couldn't shake.

"What the hell's a 'union officer'? And where are the sentinel droids?!" I spat, arms flailing, I checked the sky, half-expecting to see those black mechas that usually patrolled the area.

But there was nothing in the blue expanse above...me.

Blue...blue?

Why was it blue... it should've been orange?

My heart raced, each beat was the echo of a growing unease. A certain thought clawed at my mind but I tried to dismiss it.

Whatever this feeling was.

...Fear?

"Kid, why're you so worked up? Just calm down for a second, will you?" The 'officer' in front of me attempted to reason, a bold CU emblem on his black peakcap.

An officer.

Since when did officers begin to appear? Peacekeepers were the norm since the dominion's decree in year 2350.

Officers were a thing of the past.

So why?

[There's a lack of compatibility and absence of the familiar digital infrastructure.] The nanite's monotone suddenly rang in my head.

My brows furrowed, "What do you mean by digital infra-...Internet? Do you mean internet is lost?" The words escaped me in a silent murmur.

[Yes.] Nano confirmed.

"...your parents, kid? Uh, what did you say-...." The officer's words barely registered as my mind wandered.

'How can internet be lost?' The thought echoed, bouncing around in my head.

"What about grandpa Hope's facility? Connect with father's-" My sentence was cut short by Nano's intrusion.

[The connection with the private servers of Reynar BioTech Institute and Grey industries have also been lost. But a rudimentary version of the internet has been detected. Should I infiltrate?]

An unease squeezed my stomach.

I didn't bother answering Nano or engaging with the officer any further.

The urge to run overwhelmed me, so I ran.

I ran like a lunatic, driven by who knows what.

Pounding feet echoed through empty streets, a monster were hot on my heels, ready to eat me.

This all had to be a dream. Yes, this is a dream. A bad dream.

[Master Noah, the oxygen levels in the atmosphere—]

"Shut it!" I barked. I was adrift, every passing moment weakened my grip on reality.

I roamed aimlessly in the empty street. Questions and fears raced in my mind.

Where is Myria city? What happened to this place? I scanned the surroundings, archaic car models of 21st century lined up the streets.

What happened to the world?

Did I teleport to...I don't know? Where was I? Where the hell even was I?

Past?

Right then, it dawned on me that it wasn't a monster, but a creeping sense of dread that was trying to eat me.

I needed a darn phone to call mom, grandpa Hope or sis but...that's...that...a call...

I remembered the strange room I woke up in. Whose place was it even and...my memories felt so hazy...

Time passed, I looked around for answers, last time I remember, I was in a train.

A few more minutes passed.

And before I realized, my feet stopped before a door. I was inside some building.

It was the same establishment I woke up in. The strange place... my body seemed to have instinctively brought me back.

Opening the door, I stumbled into the room, my heart still pounded in my chest.

The air felt heavy. A smartphone lay innocently on the table, its screen dark and lifeless.

I snatched the smartphone and my brows knitted instinctively.

The reflection staring back at me...it was different. It was me but it was not me.

It was still my face but it looked like my teenage self, not the person I am...I was.

A jet of confusion. More questions. Dread. And after that, resignation. Why? How? None of it added up, logic slipped through my fingers like sand. It mattred not, right now I needed answers.

I fumbled with the phone, frustration bubbling up—the darn thing was locked.

"Nano...can you crack it?" I threw the question at the nanite, remembering what grandpa mentioned about Nano's digital prowess.

[Affirmative. Initiating hacking sequence. Overriding phone's security measures...]

The robotic voice echoed in my mind, a faint green glow radiated from my hand's grip on the phone, the sudden light made me squint.

Lines of code danced before me, a digital rain of ones and zeros floated in my vision. Then, a satisfying click, and the lock gave way.

I punched in mom's number, anticipation tingled in fingertips, the call connected and...

—The number you've dialed is invalid. Please check the number you've dialed.

"What do you mean invalid..." I choked.

[Master Noah-]

"Not now!" I snapped, cutting off Nano's words. . "Must've been a technical error." I affirmed myself. I tried once again, the caller rang, and...

—The number you've dialed is invalid. Please check the number you've dialed.

I was dead lost.

I called grandpa Hope's facility but...

—The number you've dialed doesn't...

I called sister Sylvie and...

—The number you've dialed is invalid...

I called our family industry.

—The number you've dialed doesn't...

.

.

.

—The number you've dialed is invalid. Please...

"What's happening?" My hands trembled.

[Master Noah, I've been able to connect to a certain world wide web, but it seems altered. Should I proceed?]

I did not understand anything, anxiety was killing me. My nerves pulled against my skin, an exhale escaped me, "G-go ahead. Proceed."

[Continuing procedure...analyzing. Standby... ] The red message hung in my retina.

Soon followed Nano's words in my head—

[Network accessed. Local environment analysis complete. Current year identified as 2012. Time, date, and location parameters diverge significantly from known standards. Current location: Human domain, continent Tressia, country of St. Sebastin. Cultural and technological disparities noted. Further data acquisition and adaptation protocols initiated.]

This was it.

I was trying hard to ignore this feeling, but in that moment, Nano made one thing very clear.

2012. A blue sky. Status window. Tressia. Central union. There was no denying it anymore.

I had somehow been transported inside my own fucking novel.